Stylecraft Blogstars meet up

With everything else that's been happening this week, I've been rather remiss in telling you about the events of last weekend when I was up at Slaithwaite, home of Stylecraft Yarns. The Blogstars get together twice a year and stay overnight at a hotel, enjoying each other's company and catching up with what we've all been up to. There is plenty of delicious food, copious amounts of wine and of course it is perfectly acceptable to bring your knitting or crochet to the table! Nobody bats an eyelid. The next morning, after the luxury of a cooked breakfast, we all head down to the Mill. There was the added excitement of waking up to snow this time although one or two of us were a little anxious at the thought of driving down 'that hill'! 

When we arrived at the Mill, there were goody bags of yarn for each of us. We are lucky enough to get to play with lots of the new yarns, either just as they are released for sale, or getting a sneaky preview, which is really rather exciting. There is one particular range of yarn that will be on sale later in the spring that we were all rather excited about! 

Oooh look, goody bags of yarn! Photo thanks to Sophie at Stylecraft

We were joined, thanks to the wonders of Skype, by our overseas Blogstars Justina, Anne, Michelle, Zelna and Angela and also Julia who was up in Scotland. It's great that we are all able to share ideas in this way.

We were given a presentation by Annabelle Hill, the Sales and Marketing director at Stylecraft, who shared with us the trends for the coming season. It's hard to believe that decisions are being made now about what the fashions will be this time next year!  Some exciting new projects were discussed - you'll be hearing about the first of these next month. Squee! We also saw and squidged the new yarns and saw the pattern support for each one. The Head over Heels Boho yarn has finally been released. My Miss Parminter pattern leaflet should be available from Stylecraft stockists too.  Oooh, lots of colourful socks in my future!

This is the new yarn that we went a little silly over! I can't tell you anything more for now, but it will be coming to a yarn shop near you very soon and I think you're going to like it - a LOT! Such gorgeous, gorgeous colours...

The table that we all sit around has bowls of yarn on it and it's not unusual for people to dive in, choose their favourite and then start knitting or hooking with it. Think of it as like bowls of sweeties but just more healthy! You might recognise a few familiar faces here.

After lunch, Juliet Bernard lead a workshop in Dorset Button making. I've come across Jen Best from Beaker Buttons several times at various yarn shows and have bought her button kits as gifts for friends, but never tried making them myself. It was really fascinating and I could actually see myself making some to match a garment perfectly. Take a look at some of the buttons on Jen's website, they are truly a work of art and she is doing a tremendous job keeping this traditional craft alive and kicking. Here's my attempt...

After the button making, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways home, but not before our group photo...

Thanks to Sophie at Stylecraft for the photo. From left to right we have Emma, Sarah, Phil, me, Lucy, Sandra, Kathryn, Helen, Lucia and Heather. Not able to attend were Julia, Janie, Catherine, Angela, Polly, Zelna, Anne and Michelle. 

The date is set for our summer meet up and I can't wait. Keep a watch out over the coming weeks when I'll be sharing some of the new yarns with you. xxx