rockpool candy

make do and mend

Credit crunch? Pah! We crafty crafters are better than that!

Who needs expensive florists when little posies spring forth in our gardens at this time of year?

And it needs a press, but my 6ft show banner began life as vintage doilies, lace tray cloths and bra straps!

And what will Cinders wear to Ravelry Day?

Well, whilst digging about in a charity shop recently, I came across a load of lovely handmade silk ties. They triggered a misty memory of a wartime dress pattern I'd seen in a 'make do' article.
So being a lady of hour-glass proportions and liking bias-cut hip skimmers that slim. I've embarked upon a dress.
I'll let you know how it goes....

Have a colour-filled day of joy.

Whip Up & Inside Crochet!

Ladies, Gents,
not only am I featured on whipup.
But you can also catch an ickle feature about me in Inside Crochet mag issue 2.

And more in issue 3.

And then there's Let's Knit mag. (Although I'd have preferred if they'd got it right and not referenced my Cor Blimey Crochet! as knitting. You'd have thought THEY would get it correct!)

Ravelry Day 6th June

It's coming up soon, people.......

Are your fibery fingers twitching? They should be.....

 
I'll be there doing my Cor Blimey Crochet! exhibiting a few micro-organisms with Ildi, and selling my batts.......

And eating cake of course....oh cake.....
Make sure you come by my stand. I'll be downstairs. Probably eating cake....
Get your tickets HERE.

p.s don't forget to enter my May competition. Click on WIN MY FIBRE! in the right hand column over there.

Cor Blimey Crochet!

I'm EXTREMEly pleased to announce... That I've re-branded my crochet installations.
From now, on my practice is known as

'Cor Blimey Crochet!'

I'll be performing at Ravelry Day on 6th June in Coventry, UK.

And if you can't make it, here 'tis on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds9J_hcOOIw

100th post!

Well, I'm not the greatest at keeping up my blog, but I've reached my 100th post so I must have had at least 100 things to say about my fibery adventures.

To celebrate I thought I'd show you The International Fiber Collaborative's latest triumph. Jennifer informs me that my coral panel (from her Wrap a Gas Station Project this time last year) has been deconstructed and reinvented as tree lichens. Waste not, want not!

The tree is on its way to a children's museum where the 'lichens' will be made into a surround at the base of the trunk for kids to snuggle into.

I'm also very honoured to announce that I am one of the four fibre artists sitting on the IFC's judging panel to award a $500 grant. Ohhhhh get me!

May Competition

I've got more fibre up for grabs.

So if you've got a funny bone and want to test it, click on the comp link.

It's in the right-hand column, half way down.

You could WIN WIN WIN.....

Prudence Mapstone Workshop

I'll let you into a secret. I know nuffin' about crochet really. And even less about knitting. 'Tis all bluff.

I just make it all up as I go along. It's never stood in my way. But now I'm on a mission to learn the technicalities from the gods and goddesses of my art. Hence a workshop with Prudence Mapstone.

Like excited children, we gathered in the Swan Hotel in Hay-on-Wye. Prudence brought some of her delicious creations and then (very, very patiently in my case) walked us through creating our own scrumbles inspired by many of her own.

I wish I could say that this is mine, but in truth, it's one of Prudence's. Mine was SO hideous, that it put the F in FUGLY.
At the end of the workshop, the group pieced all our scrumbles together. Some of them were really quite inspired.

Which was good, because it dragged your eye off mine...I'm telling you... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUGLY!

AND I got a knitting headache learning to garterslipstitch... someone fetch me a dunce hat!

So how was Wonderwool?

Well, I lusted after their fleece...not only for spinning, ..but it was COLD inside, out of the sun.

But wrapped up warm in my scarf it was OK. I crocheted it from all the odds and ends of batts that I was selling at the festival, spun up of course.

And I was honoured to share a space with Prudence Mapstone.

That's Prudence's amazing cape on the far left, Ildi's crocheted plastic bag outfit centre, and my reef surrounded by Prudence's scrumbles on the wall. Oh, and all my spinning tat on the floor!
I am in awe of Prudence's cape. It is STUNNING. My crappy photography doesn't do it justice.

I bought warm clouds of guanaco from a lovely couple who own 300 of them......

I ate hog roast, jogged around the Welsh Show Ground in the rain before anyone stirred on Saturday morning, and generally relaxed into an atmosphere of fibre-based joviality.

Oh, and took part in a fashion show with my reef.... hmm...wonder if it's the first time a reef has ever walked down a catwalk?
Can't wait for next year.