The craft taster day

After a nice long summer break, we returned to making last Saturday. There wasn't only one craft to try but three! 


Felt making, cross-stitching and beading with wire were all at our disposal. Once you get in the making zone, time seems to disappear rather quickly. 

That is until you stab yourself with a felting needle. I forgot the plasters, oh dear... 


Busy crafters in this picture are carding and needle - felting. The colourful results of their labour can be seen below. 

Fantastic intricate designs can be needle - felted, a great example below...

And then there was cross-stitch... 

...that I love to do on the train, or any other sort of transport, well maybe not my bicycle... We were putting some of the designs onto cover buttons too. The one in progress above ended up as a butterfly and it was taken home to complete. 

Making something on the commute to work prompted conversation about the kind of things that you can make while watching the telly, or in this case waiting for the plumber. One of the crafters got busy making so many beaded wire flowers... 

Crochetoholic

I started crocheting these hexagon shapes three years almost to the day and I've only recently started sewing them together, hence my excitement. I think there is a case for using your hands to make something as a way of not going mad, well especially if you are waiting for a delayed Ryanair flight.

There has been much more of a debate surrounding this, especially with the publication of Matthew Crawford’s The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. This is pretty much the ethos of Frizzle Circle and why it exists in the first place.

I've crocheted the hexagons on the tube, train, and at any time when I’ve started to feel manic, or when I’ve been on the computer too long. So the hexagon shapes are all different tensions depending on how I’m feeling. It’s a great conversation starter; I’ve had old ladies telling me their crochet life stories and people ogle my hands maybe because I crochet left-handed. There is no pressure to finish it either so roll on another 3 years!

It's a pattern by Erika Knight from her book Essential Crochet . I’m using a cotton acrylic mix (Kool Kotton) and a slightly larger 4mm hook. My sister helped me figure out the not very straightforward instructions and I think I can now make a hexagon blindfolded anywhere. My aunties who taught me how to crochet all those years ago would probably be amazed that I’ve stuck at it this long…