By now I hope you've heard the tagline....

One is not more important than the other. This festival celebrates how craft creates connection, and how our connection elevates our craft.

And so we were brainstorming what we could do to help you all get to know one another before the event, when a super obvious idea floated to the top. We should start a knit-along and a sew-along and weave-along as most of you attending will engage in either knitting and/or sewing AND many of you will be making something to wear to the festival.

And so I give you the #soulcraftalong! A joint knit-along/sew-along that aims to celebrate craft and connection in the lead up to Soul Craft Festival.

Why so much joy about the #soulcraftalong?

Well - because it means;

1. We can find one another on the socials before hand so we can see who else is coming, and maybe make some connections in the lead up to the event.
2. We will already know one another a bit through chatting about our projects.
3. We will be able to “recognize” one another on the day because we will already have seen one another’s projects.*

All about the connection and all about the craft!

So how will it work?

To participate you simply need to start making something that you plan to wear to Soul Craft Festival. It might be a frock, some leggings, a shawl, some socks, a sweater, a coat – any thing you like!

The only other thing you need to do is to have a ticket to Soul Craft!

I’m so sorry lovely people who are following along from over-the-seas or are in Australia but aren’t coming - but the #soulcraftalong's primary aim is to help connect people who are attending Soul Craft!

And will there be prizes?

Yes. Always. Just for fun and for joy. Not because knitting and sewing are a competition. They aren’t. Obviously.

At this stage I’m thinking there will be three prizes;

1.     A knitting prize to be awarded at the event

2.     A sewing prize to be awarded at the event

3.     An interim prize on May 9th – for WIP photos and participation in the #soulcraftalong

Now I don’t know what they are yet – my apologies! But I wanted to get us started and I will gather the prizes over the next couple of months. We are always lucky as we have amazing shops who support us and give us gifts of true beauty. I promise you they will be good.

I’m thinking that the knitting prize will be a sweaters worth of beautiful yarn and a pattern or two, and the sewing prize will be a frock or two's worth of fabric and a pattern or two. And maybe the interim prize will be a bit of both.

I have a couple of ideas for judges who I will share with you soon.

Which brings me to our #soulcraftalong facilitator Bex!

I’ve asked the lovely Bex to facilitate the #soulcraftalong because to tell you the truth I’m a little strapped trying to make sure this festival is magic. Some of you might know her from Instagram @bex_inreallife? She will be highlighting some of your beautiful work and will be crafting along beside you (as will I). She is another good woman – both a knitter and a sewer – who will be chatting to you all via the @soulcraftfestival account on Instagram about what’s what. I’m so happy Bex is on board to help out with this.

Are you, Felicia, participating?

Great question and the answer is yes?!? I hope so??

I’m trying not to overstretch myself, and I have birthday knitting and sewing to do for the kids, who are currently lovingly grumpy that they aren’t getting as much homemade as normal because I’m a little busier with this festival malarkey.

That said, I’m hoping to participate by making a sweater (probably the childhood sweater using my special purchase from AVFKW) and some pants (my half cut-out Terra pants) that were gifted to me by Nita-Jane. And maybe maybe some socks using Viola's Favourite Sock pattern and the beautiful yarn from the top of the post from Miss Click Clack. I often claim I don't like purple** but these colours are heartbreakingly beautiful.

Giveaway!

If you are participating - leave a comment on this post by this Sunday (March 25th) 9pm EST - and let me know what you are thinking about making. I have one beautiful goodie-rich gift-bag leftover from The Craft Sessions that I will send out to one lucky (ticket-holding!) winner.

So crafty Soul-Craft-attending women, are you in??

Felicia x

*I once met a lovely woman in a national park south of Sydney, not because she recognized me, but rather because she recognized the smallest kid’s Nani Iro skirt!! Such a lovely memory of a beautiful day – we later met up and had icecream at the farmers market she recommended - a wonderful connection with a good woman.

**Another fine example of me being off-base :).