Feeding the addiction

If you've been following this blog, you'll know there is no denying that I am a crafts addict.

Since moving to Bristol, I have been on the look out for new "dealers", lovely little shops where I can buy all the supplies I need to feed this addiction of mine.

And so I have discovered Get Knitted, the biggest knitting shop I have ever seen and Shiney Rocks, a jewellery supplies shop which also offers classes. I've also managed to locate the nearest Hobbycraft and John Lewis and its (disappointingly small) haberdashery department.

What I haven't yet managed to find however, is a nice fabric shop. Sure, there's the rather imposing Fabric Land in town which sells a variety of fabrics and sundries at reasonable prices but it's not really "nice" fabric, you know, like the ones on the lovely fabric wall at the Make Lounge.

So when I was in London last week, I made a little detour via the Make Lounge. I wanted to say hello to owner Jennifer and whoever of my former colleagues was around and re-stock my stash a little - not that it was ever depleted, mind you! I found, as always, some gorgeous fabrics and took some home.

This lovely neutral set will soon become a baby quilt

Not sure what these will become but they are just so pretty, I couldn't resist

On my way back to the station, I popped into Ray-Stitch which had only just opened when I left London. I'd not planned to buy anything else but I caved in for these colourful fat quarters.

So that's my fabric cravings taken care of for a little while...

Crafts as a way of making new friends

Last week was a bit of an odd week, mostly taken up by traveling back from Belgium and to London and back for meetings so I never got round to updating my blog. Not to worry, I'll make up for it with two, possibly three posts this week, well why not, let's be daring!

Having worked at the Make Lounge in London for 14 months or so, I know first-hand that crafting is a great way to meet new people and make new friends. 

I'm normally a very social person and the most daunting thing about moving to Bristol, was to loose my circle of friends. Of course I didn't loose my friends, but they're no longer within easy reach and with my family in another country altogether, it can sometimes feel a bit isolating. 

Luckily for me, when I'd just moved here, a friend of a friend, who I know consider to be a friend in her own right, got in touch and invited me to join her craft club. It's been a great way to meet local people, with similar interests (or should that be addiction?). I'm ever so grateful to Jo for the invite and I always look forward to the next craft club meeting with anticipation. 

When we first moved, I was full of good intentions. I pictured myself walking door to door with a tin of cookies, introducing myself to all the neighbours. But of course I chickened out, after years of anonymous living in London, I was scared people would think I was a bit weird and imposing on them. Yet my neighbours look like truly lovely people and I really wanted to meet some of them. Part of the idea when we moved down here was to become part of a community.

So, having made the resolution at the start of the year that I would face up to my fears, big and small, I took the courageous step of getting in touch with my neighbours. And I did it through crafts of course! I posted a letter in every letterbox in the street asking if any of my neighbours were crafty and keen to meet on a regular basis for some crafting together and a natter and share their craft expertise with others. I'm really excited to say that five lovely ladies got in touch and we met for the first time last week. 

It was great! We have a great intergenerational thing going on and lots of projects already of what we want to learn from each other or learn together. What was most striking, is that most of them were experiencing the same kind of isolation I was worried about - we all seem to have our families living far away - and they'd all been yearning for this kind of social gathering. They were all grateful I'd taken the first step. We had such a good night on our first meet, I can't wait to see that lovely bunch again.

All good things come in three, isn't that what they say? The day after my craft club's first meeting, I was at my beautician's and her mum was telling me that she'd like to start a craft club too and would I be interested. So it looks like I may be joining another lot of friendly crafters really soon...

Adventures in upcycling and customising

One of the advantages of being crafty is that you can customise your clothes, turning a regular piece of garment into something interesting and making sure that that high street t-shirt doesn't look like everyone else's. Being crafty also means you don't necessarily have to throw clothes away when they don't fit, with a bit of imagination, anything can be re-used.

Upcycling and customising T-shirts is just what I did recently.

Firstly, I turned an ill-fitting top into a really nice necklace. And when I was finished, I still had enough to make a second one and then some!

Secondly, I bought a really plain navy stripe tee and made it my own, with a little help of Pinterest.

I'm quite short so I often find that sleeves are too long for me. Luckily, I love tops with thumb cuffs and nothing could be simpler to make. Just unpick the stitches right above the seam for about 1 inch. Stitch the top and bottom of the opening to prevent it from unravelling, et voilà, you have thumb cuffs! Jersey doesn't fray so there's no need to secure the edges of the thumbhole.

Elbow patches are making a comeback and I quite like them so I decided to add some to my top. Having decided to use felt but unsure of the wool content in the felt I have here at home, I did a little experiment on some scrap jersey first.

Both the felts I had seemed to work just fine but one is a little bit thicker and a little bit more rigid than the other one so I went with that one, it seemed like the right thing to use for elbow patches. To attach the patches, I used the needle felting tool and worked from the centre to the outer edges.

A lot of energetic stabbing later (needle felting is brilliant if you need to work off some frustration), the patches are in place and I'm loving the result!

Feel the fear and do it anyway

What were your new year's resolutions? Do you even remember them? I do. This year for me is all about tackling my fears, big or small.

I've been in the UK for over nine years but in all that time I'd never driven a right hand drive.  Driving on the left side of the road has never really been an issue but the idea of driving a car fitted all the wrong way round simply terrified me! 

When we were in London, there was no real need for me to drive but now that we've moved to Bristol, it has become a bit of a necessity. So my Nr.1 new year's resolution was to get behind the wheel of our car and start driving the damn thing.

It's taken quite a few practice runs with hubby in the passenger seat but I am proud to say that I now drive our car. I'm still quite nervous every time I get behind that wheel, and I don't think I'll ever enjoy driving (I never did, not even in Belgium) but I'm gaining in confidence every day. 

In a completely different category, I was quite worried about knitting with different colours even though I have developed a real love for all things fair isle. But if I ever want to call myself an accomplished knitter, I have to get over this fear. Experience has taught me that knitting techniques often look a whole lot more complicated than they really are, you just need to know how it's done.

Luckily for me, there are plenty of people out there willing to help. One of those wonderful people is Staci Perry and her website, Verypink.com.  I used her Bunny Slope Hat pattern and her excellent video tutorials to knit my first fair isle project.

I loved it so much, I decided to knit a pair of matching fingerless mittens. 

They were a bit of a challenge because I originally wanted to knit them in the round but that would have meant having to carry the pink yarn all the way around or knit the snowflake on both sides, which I didn't want to do. After numerous attempts which all ended up getting frogged, I eventually resigned myself to knitting them on the flat. 

The yarn is lovely and thick so it knit really quickly. The mittens took me just one evening for the pair!

It's true what they say, beautiful things can happen when you face up to your fears. Next on the list for me will be beating the sugar addiction!