Can you make me this?

Most makers are asked to make something for someone else from time to time.  I often find myself saying 'yes' when I haven't really thought through whether I can actually make the item in question.

At Easter, a friend from knitting group asked if I could crochet a rabbit from her Woman's Weekly pattern.  I'd no idea if I could but I enjoyed the challenge of making this bunny for her.

Shortly after, I was contacted by a former colleague from the National Trust for Scotland who also had a request for my creative self.  We'd  worked together in the shop at Pitmedden Garden last summer.  I was part of a small friendly team who worked hard to maintain a beautiful garden, farming museum and tearoom and support all the people who came to visit from all over the world.

At the helm was a very special lady, the much respected and loved Head Gardener and Property Manager.  She was moving on after 24 years with the Trust and my friend was making a special leaving gift for her from all the team.

Pitmedden Garden not only has a dedicated workforce and volunteer task force who look after it, it also has a resident cat called Ben.  Ben is very popular with younger visitors especially and even has his own merchandise!

It was Ben I was being asked to make in miniature to include in the presentation piece!

My friend sent me this image from the internet and said, "Can you make me something like this?"

I'd little experience of felting animals.  This blog post shows my wee felted dog (which I thought looked more like a sheep!) so I sought out this excellent tutorial to guide me through making a cat's face.

First, I made the basic shapes for Ben's face.

Then I fashioned  his nose and made ears which were far too big for a start so I had to trim them down! 

I then added his eyes, whiskers and distinctive eyebrows.

Here is Ben with 'Ben'

And here is the finished presentation wreath my friend made, complete with tiny Ben peeking out from the garden paraphernalia!

Needless to say the gift was very well received and I was delighted to have been able to make a small part of it.

So what am I being asked to make next?  Well, I'm currently knitting a jumper for my daughter's 20th birthday next week at her request for the first time ever - pattern and wool colours chosen by her. 

But I suspect that's a whole blog post on its own...

A visit to the shedio

When my husband, Geoff, asked for a picture by his favourite artist for his joint birthday/Christmas present last year, you'd have been forgiven for thinking I might've baulked at this, believing I'd have to sell an organ to purchase an old master!  However, his favourite artist is someone we've been friends with for over 20 years - talented Borders based maker, Lesley Johnson. 

To facilitate Geoff's picture choice, Lesley invited us to visit her "shedio", a tiny creative space at the bottom of her garden in Peebles.  With a husband and two teenage sons mad-keen on mountain biking, Lesley doesn't even get the whole shed to play in as two thirds of the space is storage for bikes and outdoor gear!

But Lesley packs a lot of kit into her shed/studio aka "the shedio".  When she's not teaching chemistry, she produces artworks using various mediums and tools, favouring texture gel and copper ink applied using implements as diverse as a pastry brush and old credit cards!

The sewing machine allows Lesley to embellish her textile pictures which are made by wet felting colourful merino wools.  She also uses her hand produced fabrics to make tea and cafetiere cosies.

Transferring her designs to fabric enables Lesley to create beautiful lampshades for these bottle lamps.

Lesley's inspired by light, colour and texture, local hills and countryside in the Borders and by Scotland's stunning coastline.

Botanical images often feature in Lesley's artwork with seed heads being a favourite subject.

Her delightful family home is like a mini art gallery so we were able to appreciate her own pictures which adorn the walls prior to Geoff choosing something for himself.

In the end, he didn't choose just one picture, but two of Lesley's originals made their way home with us to Aberdeenshire.

This is entitled  "Treelines" and is created using acrylics and pastels.  We were agreed we really wanted it to hang where we'd see it all the time so it's in our bedroom opposite the bed.

"Blooming Heather" is a smaller work in acrylic and ink on paper - it's hanging in the hall.  Here they are in situ.

Thanks, Lesley, for such a wonderful and inspiring visit to your shedio - we are enjoying our new artworks every day!

You can contact the artist yourself by following this link to her Facebook page.

Aberdeen Yarnfest Part One - Anticipation

So I decided to make a bag.  Out of these leftovers.  All treasured bits from previous projects hand dyed by my friend, Helen, of Ripples Crafts.

When I learned that Aberdeen was to host its first yarn festival, and that Helen would be attending as a vendor with her wonderful wares, I offered to help her at her stand.

She said yes.  I'd need a bag and what could be more appropriate than a bag made from my precious Ripples Crafts stash.  So, with only a vague plan in mind, and less than a fortnight to go, I started crocheting wee squares.  I already had some bright pink lining fabric to match the main colour.

I'm not the only one to keep all my precious Ripples Crafts leftovers.  My yarn enthusiast friend, Ethmay, is a champion sock knitter and kindly lent me her spare yarn dyed by Helen to add to my colourful collection.

The squares each got a pink edging...

... then I joined them all together.

During a car journey to visit friends and back again, when I wasn't driving(!), I crocheted a plain rectangle to be the back of the bag.  I was going to need every scrap of Helen's wonderfully named pink 'A Cerise Which Demands Attention' so a pussy hat I'd made some time ago which was too big was unravelled for the greater good.

Pinning out the fabric whilst damp helped iron out the rumples.

I crocheted a long strip to add width and attached it along three sides.

The sewing machine and I are not best friends -  however I managed to make a cotton lining with my vibrant pink fabric and insert a zip.  Please don't look too closely.  I then hand-sewed the lining into the bag.

All that was left was to crochet a strap and attach it.  Not cutting it fine but I was sewing in the handle whilst having coffee with Mum the day before the festival and just hours before Helen was due to arrive!

So I filled my bag with festival essentials and pinned on my favourite badges.  My 'Adventures in Yarn' notebook is made by Popcorn and Crocodiles and my wool girl brooch is made by Gabrielle Reith.

I wore my bag all day and it worked really well, even if the strap got a little longer as the day went on!

Were you at Aberdeen Yarn Fest?  Did you visit the Ripples Crafts stand and see me and my colourful bag?  I'll be writing more about the great event the yarn fest turned out to be in my next post.

A Timely Reminder

When I was a fledgling knitter, a new project began with a trip to the local wool shop.  This was not a joyous occasion for a wee girl.  The formidable shop assistant in the now long-gone Hosiery Shop in Ayr (shown in the vintage postcard below with the awning) guarded the wool behind her counter and appeared to sell it only grudgingly, and certainly not to unaccompanied children.

A trip to nearby Templeton's Woollen Mill wasn't much better as it was situated beside the abattoir and the smell made me cowk! (cowk : verb. Northeast Scotland dialect. to retch or feel nauseated)

I'm pleased to report that in the intervening fifty years (have I really been knitting that long?) wool shops have undergone a metamorphosis.  Here I am during last month's trip to London enjoying a mosey around Knit With Attitude in Stoke Newington.

Independent yarn stores are havens for crafters like me and sell beautiful wares, often artistically displayed in an atmosphere designed to stimulate creativity and are staffed by welcoming and knowledgeable owners and employees.  Wool shops are now high on my list of must-see attractions when I visit somewhere new.

It's not surprising then that, during a wee trip to Lisbon last October, I sought out Retrosaria Rosa Pomar in Rue do Loreto.  The store's website helpfully told me to look out for the colourful mailboxes to locate the stairs up to the shop.  (My husband found a sunny cafe-bar in which to enjoy a beer and watch the world go by!)



Inside Retrosaria Rosa Pomar I found a wonderful selection of yarns, many sourced and spun in Portugal, as well as fabrics and other locally produced goods.  Retrosaria means haberdashery in Portuguese.

The staff were friendly and allowed me to browse at leisure before I settled on my purchases.  But what to buy?  With so much yarn on display in a tempting array of colours it's easy to get carried away!  However I'd done a wee bit of research prior to my visit.  I'd already looked out a pattern which would suit the Portuguese wool.

I chose the Timely Cardigan by New Zealand designer Libby Jonson, who is known around the internet as Truly Myrtle.  Knitters and crocheters are blessed with a fantastic on-line community called Ravelry which is SO much more than a fibre database.  By searching Ravelry for yarns by Rosa Pomar I was able to see that Tracey in Germany had already knitted a Timely cardigan using Rosa's Mondim wool.  So, in the photos above, you can see Libby wearing her design and the same  cardigan pictured in two shades of Mondim which Tracey kindly gave me permission to use. 

So I bought a cute project bag and chose some of the Mondim. The yarn is fine Portuguese wool suitable for making socks and Mondim was a Portuguese village once famous for its sock knitting cottage industry.  I also had a plan to team my souvenir holiday wool up with some alpaca yarn.

The Lisbon mini-break was a treat to us for driving all the way to London from Aberdeenshire so we could help our two daughters get settled into their respective flats there.  The country-long drive enabled us to stop in County Durham and visit our friends, Lorna and Ian, and their flock of re-homed alpacas.  They're all boys of varying ages who've been cared for by Lorna and Ian, some for as long as eight years.

Lorna kindly let me choose some of the yarn she'd had spun from their fleece a few years ago by The Border Mill at Duns, in the Scottish Borders.

I thought the two yarns - the Mondim sock wool from Lisbon and the alpaca from Lorna's Mainsforth flock - would work well together.

So I started knitting my Timely Cardigan on February 12th.

And I completed it on April 5th.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  It's very light but also warm and will be perfect for Spring.

My Timely Cardigan will always be a lovely reminder of our trip to Lisbon (and to see Lorna and Ian and their alpacas en route) - a 'timely reminder' indeed!

Making A Difference (Part One)

I was intrigued by this photo of the Finnish snowboard coach, Antti Koskinen, knitting at the start of his event at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month.


 Social media reported that his team mates were also knitting - but what were they making?

Well, the team's knitted pieces were all stitched together to make a baby blanket.  Here it is being presented to the Finnish president whose wife had recently given birth to a baby boy.

This lovely gesture got me thinking about collaborative projects.  In general, the individual pieces are small and on their own they don't have much significance.  Put together, however, they have the Wow Factor.  A wonderful finished project   Altogether, they really make a difference!

So I decided this year I would make a difference too.  Each month I'd make something to contribute to a creative project comprising small pieces from lots of makers.  They'd each have a big impact when complete.

So in early January, I knitted a tiny jumper (from this charity pattern) as part of the celebratory bunting being created to mark the 100th episode of the Knit British podcast.  I love listening to Louise Scollay's regular podcasts as she enthuses the crafting community about the virtues of British yarn.  I know my wee jumper arrived safely as it featured on Louise's Instagram feed a few days after I posted it along with others she'd received.  Not only was the bunting displayed at the Knit British 100th episode party in Edinburgh in mid January, the bunting had another outing at Edinburgh Yarn Festival in February where it featured in the Podcaster's Lounge.  Photos below are by @knit_british and @mariette694

It had to be hearts for February!

I knitted five hearts and sent them off to be part of the Work of Heart Garden.  The pattern can be accessed through this website.

The Work of Heart Garden is the brainchild of Clare Young who is creating a full size knitted show garden installation in memory of her husband.  It will be on display at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival at the Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire from 10th to 13th May 2018.

The 4 metre square garden will include a hospice bedroom overgrown with knitted plants known for their healing properties.  As part of the installation Clare wants to include 10,000 'works of heart' - small knitted or crocheted hearts which will be made available to visitors to place on trees around the Work of Heart garden in return for a donation to the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice which cared for her husband.  Clare hopes to raise £50,000. Let's hope my wee hearts help her on her way!

Pants??? 

No, my project for March was knitted squares.  (It just so happens that a mitred square starts off looking a bit like a pair of pants!)

Through Facebook, I learned that two enterprising ladies (known as Grans On The Make) were appealing for knitted squares to create a 13 foot commemorative poppy to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.  When complete the poppy will be made up of 1568 squares, representing the number of days of the war.  The picture below shows the middle section of 992 squares.

As well as the giant poppy, they are also creating a panel on the reverse to commemorate the Votes for Women centenary.

When I contacted Pat, who's organising this mammoth project, she said they had enough red and green squares for the poppy but still required black and also squares in shades of purple, green and cream or white so that's what I made.  I recently learned the meaning of the British suffragette colours designed in 1908 - purple for loyalty, green for hope and white for purity.

The finished project will be revealed at The Creative Craft Show in Birmingham in November 2018.

I've had fun knitting all these meaningful makes.   Now I need to head off and see what I'm going to create in April to make a difference!