LCG UPDATE: The Village Haberdashery

It's been over a year since the release of our first book, the London Craft Guide. One of the things we were always wary of with doing a print version is how things can change with shops over the course of time. Sadly, sometimes a shop can choose to close or go online only - as was the case with tiny Kensington shop Patricia Roberts. And other times the changes are happy ones, such as expanding into a bigger space!

The new yarn wall at The Village Haberdashery.

This was the case with West Hampstead shop The Village Haberdashery earlier this year and we couldn't be more thrilled to make the the focus of our first official London Craft Guide update!

Details:
The Village Haberdashery
West Hampstead Square
London NW6 2BR

Phone: 0207 624 5494
Email: info@thevillagehaberdashery.co.uk

What's changed:
Expanded hours Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and now open late night for knit nights on Thursdays until 9pm. Tons more space including an expanded yarn selection and haberdashery range plus even more fabrics! Click here for more details, photos, and a virtual tour!

Even more fabric to tempt those who are multi-craftual!

Workshops, events and other fun stuff:
With their expanded space, Annie and the team at The Village Haberdashery have been busy planning even more workshops and events (including classes with Great British Sewing Bee 2016 winner Charlotte Newland!), in addition to their new Knit Night & Sew In on Thursday evenings from 6-9pm. 

Trims and other haberdashery supplies spill over at TVH.

We're really excited about the inviting community square right in front of TVH's new premises - so much so that we're teaming up with Annie to co-host a World Wide Knit In Public Day event on Saturday, June 10th from 11am-2pm. This is a FREE event so why not make a plan to come and see the new space and hang out with other yarn lovers? And of course, TVH will be back as part of this year's Great London Yarn Crawl too.

It's time to Craft-a-long!

There's only a month to go until tickets are on sale for this year's Great London Yarn Crawl! To keep up our crafty motivation over the summer we thought it would be fun to have an easy-going craft along featuring projects from the London Craft Guide.

The rules are simple:

• The Craft-a-long runs June 1 - September 1, 2016 - you can join in at any point
• Projects can be knit, sewn, or crocheted from any of the projects in the London Craft Guide
• Tag your projects on Ravelry and Instagram using #LCGCraftalong
• The Craft-along is for NEW projects started and completed between June 1 and September 1 but of course we're happy to see any pics of WIPs that you have too, they just won't be eligible for a prize
• Prizes! We'll have one for participating in the thread on Ravelry, one for a completed project and one for sharing your tagged photo on Instagram - three chances to win!
• Participants are welcome from anywhere
• You can enter more than one project as long as it fits within these guidelines!

On the podcast Rachel said she's ambitiously thinking about tackling Anniken Allis' gorgeous Knightsbridge Shawl with some of her own handspun (!) while I'm using the Craft-a-long as an excuse to crack open my custom Yarn in the City colourway skein from Third Vault Yarns to make the Because Sock Yarn set. If I get ambitious I may tackle the Zigging Hat and Cowl too and it would also be good to finish off my Candy Bag.

So many great projects! Will you join us? What will you make first?

LCG Event at Knit with Attitude

So we're are eagerly counting down the days to our event at Knit with Attitude next Saturday, 16 April. We will be at the shop from 2-4 pm, talking about the Great London Yarn Crawl, how it began and how Yarn in the City has grown (and maybe a sneak peek at upcoming events!) We will be bringing all the samples from the book, and there will be plenty of books on hand to purchase if you still need to grab your copy.

In addition, Knit with Attitude has gone through their offerings and paired some fantastic yarns with the book projects! We are particularly taken with their new yarn, Bio-Lana, that they've recommended for the Zigging Hat and Cowl.

If you'd like to come say hello, squish some yarn and check out the book and samples, we'd love to see you! Please RSVP to Knit with Attitude to let them know you're interested, and we hope to see lots of you next weekend!

Announcing a book 'do'!

STOP PRESS! 

We completely forgot to include our upcoming mini book 'do' in our events listing on the latest episode of the podcast. Yikes!

This Saturday, 12th March we'll be hanging out at Nest in Crouch End in London in the afternoon and we do hope you'll join us! We'll have copies of the London Craft Guide and all the samples on hand to try out. We'll be there from 1:30 to 3:30pm and even do a little matchmaking for the projects in the book to the yarns carried in the shop if you decide you want to cast on right away!

Hope to see you there!

London Craft Guide Project: Candy Bag

Even though crochet is not our first craft we know that for many of you it is. In an attempt to offer more than just knitting and sewing projects in the London Craft Guide we were extremely happy to come across French designer Cécile Balladino and her Candy Bag - and even more so when she agreed to let us have it for the book! The bag builds upon granny squares, their modular nature making them eminently portable and with a pattern that is easy to memorize.

YITC: Tell us about the inspiration for your design.
CB: It is the yarn that inspired me. I love self-striping yarns and this one was perfect for crochet. I started making simple squares to see what it looked like and enjoyed how it turned out. I thought the project was great for London where people are more audacious with colours than in France. It's a versatile bag that you can use during your crafty vacations.

Photo credit: Juju Vail

YITC: Do you travel for your craft? How do travel and craft fit together in your world?
CB: Yes! I teach crochet in various places in France. Twice a month I teach at La Bien Aimée (sister shop to l'Oisive Thé and like my second home!) and this last year I've taught in Belgium, Switzerland and even Iceland. Crochet and design are both solitary activities for me so it's a good opportunity to meet new people and discover new places. I mostly travel by train and always have some yarn and crochet projects with me so a lot of my projects are made while travelling. Travelling always brings new inspiration!

YITC: What was your most memorable crafty vacation? What did you do?
CB: It was Iceland last September. I went there with my friend Christine who sells Icelandic yarn online. I taught two crochet classes and the rest of the time was spent exploring the country. Enjoying a geothermal bath just before a crochet class was an unforgettable experience! It was a magical place, full of colours.

YITC: Tell us about you and your personal design style. How does your project fit in?
CB: Bohemian chic with a vintage touch.

Photo credit: Juju Vail

YITC: What is your crafty background?
CB: As far as I can remember I've always played with yarn. I learned to knit before I was able to read! I can sew, quilt, embroider, make jewellery, paint - but crochet is still my favourite! I've also studied fashion design and I've been a fashion designer in Paris for 15 years.

YITC: What's your favourite part of the designing/creative process and what are your designing essentials?
CB: Choosing the colours and creating an atmosphere. I love that each of my items tells a story. As for designing essentials my phone is like my personal assistant. I take notes, pictures and publish on social media with it. And of course my Tulip Etimo crochet set and a good cup of tea.

YITC: Do you have a favourite designer who's work you follow?
CB: I've long admired the work of Kaffe Fasset - although he doesn't crochet!

YITC: What creative (or travel!) plans do you have for 2016?
CB: I'll be in London to teach two classes at Loop this weekend and then in the coming months I'll be teaching classes in Belgium, Spain, Italy and of course in Paris. My latest project is a shawl design for Simply Crochet magazine. Beyond that, I have lots of creative plans but I'm kind of superstitious about saying anything...

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Cécile also has two crochet books available: Crochet Bohème and Au fil des Couleurs. They're in French but contain graphic charts for all the designs so you can understand them whether you speak French or not. As Cécile often says: crochet is an international language!

Social media info:
Ravelry: eclecticgipsy
Website: Eclectic Gipsyland
Instagram: eclecticgipsy