craft fairs and more

Things have been a little quiet on the blogging front, mainly as I decided to get back into the variable world of craft fairs so have been busy busy busy.

Yesterday I ventured over to the Doodle craft fair in Nuneaton, met some lovely people, sold a few things, - and won a prize in the raffle!

Here's a little peek at my stall:



Since being back home I have been wishing for some brighter light so I can photograph and add some of my latest creations to my Etsy shop - managed to get these on today:





And I had a few enquiries at the fair about cream wool flower corsages and wristwarmers - I sense this may be my next project.

In The Red

When you find the perfect shade of red wool to match that deep red fabric that you couldn't resist buying - well they just had to come together to make a few new clutch bags:





The fabric is an unusual print, dotted with images of an Edwardian lady. I've used the same wool too for both bags - a lovely merino wool that has a subtle two-tone effect. One of the bags I pleated the fabric and crocheted a handle, while for the other one I crocheted a larger piece that covers the back of the bag as well as the fold-over top.

Both heading for my Etsy shop!

Wednesday Wool

Autumn approaches, a little chill in the air in the evenings and I'm looking towards my wood burner, wondering if it is too soon to get some flames going.
I've adding some wool beanie hats to my shop in anticipation of our need to to get warm and cozy, along with some other wool goodies:









All available in my Etsy shop.

The Muse

So often we hear about designers, directors, artists having a muse - sometimes a model or an actress.
I would like to introduce my very own personal muse.
He lives with me, used to have a career in the racing industry but luckily no longer has to do this, he now spends a lot of his time lying on his back with his legs in the air (quite zen like, he can lie like this for hours without moving).
Please meet Casey.....




His unique greyhound profile is currently gracing some of my latest creations





He has taken to the life of a muse with ease, as long as there is a regular supply of treats and walks through the woods, not to mention the odd belly rub.
I'm sure other muses must demand similar.

It's A Tartan Day

I have a wonderful Aunt who very kindly sent me a batch of Harris Tweed tartan from her home in Scotland, alongside some other lovely woollen fabrics, a fantastic gift to receive for a fabric addict like myself.



Today I decided to try how they would look if I crafted them into a brooch, and chose one of the warm brown tartans, which was the perfect background for a lovely little orange vintage button, one of my favourites.



I've padded the brooch too to give it some depth, and edged it with a contrasting orange. It will be in my Etsy shop as from today, hot off the sewing machine.



Lots more tartan, lots more ideas........

Buttons and Hounds

I love buttons.
This is a fact.
I have boxes of buttons, bags of buttons, some new, some old, some faded, some gifted, some treasured.
So while thinking of a new picture for daughter's bedroom, it wasn't long before the buttons came to mind, and a joint project began.
One box of buttons, one tube of glue, one ikea white picture frame and the finished result -



Both myself and daughter have sorted buttons together for a few years now, and making this picture together, and hanging it in her newly decorated room, felt good. It now takes pride of place, hanging above the little black fireplace (and the restoration of that is another story...)



Making a picture for a child's room also led me to think about other ways to create wall decor that steps away from the twee and the predictable, and maybe how my hounds (or at least their images!) can find their way into bedrooms in a soothing sleep encouraging way. Over the past week I have been working on my latest wall art, the Greyhound at Night, now added to my etsy shop.



Which I think would be perfect for any age bedroom, surely the comfort of a hound guarding over you at night would help send you into happy dreamland. Made from a wonderful starry fabric, with the instructions to "shh..." embroidered next to a sleeping moon.

Summer Crops

A day of showers and sun, inbetween the latest downpour I was able to crop the last of the of fruit - and more of the prolific mange tout.



Plans had been to make more sowings - beans, lettuce, courgettes - after reading about the advantages of second sowings - more veg into the autumn (weather permitting).
However rain clouds and my aversion to gardening in the rain - oh I so need a greenhouse - have led me to a sofa and crochet day.

So hook at ready, wool stash at my feet, a bag, a bangle or a brooch? Decisions decisions.....

Tumbleweed.......and hounds

I apologise for my blog neglect over the past year or so. Sometimes life brings on changes, disruptions, and for a while my focus had to be directed elsewhere.



The new additions to my home - greyhound and lurcher boys - have not only added fun and frivolity (and a plethora of soft squeaky toys) but have started to creep into my craft - little greyhound profiles in brooches, wall art, and a few other ideas which will soon be heading their way into my etsy and folksy shops.



The support we received from our local Greyhound rescues, Greyhound Gap and GRWE when we adopted our hounds was fantastic, and to add my support to their ongoing endeavours I will now be donating 10% of my profits to Greyhound rescue.

Normal blogging services now resumed!

Buttons And Gadgets

One of my favourite things when crafting and creating is spending an excessive amount of time sifting through one of my many vintage button boxes to find the exact button that will marry perfectly with whatever fabric I happen to be using at the time. And when I was making a few gadget/mobile phone/iPod cases I found myself whiling many a minute away selecting the perfectly perfect button.

Here are the combinations I came up with:


Love this big brown button!



A starry affair livened up with a splash of pink wool


Butterscotch button and tweed.

Must start to put these in my folksy and etsy shops too - that's after I've spent another inordinate amount of time thinking up names for them!

Grey Flowers Looking Bright

Another of my fabric finds has been transformed into one of my clutch bags, which I've been meaning to put online for a few weeks now and finally got round to it today. On 1st description - "grey flowers, yellowish background" you could be excused for not thinking this fabric was too cheerful, but when you see how the sweet carnation-like grey flowers sit amongst little white flowers, you realise this is one sweet unique design. I like the background colour too, whether that's because I'm drawn to things that evoke memories of other eras (70's maybe?) I'm not sure, but I think it works well.



I've popped this bag into my folksy shop and called it the Grey Carnation Clutch Bag.

Now to photograph 8 ipod covers and 10 brooches......

An Itch To Stitch

Its a strange time at the moment - caught between selling and buying a house, things in boxes, things not in boxes, life in limbo. I felt I needed to distract myself from scouring the web for sites such as "how to move house in 10 easy steps" or for waiting to accost the postman each morning for any letter that might speed up the process.

So I had to find a way to "step away, nothing to see here" and embroidery was that way. Last year I was given some of Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching books and kits and it didn't take me long to get back into the swing of a little gentle sewing. Embroidery is therapeutic, I curl up on my red chair, feet tucked beneath me, sink back into the cushions, thread a needle and sew sew sew. There is something about the order of sewing, the rhythm, that slows your breathing and thoughts down into a calmness that is so needed right now.

This is the work in progress:





If you're new to embroidery, the Jenny Hart books are excellent - they include a load of transfer patterns that you just iron onto your fabric (I love using linen and linen-type materials). The instructions for the stitches are also very well written - even the French knot can be mastered with ease!



You can find her books on Amazon, but the Sublime Stitching website has a wealth of other patterns and kits too.

Stalls, Snips and Trips

Its been a busy old week - started off with the handm@de craft fair in Cambridge, which was great fun - so nice to meet up with some of the lovely crafty folk I'd met last year at Oxford - amongst them paperleaf, quercus silver, pennydog, twinklyspangle - and also to discover some other great handmade delights - such as the lovely Fabric Nation, Made by Kate, and Hannahchan.

This is my stall - apologies for the poor quality photo, but there are lots more images of the fair on the handm@de flickr page.


Meanwhile over in the "its the half -term holiday and I am a child what can I do now" world, what happens when you get a boy of 7, a pair of scissors, a bathroom mirror and an active imagination? This is the fringe result of that combination. Not sure about the boy's new look myself.



There was nothing else to do but head out of the door in an attempt to channel that energy elsewhere.

Handm@de Cambridge Panic

Eek only 2 days til the Handm@de Cambridge Craft Fair and yes, panic has set in. The fair comes hot on the heels of other hectic life stuff - selling house, new job, usual mundane life events that may have contributed to a recent bout of insomnia and strange 3 am thoughts about wardrobes and crochet.

Needless to say the last few days have been a whirlwind of crochet hooks and wool and sewing and making labels and hunting for a tablecloth (still unseen - must delve deeper into the back of the airing cupboard).



The Handm@de Cambridge craft fair will be held on April 4th 2009 at the Guildhall from 11am to 5pm - more info can be found on the blog here.

So if you've go nothing planned on Saturday do come along, loads of hand crated goodness, and also the chance of picking up a free goodie bag if you're one of the first 200 people to come to the fair on Saturday - see you then!

Creating Corsages

I love crocheting flower brooches and corsages, and up until recently I'd been making them mainly in one colour, sometimes felting them, sometimes adding a contrasting colour button. Recently I've been inspired by the ever growing collection of coloured balls of wool that lie at my feet each evening to create some multi-coloured ones.

This one is quite chic I think - classic white and slate grey - both fine wools which create a delicate looking flower.



When the light is a bit brighter here I shall take some photos of the more vivid colour combinations I'm coming up with (imagine purples and vivid greens and bight reds and that'll give you some idea!)

iPod Attire and Random Notes

Only a few weeks til the Handm@de Cambridge craft fair (April 4th - come along!) hence the sudden panic of "eek have I got enough stock!"

Had a successful sewing day this week and made 5 more iPod Touch covers:



They were all intended for the craft fair but I couldn't resist adding one to my folksy and etsy shops.

Meanwhile back in home hazard land:
Anyone with a small person or 4 legged being will know the frequency that cups and mugs somehow manage to splurt their contents all over floors, tables and chairs - generally accompanied by a cry of "It wasn't me!".

In our house a shout goes out of "spillage of the day!" each time this occurs. Usually on a daily basis. This week the floor was drenched in a cupful of water (these cups do like throw themselves around) and my youngest decided to write a sign to ensure no-one would walk on the offending spot.

" "Don't Walk Here" is what I am going to write" stated the child and proceeded to write the sign and celotape it to a nearby chair. Here is said sign:



I think that sums things up nicely.

Buckle Up

I have been shopping again. Not your usual jaunt down to the supermarket to stock up on teabags and muesli, but a foray into the world of vintage buckles.



Over the past week little parcels full of buckles have been arriving, and I'm really pleased with some of the colours, shapes, patterns and general cute buckleness of them.



This latest obsession of mine started off with a fondness for buttons, which somehow has expanded into buckles...where next I wonder?



I've used some of the buckles for some wool belts which I've put in my Etsy shop, I'm also working on a way of adding them to my clutch bags - I'll post pics here when I come up with a good design.
Meanwhile I have vintage shops to scour....

That 70's Vibe Again...

As a child of the 70's I seem to be inextricably drawn towards fabric prints that take me back to that era - I view them through my nostalgia tinted glasses and exclaim "how wonderful!" whist others may tut "oh how not very modern".

On one of my recent forays into a fabric shop I stumbled across this wonderful yellow fabric that was printed with strange brown and grey birds - the images reminded me of a chopping board I'm sure my mum used to have (she'll have to correct me on that one if my memory is mistaken!)

And so my Retro Bird Clutch Bag was born - I added a hand crocheted band of wool, a brown vintage button and hey presto, this is the finished result:





I added the bag to my Etsy shop yesterday, but this wasn't the only 70's style fabric I found on my travels - more retro bags will be on their way!

Herringbone Happiness

My lovely Aunt recently sent me some fabrics, left over from her previous cape making business. Amongst them were some adorable pieces of herringbone, in shades of grey, as well as some fantastic tartans. Some of the off-cuts are too small to make a bag out of, so I wondered how they would look made into an iPod/phone sleeve, and this is the result:



I added a pink crocheted band of wool and a vintage button to close it - I'm really fond of this grey/pink colour combo, I think it manages to be chic and cheerful at the same time.
This one I've popped in my folksy shop - I'll be working on the tartan ones next!

Obsessions, obsessions...

So by chance I happened to spot some Japanese crochet books while browsing the internet one day - can't remember quite how I stumbled across them but these things are easily done if you have a few aimless hours on-line. (I think I may have been avoiding filling in the tax return for yet another day).

And what can I say - I was hooked (do you get it - crochet - hooked.....ok I'll stop now).

If you haven't seen any Japanese craft books you really must take a look, the styling, the photography, its all stunning and inspirational. After a day or two just looking at them on-line I decided I must have one of these books, so visited yesasia.com, where there is a wealth of choice - craft books for everything. I thought I'd start off with a book that is full of crochet stitches 1st, before trying to understand a full pattern, as the books are (obviously!) in Japanese but all the stitches are detailed in chart form - lots of symbols and things!

This is the book I ordered - 300 crochet patterns - and some of the stitches look totally delicious.



This link here should take you to a page where you can see the inside of the book too so you can get an idea of what to expect.

Ordering from yesasia was pretty easy too, although at first I found it a bit tricky trying to find the crochet section (is it hobby, lifestyle or arts?). In the end I used the search facility which brought up about 3 pages of lovely looking books, so no doubt I'll be shopping there again soon.

I have successfully managed to make some tiny little crochet circles from one of the patterns (ok, I cheated a bit because I did know how to do crochet circles already but I wanted to be sure I could do them following the chart in the book.) Now I'm ready to tackle more adventurous stitches - pictures will be posted here!

Knitted Bangle Turorial

Knitted bangles are a great way of combining wool and plastic bangles - charity shops usually have some bangle bargains or check out the sales in any of the accessory shops.

Firstly gather your ingredients - bangle, wool and knitting needles.

(I used 4.5mm needles and a pure double knitting wool, but select whatever needles suit the wool you are using)

Then measure your bangle

and cast on the amount of stitches that will stretch to the same measurement
(my bangle was 10" and I cast on 35 stitches, so that the wool would sit very tight around the bangle)

Then knit away! Use whatever stitch you like (I've used stocking stitch here, knit one row, purl a row etc, but have also used ribbing, seed stitch - they all look good!) Knit until your piece will wrap around the bangle - either stretch it around whilst still on the needle or measure the bangle and knit your piece to match.

Cast off once you get to the right size - don't worry if your piece is curled at the edges, you can block it to flatten it out (see here for blocking techniques).I knitted 8 rows for my bangle.


Now for the sewing! Wrap your knitted piece around the bangle and sew up the seams - once you've finished sewing the wool piece will be able to be swivelled, so you can move the seams so that they sit inside the bangle.



And voila! Your bangle is done!



And you can also keep redoing them - bored of the colour? Simply snip off the wool and knit another colour. And a quick handwash keeps them fresh too.