On the road again...

I'm about to embark on another road trip. This one will last at least 2 and half weeks, taking in Galway, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary! Packing for Irish weather, camping and a toddler is blooming hard work...

For anyone who asked about the crochet fruit patterns, I won't get to post them until after this time. Anyone else who is going to the Irish Crochet Lace workshop in Clones, see you there!!! (You can read about the Lace workshops here)

Mobile broadband is still a dream in this country, so I'll be offline for most of that time. Apologies in advance. See you in a few weeks!!

Summer and Fruit!

Had a busy weekend. Lots of kiddies activities because Feile na Blath was on in Tralee town park. It's a lovely little festival, very family orientated. Our first full-on face paint, and although he has never actually seen spiderman before, he was still determined to be spiderman...Stocked up on balloons, free pencils and yoyo's, as well as bouncy castles, playgrounds, picnics, dog shows, etc..The weather was perfect, not to hot, not to cold, and we had great fun.

Then we opened the box of giant chalks I had been saving for a non-rainy day, and graffetied the driveway, our shoes and bums with chalk. I think I had more fun than the child...


Over the past week I've been making fruit and veg. I was supposed to be trying to sew them, but I got carried away with the crochet. As you do! I have the patterns roughly written up, and it'll probably be a while before I get it together to write them up properly, but when I do, I'll be looking for testers, if anyone wants to try their hand....

WWKIP, pears, exhibitions and books

I went to the World Wide Knit in Public event, which was on in The Crafty Alley shop in Killarney on Saturday. It was lovely to get a few hours off, time to have a nice relaxing latte before going to meet some fellow..knitters. Well, I didn't bring my knitting, but my crochet of course! And I successfully made half a pear, while chatting continuously to ladies I have never met in real life before. Two I had met in our Munster group Shebeens, the only illegal pretend drinking den in Ravelry! It was a lovely afternoon, and hopefully we'll meet up again. The Crafty Alley is going to start a weekly knitting circle, and the two fellow Ravallers want to organise a monthly meet-up, which would suit me much better.I'm trying to learn how to use a sewing machine properly, and the pears are my first real project, where I'm making up the pattern. It took 3 goes at the pear before I could get the pattern right. Whereas one go at crochet, and it was done. God, I love crochet! I have some really ugly large cushions, with torn covers, and I've wanted to make something fun out of them for a while now. I'm going to make some large fruit-shaped cushions, and I want some sewn and some crocheted, as I dont have time to crochet them all. I tested my sewn pears on my toddler. As I made each one, I gave it to him and asked him"what's that?". If he gets the answer right, its right, so third time lucky! So we had a ball, then a ball, then a pear!! (He loves them, he won't go to sleep at night without his balls...crazy kid... I know he's going to hate anything to do with fabric and fibre when he grows up...)

As I mentioned before, I had a few pictures accepted into the online International Freeform Crochet Guild exhibition, but this year they are doing one for real. All the ones in the online exhibition were invited to send their piece into a real exhibition. Its at the The San Luis Valley Folk Arts and Fiber Festival. And this baby is winging its way to the States as we speak, to be part of the exhibition. Its exciting to have a piece in an exhibition with the likes of Myra Woods and Prudence Mapestone, the Queens of Freeform!!


This is a sneak preview of the pattern that has just been accepted into the Crochet Liberation Front's Third Ever Book. It's a Silly Monster Peg/Pin Bag. Once the book has been published, I'll put up proper pics, but for now, you'll just have to wait!! Thanks again to my merry little band of helpers who tested out the pattern for me.

Felted Crochet Hook Bag

I'm having a little lull in activities, well, I mean the crafting activities. (Not the toddler, garden, shopping, cooking, washing activities, that's just standard relentless. Thought how could you not indulge that face...)
I needed a break to just sit back, and well, tidy. Oh, the endless sorting of the supposed studio! I have gone to extremes and decided to completely compartmentalize myself. It's the only way of saving me. I have a needtoknowpathic need to know where everything is. That perfect button, that scrap of fabric, I haven't seen in 10 years, etc...so, I went shopping in Argos and bought boxes. I have spend days thralling through my lovely collection of old suitcases and wooden boxes, and have gone plastic. To this..It has already inspired me. I found a few pieces of felt, and decided to finally make myself a decent crochet hook bag. I have meant to make one for years, but couldn't get my head around what I wanted. I really enjoyed working with Felt again for the CTN exhibition, and loved doing this even more. Its a mix of wetfelt, needlefelt and stitching, and has got the sparks going...

Sorry, having a bad photo day. Felt is one of the hardest things to photograph. When you physically see it, the uneven edges add to it. On a photo they just look wobbly...

Still, its appropriate that I'm re-discovering felt, since October 3rd 2009, will be the very first International Day of Felt! Have to get practising...

World Wide Knit in Public Day

We got a great venue for the Kerry WWKIP day this year. We are meeting in The Crafty Alley, a craft shop in Killarney. They have just started doing yarn, and are possibly going to start a regular knitting group. So if you can get an hour free, come on over! We need to show them, and the rest of the world that knitting (and crochet!!) is alive and kicking in the South West!

Its also a great way of putting faces to avatars, meet people you have been chatting to in textile forums such as Ravelry...

All the details are on the WWKIP website, but here they are for you again, so you have no excuse!!


Location: The Crafty Alley Shop, 6B Scotts Street, Killarney
Time: noon-ish
Date: June 13, 2009
Hosted by: The Crafty Alley Shop

How to get there: Located on East Avenue Road at the Scotts Street development (Heatons and Peter marks). Carparking available beside and below the shop.

Please bring: Water, a chair, umbrellas, snacks, etc. Your knitting bits and bobs!

The backup plan is: If it rains dont worry as we will move into the shop to knit away!

This KIP is not knitting exclusive. So, please fellow crocheters, embroiderers, general stitchers, come along too...

Electric Picnic 09

Well, I've been working on it all week, its now in the post.
My proposal for this year's Electric Picnic. The Greencrafts area is going to be bigger this year, and hopefully if we get in, there will be lots of stitchery going on...

Summer's here with a bang!

My Dye Garden is slowly starting to bloom...

Never have enough Geraniums...

One of my favourite plants, Canterbury Bells....

Lavender and Maple



One of my favourite colour combinations is pink and green, amazing the amount of combinations found in nature...



Spuds: The Earlie's are nearly ready!!

The Salad Bowl

Cork Textiles Network Exhibition 2009

For this exhibition I wanted to try combine some of the Irish Crochet Lace pieces I have been working on , and some other medium. I have a sort of mix 'n match attitude to textiles, and love trying to combine techniques and fibres. So, I thought maybe felt and crochet.

I haven't felted in years, and wanted to get back into it. The best work I ever did, was for the finals of my Diploma, these strange felt/scrap metal sculptures. I haven't made anything like them since, and I've decided to try re-explore the methods I used, as I think they are probably my favourite, of all the things I have ever made.
Normally I have what I call emergency felt, lying around. It's like hand-made paper, you can never have enough of it to make emergency artwork, presents, etc... But as I said I haven't felted in ages, so I needed to spend a morning working on felt. And we had the perfect weather for outdoor felting!!

So, I get ever thing ready, all the essentials (as above, the coffee helps but is optional). I have bags of old fleece, to rough for spinning with, so I though I would use up some of that. So, back inside for something I forgot, and when I came out my cat was attacking my lovely pristine, batting!! Pesky cat, though I had to forgive her as she did look very cute...I have never used batting before, and was looking forward to trying it out.

I made a few plain pieces, just to get back into the swing of things, and then started layering with colours. I also wanted to try embedding some crochet to see how that worked.

So felt made, I then spent a few hours experimenting with cutting, snipping, tearing, needle felting my wet felting. Finally, my piece was made, here's a snippet. If you want to see the whole thing, you have to go to the exhibition!!

It starts today, and the opening is at 6pm tomorrow night

St. Fin Barres Cathedral. Cork City. More details on the Cork Textiles Network website...

A quick hour in Cork after dropping off my piece, and I nipped into the yarn shop in the English Market to buy a handful of goodies for the next project/proposal. Which is to attend Electric Picnic 09 again, with an even bigger and better display...Watch this space for details...

Stuck behind a donkey and a trailer on my way home from Cork