Older Reviews – The Sick Chick's Constantly Crafty

Create @ Late

Alas, in this case I don’t have many pictures. I took video last night but I have yet to edit it and that’s pretty far down the priority list at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry!

Last night, the Museum of London had its monthly late night opening (link may rot) but for this occasion it had a crafty theme. There were booths of people making felt mustaches, animals out of pipe cleaners and wool, a diorama of London with plasticine sculptures, a sign language music video about London and in the other room the booths of knitting, crocheting and spinning. You can guess what room I was in!

First I met up with my acquaintance, the lovely Claire from PurlPirate, who was teaching hyperbolic crochet which makes a coral-ish sort of shape. She gave me several pointers about the second row issue (using a larger hook to cast on, not trying to get “under the v” when stitching into the chain, etc.) so I hope that I will be able to improve when I try it again next week. She also had quite a crowd of people trying out the hyperbolic forms, including many totally new to crocheting. Go Claire! She was also teaching people how to crochet with plastic bags and gave an excellent demo on how to cut them up into jag-less strips.

Next I met Rachael Matthews and Louise of Prick Your Finger (their blog), a yarn and fiber shop that I am sad to say that I have not yet made it to. Especially since they are involved in the Walking Stick Cozy competition with Missability (run by Felix). (As an aside, I am sad that I have not yet been able to make a cozy for any of my walking sticks, I think I need the Knifty Knitter Bloom Loom for that to get the right sized tube and shall get one this summer but alas, too late for the competition which ended yesterday.) Bethnal Green is geographically closer to me than Waterloo (home of I Knit) but it’s harder for me to get to due to the weird nature of the London bus system, and that’s why I have yet to go to Prick Your Finger. 🙁 They were demo’ing spinning and had drop spindles available to play with and a big bag of what I think is Black Welsh Mountain fiber.

I sat there forever and made this bundle of yarn:

Not bad for my third time on a drop spindle, but all the credit goes to the fiber, which was sooo easy to spin and wanted to be spun so fine it was almost scary. Just in case it was the spindle rather than the fiber I tried a bit of my signature flouro pink roving but it came out crap as always. The moral of the story is that I am not very good with roving but am much better with carded batts, so I need to card my fiber! I have handcarders but man, I covet a drum carder now.

Black Welsh Mountain is a mountain fiber so it’s very scratchy. I don’t know that I would use this sort of yarn for much of anything but it was heavenly to spin so I shall endeavor to get to PYF before I leave for the summer to get some more to play with!

Finally, I went to meet some of the lovely ladies of Stitch and Bitch London. I’d only just signed up for their newsletter about three days ago so I haven’t had a chance to attend their events yet (I couldn’t do their sewing up event on the 30th as I had to rest up to go out on the 1st). But it was very nice to meet people and show off the world of loomknitting. Photos of me will probably be appearing on their blog in the near future.

I didn’t really have anything to do with the other crafty things,which seemed either aimed at kids or designed for people who aren’t usually crafty to dip their toe into the waters and have a little fun. I have nothing against that, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Still, it was a very fun evening and many thanks to all of the lovely ladies I met who made it such a great experience!

April in Paris, part 3 – Crafty Shopping

This is really long and photo-heavy. To save on your downloads I have tried to keep the photos small, but you can click on any of them for the full-sized versions.

Day 1: Galaries Lafayette

We were staying quite near the “Grands Magasins” (big department stores) so on our first day we went to our quasi-favourite*, Galaries Layfayette. The craft department is a respectable size but I didn’t like any of their yarn. I did, however, find a delightful set of stamps from a French company:

I didn’t take photos of the store as we’ve been there a dozen times but t has loads of photos, although you may have to search a while as he has sooo many photos from this trip! I also bought socks and leggings there but I’m only showing the crafty stuff in this blog.

* our actual favourite is Samaritaine but it’s closed for remodelling

Day 2: Flea Markets (Les Puces)

Because it’s not very wheelchair-friendly, I walked this day — with many rest stops of course! We saw so many wonderful things, but alas our budget was limited. I do somewhat regret not buying the wooden hat block that was only 40 Euros, but it was so old that I think I would have to baby it and I’d rather a sturdy new one, even if that means a plastic one.

We saw: We bought:

Again, a lot more pictures in t’s Flickr (see above)

Day 3: Closed shops on Rue Saint Denis

Unfortunately, it was Sunday and these shops were closed. We never did get a chance to come back to them, but they looked interesting.

Knitting shop: Button Shop:

Day 4: Shop-a-rama!

We made it a point on this day to hit as many craft stores as we could.

L’Art du Papier: a paper goods store with stamps, scrapbooking supplies and lots of journals. This was my favourite craft store from the trip!

I bought a Fleur-de-Lys seal, an Eiffel Tower stamp and a nice “J” stamp

La Drougerie: Famous for its knitting patterns, I found the yarn selection pretty poor, the beads plain but the trims were mind-blowing! I didn’t buy anything as I don’t have any sewing projects at the moment and I couldn’t get the attention of any of the shop assistants as it was packed in there.

Bazaar du Hotel de Ville (BHV): I’d heard great things about this store (a department store with a very large arts and crafts department) but was disappointed as a lot of the material seemed to be American imports. Which is fine, if you’re not able to shop in the US, but as I’m spending most of the summer abroad I only bought a few things (erasable disposable fountain pens by my favourite brand). Their hardware section rocks though and we spent a huge amount of time there, I bought some washers for beading projects and a wooden wheel to make a spindle out of once I find a decent dowel for the stick.

Day 5: Montmartre, at the base of Sacre Coeur

This is fabric store heaven, with several very large establishments to choose from. Unfortunately, many are too crowded to get the wheelchair into so we chose Tissus Reine (Fabric Queen) and got some lovely stuff: upholstery fabric to make a bag, iron-on crystals and pirate patches. They had fantastic wool very suitable for re-enactment gear but it started at 17Euro a meter so was out of my price range.

Diagonally opposite Tissus Reine was a knitting shop that seems to be named “Laines” (“Wool”) that carries a lot of lovely Spanish yarn. I indulged just a wee bit 😉

We saw a really cool shop in lower Montmartre, near the Place de Clichy, called Tombees du Cambion. It sells all kinds of antique bric-a-brac and ephemera. We didn’t buy anything as it was a little bit overpriced but man, they had great taste! (Creepiness of the photos aside, t was just playing when taking them.)

Last but certainly not least, I finally found some craft magazines at the train station on the way home. The Marie Claire Idees is pretty beaten up as it was the last copy and I found it was nice but I’m not gushing over it. It’s sort of a very girly/romantic version of Martha Stewart and that’s not my thing. The Idees Magazine, on the other hand, is exactly my sort of thing, especially as this is the black and white issue — my favourite! There were several other mags to choose from but as my French is still pretty limited I decided not to buy any more.

Camnesia

[Term stolen from Hankering for Yarn blog. It means forgetting to take a picture before it’s too late.]

Now is about time to start tallying up all of the things I have knit since I started on 8 November. Unfortunately, several of the gifts I forgot to photograph and as for the rest I left my microUSB cable at my parents’ house, so unless t (my husband) can borrow one from work, it will be a while before I can get any images off my camera. Sorry!

I’m usually not so good about finishing projects and my mother and t are both blown away by how much I have done with looming. What can I say, I just love yarn! So far I have made one plain brimmed hat from the basic Knifty Knitter instructions (in Red Heart Light & Lofty), 6 children’s hats (in Berocco Foliage) that were gifts to kids in my family, got 1/3 of the way through a scarf in Red Heart Grande then decided I hated that yarn so threw it away (it was splitting and frizzing horribly!!), made myself an 8 inch by 8 foot double knit scarf (in Moda Dea Metro) and a matching hat similar to this pattern from Knitchat.com, a 12 inch by 6 foot scarf double knit in the alternating rib stitch for my mother (out of Trendsetter Yarns Blossom), a magic scarf for myself (out of Lion Brand Fun Fur), three dishcloths doubleknit on the loom for my mother (in Lily Sugar ‘n Cream), an 8 inch by 8 foot double knit scarf for t (in Bernat Soft Boucle) and a plain knitted hat (in same) — working on matching fingerless gloves and legwarmers — and what I call a ragdoll hat (a Fraggle hat that looks rather more like Raggedy Ann) from a yarn I LOVE: Colinette Marshmallow. Plus a couple of coffee cozies that I didn’t like so I frogged.

I’m pretty pleased with that for 6 weeks’ work!

Things I have learned so far: I hate regular Red Heart yarn as it’s horrid to work with and makes my hands itch. I love using knitting boards and definitely want an afghan loom. I want to make socks if for no other reason than to indulge in sock yarn. I like working with cotton. I really want to start felting (I do felty stuff that’s not knitted already.) I’m entirely smitten with Colinette yarns at the moment and want more right now!

Anyway I shall try to get pictures of the things I still have on hand (not the kids hats or the dishcloths) soon, as I am aware that this blog is woefully boring without pics!

As it turns out, I do like Lion Brand Yarns!

I don’t exactly know why I got onto the Lion Brand Yarns mailing list, but several months ago I joined and have been pleased with their weekly e-list even before I knew how to knit. Then their podcast, Yarncraft, came out and I enjoy it even more as it has a beginner knitter and I love the yarn designer (whose name escapes me but she sounds just like my friend Genny!). Creating yarns and colourways sounds like a dream job!! Still though, I had no yarn skills and had never encountered Lion Brand. I need to see if it is easily available in the UK. However, on my trip to the US I found it in several big box craft stores and I am very pleased to report that I actually enjoy their yarns, at least the ones I have acquired or have seen in use. Homespun is especially a favourite for gifting as the machine washability is a big plus but the softness is something I’ve generally seen only in yarns that cost twice the price. I’ve also tried Fancy Fur and have several skeins of Suede that will eventually make it over here. I want to try their Cotton Ease and also feltable wools. What I have used has been very easy to work with and comes in so many fabulous colours that one is rather spoilt for choice

(This is not to say that I don’t like other yarns, or that I haven’t bought things that are much more expensive…but when dealing with people with very sensitive skin or various fiber allergies, Lion Brand has many products that fit the bill perfectly and at a price I can afford.)

Anyway, it would have been awful to find out that despite their lovely list and podcast that I didn’t like their stuff…so I’m very pleased that I like their products as much as their marketing 🙂

Now, to find what sorts of yarn shows one has to get into to get the mythical bag of free Lion Brand Yarn! I have soooo much charity knitting to do this winter, plus half my friends are disabled and have special fiber needs (but I’m not counting that as charity knitting) — I need all the Lion Brand yarn I can get my hands on! 🙂 Maybe I can convince them that I should be a tester to see how well their products work for people with extremely sensitive skin? 🙂 Well, a girl can dream, anyway…*sigh* Now, how do I get my hands on a sample card…. off to search their website now!