Horsing around with ribbons

I made these wee horses for two teething boys on my last visit to Ireland at the weekend. I love using ribbon and for some reason babies become obsessed with it at this age.

The fabric came from an old "Dunnes stores' t-shirt so it was lovely and soft, perfect for small hands to get a hold on, the ribbon mane was sewed in twice for extra strength and I guess the tail was the most interesting thing about the whole horsey...mmm straight in the mouth!

Crafting the Journeys animation

These guys were made for an animation workshop I did through November & December with Croydon Council to promote their Journeys project. I’ve never had so many funny looks on the tube as I sewed them together, grabbing whatever moments I had at this crazy busy time to get them made.  


Check out the finished animation here...

A Christmas Gift

I made this apron for my Mum's birthday earlier this month and thought that I would share it here too. She is a florist, so it can get quite crazy near to Christmas. I imagine that is how she is feeling by today!

By the end of January I will be escaping the winter and heading off on a trip of a life time around South America. Our Frizzle circle group will be paused for a while until I'm back in May 2012. I'm sure that I will return inspired! Well here's hoping that I do...

Meet the monster family...

Plenty of cups of tea helped along the making of this monster family at the end of October. They all turned out so fantastically well and not so scary...well the blanket stitch seemed a bit scary at first, but everyone mastered this in no time. 


There were some crafters that had to vamoose a bit earlier than the rest of the gang. The wee green and red monster below actually got made into a Christmas decoration, sacrilege! two days before Halloween, I tell you.   

And I think this cutie was going to get completed at home, then eventually end up in the mouth of a baby. Perfect! 

I really have to create a post workshop photo gallery so that we can see where everything ends up...


Some work in progress shots, and what perfect stitching...and stuffing...

And finally some close-ups of the completed creations, frankenstein eat your heart out...erm, well maybe not quite yet.

the making of a monster

This is my favourite time of year, especially around Halloween or the feast of Samhain and All Souls' Day. And to celebrate just a little this Saturday on October 29th we will be getting the needle and tread out to create miniature monsters and you never know we might even try apple dunking...and share a ghost story around a cup of brew...

Check out the details here if you want to come along. 

I'm so excited about this that I even created a one minute horror (ahem) animation...well more like attack of the killer pin cushions, or something along those lines. 

See how the wee orange guy got made by the hand of the creator.

My monster inspiration comes from many places but I can't help being inspired by these cardboard cut outs a friend gave to me all the way from California. They are aptly called Kamisabi - in Japanese it's the term for an item given a second life as a ghost. The paper comes from trimmings so they are recycled into a new life. They make me smile...

But the pincushions have the last word, in case you are interested to see the final scene of the animation, a bit like extreme acupuncture? eh...the poor thing

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…

Socks and more socks

On Saturday we turned a humble old sock (well..they were all new socks) into a cuddly creature of some description. 


We cannot tell what kind of creatures they were, but they all turned out very cute and were a joy to create. The possibilities are just endless, and all from the simple shape of a sock!


The inspiration came from Stray Sock Sewing a fantastic book with great ideas an ingenuity. With some of our own creative twists thrown into the mix our wee friends were brought to life.

We even had two very attentive young ladies all the way from Italy creating along with us as part of the circle, which was fantastic.

But to get to the end result there was LOTS of sewing to do, and depending on the length of one's sock ears it took a few cups of tea and concentration. 




So there were a few stitches that came in handy - the back stitch, slip stitch and the split stitch. Bit of a tounge twister but once these were mastered it was plain sailing, or sewing....

There was one sock rabbit that didn't make it to the final photo shoot and it was the fluffy pink sock Laine was transforming, but it was definitely getting there. We will have to see the finished fluffy bunny at the next gathering.