A Happy Hen Crafternoon...

If I work very hard, and I'm very lucky, sometimes I get to combine teaching and crafting. And it's brilliant. Today I was honoured to be asked to run a Hen Crafternoon for a lovely girl I knew from my school days. So armed with a glue gun, fabric, buttons and beads, needles and threads I set off into the Fens...

The bride had requested that her hen party made fabric flowers that would be put together to make her bridal bouquet. No pressure then. Zoe (our Pinterest savvy friend) and I worked up some Pinterest boards, narrowed down the colour scheme and fabrics, then I set to prepping and sourcing materials.

The prep work is also great fun -sourcing the right tones, finishings and trims over the internet and local shops, making up examples and writing up the instruction manuals. Each of the ladies was given a fabric flower as an example (with a handy brooch back to use again as a memento of the day) and instructions...these were in case we didn't make enough during the session and the bride needed to press-gang them into making more before the big day!

Then it was up to me to arrive just before the event started, to set up and make everything look pretty. All I ask for is a space in which to work, preferably a table and a plug! Once all the ladies were ready with fizz in hand, it was a quick demo of the two basic styles and then pitch in...

The ability ranged from non-crafty-but-give-it-a-go (resulting in an amazing lace and pearl representation of the male anatomy) to full blow ex-Costume Design students, so it was important to try and have a range of materials to suit everyone, as well as a basic design that could be adapted and made more complex.

The results? Hopefully the bride likes them -a stack of flowers in yellows, creams and greys with sparkle and pearls all over. I can't wait to see the wedding pictures! xx

Light as a feather & moss green...

 I love a bit of a challenge. This certainly covered all areas -stretching my technical skills, working with a yarn I'd never normally choose, and designing a pattern.

My lovely friend Timea wanted a swoopy, swooshy summer wrap, something in a strong colour, but light enough to wear in summer. It couldn't be itchy-scratchy either (you know the way natural fibres can often be?).

After some Pinterest collaboration (you can have look at my Summer Wrap board here)and some yarn searching we settled on 'Cumulus' by fyberspates in bottle green (903). This yarn is light as air, and looks like moss.







For someone who usually crochets the brightest most chunky yarn I can get my hands on (and at a push some really dry fibrous cotton) this was really tricky for my fingers to get used to. Eventually I learned that it is much stronger than it looks, and after a practice swatch (something I rarely have the patience to do!) my tension wobbles were sorted.




















This piece has travelled some miles too -first stashed in my bag on a trip to Dorset, then up to the Highlands. Sort of seemed right to work on something like this in a big natural space.

Anyway, it went to it's new home this morning and Timea really liked it. Phew xx