lush, plush hooks

p-LUSH hook in action

Belinda Harris-Reid and Rachel Vowles are the two very driven women behind the upcoming p-LUSH fibre festival and they recently very kindly sent me a rather red p-LUSH hook to play with. The hooks  are being sold in aid of Target Ovarian Cancer , the chosen charity of the festival. The p-LUSH festival will be held on the 27th and 28th of March 2015 in the Ricoh Arena, Coventry and looks to be a rather different sort of fibre fair. Focussing not only on fibre but also craft, design, art, upcycling and even the biggest alpaca event in Europe - there will be hundreds of alpacas roaming around to admire! There are also some rather wonderful looking workshops to sign up for. I fancy making the alpaca birds, while if you haven't tried Tunisian Crochet before, the talented Helen Jordan should be your ultimate guide.

I first heard about the festival, the hooks and the Target ovarian Cancer appeal through Rachel. She is a brilliant technical craft editor - you can find out more about her work in a great interview with Emma Varnam.

Rachel and I have worked together on a myriad of publishing projects now, but we mainly collaborate on Inside Crochet (in fact there is a very lovely interview with her in the current issue 63). She also has an amazing story to share about her own encounter with ovarian cancer, you can read more about her astonishing tale on the p-LUSH blog here. Please do take the time to read this post, as Rachel is doing the 50s Challenge - trying to tell at least 50 people about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer (which she outlines in the post) as only 3% of women feel they can confidently name a symptom. I was shocked by the fact that many women get repeatedly misdiagnosed with IBS as the symptoms are so similar.

Anyway, onto the hooks! I might have mentioned before that I am not a lover of wooden crochet hooks, and so my heart did sink a little when I picked it up, as I wasn't sure I would like using these. Usually, I find that wood grips my yarn and loops too tightly, making it a pain for me to crochet. However, the hooks are made of beechwood, which is then painted red, and this shiny surface was a smooth joy to hook with. 
Another gripe with wooden hooks is usually that the hook is usually not 'hooked' enough, making it hard to grab the yarn, and getting caught when coming through the stitches. The hook on the p-LUSH hooks, I am pleased to report, is very well defined and crisp, meaning that my stitches were flying off the hook! Luckily the girls sent me a 4mm hook because, as we all know, you can never have enough 4mm hooks and I will definitely be using this one again! 

p-lush. Lush

The range of notions does not stop at hooks - if you are a knitter, they are also selling knitting needles in the same pretty red painted beechwood and £2 from every purchase goes to the ovarian cancer charity. If you do buy a hook or some needles, p-LUSH is asking that you then head to social media and post a picture of them in use with the lushplush and plushbritish hashtags to spread the word. Even if you don't knit or crochet, you can also donate by visiting Rachel's Just Giving page - find the link on the p-LUSH blog.

Pitti FIlati

Day two in Florence and it's time for a trip to the fabulous yarn fair itself, Pitti Filati.

I headed straight for the Senso trend forecasting area to collect my shade card for Spring/Summer 2012 and see what those in the know are predicting we will be wearing and knitting in 2012.

The layout was slightly different to previous years I have attended, with the experimental and textural samples draped around tiny dummies to also provide an indication of the shapes for the coming seasons.

I noted a muted, organic colour palette, highly textured and layered, sculptural knits constructed with unusual yarns such as nylon monofilament, stiff raffia and draping, shiny tapes. The funnel neck also seems to be making a comeback - which we have already started to see in the present season.

There was so much to see, we were overwhelmed, so we are going back tomorrow to finish off the rounds of the yarn companies. However, we did round off the day with a trip to the unmissable second hand fair, Vintage Selection. The Italians have not yet grasped the vintage trend as wholeheartedly as us Brits, meaning the selection is simply stunning - they still have plenty of authentic items left from pre-1970, having not yet had every store plundered for goodies. Unfortunately, the growth in popularity of the show meant that the prices had increased too. I left with only some fabulous buttons to show for my trip. I had hoped to find a friend for the bargain basement price, amazing Italian leather, statement 60s suede wedges I picked up on my last trip. Twas not to be...perhaps next year!

italy...

Well, here I am in Italy, in beautiful and exciting Florence to be precise, for the bi-annual yarn extravaganza that is the Pitti Filati trade fair, a yarn and trend fair for the knitting industry. We flew over the alps very early this morning on a beautiful sunny and misty day.

So far we have visited the absolutely stunning Duomo cathedral, which I never tire of seeing, and in fact made a beeline for today.

I topped off the day with the most delicious fruits of the forest gelato....

Well, you can't not have ice cream in Italy! When in Rome (or florence) and all that...