My Creative Space

I learned two very valuable lessons today.

No.1 Stitchmarkers are awesome little things which help you to make less mistakes, and save you from having to count to 124 sixteen times a day. (slight exaggeration there on the actual numbers but you get the idea)

Lesson No.2 Never rush a reindeer.

Poor wee Rudy here had two front legs at the back and two back legs on the front. It was all a bit wobbly and not a good look for one of Santa's little helpers. Hopefully we're on the right track now but he's just going to have to lie down till tomorrow. It's been a bit of a day...

Time now to link up with more effective creative spaces

And there are only 24 sleeps to go.

Fiona x

My Creative Space

Mrs Claus is a wee bit fed up and could do with a bit of advice.

The question is.. How old is too old to be wearing matching outfits with your husband?

'It's all very well for these young ones,' she says but she really would like a bit of a change.

She's been wearing red all her married life and quite fancies a nice blue dress that she saw on the internet, but Santa says No Ho Ho..

She even thought a new hair style might be nice. Santa wants her to keep it white like his and wouldn't let her dye it brown, so she tried something a bit more extreme.

Shaved her head and got her nose pierced..

Not really a good look but it was worth it to see Santa's face.

It's all grown back again now, which is probably just as well.

The one thing she does like though, is her new red knickers.

I'm running  a wee bit late this week but hopefully there's still enough time to join ourcreativespaces

Blogtober 13th

My Creative Space this week comes courtesy of MY BIG MOUTH.

The one that opens at all the wrong times and lands me with projects that I wish I could say no to.

So there I was showing  some friends what I did with a 20 inch zip and a piece of ribbon ....

And now I'm trying to do it again, while taking step by step photos

Our Rural has been invited to entertain another Rural in November and despite telling everyone that I'm really not that entertaining I have have been volunteered to demonstrate.

Not quite a silk purse from a sow's ear.

Just a little coin purse purse from a zip and a ribbon.

You will find a link to the original tutorial for this purse on fruitfulfulfushion

Blogtober 6th

I never really understood the concept of fingerless gloves.

Surely if it's cold enough for half a glove then it's cold enough for a whole glove.

I even found a pattern for wrist warmers. Why would you want to warm your wrists and leave your hands out in the cold ?

These impossible questions were answered for me this week by a child minder from Meigle. I now know that fingerless gloves are really handy when pushing baby buggies and tending to the babies in the buggies. Childminders and young mums alike enjoy the benefit of keeping the chill off the the top of their hands while maintaining freedom of movement in their fingers. 

And  ..... on particularly cold mornings wrist warmers are great for stopping the cold wind blowing up the sleeves of your jacket when pushing the buggies.

 And so, armed with this new information, I have been trying out some fingerless glove patterns today.

This is my favourite one so far. Ably modelled by my youngest daughter, who tells me that fingerless gloves are pretty cool even when you don't have a buggy to push.

Time now to visit ourcreativespaces and see what everyone else has been doing today.

Fiona x

Crochet and Crowds

I wouldn't really describe myself as an extrovert but I have been learning this week that I am  bit of a show off at heart.

We are now half way through Perthshire Open Studios and I'm having  a ball. It's so nice to have so many visitors to the shop who are genuinely interested in what I make, how I make it and where I get my ideas from.

I've been trying to have little projects on the go all week so that I can have something to demonstrate for my visitors. Crocheting bracelets has proved to be a crowd pleaser. Of course you can't keep doing the same thing over and over without getting just a little bit bored so I looked out a crochet book with a section on edging patterns and came across this one. It looks rather nice in gold and silver coloured wires with little glass pearls. I may be biased.... but I do rather like this one.

There are loads of creative people showing off all over Perthshire. Just look HERE and see.

And for the rest of the world just look HERE and visit Our Creative Spaces

Eight days to go...

..... till the start of PERTHSHIRE OPEN STUDIOS

You know that feeling when you know that you are well organised ?

It's not a feeling that I often relate to but for once I am well prepared. One of the best bits about POS is that visitors and customers are going to be expecting to see me working in my space, so even if we are mega busy over the first few days I can replenish my stock and call it "in house entertainment." 

Since it's Thursday today it's time to show what I've been doing in My Creative Space.

But first I have a small confession to make..... I went to the Scottish Bead Fair in Perth last Sunday and spent a small fortune on stuff I don't really need but just couldn't resist.... Hopefully I'll be so busy over the open studios week that I will find that I really do need all the gorgeous beads that I bought.

You may remember that I dabbled with Chain Maille earlier this year. A lovely blogger called Ady told me about a great web site called Bead Sisters who supply all sorts of funky coloured jump rings and rubber 'O' rings for chain maille. I resisted the temptation to order anything from them despite being sorely tempted.

Now guess which supplier I spotted the minute I walked into the hall on Sunday.  Oh yes... Bead Sisters were right there in front of me.

So.. this week I have been trying out new chain maille patterns. What do you think ?

Join the Creative fun and pop over HERE

My Creative Space

Today is the day to share my creative space with other crafty and talented bloggers.

Now the question is... what have I been doing in my space today ?

I finished off this teeny tiny newborn baby hat. I was at a little craft fair on Saturday where I had a selection of hats for adults and children and was asked if I would make a little blue one for a new baby boy who is due very soon. Do you ever feel the urge to say " No, I'd rather sell the ones I've already made. "

I actually know someone who regularly says that to her customers and surprisingly they seem happy to accept her terms. I don't think I'm bold enough to do that though.

I've nearly finished my first crocheted rattle and just have to secure some loose ends. This is a really clever idea which I found in a recent crochet magazine. The rattle bit is made by putting a few beads into a little  sealable pot. I used a plastic egg which I had left over from Easter, surrounded it with toy stuffing and stitched in the loose ends. Now all I have to do is make a matching blanket and it will be ready for the baby gift corner.

I could have finished the rattle properly if only I could stick to one job at a time. I was easily distracted by some shiny buttons after lunch and decided to replenish my stock of button necklaces and bracelets. What had been a fairly healthy display of button jewellery, was looking a wee bit depleted after some recent sales. By this time tomorrow I'll be fully stocked again, unless, of course, I get distracted again.

Meanwhile, the idea of showing my Perthshire Open Studios brochures in the window along with Andy's rocking horse is proving to be a bit of a crowd puller and I've had lots of people popping in to get more info about the event. Oh, and I even remembered to send some copy to the local paper to promote the Open Studios week.

I think that's enough work for one day and it's now a good time to visit ourcreativespaces

Join in by clicking the link.



My Creative Space.

What could be better than a little dolly to match your blanket ?

Maybe a little dolphin to match your blanket.

I decided our baby corner needed something new and colourful. These little blankets are just the right size for tucking little toes in, all nice and cosy in the car seat. And since each one has it's own matching toy they make the perfect travel set.

For once I can honestly say that I didn't go out and buy any more yarn this week. The benefits of keeping even the tiniest bits of yarn have certainly paid off and my secret stash ( the one we don't admit to ) is looking a lot more respectable.

Now I will just have to put together some other colour combinations and make some more baby travel sets.

I'm off to visit some creative spaces now. Why not come along HERE

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



I wish I was an Aran Cardigan...

He really doesn't look very happy,does he, sitting in the corner with his arms folded.

Maybe I should go back to the start of the story and explain the title.

France '98, to many people was all about football. There was a World Cup or European Cup, or some kind of big football tournament in France that year. But that meant nothing to the Dorchester Family. For us, France '98 was going to be our first foreign holiday as a family and we were really looking forward to it.

To go back even further.. when I was a wee girl, my sister, mum and I always seemed to get a new Aran Cardigan for our holidays. Walks around our campsite after dinner were always preceded by the instruction "don't forget your aran cardigan, it'll be chilly later"

So I decided that for our first camping holiday in France I would be needing and aran cardigan. I started knitting in plenty of time, or so I thought, but it wasn't finished by the time we set off on our big adventure. Needless to say, I somehow survived a holiday without an aran cardigan.

France '98 was so much fun that we soon arranged France '99 and a couple of weeks before we set off I got my knitting out and managed another sleeve. Yet again time got the better of me and another holiday without an aran cardigan passed by. I could go on and on and on about the inch that was knitted in 2000 just before we moved house.. the time I thought about knitting the second sleeve but couldn't find the pattern... the time I found the pattern and finally, the time I admitted I had completely lost interest in the cardigan and didn't even like the pattern any more.

And now, this morning, the last of the aran wool was used to finish off this little chap.

He was allowed to climb on the back of my chair.

Had a wee shot on the rocking horse.

And yet he still looks a wee bit sad. Dreaming, perhaps, about what it would have been like to be an Aran Cardigan.

Was it all too much , do you think, for him to see me start work on a new cardigan this afternoon ?

Visit Creative Spaces HERE

Our Creative Spaces

This week I have spent a fair amount of time rooting around in the "change tin".

I think everyone has one of these where various family members drop their loose change. The denomination of the loose change depends very much on the person doing the dropping, the size of their purse, or the depth of their pockets. You very rarely find anything more than a twenty pence in ours, though occasionally a fifty pence appears. However, for what I had in mind, I was happy with the selection of one pence pieces at my disposal.

I was inspired by a Creative Space which I found last week and wanted to make a special bracelet for myself. Wendy at littlegreenbums had been playing with loose change too.

This is what I made.

I chose five pennies from five special years, representing five special people in my life.

I drilled two holes in each coin, filed and tidied the holes, polished all the coins with my favourite new toy... a perfect little mini drill with polishing attachments... then linked them all with little copper coloured jump rings. I was so pleased with my special bracelet that I went back to the change tin and found five special coins for my sister.

If you want to join in with other creative people sharing their creative spaces click Our Creative Spaces which is a new blog from Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

Today I was working on a special order for a customer using my super funky French Knitting bobbin.

Everybody seems to have a different name for this particular craft.

French Knitting, Catty tails, Ratty tails, bobbin knitting, dolly knitting, are just some of the names I have heard of.

Anyway, my little bobbin, dolly, thingamyjig is a long way removed from the hand made thingamyjigs that my sister and I used when we were young. Way back in the 'olden days' .. possibly before the invention of plastic.. when thread used to come on wooden bobbins, we waited patiently till mum had finished two reels of thread. My dad hammered four small nails into the empty reels and  voila !! our own little knitting thingamyjigs. Somehow we never really made anything other than long knitted tubes which could be used as scarfs for our dolls.

Todays project involved fine wire and cute little square beads and became a pretty little necklace.

My customer was passing by just as I finished and I forgot to get a photograph.

I'll just have to do another one now and be sure to get a picture.

Pop on to kootoyoo to see more Creative Spaces. Just click HERE 

My Creative Space

The last time we had a royal wedding of this magnitude I was 18 years old with a boyfriend who feared that weddings were infectious. Obviously, spending the day glued to the television watching the wedding would have given me ideas so we spent the morning climbing a hill behind the quarry nearby. The afternoon was spent listening to Elvis Costello and The Clash. A fine musical selection and well known antidote to romantic notions. This time round it will be an ordinary working day for me, but the bonus of having the shop next to the house means I shall no doubt pop my head round the door from time to time for a wee look.

So.. to get in the mood I used my creative space this morning to crochet my own little royal wedding cake.

Cute....?

More creative spaces are over HERE at Kootoyoo

My Creative Space

We all know by now that my official status as a jewellery maker has taken a bit of a hit recently as I have become more and more obsessive about my new love of crochet. Of course I decided to learn to crochet so that I could use the techniques I learned to create new and exciting jewellery. I just never planned on getting so carried away with myself.

So.. to the point of todays post.

It's Thursday again which means that it's time to share what I have been working on in My Creative Space. Feel free to click HERE and visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

I came across an interesting looking pattern and decided to challenge my crochet and jewellers skills at the same time.

I had hoped to be able to work this pattern in fine wire but that proved a bit tricky so I used a shiny, textured crochet thread instead. Now that I have done the pattern once though I think I will probably try again with wire as I have a feeling that it could result in something fabulous. How's that for confidence then ???

What I should have said, is that I would love to be good enough to crochet  a fabulous, unique and totally gorgeous necklace using fine enamelled wire and although I'm not entirely sure that I'm up to the task, I'm prepared to give it a go. I'll let you know how I get on.

 Whilst I can see ways of improving this one, or maybe just adapting it a little bit, I must admit that I am pretty pleased with myself.

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

My Creative Space

I've been Chain Mailling again. This chunky bracelet chain was made with big 14mm jump rings and is another Byzantine chain. I want to try different sizes and patterns to see how they all turn out and I love the colour of this one.

This one is based on a Box Chain but I misjudged how many links it would take... a mixture of the size of the links and the extra chunkiness of the pattern. But I suppose it's all part of learning a new skill. I adapted the basic box chain by splitting it up with flat rings which made it go that bit little bit further.

Some people might call this a mistake but I think I will call it an Original.

More Creative Spaces are over at Kootoyoo

My Creative Space.

It's been a wee while since I shared my creative space and today might not be the best day for my return.

It's been a complete nightmare of a day, interupted by endless phone calls and text messages about my poor broken car. On the plus side, it's no longer broken, and I finally managed to get a lift to Perth to collect it from the garage before they closed for the day. But it was all really frustrating. I love my car and seeing it being driven away on the back of a recovery truck yesterday was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Anyway, amidst all this frustration I decided to get to work on a repair job for a customer.

Now if there is one thing I hate ....

Actually while I'm ranting, I may as well say that there are a few things I hate.

Ironing

The News of the World

Red Audis (one ran me off the road into a ditch last year and I, irrationally blame all red Audis)

Phone calls from telemarketing firms ..especially the automated ones.

So, back to my creative space... If there is one thing I hate it's admitting defeat. It was a close call today though. I was challenged with the task of restringing a five stranded pearl necklace. One strand was intact but since the catch was broken, that had to be restrung along with the others. Two strands had been restrung previously by the owner who admitted she had made a bit of a mess of it. One strand was almost intact but snapped at one end and may or may not have lost some of the tiny 1mm pearls. And the final strand was mostly in bits in a plastic bag. So there we have it... Around 600 assorted pearls, ranging in sizes from 8mm down to the tiny 1mm.

Here I am reaching the final straight. Time to decide on the clasp.

Don't even try to guess how many times I was on my hands and knees, scouring the floor for dropped beads.

Obviously no photos of that stage as I was way beyond the mood for framing shots and the chance of me throwing the camera was just too great.

In the end it was all worth while.

I'm really pleased to have been able to bring this sixty year old necklace back to life and I hope it's owner will be equally pleased.

To enjoy some less stressed out Creative Spaces just click HERE and visit kootoyoo.



Two sides to every story..

On the inside of My Creative Space is a lovely fluffy snowflake.

And on the outside.... real live icicles.

Visit lots of creative spaces at kootoyoo.

Just click HERE

My Creative Space.

It's been all go in here this week.

It started on Sunday morning, bright and early with a collection of tractors and cherry-pickers on the street as the 'boys' of the town started to put up the Christmas lights.

The average age of the 'boys' can only be imagined but they are a hardy lot who work really hard every year to make our little town gorgeous over the festive period.

I was hoping for an action shot but got out with my camera just in time for tea break.

Believe me though, they worked really hard and we are all really looking forward to the switch on parade this coming Saturday.

Saturday 27th November is Victorian Day. This is the day when the shop workers (and anyone else who feels like it) get the chance to dress up in fancy dress and just enjoy ourselves and be a little bit silly. I can't wait to get our costumes out this year as we had such a good time last year.

The end of the day sees the torchlight parade up the street and the switch on of the Christmas lights.

There is a prize for the best-dressed staff on the day, but really it's just good fun.

Victorian Day is also the target for getting our windows ready for the Christmas Window Competition.

I'm just about there now.

A quick break now for dinner and I will be back with the results of what went on in My Creative Space today. In the meantime have a look at other spaces HERE at Kootoyoo.

( little confession here.... I can't get my photos to load just now and I really want to hit the computer... so in the interest of my sanity I will leave and come back later..)