Liskeard has style/stile

Stuart House in Liskeard is where our weekly knit & natter group meets and it's a listed building which is a centre for arts and crafts. They regularly have exhibitions and a great (and cheap) coffee shop. At the moment there's an exhibition called 'Liskeard Has Style/Stile'. There's a lot of foot paths around Liskeard and a lot of fields and because of that there's a lot of stiles (which are structures that help you step over fences). But Liskeard also has style!

 The challenge went out to local arts and crafts groups and individuals to contribute to the exhibition. Our knit & natter group leader, Hella, was very keen for us to make our mark on the exhibition and we were allowed to exhibit what we wanted in the room where we meet every week.

 Various members of the knitting group brought in things they'd knitted or crocheted. In the picture above, there's one of my lacy stoles, the Midnight Stole on the right (on the red dress form) and two very colourful crochet blankets.

 One of our members took photos of various stiles and created pieces of knitting inspired by the photos.

 The machine knitting group I go to (also run by Hella) also contributed a variety of machine knitted garments and lots of leaves to decorate a tree.

 The leaves are amazing and all made on knitting machines.

 Take a closer look and there are some hand-knitted birds hiding in the tree too.

 The blanket on the sofa was knitted by Sandy. When she first joined our knitting group she was knitting large squared with different textures and then they were all sewn together to make an amazing blanket. 

 Everyone from our knitting group knitted squared inspired by textures and colours around stiles and they're displayed on the board below.

 One of our members, Elaine, got some fibre from a local farmer, spun it and knitted the first square of a blanket. The display below has a picture of a sheep, some of the raw wool, washed wool, hand-spun wool and the hand-knitted square. Elaine is a fairly new spinner so she's hoping the blanket will show how she has improved and developed as a spinner.

 We had too much to keep it contained in one room so we spread out into the hall and stair case too. Here's a fab poncho.

 And a selection of great hats.

 There are other things on display too. I love these photos of a variety of fun and colourful shoes.

 Some very talented people took pictures of stiles and painted pictures too.

 Here's a 3D piece of a stile

 And a painting.

 The Liskeard and Looe Ladies circle got involved too.

 And finally, this piece of free form knitting inspired by a stile is just fantastic.

The exhibition is on all week at Stuart House and is free. Stuart House is on the main street through Liskeard (right next to the library). If you're in the area why not pop in. You have to hurry though as it's only on this week/weekend.

I had a look around the exhibition while I attended the knitting group this morning and I was amazed at all the talented people we have in our little Cornish town. Next week, I'll have some more local news about a Wolly Market and workshops in April.