Colours and Patterns and Tools....oh my!!

Frozen Canal

I'm back from my holidays earlier than expected. Although my hols was shorter than planned, it felt like longer....Long saga about frozen treacherous roads, frozen water pipes, no working toilets/showers, empty water reservoirs, cabin fever, tummy bugs, etc... There was a break in the weather, and I made a run for it. I am glad to be home, be clean, and have another Christmas over with. Well, I'm actually glad to have 2009 over with it was a very extreme year for me. Not just for me but for the country of Ireland in general. We've had all the weather and scandals a nation can handle in one year. But, this isn't a moany blog, its a textile blog, so here's some Colour and Patterns and Tools...Oh My!! (I had to watch the Wizard of Oz at 9 am this morning...)

COLOURS

The best part of Christmas is of course Fairy lights. I love fairy lights, so much so I went a bit bananas one evening with the camera, trying to take a nice photo of my lights. Here's the results....

PATTERNS

When you go on your holidays, normally you wait till you're on the road before taking pictures. But when I went to pack the car, there was the most amazing patterns over the whole thing. I had to pull the camera out and start taking pictures.

and TOOLS....OH MY!

This is really the oh my bit. You might have thought I was jammy enough to buy one beautiful working spinning wheel for cheap. (And she is a real beauty, you can see here here). but how about buying a 2nd spinning wheel, another real beauty, and almost in working condition!! I found this baby on gumtree.ie. The ad was a few months old, and I presumed it would be gone, but rang anyway. To my great surprise, not only was the wheel not gone, but no-one else had even called about it. It took me a few months to get down and actually see it, as I had to drive to Cork, but I had decided to buy it whether it work or not. It is a.. oh..beautiful old, old, Saxony wheel. Almost in working condition, just needs a bit of love here and there.

The lady I bought it off turned out to be a carbon copy of myself, a dabbler in all things textile and we had a great chat. You should have heard her stories keeping angora bunnies.... She was a bit sad to part with the wheel, but knew she wouldn't be using it. And since I kept gushing about how beautiful it was, knew it was going to a loving home. I have never seen a wheel like this up close. It has a double thingy, and the thingy is adjustable for tension. God, I need to learn more new spinning wheel words...

She also gave me a pile of books, including everything from felting to rug weaving. In it is a beautiful book called The Wool Book by Margaret Dixon. It has a big picture of a Saxony wheel, and I will, over the next week, learn all the proper terms for my new restoration project.

I am really looking forward to 2010. There are so many exciting events on the horizon, and you will just have to wait until the New Year to hear about them....


Best Wishes to All, and for god's sakes take care on the roads.....

Happy Christmas and New Year!!

A very quick post, because its late and I should be in bed... Tomorrow is going to be spent packing, and I know since I'm going to the land of appalling dial-up, I wont get the chance to go online over the Xmas. So I'd just like to say Happy Christmas and New Year to anyone that knows me or even doesn't know me, but reads my humble blog...

It's going to be an exciting 2010, I'm not going to let anything away but here's a few teasers...

- exciting news from the Cork Textiles Network!
- shopping news (what have I bought now!!).
- new patterns (for crazy things like crocheted fruit and veg)
- new books
- the Irish Crocheted Coral Reef, more workshops
- the Pink Auction, a charity textile Auction being planned for Autumn in aid of Irish Cancer Society

Looking forward to catching up with everyone next year....

Rainy Days and Lots of Crochet!!

Its been a very busy and exciting week!

I traveled to the library in Macroom on Thursday, to do a Hyperbolic Crochet workshop with the lovely Macroom Purlies. We had a great meeting, talking about the project, and getting a little bit of crochet done. Then on Friday, it was off to meet with The Crafty Knit and Stitchers in The Crafty Alley in Killarney. I knew most of the girls there already, but they very graciously listened to me rabbiting on about the project, and had a go at crocheting some coral!.

A big thanks to Patricia of the Macroom Purlies, who invited me to come, and to Cathy of The Crafty Alley, for letting me take over to promote yet another woolly pastime...

Sunday was spent maning a Crochet Recruitment Stand at the Tralee Christmas Craft Fair. And I have to say, I am astounded at the responce we got. From people who were interested in crochet, crocheting coral, the maths/science side of the project, and the whole reef situation in itself. We were so busy, all day, that we had sore throats by the end of it. All the patterns had been handed out, and I even gave all the stuff, the crocheted coral, the information to the ladies at the Patchwork stand, so they could put on their own crochet workshop!! The fair itself was fantastic, Georgina of Arty Bits, always puts on a great fair, with decorations, Santa and even a live band! And I have to say thanks to her for letting us have a stand, even though we were not selling anything...

And also another big, big, thanks to the lovely Mairead, for helping me at the workshops. When we weren't talking crochet, we were talking all other kinds of fibre crafts!! It was a pleasure to have your company...

So, that's it for now. I feel like I have done my bit for crocheted coral, and am a bit talked out...

Autumn Ends...

It's cold enough to feel like winter at the moment. It's the 2nd of December, and between floods, storms and the flu, its been a tough few weeks. My first workshop got postponed because of the bad weather, so here are the revised workshop listings.

3rd December 11.30am - 12.30pm Macroom Purlies, Macroom Library, Cork
4th December 10am - 12pm The Crafty Knitand Stitchers, The Crafty Alley, Killarney
6th December , 11.00am - 5.00pm Tralee Christmas Craft Fair, Fels Point Hotel, Tralee

We had a great crochet session at The Matchbox, in Listowel last week. The ladies were very impressive in their skills and their ideas for uses of coral! I am going to try to make something a bit festive for the stand at the Christmas Craft Fair, I just hope I have time to do it... I've no photos of anything, because the battery went in my camera, and I haven't been able to find the charger, for what feels like months now... Everything feels like chaos, but hopefully after this weekend, I can catch up on the simple things, making hats, scarves, and gloves for the cold weather!!