Crochet for beginners

The other day I found myself cooing over the patterns and kits over at Toft Alpaca Shop for the thousandth time, and this totally mad crochet flamingo finally tipped me over the edge. I had to have it. And I suddenly thought – why not just learn how to crochet? So, I did!

I already had a crochet blanket kit that I picked up at last year’s Handmade Fair, so I had everything I needed to get started when I had an afternoon to myself. Unfortunately, two hours in and four tries later, it seemed the kit wasn’t quite right for beginners – and I was ready to launch my crochet hook out the window.

Luckily, a little Googling the next day turned up this brilliant tutorial for simple granny squares on the blog Little Tin Bird. Heather, the blogger behind the site, explains every single step carefully with some extremely helpful pictures.

I had the right yarn and hook to give it a go, so I sucked it up and gave it another try!

With this pattern, I practiced chain stitch, treble stitch and slip stitch. After how much I’d struggled with the other pattern, I can’t tell you how happy this tiny, pretty wonky pink square made me feel.

I also learnt how to change my yarn colour.

And, just like that, I had my very first granny square!

It’s uneven, lumpy and a little sad looking in places, but I don’t care – I’m so delighted with how it’s turned out, and can’t get over the simplicity and helpfulness of the walkthrough on Little Tin Bird. If you’re thinking of giving crochet a go, it’s a fantastic place to start – I definitely recommend it!

Next, I think I’m going to make a bunch more squares to practice each technique. It’s so fun to be learning something new, and while I’ve a habit of trying to run before I can walk I really want to slow down and get my head around the basics.

If you have any beginners’ crochet patterns you’d recommend, let me know. I’d love to give them a try!

Needle felting – a form of stress relief?

As part of the Handmade Fair, we got the option to sign up to a skills workshop. Now, let’s be honest, Soph and I aren’t great at making decisions at the best of times (unless it involves whether or not we should order more wine), so when faced with whether we should attend a cake decorating workshop, a paper cutting workshop or a soap making workshop it was pretty tough to decide! In the end though, we went for needle felting…and we weren’t disappointed.

The workshop started at 11am and, given that neither of us knew anything about needle felting (part of the reason we decided to do it!), we weren’t sure what to expect. Hoping it would all become clear as we entered the tent, we went in and sat down only for confusion and slight bewilderment to set in as we found a three-pointed needle and sponge in front of us! What on earth???

Luckily, Jayne Emerson (check out her website for needle felting inspiration and goods!) appeared in a timely fashion and began to take us through the motions of how to use these foreign tools to create a festive robin decoration (in my case)/a tropical multicoloured feathered friend (in Soph’s case!). If we had been left unattended for much longer I am not sure what would have happened!

Making our new little creatures involved cutting out a pre-made bird pattern using craft felt and then stabbing (sorry, no better word for it!) different coloured carded wool onto this felt to layer up the texture and colours. We then had to stab the two sides of the bird together after stuffing it with felt to make its tummy nice and round and attaching a ribbon and feather.

All the stabbing sounds harsh, I know, but it was actually quite refreshing and as for the results? … well there’s definitely room for improvement but as a first attempt I’d say it went pretty well.

I definitely can’t wait to hang up mine this christmas!

So, lessons learnt? – needle felting is fun, relatively easy when using the ‘cheats’ method of using craft felt as a base (usually I think you have to use all carded wool but correct me if I’m wrong!) and also serves as a nice form of stress relief. You just have to watch out for your fingers!

Handmade Fair at Hampton Court Palace

There aren’t many people I’d get up at 4:30am for. But Kirstie Allsopp is most definitely one of them.

Last Saturday Kate and I met up at Hampton Court Palace for Handmade Fair, where we found talks, workshops and craft stalls galore – as well as the best hoisin duck wraps we’ve ever tasted.

Fangirl moment ensues ❤

We bought tickets pretty much the second they came out, having spotted an advert for the Fair in a copy of Mollie Makes and figuring that something as glorious as an Allsopp-led craft festival would sell out straight away. As it happens, it didn’t actually sell out at all – but from looking at the rivers of excited ladies we followed from the train station to the Palace, you’d be forgiven for thinking it had.

After witnessing the grand opening by Kirstie Allsopp herself, who was sporting a glorious headpiece I totally wanted to steal, we grabbed a program and launched ourselves into the Fair. We started by scoping out the food stalls – important stuff to know, seeing as we’re both prone to mega bouts of hanger. The scrummies on offer ranged from cakes sold by The Cake Bar to churros, Indian snack boxes and French cuisine; it was a really nice touch for all the food on offer to be sold by independent businesses.

Before our needle-felting workshop – which Kate wrote about here – we had time to mooch around the East Shopping Tent. With the amount of stuff on offer we had to work out a tent-exploration strategy (we lost our bearings about twenty times) and we met loads of lovely sellers including the lovely ladies from Alice’s Bear Shop, The Homemakery, Jessalli and Warm Pixie.

 

Once needle-felting was out the way, we had chance to check out the West Tent – but it was completely packed! We’d been lucky enough to walk around the East Tent much earlier than most people had bothered to arrive, but as soon as everyone turned up things got seriously busy, so we decided to bail and hit the food stands.

After half-heartedly considering a couple of other options we gave in and hit The Duck Truck for huge hoisin duck wraps and chips cooked in duck fat. They were a little pricey at £7.50 each (and £3 for chips) but, unlike festival food, this completely reflected the quality. Seriously. They were glorious wraps of ducky deliciousness. 10/10, would eat again.

We finally plucked up courage to brave the busy West Tent, which was lucky as it was here that we found some of our favourite sellers of the weekend as well as some seriously beautiful stalls. The cake on display at the Blossom Sugar Art stand was unbelievable, and we really struggled to tear ourselves away from the beautiful hare jewellery by Shark Alley. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the stunning branding over at Stitch and Story.

Having checked out all the stalls we headed for our #worldpomination Grand Makes Session where we tried out pompom makers for the first time. One word. Addicted. Shout out goes to instructor Rosy Nicholas for being generally hilarious, awesomely stylish and my official hairspiration. Check out her website for shoes that’ll remind you of ice cream and glass all at once, and in a really great way.

As the afternoon went on, we finally splashed our cash (we’d wanted to have a look at everything on offer first) and then treated ourselves to some cheeky glasses of bubbly before sitting down to our Super Theatre talk featuring Kirstie and Annie Sloan. The talk was interesting, but not at all what we’d expected; Annie is funny and quirky but looked like she’d be more at home crafting than stuck on a stage.

As we wound down at the end of the day, Kate and I chatted about the event itself and what we’d change. The ticket price was £29, which left us probably with too-high expectations; considering the stuff on sale and the food on the stalls themselves was pricey, it seemed like most of the ticket price went on the talks and workshops which although fun and interesting didn’t quite feel like value for money.

Considering we’d both spent upwards of £30 to get there alongside the ticket price, it was a bit of a shame that the things for sale were so expensive – though from what we did buy, we definitely got what we paid for (if not more!). For next year, though, we reckon things like a free program (it cost £5 extra for just one) or perhaps another workshop as part of the ticket price would make the event feel a little more value for money.

That said, the venue was stunning – neither of us had been to Hampton Court Palace before – and, at the end of the day, the Fair gave us a perfect opportunity to hang together, craft and chill out which, when you live as far apart as we do, is in itself worth every penny.