Stuff I Made Previously

Hey guys. Merry Christmastime, happy new year for tomorrow, whoop. Now it's past Christmas I suppose I can show you some of the monsters I made ages ago. Here they are:


















This was a commission for Ruth, who wanted a family of monsters for her real family. I had a great time making these, and I wish I could have seen everyone opening their presents on Christmas day and seeing themselves! There is one missing actually, and I don't know who, because I finished them ages ago. Oh dear, never mind. Rest assured that it was amazing.

Then I made this monster for Alice. She is a beaut with super red hair and loads of sparkle.



Well, time is ticking and I am being slow. Time to make like a tree, and grow for hundreds of years before being chopped down for timber. I mean, I need to go. Happy new year everyone! Hope 2011 brings everything you ever dreamed and more, okay bye.

We All Match

Hello. Hey, look at this. I think this is one of the best pictures I've ever been in. Don't the tops of our heads look ace? You can tell we all approve, because we are sticking our thumbs up. We are special.



I'm going to Garth's in an hour so I will endeavour to take a picture of him in HIS hat, which is a complete masterpiece of a topper.

For some reason I decided to look up synonyms for the word 'hat' then (something remaining from GCSE English, not using the same word twice in a sentence) and 'topper' was my favourite! Synonym.com helpfully gave me: 'wear, put on, get into, don, assume, supply, provide, render, furnish.' Right, thanks.

Anyway I have things to be making, for these craft fairs I'm doing at the weekend. I don't know if I've ever mentioned them! This is one. SATURDAY, guys. And here is the other one. That's SUNDAY, you know.

Erk. Right, back to the tangled mess. Byeeeeeee

Chrimble Craft Fair-tastic

So I had a stall at the Chorlton Arts Festival Christmas Craft Market (or CAFCCM for short) at St Clements Church on Saturday. It was brilliant fun and I did pretty well! I had lots of visitors too. Thanks to everyone who came down to say hi!

This is my stall. It looks pretty much exactly like the stall I had in May, doesn't it? Except with a Christmas tree. The tree only had two legs so I cunningly leaned it against the wall. Clever.



Just going to show you a few pictures of things I made for the fair, some of which have now been sold. Okay?



Mr Christmas 'narna.



Apple fellow.



This is Corn On The Cob. Hard to tell from the photo.



Christmas hot dawg.



Carrot. Something you might actually eat at Christmas, finally.

Couple of the mini monsters I made. I love these, they are stupid.






This one is Mister Farty Christmas. He has a white beard and everything.



This is a pair of fingerless gloves that I made without a pattern or anything, I just made 'em up as I went along. Can you tell? I really liked them though and so did somebody else because they bought them. Hooray!



Do you like my doctored business cards which had the wrong URL on them? Flawless. I am a DIY WIZARD.



Here are John and Laura having just bought some winter woollies off me. I didn't make John's hat. I made the gloves and Laura's hat which you can't actually see. But rest assured, it's very pretty.

That's like, all the time we have for now. Hope you enjoyed my snaps. Ooh! I will be doing TWO more craft fairs in the same weekend. The first one is on the 11th December at the Nip and Tipple, Upper Chorlton Road, Chorlton, Manchester, I-Don't-Know-The-Postcode. That should be fun and sparkly and magical. I'm sure there will be mulled wine and other treats, there normally is at these things. The second one will be at St Wilfred's Enterprise Centre in Hulme on the 12th. Here is a link. More opportunities to purchase nice things for you there! I think you should come to both of them.

Right bye!

Hatzzzzzz

Hats.



Yep. Hats.



(One of them didn't have a pompom, so I put a monster there for symmetry's sake. Not that it is very symmetrical anyway.)

I have been making lots of hats you see. It's now winter and pretty cold. Some of these are commissions, some are just for fun! I will be selling them at the craft fair, more about that in a minute.

Patterns:



Roboty men.



More roboty men, with hearts. Not owls.



Um. Sheep.



Pompoms! I love making pompoms. Apparently they are really called pompoNs. I disagree.

So that's that. Erm... so come visit me on Saturday, I will be at St Clements Church in Chorlton again, hawking my grubby wares. I have Christmassy things. I have monsters. I have hats, obviously, and other bits and bobs which are simply too exciting to tell you about. I also have a stall at the craft fair at the Nip and Tipple in Chorlton on the 11th December, so if you can't make Saturday, never fear! Wooo!

Crafty Networking

How do, me again. Just wanted to share a few photos with you from Wednesday night, when I went to Sewing Box and Marbella Cupcakes' pop up restaurant/craftsperson number-swapping event, or as Alice called it, 'a masquarade gothic (hallowe'en close at hand) ghetto gourmet pop-up restaurant'. I was a bit nervous, as I usually am on any occasion when I might be required to speak to strangers, or anyone at all, but it was really fun. Luckily Garth was there, and I already know Alice, so that helped. I am getting better, I think.

Anyway, enough about my anti-social tendencies, I want to talk about the event itself. It was really cool, they operate from an old church in Hulme which has been converted into workspaces.



We ate loads of yummy food and carved pumpkins:





This is our finished pumpkin.



Did you ever see ever so elegant. You can really tell we've got art degrees, can't you?

Oh wait - THIS is the finished pumpkin, sorry:



I think it looks a bit like a Turtle, but which one? Which one liked shoving spoons and Rizla packets in his eye sockets, smoked a pipe, and above all looked so debonair whilst doing it? The answer is I don't know.

Apparently I failed to take any pictures of anything other than what was going on at my own table, but rest assured it was thrilling as hell. Can I just say as well, the food was well nice: we had pumpkin soup, falafel and salad, and cake for afters. Look at this for a cake.



So cool. Anyway, if you're a crafty person and you fancy getting in on this for next month, check out Alice's Sewing Box Facebook page and find out when the next one is, you should deffers do it, it's smashing.

May not have much chance to update this for a while now, as I'm moving house on Monday and won't have such lavish access to the internet. You will have to make do without as many regular burblings. Back soon though. Promise. x

Mini monsters

Hey, you know my friends Ames and Nick? This is them.



When I made those monsters, I didn't expect anyone to want to buy them. I just wanted to make my friends into monsters. Ames and Nick liked them but didn't want to buy them off me - fair enough. Since then, monster Amesy has gone to live in Canada, and monster Nick still resides in a box in my cupboard. Anyway, they are going to India (the real people this is, not the monsters) and I thought I'd make them some mini monsters that they could attach to their rucksacks or something.



Oh yeah, they don't look the same as they did several months ago when I made the original ones. Nick now has a beard and Ames has lost the pink hair. They're only about 3 inches tall (the monsters, I'm talking about now, oh how confusing). I like them. I decided not to put too many details on them, since they're going travelling and will probably end up battered anyway, but they could easily be embellished. I might start making these more. It's fun. Well, I've got to go to work now. Til next time, guys.

All the Os

Helloooo. I have something very exciting to show you today. I got commissioned by my friend Catherine to make ANIMAL CLOTHES. Not clothes for animals, you understand, just ordinary human-shaped ones with animals ON them.

Number one: a hat with elephants on it. This is a totally rubbish photo of me wearing the hat before it was even finished, it has a pompom on it now, of course. All the best hats have pompoms on, innit.



I am going to get a better picture of this hat to show you, it is good, honest.

The other things I have been making are legwarmers with animals on beginning with the letter O; specifically, Owls, Orang-utans and Octopuses. I checked and it is correct to say Octopuses and not Octopi, so don't worry. I don't have proper photos of the legwarmers yet. I will take some. But here are the animals as a preview:

Owl:



Orang-utan:



Octopus:



I'd just like to add that I made the patterns for these animals up, after two pints last Sunday afternoon. Possibly ale is an excellent catalyst for knitting pattern design, who knows, or maybe I am just good at it, WHO KNOWS. My first attempt at the actual legwarmer was beautiful but unfortunately wouldn't fit round a human leg, so I had to try again. They are now looking spiffing and I can't wait to give them to Catherine. She is injured and bed-bound, get well soon lovely! I got things for you!

Look at me!

Me again, I just HAVE to tell you guys about the thing I was supposed to tell you about before. I just can't hold it in any longer. A couple of weeks ago I did a photo shoot with my friend and amazing photographer Nic Chapman, to get some promotional shots done. The idea was that I am completely consumed by knitting, I wear only knitted stuff, I eat, sleep and LIVE knitting. Anyway, it was loads of fun and here are some of the best photos!


In Nic's garden, having dragged half the living room outside.


China Town.


This one was the most fun I think. We went to the Manchester Transport Museum in Cheetham Hill, and the guys there were so helpful and lovely. I am on a SELNEC 7001 bus from 1972, which is going to Leigh. Yeah, bus fans! You should totally go there anyway, it's ace. Even if you are not that into buses.


I'm in China Town again here. In these photos I'm wearing the jumper Valpuri made, a hat, legwarmers and gloves that I made, Nic's tights, a pair of socks that used to be mine and my sister's Christmas stockings, and Nic's slipper boot-things. A great look, I'm sure you'll agree. I enjoyed traipsing through the centre of town wearing that outfit, on a Saturday afternoon. I was very warm.

So what do you think? I am really pleased with how they came out. They're bright and colourful, and a little bit absurd, which is how I see my work. Nic is currently building her own blog, which I will link to when it's finished so you can all follow her, too! Oh, and check this out: she is looking for more guinea pigs to photograph. Right, I have to go now! Exciting times ahead.