Friday, 10 June 2016

Fantasy Fish swim in to Increase the Shoal!

Fantasy Fish from Sew Chatty - thanks to Fiona & the team!
  
Here is a quick flick through all the fab #fantasyfish that have swum in to #increasetheshoal in the last week or so.  Hope I've got all the attributions right but if I've got it wrong, many apologies.  So here's a massive thank you to everyone who has sent in their makes for the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm for Rowntree Park, York - they're awesome!

Sarah's stitched fantasy fish
Kate's fab fish

Starfish from Sam & Helen & fantasy fish from Florence, Kit & Cecily
Colourful fish from Mags & crochet creatures from Mink
Noah & Nelly from Liz
Judith's colourful creatures
Elvis & Lionel Lumpfish from Caroline
Pauline & Christine's fab fish
Tina's knitted & stitched lovelies

A great catch from the Good Humour Ladies Club - thanks to Vanessa & all the ladies!
Clare's cute crochet shoal

A mix of fish & starfish but I don't know who made those fantastic creations!
    
You can read more about the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm hereAnd the deadline hasn't yet passed - get your Fantasy Fish to Rowntree Park Cafe today!  We can't wait to see them all.  

York Press - Tuesday 7 June 2016
   
And guess what - the Fantasy Fish project was featured in the York Press this week.  You can catch up with the article here.  Thanks to Maxine Gordon for featuring us!

The fish/creature count has currently reached exactly 300 and that's not including pompoms and plant life! 


The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.


Sunday, 5 June 2016

New this summer at The Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber


Button bracelets
     
I have just delivered some new Hippystitch stock to The Ropewalk in Barton upon Humber.  Here's a taster of what you'll find ...

Fabric necklaces - lots of lovely Liberty prints
Flower button bracelets

Vintage coin brooches
Large & small domino brooches
Lots of different button brooches
Femmes Fatales & Magical Mermaids (brooches)

Mermaid brooch detail

It's a lovely place to visit - apart from the Craft Gallery  there are 3 other gallery spaces, currently showing Handmade in Gallery One (Stuart Akroyd - glass, Lynn Lovitt - ceramics, Cath Hill - jewellery & Janie Knitted Textiles), Penny Withers - ceramics in the Box Gallery (just finishing) & Lindy Norton - Inside Out in the Artspace.  There's also a cafe, sculpture garden & Ropery Hall - a live arts and cinema venue - and the Barton Arts Festival kicks off towards the end of June.  Pop along - it's well worth a visit!


Sunday, 29 May 2016

Fantasy Fish #Increasetheshoal at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe


Just some of the fish, pompoms and finger knitting that came to #increasetheshoal at Rowntree Park Cafe
    
We had a fabulous turnout at our final workshop at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe.  I think we may have taken over all the seats indoors and a few outside too! 


As well as the fishy makes made at the workshop there were quite a lot of extra fish that swam in that day:

Gillian, Sarah & Imogen's fish
     
Gillian, her daughter Sarah, and grandaughter Imogen had all made lovely things to add to the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.  In fact Gillian had also used some of her Mum's yarn and her Grandma's buttons in her makes.  That means five generations of her family have had some input into the project - how impressive is that!


Mags's makes

Mags, who has come along to all our workshops and brought extra fish every time, had some new makes for us again.  Her starfish set off quite a trend as people started knitting starfish!


Sarah's octopus and fish

Sarah had been knitting an octopus at our last workshop at the Golden Ball and brought it along this time with some other lovely fish.  She also finished off the big knitting fish that Joanita from Radio York started when she came to visit me to hear all about the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.
 
Joanita & Sarah's big knitting fish is 67cm long

Everyone was very industrious
    
Helen and Sam brought a big bag of fish with them before embarking on a joint starfish.  And I believe they will be bringing some more fish from the Easingwold Knitting Group too - how fabulous!

Helen & Sam's fish

We had some tiny visitors who weren't too sure whether they wanted to share their mums with the project but they let them in the end - at least for a little while.

Knitting, stitching and finger knitting all getting done

Towards the end of our session Neil and Veronica brought some children along from the York Montessori Nursery and they made these lovely pompoms using a fork each!  We're wondering whether they took their new skill back to the Nursery and if it's now covered in fork pompoms!

Pompoms made by children from the York Montessori Nursery

And if that wasn't enough, Pie had brought along a bag of pompoms and Sarah had stitched some more #fantasyfish #fishfromyork at home so all in all we had lots to #increasetheshoal and with more than forty people at our workshop it really was a fab afternoon.  Thank you to everyone for all your hard work!  Thanks also to Rowntree Park Cafe for having us & for the fab drinks & cakes.

Fish knitting patterns

Our yarnstorm fish will be working hard to raise money for the York Flood AppealAnd there's still time to join in.  You can find the fish knitting patterns here and you have until 10 June 2016 to get your finished #fantasyfish to Rowntree Park Cafe if you want them to be included in the yarnstorm.  (They don't have to be knitted - they can be stitched, felted or crocheted - to any suitable design)

If you want to find out more about the project's progress you can check out the following blogposts:
Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm - The Details


The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.



Sunday, 22 May 2016

Fantasy Fish go to the Golden Ball, York

Natalie and her makes
     
We were made very welcome at the Golden Ball in York for our second Fantasy Fish workshop in Craft & Design month.  We took over a whole room and only just fitted in.

Everyone soon got down to fish making
 
and pompom making, stitching and knitting

and serious concentration

and colour co-ordinating

not to mention chatting
and cross stitch & crochet

It was lovely to meet lots of new people and old friends and have a great afternoon as we #lovetoCREATE.  By the end of the workshop quite a lot of #fantasyfish had swum by and some swam off to be finished at home.  A big thank you goes to all who came along to help us #increasetheshoal and to the Golden Ball for having us.

Fantasy fish & pompoms caught in the net at the Golden Ball



   
Our yarnstorm fish will be working hard to raise money for the York Flood Appeal.  You can read more about the whole project here.  Some ceramic fish also swam by to help with the fundraising and quite a few have already found new homes.

Ceramic Fantasy Fish brooches
   
If you want to find out more about how the project is going you can check out the following blogposts:

Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm - The Details

and you can find the fish knitting patterns here.

Our final workshop is at Rowntree Park Cafe on Thursday 26 May from 2-4pm.  Do come and join us!

The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, YorkKnit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.






Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Fantasy Fish at the Winning Post, York

Recent Fantasy Fish catch




   
We have just had our first Fantasy Fish workshop at the recently refurbished Winning Post in York and what a great time we had - thank you to everyone who came along!  

Fantasy Fish Yarnstorming at the Winnning Post

big knitting and stitching

There was a great turnout with both yarnstorming newcomers and regulars which was fantastic.  We had knitting (and with big needles - thank you, Emma!), stitching, pompom making, finger knitting and crocheting going on.

Big blue fish
swapping tips

Naomi from the Crochet Collective came along and crocheted some very cute fish for us.  But she wasn't the only crocheter amongst us - we also had some fab crocheted plant life & fish from other workshop attendees. 

great opportunity for chatting & laughing

It was great to join in with Voluntary Arts Week and Craft and Design Month to celebrate making.  People had found out about #fantasyfish from all sorts of different places so we were pleased that we'd managed to get the word out.


finger knitting, knitting & stitching!

Not only did everyone create fish on the night, we had several fish who swam in to #increasetheshoal and some that weren't quite finished were whisked off to be completed as "homework"!  One shoal swam in and out (so no pics) as it has another engagement before joining the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park.  How mysterious is that?

lots of concentration going on!

And just in case you needed to see those fab #fishfromYork that will #increasethe shoal again, here they are for a quick recap!

Fish, plants & pompoms from the Winning Post Fantasy Fish yarnstorming workshop



  
And very importantly don't forget after the display we will be selling the fish to raise funds for the York Flood Appeal so do come and support us in that too!  For more details about when the sales are, when the display will be up in Rowntree Park, other workshop dates, knitting patterns etc. click here.

This was our first time at the Winning Post and we were made very welcome by owners, Fiona & Malcolm, and barman, Ed - thank you!   

The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.