Diversity and inclusion at EYF 2019

Worth sharing…

This time next week I’ll be travelling up to Scotland for my first Edinburgh Yarn Festival.

Initially I hadn’t planned on visiting the show but a couple of opportunities arose which made it a good excuse to combine these meetings with seeing some of our non knitting friends. (As for who I’m meeting, can’t say, sorry!) Plus going to EYF meant I could basically drool my way around the Corn Exchange at a fibre event which started after Sam and I relocated to the south coast. What I hadn’t envisaged was being asked to be part of a panel discussion on  Diversity and Inclusion taking place on Sunday the final day.

Those of you already aware of the current conversations about racism and the lack of diversity in the knitting community will know that this was arranged to replace the scheduled speaker, Kate Davies who unfortunately had to withdraw due…

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I Tried to Make a Skirt!

You know me, I love to weave on my 18″ rigid heddle loom. Sometimes I just warp up the loom with some leftover yarns, or lone skeins that were remnants from past projects. I try to avoid waste wherever I can.

For this project, I used odd skeins of bright coloured DK weight yarns from Unbelieva-wool and Skein Queen. I ran off a length of fabric until I ran out of yarn. There was enough there to make a skirt… so I did, sort of!

The fabric width was only 14”, so to make the skirt slightly longer, I used the remaining length, divided it into 4 equal widths and sewed them together lengthwise. That would give me a waistband as well as some length.

In an attempt to make the skirt look a bit more professional, I lined it using some polyester fabric from an old kimono-style dressing gown. It is a slippery sucker to work with on a sewing machine, but luckily I didn’t have to hem it!

Feeling ambitious and also inspired after watching The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC TV, I thought it would be a great idea to put in darts. This would give the skirt some shape and look less boxy. The fabric is quite thick, so I’m not sure it was such a good idea, but anyway I left it in. I also tried to insert a zip, but the fabric kept growing sideways and the more I ‘handled’ the fabric, the wider it seemed to get. So I ripped out the zip and inserted a crudely applied waistband elastic instead.

 

I wouldn’t call myself an experienced sewist because the stitching on this is laughable, but having said that, the skirt actually fits well and is very wearable!

I normally put my clothes through hell, so we’ll see how long this skirt lasts before I yank it on barbed wire, or Velcro, or something ridiculous like that!  😂

The Luxury of Hindsight…

If I were to make this again, I would:

• use a wool yarn with nylon content for extra strength (not essential, but nice to have).
• make the fabric wider, if possible (the full 18” width).
• use a lining fabric with less static electricity!
• make a waistband casement instead of sewing the elastic on directly onto the fabric.
• not bother with putting in darts! I mean, who cares?!

😊