My Creative Space

I've been a busy little beaver in my creative space this week.

I love visiting 'Our Creative Spaces' on a Thursday to see what  other crafty people are doing around the world. Click HERE to join in.

It looks like I've made a bit of a woolly club sandwich here, when really I have made nine lovely knitted and crocheted scrarfs and shawls.

Okay.. so it's summer in Scotland and even though the weather has been terrible this week, it's not really the season to be buying new scarfs. I'm calling this 'forward planning' since last winter I spent November and December crocheting hats and scarfs like a mad woman just to keep up with demand.

My Creative Space

My Creative Space today was ever so slightly hi-jacked at lunch time when a text message reminded me of a deadline I had forgotten about.

The simple question "Is your bear ready for the Teddy Bear Trail ?" lead to the one word answer "oops"

I've mentioned a few times about our various window competitions here in Alyth.

The teady bear trail is slightly different in that there is no prize for any shop keepers. The idea is that by having a Teddy Bear theme in all our windows over the summer will encourage people to take a walk around town, looking in windows and answering the questions on an entry form along the way. The hope of course is that people will become more aware of what is available in local shops and will therefore be more supportive to local businesses.

This years teddies will all have different flowers which have to be identified.

The long answer to the question was that my flower was ready but Teddy ( who I had decided, perhaps a little rashly, to knit ) only had one arm, his head was in the bag with his ears and his body was only half stuffed. Poor Teddy.

So this afternoon, instead of making jewellery, I was knitting, stuffing and sewing him all together.

Before he got down to work, posing in the window with a fetching button-hole flower, he had a wee shot on the rocking horse.

To be honest, he is a wee bit chubby, and his head is a wee bit wobbly but he is quite a cutie.

I hope people will recognise what kind of flower he is wearing because for once in my life I actually followed a pattern for this one.

Feel free to answer that one but unless you are prepared to walk round Alyth on a rainy summer afternoon there's no prize for getting it right.

Visit other creative spaces by clicking HERE



Bunnies Galore

There appears to be an abundance of bunnies in Alyth today.

We have just enjoyed a beautifully sunny and warm weekend and I'm full of hope for a lovely summer this year. I do hope I'm right.

With only two weeks till Easter, and full of the joys of spring I decided that today was the day to start putting my Easter Window display together. Oh yes.. there's another shield at stake but I fear the competition will be fierce this time round.

So would you like a sneak preview ?

I'm not quite finished and I think I will rearrange things a bit more until I am satisfied but here is the progress so far.

I've been crocheting bunnies and carrots and daisies to my heart's content for the last couple of months. I think somehow I would like to create a hill for the little guys to play on though that's going to require some thinking about.

I love my 'easter tree' decorated with eggs and ribbons. It reminds me of our holiday in Eastern Europe this time last year, where the trees in the town squares were decorated in ribbons, and where the fabulous Easter markets were an absolute treat.

I'm not liking how bad the paintwork on my windowsill looks. A reminder of how harsh our winter was and a reminder that I need to speak to my painter to get things tidied up again. 

And here are some more bunnies along the street in my friend Mel's window.

I love her daffodils on the back cloth. They are made from cut out paper petals and fairy-cake cases.

It's such a simple idea but they are really effective.

Hopefully I'll have some more windows to show in the next few days.

My Creative Space.

This weekend is the annual Federation show for Angus SWRI. It's open to the public on Friday and Saturday at the Reid Hall in Forfar. Today was set up and judging so my creative space was cleared out this morning when my friend Cathy came along to collect my entries. If you were reading here last year you may remember me saying how bad I am for leaving things till the last minute. The schedule for the show comes out in September, and like last year I ticked off a few things I would like to enter for and this time told myself that I would work at a steady pace and get everything ready well in advance.

So ... what do you think happened ?

Well I finished off my 'Novelty Doorstop' on Monday afternoon.

My 'Button Necklace' wasn't so much of a challenge as I make lots of these to sell in the shop, but I did have a bit of a challenge just choosing which one to enter.

My 'Knitted Toy' was a bit of an afterthought.

 I have been busy crocheting bunnies for Easter and had kind of forgotten that I had said I would knit a toy.

This little guy was knitted on my day off on Tuesday, sewn up and stuffed on Wednesday and has his nose and eyes sewn on at 11pm on Wednesday night. I really should be better organised in future....

And finally this 'Christmas Themed Cross-stitch' was re-framed on Wednesday afternoon as I realised the original frame exceded the size specified in the schedule.

I think I now qualify for a big fish supper from the chippie for tea tonight. Or does that sound like a reward for being disorganised ?

See Creative Spaces from all over at kootoyoo

Reasons to be cheerful

Two weeks since the snow started falling on Alyth we are enjoying (???) a bit of a thaw today.

With temperatures soaring above freezing point to the dizzy heights of 2 degrees it's a great chance to get the paths and drives cleared up a bit. Icicles have been falling steadily off of door and window frames. My son 'helped' to dislodge a massive icicle yesterday from the back of the house, which in one way was good, ie it's not threatening to pull the drainpipe away from the wall. However it landed on my rotary clothes line and left it totally mangled. Hey ho... I wasn't planning on hanging my washing outside anyway.

The big reason to be cheerful though is that I won the Christmas Window Competition. Yoo Hoo..

If you didn't see my previous post then click HERE 

I'm really chuffed to have been picked as the best window in town.

Now that the streets are getting a bit clearer of snow I will get out and about and show you some of the other window displays over the weekend.

Wherever you are, stay warm xoxo

We're walking in the air......

So here it is in all it's glory.

This years Christmas Window display is The Snowmans Christmas Ceilidh

Good old Santa sitting in the corner waiting patiently for his guitar solo, while Jock Bon Jovi, the famous Perthshire Piper plays 'Highland Cathedral' on his pipes.

Tough competition this year with some really good windows around the town.

Judging isn't for another week or so, so I will keep you posted on how we get on and show some more of the windows just as soon as I get them photographed. Bit tricky to do that today as what feels like a mountain of snow fell over the weekend. But hey ho.. at least it feels Christmassy around here.

RSVP

Dear Buy Design,

Thank you for inviting me to your Christmas Window Ceilidh.

I can't wait to see all my friends again.

I have my outfit sorted and all I need now is a bit of lipstick.

Lots of love from Sally McSnow.

xoxo



My Creative Space

I finished knitting a scarf for myself. Maybe not a major achievement for most people...

However, these days everything that I make is destined for the shop so it's a bit of a novelty to make something and keep it.

I used Can Can yarn from Rico Designs, which has to be the strangest yarn I have ever used, and a little bit quirky to work with, but the results are amazing.

The colour doesn't look as gorgeous in this photo as it really is which is a shame but never mind. The ruffles look really complicated but it's actually really easy to knit. Just 7 stitches and knit for150cm.

You have to knit into the yarn rather than wrap it round the needle, and as if by magic, a super ruffled scarf appears.

 

I thought you might also like to see this mini granny square, crocheted with 0.2mm wire.

This is for a customer of mine who wants to disguise an unsightly button on an evening bag.

The purple is the same colour as her dress so it will coordinate nicely with her outfit.

I'm off to visit some more creative spaces at kootoyoo and see what everyone else has been doing today.

Fiona x

How to pass an hour....or so

I've been thinking about tutorials recently. I love when I come across a 'how to' post on the blogs that I visit and I reckon it's only fair that I share a little something in appreciation of all the lovely tutorials that I have enjoyed. Now taking into account my dubious photography, and having realised just how tricky it is to point, shoot and knit at the same time.... Here is something simple that my friend Cathy showed me. 

If you are anything like me, it's quite possible that you will have some fancy/fashion yarn at the back of the cupboard. Something which caught your eye, which you just had to buy and which you still haven't found a purpose for. I think the pink one was called Firefly but I'm not sure about the other one. They usually come in 25 or 50 gram balls and 25 should be enough for one scarf.  Recommended needle size for these yarns is 3.5 / 4mm but this little pattern uses 10mm needles and knits up really quickly.

There are no fancy stitches, just knit.

Here is one I made earlier.

Start by casting on one stitch.

Knit one

Increase one stitch

Increase in both stitches

Then increase one stitch in the first and last stitch of every row.

Keep going until you have around 80 stitches, making sure that you have about 3-4 meters of yarn left for casting off. I usually aim for 86 stitches, but if you are running short of yarn you can get away with 70 stitches and still have a nice wee scarf.

Cast off loosely then weave in the ends.

 The only problem is that every time I make one I sell two and now I'm needing to replenish that empty corner at the back of my wool cupboard...

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all your tutorials.

Fiona x

My Creative Space

My space this week is pretty busy. There are just under five weeks till Perthshire Open Studios

and just about five months till Christmas which means lots of preparation, lots of making and lots of controlled panic..

My pattern this week reads like this..

*knit 1, solder1, crochet 2 tog. Rpt from *

insert 1 tea then start again.

 Have a visit to Kootoyoo for some more creative spaces.

You can also visit Perthshire Open Studios on Facebook HERE

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Here he is then. All stitched and stuffed and looking gorgeous. Think he could do with a little bit of blusher on his cheeks but apart from that I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Can you tell what it is yet? Part 2

This is getting really cute and I can't wait to see it finished. I'm not so sure that I will want to give it away but it won't be long before the Christmas window has to be done. Off to spend some more time with my knitting needles.

Can you tell what it is yet?

What do you think I am making? When I was a little girl I loved watching Rolf Harris painting huge murals and telling stories along the way. Half way through he would always ask "can you tell what it is yet?" No prizes for guessing but stay tuned for the final article. I hope it's going to be wonderful.

Only ten weeks till Christmas. Does that worry anyone else?

The Den The Dog and the daffodils

It's been a lovely day here so me and my wee dog went for a walk in The Den of Alyth. Only five minutes walk from the house, The Den is a lovely natural woodland area and Angel (the dog) loves to run around looking for interesting smells and hopefully some woodland creatures. She never catches anything, and I don't think she would know what to do if she did, but she does enjoy a good run.


She is looking a bit grubby here but that's not surprising as she has just run up this banking chasing a wee bird which flew away as soon as Angel reached the top.

Just a little bit of work from today. Sorry if you were looking forward to seeing daffodils, but carnations didn't scan as well with the dog and the den.

So today I have been knitting flowers. I'm not too sure what I am going to do with them yet but I think they are quite nice.

The snowdrop is my favourite I think. They might make nice brooches but I still need to work out the details.

This one was a bit fiddly to do but since lavender is grown locally in Perthshire I imagine it could be quite popular.

Off now to try some more flowers.

Fiona