Every Flavour of Yarn

I have just returned from London and a great event for the Craft Council. Their brilliant initiative Craft Club held a training day where myself and other craft designers including Katie Bevan, Lindsay Chalfont Brown and Betson Corkhill all taught craft skills to volunteers. They will in turn take this knowledge and pass it on through teachers and workshops in schools to get craft back on the curriculum. It was a wonderfully successful day with lots of people turning up which bodes well for the project.


As you can see I decide to do a culinary theme with my apprentices! We had such a wonderful time, people got really creative with the dishes, you can see the great carbonara above with peas and ham and of course a glass of red wine to wash it down. Two amazing cooked breakfasts were put together by group effort with fried and scrambled eggs and some lovely detail pieces such as the big slab of bacon and a gorgeous little mushroom. I also had some people putting together a very beautiful salad, which if you were working in schools, could easily be used to initiate conversation about health as well as creativity.
As you can imagine after such a long day, I went home put my feet up and had a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.

Urban Crochet

For my first Found Object I am posting this photograph I took in Melbourne, Australia (Burke Street for those that know) of some wonderful urban crochet. It has been heralded as the most beautiful form of street art and I can understand why, someone has chosen to decorate a tree with something soft and tactile which will not cause it harm, or damage the neighborhood aesthetically. I love graffiti murals and any public art that can make one smile just by walking down a certain street

Other great examples here:
http://yarnbombing.com/

Country Crochet

Chanel's 2010 barn yard conceived collection had me very excited about summer crochet patterns.

I was particularly taken with the detailing on the dresses and of course the handbags!

Perhaps it is just having done the shoot for my part on Kirstie's Homemade Home (will blog on such later) but crochet seems to be everywhere I turn at the moment.

I know there is a crochet handbag I made a while ago and I think I'll go and find it and use it to make a bright beautiful new one to carry around as my summer must-have accessory!

Vancouver Olympics 2010

I had the great pleasure to design the Parade Wear for the British team at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I used the Union Jack colors for inspiration as you can see in my design board, I wanted something clean and classic with a degree of comfort for their hardworking inhabitants! I met up with Shelley Rudman, at the British Airways HQ for a photo shoot and fitting, it was a real honor to meet such an amazing athlete. Here is a picture of Shelley wearing my new designs, we were able to catch her just before she left for Vancouver where she will be competing over the coming weeks. I send her my best wishes and the best of luck for her extraordinary effort in the Skeleton event.

http://www.shelleyrudman.com/
http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-skeleton/

Be Inspired

Inspiration for patterns often comes from arranging threads and samples together to get a feel for a new design and the colors I intend to use

How to Crochet

Slip Knot

Make a circle with the tail end of the yarn, crossing the tail end over the ball end. Let the tail end drop down behind the loop, then use the crochet hook to catch the tail end and pull it through the circle. Holding the tail end and the ball end in your left hand, pull the hook in the opposite direction to create the first loop on the hook. There will be a tight knot under it.

Foundation Chain

After you have made the slip knot on your hook, the next step is to create the foundation chain for the crochet fabric. The project instructions will tell you how many chain stitches to make to start. The abbreviation for chain is ‘ch’.

Step 1

With the slip knot on the hook, grip the tail end of the yarn between thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Holding the working yarn taut in your left hand, pass the tip of the hook in front of the yarn, then under and around it. Catch the yarn in the lip of the hook.

Step 2

Draw the yarn through the loop on the hook. This completes the first chain and leaves one loop on the hook.

Step 3

To make the next chain, pull a new loop through the loop on the hook. Make the number of chains required, keeping the stitches slightly loose so you can work into them easily on your first row.

Slip Stitch Crochet

After making a foundation chain of the required number of chains. Insert the tip of the hook through the second chain from the hook, then catch the yarn with the hook (called ‘wrap the yarn around the hook’) and draw it through both the chain and the loop on the hook. This completes the first slip stitch and leaves one loop on the hook. Work the next slip stitch into the next chain in the same way. Continue as required.

How to Knit

Step 1

With the cast-on stitches on the needle in your left hand, insert the right-hand needle from left to right and from front to back through the first cast-on stitch.

Step 2

Take the yarn from the ball on your forefinger (the working yarn) around the point of the right-hand needle.

Step 3

Draw the right-hand needle and yarn through the stitch, thus forming a new stitch on the right-hand needle, and at the same time slip the original stitch off the left-hand needle. Repeat these steps until all the stitches from the left-hand needle have been worked. One knit row has now been completed.