A State of Craft

Crafting has, for a long time, been something that we do. Maybe a side-line hobby or a past time for a lazy Sunday afternoon. It's often associated with the slightly more mature of us, and people think that it's not something us young'uns would ever want to be involved in. But in recent years, possibly over the past decade or so, creative types have emerged from their closets and craft is cool once again - but you knew that didn't you?!

Finally though, someone has captured the notion of crafting, not being something we just do, but something we are and so we welcome the book launch of State of Craft (edited by Victoria Woodcock). Creative types are constantly in a state of creativity - or craft - and this book celebrates that fact.

State of Craft gives us a snapshot of creative types everywhere. It's not a project book - though it has projects - it's not a biography collection - though it has biographies. It's not an instruction manual, but it does contain instructions. No, State of Craft is mix of all three, celebrating artisans and craftsman of all different crafts, showing us how we can pick up a few skills, and telling us their inspiring stories so that we too can dream that one day our quirky little creations might capture the imaginations of the public and maybe we'll be able to give up our day jobs to become full-time crafters (well, we can dream can't we!).

The book doesn't focus on one particular craft, but gives attention to many different skills, from knitting to screen-printing, to crochet and jewellery making. So if you're a bit of a jack of all trades (and a master of none? Ahem!) then you'll enjoy State of Craft. Some of the crafts are a bit alternative or indie but they strike a balance with the more every day and pretty so there really is something for everyone, whatever your craft and style.

And the crafter profiles are both entertaining and inspiring, making a great read in between the fun projects!

Best Bits:

• The knitting and crochet illustrations are amongst the easiest to understand that I've ever come across
• I'm determined to make some of Helen Rawlinson's Mini Storage Buckets and love Sam Wingate's screenprinted designs. Also worth a mention is Jess Fawcett's super-cute clutch bags, Catherine Miller's Dotty Doily Garland and Raye McKown's Button Rings.
• It draws attention to so many fabulous London crafters as we do have such a great crafty scene here in The big Smoke! 

State of Craft (edited by Victoria Woodcock and published by Cicada) can be purchased here.

Slouchy Knitted Hat - A Proud Achievement

I'm a slow knitter - well, I'm not slow at knitting, if it's a simple pattern then I can whizz right through it! But what I mean is that I will go through a phase of knitting like a mad woman and then put the project down for a few days and come back to it a year later. I have a basket next to my sofa full of WIPs which are all in various stages of un-finishedness. 

So it may surprise you that my Made By You Monday post is, first of all a knitted item (gasp!), and secondly a knitted item that took me two years to make - despite the simplicity of the pattern!

Awkward self-posing picture alert!

Basically, my friend gave me the yarn and we didn't know what kind of yarn it was. I knitted and purled like a crazy lady... until I got to the shaping at the end. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to make it a bit longer and slouchier than the pattern dictated, and if I did - did I have enough of my mystery yarn?!

And so the project laid dormant for about 23 months (I kid you not!). Until at the end of last year I decided to take the plunge and finish it as the pattern stated. Better to have a hat that's slightly less slouchy than you'd like than a piece of knitting clogging up your only circular needles right? So in November I finally finished it. And then this week.... I finally sewed the ends in! (Told you I was slow!).

The pattern is free and can be found here and unfortunately I can't tell you the yarn, as lovely as it is!

PS - you know I said I had many, many WIPs? That's true. What I didn't tell you was that this hat is my first ever FO! (oops!). Don't tell my husband - he'll stop me from buying all my lovely yarn!

Today I'm linking up with the following:

I've been busy...

I've missed my poor neglected blog. I find that when I'm in bloggy mode, I create a lot more interesting things, just so I have a constant supply of things to blog about - whether that be cooking, crafting, photography or writing. But the last couple of months, time has slipped through my fingers and although I've been busy, it's been with the rigmarole of life, not with making pretty things.

However, I have made a few things here and there so here's a small selection.

Remember all of these teacups?

I've been turning them into these:

 Yep, pin cushions. Cute huh? This was my first, and then I made one for my mum's birthday but forgot to take a picture. The rest are still sitting on my shelf but they all have new and different destinies... watch this space!

I also decided to do something with the cover buttons and fabric scraps that I had lounging about in a drawer. Then I had fun papercrafting a tag for them :0)

And, remember when I went to the Museum of London and fell in love with my awesome city?
Well, I thought those lovely quotes would look beautiful stitched into eternity, so here is my first:

It took me about five hours to complete in total and I love my little London bus motif at the bottom. Cute!
So that's a short summary of some of my creative moments of the past couple months :0)

It's all about me, me and.... me!

It's so nice to have a Saturday when there are no plans. :0)

Jon was at work (as usual!) so I had the day to myself (as usual!), but instead of having lots of errands or meetings or shopping to do, I actually had nothing on the cards! Which is great - probably as a result of me being so organised lately (see previous posts), which is gonig really well. I'm loving the whole list thing. It wasn't even my turn to do the cleaning either!

It was an aboslutely gorgeous day, I wish I had taken a picture of the clear sky to show you, and it was really warm so i went for a run (Run number two of 2009 - making progress!) and it felt soooooo good just to be outside in the warm and the sun... and there was a slight breeze so running was really comfortable. I noticed that I can run a lot further in the warm as well, it's easier to breathe!

I took my bank card with me so that I could swing my Sainsburys on the way back, and as I crossed the road who should I see in the Starbucks queue? Marcus. And who was he with? Pearl and Mark! So I went up for a pit-stop and had a nice chat (hopefully I didn't stink too much!) before heading to Sainsburys to get the food in. Came home and had the house to myself. Which was cool...... for a while.

You know, sometimes I really look forward to having the house to myself and I have loads of plans of what I might do, but then..... I do feel a little lonely. It would be nice if Jon didn't work EVERY Saturday. In fact... it's 8.55pm and he's still not home. So glad I made my own dinner!

So anyway, I ended up sorting out some bits and pieces and sorting through my craft bits and then I made these postcards. Really simple to do, but beautiful and they make a nice little gift.

I then curled up in bed and read some more of Sense and Sensibility. I'm almost at the end now and I honestly don't know what's going to happen (I'm sure I've seen a dramatisation before but can't remember the storyline at all!), so I'm excited to get to the end.

So I guess from today I'm doing well on the fitness front and also developing my personal interests, which is cool - a bit of crafting and reading are always good. Let's not talk about the budgeting....... ;0)

As for living life on the front row, last weekend was really busy but I really made an effort to go to everything and you know what? It was a really cool week! Friday was our East London regional party for church, we had a really good turnout and it's so good to see everyone progressing and a genuine community being built out in our neck of the woods.

Sunday was a great day in Church! And I wasn't tired at the end of it either. Towards the end of last year I was quite run down and I couldn't last the day in church, which is really unusual for me. But on Sunday I went from 8am on team and served for the first service and went to a team meeting, had a really nice afternoon with Jon (it's always nice to see your husband!) and then went to the 5pm service before taking a new girl out for coffee afterwards - getting home at 9pm!

On Monday, even though my trains were delayed and I was tired, I still went out for some birthday drinks and then on Tuesday, we had a team night at church and I am so glad I went because it was such a great night. Gary went back to basics and spoke a bit about why we do what we do and what's coming up for the new year, and the rest of the night was prayer for all the different areas of church, driving everything forward etc. Was a good night, although I have to admit I was REALLY tired by the end, but I survived Wednesday and it was well worth it - just goes to show that you can get over the obstacles and make the most of everything, not missing out and still travel 50 miles every day to go to work!