Textile treasures and a new shawl kit
There has been a little whirlwind of activity at Loop recently. To start with, a gorgeous troupe of exquisitely hand stitched and embroidered horses and lavender sachet ladies have made their way from distant shores – all the way from Australia- to our little shop in London.
You already know how much we love being able to find and champion creativity in the world of textile and fibre crafts. So, when Susan saw the work of Marthess of @Quaint Marie on Instagram, she instantly fell in love with her beautiful creations.
Marthess creates some pretty exquisite textile horses and lavender ladies sachets out of vintage and recycled fabric scraps. The textiles Marthess uses are all natural fibres including indian cotton, linen, vintage kimono fabrics, woven textiles, vintage dress fabrics and some not so obvious old bank money bags and coat collar linings. It’s the mix of textures and frayed edges and holes that create the charm and beauty in something that’s been loved, used and repurposed into something new.
A Mule and Donkey Refuge in Morocco was the inspiration behind the textile troupe of charming horses. Marthess began by donating some of her first stitched horses in order to raise some money for this worthy charity that was having a difficult time during 2020.
The stitched horses with holes and frayed edges all patched together were symbolic, representing the beauty in the aged , worn and used.
The Loop collection started with a few colours, including cream, black, Indigo, and inky blues with a hint of red. Marthess then coordinated the colour palette with her extensive collection of textiles. We are so thrilled to have these beautiful creations at Loop to share with you! And thank you to Marthess for the beautiful stitching, embroidery and care she puts into each piece. You can see the whole beautiful collection of the ladies and the horses on our website.
Speaking of exquisite textiles, we are super excited to show you our newest kit! Florence Spurling of Florence Spurling studios in New York City is a textile designer who has designed the most stunning colourwork shawl called Scout.It is so beautiful and a colourwork knitter’s dream! The shawl includes ten different colourwork panels using charts of Fairisle style motifs along with the intarsia technique to connect the panels as you are knitting. The pieced-together aesthetic of vintage quilts inspired this intricate, pattern-filled shawl, and we adore it!
We have put together kits for you in the original yarn and colours Florence designed for Madelinetosh Merino Light. As a bonus, Florence is offering a 15% discount on the pattern using the code SCOUT. You can find it on shopflorencespurling.com or her Ravelry shop from Monday the 12th of April through Wednesday the 15th. The pattern launches on Monday the 12th, and the kits are available to pre-order through our website now. The yarn is being dyed for us at the moment and should be with us by the 1st of May. We can’t wait to get started on this!
New Kits!
We are all eagerly awaiting the launch of Laine Publishing’s new book 52 weeks of shawls, and to coincide with the book, we have some super beautiful kits planned for you! Kits will launch next Friday, the 16th of April, with more details on the website soon so you can start planning your projects.
Recent arrivals
Leslie McCormick’s delightful wee bears and dogs are back at Loop. Each bear and dog is hand-stitched and carefully created using specially chosen mohair fibres. The wee bears have the sweetest dresses in vintage, and recycled fabrics, while the wee dogs each have their hand-stitched pillow. These adorable little collectables have an old-fashioned feel, and each bear and dog also comes in a handmade patterned box.
The beautiful Under the Milky Way Shawl kits have had a re-stock with the super gorgeous and soft Plucky Knitter Primo fingering yarns. Designed by Melanie Berg for Loop, it’s pretty stunning.
New Books
Two new wonderful books have made their way to Loop this week. Kaffee Fassett in the Studio is a fascinating look at the world-renowed artist and textile designer’s amazing colourwork and where he finds inspiration. Make, Thrift, Mend is the latest book from Katrina Rodabaugh, the author of Mending Matters. Katrina teaches readers how to mend, patch, dye, and alter clothing for an environmentally conscious, reimagined wardrobe.
Workshops
We still have some places left in Ekta Kaul’s Kantha Embroidery Masterclass. The workshop takes places online on Zoom on the 23rd and 24th of April and is 3 hours each day. Award-winning artist Ekta Kaul will introduce you to a dictionary of Kantha stitches through a gentle step-by-step demonstration and share the cultural context of Kantha textiles in Bengal. It should be a fantastic masterclass! You can see more of Ekta’s beautiful work on her website.
We have some new dates in the diary for Julie Arkell’s very popular creature workshop. Sunday October 17th and December 5th are now available to book directly through the website. This will be an all day class with a break for lunch in the shop. At the end of the day you get to take home your own newly-dressed doll!
Click and Collect is back!
Starting this coming Tuesday the 13th of April you’ll be able to once again use our click and collect option at checkout. Keep in mind we are still working with a reduced staff and we will send you an email confirmation when your order is ready to be collected.
In anticipation of opening the shop again soon, we have some lovely yarns on sale to make room for new products. BC Garn Semilla Grosso, Rico Alpaca Twist Chunky, Temaricious Cashmere Lace, Freia Shawl Balls, Socks That Rock (Lightweight Fingering) and a few colours of Plucky Bello DK are all marked down and a great bargain.
How do I purchase the “horse and lady “ kits/pattern please?
Is it possible to get the horse pattern? KSlipek@msn.com
Hi Kathleen,
These are the creations of QuaintMarie (https://quaintmarie.com/) and the pattern unfortunately isn’t available through us.