A student from Britain has become this year's winner of the annual Feel the Yarn contest.
Xiao Li, who attends the Royal College of Art in London, took home the prestigious title after battling it out with 19 other top design students.
The 20 participants were tasked with designing and knitting garments made from the yarn provided by one of the fourteen companies involved.
From July 4th to 6th each of the young designers presented their garments in Tuscany to a range of top class judges, who were keen to see what innovative ways the contestants could use to spin and knit their wool to create dynamic new garments.
This year's theme was 'From Material to Immaterial', and was won by Ms Li, who admitted that she was particularly interested in theme of environmental sustainability.
Putting a new twist on upcycling she took inspiration from the reuse of denim fabrics to create her award-winning design.
Ornella Bignami, the project's tutor told Fibre2Fashion that the theme "was developed to stimulate the young designer's to interpret the material, the yearn and colours to make them the protagonists of their projects".
Ms Bignami explained that the topic encouraged creativity from the students, allowing them to focus on "a new emotional and visionary sensibility".
Feel the Yarn is designed to not only promote the use of local yarns but also to encourage wools to be used more in high-end fashion design, especially by younger artists.
Rather than simply learning how to use a sewing machine, it hopes to emphasise the importance of skills such as weaving, knitting and crochet.
If you're keen to emulate the theme from this year's contest then why not experiment with recycled yarns such as the Rowan Purelife Renew, which has a tweedy character and comes in hues such as natural stone through to a deep vibrant blue tone.
