Give, Craft, Make

Looking for inspiration for a summer craft project? Look no further!

Glasgow Craft Mafia is back with Give, Craft, Make - the perfect event for all you crafters out there :)

On Sunday 12th August (that's this Sunday!) from 12 noon - 5pm at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, there will be stalls selling lots of crafty goodies to get your imagination going. I'll be selling oodles of yarn, all manner of haberdashery, beads, and some lovely knitting pattern books too.

There will also be craft workshops on the day along with a yarn donation station so if you have any oddments of wool you no longer need, feel free to give them to charity!

Hope to see you there! :)

The Knitting Olympics!

Yep, you read that right - a fibre-enthusiast's version of the Olympic games, known as the 2012 Ravellenic Games :D

If you are wondering what on earth I'm on about, well, it's basically a bunch of keen knitters/crocheters/spinners/fibre-dyers getting together to form teams on Ravelry and competing in different imaginatively & humorously-titled yarny events such as the Frogging Trampoline, the Hand-dye High Dive, the Felted Freestyle, WIP Wrestling (*love* this!) and the Lace Longjump. There's even an event for participating machine knitters, entitled Rhythmic Machinastics! So as you can see, they all relate to the names of real events...

In the Frogging Trampoline event, competitors are encouraged to "frog" (a knitting term for recycling, essentially!) a project which has been languishing in their stash for too long - meaning completely unravelling the knitting and rewinding the yarn back into balls to knit anew for a future, more promising project.

Obviously the "Ravthletes" don't receive a fabulous gold, silver or bronze medal with Nike, goddess of victory on it like the athletes at London 2012 do, but there is definitely a sense of achievement that goes with successful completion of a project when competing in one of the events nonetheless. You also get a virtual medal so you can celebrate in cyberspace!

Needless to say, I decided to get involved as it seems like the perfect accompaniment to watching the events unfold on the TV. If you're a ravelry member, just check out the Ravellenic Games group to see what all the fuss is about :)

A Confession...

Truth to tell, I've been going through a lot lately. I don't often talk about details of my personal life, as the blog is intended to be more creativity and inspiration focussed but I think it's worth mentioning in this case because I've been evaluating many aspects of my life recently. This has meant I have been dealing with a greater quantity of "stuff," both emotionally and physically, so I have had much less energy to devote to my blog. In all honesty I've also felt quite overwhelmed with some of the amazing, inspiring blogs out there and it's been really rather counter-productive...

Anyway, dear reader, I hope you'll understand if my posts are perhaps less forthcoming at the moment than they usually would be. I am definitely planning to continue with my blog though, as I do enjoy hearing from you all (I love reading your comments on my posts, just for the record!) and I like to be able to look back on posts and reminisce about what was whirling around in my brain at that moment in time.

One thing I seem to return to time & time again when I need some inspiration is photography, be it digital or old school {I adore both!} - so this month I've been taking part in the Photo a Day project created by Chantelle of FatMumSlim. The list of daily inspiration for June is here, in case you're interested. I've been doing roughly every other month so far this year and it's fun, I recommend having a go :) Some of my daily pics are sprinkled around this blog post!

I've been taking part via Instagram - if you want to follow me there my username is Catameringue & just search the tags for #photoadayjune to see all the different contributions!

A sprinkling of inspiration

Hello! Hope you're all having a nice weekend. I thought I would break my post-Knitting & Crochet blog week blogging hiatus by sharing a couple of things which have been inspiring me recently.

I'm a big fan of recycling and upcycling. I also like kitties and good design... so I had to try hard not to "squeee" when I saw this!

Image via Atomic Attic

Atomic Attic creates these wonderful pet beds made from recycled iMacs - so they're nice & colourful and the light shines through them too. Doesn't that cat look really rather content in it?

Birds + lego + art = awesomeness. If you don't believe me, for proof, see below:

Image via Laughing Squid

- thanks to the North East Craft Mafia for highlighting those! There's a whole series of British birds built by Lego enthusiast DeTomaso Pantera, including a woodpecker, blue tit, kingfisher, goldfinch and even a puffin.

3KCBWWC - Perfect Day

Day Seven: Craft your perfect day

Today I chose to go for the 'wildcard' (3KCBWWC) topic: "Plan your fantasy day with your craft, It might just take up one hour of your day or be the entire focus of the day, but tell your readers where you'd love to craft, whether you'd craft alone or with friends, knitting or crocheting something simple or spending a day learning new skills."



I think my perfect knitting-filled day would have to start with poring over my library of knitting books and magazines for inspiration. I've collected rather a lot of them over the years! (the image below shows just a small selection of some titles I own...) This may be followed by having a peek at some knitting blogs and of course, the wonderful Ravelry.

Fibrespates Scrumptious DK from my stash

After that, I would head off into town (Edinburgh, that is) and one of my favourite local yarn havens, k1 yarns, a cosy, bright little shop on the West Bow, just at the curve at the bottom of Victoria Street in the heart of the city's old town. They specialise in Scottish yarns such as Orkney Angora, Jamieson's of Shetland and Harris Tweed, and have a lovely selection of hand-dyed yarns too. It's quite likely that this visit would result in a yarn splurge, but that's part of the fun, right?! Plus I could get another stamp on my loyalty card ;)

Orkney Angora St. Magnus 4ply from my stash

Once I've satisfied my yarny needs, I'd meet up with friends at an alternative bar I'm quite fond of, the Auld Hoose, for some of their tasty food and a spot of pub knitting. The perfect way to round off a knit-tastic day, n'est-ce pas?

I do hope you've enjoyed reading these posts. It's been fun taking part in Knitting & Crochet Blog Week for the third year in a row, not just as a participant but reading other knitty blogs too. To view my other posts for the week, see here. Thanks once again to Eskimimi for organising it!

3KCBWDAY6 - Skillful knits

Day Six: Improving Your Skillset

Hmmm... wasn't quite sure where to go with this topic, as I feel I have covered the "things I'd like to learn/could improve on" subject in previous years here and here. Admittedly though, there's always something new you can learn, improve upon or a new approach to something (such as a different cast-on method) to try.



However, I am happy to say that I have learned many aspects of the knitting skillset over the years and I truly appreciate why it is called a "craft" - both from a hand knitting and machine knitting perspective. I'm glad that it's something I have persevered with, as it is so much more than just a hobby to me, at certain points it has in fact been my livelihood as a self-employed designer.



Knitting definitely has its benefits (certainly for me at least) and I have found the meditative quality of the rhythm and repetitive motions comforting on many an occasion - when things seem a little overwhelming, I find it really does help to sort out my emotions and thoughts, as well as being an activity that I like to do to help unwind (pun intended) before bedtime.

I think if there's one thing I'd like to do more of, it's to write more of my own patterns. I have written several patterns - for machine and hand knits - so "improving" is one thing, but it's more about having the courage to just do them sometimes, and put them out into the world. I haven't actually published very many of them but I would like to build on my pattern library in the coming years.



As someone who has read and knitted from rather a lot of patterns in one capacity or another over the years (some of them better than others!!!), I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of how to create a clear, easy-to-follow pattern and accompanying set of instructions.

3KCBWDAY5 - A post with a difference!

Day 5: Something a bit different

Enjoy.

3KCBWDAY4 - A Knitter for all Seasons?

Day Four: A Knitter for all Seasons?

I have to confess that although I adore knitting lightweight lace projects (I really do enjoy lace knitting, whether it's a simple motif with only a few rows repeat, or a more complex piece requiring full concentration), the type of projects I seem to spend most of my time making are generally wintery things, especially mittens and scarves.

This is probably due in part to the fact that I have had a business selling such things for several years now, but I think also because I really enjoy working with woolly, cosy yarns and personally love wrapping up with handmade knits in the wintery weather.

So although I occasionally work with cottons and more summery yarns, I can be found working on warm, woolly things pretty much all year round! I find that this is very much reflected in my stash too, with a definite bias towards fibres which are suitable for giving warmth and comfort such as wool, alpaca and cashmere.