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.

Spring time blends

Spring is sprung. I threw open the windows and was able to get outside without a coat for the first time since I can't remember when. Everything around me, inside and out, sung with colour.

I took the opportunity to dry my roving under a clear- blue sky. It should be ready to blend by tomorrow.

And I photographed the Easter egg blends that I made especially to cheer her poorly highness, skein queen.

I let the freshest air inspire a blue blend.

And zinged up an orange blend.

I cannot lie. I've been quite down over this long, drawn out winter here. It feels like I've not seen the sun since last June.
But today, my studio felt ripe with colour and potential.


Hoorah for spring!

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.

Yarn of the Year

No, not a competition-winning yarn that I've come across, that's not what I mean.
I literally mean, a yarn spun from all the odds and ends of EVERY fibre project I've worked on in the last year.
All the dog ends of balls and batts; the threads cut when I'm sewing; the tiny slices of fabric cut during clothing alterations; the string used to tie up my batts when I dye them. EVERYTHING went into a bag and then on New Year's Eve I carded and spun them into yarn.

When I look at this yarn, it makes me smile from ear to ear. I can remember all the little bits and pieces and where they're from.

Tiny yarn ends from when I sat on the stoop in Brooklyn, crocheting with my mate Subway Hooker.

Acid-coloured plastic bag yarn cuttings neatly gathered from warm sunny days hanging with Helle Jorgensen on my deck.

The pair of jeans I took up to go cocktail drinking in Dublin with Moonspinning, before washing and shrinking them - consequently they now hang at half mast (schoolgirl error!)

Dyeing courses taken, friends made, gifts given and received, curtains hung, wine drunk, reefs crocheted, laughter had, exhibitions opened, cushions stuffed, packages untied, clothes slimmed out of, knitting machines snarled up, sculptures failed and realised. They're all there.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, as it's pretty impractical, but boy, am I glad I've spun it. And it was the nicest thing I've ever done to close an old year and open a new one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

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!

Get me! I'm a Goddess!

I can't tell you how honoured I was this morning to be named Chophook Goddess by the lovely Jimbo.

And all I did was have a bit of fun crocheting in order to all to raise awareness of Freidreich's Ataxia. Please read about it here.

It's such a wonderful thing to get feedback from people about what I do. And the warm glow that having such nice words heaped upon me has lifted my otherwise creaky body this morning.
Thanks, Jimbo!

Lovely fibre fiddlers make the world go around

Q: What does this world need?
A: More people that spend time fiddling with fibre and wrapping the world in their yarn loveliness.

I contacted crocheting glamourpuss Amy Lamé
on her London show. (Yeah, Danny Baker says it's his, but we all know Amy's satin ribbon hairbands hold it together) to chat about some of the crochet projects I'm involved in.

AND WOW, LADY! Does she have a fabulous project of her own, happening?

Step up, Pom Pom International!

A movement to create the biggest pom pom in the world and use it to promote peace love and understanding.
Ahhhh, pom pom fuzziness. Tell me that it doesn't draw you in like a small child, fluffing the soft fibres against your cheek and nuzzling into it.

Amy's initiative invites you to create your own pom pom and send it to be joined into the giant ball of LURVE.
Pure genius.

I've decided to make my own pom pom for the project out of yarn I've spun myself.

Mrs Moon and I carded it from merino, local wool, angelina and the most beautiful, ethically-traded silk sari waste

and banana fibre, bought from ethnic crafts. This is Anees' bulk buy site, but I found him through ebay where he sells smaller amounts.

Other WIP:

My fibre studio is being refurbished and I can't get in there at the moment - beyond frustrating - but I'm working on more stuff for the IFF (check out the page they've put up about me).

My nipple for the nipple project.

The GIANT reef panel I'm making for the gas station project in Syracuse.

How could I be happier? A wonderful husband (He's always top of my list) and a world filled with pom poms, nipples and coral.

Fibre bliss.

x

I'm the luckiest fibre fiddler alive!

I may be only 37, but boy, I feel 370 lately! I've been laid up on the sofa with a wonderful mixture of phlebitis, (the drugs for which, in turn, triggered my angioedema) and now a liberal dose of the killer flu. If I were a horse, the knackers yard would have been called weeks ago. But I am part of the wonderful world of fibre and I may be falling to bits, but life is great.

Surprise packages have been arriving thick and fast.

1st came Jimbo's chophook.
Jimbo is a guy living in the States, by Deadman's Crick, carving crochet hooks from the wood in his orchard and old chopsticks and selling them to fund the building of his cabin.
I came across Jimbo through ravelry and instantly fell in love with his handiwork, but on reading his blog, was also struck by this man's gentleness and generosity.

His friend's daughter has Friedreich's Ataxia, and wanting to raise awareness of the condition and the need for research into a cure, Jimbo decided to set up charitable auctions of his hooks online. Jimbo has also donated a travelling hook to the cause that will pass from fibre fiddler to fibre fiddler, creating crocheted wonders to auction and raise cash, whilst all the time being blogged about.
I've added my name to the list and eagerly await the travelling hook's arrival. Meantime, Jimbo sent me my very own chophook, with which I'm crocheting away. It's beautifully smooth and incredibly easy on the hands, as it's easy to hold. I'd also recommend it to people who maybe have problems holding smaller hooks. Go on! Get involved!

2nd came a bag of soda ash, from her Royal Highness, The Skein Queen.

She'd read about my dismal forays into banana fibre dyeing and suggested that I was using the wrong mordant. If this little bag enables me to create the sort of colourways she's selling on Etsy then I shall eternally grovel at her royally-slippered pieds.

3rd to arrive was a package all the way from Geneva.

Stuffed to the gills with squidgy balls of lurid and spangly acrylics perfect for the Coral Collective Hospital Project. Thank you Seamus!

Another day, another package. 4th came Ilidko's wonderful corals and their patterns. This woman is like yarn on acid! I asked her if she could see her way to helping me with a pattern or two for the Coral Collective Hospital Project.

She sent six! And they're SO beautiful. I'm indebted to her for her help. Visitors are going to love crocheting her designs.

And then there's Debi's package. Debi is over here in Norn Iron for a while and we're loving having her. She's always surrounded by a gaggle of women at the Guild meetings as she pulls Oak Hammock Farm fleece after fleece from her bags for us to ooh and ahh over.

I've dyed up some in luscious greens.

But as well as her lovely natural fleeces, she's like my cheap yarn pimp, bringing bulk buys of acrylic back from the States for me. This stuff is so nasty it could power a small town with its static. PERFECT for mad coral creations.

So now, all I have to do is clear the backlog of work that's sitting awaiting me after my desktop absence. Argh! There's never enough time to take in all the fabulousness of our fibre community. I need to duplicate myself.

Thanks to EVERYONE!

Inspired by the drawings of Ernst Haeckel

1900's man 2000's woman.
Science and art.
Close, intricate study and freeform imagined.
Pencil and crochet hook.

Who would have guessed that we would have such a connection in our passions?
I dream of a time machine and just an hour to pore over these scientific glories with the man who drew them. Until that day, I shall just try to bring a minute part of his genius into fibre being.
I salute you, Ernst!

Plundering Christmas Tree Stockings- part II

I've had a wonderful few days off over the holidays and they've been spent plying synthetic yarns and crocheting them into urchins to sit on my huge Christmas Tree net urchin. I've created a giant reef in my hallway.

The coin in the middle of the urchin is a pound coin and those slippers are human size!
Yet another fuzzy photo!