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!

Weaving with Wood

We are very happy and extremely excited to announce that the Love Blanket will be returning to Wood Festival this year!  Our workshops in 2014 were definitely the highlight of our year - over 12 hours of knitting, weaving, crocheting and fun for adults and kids alike.  If you're heading for Wood this year, do come and visit us, and keep the blanket growing :-)

Bits and Pieces

Sometimes, visitors to our workshops only have a small amount of time in which to make something.  We welcome all contributions to the blanket, however diminutive!  Here I've taken ten separate bits of knitting and made two pieces from them, ready to add to the blanket later.  There's room for everyone in the Love Blanket - that's what makes it a Community.

By the way, don't forget that all photos in the blog can be enlarged - just by clicking on them!

Love Blanket Spring Gathering

We had great fun at Silvia's house in Abingdon at the beginning of February, and we'll be doing it again on Sunday 12th April, from 4pm to 8pm, which we're calling our 'Spring Gathering'.  You are welcome to join us!  Email communityloveblanket at gmail dot com, and I'll forward you the details.

We very much hope to be announcing more Love Blanket dates shortly x

Welcome to Oxford Community Love Blanket

Hello, and welcome to our blog!  We hope one day to have a more exciting, multi-functional website, but until then, this is our home on the web.

The Oxford Community Love Blanket began in 1999 as a community craft project, a patchwork blanket created and used by the community.  The blanket is nearly 16 years old, and forms the focal point of community workshops held roughly six times a year in Oxford and the surrounding area.

Attendees to Community Love Blanket workshops can expect to find a relaxing, friendly and welcoming space, where they can knit, crochet, weave and sew pieces for the Love Blanket, or their own textile projects.  The emphasis is on inclusivity, so if you just want to sit quietly without pressure to be social, you are very welcome.  We have found that once the pressure to be social is taken away, the inclination blossoms.  We are also happy to offer simple tuition in knitting, crochet and weaving upon request.

The Love Blanket community is like the blanket itself - all sorts of different shapes, colours, methods and ideas brought together in a crazy hotchpotch, all somehow fitting together, and each part as valuable and essential as any other.

In the spirit of community and inclusivity, nearly all Love Blanket workshops are free, or included within the price of admission to community events.  In 2014 we held four workshops, at Wood Festival, Tandem Festival, Elder Stubbs Festival and Barracks Lane Garden Harvest Festival.  If you think the Love Blanket would add colour and love to your event, let us know!

We will be using this space to publicise our worshops, share photos, and feature the individuals from our community and the pieces they have made.

You are all most welcome!