Not so Extreme Makeover: Man-Cave to Craft Haven
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Projects | Tags: craft room, hostile takeover, sewing, stash 4 Comments »
The Herdybank!
Over the last couple of weeks, I have dedicated some time to sorting out the study. By ‘sorting out’, I mean completely changing its designated role from ‘ramshackle study-cum-mancave’ to ‘lovely crafty room of awesomeness’. I was aided and abetted in this feat of engineering by my dear and long-suffering husband (LSH), who, as you have heard before, suffers from a not too mild case of OCD. I quickly realised that, if I left my crafty ‘guff’,as he calls it, (just wait until I get round to those hand knitted socks, he’ll be scoffing on the other side of his well-attired toes) lying around for long enough, then eventually my ‘change of use’ application would be approved for the study. Ahem, craft room. It only took 3 months of sewing machines on the dining table and various piles of patterns, books, fabric and notions being all over the living room for him to agree to my hostile takeover. That, plus the Babybee is now disturbingly mobile and in the habit of inserting anything she gets her grubby little toast hands on to into her cakehole, with little to no regard as to how life-limiting putting said object into her mouth will be.
Damask of Doom: A knitter’s curse?
Posted: January 26, 2012 Filed under: Craft Philosophy, Handmade items, Knitting | Tags: Damask, handknitting, iMake, Knitalong, Knitting, Knitting Buffoonery, Nurturing Fibres, podcast 11 Comments »
Image Details: ‘Lil’ devil hat’ by thomasina, via Flickr.
Do you ever get that feeling, when you start a project, that you are a bit doomed to failure? Like there is some celestial force which just does not want you to finish it. Bad joo joo if you will? That the craft karma fairy is punishing you for all those unfulfilled skeins in your stash, those hibernating projects, those Christmas mitts that aren’t getting done? No? Just me then…
Book Review: Kirstie Allsopp’s ‘Craft’
Posted: January 19, 2012 Filed under: Books, Reviews | Tags: book review, craft, Craft Book Review, Handmade Britain, Kirstie Allsopp 7 Comments »
Amongst the seriously awesome presents that I received from Mumsy for Christmas, including the welly socks for my Hunters, was a copy of Kirstie Allsop’s Craft. As you can imagine, this was extremely pleasing for me, as I had thought about buying a copy but thought ‘no, wait, maybe if I am a really good girl and finish all my wips, Father Christmas will bring one for me.’ Well, I was really good (apart from the wips, and I have just cast on for a knitalong, so I am not doing terribly well with the wip discipline) and it arrived on Christmas Day. Unlike the Mothership’s Christmas scarf…
Nothing like Ghost: A first go at painting pottery
Posted: January 16, 2012 Filed under: Handmade items, Pottery | Tags: cafe, handmade, Painting Pottery Cafe Brighton, Pottery, review 2 Comments »
Image Details: ‘all i could think about was ‘ghost’ and demi and patrick swayze and the clay scene…’ by feeb, via Flickr.
A couple of weeks ago, between Christmas and New Year, we went on a mission to test an overlocker, as I had been promised one for Christmas. Having driven into Hove and found the shop we wanted to go into was closed, we decided to take a turn into Brighton, to go into another sewing shop, which was also closed. I’m all for craft emporiums having a day or two off now and again, just not when I am in the market for an overlocker. Anyway, in order to lift my dampened spirits (it was pouring down with rain too), we decided to conduct a little impromptu crafting in the Painting Pottery Cafe in The Laines.
LYS Review: Black Sheep Wools Craft Barn
Posted: January 7, 2012 Filed under: Reviews, Shops | Tags: Black Sheep Craft Barn, Black Sheep Wools, LYS, LYS review, wool shop review, yarn shop review, Yarn Shop Warrington 4 Comments »
Standard Northern weather as we pitch up at the Barn.
On 4 January, I went with Sal from The Gingerbread Bunny to the Black Sheep Craft Barn in Culcheth to do a bit of yarn shopping. We had planned to go to Purl City Yarns in Manchester, however, as the weather has been particularly horrid here, we didn’t fancy dicing with death on the M60, so went the A road route to the Black Sheep instead. As I spend a fair amount of my yarny disposable income with this particular purveyor of fine fibrous goodness, it seemed appropriate that they be the subject of my first LYS review.
2011 in review
Posted: January 1, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
A Crafty Absence
Posted: December 28, 2011 Filed under: Knitting, Travel | Tags: Christmas craft, Christmas knitting, Knit Club, Knitting, travel 2 Comments »
Image Details: ‘ornament 3′ by Nesster, via Flickr.
I can’t believe it has been over a month since I last blogged. I have several blog entry drafts that are almost completed, but haven’t quite made it to the finished pile yet. A bit like all my Christmas knitting. Oops. In order to break the block, I’ve written a little round up of what’s been going on for the last few weeks. Admittedly, I may have got more done if I wasn’t so busy making merry, but that’s the whole point of Christmas, isn’t it? I am now going to have to knit my fingers to the bone to get all the projects finished before I go back to SA in January. And there is still a crate of Prosecco with my name on it in the shed….
Project paralysis
Posted: November 21, 2011 Filed under: Craft Philosophy, Knitting, Projects, Sewing | Tags: Christmas craft, Christmas knitting, Craft Philosophy, handmade, Knitting, procrastination, projects, sewing 1 Comment »
Image Details: ‘Tied to a Chair’ by Hanna-, via Flickr.
Twitter keeps happily reminding me how many days/hours it is until Christmas. As I have mentioned countless times on here, I love Christmas. Nothing pleases me more than rebelliously putting the Christmas tree up in the last couple of days of November. Any excuse to adorn the house with tinsel and yet more fairy lights is a good one, in my book. Unfortunately, all this talk of festive cheer and my very exciting but imminent return to the UK for a Costa minty hot chocolate and a decent curry is getting a bit stressful. How so? I hear you cry. Well, because I am suffering from another craft-related phenomena. One I shall call ‘Project Paralysis’.
Lest We Forget
Posted: November 13, 2011 Filed under: Charity, Handmade items | Tags: Lest We Forget, Poppy Appeal, Poppy day, Remembrance Sunday, Royal British Legion Leave a comment »
Image Details: ‘Lest We Forget’ by macspite, via Flickr
Today is Remembrance Sunday, which isn’t anywhere near as big an occasion in SA as it is in the UK.
I have some great memories of selling poppies as a teenager. Getting to the Legion as soon as the doors were open so we could get our box of poppies, blagging the taxi drivers at the taxi rank to buy car poppies and chatting to older people as they stopped to donate and pass comment on how smart we looked in our uniforms. Going back to the Legion at lunchtime, absolutely freezing, to get some sweet tea and a pastie from the ladies who would be helping out there and to thaw out a bit, because the heating was always on full bat. I also remember further back, watching the Festival of Remembrance with my Grandad as a child. He was in the Merchant Navy during the war, and was torpedoed twice. Unfortunately this earned him a reputation as a bit of a Jonah!
D-Day
Posted: November 8, 2011 Filed under: Charity | Tags: Charity, Kidz2Kidz, Polokwane, Santa Shoebox Project, shoebox, South Africa 3 Comments »
At the drop-off
I’m not talking about WW2 D-Day, although I am reasonably sure I could tenuously link something to do with craft to this event if need be. The D-Day I am referring to is ‘drop-off day’, which was Thursday gone for me and my Volvo full of swag. Yes, it’s true, we have a Volvo. Not sure how or when I fell from the grace of having a Mini Cooper S to the wagon of choice for the ageing middle lane hogger, but it seems to have crept up on me in its headlights-on-all-the-time, heated seated glory. Normally, having such a sensible car would cause me to drive it like I stole it, however the Limpopo traffic police are particularly officious and will take any excuse to pull you over and try to relieve you of a little ‘pocket money’. They do this even when you aren’t speeding, which isn’t really cricket in my opinion, although you have to admire their optimism. Anyway, back to the matter in hand.
