Where have we been?

 What happened to the Community Love Blanket?  Well, we were just about to start workshops again when, yes, you've guessed it.  But now we're back and we're woolier than ever!  Here are some photos from our last workshop at Into the Wild, back in 2019.  Let's hope we'll have more to share by the end of the summer.

Gathering the Tribe

Having been to Tribal Gathering in East Sussex in 2015 as punters, we were super excited to be able to bring the Love Blanket the following year, as its a simply lovely gathering of peaceful, communal people in a stunning setting near the South Downs.  We brought our three daughters with us, and they all got stuck into their various projects, attracting lots of other young people in the process.  It was such a joy to see knitters as young as four(!) produce work they were proud of.

On the second day there were strong winds, and we were warned to move the tent, but we stuck where we were and despite a lot of billowing above and below, the tent pegs held firm!  In fact they held so firm that a couple had to be dug out laboriously, but that's another story.

There's always someone who really takes the Love Blanket to their hearts and this year it was Katie, who attended all our sessions, and helped teach a number of people the fine art of crochet.  Hope to see you next year Katie!

How wonderful is Wood

We were very happy to be invited back to Wood Festival in Oxfordshire again in 2016, not least because we knew we'd bump into some old friends, and so we did.  This year we had the chance of knitting in a tipi, but the weather was too nice for that, so for Saturday's session we soaked in the (occasional) sunshine and gathered a merry throng of woolworkers.  This was Lucia's first session as co-facilitator in a Love Blanket workshop, but you would never have known it.

On the second day the weather deserted us, but we sat in the yurt and shared hot chocolate with some hardy crocheters.  Overall a great weekend at Wood and hopefully not the last.

Woolly Wonderful

Our trip to the One Love event in Brighton was very heartwarming.  Being in a beautiful church and surrounded by healers and musicians brings out the best is us.  The above are some of the pieces that were created on the day.  Several people dropped by to knit, crochet, weave and chat, and as ever it proved a lovely opportunity to get to know new people.  It was great to have the blanket out again after having the summer off, and we hope very much to be visiting Brighton again soon.

Too little blanket, too much love...

Well, the Love Blanket has taken rather a long break over summer.  The one principle reason for this is that I'm in love!  Which has meant that most weekends I've been away from Oxford, and thus unable to make blankety things happen.

However, as I'm spending most of my weekends in the Brighton area, I'm proud to announce our first Sussex adventure, as part of the One Love Brighton Community Fundraiser, (fundraising for refugees) :-).  I'll be sharing woolly space from 2-5 - come along if you're down that way and join the fun!

Woodtastic

Did I mention how much we were looking forward to Wood Festival?  Well, we weren't disappointed.  It was great to be back in the workshop village, surrounded by the sounds of musical improvisation, samba bands, therapeutic gong baths and of course screaming children!

One of the most satisfying things about building up the number of workshops we've done is when we are visited by familiar friends.  Celine was with us at Wood and Tandem festivals last year, and she dropped by to make yet another piece for the blanket.  Nice one Celine!

Lucy brought her family with her to the festival, and to the blanket too!  Son Arthur wanted to learn to knit, and did just that, son Nick learned to crochet, and Lucy herself made the first ever heart on the blanket, attached to a piece she'd made earlier.  What a crafty family!

It was really great that we had more males with us this year, so well done Arthur, Nick, Keith, Dan and Sam for taking up the challenge!

Sophia likes to do something special for the Blanket at Wood Festival, and this year a snail came in and made the blanket its permament home.  Perhaps it needs a name, what do you think?

With brilliant weather and a creative, vibrant setting, we really enjoyed Wood this year and very much look forward to returning in 2016.  And if you've got a community event you'd like to see us at, let us know.  communityloveblanket@gmail.com.  See you there :)

Gearing up for Wood

The Love Blanket team are getting rather excited about being in festival-land again when we do two days of drop-in, drop-out but hopefully no drop-stitches at Wood Festival.  In April we had a little warm up at Silvia's house:

 and more recently had the opportunity to fully lay out the blanket (a task that's getting harder to do as it gets bigger!) and get it laying flat, by judicial removal of certain squares and reinsertion of other shapes:

 I even had to crochet a couple of triangularish pieces to fit in certain gaps.  I like us being able to accommodate strange shapes in the blanket (within reason), as it reminds me of medieval field systems before enclosure.  Whatever the size, Love Blanket pieces are certainly self-sustaining!