I never felt like this before

You know you're in the company of a good friend when she comes for the weekend and brings an excessive volume of craft supplies for you to be creative together.

Lesley is a gifted painter and textile artist from the Borders, a chemistry teacher by day, who I've been fortunate enough to call a friend for over 20 years.  I blogged here about last year's visit to her studio in Peebles.  Lesley's family were visiting for an enduro mountain bike racing competition being staged in Aberdeenshire.  Husband Pete, and their teenage boys, left early in the morning leaving us free to spend the day felting, punctuated by walking both our dogs and a steady supply of refreshments outside in the sun!  Did someone say 'walk'?

Star (left) is my rescue dog and Clova is Lesley's labrador

Felting is just one of the artistic areas in which Lesley excels and her confidence boosted mine.

Inspired by Lesley's fabulous work which was featured in The Scotsman magazine a few years ago, I decided I'd make myself a felted tea cosy.

Lesley set to work creating a piece of wall art for a forthcoming exhibition.  Both of us were wet felting, a craft in which colourful merino wool is made into a sturdy decorative fabric using soapy water, agitation and elbow grease.  Lesley was inspired to make a picture of Bennachie and she liked this photo I'd taken in May with the oil seed rape in full bloom.

Her picture was soon taking shape.

Meanwhile, I was drawn to the bright colours in my Julie Dumbarton calendar and was guided gently by Lesley working alongside me.

My piece was two sided so was formed around a resist, or piece of material which withstands the felting process by not allowing the woolly fibres to stick to it.  Flexible packaging material works a treat.  After cutting out a shape, I covered it in white merino tufts and rubbed the wet soapy wool till it stuck together, then repeated the process on the other side.

 Here's the fun part - creating a design using all the colours!  First one side...

...which then gets wet, rubbed with soapy water under a light cloth to keep the fibres in place, then flipped over to apply a design to the other side.

More wetting and rubbing - must have the cleanest hands ever!

Time to take stock, enjoy a summery cocktail and chat about what still needs to be added.  Lesley has included the tiniest wisp of turquoise to her stormy sky - really brings it to life.

I incorporated trees into my designs and blame the delicious gin cocktail for not taking any photos at this stage!  Both our pieces were thoroughly rinsed in cold water.



Not all my fibres were sticking so the soapy process was repeated and I used Lesley's felting roller to encourage a bit more adhesion.  Final cold water rinsing gets rid of the suds and the wool is 'shocked' by having several kettles of boiling water poured over it.  Felting is brutal!

The cooled felt gets wrapped in a raffia mat (or bamboo window blind for Lesley's picture) surrounded with an old bath towel and rolled over and over in both directions to encourage the felt to shrink.  The resist has to be flexible to be able to accommodate this shrinkage.  Only then can the bottom edge of the tea cosy be cut and the resist removed.  Time for an overnight stint in the airing cupboard to dry off both our pieces.

Here's each side of my dry tea cosy.  They're a bit wrinkly and the lower edge is a bit wobbly.  Lesley irons her work at this point but I opted for the natural look.

We both used a felting needle to add detail and definition.  I trimmed my wobbly bottom (ooh err), edged it with magenta blanket stitch and embroidered a few rocks and grasses into the woodland foreground.

The finishing touch was a felted wool bobble.  Ooh - which colour to choose? 💚

Too pretty to be confined to a drawer, my tea cosy is on display in the kitchen to remind me of our friendship and a very happy weekend of felting and chat - few topics were off limits.  I'm really pleased with my work and know I've never felted like this before!  Having an experienced artist at my side really enabled me to produce a unique piece rather than simply copying someone else's work.

Lesley's creations can be seen in Ross Dougal Fish Merchant, 32 High Street, Peebles from 23rd to 31st August 2019 and you can keep up with her latest art exploits here.

Bee Inspired and Bee Creative

"Hobbies are the backbone of this country

and what starts as a hobby can end up changing a neighbourhood."

So said comedienne and columnist, Jenny Eclair, earlier this month in The Independent newspaper.  

One such group who epitomise this for me are Grans On The Make.  This trio of crafting friends based in Kent, in collaboration with The Creative Craft Show, have taken their skills around the country, bringing people together, hand making items together for a cause, and raising thousands of pounds for charity in the process.*

This year's initiative by the Grans is Make A Beeline which highlights the plight of our bees and encourages the development of new habitats through partnerships with communities and agencies.  There's a great flyer on their website to tell you all about it.  I was buzzing to join in!

Their first request at the start of the year was for crocheted hexagons to make a map of Britain so I made a few last February and sent them off.  I was a bit worried mine might have arrived too late for the first show in Birmingham in March but I was told my hexagons were incorporated into Scotland appropriately enough!  (Two became Orkney I believe.)



The closest Creative Craft Show to me is the one in Glasgow in October but I spotted that the Make A Beeline Team were going to be at the Weald of Kent County Craft Show in May.  My sister-in-law lives nearby and loves crafts so I asked if she was going along.  Not only did she attend, she sent me some photos of Grans Pat and Avril at their bee-autiful stand.



AND - she also sent me a picture of the finished hexagon map!  Hello Orkney!!

I've been following the Make A Bee Line project through Instagram and Facebook and there's currently a shout-out for hand-made bees to be made into a special display at the final ICHF show of the year in Birmingham in November.  (ICHF is the International Craft and Hobby Fair)

So I had a look at the patterns on the Make A Bee Line website and tried them all out.  Each bee only requires small oddments of wool to make the body and wings and there's patterns to crochet and knit.

Here's how I got on.  First up, this is my Little Crochet Bee

And here's my knitted Queen Bee and Baby Bee which are two variations of the same pattern.

I then tried the sweet little Easy-Beesy and the Easy Knitted Bumble Bee

I especially liked making the Honey Bee with its organza ribbon wings and antennae.

More knitted critters -  the Super Quick Little Bee and the Small Knitted Bumble Bee.  The super quick one really lives up to its name!

Finally I had a shot a needle felting following the clear video instructions on the Make A Bee Line website and stabbed my way into making another two bees to send away!

Here they are altogether for a group shot...

...prior to posting off to Grans On The Make at the address on the Make A Bee Line flyer.  I can't wait to see the bee feature at the entrance to the NEC in November!

I'm happy that my hobbies of knitting, crochet and needle felting can contribute, even in a small way, to help change neighbourhoods (as Jenny Eclair suggests) but there are lots of ways to join in even if you don't craft.

• Scatter some Beebombs (I got these for Christmas!)
• Plant flowers that bees like - here's some cone flowers from the garden and wild roses from our daily dog walk
• Encourage community planting - this wildflower meadow was sown in a corner of nearby Tarves village last year and was buzzing 
• Attend ICHF shows and support the Make A Bee Line UK stand - find them here:
• Henley-on-Thames 23-26 August 2019
• Exeter 26-29 Septemeber 2019
• Glasgow 24-27 October 2019
• Birmingham 31 October - 3 November 2019

* Those inspiring ladies, Grans On The Make, have recently been awarded a Royal British Legion Community Award for the Poppy Project in recognition of fundraising over £5000 last year. 
I contributed some knitted squares and blogged about it here.

(Re)Treat Yourself

Eyes are said to be the windows to the soul but in my experience they can also express exactly what's going on in our brains sometimes.  If my husband says he's going on a golfing holiday, no one bats an eyelid.  I say I'm going on a knitting retreat and eyeballs roll, eyebrows arch and questions are asked.  What exactly do you do on a knitting retreat? being one of the most common.

JOG - a place or an activity?

Lets's consider a retreat holiday - any retreat, not specifically knitting.  Such holidays are often set in beautiful locations, attendees share a common interest, meals my be provided and activities and excursions are part of the deal.  There's a chance to be with others or be by yourself.  It's an opportunity to re-balance, away from day to day life, and treat yourself to the holiday you really want.  It's a time to indulge yourself without being selfish, connect with like-minded souls and participate in something you truly enjoy.  What's not to like?

So here's what happened on the recent three night knitting retreat I attended in John O'Groats, at the most northerly tip of the Scottish mainland, in the company of other listeners to The Caithness Craft Collective podcast.  This is podcast host and retreat organiser, the lovely Louise Hunt.

Louise arranged accommodation for us at Natural Retreats.  Here's The Inn at Natural Retreats with its eye catching scandi-style extension.

We were staying in the lodges, situated just behind The Inn.  According to the blurb they are luxurious three bed lodges with stunning open plan living and extensive glass frontage showcasing the spectacular views. Well, that describes them to a tee, so comfy, so cosy, so chic - oh, is that knitting on the table?

Louise's theme for the retreat was 'sharing is caring' and she kindly provided a goody bag for everyone which included a handmade notions pouch she'd sewn for each of us, a hand-stitched name badge and contributions from other attendees including lip balm, sheepy brooch, local greetings card, hat pattern and shells collected by her children from the local beach.  I've hung my beachy bauble on the tree of hearts in my craft room.

My own contribution to the goody bag was a print I commissioned my daughter, Eilidh, to draw.  The brief I gave her was all wool is yarn, but not all yarn is wool.  I love her illustration with a yak, an alpaca, a mohair goat, and an angora rabbit, as well as a sheep, all sporting their knitwear!

We assembled for a group meal on our first evening for delicious lasagnes cooked by Ella.  Her shortbread too is legendary amongst yarn festival goers.  Retreat attendees were not only treated to shortbread, she also kindly shared her recipe with us.

In return for this generosity, Ella suggested attendees might knit some hats for premature babies for her to donate to the Neonatal Unit at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.  More than 100 hats were collected, some kindly donated by those unable to come to the retreat this year.  I love the cheery ones made with stripey sock yarn.

The table of unrequirement was another treat at the retreat.

Attendees were encouraged to bring along yarn and craft items they no longer needed and we were equally encouraged to help ourselves to anything on the table that we wanted!  What remained at the end of the retreat was donated to a local charity.  More caring, more sharing.

Throughout the retreat we were encouraged to share.  We shared stories of our knitted garments in a show and tell session and we shared our skills.  Everyone was generous with her talents - I joined in when Kim showed us gyrokinesis one morning to open up our energy pathways, a bit like yoga.  Hannah taught me about Instagram stories and Rhiannon showed me how to enhance photos for the blog.  Suzanne showed me how use the Addi Crazy Trio knitting needles I'd never had out of the packet.  In turn, I offered to teach a little needle felting and six of the attendees joined me for a gentle hour of creativity and laughter.  From this emerged six wee needle felted robin brooches!

Of course we did do lots of knitting, all the while chatting and enjoying each others company.

Oh, and did I mention cake?  We shared lots of cake and sweet treats, baked and brought by the retreaters.  Since I was the only attendee from Aberdeenshire, I took along some butteries so everyone could taste these regional breakfast delicacies which look a bit like dense, squashed croissants.  The Americans particularly loved them, warm from the oven and smothered in my homemade blackcurrant jam!

Louise organised a sewing workshop one morning and we made lavender pouches from this gorgeous bird fabric.

Nic, who has her own one-woman business in Cheshire, Yarns From The Plain, brought her beautiful hand-dyed yarns, fleece and kits and set up a wonderfully colourful mini market.  Some purchasing may have occurred - no idea why I was drawn to this gorgeous yarn!



The weather was predictably unpredictable...



... and in between showers on one of the days, I took myself off for a walk along the beach.

All too soon it was time for our final meal together, at Stacks Bistro, a short stroll from the Natural Retreat chalets, with its interesting menu and quirky decor.

And bid farewell to new-found friends, including Buchaille, Louise's lovely doggy.

So, eye rollers, has this opened your eyes to what goes on at a knitting retreat and let you see just what a thoroughly enjoyable experience a knitting retreat can be?  Here's my original premise:

Such holidays are often set in beautiful locations, attendees share a common interest, 

meals my be provided and activities and excursions are part of the deal.  

There's a chance to be with others or be by yourself.  

It's an opportunity to re-balance, away from day to day life, 

and treat yourself to the holiday you really want.  

It's a time to indulge yourself without being selfish, connect with like-minded souls 

and participate in something you truly enjoy.

Caithness Craft Retreat 2019 fits that bill pretty perfectly I'd say :)