But what if I want to wear my Docs?

Before Christmas I signed up to a mini-skein swap after listening to Leigh's yarn podcast.  

From L to R hand dyed yarn by Rusty Ferret, Ripples Crafts twice, Fyberspates, Ginger Twist Studio
 and The Border Tart

Yarn lovers love yarn so much they can seldom throw away what they haven't used.  Twisted into minis, or wound into little balls, these nubbins of leftover wool are irresistibly cute.  Somehow you can never have enough, and that's why we're willing to swap.

A quick trawl of my allotted swap partner's completed knits on Ravelry, the on-line organisational tool for fibre fanatics, revealed her love of jewel tones.  I searched my stash and found suitable candidates from primarily Scottish hand dyers as it happens.  After I'd located some pretty labels and paper bags I already had in the house, I wrapped each skein individually to add an element of surprise for the recipient.

With the inclusion of some local treats of soap and chocolate, my parcel was ready to post.  All I had to do now was wait for the postie to bring the parcel my swap partner had sent to me.  

Ah - the anticipation!

Clearly we had the same idea to re-use pretty paper bags.  I do love the postcard she sent - so me.

Revealed inside the packages were these glorious colourful balls of 4 ply.  

But what to do?  How could I use them together to make something lovely?

I cast my mind back to December 2020 when I'd gifted myself a scrappy pack from Henny Penny Makes and knitted the Simple Scrappy Advent Cowl using a different tiny parcel of yarn in the days leading up to Christmas.

I wear it a lot as it's so cosy and it goes well with all the pinks and purples I frequently wear.

But what if I want to wear my Docs?

I am the proud owner of these flowery kids Dr Marten boots thanks to my pint-sized feet.

Though I love them, orange is not a colour which features predominantly in my wardrobe.

So I sorted through my treasury of leftover yarn and gathered colours which complimented the blues and autumn tones I'd been sent but also matched my boots.  Here they all are, skewered together on unused knitting needles so I don't loose track of the order I want to knit them in! 

I chose the Land of Sweets Cowl by Helen Stewart from my pattern library.  The lace sections add textural interest as well as being fun to knit.  Not wishing to have to sew in eleventy million ends as I changed colour, I used the Russian join technique when changing colour.  

Can you even see the transition between the yellow and variegated brown yarn above? 

And here's the tah-dah moment!

A new neck cosy which used each colour from my swap parcel and looks great either way up.

My cowl got its first outing at the golf recently on this glorious, but still chilly, spring day.

But it also looks grand worn along with my favourite Doc Martens!

Casting around for a new craft

 I've just attended my first in-person craft workshop in a very long time!

Here's my workstation set up at the Acrylic Resin Casting Workshop.  It was organised and run by Lynne of Snap Crackle and Pip at H1 in Aberdeen, a studio space for creatives off Anderson Drive.

Having created beautiful stained glass pieces for many years, Lynne branched out into resin casting during lockdown.  The array of sample pieces on display for us to peruse on arrival was inspiring.  

I especially liked her soap dishes.

The samples are made from Jesmonite, a relatively new material developed in the 1980's as an eco-friendly alternative to cast concrete.  The brainchild of building technologist Peter Hawkins, Jesmonite is now widely used in architecture and manufacture as well as in the craft sector.  

The addition of coloured pigments let's the creative imagination run wild!  

Lynne explained the components of Jesmonite, a base powder and water based acrylic resin which must be mixed together swiftly and smoothly then poured into the silicon mould provided.  Coloured drops are added to all or part of the mix.  Lynne had weighed out what we needed to create our first piece, a trinket dish.  I chose the stone coloured coade pigment and marbled some drops of terracotta through it.

As much as possible of the Jesmonite is scraped into the mould which is then nudged gently to rid it of any unwanted air bubbles.

And then we had to wait for 25 minutes.  Under half an hour and our resin pieces would be set.  So speedy!  Plenty of time to get the kettle on and admire the underside of each others work.

Trinket trays in the making by Zoe, Kirsten, Carol and Christine

The really fun part comes when it's time to ease the trinket dish out of its mould.

Zoe and Kirsten's finished trays are pictured together, then Carol's, Christine's and my own

Some colours are bold and some are more subtle - but everyone had made an original piece of Jesmonite and we oohed and aahed at each others creations.

There was time for us all to make a second piece and we looked again at the display table for inspiration.  I liked Lynne's soap dishes and chose to make one for myself, deciding on a monochrome colour scheme.  Lynne knows the precise amounts of resin and powder which each mould requires and measured them out accordingly.

I marbled the black pigment through the natural colour of the Jesmonite.  And waited.  

There's no way of knowing how it will look after it's set which is certainly part of the fun of this workshop.

And here it is.  In all it's monochrome marble loveliness.

One of the great pleasures of being part of a class is seeing what everyone else makes.  

The other attendees kindly allowed me to photograph their work.

Christine and Kirsten made beautiful plant pots whilst Zoe made wee decorative cacti and a pyramid.

Carol made a beautifully marbled dish from a silicone mould Lynne created herself

All in all a very productive day!

Everyone left Lynne's workshop wearing big smiles.  It had been a lovely couple of hours and we were all very happy with what we'd made.  I can't recommend this workshop highly enough. 

Lynne sent us off with paper carriers.  Not only would they hold our precious makes, they also held resources to finish off our Jesmonite pieces at home.  The bags contained sandpaper to smooth any rough edges, varnish and an applicator plus thoughtfully provided stick-on surface protectors.

 

I've now completed these final steps and can put my soap dish...

and my trinket tray, into use.

Just Pottering

 A lot of this summer was spent pottering about the house and garden. 

'Pottering' means occupying oneself in a desultory, but pleasant, way.  My time spent tending the pots at our front door was certainly pleasant.  But desultory or purposeless?  Certainly not!

When this concrete Ikea plant pot failed to survive the winter frosts, I salvaged the pieces, glued them back together and created a mosaic over its cracked surface.

Covering the pot with tile squares was gently therapeutic, whilst messing about with grout is equally rewarding once the job is complete.  

Using outdoor adhesive and grout meant my pot could sit decoratively at the front door all season.  This year, however, I shall bring it inside before winter so the frost can't wreak any more damage. 

An old green wheelbarrow was mouldering away in an unseen corner of our garden.  It had worked hard during building work to our house over a decade ago and no longer functioned, its suspension shot.  I decided to make it into a garden planter.  

Amazingly, the Hammerite paint I bought could be applied directly to rust so my husband, Geoff, removed the worst of it with a wire brush, then I got to work with my paint pot.

Transformed from rusty green to glossy blue, my wheelbarrow makeover was ready to plant.  I got Geoff to bash some drainage holes into the rusty unpainted base, lined it with garden membrane then added drainage stones and compost.  

The tiny geranium plug plants I bought mail order from Marshalls last April, and nurtured indoors, were sturdy and ready to plant out by mid July when my paint project was complete. 

I crammed all 40 plants into the barrow to create a real show.

Here's the wheelbarrow planter in late July and again in September - and it's still blooming as I write in early November!

.....

In June, my daughter Maddy and I engaged in a little more pottering at a nearby paint-your-own pottery studio.  Impressed with the sample pieces featuring crystal glaze at  The Bee Crafty Studio, Maddy opted to use it to create this pretty pink jug whilst I crystal glazed a spoon rest to match my cooker splash-back.

We pottered off to The Bee Crafty Studio again in August to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday.

While she and my niece made gorgeous, and highly individual, plant pots, I chose to paint a fragrance diffuser for use with scented oils and wax melts.  The magical crystal glaze (which you can see on the right) contains small pieces of glass frit which burst into colour during the firing process.

 So much fun to see what the finished piece looks like when it comes out of the kiln.

It was only whilst pottering around at home during the summer holidays that I opened up the Sculpd Pottery Kit my daughter, Eilidh, had thoughtfully given me for my birthday.  

The kit contained air-dry clay, tools, paints and simple-to-follow instructions - everything needed to make several plant pots or pinch pots.  As I'd got my hands messy with clay, I didn't take any photos 'til I'd fashioned this wonky wee pot for one of my many  plant babies.

Some things are best shared - there was lots of clay in the kit so my husband, Geoff, and my daughter, Maddy, also had a go.  Though we made our pots when Maddy was home in June, we didn't paint them 'til she was home again for a visit last week.

I opted for turquoise paint again and fortuitously found the tester pot for the kitchen wall to decorate the outside.  Inside is white displaying the paint supplied in the Sculpd Kit.  We had a tube of blue acrylic paint in the house so Geoff and Maddy chose to use that along with the Sculptd white.

Feeling my pot was still a bit plain, I spatter painted it with gold leaf we also had at hand using an old toothbrush.

Our pots are as individual as we are.

Pots...

Pottery...

Pottering... 

I think I'll redefine 'just pottering' as 'partaking in potentially productive pastimes'.

A Mosaic Table Top Gift

 It's not the first time I've  presented my sister-in-law with a handmade gift.

Over our 30+ years of friendship, I've knitted her a cosy hat (modelled here by my husband), a shawl to swathe herself in and some not quite matching fingerless mitts.  

I've even made her a lampshade which I presented with the bulb attachment and a bottle of her favourite tipple so she could easily upcycle it into a lamp. 

But a milestone birthday demands a special gift - so I decided to make her a table.  At our age we should be taking it easy, putting our feet up and enjoying our elevenses at leisure, or sipping an early evening aperitif in the garden in the fading sunlight.  A wee table on which to place one's favourite mug and book, or wine glass and nibbles, sounded like just the kind of gift I wanted to give.

When I say 'make a table', I most definitely lack the carpentry skills to start from scratch so I approached my mosaic tutor, Ann, to see if a suitable base might have happened to have come into her possession thanks to the diligent car boot foraging skills of her partner, Will.  

Indeed there were many tables on offer which oozed makeover potential.

But all of them were wooden and only suitable therefor for indoor use.  I could really see Frances enjoying an outdoor table on which to rest a cocktail adorned with a tiny umbrella or a pretty bone china cup of steaming hot coffee.  I'd just have to wait for the perfect base.  

As it happened, I didn't have to wait long.  A spot of spring cleaning at Ann's  studio unearthed two cast iron tables hidden under a multitude of other treasure.  I had my pick, then Will cut a base on which I could create a mosaic table-top for the birthday girl.

Ah - the joy of planning the design - laying out pretty pieces and moving them around again and again.  Especially enjoyable when you can work outside in the late summer sun.

Delightful though it was to spend endless hours in this way, I was up against the clock.  I'd only one session at Ann's studio before the big day so had to finalise my design and glue it into place.  The other tasks required to finish the project could be completed by me at home.

The concentric glass cabochons, interspersed with millefiori, I finally settled on bear little resemblance to my original ideas - apart from the rainbow colour scheme.  

A cheerful and timeless design classic!

To my dismay, I knocked one of the purple gems off the board as I was removing it from the car only to watch helplessly as it disappeared into the inaccessible seatbelt hole to my cries of 'no, no, no'!!  I had no identical replacement at home and no time to visit the mosaic studio again.

The glass gem I found in my bead box is not an exact match but I rather like its mismatched appearance.  After I'd attached the beautiful millefiori to the spaces in between the glass nuggets it was time to grout.  Full PPE was required!

Uncovering all the detail is part of the joy of grouting.  I always refer to a photo on my phone of the mosaic prior to covering it with grout so I can remind myself where all the beautiful beads actually are.

Then you can never polish it too much.  Glass sparkles so gratifyingly within a mosaic.

Whilst the grout hardened, I was able to crack on with painting.  The cleaned cast iron table base benefited from a new coating and I chose a hammered effect black paint that complimented its aged appearance.  Here's a bit of before and after the painting process.  The shiny bit is new!

With the paint dry and the grout hard, the final job was to glue the two pieces together.

They are NEVER coming apart!

I can't wait to visit my sister-in-law on a decent day and enjoy a drink in her garden, toasting her entry into a new decade in style!