rockpool candy

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!

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.

Wonder Woman / Wonder Wool

I'm squeezing into my stretchy hot pants, twirling my golden lasso and twizzling all the way to WonderWool.

My pink reef will be exhibiting with Prudence Mapstone.

And my batts will be stocking a corner of the Artisan Yarn stand. Colourways include 'ketchup and mayo', 'lilac and peach sugared easter eggs', 'blue pebbles'

'violet beauregard', 'easter chick', 'snowdrops', 'verdigris','cowgirls love the blues', 'yellow sugared easter eggs', 'woodnymph dreaming' and many, many more.

So if you want something a little different to spin, say a blend of soya, milk protein, silk and many wools, then get on over to Artisan Yarns' stand.

I'll be out and about, wearing a big ravelry badge, so feel free to rockpool candy spot and say hi. I love meeting my blog readers, preferably over coffee, cake and a gossip.

See y'all there!

What measure success?

So, it's almost a year since I set up the Coral Collective, providing crochet project bags for a hospital waiting room. Each pack has everything a patient needs to crochet a small coral.
Now the idea was to get the patients to send me their corals, I would then sew them into reefs and use them to decorate the walls of the clinic, at the same time documenting the patients' stories and how the crochet had helped them.

In the last year, I've received one, yes, just ONE coral back (the rather lovely one pictured above) and even this was sent back anonymously.

So, initially, I felt I'd failed, after all, one coral does not a reef make.

But then I stopped and thought about it. I may have only received one coral, but I have put over 300 project bags into the clinic and they have all gone and continue to do so.
When speaking to those that work in the clinic, their reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

The clinic is shared between gynae and psychiatric outpatients. Apparently the women visiting, especially those in the older age group, love picking up the crochet hook again.

So maybe it isn't a failure. These women must enjoy being given a gift that brings back memories, brightens their days with the colours of the yarn and keeps them occupied during their time in the clinic (and hopefully at home, too). Otherwise, none of the bags would go.

And what do I get out of it? Well, I realised that I need to take my ego out of the equation. This is not about me, or recognition, or thanks. This is a totally altruistic project. Kindly people donate yarn,

scissors, funding and crochet hooks to me through various avenues. I am just the facilitator, bagging these donations up and putting them into a place where they help.

It's all just paying it forward in a way.

And that is how I realise that I must measure success in this instance.

Lesson learned.

So why am I blogging about it if I don't want recognition? Purely to encourage you to do something similar.

Get fibre active.

It feels good.

Perfect plastic pupils

I'm glad to say that my spun plastic yarn technique is keeping pupils and teachers alike busy at the Yale-Wrexham College exhibition.
 

The Clwyd spinners did three days of demonstrations at the gallery, inspiring kids to make their own drop spindles using recycled CDs.  Everyone is now bursting with ideas relating to sustainability and recycling in the spinning world.  

Marcus (above) is a true convert to spinning. He's spinning carrier bags with students at any opportunity (he has also shown a few other members of staff, too).  The gallery recently ran a workshop with about 25 primary school pupils.

Some of whom knocked up a few pictures of a certain artist's football jellyfish.........

Fibre, Fibre, More Fibre and Travelling....lots of travelling.....NI, England & Wales

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll have read my post about trolling around Northern Ireland with Pom Pom International,

Cue a bum shot of Miss Amy Lamé.

And I must admit, on that tour, I had the best time I've had since I moved over to the Province. And got to meet just the best people.

Thanks go out to Derry Pride organisers and ball goers.

Here's the yarn you helped me to spin. I'll make and extra-special pom pom with it.

But that wasn't the only bit of travelling I got up to in the UK.

After the tour, I caught the sunny Belfast ferry cross the angry body of water better known as the Irish sea.

Ah.....summer......

I picked up the fabulous Ildi and we had a brill couple of days driving down to London, eating delish kebabs and staying in dodgy hotels to drop off one of my 'Great White' reefs for the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft shows that are touring the UK.

It's for part of their Reclaim, Re-use, Recycle show and it opens for the first time today in Exeter and goes on until early next year. The reef is just one of the elements I've created especially for the show cabinet they've given me. I can't wait to see the final underwater scene.

Next stop, London and I Knit.

Me and my mucker mate, moonspinning . Hanging out, meeting other complete loons, like alabamawhirly and bringing fibre fiddlers over to the dark side of spinning. Come on, can you really resist ferreting in this and getting creative? (even if I do say so myself!)

 

Whizz bang and I'm in Ross on Wye, rumaging through beach detritus to finish my jellyfish.

  

And may I be so bold to suggest that, should you feel the desire to begin untangling neon fishing line and crocheting it... don't. It's a madness not best visited.

And so to Wrexham, Wales. Yale College to be precise. And their recycling exhibition. The poster is in both English and Welsh, in case you're wondering.

And within minutes, like ants around a just-dropped ice-cream, we fibre fiddlers are circling two spinning wheels and sharing techniques.

I even taught Marcus to make plastic-bag yarn and to spin moonlight, all against a back drop of my jellyfish and second 'Great White' reef. Now that doesn't happen very often.

And finally back home. To rest my weary spinning muscles and enjoy a bit of colour therapy.

Yarn is good........

Fibre frenzy

Long time, no post. This is due to me being head down, fingers a blur, getting ready for several up-coming shows.
I'm delighted to have been invited to show my work in a cabinet at the ICHF Creative Stitching and Hobbycraft shows as they tour around Britain. This meant a new reef had to be created. I'd been dreaming of making a white and yellow one for ages so here it is.

It's 1m 30cm wide and weighs a tonne (or feels like it).
But... in my enthusiasm back in the spring, I decided not to make one, but two of these reefs.

Lucky for me, I was also invited to show at Wrexham Yale's Recycling and Sustainability Show.
So here's the second reef in the pair.

They stand on their own, but also act as a pair, giving them a different dimension.

 

They're so huge, I had to hang out of my upstairs window to take this picture.

But two reefs wasn't enough.

I'd also promised Jimbo that I'd make him a reef with his Friedrich's Ataxia travelling hook. (It's the most beautiful hook I've ever had the pleasure to hold.) So I dyed, spun and crocheted like a mad thing to create a very unique wall hanging.

 

It'll be auctioned on the 12th September, along with many other wonderful creations to raise money for research into a cure. PLEASE go along and bid.

All this, and the Coral Collective Hospital Project is going from strength to strength. I received a beautiful coral from someone who'd picked up one of my packs in the hospital.

It made me SO happy to receive it and can't wait to add it to the artwork hanging in the waiting room. Thank you to the anonymous crocheter.

Is that all I've been up to? Nah! I don't sleep. I've got Pom Pom International and I Knit London coming up.

So I've been washing texel fleece and dyeing it;

Dyeing up merino roving;

Creating my own fibre blends that will soon sell through my site and at I Knit London's shop;

 

Carding British Breeds Batts for I Knit London's fetes and Bestival;

Spinning some of my exotic multi-fibre batts;

 

And then there was all the fun I had hanging out a Woolfest with the wonderful Moonspinning;

Here she's teaching Gerard to spin with a drop spindle.

Gnome spotting;

And getting emails from lovely slebs who've been crocheting with my yarns at their events.

I thank you, Miss Amy Lamé for making a corsage from my lemon and lime handspun.

Stay tuned for the next installment - this is only a teeny bit of what I've been up to! I haven't told you about Castlewellan show (you can read about it on Moonspinning's blog) or any of the other groovy stuff I've been up to.
Next stop LA, New York, London and touring Northern Ireland.
I'm international, me!

The lightest hook on Earth

London picked me up, wrung me out and left me pooped. I'm one tired lady - too tired to even hold the weight of my crochet the last few days.
And then a little angel arrived.

It appeared in the shape of the most beautiful hook, hand carved by Jimbo from a dead aspen branch behind his cabin. He whittled the whole thing whilst sitting on his front porch, overlooking a meadow, so it has relaxation running through its grain!
It's sensuously soft, beautifully smooth and weighs less than a gnat's sneeze! And it's tempting me towards my yarn stash again.

I'm so flattered that Jimbo should take the time to carve me such an object and all inspired by a small piece of lichen that looked like coral. (See how he found it by clicking here.)

LIFE IS IN THE DETAIL. I shall attempt to crochet my own homage to that little piece of lichen tonight.

Thank you Jimbo.

And if you haven't yet tried his chophook, what's keeping you? It's another fantastic creation from the hands of a master. The one pictured here is especially carved for bullion stitches - and we all need help with those little blighters. And do you know what? All you have to do is make a small donation of at least $10- (which is nothing in pounds nowadays!) to the Freidreich's Ataxia Research Alliance through the button on his site and he'll make you one. A good cause AND a bargain. Win win.

He's also got a "gob o hooks" like the one he carved me up for grabs in his auction. Believe me, they'll change your crocheting experience. They're sexy hooks.

Making plastic bag yarn/yarn from a tube

Now, whilst I need to keep some things a secret - like the patterns to some of my corals so that I can continue to make a living. (rants: Can't believe how bare-faced some people are about ripping off other artists' designs and ideas. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) I do want to share my craft knowledge with other people and get them passionate about free materials. And by free, I mean just lying around, unwanted stuff; old clothes, worn out pillowcases, sacks, plastic bags etc.
So here's how to make them into yarn. The fabric yarn is great for kids to learn finger crochet, as it's chunky and grows quickly and the plastic bag stuff works well for outdoor pieces they might like to make.

Watch the slightly bitmappy video that I've posted on youtube and then have a go yourself.

Don't blame me if your fellas end up with Daisy Duke shorts!