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@corrieberry
PSA: Project Cyclops
Iâm sitting in Pret a Manger writing a blog post Iâve had no idea how to write. When you take a few weeks of blogging, you suddenly log on one day and realise you havenât written anything for three months, despite thinking most days âI should write something for Plutonium Muffinsâ.
One of the things Iâve been experiencing this year has been a general fatigue concerning anything to do with socialâŠ
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Menagerie wedding sampler
A couple of weeks ago I went to the wedding of one of my good friends from work and his lovely new wife. The happy couple are the proud owners of a veritable petting zoo, and I wanted to stitch them a wedding sampler to celebrate their nuptials, personalised with representations of their pets.
I filmed the process of putting this together from beginning to end â you can see the video here.
DesigniâŠ
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World Cup Cardigan - a finished object!
World Cup Cardigan â a finished object!
Over the course of the World Cup this year, I finished the âWhoooo am I?â cardigan as promised in my last post. As also stated in that post, the weather is currently far too hot to actually wear the cardigan â we took the photos in the Eden Project and you can guarantee it got taken off the second the photos were done!
Anyway, the sense of accomplishment and urge to keep creating has beenâŠ
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Whoooo am I? A cardigan!
Whoooo am I? AÂ cardigan!
Before I start talking about my new cardigan project (and this blog post ended up being a monster, I really do miss writing), letâs address the fact that itâs been two months since I last posted with a little photo.
Time to get my study onâŠ
This has been my life for the last couple of months â two courses, two exams (one passed and the other results still to come). I was a bit cocky when IâŠ
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Time
Iâve been in a reflective mood recently, and have spent a lot of time drafting blog posts trying to put that feeling into words. As I was taking a walk around Bristol Harbour this morning, I realised that my feelings about time itself were one of the things I was most reflecting on. The long and short of it has been that the space between my daily milestones â the alarm going off, breakfast, theâŠ
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Oh me, my oh my, isn't it strange how time goes by
Oh me, my oh my, isnât it strange how time goes by
A couple of weeks ago I spent quite some time feeling like I was forgetting something. You know what I mean â that niggling feeling at the back of your mind, which forces you to walk into and out of rooms and pause, wondering how you can kick yourself into remembering what it is. Then, at the end of the Guildâs Christmas party, I was driving home and like a thunderbolt from the sky, it hit meâŠ
BirâŠ
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A Doctor Who finish from 2016
In February 2016, I blogged that Iâd started a Doctor Who scarf. This was a major undertaking, and I hadnât really realised what I was taking on when I started! I knitted the scarf as an anniversary present for John, started just after our fourth anniversary. Iâm pleased I did it â will I ever do it again? Almost certainly not!
Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor (image from the BBC) Doctor Who Scarf
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The last time I blogged about Leopardâs Gaze was over a year ago, in September 2016. There was a reason for this â and itâs not that I wasnât working on it! The project was destined as a birthday present for my brother, and I donât know whether or not he reads my blogâŠI didnât want to blog about it and ruin the fact that Iâd finished it! The worst case scenario was that he knew I was working on it, but thought it was never going to get finished, and if he didnât read the blog, well, I was trying to cover my bases.
If you didnât get it from all of that, Leopardâs Gaze is finished!
Pleased as punch! Iâve finished Leopardâs Gaze!
Leopardâs Gaze â the inspiration
In December 2012, my family and I went on holiday to Zambia. While we were there, my brother took the most incredible photograph of a mother leopard. Her name was Alice, and she had a couple of cubs with her. We spent a magical hour or so watching them snooze in the sun before leaving them to carry on. We came away with this photo:
The original photo of Alice, taken by my brother.
At the time I was working in Hobbycraft, and one of the Dimensions Gold Collection kits, Leopardâs Gaze, came in. It was almost a no-brainer. The kit came home with me.
The original artwork for this kit is a painting called âLight Beingâ by an American wildlife artist, Al Agnew. It can be found here.
Al Agnewâs âLight Beingâ, the painting Leopardâs Gaze was based on.
Completing Leopardâs Gaze
Since January 2013, Iâve moved house five times, and the project has moved with me. Itâs travelled from Kent to Devon to London to Devon to Bristol, and had stitches put into it (more in some places, less in others) all along the way. Things really kicked off when we moved to Bristol. We arrived in June last year, and didnât get any of our stuff until October. This meant that I only had the few projects Iâd brought with me when we first arrived, and Leopardâs Gaze was one of them.
After two years of the odd stitch here or there, this is where I was at in 2015.
I got really into it. The job kicked my butt for the first few months â I hadnât been in a corporate environment before, and itâs always hard being the new person, so I had a lot of spare time in the evenings! Before long I was steaming ahead, and I finished stitching on the 18th of February this year.
Iâd decided to get it professionally framed â it had taken me four years to make and it needed someone who knew what they were doing. I washed it when I was done, and it warped pretty spectacularly, so it was a big job. It was framed at a place in Bristol, and after a demonstration, I chose to put Art Glass in the frame. This is specially coated glass that doesnât reflect light as much as regular glass â in the below photo, the clarity of the centre of the pane comes from the Art Glass.
Comparison between Art Glass and regular glass.
My brotherâs birthday was in September this year. It was a big birthday, so we had a bit of a party, and I presented the leopard to him with something of a time-lapse. I filmed his reaction, which you can watch here.
No more Leopardâs Gaze
Our bedroom wall, which homed the leopard for four months, has seemed bare ever since it went to its new home. However, Iâm so pleased Iâve managed to finish and present it to him, despite the fact that I miss it. Iâm hoping it will be an heirloom.
Hanging on our bedroom wall when it was finished.
The project got me back into cross stitch, which I got started on when I was about 13 and hadnât really looked at since. I found out about FlossTube, the cross stitch community on YouTube. I learned a lot of new techniques and also got exposed to a world that Iâd never known existed. It was a bit of an eye-opener!
If you like the project and are into cross stitch, Iâm doing a giveaway for the pattern and remaining floss. The kit is extremely hard to get hold of now, but I never intend to stitch it again and want to give the pattern to someone who will appreciate it! The giveaway is open until the 30th of November 2017, so you still have a couple of weeks to enter for it. Head over to my YouTube channel and this video, which is where Iâm holding the giveaway, if you want to have a go.
The back of my cross stitch.
Life has been a bit emptier since this enormous project got finished. However, Iâve got plenty on the go and a resolution to finish all my WIPs, which you can read about in my last blog. Iâve got more FOs to tell you about from 2017, so watch this space!
Much love,
Corrie xx
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Leopardâs Gaze â a finished object [Giveaway] The last time I blogged about Leopard's Gaze was over a year ago, in September 2016âŠ
Losing my crafting mojo
In my previous blog post I talked about how for the last year Iâve found it hard to find my writing mojo. Today Iâm going to chat about the loss of my crafting mojo. Or, not the loss of it, but rather the way it changed. Iâve still been creating as much as I ever did â but the way I do it and my reasons for crafting are very different.
Where did my mojo go?
At the same time as Nanowrimo lastâŠ
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Something about finding inspiration
Something about finding inspiration
We live in a world where inspiration and information is literally at our fingertips 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesnât matter if youâre on a beach, in the desert, even in the middle of the African bush (trust me â Iâve done it). Ideas from crowd-sourcing, photos from around the world, scientific articles with know-how and information. Social media, of which I was once the biggestâŠ
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A couple of weeks ago I went to my first meeting with the Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. This is something Iâve been meaning to do since moving to Bristol. It only took a year! I put all the meetings in my diary in January, but have had something come up every single month for that Saturday since. Even this month I had three other events I was supposed to be doing â but nothing was going to win, because I was Determined to go.
Stunning sample dyed using madder root, shown at the Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers.
I managed to vlog parts of the day that didnât involve other people, which has a lot more information about the talk than Iâm about to give you. Find it here.
Guilds
Iâve encountered guilds in many different ways and places. When I was in Melbourne a couple of years ago, the only place I could get fibre from for spinning was the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. John and I went on a guild trip to Wonderwool Wales with a friend a few years ago. The British Polymer Clay Guild display had some of the most mind-blowing polymer clay samples Iâve ever seen at the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show. One of my goals for the year was to join my local one.
Before I tell you about the Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, I wanted to discuss what a guild is first. If you search âWhat is a guildâ on Google, you get the below definition:
A medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power.
Obviously we are no longer living in medieval times, so this is a little out of date. However, this is how they got started, and the root purpose is still the same. Guilds exist all over the world for craftsmen of all ilks, and are organisations for people to gather and work towards a common goal. This often takes the form of education nowadays, with members of different guilds all over going to events to spread the news about their craft. They also host educational talks at meetings, which happen on a regular basis. That was the theme behind this monthâs meeting at the Avon Guild.
Beetroot is not a great dye stuff! From a talk by Teresinha Roberts of Wild Colours.
Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers
When I went to Wonderwool Wales with Ricky, youâll probably remember that I bought a new spinning wheel. The main reason for doing this was so I could take my spinning with me when I go places. I did this particularly with joining the guild in mind! The Ashford Traditional is lovely, but not easy to transport.
My new Kiwi 2 went in the car so easily that I basically popped it in, put seat-belts around it (safety first!) and set off. Monthly meetings take place in Long Ashton, a village just outside Bristol. The guild hires a hall in a community centre where they have a storage space for the guild library, a kitchen for tea and coffee, and a space to hold the meeting itself. I didnât take any photos of the hall as I didnât have permission from the people there, so youâll have to use your imaginations.
My Kiwi spinning wheel is nice and easy to transport!
As well as the guild library, people bring in items to sell including fibre they grow from their own sheep, equipment, even homemade jams. I was feeling very anxious about meeting so many new people.Everyone was very welcoming and I saw it through despite the anxiety! I had a great time sitting and chatting to some incredibly interesting people for the first couple of hours. Then it was time for the talk.
Allotment to dye for
The guild meeting was themed around a talk by Teresinha Roberts from Wild Colours. The talk was titled âAllotment to dye forâ. Teresinha told us all about how she got an allotment, started growing stuff and got into dyeing. Sheâs a very interesting person with a fascinating background, with a great textile heritage. Read more here.
Tereshina was a great speaker. The talk was really well organised, starting with Dyson coloured fabric, moving around a table showing naturally dyed samples from yellows to reds to blues, through plants found in Britain to more exotic things including cochineal beetles. There were samples of all the plants, plus swatches showing the colours. There were so many little titbits of information along the way, from adding chalk to woad, to using madder. For the first time ever I didnât have my notebook on me, dâoh! We had the opportunity to buy seeds to grow these plants. I declined this because John is going to be very angry if I bring any more plants home. One dayâŠ
Dyeing with dock root. I adore this colour and am going to go hunting for dock shortly.
Seeds for sale, be still my beating heart.
I was very keen to learn more about mordanting, and she answered all my questions perfectly! One of the best things about the talk was how relaxed, friendly and open she was. People attending were interested as well, which makes such a huge difference. I left feeling incredibly inspired, while also knowing I just donât have the resources to get into yet another type of makingâŠyet!
PHD project
Thereâs a lot more information about the actual talk in the vlog mentioned at the top. Iâm really glad I went to the meeting, and will definitely be going again. One of the things they do is a competition for PHDs â projects half done! I have to take a photo of my PHD, send it in, then display my progress at a meeting later in the year. Iâve gone for my brown alpaca, which I plan to make a jumper from. Watch this space!
A basket full of alpaca fibre to turn into a jumper.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day with the Avon Guild, and recommend you find your local one if you can!
Much love,
Corrie xx
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Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers A couple of weeks ago I went to my first meeting with the Avon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and DyersâŠ
Exploring the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show
Exploring the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show
I spent my weekend exploring the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show. Iâve already shared everything Bloggers Workshop in my first post on this topic here. You can also see my haul on YouTube here!
Now itâs time to show you one of the best things of any show â meeting people and exploring amazing things.
Exploring the Show House of Zandra
Some of the stuff I loved most was among the things IâŠ
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Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Workshop
Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Workshop
This weekend I was invited to a Bloggers workshop at the second summer Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show was held at the NEC in Birmingham. For those who havenât heard of the venue, itâs the National Exhibition Centre and one of the largest exhibition spaces in the UK. The last time I was here on Plutonium Muffins business was for CHSI Stitches. I was delighted to be invited back to enjoyâŠ
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Fuss Free Festival Shawl by Louise Tilbrook
Fuss Free Festival Shawl by Louise Tilbrook
I have a finished object â a Fuss Free Festival Shawl! Iâll wait while you all pick your jaws off the floorâŠitâs been a really long time! In my defence, I actually have finished a few more projects in recent months. However, Iâve been having an issue with Photoshop and havenât been able to edit photos. Iâm hoping to get to that soon, but then have to get around to blogging about them. Watch thisâŠ
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Last weekend I visited Wonderwool Wales with two of my favourite people. Although John didnât actually come in to the show with me, he provided valuable moral support from the cafes of Builth Wells, in the form of encouragement and financial restraint. Ricky, however, did come in with me, and he made the day for me.
I havenât really talked about Ricky much on here. He used to do my job, so we worked with each other closely until I found my feet in the role. We have similar personalities, a love of craft, and importantly a mutual appreciation of the fabulous fun you can have with fibre. When I decided I was going to Wonderwool, it made less sense not to invite Ricky than it did to invite John. (Try wrap your head around that, I think it means what I mean but Iâm not really sure!)
With two of my faves in Builth Wells, visiting Wonderwool Wales.
This is a truly monstrous post, so grab a cuppa and enjoy!
Walking in a Wooly Wonderland
So, Wonderwool. Three massive halls in an agricultural showground, filled with all the fun one can have with fibre in its many forms. Trying to follow my rules for visiting Wonderwool, we did a first sweep of the place, trying not to get lost. This took from 10am to 3pm, so it wasnât really a first sweep, and more an in-depth examination of as many stalls as we could manage before we dropped!
This is one of my absolute favourite shows. The size of the halls means that although there are tonnes of people, you donât feel too overwhelmed by everyone. There are also loads of exhibitors, with a huge variety of wares. The animals that make it are also a big draw for me, although I do feel sorry for them. This year there was the most adorable nanny angora goat with her twin kids. They were incredibly cute and we had more than one visit with them.
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Llareggub
I particularly enjoyed one of this yearâs curated exhibits, a felt Llareggub made by a group of 30 crafters, with an intense amount of detail protected under a huge dome. Llareggub is the village from âUnder Milkwoodâ by Dylan Thomas, and the exhibit was put together in 2014 to celebrate 100 years since his birth. Each felt building is augmented with hundreds of additional bits and pieces made using materials ranging from Fimo, to painted toothbrush lids, to shrink plastic.
This is an astounding piece of work. Each building was crafted by a different person and we spent a long time chatting to the lady who made the sweet shop! Find out more about the group here. Iâm all inspired to make little cottages for house warming presents now. Watch this space!
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Felt
Ricky is a felter, and as a result we paid a lot more attention to the felt than I would normally. Iâm always astonished by what can be achieved with a bit of water, soap and time. The needle-felting also really caught my eye â this is probably why my photos are felting heavy! People whose stalls I particularly enjoyed included:
Ali Scott felt artist: I fell in love with her three musketeers piece and bought a souvenir postcard of this. Her colours were stunning.
Jenny Barnett: I learned the basics of needle felting from Jenny. She has a new book coming outâŠthe first is excellent and Iâm waiting with bated breath for the next instalment, which will include wet felting.
Black Dog and Ginger Cat: Someone who runs workshops, and has done a truly incredible project felting tiny, perfect bees.
The Makerss: Larger felt pieces that are incredibly charming, and very engaging owners. They also have a book that is excellent.
Iona MacKenzie Laycock: A truly unique artist, who I will dedicate a whole blog post to at some point in the near future.
Taylored Felt: Innovative ways of framing, as well as sheep heads felted from the fleece of the sheep depicted. Sheâs based in Stroud and does workshops there.
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Knitting and Spinning
My eyes were not only for the felt, obviously. We headed over to John Arbon first to nab some Alpaca Supreme, as every year I leave it slightly too late and they run out before I get there. I also got some cut silk cocoons from Oliver Twists to make some art yarn.
We also made a point of going to Debonnaire and admiring her sparkly selection. I didnât want to just buy a skein that would languish in my stash. Instead, I spent some time carefully looking at the pattern samples and choosing one. The Silk Wave Shawl* is a simple pattern that only requires one skein of yarn. Itâs also easy enough for TV knitting, and I left a bright purple skein of lace to make that in.
A new to me vendor was Siobhans Crafts, with fibre and handspun yarn from Manchester. The fibres are influenced significantly by popular culture, and Dr Who inspired rolags were what drew me in first. Siobhan had a bargain bin, in which a OOAK braid of fibre was languishing. I snapped it up when I spotted it!
Siobhans Crafts Dr Who rolags!
Woven unicorns
Friends at Wonderwool
I also took some time to catch up with old friends. Louise from Spin City got a flying visit as we were desperate for lunch. I managed a longer catch up with Kari and Tracy at Purl Alpaca Designs (they have big news, read it here). We also popped in to chat to Belinda Harris-Reid, and Ricky enjoyed looking at her samples. I spent a small amount of time with Tanya the Knitting Swede first thing, but didnât get to go back as we ran out of time. Finally, Wriggle Fingers got a visit as one of Johnâs best friends from school was on the stall exhibiting some of the fibre that she sells through Velvet Sixpence.
Wandering around with regular breaks for tea, lunch and a scotch egg took basically all day. Ricky had bought loads of fibre for his felting adventures, and as well as my yarn and fibre, I had stacks of fibre for the needle felting group I oversee at work. Having added a few necessaries like new felting and knitting needles to my burden, I was completely overloaded. We were exhausted, and the biggest purchase was yet to come!
Ricky, me and our stashes (Iâll be honest, half of mine was already in the car)
This blog post is already way long, so Iâm going to leave it here for now! Wonderwool Wales Part 2 will go live soon. If you would like a sneak preview, I did video all my purchases for a haul video on YouTube.
Much love,
Corrie xx
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*This shawl pattern isnât available online, but if you see Erica at a show, sheâll have it there!
Walking through a Woolly Wonderwool Last weekend I visited Wonderwool Wales with two of my favourite people. Although John didnât actually come in to the show with me, he provided valuable moral support from the cafes of Builth Wells, in the form of encouragement and financial restraint.
Pisa Socks - A (finally) finished object!
Pisa Socks â A (finally) finished object!
Today we are talking aboutâŠ.Pisa and socks! I have a huge blog post about my adventures at Wonderwool Walesto go up, but Iâm keeping that to myself for now. Have you ever discovered that by making something public, it loses some of the shine on it? The day out was one of the best days of my adult life, and Iâm holding the memories close to me before making them public so that I can cherish themâŠ
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A tip or ten for Wonderwool Wales
A tip or ten for Wonderwool Wales
Itâs craft show tip time! Itâs been almost two years since I last went to a craft show, and Iâm beyond excited to be heading to Wonderwool Walestomorrow. Because of living in relative isolation Devon from September 2015, then moving to Bristol and getting back into the world of full time work, I havenât been able to attend any for ages. Iâve missed my regular forays into the fibre world. ThisâŠ
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