Tuesday 19 February 2013

Crochet, Coffee and Cath...

...and breathe... What a busy couple of days it has been!  Fiona has been to London and we have been grafting at crafting!  We have been sourcing supplies and shopping 'til we dropped (with a few little treats along the way!)

We have always wanted to have our own shop and sell our little projects so this weekend was spent in shops and markets surrounded by delicious, rainbow-filled rooms and stalls of wool, sequins, crochet hooks and chintz!

Our first stop was Shepherds Bush Market/ Goldhawk Road to find fabric - as you can see we desperately needed a caffeine fix to get us through the delving and deliberation.

 
The rest of the day was spent creating the pattern and prototype for a Christmas stocking which we are hoping to perfect and then eventually sell on our Etsy shop. (we'll keep you posted on this...)

Today was spent visiting some AMAZING wool shops.  We visited Jane's Wool Shop in Hampton and the lovely Mrs Moon in St. Margarets.  Both stores were super helpful in choosing the right wool for our projects and we left with armfuls of the stuff from both shops!

Followed by a quick trip to Ealing to grab a new tankini for Fi as she is off to Egypt in two weeks (jealous, much??) and then an awesome, tasty and expensive hour in Chiswick High Street.  We just had to dive into Baskin Robbins for a scoop or two - I can highly recommend the Mississippi Mud and Rainbow Sherbert flavours!!

 
Save the best 'til last - Cath Kidston.  Fiona is ever so slightly obsessed with Cath and her flowers, polka dots and cowboys so we spent at least 20 minutes oohing and arrhing over laundry bags, purses, fabrics, aprons and all the other lovely vintage inspired products on the shelves.  In the end, we left with just one or two bits and bobs...
 
And finally, at the end of a long, tiring and enjoyable day, we got to go home and look at all the amazing things we now own...because, after all, it is the best part of a shopping day, isn't it?!
 
See you soon, I'm off to do at least 10 more rows on  my neat ripple blanket - I'll have a couple of photos to show you on my next post...
 
Janette x
 


Friday 1 February 2013

Pinch, punch...first of the month!

Hello!!

Hope everyone is nicely geared up for the weekend- I'm sure it's well deserved for all! I am writing this before escaping off to bed for my shifts this weekend (a slight shock it will be having been on annual leave). Since my last post I have been busy lovingly practicing my granny squares, which I have found to be addictive- cant say I wasn't warned by the multiple blogs I had the pleasure to read!!

I was able to go to a local craft store and choose some wool just to kick start it and felt myself rather skilled once I was able to chop and change between my colours, I looked like the Cheshire Cat after just one!! I intend to try and find as many different patterns as everyone proves a new learning curve that I am loving!!

Janette and myself have been on the planning of all our future projects/ sewing adventures and the top of our list is our excitement at the tickets arriving for the 'Spring Knitting and Stitching Show' that is occurring in Earls Court, London, in March. We are dreaming of quilts, all things knitted and luscious exhibitions that we can dive into!!! All details to get involved below!!

http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=41

We have also been getting the littlest miss motivated to get creating with a little surprise we're hoping she'll be showcasing soon (cannot wait!!)

Below are just two of the patterns I've been trying to perfect and I'm now hunting for the next!

They include: on left, Sunburst Granny Square by Prescilla Hewitt http://web.archive.org/web/20020308144141/http://members.aol.com/lffunt/sunburstgs.htm
And the Summer Garden Granny Square by Lucy, Attic24
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/summer-garden-granny-square.html

I do feel I need to get some more colour injected and so will be shop shop shopping soon!! Again any patterns/ colour suggestions let me know!

Happy crafting

Fiona xx