Climate Week Crochet

Last week was Climate Week, a Scottish government campaign to raise awareness, and inspire action on, climate change.  A series of events was organised by Aberdeenshire Council at nearby Haddo Country Park which is owned and managed by the council and the National Trust for Scotland.

I signed up for a tee-shirt yarn crochet workshop to learn how to reduce textile waste.  Events for Climate Change Week highlight the importance of reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate. Instead of being thrown away into landfill I was going to learn how to reuse the old tee-shirt I had to take along. My husband's discarded offshore wardrobe yielded a suitable sacrificial offering.

The evening class was run by Claire from Cookston Crafts and was held in the Haddo House tearoom.  Claire created a welcoming environment for the eight participants and Suzanna, from Haddo, was on hand with hot drinks, scones and traybakes.  Under Claire's friendly tutelage, we were soon busy creating our own yarn from the cleverly cut up tee shirts.

Following Claire's pattern we began to crochet the cotton strips into a wee bowl.  I found it quite hard work physically and Claire explained that the cotton I was using had very little stretch.  My arms and my fingers certainly got a bit of a work out!  Some of the others who were using tee-shirts containing Lycra were finding their yarn a bit easier to crochet.  Soon, though, my bowl was beginning to take shape.

One of the aspects I like best about attending any craft class is that we all start out to make the same thing but the final 'show-and-tell' displays everyone's individual creativity and no two pieces are the same.  After two hours of cutting and crochet, here's what we'd made.

I was able to finish crocheting my bowl at home the next day and found an empty glass jar to insert into it for added structure.  The fabric created is tough and durable and I'd definitely try this again.

I've certainly learned that old clothes unsuitable for donation to charity can still have a purpose with a little ingenuity and creative input - oh, and muscle power!

Love is...

Today is my wedding anniversary.

Twenty three years if you're counting from the day we got married - but...

... we've been together way longer than that!

According to internet sources, the traditional gift to mark a 23rd wedding anniversary would be something made from silver plate.  I think I can safely speak on behalf of us both when I say can hardly think of anything we'd like less.

Things aren't much better in Italy where the gift is water.  Necessary, of course, but hardly a present everyone is clamouring for.

The card manufacturer, Hallmark, even has an alternative theme for a 23rd wedding anniversary - and that is air.  (They do suggest balloons, hot air balloon rides or airline tickets as possible gifts though.)

That got me thinking about what I could give my husband that he would really like.  After all these years together, we've both given, and received, some amazing presents.  Right now we don't need expensive gifts.  Time to get creative, think outside the box, remember that I'm focusing on purpose this year.

What if I could re-purpose something?  Something much loved in his life but in need of tlc.  What does Geoff care for more than anything (in his wardrobe)?

The answer is this much loved, but rather ancient, lambswool jumper from Boden - which recently wore away at one elbow.  I picked up the stitches, knitted a patch and needle felted it into place as the wool round about the hole was fraying badly.

In case you're a darning aficionado, and are aghast that you can see this repair, let me introduce you to visible mending and the wonderful work of Tom of Holland who says -

The Visible Mending Programme seeks to highlight that the art and craftsmanship of clothes repair is particularly relevant in a world where more and more people voice their dissatisfaction with fashion’s throwaway culture. By exploring the story behind garment and repair, the Programme reinforces the relationship between the wearer and garment,  leading to people wearing their existing clothes for longer, with the beautiful darn worn as a badge of honour.

So for this wedding anniversary I'm giving Geoff his beloved jumper back, mended again and keeping the air out of the draughty hole in the sleeve.  (The eagle-eyed will spot a previous mend in the front, darned expertly some time ago by his Mum!)

Happy anniversary, darling.

(Geoff is offshore right now but we'll go out for a nice lunch to celebrate when he comes home, possibly wearing something a bit smarter!)

Lovely Leftovers

Keeping my 2017 word 'purpose' in mind, I decided at the start of the year to knit with some of the beautiful wool I have leftover.

I wanted to give the wool a purpose, rather than have it languishing in storage.  I remembered the previous projects, and their recipients, and all the joy I had making these gifts for them.

Three hats - one for Sophie, one for Eilidh and one for Mae - all made from Ripples Crafts Na Dannsairean Aran which is a squishy mix of merino and Donegal nep in gorgeous colours.

Two pairs of mitts - a pair for Frances in Rowan Colourscape and a pair for me in Noro Kochoran, now both sadly discontinued yarns.

A cowl for Sophie in Manos Silk Blend and a jumper for me in Rowan Renew.  

There's also wool leftover from a neck-warmer in some pale blue Rowan Tapestry knitted before I started documenting everything I make!

I really liked the pattern for the Baa-ble-hat by Shetland designer Donna Smith which features cute sheep in a snowy landscape.  As I've blogged about here, I knitted this hat for my sister-in-law, Fiona, for Christmas.  The baa-ble hat is really popular with knitters and was the official pattern for Shetland Wool Week 2015 - to date nearly 7000 have been created in a variety of colours and textures. Look!!!

But I didn't want to make myself a hat - instead I decided I'd use the sheep design and incorporate it into a cushion and use all the lovely soft and colourful leftovers for the background.

I added the sheep to the cushion front.

I kept the same stripes of colour for the back but didn't add the sheep this time.

After the back and front were finished, there were lots of ends to be sewn in.

To make the knitted fabric a bit more sturdy, I decided to felt it lightly by washing my knitting in the machine at 60 degrees. This is a bit of a leap of faith as pure wool and the washing machine are not usually best friends!

I measured the fabric first as I expected some shrinkage and I wasn't sure if all the woolly stripes would react the same way to being felted.  Pinning out the damp fabric afterwards allowed me to stretch it back into the desired rectangular shape.

I embroidered a tree onto the front, thought about adding a second smaller one, realised I didn't like it and ended up taking it off!

Lastly, I stitched on some small details like rocks and copses of trees in the background.

I attached the zip to the base following this useful tutorial by Purl Soho, sewed up the other three sides, popped in the cushion pad and, voila, one finished cushion!

It looks right at home in the lounge.

All At Sea

I've been indulging in a little creative embroidery lately as our church embroidery group is due to meet tomorrow.  Embroidery isn't a skill I've been formally taught, yet, in the company of the church ladies, I really enjoy a bit of stitching and find being in the group increases my confidence in my own abilities.

Alison, hiding behind the flowers on the left, is our leader.  As well as being a very talented textile artist and patient teacher, she's also our minister.  It's a few years since the group made these pulpit falls - the burning bush for Pentecost, an autumn wreath and one to celebrate a past flower festival.

These were collaborative projects where we all worked together on the same piece but Alison now has in mind a much bigger project - one in which each of us will work on separate scenes from the same story.

We will be depicting the life of St Nathalan, thought to be the founder of our own church, here in North East Scotland at Bethelnie, near the village of Oldmeldrum.

According to legend one very rainy summer, the saint, in a moment's weakeness, cursed the rain which was hindering the harvest.  In penitence, Nathalan padlocked his right arm to his right leg, tossed the key into the River Dee and set off to walk to Rome to seek forgiveness.  Upon reaching Rome, he bought a fish at a market for his supper but when the fish was cut open, he found the very key he'd thrown into the Dee many months earlier.  It is also believed that Nathalan saved the village people of Oldmeldrum from a plague later in his life by praying on his knees all round the settlement boundary.  He perished at the end of his traverse and where his staff was struck into the ground, it is said an ash tree grew.  A tree has grown on this site ever since and is known locally as The Parcock Tree.

Scenes from Nathalan's eventful life will be portrayed in our textile artworks using this gorgeous hand dyed felt and these beautiful silk threads produced by 21st Century Yarns.

We spent some time last year practising so we could all become familiar with these materials and the stitches we're going to use.  Here are the practice pieces I made.

First of all we created a tree and then we had a go at a landscape featuring another tree.  Finally we stitched a person.

The last time the group met was November and we decided who would create each scene.  Hence the reason I'm all at sea!  I opted for the stormy seascape as Nathalan returns to Britain following his pilgrimage and is almost shipwrecked in sight of the White Cliffs.  No trees - a tiny bit of cliff landscape and maybe some distant figures in a boat.  I needed more practise!

So I've been trying to create a turbulent sea in felt and thread, taking inspiration from this lovely book - Life Journey by Mary Fleeson, a writer and artist who lives on Holy Island (Lindisfarne).  I'm not sure what the group will think - but I'm going to find out soon!

Purpose

It's my first post of 2017 and my word of the year for 2017 is 'purpose'.

I chose a word for 2016 and that was 'kindness' - you can read about my word choice here. 

As I wrote when I chose my word last year, New Year resolutions are often broken a few days into January but a word is just a word.  I'm not making a promise to anyone or saying I'll do anything spectacular.  I'm just creating a focus for the things I choose to make and, who knows, perhaps for my life in a wider sense.

So, what about my word for 2016?  How did I incorporate kindness into my crafting and what happened as a result?

I contributed two crocheted squares to this Kindness Blanket Project I saw on Instagram.  The predominantly blue blanket was being created by Sarah-Louise Roberts to raffle in aid of Mind, the mental health charity, and her colour choice reflected the charity's logo.  Sarah-Louise received enough squares following her Instagram appeal to make two blankets, one of which is pictured above, and the raffle raised an excellent £604 for Mind when it was drawn in May.

I knitted a few hats to give away to different causes.  Two premature baby hats went to the Special Care Baby Unit at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness following an appeal by Louise on her Caithness Craft Collective Podcast and which I handed in at Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March.  The pink hat went into my Christmas gift shoebox for Romania, an initiative undertaken every year by my local church.  I made a couple of hats for fishermen, the black and maroon ones pictured above, to send to The Mission to Seafarers but will wait til I've made a few more before I send them off.

I crocheted a sheep for the Yarndale Wooly Sheep Project after reading about it on Lucy's Attic24 blog. Yarndale is an annual fibre festival held in Yorkshire each September.  This creative community project in 2016 saw all 700 of the donated knitted and crocheted sheep from 32 countries being sold in aid of Martin House Children's Hospice and raising over £3100.  Each sheep received was documented and recorded on a set of Pinterest boards here and I was able to find my wee sheep amongst them in the top row of this board.  Hope someone is loving owning her!

I donated these knitted mice to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home as toys for cats awaiting rehoming and received a lovely letter of thanks from Joe at Supporter Services.

My final make for charity in 2016 was a hot water bottle cover for Knitaid following an appeal by Helen of the Curious Handmade podcast.  She released a free pattern so that covers and bottles could be sent to Knitaid as part of their consignment of warm knitted goods to help refugees in Greece.

I'm also counting gifts I made for others as part of my 2016 personal kindness project.  I made and gifted these three crocheted shawls.  I wrote about the Thousand Kisses Shawl (pictured left) here and the Fortune's Shawlette in the middle, here.

And here's a round-up of all the other knitted items I made and gave as gifts this year.  A few of the hats and neck cosies appeared here in my previous blog post as I knitted them for Christmas.

The big picture shows a hat I knitted for my friend Vicki and she's wearing it in the wee black and white photo.  Her hat is made from Wool/silk from the Dye Ninja that I purchased at Edinburgh Yarn Festival and is gloriously soft.  I also love the pattern Koru by Truly Myrtle who, like Vicki, is from New Zealand.  Designer Libby (aka Truly Myrtle) says 'The lace and cable panel is reminiscent of New Zealand’s baby ferns, delicate and gently uncurling.' 

Finally, I made a wee hedgehog for my brother-in-law... because... he likes hedgehogs.

And if that isn't a kind thing to do, then what is?