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 :)

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

I've been jumping about from project to project recently and thought I would share a few photos of what I have been up to on here.

I'm still making hexipuffs!

hexipuff blanket so far

my youngest son made the raccoon, I made the fox

started something completely different

 with an embroidery hoop

close up of finished hoop art, it's a present, 

can't show any more just now!

finished deep pile crocheted rug

close up of the rug showing the textured finish

I hope to be back soon with a fresh update. Happy crafting in the meantime! 

New Patterns in Progress!

I have been really busy forming two new patterns over the last few weeks. Both projects use Erika Knight wool, one of my favourite brands due to Erika's strong belief of "treading lightly on the earth and celebrating and supporting traditional British skills". One pattern uses maxi wool, a chunky yarn, similar to Rowan big wool. I decided that I wanted to create something with a lot of texture to really show off the luxurious quality of this wool. 

first night's work

One of the ways that I come up with new ideas for patterns is to look through crochet stitch guides, I have several of them! I use the stitch pattern swatches as a starting point and usually add a twist, eg introducing another colour or changing the number of repeats. In this case I took the astrakhan stitch and changed from working in rows to working in the round. I tried it out using double knitting scrap wool and crocheted up 4 rounds to see if my idea would work - it did! I quickly wound the hank of yarn into a ball (the husband's strong arms work well here) and started work immediately. Because the wool is chunky the pattern worked up quickly and I had a clear idea of the end result.

rug in progress, on my table

In the above photo the rug measures 47cm in diameter and is 5cm deep! I have just ordered fresh supplies of yarn from Wool and Co. in Dundee (http://www.woolandco.co.uk/index.php) and I will finish this with more rounds in the main colour. 

I am having fun with this one!

The other project I am working on is proving to be my trickiest pattern writing challenge so far! It's a small child's cardigan loosely based on a technique Kat Goldin used in her cabled yoke cardigan design where the length of yoke is worked first and the neckline and bodice branch off from there.

original sketch

I am using a stepped pattern with raised trebles for the cable yoke and working it in a contrast colour to give a strong shape to the garment.

starting to branch off from the yoke

Working out the decreases to form the neckline gave me a real headache!! I spent a lot of time scribbling away on a piece of paper, calculator to hand before I got it right! Maths was never my strong point!

success with the decreases

Now I have almost finished crocheting the body and have also moved on to the arms. Without a small child to try this on for me, my next step is to look up dressmakers size guides online to insure the garment has the correct proportions. Despite it's brain exhausting qualities I am gaining great satisfaction from creating something more complicated and hope this is the start of many clothing patterns that I will write.

nearly there!

In other news my child's chevron cowl has passed the first pattern test, thank you again to Anthea at  http://www.talesfrommountpleasant.com/ :)

2015VAL

One of my Instagram friends, @craftyrie, had launched a challenge called #2015VAL, encouraging people to start making something for themselves this Valentine's Day and a new hat just for me seemed an ideal choice for joining in the fun! The wind has been icy cold here for the last 4 or 5 days so I decided that a new hat was just what I needed to keep myself warm when I am out and about.

 chosen colours next to Kat Goldin's book,

 'Hook, Stitch and Give'

I had followed Kat Goldin's Slouch and Bobble hat pattern a few times (in fact I wrote a blog post about it in September 2014) and then given away the finished beanies as presents. I looked forward to making and then wearing my own hat in this style.

the start of the new hat

I quickly remembered just how fast this beanie hat works up and before I knew it I was half way to finishing! I looked to see how much yarn I had left and realised there was not going to be enough to make the hat as slouchy as I wanted so I ripped it all back to the start. When I began again I used the contrast colour for the ribbed headband, changing for the darker purple for the main body of the hat. I could quickly estimate that this would work out and surprised myself by finding this combination even better than the first!

contrast rib

I used Erika Knight vintage wool, an aran thickness pure wool, made in the UK which I had used for several projects in the past and I chose here for warmth without being itchy! I used 2x 50g hanks of "mulberry" and 1x 50g hank of "pretty". 

purple progress

finished beanie hat

I really enjoyed spending a little bit of time making something to keep for myself and it was lovely to see the projects other people chose to make for themselves too.

Upcycled Chunky Necklaces

At the weekend I spotted the perfect location for a photo shoot whilst out on a family walk to the beach. This morning I went back with 4 new newly made necklaces to photograph, in preparation for listing them on my folksy shop site.

Upcycled Chunky Necklace, 

pink with red and orange

It was a beautifully crisp, frosty morning and with the warmth of the sun on my face I headed back along to the location. The tide was far out and it was very calm and still, not even any dog walkers were around (I was slightly concerned about adventurous dogs bounding off with my necklaces!)

My spot for the photoshoot, 

Westhaven, Carnoustie

I was able to quickly photograph each necklace without any disturbance and I left the scene exactly as I had found it.

Upcycled Chunky Necklace,

green and yellow

Upcycled Chunky Necklace, 

yellow and cream

I make my necklaces out of reclaimed beads from lots of different necklaces and bracelets. I also crochet around beads with wool or embroidery thread, add felted beads and embroider around some beads. This all adds to the variety of textures in the necklaces - from smooth shiny plastic to soft wool felt.

 Upcycled Chunky Necklace, 

turquoise and pink

I am listing all these necklaces in my folksy shop today, click on the link at the top of this page to take you there and if you would like more information please get in touch.

A Mandrake for Harry Potter Book Night

Just over a week ago my friend Karen asked me to crochet a mandrake as part of her costume for Harry Potter World Book Night. Karen works in my local library and she had decided to dress up as Professor Sprout for the occasion. The mandrake plant first appears in 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' by J K Rowling and instead of roots the plant has an "extremely ugly baby" living in the soil.

finished mandrake

For the first few days after being commissioned I thought about how I would go about creating this creature. I imagined the plant to be like a root vegetable with long thin roots for limbs. I then looked through my wool stash for appropriate yarn for the project. I found I had some very coarse pure wool which would be ideal for creating the tough skin of the mandrake. I also had a large ball of green acrylic to provide a soft, shiny contrast for the leaves.

work in progress, sitting in my wool bag

Once I had planned out the details in my head I began to crochet. I made up my mind as I crocheted where the increases and decreases would be. My four years at art college studying sculpture certainly help me in this part of the process!

hiding in it's pot!

I thought it would be good finishing touch to find a plant pot and label it, giving the mandrake a home. I delivered him to the library yesterday and Karen tells me he was a great hit with the children! Here's a photo of Karen, dressed as Professor Sprout, with the finished mandrake - I think she looks amazing!!

photo with Karen's permission

I have really enjoyed working on this crochet project and would like to thank Karen for challenge!