Tutor number two will be….
…Jen Best of Beaker Button! We met her at Wonderwool Wales where her stall stood out to us as we wandered around on the Sunday morning. We were intrigued by all the different button designs, and especially because we loved the idea of having fully customised buttons to match our hand knitted garments! We asked her to answer a few questions for us…
– What’s your name and where do you come from / are you now?
– Jen Best. I’m based in Hampshire, at The Fairground Craft and Design Centre at Weyhill.
– Could you give us a brief outline of how you started crafting and learning about buttons, and your yarny career to date?
– I’ve been button making, knitting, sewing, crocheting from a very young age, having learnt at my Gran’s knee. My mum taught me to spin about 10 years ago and I learnt to felt about 5 years ago. I run a small studio where I get to indulge my passion for Dorset buttons and all things fibre, including writing books and designing new buttons and techniques, dyeing yarn for kits and to design with and creating fibre things to show off my Dorset buttons. Not that I’m obsessed with them or anything!
– Which design / FO are you most proud of and why?
– I’m in love with the tree brooches, which I’ve recently turned into hoop art. (See the centre picture in the collage above) I’ve nearly finished a hula hoop sized tree which I get to be very creative with.
– What is your favourite drink to accompany your knitting?
– Gin and tonic with Ice and a squeeze of satsuma
– What will you be teaching at The Knit Tea Retreat?
– Dorset button making.
Thank you so much to Jen, for answering our questions! We were so glad to meet her at Wonderwool Wales earlier this year, and instantly thought that she would make a wonderful tutor for our retreat!
The Knit-Tea Retreat 