Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas!

Hope you enjoy this song, "White Winter Hymnal" by the Fleet Foxes - it always makes me think of wintery days when I hear it :)

Wintery goodness from WildCat Designs

There is something wonderful about this time of year - I really do like all the seasons (each has its merits, naturally) but I find the act of wrapping oneself in warm, woolly things against the cold quite satisfying. Plus it does feel *right* to be knitting cosy comfort when it's chilly outside, and it's just not quite the same doing so on a hot summer's day somehow!

Not that I let that stop me from knitting all year round of course (yes, I wholeheartedly admit it, I'm utterly addicted, but at least it's a productive obsession!) - I always have at least a handful of different projects on the go.

So...on a somewhat related note, if you feel like getting your paws on some of my lovingly handmade goodies this winter, and wish to receive them before the 25th of December, here are my recommended order dates.

UK orders: Tuesday 18th December

Orders for Western Europe: Monday 10th December

Orders for Canada, USA & Eastern Europe: Saturday 8th December

Orders for Japan, Oz, NZ & everywhere else: Sunday 2nd December

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I *will* be accepting orders after these dates but
please be aware that items may not arrive in time for Christmas,
after all, it is a very busy time of year!

These order dates also apply to my WildKittens online shop.

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Shop online: bigcartel, etsy, DaWanda or folksy.

...or alternatively, find my hand-crafted creations
at one of my UK stockists:

Edinburgh: Flux or Bliss
East Lothian: Peter Potter Gallery
England: Vertiline in Love

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Custom orders: If you are interested in a custom order,
please get in touch by Monday 19th November.

Birds go West

Yes, that's right...more antics from our feathered friends! Those cheeky arctic terns have flocked over to the Lighthouse in Glasgow's Mitchell Lane.

One arctic tern perched on my windowsill
before he joined the flock!

The Bird Yarns project is nesting at the Lighthouse from now until Sunday 28th October - I even paid them a little visit myself in Glasgow at the weekend! You can currently find them up on the top floor, perching on the viewing platform by the café.

(Please click on the image to view it better!)
If you're interested in knitting your own Arctic Tern, the Lighthouse gallery shop now sells kits so you can do just that. (Would also make a fab pressie for a crafty friend or family member!)

Further Information

Bird Yarns: http://www.capefarewell.com/seachange/bird-yarns
Bird Yarns Tumblr: http://bird-yarns.tumblr.com
Bird Yarns Twitter: @Birdyarns
The Lighthouse: http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk
Luminate: http://www.luminatescotland.org
Cape Farewell: http://www.capefarewell.com/seachange/bird-yarns
Deirdre Nelson: http://dstitch.blogspot.co.uk

My knitted Arctic Tern bird-in-progress (June 2012)

(See also my previous post about the Bird Yarns project.)

Wool Week 2012

In the world of knitting and for those who appreciate natural fibres in general, Wool Week is a definite highlight in the calendar. It also seems to coincide nicely with the time of year when one's thoughts naturally turn towards all things woolly and cosy. So you might say it's the perfect timing!

Image via Deadly Knitshade (on Instagram).
I've loved following some of the fun projects which have been going on as part of the general Wool Week merriment - particularly the "Clickety Click on the Clickety Clack" aka a whole carriage of knitters collectively creating a knitted super-sized Union Jack, in the time it takes to travel by train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley and the whimisical "Woolly Golf" run by Lyle & Scott.

Image via the Campaign for Wool (on Instagram).
I also spotted a lovely freebie Rowan knitting pattern - it's for a cute gadget cosy made in Felted Tweed, a cosy blend of Merino & alpaca wool. All you need to do is sign in or register to download the PDF.

The Birds are coming!

I'm so excited to announce that the Bird Yarns project is coming to Edinburgh!

The project is an interesting one, involving many crafters from all over the UK (and a few from further afield!), knitted Arctic Terns and Textile Artist Deirdre Nelson.

My knitted birdie!

Bird Yarns is organised by An Tobar's Artist-in-Residence Deirdre Nelson (An Tobar being the arts centre in Tobermory on the isle of Mull), supported by Cape Farewell and is intended to highlight the plight of these little birds. The exhibition is a response to the changing migration patterns of seabirds across Scotland’s islands.

A flock of Arctic Terns will descend upon the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, 26th-27th September 2012 - I can't wait to see them all!

They're knitted with locally-sourced, beautiful natural undyed wool from Ardalanish (also on Mull) and recycled materials - my tern has a thick felt beak, legs which I French knitted and reinforced with coated red wire, also used to make its little webbed feet. I then stuffed my knitted bird body with recycled wool scraps from my other knitting projects to keep it eco-friendly.

A little birdy told me (pardon the pun, I couldn't help it...) that there are now kits available too if you want to have a go at knitting your own! [Ravelry link]

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!