Adding Colour to the Playground, Part 2

I managed to dodge the heavy showers this week and install the yarnbombs at my boys' school! I did have to run in for cover half way through and there was an extremely heavy shower of rain and hail just after I finished, good timing!

 entrance to the fairy garden

I worked quickly, hoping that I wouldn't be spotted by the children because I wanted them to find the pieces for themselves at lunch time. I sewed the crocheted rectangles around fence posts and willow tunnel branches.

 another fence post piece

 several were sewn onto the willow branches

I had to twist and turn into all sorts of funny positions to fit in the child sized willow tunnel, it was good to stretch full height afterwards!

a much longer yarnbomb

 I love the shrinkies the children coloured!

In another area of the playground I installed 3 yarnbombs with amigurumi monsters attached to them! 

monster yarnbomb 

I crocheted the monsters for fun over 5 years ago without any real purpose in mind for them. Since then they have been moved around my studio space gathering dust. I thought this project would literally breath some fresh life into them!

a happy smile

I hope the children enjoy interacting with these small pockets of colour in their playground. I know they have plans to further transform the area and I look forward to seeing what they come up with!

Adding Colour to the Playground, Part 1

I was approached by staff at my younger boys' school to add some colour by creating yarnbombs for a small area of the school playground. This project was perfect for me! Primary 1 had made shrinkies with fairy, bug and alien designs on them for me to incorporate into the work. I hope it will be fun for them to go around and find their own mini piece of art combined with something much bigger.

 1st two pieces made, surrounded by shrinkies

I made sure I chose a mix of bright colours which would appeal to both boys and girls. I had plenty of acrylic wool in my stash and the school provided me with some more - I had fun picking out colours!

different textures

I crocheted rectangles of varying sizes and created stripy patterns as a backdrop for the shrinkies. I wanted the pieces to be really eye catching and colourful!

 finished crochet swatch

Once the ends were tied in I sewed on the shrinkies (they had a hole punched through them). Now I have a pile of 8 swatches, ready to be attached to rails, benches and trees in the playground. 

all finished and ready to attach

I plan to visit the playground later this week to sew the pieces in place, depending on the weather of course!! Part 2 of this series will show the finished work ...

Badge Bombing!!

Last Friday I took a trip to Dundee to go badge bombing for the first time! I went around the centre of Dundee and attached small badges to places for other people to come along, find them and keep them!

the finished badges, day before my trip

For a while now I have been following the adventures of @dymagate and @whimsicallush on Instagram and they both inspired me to leave something small of my own in a public place for someone else to stumble upon. I chose to make little badges with big smiley faces to brighten up someone's day.

 badge left near Dundee train station

I kept the badges simple, just button eyes and an embroidered mouth, and I hand stitched the word "Daft" on the back (my Instagram name is @mrsdaftspaniel but that was too long to stitch!). 

this one made me smile!

There were plenty of places to leave the badges, for example attached to fencing or abandoned cord and I pinned one to a yarnbombed tree!

 I like this one, blending with background colours

I had also brought a sample of weaving with me to sew onto a lamp post or something and I found the bench in the photo below to be the perfect size for it! I sat on the bench and sewed it on during lunch hour, I wonder if anyone even saw me?

and of course I did a yarnbomb!

As soon as I could I uploaded photos of my badge bombing to my Instagram and Facebook pages and was surprised to see that the badges were quickly found by people! Of the 5 badges I placed I know that 3 were found and brought a smile to those who found them, which makes it all worthwhile!

Help me!!

I am already planning my next adventure when I will set another load of badges free! Follow me on Instagram if you would like to stay updated :)

I'm back! (and sorry I've been away so long)

I seem to have taken a rather a long break over the summer - ooops! The school holidays were full of long sunny days, trips to the beach, picnics and of course lots of crafty days with the boys!

Rather than typing thousands of words about what I have been up to over the last few months I will use photographs to tell my story. If you would like to know more about anything you see please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

 the youngest and I learning how to use double pointed needles

 a giraffe I crocheted for the middle boy and an elephant for a friend's baby

 a new style of brooch which I have designed and started selling in my folksy shop

 the youngest drew this monster and I recreated it in crochet!

 middle boy wanted the same, of course!

 youngest showing off his finished hat in Fluph wool shop, Dundee

 anniversary day out with the hubby! He takes his loom knitting everywhere!!

 a friend commissioned me to make this sweet little mouse

middle boy designed and made a den for his crocodile and a water bowl

 eldest sprayed and painted his Nerf gun

 my latest yarn bomb in Dundee, Blackness Road area

 I finished the african flowers blanket which I had been working on for a long time

 detail of finished blanket

I have taken up quilting using the english paper piecing technique

Well, that's a snapshot of my summer! School has been back for a month now and I will get back into blogging and restocking my folksy shop https://folksy.com/shops/martasecocrafts

Dundee Yarn Crawl

A few weeks ago my friend Jo posted a link on my Facebook page asking if I had been to 'Fluph', a yarn shop in Dundee. A week or so later I posted a link on her page, asking if she had been to 'The Knitting Pin', another Dundee wool shop. Several comments later we agreed we would do a yarn crawl of the 4 main Dundee wool shops!

After a little more organising, I caught the no. 73 bus into Dundee with Jo and her daughter, who loves to knit. I had my youngest and eldest sons with me too because they are just getting into knitting and crocheting. Our first stop was 'The Knitting Pin' up Albert Street (here is a link to their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Knitting-Pin/249792755194830?rf=263565830472270  ). We timed it well because my friend Liz, who had a greed to meet us there, had arrived moments before us. We spent a happy 20 minutes looking high and low at all the different wools. This shop is jam packed, bursting at the seams with hundreds of different types of yarn! There is something for everyone, and if you can't find what you are looking for the super friendly staff will help you. It was the owner's husband who was in charge today and he kindly gave the children lollipops too! I bought a ball of Sirdar Eco wool, DK which I have been using lately to dye with natural dyes.

inside The Knitting Pin

Next we strolled down the hill to the town centre (about a 15 minute walk). It was a sunny day and we all chatted away as we walked. We soon reached 'Wool Craft' which is a hidden gem in The Keilor Shopping Centre. The shop was very busy as usual, both with customers and stocks of wool everywhere! A large and unusual variety of knitting and crochet books were displayed for sale. There were special offers and bargain buckets too. I bought 4 little Anchor tapestry wools in different colours to fit into my latest granny square project. I can't find a website for the shop, but here is a link with a little more info and a map  https://plus.google.com/111923526296304615649/about?gl=uk&hl=en .

Wool shop no. 3 was only a 5 minute walk and we headed straight through the city centre towards it. Wool&co. is the newest of the Dundee wool shops and immediately we noticed how different it was to the others! The shop had a simple, uncluttered layout set against clear white walls. All the wool was set out beautifully on the shelves. There were some gorgeous knitting books and patterns on display too. We noticed that this shop also caters for machine knitters with lots of cones of wool. The yarn was high quality luxury brands, such as a large selection of Erika Knight wool (one of my favourite brands!), Blue Sky Alpaca and several types of Rowan wool, including their popular Big Wool. My youngest son spent his pocket money on a ball of Erika Knight's british blue wool and some bamboo needles to knit it with. This is a link to the shop's website  http://www.woolandco.co.uk/index.php .

me and my eldest, outside Wool&co.

From here we had another 15 minute walk (up hill this time) to 'Fluph' (here's a link to shop's Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/fluphshop ). I think our tiredness left us immediately as we entered the beautiful shop. We were full of wonder as we looked around at the beautiful wool and quirky handmade decorations. The wool was a mix of skeins and balls of pure wool, alpaca and silk. The owner Leona and her super cute cocker spaniel made us feel very welcome, inviting us to rest our weary legs on the comfy sofas and work on our current projects too.

concentrating in Fluph

While the others caught their breath I nipped across the road and attached a yarnbomb to the lampost. It was my first yarnbomb of the year and it felt good to put it up as everyone walked past or sped past on bikes and in cars. When I went back to the shop I bought 3 balls of Drops alpaca, 1 ball of Drops karisma and my sons bought a ball of Drops eskimo each.

yarnbomb on Blackness Rd, opposite Fluph

We left Fluph with our purses lighter and our bags bulging with wool agreeing it had been a fantastic morning, full of discovery!