The craft whore

Yep, that’s me, a craft whore. I love my knitting, but a glimpse of a shapely bauble or fine bead and my head is well and truly turned. How else can I explain the fact that just two days ago I was sitting in a basement learning how to make bead jewellery?

I hate to use a cliche, but there is no other way of describing The Bead Shop in Covent Garden other than as a treasure trove of beading materials. Two floors of the prettiest, shiniest glass, crystal, metal, wooden (I could go on) beads, as well as findings in base metals, sterling silver and gold-filled. It’s a stunning, and totally overwhelming, experience.

I’ve wanted to make and design my own beaded jewellery for a while now, but I had no idea where to start. So many beads, so many findings - I couldn’t even work out what to thread them on. And, unlike knitting, there seems to be very little in the way of beginners’ instruction books.

I had previously been to a class at Buffy’s Beads in Kingly Court. This was great fun and I took away with me two bracelets and two necklaces that I’d made myself. The problem was that I couldn’t work out how to apply what I’d learned there to anything else. Give me the same materials and I could happily make those same necklaces and bracelets, but anything else was beyond me, and those tempting arrays of shining beads were just as daunting.

This is where The Bead Shop class comes in. Instead of making a finished product, the idea is to practice techniques. We went through where and why to use thread or nylon-covered metal (called Tigertail) and the different sizes. Then we strung some beads, learning how to use different findings such as calottes and soldered rings. Crucially, the teacher Emma had brought along samples of her own jewellery to show us what we could make with the techniques she was teaching us.

The afternoon was taken up making single loops and wire wrapping; both techniques for attaching beads to each other or lengths of chain. Afterwards there was some time to buy some products, on which we got a 5% discount. Because Emma was there with her jewellery it was easy to buy the beads for something she had already made. I’ve got everything I need to make up a gorgeous 12-stranded bracelet. Then it’s just a case of making sure I keep practising everything I learned.

The classes aren’t cheap, but at £80 for a full day, including all tools and materials, they are good value, and certainly a lot of fun. They run on the third Sunday of the month. See Emma’s website for details. If you are interested in making your own jewellery I would definitely recommend booking in.


Jewellery samples. Sorry for the quality of the photo. It's taken inside, at night, with flash. This really is the best I could do.

Finally, a finished object!

I finished knitting my cable tunic some time ago. Getting on for a year in fact. Last week I admitted this shameful piece of information to my knitting group. They shouted at me and made me sit in the corner. So, in a bid to avoid such treatment this week, I've spent the last seven days sewing up.

It has been an easy process. I managed to half set in one sleeve before realising the wrong side was showing. Before this I couldn't decide which stitch would be best for each seam, so had to start each several times over until I'd decided which to use. In the end I went for fake grafting for the shoulder seams, which gives a nice invisible edge, and back stitch for all others. I tried mattress stitch, but it just wasn't working for me.

Of course these weren't the only problems. I also managed to stab myself under the thumbnail with a pin. It bled, but not on the knitting so it wasn't a disaster. And then Sherlock - my chosen entertainment for this job - disappeared from iPlayer.

I don't like sewing. I'm not very good at it, and it takes me ages. I'm not entirely pleased with all my seams, but I did notice a definite improvement as I went. My final sleeve seam is a delight.

Despite my many trials and setbacks, you'll be please to read that the job is done! Yep, all sewn up and ready to wear. It even fits (I was concerned it was going to turn out too small). But don't take my word for it - here are some photos!

Sweet charity

I’ve made three baby blankets over the past year, and now I’m knitting another. This one is different, though. At the same time, both more and less personal and important. Let me explain.

The previous blankets have all been for friends, people I care about. I will meet and get to know the babies that are currently snuggled up in blankets I’ve made. This makes me happy. The blanket I’m currently knitting, though, is for charity. Bliss provides vital care for sick and premature babies in the UK, as well as supporting parents of sick babies and providing information for health care professionals. This work is hugely important, and something that I wanted to support.

I don’t have children, so I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have a child so sick that you can’t even take it home. I learned something about that pain in a recent edition of Knitting. One of columnists wrote of her experiences with her very ill newly-born. It was heart rending; it inspired me to knit this blanket.

I’m just over half done now and I’m sure this won’t be the last charity blanket I knit. The thought that something I’ve made might provide comfort to a poorly baby and to the distraught parents of that baby, well that makes me happy too.

For more information about knitting for Bliss, please click here.

A quick catch up

I've been taking something of a break from this blog, recently. Not because I've not been knitting, quite the opposite in fact - I've been far too busy knitting to blog. I've also been thinking about this blog. It's fun to write it, but I really think I've not been making enough of it. I'm a journalist, so really I should know how to make this thing required reading, and it certainly hasn't been that.

So in the next few days I'm going to be making some changes. There'll be a new name, a brand-new layout/design and some new photos. This might take some time, as I familiarise myself with Blogger's various attributes. I don't expect the changes to be huge, just some spring cleaning really. While I'm sprucing up the design, I'll also be working on the editorial. There will be many more posts, with more reviews, more news and lots of ramblings from me.

In the meantime, I shall share with you my latest projects.

First, there's the girl's baby blanket. I've already posted the photos of this, so I won't bore you with them again. Suffice to say it's fully completed. I posted it off to new Mum a while ago and she was suitably impressed (I love being able to make things for people!).

Next it was a crochet tank top for my BFF's birthday. I managed to do this in a month. I was very impressed with myself.



And here's a close-up.



And these are the ends (beautiful friends). I had to share them, as there were just so many. It took me as long to sew in all the ends as it did to crochet the actual top. This is only about half of them as well; many more ended up in the bin in Cambridge.



And finally yet another crocheted baby blanket. This one made from many little hexagons. It's so snuggly and warm - I want a full-sized one for myself.



Two close-ups of this one because I couldn't decide which I liked best.





So that's all the finished stuff. There's still plenty of things to finish: a hat, another baby blanket and sewing up the tunic. There's also lots in the queue: another hat, some socks, a cowl and some pieces I'm designing myself. Watch this space for news on all of these!