.... our christmas competition......

We love Christmas! and we thought our newsletter readers might like a little seasonal something to warm up the festivities,  so we have put together a mind-jingling competition with a few ’made with love’,  handmade prizes for the first 12 people who reply to us with the correct answers.  Judging from how popular our previous competitions have been we hope this will get some of you into the festive mood.   We have 12 of our hand-made lavender pillows (which can also be used as pin-cushions) made entirely from up-cycled remnants and filled with textile scraps and fresh lavender from Les Soeurs Anglaises' gardens  - the scent of summer to lift  the cold mid-winter. (And if you're a Selvedge blog follower there's an extra treat!)

  

So, here's how to play ...........:

First visit our website, then

1. You will find a letter of the alphabet in red, at the bottom right hand corner of several (but not all) of the website pages
2. Go through the pages, collect all the letters and put them together to form the seasonal sentence we're looking for
3. Finally go to our contact page, fill out the necessary and write "Christmas Competition 2016" in the subject line.  Don't forget to add your answer and postal address to the message so we know where to send the prize if you are one of our lucky winners. 
4. Clue:  Sometimes known as The Bethlehem Magi

Answers should reach us by Saturday of this week (19th December 2015) so don't leave it too long.  But if you're pipped at the post, we also have a few other handmade gifts to give away to the runners-up

Good Luck!

For those of you who aren't into competitions however, here are a few things of interest that you might enjoy over the Christmas break:

101 Cookbooks:   Always offering delicious recipes made from whole, natural foods and inspired by ingredients that interest the author, Heidi Swanson's, life, and travels, always beautifully photographed.   This week's post is full of easy-to-make, festive biscuits;  her newsletters are really worth subscribing to.

Manteau Noir:   For our Australian friends, but with an appropriately French name and style, this shop in Victoria comes highly recommended and judging from the on-line boutique it sells just the sort of garb we love.  There's a sale on at the moment so it might be a good time for our antipodean friends to stock up for the cooler seasons ahead.

Empress Mills:   The website is simply choc-a-block full of yummy haberdashery and handcraft supplies and offers.  Based in Lancashire, UK, this is a second-generation, family type business with chatty, interesting and unpretentious newsletters and an excellent service!

Dionne Swift:  Read a fascinating interview with this inspiring textile artist and learn a bit about how she sketches and sketchbook to produce a finished artwork. www.textileartist.org is a great site to subscribe to generally!

The Weekend Artist:  Last but certainly not least, for those of you who have mentioned they are interested in writing workshops rather than the textile variety (but also anyone who enjoys great poetry), here is a brilliant book by Reg Starkey, one of our participants at the Roger McGough workshop several years ago. Coming soon from the Poundshop Poet, this is definitely something to put on your present list!  

        

Katie

.... an intensive weekend of knitting with Åsa Söderman........

At the end of April next year, Åsa Söderman of Åsa Tricosa will be leading a two day Knitting Masterclass for us.   We are very excited as this will be our first foray into Weekend Workshops and whilst a weekend away may not seem practical if it involves long haul travel, with a little help from us you might be able to integrate the workshop into a visit to Europe.  And of course you would be welcome to use our B&B accommodation either side of the event to explore the amazing countryside around us and/or visit Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast.    We aim to limit the Weekend Workshops is to small groups of no more than eight so that workshop leaders ensure all participants gets the undivided attention they might need over this shorter period.  Åsa's enthusiasm, technical skills and knowledge about all things knitted, together with her infectious joie de vivre, make her the perfect knitting "enabler" for this Knitting Masterclass.  She will be demonstrating pockets, hems, waistshapings and wowza bust darts, as well as a variety of stitch patterns. This workshop is suitable for both competent and accomplished knitters. 12for2012 Yarn Bomb, Santa Barbara Not many of us have time for the seriously beautiful art of Yarn Bombing, but with the Global Climate Conference in Paris just around the corner, here are some of Åsa's thoughts about how all enthusiastic knitters can make a little bit of a difference.*   "When I graduated from high school my parents held up a placard (as is the custom) with baby photos of me with two "facts": 1. Who bakes the best "bullar" (cinnamon rolls) in all of Bromma (a suburb of Stockholm)? 2. Who knits the same sweater three times?     Answer: Åsa! "I've always reused and recycled yarn – at some times more successfully than others - wildly mixing yarn weights and trying to force them into service because I like the colours or texture.  Another way I use and recycle is, of course, the trading, destashing and restashing that takes place on websites like Ravelry. This can be fairly hit and miss, but the hits are definitely worth the effort.  It's simply so satisfying making something, both pretty and pretty useful, from yarn that would otherwise be hidden or thrown away. The best example I have is a partly knitted skein of Sundara Silk I bought from a knitter in the USA. I frogged the shawl that was taking shape and knitted myself a splendid shawl using my own Serangoon pattern."      "Below is a photo of a sweater I made with someone else's pattern that I have found too long in the waist for my liking.  My plan now is to unravel it and re-use the yarn to knit a design of my own.  Obviously items like knitted bags, kids' pullovers and mitts -  where the finished size isn't quite so important - lend themselves especially well for this kind of recycling.  Of course, always remember to do your tension squares before commencing!"      Spring is a spectacular time of year down here at Les Soeurs Anglaises with some bulbs still in flower, trees already in leaf and peonies in bud; and if it's warm enough you might find yourself stitching on our magnificent studio terrace.  We'd so love to have some yarn aficiandos here to help us celebrate our very first Weekend Workshop; if you have any questions about the workshop, venue or travel, that aren't answered on our website, please do contact us directly either by email or phone (T +33 553 91 38 40). Terrace overlooking the Aquitaine countryside at Les Soeurs Anglaises

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Katie :) *"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;  indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead 1901-1978

..... with winter on our heels.....

.... and cooler temperatures outside, we at Les Soeurs Anglaises think there's a lot to be said for staying indoors and catching up on some of the little sewing jobs that have been accumulating over the warmer months.  Inspired by the current work of two of our Weekend Workshop leaders for next year, Claire Wellesley Smith and Jessie Chorley, but also by the exquisite Japanese mending of Boro, we're working on our patching & darning skills using textiles. We've been trying our hands at repairing damaged knitted items, too, but more about that in our next newsletter!

A soft, old linen shirt patched and re-patched.. Favourite shirts, sweaters and vintage clothing that perhaps have seen better days, and are now in need of some tender loving care, become not only wearable once more, but also something to wear with pride and pleasure (and not a few compliments!).  In Claire's fascinating book, Slow Stitch; Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art, she mentions that in the UK alone, ".... we send 1.2 million tonnes of textile waste, much of it good quality, to landfill or for incineration every year."  A staggering amount  by any standards.  If we wear clothes that we hope reflect our personalities then these much-cared for items say more about us than any throw-away garments from the likes of Walmart or Primark; ".......garment production that involves the cheapest and most flexible labour in some of the least regulated workplaces in the world".  If there is a common thread (excuse the pun) in our choice of workshop leaders, it is their celebration of, and respect for, heritage, memory and the hand-made. Here are a few examples of rescued clothes that we love and that might otherwise have ended up in a land-fill site. Compared to metal or stone, of  course the lifespan of textiles is much shorter, but with love and attention is it considerably longer than our consumerist zeitgeist would have us believe.  Personally, we prefer to hand stitch repairs, but sometimes the zigzag stitch on the sewing machine is just too tempting. go to this fascinating blog to see how they darned in Medieval times              New Skirt made out of old fabric with a multitude of patches.            Hand-stitched Boro jacket Elbow patch on a recently found shirt at our local brocante, bought for pennies and patched with other vintage offcuts. Children used to be taught a myriad of beautiful  darning techniques - a stitching art in itself.  This darning sampler of 1814 is by Martha Woodnutt and was stitched at the famous Quaker Westtown School, Pennsylvania. It is worked in cotton on a linen/wool mix and is a perfect blend of painstaking needlework and practicality.  5 Day / 6 Night Workshops   Julie Arkell   Birds on a Table   1st  to 7th June       Anna Kristina Goransson   Felted Form and Function    22nd to 28th June     Fiona Rutherford  Tapestry Weaving   31st August to 6th Sept     Celia Pym   Knitting, Mending and Darning    21st to 27th Sept       Weekend Workshops ASA TRICOSA  Knitting Masterclass  30th April / 1st May  ROSALIND WYATT  Stitched Calligraphy  27th - 29th August JESSIE CHORLEY  Embroidered & Appliquéd Illustrations  27th - 29th August CLAIRE WELLESLEY SMITH  Dyeing and Stitching   7th / 8th October

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