Well my lovelies, the observant among you might have noticed that I haven’t been here in blogland in a long, long, l-o-n-g time. I have decided to close my blog; for a number of reasons which all make a lot of sense to me. When I close my blog, hopefully, it won’t disappear, so you’ll be able to look back at my journey. I not stopping crocheting, makings, workshopping or designing, and you will still be able to follow my journey: I really hope you will.
Hello! It has been a while! I’ve been busy, busy, busy working in my real-life job and lots and lots of making: I’ve been making flowers for a lovely lady’s bridesmaids! The wedding is tomorrow: so I’ll share some pictures of those makes very soon. I’ve also been working on something for you! As the weather, here is York, is turning distinctly chilly I thought I’d crochet a scarf and share the pattern with you. It’s a short scarf (although you clever people can easily make it longer) perfect for chilly evenings and under jackets…
I’ve used some beautiful camel sock yarn (50% silk and 50% baby camel) from Truly Hooked and used a 4mm hook for a loose open feel. The scarf used all of one 100g/400m skein, so if you decide to make the scarf longer, you will need more than one skein…
[instructions without pictures can be found at the end of this post]
Row one: ch 270. Turn…
Row two: dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc into each st. Turn...
HINT: I would suggest working into the ch as in the image below, for a really neat foundation…
Row three: 3ch, 1tr in next st, *1ch, skip st, 1tr in next 2 sts**…
Repeat *-* to end. Turn…
Row four: 3ch, 1tr in next st. **2tr in ch sp, 1ch, 2tr in ch sp*. Repeat ** - ** to end. Turn…
Repeat row three and four, until the scarf is the width you would like. When crocheting the last row, don’t do a chain between the trebles.
Last row: 1ch, dc in ch sp, dc in tr, dc between each ch…
In less than forty-eight hours byhelen will be at her first, ever, craft fair. Eeeeeeeeek! I’ll be spending the next forty-eight hours getting ready for the craft fair. At the start of the year I joined a lovely community York Makers: an amazing group that shares ideas and skills, hosts workshops, offers support and hosts fairs.
My bunting is made and ready…
Lots and lots and lots of flowers have bloomed…
More flowers for bespoke orders…
Lots of planning has gone into the look of my stall…
And in case you want to pop-along, a reminder of the where and when…
It’s going to be an amazing fair, with over twenty-five stalls, workshops and cake!
I’m actually really excited about the fair, can’t wait to share it with you next week. If you are in the York area, do pop-in and say hello: I’d love to meet you!
A while ago I joined York Makers, an amazing Facebook group that organises fairs (lots more about that later), offers support and advice to makers in York and has started offering skill sharing sessions. At the skill sharing sessions, the maker invites other members of the group to their home, or workshop, to share their skill and let members try something new. Yesterday evening I was lucky enough to be at the first skill sharing session. The incredibly talented Naomi, from Naomi's Stained Glass showed us how to fuse glass. Naomi makes the most amazing fused and stained glass; you must pop over to her page and have a look (and a like)! Lots of us gathered in her home, ready to try something new (to most of us). It was amazing to be with such creative talent, including: Non Solo Guacamole, Hippystitch, Lucy Monkman, Sarah's Yummy Kitchen and lots of others (I hope I haven't missed anyone)...
Make sure you have a look at their work! Anyway, back to the glass fusing. Naomi stated by explaining a little bit about how the glass fusing process is carried out and then it was time to play. Naomi had lots of glass for us to choose from, it was like being a child in a sweet shop, to help us make a coaster and two small pieces of glass, which she will turn into a key-ring or pendent for us.
It was amazing to see the creativity in the room: all making the same things but with our individual styles…
The evening ended with Naomi showing us her AMAZING workshop, which is where her kiln is…
Naomi is going to cook (probably not the right word) our glass and we can pick it up in a few days time. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Naomi is a really brilliant teacher; she offers workshops for anyone to book onto, is thinking of offering workshops for children, she’s taking part in York Open Studios as well as working on commissions. Make sure you have a good nosy at her work, along with the other artists mentioned at the start of this post and don’t forget that you can also find me on Facebook HERE :)
I try really, really, really hard not to buy craft books. I already have a lot of craft books and sometimes, especially when they are very themed, I find that they stifling creativity: encouraging you down one particular route rather than letting you walk your own path. Every now and then, though, one comes which you know you have to have on your bookshelf. That is what happened the other day, I found a book which I fell instantly in love with and had to have there and then. The book is all about making paper (yes paper, not fabric) flowers: in fact the book is called Paper Flowers and is by the incredibly talented Denise Brown…
The book has thirty-five step by step projects to make your own fabulous flowers. Here are just a few of my favourite (it was VERY hard to choose)…
Aren’t they just lovely? I can’t wait to get making. I have to warn you: I am very tempted to try and adapt some of these paper flowers into fabric flowers!
I’ve mentioned before how much love buttons. Well who doesn’t? So, you can imagine my delight my I got a button making manual from one of my loveliest friends. The manual by Gina B, who I mentioned in my last post, on ganutell: yes, I am aware that I sound like a groupie. It’s just that Gina B is soooooo talented. The technique for ganutell and button making are very similar: both involve wrapping thread, only when making buttons you have to wrap really, really, really tightly and with ganutell you wrap really, really, really gently. The manual is fully of delicious buttons to make, using a verity of techniques, including crochet! I (for once) started off with what looked like the more simply designs. Would you like to see how I got on?
Wraps to make a star (my most favourite shape)…
Another star (because you can never have too many), but with a different shape base…
Death’s Head (not my name) wrap, which is the base for the more complicated buttons…
Getting more confident, I attempted weaving my threads…
Getting more ambitious (a little too ambitious, don’t look too closely at the stitches) with embroidery…
First attempt at the Union Jack, ended in Iceland…
Second attempt…
I am going to put brooch backs on to the back of my buttons and wear them, while I think of more uses and make more buttons!
Every now and again I love to try something new. I did make a promise to Si, that I would find my craft and stick to it, but sometime the lure of something new is just too strong. I justify my breaking this promise, with the fact that I am making flowers. I love to crochet flowers, make fabric flowers, so making flowers in a new way is just an extension of what I am already doing, not really something new! Right? I am a massive fan of the incredibly talented Gina B (it is thanks to Gina B that I make finger braid) so when I heard the she had ganutell flowers kits, I knew that I had to give them a try. I think the main reason I am such a fan of Gina B, is that she love heritage craft with a modern twist. I also love, loVE, LOVE history: so what could be better than ganutell – history, making and flowers – what’s not to love? What is ganutell? I hear you ask. Ganutell is a flowers made from coiled wire shaped into flower petals with thread wrapped over the wire. I’ll show you…
I am sooooo happy with how these turned out: I can see a new addiction coming on…
Are you having a lovely holiday? I really hope that you all are. This morning I have, indulgently, been browsing my own blog: I do this occasionally, so I don’t repeat myself (sorry if you feel I do) but as a way of celebrating all the makes and shares that I have posted. I love to craft (especially crochet) but I love sharing with you all even more. I think that it is really important to look back, celebrate and learn before going forward. I would highly recommend that you do this. I think that lots of people tend to do this naturally at this time of year, as one year ends and we start the New Year full of promises and resolution. I’m not big on New Year resolutions, unusually for me I made three last year: I am very happy to report that I kept two out of the three. The third wasn’t kept, but not from my lack of trying – it just wasn’t meant to be: I certainly won’t be beating myself over this! So here’s my look back over some of my 2014 highlights. Here’s to 2015. See you next year!
Teaching some lovely ladies how to make fabric flowers: seeing how their creations bloomed…
Wow! It’s the 18th September! How did that happen? We are half way, yes half way, through September. This means that I am eighteen days late for my annual September gushing. I’m late because I’ve been extremely busy: Si’s parents came to stay for a whole week and it has taken me an (almost) another week to reclaim my home and catch-up with myself. I’ve also been working on some other projects, which I’ll share with you very soon: I’m very excited about these.
Back to the September gushing. I love, loVE, LOVE September. Yes I said it last year, and the year before, and the year before that. Yes, I will say it again next year. There is something really special about September (almost as special as when it snows) the world is starting to get sleepy and slowly putting itself to bed for a long Winter sleep. In September the world starts to change colour: as the light fades into dusky evenings and misty mornings and the trees start to change the leaves to amazing Autumnal colours. Jumpers start to emerge from the bottom of wardrobes and food starts to become casseroles and crumbles. Yet, in September, there is still a hint of Summer’s left over warmth. Yes, I love September!
Every once in a while I like to try a new craft. I did promise Si, that I would focus, but temptation calls, especially when new the new craft involves fabric and flowers: two of my very favourite things. During my last visit to the Quilt Museum, in York, I saw a poster advertising a workshop to make fabric flower brooches and learn machine embroidery. Now I’ve want to learn machine embroidery ever-since Kirstie Allsopp declared it the crack cocaine of the craft world! I signed up, for the workshop, straight away. The workshop tutor was the very talented Diana Barrett: who through her brilliance led the class through everything we needed to know about sewing machines, setting the machines for machine embroidery and then making the fabric flower brooches. Here’s what we did…
Practising machine embroidery…
Getting more confident…
Even more confident: zig-zagging machine embroidery style…
Starting the brooch: stitching down layers of fabric…
Back looks more interesting than the front…
Flower petals begin to appear…
Front is beginning to look better…
Cut out petals…
The trickiest part of the day: making cord to go around the edges of the petals by stitching over embroidery thread…
Getting even trickier: sewing the cord to the edge of the petal: on a sewing machine, eeekkk…
Nearly there…
Ta-dah…
What a day! I was exhausted by the end of it. I’d learnt so much. Can’t wait to make more, my head is quite literally spinning with ideas.
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