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.

Happy Easter!

I'm dyeing and carding up all my springtime batts ready for sale on our Guild stand at the Belfast Stitch and Creative Craft show 16th- 18th April.

This wensleydale is making me feel like a real Easter Chick!

I've just about exhausted my fleece stash in my dyeing frenzy, because the week after, I'm off to WONDERWOOL!

 

Hopefully there will be skies as blue as this white-faced woodland.

I've never been before, but the lovely Prudence Mapstone has invited me to show one of my reefs and the equally lovely Anne of Artisan Yarns is stocking up on my batts to sell, so I'm there with bells on!

Believe me - this lilac and peach sugared-egg mix will look GORGEOUS when it's blended (even if I do say so myself).

And, oh, if only the camera really caught this soft apple-green, blue and opal mix.

Then there's the soft-stone dye bath of Swale Dale fleece.

A grey, marled shetland having a few bluey highlights added. 

Tapestry blends - and also the softest alpacas (not pictured here).

So the only question is..... what colour are you going to be taking home to spin?

So I never made it to the end of the week of favourite things

....my angioedema decided that I needed a few bed days....and when Ange decides that I need to lie down, I lie down.

As a consequence, I've let a few people down. I HATE doing that. In my heart I'm never a slacker, but in my body, well, I have no choice but to fail.

But hey, I've progressed to the sofa!
So here's a delve into what else I've been up to over International Crochet Month (and a bit before)!

I've been snuggling up in 1 of 3, yes 3, beautiful present swaps I received from the lovely Ina of Tante Sophie in NYC. (Isn't she just such a stunning lady?).

There's this gorgeous scarflet, which is like a warm cloud around my neck.

A cowl-come skater slouch that's been keeping my hub toasty.

And the softest cowl that I've been wearing around my house to keep out the chills. Don't be fooled by my bad pic, it looks wonderful on.

I think that I came off best in this swap.... as in return all I did was make her a jumbo skein of navy and white, irregular candy-stripe, as these are her fave things. I of course forgot to photograph it before I sent it, but you can see it here.

And I kept a little skein for reference.

I also found myself spinning up what turned out to be 'Blue Moustache' yarn.

So called because there was lots of prancing about with one of my blended batts one night.

It just HAD to be for JohnK, another US fibre artist I'm pleased to have visit my inbox. If you don't know this 'funny uncle' then drop by and see just why this yarn was always destined for him.

So what else?

Well..... The lovely Kathleen Greco sent me a copy of her Jelly Yarn book. Haven't tried this weird and wonderful yarn yet? The stuff above glows in the dark you know! Get some here.

And I've been battling with giant balls of my own plastic bag yarn for another project. It's so quick using my method (see the you tube link on top left of blog), but I really wish it was more pleasant to work with. Nothing can beat a bit of fleece for me.

I'm an old-fashioned Dorset girl, ooo-arrr.

Berlin boudoir basques - dare you undress?

It's a happening.
The urban art giveaway artist, and gorgeous husband, MyTarpit, is off to Berlin for the German version of I am 8 bit.

The neurotitian site is here giving you the low down on the major-cool Berlin two day art walk.

Who's there?
Featuring a massive, all-enveloping installation by acclaimed artist Jude Buffum, and accompanied by original doodles by some of the most prolific character designers in animation and comics (including Emmy-winners Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, Gabe Swarr, Jim Mahfood, MyTarPit and others), it's an exhibit within an exhibit.

Why am I telling you this?
Because being the wife of MyTarPit, it was only a matter of time before my fibre-activist fingers began fiddling with his free street art.
He recently screenprinted up some fabulous pieces and, whilst he was printing, I encouraged him to slip in a few fabrics.

These resulting one-off pieces will be laced with ribbon to lamposts, echoing a basque-wearing songstress in a smokey 1940's Berlin nightclub.
If you're in Berlin next week, you can score one - if you're brave enought to leave a lady lampost naked in such chilly temperatures, that is!
Dare you undress?

Family connections

Sunday's favourite thing?

Well, let me give you a bit of explanation first.
I married a Norn Irish boy, I'm English, we are both from the United Kingdom, but the country that he grew up in and the one that I grew up in are very, very different places. Many of the customs of this province, in which I now live, are alien to me.

And yet it is a gift from my mother-in-law, nearly 5 years after I moved over, that has made me feel most at home.
It is the table from her mother's sewing machine; my husband's maternal grandmother - a woman whom he never met.

Grandma Alice was a stitcher in a factory here, her husband bought her a sewing machine and she dearly loved it. When she died, the machine was left to her daughters, who equally love it, and I am honoured to say, that a few weeks ago, my husband's mother gifted it to me.

Due to woodworm, the woodwork had to be removed, but I had a piece of marble that fits it perfectly, if not that prettily.

Why does it feel so right? Well, my father was a sewing machine engineer (amongst other things) and I grew up surrounded by sewing machines in various states of repair. There is something very homely about the old Singers and I love them.

I have never felt so rooted here as when I sit in my studio at this treadle table. When the weather is finer I plan to repaint it and gild it.

But for now, it signifies the beautiful thing that is having my husband's parents as my parents-in-law and reminds me of my long-passed father.

xx

UK DIY - micropower

I'm getting ready for the UK DIY show at the Turnpike Gallery.

You'll recognise one of my white reefs on the cover there (and Alabamawhirly's gorgeous gloves, Miso Funky's emo-broidery, Ildiko Szabo's freeform and the odd bit of yarn bombing, too).

But I'm not installing coral this time. I've cooked up a plan with Ildi to install micro organisms.
All are larger than life.
Some crocheted and felted.

And some gigantically, ridiculously, arm crocheted (as let's face it, hand crocheted doesn't apply to this monster!) I'm calling it Cor Blimey Crochet!

If you've ever wondered what a listeria bacterium would look like enlarged to the size of a car, then the Turnpike will be the place to visit.
Thanks to the lovely Jacob Semko and my one and only hub, MyTarPit, shaking their tail feathers for the last 3 days and helping me construct this filament, I've got 300m of the stuff to drag across the Irish Sea and tame on site. I'll not know if it works until we're actually in the gallery, so fingers crossed.

And so why am I doing this - because, let's face it, it's not for the fun of picking glitter out of my undies for the rest of the year! Well, I want people to think about who really rules the world. Here's a sneak preview of my wall text.

MICRO POWER
I've often wondered why the Human Race thinks itself so superior. By taming other creatures and bending them to our will, we assume that we have the greatest intelligence of any organism.
But I'm not so sure.
I'm beginning to think that micro organisms truly rule our planet. We rely on them to keep us alive, all the time hoping that they don't kill us. Meanwhile, they're mutating and evolving, making our defenses ineffective.

At only a few nanometers long, some of these microorganisms are so small that they don't even reflect colour. (Humans can see colour waves between only 400 and 700 nanometers long.)
Under a powerful electron microscope, scientists have to fire electrons at the microorganisms to 'excite' them and make them glow to be visible.

MICRO POWER lead me to enlarge these monumentally powerful, yet microscopic entities using crochet and felting.  Featured here are the common cold, bacteria, micro fungi or other viruses.
As you visit the gallery, think about how you're trafficing these micro organisms unwittingly and look out for new clusters.

Not convinced of their dominance?
•Millions of Prochlorococcus can live in a drop of seawater, quietly making oxygen. They made one in every five breaths you take.
•About 100 trillion microorganisms live in your gut. Most of these bacteria and viruses aid your digestion.

•Some viruses use mind control. Rabies, which is fatal in humans, enrages its host, making it bite, just to pass on the virus.
•Then there's body control. Dengue Fever turns your immune system against you, so that you're attacking your own body from the inside.

•Myxamatosis, found in rabbits decides just how long it needs to keep its host alive to be bitten by enough mosquitoes in order to move to new hosts.
•And there are micro fungi that lasso roundworms before devouring them.

My advice? Think small.

So come down, help the viral spread of artwork both in and out of the gallery and rediscover your love of craft.

There are a few extra classes going on. I've tried to photograph the details. Hope they come out. If not, just go to the Turnpike site.

 

 

Sniffles, sneezes, communicable diseases - And a coup!

Yep, this Aussie flu, which was so kindly packaged up and shipped over to the UK by my fave antipodean nation has kept me busy this holiday and seems to have taken up residency for the new year. Cheers Oz! I'm onto my FIFTH (yes, fifth!) bout of the lurgy.

For those keen of eye, you'll spot that cheap gin has made its way into my cure pack now. I'm trying to sterilise myself from the inside - and no, I'm not using the beloved Hendrick's gin, as I can taste NOTHING, so it would be wasted.

Now the gin has no medicinal qualities, but I could call this research, as I'm actually working on a piece about micro-organisms at the moment. I can't show you the piece until it's ready for the gallery, but here's a blurry tease.

It's all for the UK DIY exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery in Feb. If you're in the UK and don't know about it yet, well you're going love this!

We'll be celebrating just how fab the new wave of craft is, how wonderful, versatile and all-encompassing it can be and how ACCESSIBLE.

Not only will there be sculptural pieces, (provided by yours truly and Ildiko Szabo) but a myriad of cool things going on, including chances to learn to crochet, a craft fair on the opening day, and....

......Coolest of all, the first official public showing in the UK of Faythe Levine's special promotional edit of the film Handmade Nation.....

Yep, you heard me! What a coup! We've all been waiting for it and I for one will be at the front of the queue.

The opening is on the 14th of Feb and the film will be on show throughout the UK DIY exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery, Leigh between February 14th and April 26th.

See you there for lots of crafty shenannigans.

No horse head in your bed

The North West Craft Mafia are much nicer.
SallyF is the don. She giveth craftiness and she don't even expect your kneecaps as payback. Now there's a gal to keep in with. Check out her site, tinkering times

Her world seems a veritable cornucopia of vintage buttons, textiles and delicious crafty creativity.

Well, she found a graph art projecty thing that I just had to share with you. It depicts all the links etc to your site, but who cares! You type in your url and the most beautiful floral graph blossoms in front of you.
This is my site.

I'm thinking 50's soup bowl. Lovin' it.
Try it yourself.