Poems for weddings (or civil partnerships)
Posted by Peter
June 19, 2009
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This is probably not technically craft, but… My flatmates got civil partnershipped back in May. I “did” the invites for them (they bought some card from a stationers, wrote an Excel spreadsheet with addresses, I did a design on Word, mail merged, printed and hey-presto) and they got some lovely tartan ribbon to go on them.
They also asked me to do a reading at the wedding, with 48 hours notice; they had to be vetted by the Registry Office beforehand, just in case I insulted any evangelical Christians who happened to be skulking about waiting to be deeply offended by any reference to “wedding” or “marriage”. Luckily, one of the corners came up trumps with a beautiful poem. On the day I almost blubbed my little eyes out reading in front of the assembled families. The respective mothers liked it so much they asked for copies of it. Et voila:
Basically two £1.99 picture frames from Poundstretcher, some card, printed copies of said poems and some of the leftover tartan ribbon. One Scottish version and one über Scottish version and a whole hour’s work. And hopefully the poet won’t mind me posting it here as well:
This poem was written by one of the other Corners here. It must not be quoted elsewhere without their express permission.
10 comments
Categories: craft, design
Time for a cactus update
Posted by Kirsty
May 22, 2009
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It’s been a wee while since I updated you all on Frank’s progress (hold on, isn’t that how I started my last Frank post?) – being winter and all, he was staying boringly the same size. This last few weeks, though, it’s like he’s grown every day. I measure him in ’spikes’ and he’s up to 12 rows! I’m still not sure why he’s so much huger than his brother and sister cacti; the biggest behind Frank is languishing away at three rows of spikes. All my little cacti have taken a big Spring leap this month, though, so I think the ones that we have left are going to make it to proper grown-up cactihood, which is great after losing so many in the beginning. Simon wants to plant some more this Spring (though we’re edging towards Summer – woo!), so expect plenty more cacti updates…
Photo: Frank at 10 months, by ink & keys
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Categories: green
Crochet Rainbow Cushion
Posted by Em
May 16, 2009
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Hello all! I am another new corner for this fabulous blog. My name is Em, although I am known online as Fearful Penguin. I am based in Saltaire, West Yorkshire and I love to craft! I try my hand at all sorts of crafts and love learning and experimenting with new techniques. My current loves are sewing and altering clothes, of which I am sure you will see blog posts about in the future!
Today, however, I wanted to show off the rainbow crochet cushion I made as a present for a friend. I’m not particularly fast at crochet and this is the biggest item I have ever crocheted. It was mainly made on the train whilst travelling to and from work – this is what I love about crochet, it is one of the few forms of craft that you can easily do anywhere – I crochet on trains, buses, in cafes and even in pubs! It was made by making five different squares (one large, four small) and then fastening them together using single crochet, which meant that whichever part I was working on at the time was easily transportable.
This cushion has taken me over a month to make, but I am very proud of the final product – it is perfect for my friend and she loved it!
5 comments
Categories: about us, craft
A new corner
Posted by Peter
May 1, 2009
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Hello, I’m Peter and I’ve been invited to become another corner to broaden membership and hopefully provide some interesting bon mots on crafty-things. A bit of background – I live in Edinburgh and I’m studying for a PhD (in my final year, writing up). I probably won’t post that often as I don’t have time for a lot of crafting – I promised one of the other corners a hand-sewn draught excluder a couple of years back for their birthday in the middle of the year. Suffice to say, they eventually got it by Christmas. But I do cook quite a bit, so expect posts about that
I thought I’d start off with some information about why and how I got into craft. I’m nowhere near as serious about it as some of the other corners, but I will readily turn my hand and make things if I’m in the mood. I’ve made homemade Christmas cards for the past two years for a start.
I was thinking about this at the weekend, and realised that for the years when I was about 11-17 I had a model railway (not at all as good as the one pictured). As I moved to my later teens and got a part time job, my wee Hornby set grew to be a model town, 8′ by 8′, which I christened “Havinge”.
I took it very seriously – I didn’t just buy the stuff ready-made from Hornby. Oh no, I was all about making stuff from scratch from card and plastic kits. My bedroom was a world of polystyrene cement and PVA glue.
I recall I once bought a pack of 100 little (about 2cm tall) plastic people you had to paint yourself. I set too with my paintbrush with one bristle left on it. After a few women and men in civilian clothes, carefully painting individual blouses and jackets, I got very bored and realised there were a lot of uniformed men in the set. Dunking their bodies in khaki paint, dunking their heads in flesh paint and then dunking them in khaki for their caps was a lot easiery. It was then that Havinge started preparing for war! I got so confident in building things that I’d adapt shop-bought kits. I got a buffet and restaurant car set, and since the LNER used to run articulated rakes of coaches, I articulated these two carriages on one bogey (train speak, don’t worry) all by little ol’ self (although they struggled to take corners at speed). I was most proud when I made my own railway station building and signal box based on the clean lines of 1930s modernism, like the De La Warr Pavillion or Midland Hotel in Morecambe. As I was at school at the time, a woodwork teacher gave me some scraps of wood veneer which I used to line the inside of the station building, constructing little ticket windows and chairs and tables with it.
I think doing all this, although it was a bit odd for a teenage man to be sat in his bedroom playing with tiny trains, has given me the confidence these days just to dive into to crafty things and do them – the chances are they’ll look alright. And it’s the process of making, more than anything, that’s enjoyable about craft. Oh, and I’m brilliant at papier mache. So long as you want a tiny hill or a railway cutting…
5 comments
Categories: about us, craft
Reasons I’m not a professional baker #1
Posted by Kirsty
April 22, 2009
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It’s my man’s birthday today and I spent all yesterday evening in the kitchen, slaving over… well, this. In my head, it was going to turn out better. Perfect, in fact, as things always do in my head. You see, there’s a reason I’m not a professional baker and the reason is, well, this. It’s wonky and a bit playschool, but I think it’s recognisable. Please tell me that you can tell that it’s supposed to be the Mysterious Cities of Gold (and please tell me that you remember that fabulous 80s cartoon). My husband loves this cartoon and we’re going to Peru in five weeks, so I thought that it was a very apt cake-make. I’ve spent all week sourcing yellow (tried for gold, but no luck) food colouring and thinking about the logisitics of stacking smaller and smaller squares of cake on top of each other. I’ve told everyone that I’m making the cake to end all cakes. I baked yesterday and deocrated today. I’ve done my best. If it ends up on cakewreck, I would be a little disgruntled. At least the sponge tastes amazing…
P.S. That is the Golden Condor in the corner…
4 comments
Categories: craft
Recipe: perfect tea party scones
Posted by Kerry
April 21, 2009
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I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s been a little quiet around here. My excuse is… Well, I don’t have one, to be honest. I just got out of the habit is all. I suppose the positive side to this is that I’ve got lots to catch up on, right?
To start the ball rolling, here’s a recipe that I make at least once a week at the moment. Perfect for tea parties, picnics, smuggling into the cinema… The list is endless.
Makes 8 sizeable beauties, or about a million smaller ones
16oz self-raising flour
4oz butter
250ml milk
Either:
4oz sugar (for plain scones)
2oz sugar and 2oz fruit (for fruit scones)
4oz grated sharp cheese (for cheese scones)
Heat your oven to 200 degrees centigrade/gas mark 6.
Mix together the butter (and sugar, if you’re using it) and flour. Add the milk a little at a time, and stop when it reaches a workable dough. Add the fruit or three quarters of the cheese, depending on which flavour you’re going for. Mix throroughly.
Roll out the dough to about an inch thick and cut into rounds. Arrange on a floured baking tray, and brush the tops with a little milk. Add the rest of the cheese, or a little granulated sugar to finish.
Pop in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until they are just a little beyond golden brown on the top. Leave to cool on a wire rack, and serve with enormous quantities of butter.
Photo: Mad Tea Party, Disneyland Park, by Mastery of Maps
9 comments
Categories: recipes
One down?
Posted by Kirsty
February 24, 2009
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So, my two crafty resolutions this year were to knit a jumper and to learn fair isle and/or intarsia. I’m intensely chuffed with this tiny little cardigan I’ve just finished for my cousin’s baby – isn’t it adorable? – but I don’t think I can count it as a tick on the resolution list. You see, I know that I’ve got the technical ability for a jumper, it’s the patience aspect that gets me. This may be the first jumper that I’ve ever completed, and the long, long rows on the frill took some willpower, but I think that I need to make a grown-up jumper for it to really count. Maybe I’ll practice with some more teeny, tiny baby clothes before I take the plunge and go full size.
8 comments
Categories: craft
Cures for my Evening Apathy
Posted by Vanessa
February 18, 2009
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Some things I did to cheer me up when I was bored
1) Wearing hot pink. I don’t know why this made me feel more lively but it did.
2) Using my (also) hot pink weights. I’m not the world’s biggest pink fan, but I did do 12 curly arm excercises. Then I did a bridge, and what in my head is ‘another yoga position’.
3) Finishing off the Valentine’s day pinot grigiot. It was just one glass!
4) Watching a documentary about Pompeii which did not nearly send me to sleep at all.
5) Reading ‘LA Confidential’.
6) Thinking up new ice-creams to suggest on Scoops noticeboard. Scoops is absolutely my pudding-based obsession right now.
7) Sorting out more clothes for the swap party, when that happens. Ah, weird black satin skirt, you do nothing whatsoever for my bum.
8) Noticing weird bumps on my wrists and wondering if a bug has laid it’s eggs under my skin and whether they’ll grow Alien style. Reassured by Stephen that this is unlikely in California.
9) Making lists (voila)
10) Browsing the internet for a pattern to make when my craft-savvy aunt visits and teaches me how to MAKE CLOTHES.
2 comments
Categories: about us, books, local guide, los angeles
Frank’s Big Brother
Posted by Kirsty
February 2, 2009
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It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on Frank’s progress, which, being deepest darkest winter, has been slow, but looking at the photos, significant. I thought that Frank might get a wriggle on and add a few more millimetres to his stature if he had someone to look up to, a mentor, a big brother. So, some green wool and an empty seedling pot later, I presented our little cactus with a towering example of what a grown-up cactus should look like. Well, almost.
I’ve seen knitted cacti in All the Fun of the Fair, but I decided that amirugumi style crochet would also create a cute little plant and would probably be more straightforward. I’m a bit rubbish at writing down the pattern when I make something off the cuff like this; I just kind of guess at how many stitches to start off with and then feel my way. I think it went something like this:
:: chain four and join
:: work five single crochet into the loop and join
:: work two single crochet into every stitch (10)
:: work two single crochet into every stitch (20)
:: single crochet into every stitch (20) to desired height (about four inches)
:: single crochet two, miss one all the way round for base (14)
:: join sand colour and work two single crochet into each stitch (28)
:: work two rounds of single crochet and bind off
:: weight the seedling pot (I used blu-tack and a heavy screw I found)
:: stuff the cactus and glue into the pot
1 comment
Categories: craft
The New Adventures of Sackboy
Posted by Kirsty
February 1, 2009
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After some rather dubious attempts, I’ve managed to make a Sackboy that looks mostly like he should do. While Simon says that he liked the blue one I made him for Christmas, it was pretty poor. That’ll teach me for trying to create my own pattern – I’ll stick to designing scarves for a while longer. Once I got the right pattern, though, this was a fairly quick and easy knit. The fingers were a bit fiddly, but everything else was straightforward.
My next project is a knitted cactus and, after that, I might just attempt a jumper…
2 comments
Categories: craft
