A Crafty Coffee

Changes Afoot

2012-02-03T14:27:00.001Z

PLEASE bear with us, there are changes afoot ... watch this space (but not too closely, that'd be like watching paint dry).

Been a long time: Summer catch up.

2011-08-19T09:56:00.007+01:00

(Guest blog post from Elliot: 6 months, below.)
saß rtx

And now onto the more serious matter of catching up ...

Firstly, as usual, may I apologise for the sporadic approach to blogging for A Crafty Coffee. No excuses, it's me on my own because, although Emma is back in it ... they have a new addition to the family ... Megan arrived when I was away camping in beautiful Dorset. She's the cutest Tibetan Terrier (don't be fooled by the name, she is not in fact a terrier at all).

Craft wise, the summer is proving to be an opportunity to try out new things. Next to me right now, Stephanie and Alison are teaching Lisa to crochet. She may be a recovering perfectionist, but she's just been told to "love the mistakes" and appeared genuinely relieved to not have to unpick all of her hard work. Result.
At the weekend, my daughter and I tried out a jewellery recycling workshop at The Lounge Café. Go to The Inexpert Crafter to see more on that one.
Then, in the week, Karen and her youngest and myself and my youngest went to Poppies Crafts (no I have not missed an apostrophe) to try out Decopatch. We're beginning to think Chr*stm*s (shhhhhhh), only in terms of an event and some kind of crafty social though, I promise.
I've also observed people sewing in name tapes, which represents a shift in season, lifewise and cyclewise, Steph has one starting pre-school, I have one starting secondary school, Ruth has one in a care home (not a child of course, but a grandparent) ...

More than one of the group are returning to work, which is making them sad in the sense that they don't want to miss out on A Crafty Coffee. Born out of this, Alison and Ruth are looking into the possibility of starting a splinter group, on a Tuesday evening at The Lounge. There is a real need for people to be able to maintain contact with the group, and also for us to patronise local, small businesses to enable them to stay afloat in such trying times. All round, I think this is a wonderful idea. I am happy and confident to facilitate and publicise the second group, and really want it to share the name and identity that we have established with A Crafty Coffee, but I imagine the group will ultimately take its own shape because of the market it will draw. I have high hopes for it, and am thrilled to hear that Jenni at The Lounge is keen to support it too.

Fond Farewell

2011-07-27T08:34:00.004+01:00

On Friday we were faced with the fond farewell ... Eddie is off (today in fact) to her homeland. She's an honorary Brit though, so the return to Denmark will potentially be as tough for her as it will be for her husband who has only holidayed there. Eddie doesn't do goodbyes, so we'll say "See you" and hope that it will be sooner rather than later.
Gonna miss you Eddie, but at least we can stay abreast of things via the worldwide web, look in our blogroll for two of the blogs Eddie writes.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I knew anyone who'd be able to knit a kitty bride and groom. And odd request no? Being part of A Crafty Coffee means that I do know people who can make most things. A knitted, cat, bride and groom ... no problem.
The lady who asked me wants them for a gift for a really good friend of hers who is getting married, a quirky gift, but a bespoke one.
I elected to ask Marion, I've seen her knit up clowns, dolls, animals, a bride and groom ... allsorts, and ALL from her head as opposed to a pattern. Here's the groom she came up with:

He's rocking isn't he? She's so talented and yet she has no idea that she is!
I think I am rambling a bit ...

Suffice to say that there are a number of crafts going on ... loads of people planning on coming throughout the holidays so we'll see what the next few weeks have in store.

Crafty and Coffee xxx

A Letter to Lucy at Attic24: an Inspiration.

2011-07-17T16:52:00.014+01:00

I'm so sorry you lovely people, it's been practically a full month since one of us wrote a post! Emma WILL be in a position to write soon, I know she will, but for the time being it's best if I keep on keeping on.

We have news, and new members ...
One of our number is expecting a baby, whoop whoop!
One of our number is moving to Denmark, great news for her, devastating for us. Looking on the positive side, Denmark is a great place for us to visit and she is 100% keen for people to go visit so ...
We welcome not one, not two, but three new members to our real life community, and a further two to the online community!
Some of us have had holidays, some of us have holidays to look forward to.
ALL of us are beavering away on craft projects, and it seems only right and proper to credit the lovely Lucy over at Attic24 as she has inspired many of the current WsiP at ACC.
If you are an avid follower of Lucy's, you will know that she's had a really hard time recently, and has not been her usual sunshiney, bloggy self ... So Lucy, this one is dedicated to you:

I saw your vintage stripe blanket in the Blanket Fest and just knew I wanted to make one for myself, but in colours that were reminiscent of the beaches in Dorset. I thought it would be a project for next year, but when I saw Alison working up a baby doll sized one in pastels, and then I inherited yarns in perfect colours for what I was trying to achieve, I embarked on it a few short weeks ago.

Emma has, for sometime now, been working on an Attic24 inspired granny stripe blanket, and it's now too big to be portable so she'll have to dig it out to work on at home from time to time. Getting back into crafting after her own tough 12 months has been a really big deal so it will be lovely to see her rooting out some of her WsiP over the next 12.

Liv is also working up a granny stripe affair, the colours she's putting together are delicious, Lucy, you'd be so proud!

Eddie started a mini trend by using your Hexagon Blanket as the perfect project to work up her foray (with Cecile) into natural dying. Since Eddie starting on it, Karen has made a baby blanket from the same pattern, in soft hues of blue, yellow and beige, as a gift for one of the staff at Trago Lounge who is expecting her baby next month. She's working up a second one now in sweetie colours, it's like dolly mixtures, looks totally yummy! Karen's teaching newbie Lisa to crochet the same project ... and I am CERTAIN there is someone else who jumped on that bandwagon, but it is escaping me at the moment.

So Lucy, while you've been having a rough ride, you have been unwittingly spreading the love via the medium of crochet through your beautiful blog, your stunning photography, your love for and use of colour and your genuine 'feel good' approach to life.
Thank you for sharing all you have with us, I was pleased to note that Mum is now out of hospital, you weren't far from my thoughts and prayers in that time.
Keep hooking away, living and loving life, and sharing from the Attic, we love you. xxx

Exciting Times Ahead ...

2011-06-18T18:52:00.004+01:00

What a lovely morning it was at ACC this week. A great turnout, we welcomed back Sue and Sarah after long breaks which was really special.
Jo treated me to an undeserved latte saying that, on her first week, someone shouted her a coffee and she's never been able to repay the favour. It's the tiniest things like that which make ACC such a fabulous group, when I hear these little anecdotes they warm my heart.

Even though I have known who she is for sometime now, Janet finally found out who I was and came to put an idea to me. She often creates hanging banners for our local church and has the idea of making six new ones for the Autumn. She thought it might me the kind of thing that some of ACC might be interested in getting involved with, and had given some consideration to how we might like to mark William and the bible verse "shine like stars in the universe" (which is used as a basis for children's work at the church). As a bizarre coincidence, three of us had been researching a new café which has a 'Stitch' room at the back only the day before.
I had tentatively suggested that we may host a Strawberry Tea for Breast Cancer Care at The Lounge, but now think that this will be the ideal location (all set up with sewing machines) to make up the banners.

So, with the banners likely to happen in The Lounge, one of my next jobs is to arrange and co-ordinate the Strawberry Tea. My home is as good a place as any, Stephanie wants to mark her Mum's triumph over breast cancer by getting involved with making goody bags and Priya has already offered up her baking skills ... all good so far. You WILL be invited in due course, patience.

And the third 'thing' we have in the pipeline is dependent on how successful my and Emma's first foray into soap making goes next week.
We went on a course last Sunday (you can read about it here) and it turns out that Alison is a very experienced soap maker who we have inspired to dig out her kit and get making!
If all goes well, we'd like to draw on her experience and generosity and run small soap making courses for interested members of ACC and beyond.

So, milestones this week were Sarah making it along with the help of Ruth, the return of Sue who wisely brought a friend for moral support, Emma getting her knits out for the first time at ACC since, erm, February at a guess, Janet and I finally getting to meet, Lesley parting with an 80s Laura Ashley dress for me to refashion (thank you, so very kind), and not one, not two, but three 'events' in the pipeline.
This community just goes from strength to strength, we must start adding more photos to this blog so that you can see what we get up to!

Love for the week ahead
C&C
xxx

Wow wow wow Whata Lota WsiP

2011-06-10T17:37:00.005+01:00

Loads and loads of crafters came along this morning for A Crafty Coffee. Two new ladies bobbed by to say hi, one on her day off because she thought if she didn't come then she'd never get to see what she was missing out on, and the other because she usually plays tennis but has had an op on her shoulder so is out of action. I do hope she comes back next week so that we can get to know her better.

Newlyweds Dee and Ron came in for a while which was really quite special and I was literally delighted to see Alison make a return visit, I caught her knitting out of the corner of my eye, but the table layout in Trago Lounge does mean that we are in smaller, more disparate groups than we used to be. Ah well, my positive thinking leads me to believe that we will forge more intimate relationships with a few fellow crafters this way, as opposed to having superficial relationships with lots of people.

Sadly Sarah won't be with us for a while, and some of the group members are very keen to find out how she's doing and to support her where they can. This is where I believe a community like ours really comes into its own. The craft is great, as is the conversation, but the way a group can pull together to help a friend in need is really special, and pretty rare in the society that we inhabit these days.

Want to know what was going on craftwise?
I'm crocheting a camping blanket, and 'Is' took great delight in teaching me Tunisian crochet today which could easily become a project!
Carol was knitting socks, on needles so small and fine that it looks like she's knitting on cocktail sticks.
Alison was working on blanket squares for the project she's been working on since we inspired her back in April. 2010.
Stephanie is cross-stitching Disney Princesses to go in frames in her DD's bedroom.
Su is working on a crochet cardigan for a friend, as well as a lace knit cover-up for her DD.
Karen is crocheting a border on the baby blanket that we were all contributing to for Meghan, a member of Trago Lounge staff who's expecting in September. Karen got carried away with her little hexagons and before she knew it she pretty much had the blanket all sewn up. I do think it is a very special way to show our thanks and appreciation to the staff, to make them a little gift when they reproduce.
Amy was making the Peter Pan collars from Mollie Makes, her friend whipping up sock monkeys at a rate of knots.
Liv chose to work on her crocheted shawl, I'm led to believe it is to be a gift so she needs to get a shift on.
And that's all I can reliably report on, but I know there were other things going on and that there were at least seven crafters present who have remained un-named this week.

I am sorry I don't get round all of you anymore, there is something about that 'bride at a wedding' thing that is so lovely, but also so superficial. And it always meant that my own craft never got touched.

See as many of you next week as can be there.
Love Crafty.

Resolving Conflict

2011-05-25T19:09:00.004+01:00

Well hello lovely crafters and coffee drinkers.

Crafty here, was rather hoping Coffee would be back at the helm soon, partly for her own benefit, but also so you could all hear from her directly since it's been an age since she's managed to blog anything.

Anyway, for the time being you are stuck with me I'm afraid. And I have two weeks to catch up on with you all.
We have finally welcomed Coffee (Emma) back into our warm embrace. I think, with what she, Sheena and Sue have been through, it is important that we are all as loving and 'normal' (whatever that is) as we can be, whilst still obviously acknowledging that they are grieving.
For me though, it's just nice to have my partner in crime back, no matter what else has been going on, it is just wonderful to have my old buddy back nearby.

So, crafts I have seen over the last couple of weeks are as varied as usual, and I myself have been inspired by Eddie to do a spot of refashioning (InexpertCrafter). I've seen crochet and knitting, obviously. But also cross stitch and jewellery making which was refreshing.
Being part of a crafty community has its benefits when you come to planning an event. Our Steph is planning a bit of a Fairy Gathering for her little Roo's 3rd birthday, and lovely Lesley has given her some Flower Fairy bits and pieces which will go on sticks in the garden to enhance the ambience. How lovely?

Now, onto a slightly more difficult matter ... since the staff of Trago Lounge have undergone a complete turnover, I have been very remiss in my duties of getting to know everyone. This was an error on my part and has resulted in one of the assistant managers being a little offhand with us on more than one occasion. Now, I decided to do something about this because A Crafty Coffee is a very important group of pretty vulnerable people and we need to have a comfortable environment and a happy atmosphere to continue.
What I have done is pointed out that there is a problem, introduced myself and helped to put a new strategy in place so that there is less difficulty delivering hot drinks to the right customer amongst the hubub of chattering and cackling women.
And this week, by way of a thank you and an apology, the coffees are on The Loungers.
When asked at the till for your name, it is to enable the waiting staff to get your drink to you and not just loosely to the area in which you are sat. Please help us to help the team get this right, service with a smile is their aim and our desire.

Anyway, enough of my gabling for today. I do really hope that you will have a change of author in the next few weeks.

Much love
C&C xx

Lego Lighthouses and A Celebration

2011-05-09T18:47:00.005+01:00

Hello All.
We met again on Friday, Trago Lounge have rearranged the furniture again and this way is really not conducive to a social space for us crafters. Especially as we welcomed two new members who found us on the Stitch 'n' Bitch site. It was really hard to physically include them though I do think we were welcoming so I expect them back one day.

I was rather hoping Emma might make her return this week, but she has been fighting a nasty virus since before William died and she is truly exhausted.
In her absence, can I extend her invitation to you to come and celebrate William's life? The celebration service will be held this Saturday, 14th, at 11am in Highfield Church and there will be refreshments afterwards. It will be entirely family friendly.

Perhaps you are sat wondering about the Lego® lighthouse? William wanted to be a Lego® designer when he grew up (just like my own son wants to be) and he planned to invent a Lego® lighthouse. Little did he know that Lego® are already bringing out a lighthouse in June, they must have read his mind huh? Anyway, that is the significance of the image.

Love to you all, see you Friday and I hope on Saturday too.
C (&C) xxx

Good Friday-Resurrection Sunday, Hope.

2011-04-27T14:45:00.003+01:00

On Good Friday a handful of us met in Trago Lounge to craft and chat. Amy was there in the calm before the storm as she was performing in the Southampton Passion later that evening, Eddie was spinning, and flitting between at least two other projects, Cecile came and span, Karen mopped me up and held babies and totally spoilt both my daughter and hers, all in all it was a lovely morning.

A lovely morning, with the undercurrent of knowing that a little boy was suffering, and a Mum and Dad were suffering watching their little lad struggling. We all knew the end of little William's life on Earth was drawing closer, what we couldn't know was when he would go to rest.

Now, whether you are familiar or not with the Easter story, I will share a little of it here. The gist of it is that Jesus and friends went to celebrate the passover (Jewish festival, greatly significant, look it up) ... and on the day we call Good Friday (for reasons I don't yet know), Jesus was turned over to the authorities by one of his buddies and tried (if you can call it that) for blasphemy. He was sentenced to death and later crucified.
It was told by Jesus that this would be the sequence of events and that on the third day he would rise from the dead and walk with them once more.

The story that leads up to the crucifixion is filled with high drama and makes an excellent play, but it is the story thereafter that gives us hope.

William died in the small hours of Easter Day, Resurrection Sunday. That he died on that particular day is a poignant reminder of the Christian message of hope in eternity. I do understand that most of the people reading this post will not be Christians, but I for one am so pleased that William's Mum, Dad and brother have a hope, a peace and a security about where William is now.

And the bluebells, William is to be buried in a sustainable way that is quiet and considers our planet. As opposed to marking graves, families may plant native wild flowers and William's favourite colours were blue and green, I sat among the delightful, heady fragrance and photographed the bluebells in my garden for this post, I will never see a bluebell again and not think of the cheeky little lad that touched so many of us in his short life.

2011-04-08T12:50:00.003+01:00

When William refers to a Lego Beach Party, I am not sure that this is what he has in mind. But since this post is going to be a tough one to write, I thought a beachy, Lego-y image might do the trick.
Both of the Reynolds' boys love Lego, really love it! Throughout William's hospital stays he has been spoilt rotten with Lego bravery treats, Lego gifts and of course, Lego birthday gifts too. He is Legoed right up!

My little lad sent me up to Bristol last week armed with some of his best Lego Minifigures (including some StarWars ones) for William to enjoy. We share the Lego love in this house too. On Thursday Emma called me with a confession that Yoda had gone missing, I couldn't stress enough that she had bigger things to concern herself with and that nothing material is irreplacable. I am glad we had that conversation.

Yesterday evening she called me again to say that they would be coming home. I knew that this meant they were coming home so that William could enjoy his last few weeks at home with friends and family. I was shocked that the news had come earlier than anticipated, and I am not sure I handled the call that well at all, but Emma and Steve both have a real sense of peace at the moment which is testament to their faith.

This morning I went along to ACC as usual but I knew there would be people there to share the burden of breaking the news, I was relieved to see I and Karen, with a huddle around them so that I hardly had to tell anybody at all. People are being very kind and supportive which is nice, but in truth, I don't know how to feel ...

I echo my daughter's prayers that Emma and Steve and Edward don't struggle too much and that William has fun while he's alive and it doesn't hurt when he dies. Children are amazing!

Thanks to all of you for being a part of the ACC community, for all that we share in the good times and the bad, for the fact that we are all there for each other, and for all of your offers of help.

Much love to all of you.
Crafty (Dee) and Coffee (Emma)
xxx

A Blue Ford Cortina

2011-04-01T20:17:00.006+01:00

At the very least, the post title will have got your attention, am I wrong?

This morning's ACC started out as an intimate affair with Alison quietly enjoying a latte whilst pondering whether we had a new venue unbeknown to her. After a time, Liv joined her with little K, and it wasn't much longer before I rocked up myself and put my order in for a large americano.

For those who are waiting, there is no news as yet from the Reynolds'. I will let you know, I promise. For now, Emma is 'coping' ... as best as one can I think, W has been unwell with a chest infection, Dad is to-ing and fro-ing and exhausting himself in the process and E is doing okay, living with Grandma and Granddad but missing his Mummy very much.

The group was slow to grow this morning but at some point or other it did spread to three large tables of crafters/chatters.
Our table was graced with the presence of, well why don't you guess who?, who swiftly took our minds away from life's ills with her comedic tales, most of which involve knickers in one way or another. Whether it was selling glimpses of her knicks for Smarties in the woods, or unwittingly flashing her crocheted pants through her split pinafore, she had tale after tale to get us in stitches this morning. A personal favourite, that had me laughing for quite sometime, was the tale of a sister of a friend of a sister ... or something like that.
Apparently, the poor girl was flashed at in the woods. When asked by the police if the man had an erection, she is alleged to have responded, "No, I think he had a blue Ford Cortina."
Laughter, that great relief for all other pent up emotions.
I for one thank you from the bottom of my heart for the light relief you provided this morning, after a heavy laden, emotional week, it was a blessing!

It wasn't all fun and laughter, we did have some proper conversation too, covering attracting menfolk, understanding and communicating with your other half, sex and relationship education, depression, kids' eating habits, allsorts really. And there were even crafts happening alongside all of this.

I'm missing having my partner in crime around, missing you Coffee!
Until next week ...
Love
C (&C from a distance)
xx

Spring has sprung, clocks go forward this weekend ...

2011-03-25T13:37:00.002Z

A definite air of Spring having sprung was with ACC this morning, the sunshine was promising 17º of heat, there were smiles on faces, a few less layers on bodies and a general air of happiness.

I settled myself into a corner armchair in the window and attempted to help out the new staff members (yup, not a single member of the original team remains) with their administering of teas and coffees among the cackling, chattering women.

I was literally thrilled when Jo came in with baby J. It's been months since we caught up, she last came to ACC in November, and we last heard from Jo when J arrived in the world at the beginning of January. Needless to say, my first question was a friendly, "How are you doing?". I was anticipating birth details, new baby woes and tales of sibling rivalry but instead Jo responded, "You know those women's weekly magazines? ... My life has been a bit like one of the cover stories in those."
When baby J was just 6 days old, Jo received a diagnosis of mouth cancer having been a little suspicious of some ulcers that weren't healing, and an eventual large lump. This is a good news story in that surgery has removed all of the cancer, and Jo's desire and persistance were taken seriously by her carers enabling her to continue to breastfeed baby J. However, this has clearly been a tumultuous start to the year, Jo is having to relearn speaking and eating, though I must add that the speech is clearly coming on really well. We do hope to be able to support her now that she is back with us, providing light relief, love, and just looking our for her as the scars heal and the emotional scars start to show themselves. In my eternal optimism that something good must always come out of somthing bad, Jo was able to share that no less than five of her friends have given up smoking as a result of this. Jo is not and was not a smoker but smokers and heavy drinkers are at increased risk of such cancers and she was clearly happy to report that her situation had inspired her friends.

Loads of you asked after Emma and W. I was comfortable to report that W is well, in the sense that he is not showing signs of being unwell, though he is still seriously ill. This is good and bad, nobody would want him to suffer, but it's hard to believe he is so ill when he appears so well. Emma is coping, sometimes well, sometimes less so, but I was glad to have visited her and offer a chat, bit of fresh air, shoulder to cry on ... I have no idea if I am doing a good job but I do pass on everybody's good wishes from ACC when they ask me to. Emma; everyone sends their love.

As for crafts of the morning; knitted sheep, knitted socks, knitted baby booties, crocheted blanket, crocheted scarf, kid silk armwarmers, a lace weight matinée jacket, a knitted ruffle scarf, to name but the items I could readily see. There were the usual number (I think) of crafters and a good time was had by all.

Happy Spring.
C&C
xx

Untitled

2011-03-18T13:29:00.004Z

I have no idea what to call this post, it's been a few weeks since we last wrote and it's been a trying time. I have bad news, slightly less bad news, and some crafty news which is always good.

Let's start at the start shall we?
Last time we posted we had babies to celebrate and baristas to miss but not too much to concern ourselves with other than Coffee's ongoing mental health problems. Thank you so very much to all those of you who do pray because we have seen an uplift in her mental stability enabling her to be able to enjoy her family and look after them well. This has never been more poignant than it is right now.

Sadly, last Thursday, the bone marrow results came back showing that William's marrow was really full of leukaemic blast cells. It meant that the chemo had barely touched it and that a transplant was out of the question. Being so close to Emma (Coffee), I understood that this meant they were running out of options, but nothing could have properly prepared me for how I might feel when she broke that news. We cried together. What else could we do?
The family have now moved to Bristol to take part in a medical study using a trial concoction of chemotherapy. Earlier this week, liver screening potentially ruled them out of the study but thank God, they didn't have to abandon hope so quickly and the chemo has now started. The chance of this working is very slim, but there is a chance, and therefore there is hope.

As a group, ACC have wanted to support the family as best we can at a distance. Obviously, I shall go and visit, and people within the group are meeting to pray. One of our number has made a couple of 'hope' bags for the boys which people have contributed books and toys to. It feels like there is little more we can do at such an uncertain and traumatic time but at least we are all there for each other too.

Now that I have got the bad news and the slightly more hopeful news out of the way, we can move back to the crafts of the past week or two.
We've had usual numbers of 20ish people in attendance with knitting, spinning, crochet, cross-stitch, chat, coffee, clothing alterations etcetera etcetera and we've been so privileged by people's willingness to share their craft in the form of tutorial. No longer is it down to Isobel to do all of the teaching, though I am incredibly grateful that she got me started on the crochet! But now, Eddie has been teaching me unravelling, skeining, and ply balling of yarn, Cecile will share with anyone who's interested how to spin yarn, even I found myself in the position of showing Jill how my wool-eater blanket worked! As a novice myself, it tickled me that I was showing someone how to do something, I don't even know the terms but Jill is a visual learner so it mattered not.
On the whole, the crafting is going very well, and the community, through such desperately tough times as sick children, bereavement, ill-health, difficult finances, unemployment ... well the community is fused. We are supportive, close knit (pun intended) but not closed, loving, generous, caring. I am so thrilled to be a part of A Crafty Coffee and hope all members feel the same.

C x (&C from a distance)

Babies, broodiness and baristas.

2011-02-25T10:43:00.003Z

It's kind of all in the title there.
Today was all about the babies, the broodiness and the baristas, or the loss of two of them.

I had a message posted on facebook telling me that there were 'randoms in ACC spot! No crafts to be seen.'
She was right, there were indeed 'randoms' in the spot that ACC usually occupy, and we welcome them. Soon enough they were swamped by crafters so, if they come again on a Friday morning, I hope they feel able to join in.

Anyway, today we were graced with the presence of no fewer than three babies, ages ranging from a week and a half to three months. Much broodiness was inspired by Elliot, Lucy and Kezia (who, incidentally, has grown much longer all of a sudden). I had no idea that some of our number are literally family planning so it was lovely to have all the babies around to inspire the conversations. It is always good for there to be new ways of becoming closer to people, new ways to deepen friendships.
Seeing my little girl with newborn Elliot in arms even made me feel broody. I am not a fan of babies generally, I kind of prefer children who give you some feedback, plus, I have had to write off the idea of having four children because the births were tricky and the medical advice was 'no more'. For me to feel broody is unusual, and was very surprising. At least I wasn't alone.

Now for the baristas. Our beloved Pip, who has been with Trago Lounge since before it opened, is leaving us for pastures new. Obviously, we wish him the very best in his new position (less hours, more money) but we will miss him very much. Well, I will certainly miss our banter across the bar, and his very unique take on 'service with a smile'.
Already left reeling and feeling bereft with the last member or the original Trago team working his notice, the lovely Lee announced that he was going back home. Lee is from Nashville, Tennessee and has the accent to prove it. He has been in the UK for almost a year as his wife had a contract to work here on some global initiative. We were first wowed by Lee's style of service and particularly friendly ways relatively recently, but he has often been thrown in on the Friday morning shift because he clearly has a knack with the ladies. Again, we'll miss him, but wish him well in his new ventures in pharmacology (a whole new field for him).
With the moving on of staff, there will always be the greeting of new people. What a treat this morning to be served by a lovely young man ... will find out his name asap ... thankfully, he had at least been warned about ACC and the perils of serving a large group of cackling female crafters, and he's definitely cut out for it.

The usual array of crafts was covered this morning, but today it was way more about the cuddles, the coffee and the chat.

C&C
xx

PS, William is 'well', but his Mum has been really struggling again. It was such a relief to see her this morning and to be able to chat with her. I so hope she feels better for coming along.

Happy Birthday William

2011-02-18T13:43:00.002Z

Emma and William are still in hospital and today William celebrates his 7th birthday. He was pretty excited about it by all accounts so we all wish him a very special day.

Needless to say, although Emma is now in a position to consider leaving the hospital and leaving W in the company of a grandparent, today was NOT the day that she would make a return to ACC. William is relatively well in himself at the moment, experiencing some pain and he tires easily but nothing unmanageable which is a comfort. Emma and Steve are 'as well as can be expected' and are making the effort to spend some time together, and little brother E is a little ray of sunshine, or a little burst of energy, depending on how you look at it. All in all, prayers are being answered so far.

And so to this morning. Portswood Primary School is on INSET day so myself and a couple of other ACC-ers brought along our children. My mini-me and I were making peg dolls, the mum and daughter next to us were making a knit and felt patchwork bag ... the knitting from 8 year old A was simply brilliant!
We had Cecile next to us spinning some silk yarn, according to my daughter it felt "lovely", silk is her favourite material so it was great for her to see it being spun into a useable yarn.
Lesley was opposite us knitting something in a beautiful, vibrant turquoie colour.
Jill was talking about a quilted bag she might make as a gift.
I saw some crochet (Carole) and much knitting (Karen, Eddie, Liv, and more) and coffee drinking going on around me, there was a general buzz of love and support and I just about remembered to share the big news of the week ...

Our fourth (I think) A Crafty Coffee baby:
Stephanie gave birth to Elliot Fyfe on valentine's day, he was 7lbs 11oz and they are both doing great at the moment. Hopefully some of you ACC members will chip in with cooking the odd meal and generally looking out for the family?

Love to you all.
C&C
xxx

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

2011-02-11T13:44:00.004Z

That's what we're here for, a community of loving friends, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Last week, the only thing I had to concern myself with was the lack of camera at A Crafty Coffee, things have changed a lot since then.

It has been a rollercoaster ride of emotion this week for everyone who knows Crafty, Coffee, A Crafty Coffee and Emma's family.
William went to hospital on Sunday, he'd been under the weather and his Mum and Dad became increasingly concerned that his leukaemia may have returned so they took him to the ward for an early blood test. NOBODY could have predicted the outcome. When he was diagnosed the first time round, William had a white blood cell count of 250 which was excessive and dangerous. This time the count was 470. For the leukaemia to have returned to soon and so aggressively after remission was a really bad sign, and with his counts so high, a night in PICU was in order.
Now, you will all know that Emma (Coffee) has herself been wrestling with ill health, she was in fact still in hospital when all this happened but, needless to day, the staff have been supportive in allowing her to be there for her little lad.

On Monday evening, Emma called me to tell me that they had spoken with the consultant and that the outlook was bleak, she was clearly devastated, as was I.
Attempting to support someone through this is painful and difficult, you are helpless and powerless, yet you know you could say or do something that could upset or offfend.
It is good that I've had to wait until today (Friday) to be writing this blog post because, since Monday evening, things have changed slightly for the better.
William's leukaemia has responded (somewhat unexpectedly) to the chemotherapy, his white cell count was down to 1.7 last time I heard, he has been well and stable enough to have a central line put in (which was necessary, but that looked like it may be difficult) and there is some hope that they may be able to do a bone marrow transplant.
The future is by no means certain, and the family are aware of this, but a glimmer of hope is something to hold on to.

A Crafty Coffee plays host to some wonderful, supportive and loving people. The group have rallied round setting up prayer sessions (those who pray), communicating news as it arrives, supporting the Grandmothers (both attend ACC when they can), supporting the family as best they can etc
So today, I should have known to expect the quizzing and questioning from those who want to help and support, and from those who haven't had the information filtered down to them in detail. I didn't expect it though, I wasn't prepared. As I said earlier, it is really painful to attempt to walk through this with someone so close, so I guess I was hoping for a teeny tiny escape this morning.
Nonetheless, I think I did a decent job of keeping people filled in without breaking down on them, and I even knitted a little more of Baby Chapman's blanket so that was good.

I was even treated to being party to more frivolous conversation about hand spun yarns, crafts and costings, Folksy, Etsy etc. These matters are actually important, how we price work if we want to sell it, how we can be undermined by people underpricing their work or overpricing their work when they use lower price materials and the like. But the perspective was definitely there this morning, these things do matter, but in the grand scheme of things, they're not really worth being stressed over.

If you pray, please pray for Emma, Steve, William and Edward, and all of those in their extended families, and the friends attempting to support them.

Thanks
Love C&C xx

Coffee, Craft & Conversation, but NO Camera ...

2011-02-04T15:19:00.004Z

Whooooooooooops.

Crafty strikes again with her complete inability to organise the proverbial ...
Armed with three 'on the go' knitting projects, having dyed my hair at about 7.30am and delivered the children safely to school, I was pleased to arrive in the oasis of calm that is Trago Lounge before any other crafters turned up. Very pleased indeed, until that is, I remembered that I had intended to bring the camera in order to be able to beautify our blog with some stunning works of craft.

Nevertheless, I approached the bar, ordered myself a large americano with space for milk, sat myself in the window sofa (comfort AND light), and proceeded to continue with my [no laughing please] knitted veggie bag. I was able to enjoy a few minutes to myself before Helen arrived bringing with her a few waifs and strays who weren't otherwise planning on coming. It was nice to welcome Sarah who has only just been introduced to the delights of A Crafty Coffee. She confessed to having started a granny square blanket and a crocheted scarf for her daughter, but having finished neither. We chatted and I hope I have persuaded her to come again with her blanket (or could it be a cushion cover, more instant gratification) or her scarf to finish off.

Helen also dragged in other regulars like Ali and Jilly, but she was primarily meeting with Bex and Sarah F to discuss plans for a Bollywood dance film that should be taking place at our children's school. I'm seriously hoping to get the chance to dance, I love a good boogie, me.

I was able to sit and chat with Emma and Celia for a bit, all three of us were knitting which, since Emma's now completely hooked (pardon that dreadful pun) to the crochet, was a bit of a surprise. The crafters this week spread over 4-5 tables which means there were somewhere between 20 and 30 people in attendance. With that in mind I am sure you'll forgive me not knowing exactly what was going on where. Suffice to say I saw many busy hands, many empty cups and many wagging chins.

Now, in terms of 'family news', Emma is a voluntary patient which means she can come out on leave so long as it is deemed safe, so she was able to be there this morning but is still very unwell and struggling.
Stephanie is only four weeks away from delivering her little lad into the world. Her little Ruby is a proper little treasure and will make a great big sis, I hope we will be a good support to them when the time comes.
Priya is spending many hours feeding Kezia which is very trying. Kezia is still very small, but is reaching all developmental milestones so we're just hoping that Priya and James will find the best solution for all three of them.
Emma N has had a bit of a low patch. Her not so little lad is drinking her dry and she has lost an alarming amount of weight, between that and running around after a very fun and active daughter, she really has her work cut out for her.

So, for any of you praying types. Do keep the above, and their families, in mind over the coming week(s).

C&C
xxx

A Great Turnout

2011-01-29T17:14:00.004Z

I guess I have come to expect 20-30 people to arrive each week now, but Dee (H) returned for a one off visit this week and was really surprised at how the group had grown. She's spent 6 weeks sailing round the Caribbean, and has come back engaged with a date in the diary for the wedding! MASSIVE Congrats to the both of you, we wish you every happiness. We're gutted that you won't be back at A Crafty Coffee before the big day.

There were loads of crafts represented this week as usual, and there were two additions to our number which was really lovely. They've definitely said they are returning which is great news.
Sarah was there in comfy corner seats under her massive blanket, I must photograph it next week, it is just brilliant. She came without her sticks or wheelchair this week, she is putting it down to pilates, myself and her instructor, Priya, think that it may be the combination of pilates and prayer.
Priya managed to knit a few rows between feeding Kezia and zipping of to take her for her first swimming class.

I (Crafty) was really struggling to concentrate myself, I had arranged a business meeting in Trago Lounge for after ACC but it meant that I wasn't able to give the group my full attention. It's been a really challenging week for me and I have been attempting to overcome some real hurdles workwise.
It's been a trying week for Coffee (Emma) too, but for very different reasons. I reported last week that she'd been very low, and had some paranoid episodes. This week has been worse. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, she was admitted to hospital yesterday evening. Sadly, her care so far has been somewhat lacking, in that she wasn't even provided with her washbag and pjs for 18 hours, meaning that she had to sleep in her clothes and was unable to even brush her teeth. This is not a good start, that said, she's reported to me today that she's got a window and her crochet so it's not all bad.

Owing to the two paragraphs above, I couldn't list who I saw or what crafts I noticed going on. I struggled to even maintain a conversation, though I did chat with Amy a little, she's not been in ages so it was lovely to see her and so see what she's working on. There will be a Passion play performed in the city and Amy is raising funds by selling her crochet flower embellished hair accessories. They look lovely and she's already sold her initial stock and moved onto filling orders!

I do hope that next week's blog post will be full of colour and life ... MUST remember the camera.

Lots of love
C&C

Diverstity

2011-01-21T13:44:00.004Z

Today's conversations were about as far flung as you can possibly imagine. What is the plural of 'dominatrix'? to single-parenting. I'm not sure there is any more ground we could have covered if we'd tried.

We chatted about retro weddings a la Chapman, sexy geeky looking men like David Tennant and Derren Brown, raising kids, knit alongs, a world in love, PVFS or ME, mental health, ill hubbies, moody hubbies, privacy settings on computers, whilst we beavered away on knitted scarves/blankets/jumpers/cardigans/tea cosies/shawls, crocheted scarves/blankets, and cross-stitch.

I have been the very priviledged recipient of Coffee's first crocheted scarf. It is a beautiful blue and is so long that it will wrap around twice or loop tie 'Trinny and Susannah style'. I was unwrapped from my cosy scarf by at least two members of the group so that they could admire the handiwork.

It was such a pleasure to see Sarah with her friend Emma. Sarah is currently using a chair as she is in so much pain (ME), and she is suffering new symptoms which is a cause for concern. I hope that being in Trago with us and working some more on her lovely blanket has lifted her mood slightly as she's really been feeling desperately low lately.

And another suffering member of our gang is Coffee (Emma). She's been spending many hours in Trago Lounge in a bid to avoid hospital admission but she's still really low. Obviously, for those of us who have had the odd half hour here and there to pop in and spend time with her it's been fun, but for her it's just really heavy going.

You may be forgiven for thinking that the mood was low over the group this morning, but even with some people struggling so much there was howling laughter when Ruth managed to cover herself in coffee in such a way that she looked like she had continence issues. Even one of the 'homeworkers' from Southampton Jelly came over to see what all the fuss was about.
We have a good time, the craft is pretty frivolous but the community is meaningful, we aim to support each other through the lows and enjoy the higher points together.

I'm signing off now with my headache :o(
See you next week.
C&C
xxx

A World in Love.

2011-01-16T14:17:00.004Z

Here's something a little bit special for the coming month. How much of the world can we share the love with by making a heart, taking it to someplace special and photographing it? Eddie at ACC has started this group on her blog http://roued.com/greyduckling/a-world-in-love/ along with a Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1600626@N21/ where we can share our images and locations.
I have already fallen head over heels in love with this idea. Loads of us at ACC can knit and crochet, but how many other crafts can we represent in this challenge? Cross stitch, redwork, embroidery, patchwork, papercraft, weaving, felting, typography, jewellery making, carving, hardanger, lace ... who knows.

Do contribute, either directly to the Flickr group, or via Eddie's blog, or even the group she's set up on Ravelry.

Get your mates on board, and let's see if we can represent a World in Love.

Our 1st Birthday

2011-01-14T16:08:00.018Z

I'm just reading our post from January 15th 2010. That was the first official meeting of A Crafty Coffee and what a meeting it was. We counted 18 attendees that day, and saw so many projects on the go, it was such an exciting time.

Do you think we have maintained the buzz that surrounded that first meeting?
Are we as welcoming as a group as we were that first Friday?
Do people still enjoy coming to A Crafty Coffee?

Over time, I would always assume that the initial flurry of excitement would wane and that the numbers would tail off to a core clique of people. To my amazement and glee, the opposite is true of A Crafty Coffee. Our numbers have increased significantly. Upon ordering the bubbly at the bar this morning, I didn't know how many glasses to ask for but I was told that the rough head count was 34. 34!!! That's THIRTY FOUR people crafting away, bumps, babes and pre-schoolers in tow for some, all manner of life's ills in tow for others, but there we all are. 34 represents about half of our actual members, some people attend more sporadically, others are there week after week after week.

As for whether or not we are welcoming, that is hard for me to personally testify to because I have not arrived as a newcomer at any stage. What I can say though, is that people tend to come once, and come back. I can barely think of two people who have tried us out and not yet returned, and one of those has been in touch to say that she felt really welcome but that with a stolen bike, car in the garage, and the early arrival of her wee son, she's not been able to make it back YET. In lieu of her attendance, she sent us this pic of her precious bundle, the 'thing' she is most chuffed with creating so far this/last year. He's just 1 week and 1 day old today. Aw.

In terms of whether people are still enjoying ACC, I would say the numbers speak for themselves. But more than that, today, at our little party, more than one person made a point of telling me that it was the highlight of their week. A couple of us vowed that we would not work on a Friday as it is so important to us. And Ruth has twice gone out of her way to share really encouraging stories demonstrating why ACC matters so much.

On January 15th last year there were so many projects to take in. It is wonderful to be able to share now that Coffee(Emma)'s cardi is complete, as are Liv's tree decs, my bear, Paula has taken her crocheting from strength to strength and I couldn't possibly count how many WsiP have been brought, shared and completed over the last 12 months. I asked for members to share photos of some of their works, here is a small selection ...

And now to today.

We have had a wonderful birthday celebration with cupcakes enjoyed by all, prosecco or sparkling elderflower for bubbles and a proper giggle.
We welcomed Barbara (the group is never the same without her, what a massive personality) back with her new babe, we're doing well on small people to cuddle up with these days.
{4 babies and counting, several toddlers and the odd poorly school child on occasion.}
Trago Lounge were as welcoming and accommodating as ever they have been, permitting us to partake in these little beauties and generally waiting on us hand and foot ...

And, on top of all that, we still made time for a spot of crafting.
Here's to the next 12 months.

Thank you all.
C&C
xxx

1 Sleep!

2011-01-13T17:19:00.003Z

Preparations have been underway for the last few days to mark A Crafty Coffee's 1st birthday. The lovely Pip at Trago Lounge very kindly permitted us to bring birthday cupcakes. I was worried about doing them out of sales, but let's face it, we bring in masses of business each Friday morning and so often people stay on for lunch. Anyway, we're not planning on bringing out the cupcakes until about half ten, that way we can share in a glass of fizz (either boozy fizz or sparkling elderflower) to mark us reaching this milestone.

So, what have I managed in terms of prep? Well, I researched some cupcake decorating styles and found some 'yarn frosting'. Fancy. http://www.momlogic.com/2010/08/crafty_cupcakes_edible_yarn.php
This inspired me. My darling friend Thaya (who has now moved to NZ) bought me the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook at Easter, sadly, this was also when my oven stopped working. I've had this stunning book, full of the most beautiful food photography and tempting recipes for the entire time we were without an oven, how cruel is that? There must be something special in the timing though, we got a new oven just before Christmas and never has it been more needed than now. I have whipped up Lavender cupcakes with lavender 'wool' icing, silver balls and lavender flowers, Ginger cupcakes with ginger coloured lemon 'wool', stem ginger and sugar strands, and Vanilla cupcakes with pink vanilla 'wool' and sugar butterfly sprinkles.
Never let it be said that I don't know how to throw a birthday party.
My only concern now, the night before, is that 36 will not be enough cupcakes for A Crafty Coffee and the Trago Lounge staff. I am seriously considering nipping out to buy eggs to make a batch of Coffee cupcakes just in case. Would that be one step too far?

I am rather hoping the post from tomorrow's ACC will be a photofest of everything we have achieved this year, if not, perhaps it will be full to bursting with us lot eating cake and drinking flutes of fizz?

1 sleep, excited? Me?
C
xx

New year, new craft!

2011-01-07T13:06:00.013Z

Happy New Year!

What were your highlights of 2010?
What are your aspirations for 2011?

It is so easy to get caught up in the negatives, I don't know a single person who didn't have something to struggle through in 2010 but writing it off as 'a bad year' seems a little unfair to me. You may have noticed from the year of blog posts that Coffee and family have had a particularly trying year, yet even they can find highlights to speak of!

In terms of crafting, my highlights are lengthy.
Completing the three bears at the beginning of the year for Aurora, Naomi and Leya is a big highlight. All three bears (named Star, Biscuit and Pearl) have been gratefully received and are being well loved.

Making Naomi's 'Go Anywhere Blanket' was a real labour of love. I learned so many knitting techniques, but in order to finish the blanket off I needed to learn to use the sewing machine too! To help with this, I made a few strings of bunting (for my new Bell Tent) and a few child sized aprons. This really boosted the confidence and, whilst I know the blanket is imperfect, I am thrilled with what I have learned and would know what to change to make some improvements.

I hope that other A Crafty Coffee members have achieved as much as I feel I have. The year has flown by and I am amazed at how many different works I have seen going on around me.
Another highlight has to have been the work you all put into the sale(s). Raising over £1600 in the end, we sold everything from jewellery to candles, cross-stitch to scarves, baby blankets to tree decorations and everything in between.

To be a part of this, and to watch a group pull together in support and love, has been a huge privilege. I know, I know ... I've gone all sentimental on you. But seriously, as a group we have supported each other through parenting trials, ill-health (both physical and mental), pregnancy and early baby days, bereavement, sick loved ones and much much more. Who would have thought at the outset that a craft group could serve that purpose?

I have crafty aspirations and life aspirations. For now, I will share that Isobel started to teach me to crochet this morning. She was tutoring at least two others that I noticed, hence, New Year, New Craft being the title of this post.

With all of that in mind, and considering my personal aspirations for 2011, it is worth thinking about what the aspirations for ACC should be this year.
• ACC on a Friday morning will continue exactly as it always has, a group for people who craft/want to craft/want company and are available on a Friday morning. A Crafty Coffee meets a need in our local community!
• I imagine that we will hold another sale later in the year.
• I hope that we will have an away day or trip of some description.
• There is a mooted idea of some kind of craft course/tutorial sessions whereby we can pick up a new skill.

I wonder how much of the above we will be reporting back on in January 2012 ...

In addition though, being as so many of us are either christians (small 'c' intended), interested in the big life questions, or spiritually minded, we would like to set up a secondary group where we can explore faith in more detail. This group will meet on a Wednesday between lunch and school pick up and will probably happen in homes. All are welcome, but we recognise the need for this to be separate to ACC as, while we all have craft in common, we may not have spirituality in common.
The group will be a safe place where we can have discussions, ask the questions we've never been brave enough to ask without feeling stupid, explore what the bible says about life in general, explore who we are, who/if God is etc. It is not necessary for attendees to have an active faith, an interest in chatting about the bigger things in life is all that's required.

So, not wishing this blog to be an 'all about me bag', I ask that you will send your craft photos of 2010 to acraftycoffee@yahoo.co.uk so that we can publish them in our First Birthday Blog next week. Mmmm cake ...

Have fun,
C&C

xxx

New Year's Eve crafting

2011-01-04T19:16:00.009Z

Well, Crafty was not alone for the NYE crafting. In fact she wasn't even able to be there as, with a broken down family car, she and the rest of the Crafty Clan were having to make a torturous train journey (several changes) to the friends with whom they were spending New Year's Eve.

It was a small and select group that gathered for the last A Crafty Coffee of 2010, but, as ever, we drank coffee, ate the Trago Lounge's beautiful breakfasts and pastries, talked and talked (a lot about how our Christmases had gone - some good, some bad), crafted and admired each others' creations. I'm afraid I (Coffee) was feeling pretty low (I'm going through a bad patch with my bipolar disorder) so please forgive me if I miss anyone out or get anything wrong.

It was lovely to see Sarah, who is still very under the weather. When I arrived she was snuggled under a wonderful log cabin knitted blanket, which is her current WiP, so I settled down with her with my blanket squares. We were joined by Claire who quickly got stuck in to her Humphrey's Corner cross stitch (which I have my eye on as my youngest LOVES Humphrey). Sheena came and wowed us all with yet more scarves. (We'll need to have another sale sooner rather than later at this rate!) Several presents were underway: Susan (with her lovely daughter in tow) was crocheting a beautiful purple scarf, Celia (with 'gorgeous as ever' boys with her) a lovely hat, and Carol (who had manage to arrive child-free :) ) a smart jumper for one of her boys.

It was a quiet end to the year, but one that involved coffee, crafting and, most importantly, deepening friendships. See you in the New Year everyone!

Coffee xxx

A Christmas Crafty Coffee

2010-12-28T15:16:00.002Z

Wow. Fully expecting to be just me and my youngest, I was both surprised and pleased to see a large table full of ACC folk when we arrived in Trago. My Little one got compliment after compliment on her outfit which left me feeling very smug indeed as we'd had a full blown row over her refusal to wear a hat atop her wet hair. I persuaded her into her (much requested, long owned, but unworn) black sparkly trilby and won the opportuity to prove that old addage, 'Mother knows best'.

So, mini me brought along her knitting bag and knitted more rows than her Mum who spent far too much time talking. We pulled crackers and wore the silly hats, shared the dodgy jokes and the kids played with the naff toys. I saw mostly knitting and chatting going on, but there was also a certain Mrs K who was simultaneously eating her way out of a hangover and attempting a cross stitch, most impressive.
A really good friend of mine who has moved to Grenwich to study jazz came in and joined us. Bizarrely, when Jilly came in, he got up to say 'Hi'. It was like some comedy sketch when we pointed at each other and said, 'how do YOU know Jilly?'. It turns out she is his godmother. Funny old world.
Celia popped in just as I was leaving, unwell herself, with recovering children but a poorly hubby, JUST to share that she did indeed finish the socks! Well done Celia.

The mood was high, there was a definite sense of anticipation for what lay ahead the next day (what with it being Christmas Eve) and a certain sense of calm before the storm. It was particularly lovely that both Crafty and Coffee were able to be in attendance, what's the betting I'll be going solo on my NYE crafting?
It was lovely to be able to wish Pip (Trago Lounge's manager) a personal 'happy Christmas' as he has been so wonderful in accommodating us over the past year (almost). Pip is the only member of original Trago staff who remains since the opening. We are getting used to the new faces, and they are certainly getting the hang of us which is fab.

We will be marking our first birthday next month, almost certainly with cake. I love birthdays, I always find them to be great times for reflection and ambition, like personal new years. Expect the birthday blog to be full of reflections and hopes for what ACC could have in store for the future.

For now though, I hope you all had a Christmas that suits the way you are and the way you like to celebrate. A Crafty Coffee, or at the very least Crafty, WILL meet on NYE, usual time and place.

See you soon lovelies.
C&C
xxx

Welcome to the World

2010-12-10T14:18:00.003Z

Howdy all,

Sorry for the lack of blog last week, we had snow days so I didn't fancy the icy pavements + 2 miserable children making for a fun A Crafty Coffee session. That said, we did get a lot of crafting done at home so all was not lost. Oh, and I fitted my lardy backside into a roasting tin to go sledging so the snow worked out to be fun too.

This morning there were a few table's worth of crafters again. Some of us are making Christmas gifts and Lisa very kindly blanket stitched two of the decorations I am making for a friend while I finished off a hat for my brother-in-law.

Apparently Celia has made one whole sock now, so I decided to insult her again by saying she'd never have them both done in time for Christmas. That ought to get her shifting.
Coffee (Emma) is on blanket squares, as is Ali. Isobel appeared to be crafting conversation, Karen ... I didn't notice because I was far to busy admiring her strawberry tea cosy! Carol finished off a knitted dinosaur which Liv's little K took quite a shine to, Liv was working on another mega scarf (when she should really have been sewing ribbon onto the tree decorations she started in January), Lisa on a crocheted scarf, and a few others were beavering away on projects that I failed to observe. Chantal popped over for a quick natter before getting to 'work' over in another area of the Lounge, they had a home-workers group in this morning as well as us lot.

After a while, a full mug of coffee drained, and a few rows of hat completed, Priya came in with baby Kezia (5 weeks).
Kezia is a tiny dot of a baby (6lbs 6oz), she is utterly gorgeous with loads of hair and her Mum is looking absolutely amazing. Motherhood seems to suit Priya and, even with a difficult start to the whole feeding routine, she appears to be very grounded in her role and very able to shrug off the well meaning advice of others in order to do what's best for her and her family.
It was such a pleasure to welcome Kezia today, and even lovelier that she and Priya sat with Alison who was knitting a 'daddy bear' for her little girl with only four weeks to go until her second baby is due to make an appearance.

I do hope this post makes some degree of sense?
I am sat here freezing in my front room, not daring to put on the heating for just me, and struggling to concentate ... whoops.

Anyway, I will try to add some pics of my latest items, and hopefully those of other ACC members next week.

Love to you all.
C&C
xxx

Ta-rah November

2010-11-28T11:25:00.007Z

When next we meet, it will be December. This time of year tends to be a heady mix for people. For many it is a time of anticipation of a well earned break, some quality family time and fun and frolics over the Christmas holiday while for others it can be a pretty bleak time of dread and despair over family fallouts, or an overwhelming sense of loneliness and isolation. However the advent period feels for members of A Crafty Coffee, we want you all to feel welcome and loved and able to come and share.

With that in mind, we'd like you all to know that we are planning to meet on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Clearly we expect very depleted numbers, but even if I (Crafty) sit and knit alone, I will treasure two hours of relative peace in what I anticipate to be a somewhat hectic schedule.

Back to the Friday we just had. I woke up with such a bad headache that it was making me feel sick so I dosed myself up and rocked up an hour late. I know I say it every time I turn up late, but I am not sure I can restate this enough ... listening to the hum of chatter that comes from the area of Trago that A Crafty Coffee occupies, while you stand at the bar ordering your peppermint tea, is so pleasing and satisfying. It is a comforting sound and for me, it really makes the effort of 'making the group happen' 100% worthwhile.

I didn't properly take in who was there, one of the first things I did notice was that Sarah was back! Woo Hoo, welcome back Sarah. I could see that she was still struggling with the tiredness but she assured me that she was coping well painwise. ME is a really difficult condition and I think that listening to your body is sound advice for any of us, ME or not.
So Sarah was knitting and chatting with Sue A, the long table was FULL of people (I don't know who though - sorry) and I plopped myself down next to Dee H and Thaya. Dee is counting down the days to her 6 week Caribbean break, Thaya is quietly counting down the weeks until she emigrates to NZ, Ali is counting down the weeks until she has a fully functioning, sparkly, new kitchen, and I sat quietly with my thoughts and my knitting.

***I MUST take this opportunity to apologise to Celia, I think.***
Last post I described her sock project as 'rather brave'. I did this on the basis that she said she was no sock knitting professional, that she has previously knitted one and a half pairs of socks and that these ones were going to be a Christmas gift for her father so she wanted them to be spot on (hence the gauge square). This week, spurred on by my comment, Celia had quite a length of beautiful sock on teeny tiny dpns to show off. I think I may 'insult' people more often if they rise to the challenge this successfully.

I am knitting a hat for my youngest at her request and to her exacting specifications. I am knitting it in the round and was on dpns until Ali pulled out her circular and persuaded me onto it. I won't use circular needles for a small garment again as it is really quite hard work and I need to go back to dpns for the decreases anyway. Nonetheless, it is another string to my bow.

Eddie and Cecile were back again, I can't wait to put their skills and knowledge to good use, along with those of Isobel and Karen and many others within the group who make excellent teachers because they love to share what they have learned themselves. Isobel was seen dishing out gold stars to people who had gone away and done their crochet 'homework'. I am really looking forward to learning to crochet under Isobel's expert tuition in the new year.

Last night saw an event for 100 ladies co-run by A Crafty Coffee and a group called Women@8. It was called A Handcrafted Christmas and was an opportunity to see craft demonstrations, try and buy handicrafts as well as socialising over a mince pie and a lovely glass of mulled wine. I was unable to be there but popped in to give Coffee the float for our stall, I was SO impressed with how the place looked and would love to be involved next time, perhaps roping in some of the wonderful crafters I have mentioned above.

Anyway, enough from me for now, I believe Coffee has a proper William Update blog post planned for you so I shall leave that to her.

Have a fun week and see you IN DECEMBER!!!
C&C
xxx

Progress and frogging.

2010-11-19T17:51:00.004Z

Hello peeps,

Last week I spent my time at A Crafty Coffee blogging about the sale the week before. This means that I omitted to tell you all about Eddie and Cecile who have joined us. Eddie has a couple of blogs that I've added to the 'blogs we like' list, and they are a proper crafty pair. Cecile increased my Ravelry knowledge and usage in a few easy steps and Eddie has opened my eyes to the world of dying with berries. How lovely then, that they returned this week with their knitting and spinning and great conversation.

This morning I was running late, in a terrible mood as I had forgotten my knitting bag and generally in need of some quality time and company. What a lucky girl I am, I managed to nip home for the knitting bag, get a parking space out the back of Trago Lounge and be only the third attendee to arrive! Jilly and Maryam (sp?) were debating on whether they were likely to be the only crafters there today, but over time the group grew to its usual number of around 15-20 people. Maryam is piecing together the lovely aran jumper she started 15 years ago ... yep, that's what I call a WiP! Jilly is crocheting a border on the granny square cushion cover that we all interfered with a few weeks ago.

I am writing a pattern for some wrist warmers on two needles. I do now know how to knit in-the-round but I find that I prefer stripes knitted flat and seamed as they match up better. Mind you, my finishing leaves a lot to be desired but that will come in time.
After the buzz of the sale, I picked up my knitting sticks pretty quickly to finish the scarf that didn't quite make it thinking that it was like coming off a bike, and that if I didn't get back to it quickly I may never knit again. Excitingly, I posted a picture of the finished scarf on Facebook and was made an offer for it of £30! I was terribly upset to part with it, but to be able to add that to the total more than made up for it.

I was also commissioned to make two more of the aprons that I made for the sale, so that netted another £20! And that is the reason for the pattern writing, a friend who could not make the sale has ordered a pair of wristwarmers for her eldest and how can I not oblige when we stand to take our total even higher?

Now, back to this morning. It was simply lovely to have Isobel back with us. She is back for a while now but was away working on a huge local history research project for Remembrance Sunday. Anna was chuffed to see her as it meant she could pick her brains on the advent calendar she is whipping up for Naomi. Karen and Penny were in the corner on the newly rearranged seats, Marion and Ruth were with us, Celia was knitting a gauge square for a rather brave sock project, and then, some distance away there was Coffee (Emma), her Mum, Lesley and a couple of others.
A lovely lady called Jo graced us with her presence, apparently she found us on Ravelry (hooray for Coffee knowing what she's doing on there) and it turns out she is a bit of a celebrity in the jewellery making and teaching world. We welcomed Jo with open arms as we do every new member to our fold, but she made a point of saying she felt so welcome and would come back next week. For me, this is proper heart warming stuff and just reinforces what the group is all about.

The new additions to the group and the large volume of work going on covers progress, but why have I given this post the title 'Progress and frogging'? Because sadly, everything I did today in terms of making up the left wristwarmer from my own pattern was frogged back into the ball ... because I didn't like the effect of the yarn I was using. I am such a yarn snob, it really irritates me. I am so determined to find a use for this lovely soft, bobbly yarn, it knits up to a really cool texture, but I don't know what kind of item the texture would be right on yet. It may be a good toy yarn?

Anyroad, enough of my blithering on for now. I am full of cold and flippin' miserable to boot so I shall leave you all for the week in the hope that you are well and happy and that bounce back to my usual self by then.

Love to you all,
C&C

PS, Just to update you on W, having said he'd got through all of his treatment without incident, last week he was admitted to hospital with an ear infection that his body can't fight off on its own yet, he is doing well, showing NO signs of being unwell and responding to the antibiotics. As far as I am aware he was coming home this afternoon.

Thank you THANK you THANK YOU!!!

2010-11-06T17:25:00.015Z

Having gone to bed after 1am, knowing I was still awake at 2.30, waking properly at 6am and turfing myself out of my pit ... I showered, applied make-up and set off to collect Coffee for an early start at Trago Lounge.

A Crafty Coffee have been beavering away for some weeks now creating stunning, covetable items for us to sell. After a pricing session at Coffee's flat (which I will miss when they move) we knew to expect great things from the sale as we had about £650 worth of goods from only five donors.

Upon our arrival we were greeted with Pip's sunny smile and the challenge of rearranging heavy furniture to make the sale clearly visible from the door.
We were sweating buckets by the time the first of A Crafty Coffee's members arrived to help us.

Sadly, the start of the sale was blighted by tragic and difficult news. One of our number's partner has died unexpectedly, she altruistically came and donated items before going to register the death. This generosity in such an impossibly difficult time really crystalises all that is precious about the community at ACC. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family as they come to terms with this.
I hate to have to share news like this on what ought to be such a positive post, but it would be inappropriate not to.
One of our other dear members is suffering with unmanageable pain owing to her ME. She brought her donation along despite this and went off to rest up at home. We are so very grateful that both of you gave, even in your own trials.
The final piece of difficult news will have affected our community through our links with the local church. Many of our members also attend this church and we are stunned to hear that a couple who we know and love have lost their little girl at full term. She was stillborn. Again, our thoughts and prayers are with them and those around them.

Now, let's try to shift into a more positive place to share the wonderful news of the success of A Crafty Sale.
By 10am the tables were crammed with knitwear, jewellery, greetings cards, gift tags, container candles, hanging hearts, hair accessories, cross-stitch kits, tea-cosies ...

You name it, we had it there for all to see. The array of colour was literally astounding. Bless Chantal who kindly came and took photos for us so that we had something to share with our blogging community here!

At the official start time, the Lounge was literally heaving. People were several deep at the sale tables, we'd managed to rope Alison in to come and serve behind our 'counter' and we were starting to sell sell sell.

Stunning, handcrafted items were flying off the tables, winging their way to becoming Christmas gifts or personal accessories faster than we could get them up from under the table. By lunchtime, we were seriously ready for a break. I (Crafty) had finally stopped shaking enough to sit down with my amazing friend Alix to COUNT the money.

We decided to count and bank the larger notes & cheques, keeping back the coins and £5 notes for change.
So, at some point between one and two pm we zipped off to bank a grand £1082.50!

It was only two days before that Emma (Coffee) and I had spent an entire day sorting and pricing and had audaciously set our target to smash £1000. Having done that by 1pm, we could properly relax and enjoy the afternoon session. We took a relatively leisurely lunch break, enjoyed Trago Lounge's tasty soup offerings and mustered the energy to rearrange the sale tables to make the knitwear look more enticing.

We used height, vintage table cloths, baskets, wooden hangers and various other items to give variety and lead the eye through the sale but we had no idea how much 'stuff' people would donate. We have learned an enormous amount about what sells, what doesn't sell and how to display items to maximum effect.

Nonetheless, having rearranged the items for the afternoon session, we awaited the influx of after school customers. We were pleasantly surprised to have quite a number of punters, large and small. The big sellers for the afternoon were the smaller jewellery items, hair accessories and scarves. There were numerous requests for tea cosies which had all sold in the morning so that has gone down as a note to self!

Speaking of tea cosies, LOOK at this little beauty! The marked price on this Rowan cotton, hand knit, moss stitch, fully lined, Elvis print fabric cosy was £28. I was holding out to get the highest possible price on account of the fact that I WANTED it for myself. I failed, well, I got the full £28 for it and it will be very well used and loved by its new owner but I can hardly imagine anybody loving it like I would have done. To describe myself as envious would be putting it kindly.

Naturally, what you're all waiting for is the grand total, right?
Well, after a huge amount of effort, and ridiculous levels of generosity on the parts of both crafters and customers alike ... I was THRILLED to be able to email the fundraising managers at both Piam Brown Ward and CLIC Sargent (Southampton) to inform them of the grand total of £1446. For the ward, to add to that we have £120 from a cake sale held by Coffee's sister and there are monies still coming in. As things stand this morning, the ward will receive £858 and CLIC Sargent will gain £723. ***ThAnK YoU***

To describe ourselves as exhausted after the sale may be an understatement. Particularly Coffee, who has to contend with the emotional exhaustion and upheaval of completing her time on the ward with W and readjusting to life outside hospital as well as having worked her butt off at the sale. The family have a precarious time ahead of them, this is very definitely a journey into the unknown for them but they are very open and honest and thank God for the fact that W has been SO supernaturally well throughout all of his chemotherapy. It almost never happens that a child endures such toxic treatment without incidence of sickness or infection, they are so very grateful that this has been the case for them.

Right, that's me signing off now, it has taken a full week to get to the stage of being able to complete this missive and I have crafted much of it this morning at ACC while people knit, crochet, cross stitch and breakfast around me.

Do check in next week and see what we've been up to.
Love to you all.

C&C

xxx

ONE week!

2010-10-29T14:32:00.003+01:00

This time next week we will be preparing ourselves for the second installment of the sale, let's just hope we have enough goods left over from the morning so as not to leave too many disappointed customers from across the city.

We've reached the stage where some of us are really starting to feel the time pressure of finishing and pricing items with a week to go. I am swinging between absolute confidence that all the items will sell and the sale being a massive success to having to take mountains of lovingly handcrafted items home with me and having no money to hand over to our two charities.

Needless to say, the reality will be somewhere between the two. There are people who have packaged their items so beautifully that they could hardly fail to sell them, whilst some people are putting items in even lower than the suggested £3 mark which will obviously please the youngsters with pocket money and the more frugal customers out there. There is no reason why the sale should not be a success, we have all worked hard to make sure there is something to sell, the event has been well publicised across the city and Trago have kindly promoted us in the Lounge. They have also agreed to give a verbal notice of the event at quiz night on Monday which is perfect as they have about 100 customers in so it will reach a wide number in one hit. On Sunday evening I am giving a little 'spotlight' interview at Highfield Church which will reach another large number of people, many of whom have some level of disposable income and will have a desire to support the ward and CLIC so ... what on Earth am I worrying about?

Let's stop thinking about next week for a moment and focus on today shall we?
Being half-term, we always expect a depleted number of adults and an increased number of miniature crafters.
My littlest and her best buddy sat and knitted together (yes ... KNITTED, at 6 years old) between playing with baby N and drawing and colouring with some of their friends.
I and Alison managed to knit about 4 rows between us, not what you might call a roaring success but hey, Friday mornings are about more than what we actually craft.
Claire is feeling the time pressure to get her cross stitch ready for the sale, that said, it is looking really good and looks close to completion to my untrained eye.
Marion and Lesley sat together, I wasn't aware of what they were working on but I know both of them are experienced in knitting for charity and we're excited to see what they show up with next week.
I saw Sarah, but not to speak to sadly. I do hope she is okay at the moment.
A lady called Brenda came along with Sharon to see if this might be the kind of thing they'd like to spend their Friday mornings doing. Hopefully we showed them that it's a very relaxed affair and that they would be really welcome?
Emma (Coffee) pitched up with Sheena (Mum) and E, her youngest. She's looking shattered, but with W nearing the end of round 4 (ding ding) of his chemo, all of the strength they have used in dealing with this, and all of the emotion of the last four months can finally start to come out.
I saw Jilly too, and Carol, I am sure there were more but my brain is SO not good at remembering who I've seen and what they were up to ...

Suffice to say, there was a healthy number of people there this morning, a lovely atmosphere in spite of Trago undergoing some home improvements, and a sense of anticipation of next week.

If you read our blog, and find yourselves in Southampton next Friday, DO come along to the sale. Even if nothing takes your fancy, Trago Lounge sell really good coffee, tasty cakes and have such a chilled ambience that you'd be mad not to pop by.

Two weeks and getting the jitters

2010-10-22T17:24:00.002+01:00

So, we have many many many items crafted and ready to sell, Trago Lounge is booked and organised for two sessions of selling, posters are up all over the city, invitations are being dished out to all and sundry but ... what have I forgotten?

Well, I actually don't think I have forgotten a thing, but I have neglected to deal with a couple of problems that I did know about.

1. What do we do with unsold items?
Well, Sue (Coffee's MIL) can take unsold items to her church craft sale and the proceeds will still go to Piam Brown Ward. Failing that, Coffee and myself can also take unsold items to the Christmas Market at A Handcrafted Christmas and negotiate which charities would benefit as they are supporting the Hannah (Foster) Memorial Academy in India.
2. How will people retrieve their unsold items?
I propose that items arrive individually priced, ideally somewhere between £3 and £20, with 'Handmade By' on the reverse so that I can return unsold items to their creator.

Needless to say, we are rather hoping that there will not actually be any unsold items and that there will be a number of disappointed people in the city who decide to join ACC as they weren't able to buy all the handicrafts that they had their eyes on.
We want to see Piam Brown Ward and CLIC Sargent presented with lovely juicy cheques with which they can improve the lives of the children in their care and their families.

We are going to have some serious thanking to do at the end of all this, but some people have donated anonymously. If YOU popped into Trago Lounge this morning with a bag of needlepoint/cross stitch goodies for us, THANK YOU so very much. This will be made into kits to sell at the sale.

I think that's all for today.
See you all next week when I am anticipating my stress levels reaching quite a high.
Much love
C (&C of course)
xxx

3 weeks to go ...

2010-10-15T14:24:00.002+01:00

Having said, "I'll meet you there, I'm driving" in the playground at about 9.00 this morning, how is it even possible that I rocked up at Trago Lounge at almost twenty five to ten? I got chatting with one of the school mums who I know makes jewellery but who I found out is entering an amateur interior design competition. I invited her to come along to ACC one day to see what we're all about, it turns out she had heard of us but didn't know I went along (I don't remember if I mentioned that I actually co-founded the group).

As I approached the doors of Trago I could hear the buzz and hum of chatting women busy crafting, drinking coffee and eating cake. It is lovely to walk in late sometimes and just hear those happy sounds and absorb the atmosphere.
I sat and pulled out my latest item for the sale, a lovely grey scarf with a really textured stitch pattern. It is a ten row repeat and is really easy for me to remember making it a very portable piece of work. This is a good thing because scarves do actually take a while to knit up if you want them to be a decent length.

I cannot believe the array of crafts that are going to make it into the sale. Karen has made cards and now beautiful, little, fabric needle books wrapped in cellophane and tied with a pretty little gift tag. She is so talented. I saw a couple of people working on toddler jumpers and one childs hat being knitted up. Emma is knitting at ACC and sewing at home at the moment, some of her wonderful 'Smockets' will be ready for the sale, as will some bags that she made in a fit of peak and a whole load of Alice in Wonderland inspired jewellery.
It is interesting to note that many of the stunning, handcrafted items already have huge potential to be sold within the group to those with different skills. The ruffle scarves in particular are going down a storm and people are even reserving them in advance of the sale!

Sarah is contributing a great deal in terms of publicising the event, so many of us have large groups of contacts outside ACC and we are really tapping into those to promote the event. It is exciting to hear that people have heard of us and have heard about the sale too.

Anyway, enough of my musings for today. Back to the knitting sticks as my son calls them.
Lots of love to you all.
C&C
xxx

Getting Ready

2010-10-08T17:53:00.003+01:00

So, we've only 4 weeks to go until the big sale and much crafting has taken place over the last week.
I am astounded by the willingness of others to help us to raise money for Piam Brown Ward and CLIC Sargent.

So far, two members of ACC have offered stash raids so that we all have materials to work with, thanks Sarah and Emma. John Lewis Southampton have JUST got back to me saying that they too will put together some goodies for us to craft with at some point next week! Trago Lounge are donating 25% of their coffee sales on the day and everyone in the group appears to be beavering away making things to sell. Since last week I have seen a completed beanie hat, a shoe box full of beautiful greetings cards, a baby dress, a baby jumper, a baby cardi, an almost complete toddler jumper, a girls' scarf, a carrier bag FULL of jewellery and I know there is MUCH more on the go.

I waltzed into Trago this morning a little later than I usually would because I stopped by the office to pick up the posters and invitations cards, hot off the press. I am thrilled with how they look, and people were clammering after taking away posters to put around their workplaces, churches, surgeries, schools etc etc.
Upon my arrival I noted a fair few crafters working already, the place had a lovely buzz to it that steadily grew from 9.35am until about 10.15am. It felt like we were bursting at the seams which was wonderful, I just feel the sale is going to be a huge success. I mean, some of our members are really talented! I know there are novices like me, but even I can turn out something salable. In fact, I am using some of Jelly's leftover fabrics to make rosettes for hair clips and bands right now. Then I need to think up some ways of using the yarn stash I have acquired to make pretty salable items, oh, and I need to finish a lovely 'Old Shale' blanket I started, not to mention deciding whether to carry on with my k1, yo, k2tog scarf ... In fact, what am I doing writing a blog post with all that to be getting on with?

Maybe Coffee will take a break from her virtually constant (currently hospital based) knitting to add to this?

See you all next week folks.
Crafty Crafty x

A Crafty Sale

2010-10-07T16:31:00.002+01:00

So here it is, our beautiful poster for A Crafty Sale. This is going to be a fantastic event, pulling the crafting community together but involving the wider community too.

See you there.
C&C
xxx

World's Biggest Coffee Morning

2010-09-26T11:25:00.005+01:00

A Crafty Coffee met as usual and clever Crafty remembered that it was the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee morning and made Macmillan mugs for people to put donations in. We raised £33 which was great as it was an improptu fundraiser. Well done people!

The other big news of the morning was something that Crafty, P (the manager of Trago) and I have had up our sleeves for a little while. As those of you who are regular readers of the blog and/or regulars at ACC will know, my oldest son is currently having treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. He has his treatment at the Piam Brown children's cancer ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Well, drum roll please...... A Crafty Coffee and Trago Lounge would like to announce that on Friday 5th November 2010 between 10am and 1pm we will be holding A Crafty Sale in aid of the Piam Brown ward and CLIC Sargent (the children's cancer and leukaemia charity). So, everyone, please getting knitting, crocheting, sewing, making and crafting in order for us to have loads of beautiful items to sell for these two charities. And if you can't craft anything, come and buy. And invite everyone you know!

From a personal point of view, the money raised for the ward and for CLIC makes such a difference to the children and the families on the ward. The money that the ward makes pays for extra equipment that the ward needs as well as treats for the children, which is vital for creating 'happy' memories for the families at a terrible time in their lives. And CLIC do so much for families of children diagnosed with cancer. One thing they do locally is provide a house for families to live in while the children are being treated on the ward. Many of the families come from miles and miles away to receive this specialist treatment and families would be separated if CLIC didn't provide this house. One family I can think of in particular on the ward, where the mum is on her own, would be in a terrible situation if they didn't have this option, with the child with cancer having to be left on her own on the ward while the mum took care of her other child. This way they can all be together.

I am not going to apologise for trying to pull on your heart strings in this post. Having a child with cancer, not knowing what the outcome is going to be for your beautiful child or all the other wonderful, brave children on the ward is heartbreaking. And if I can do anything to get people to part with their cash, in order to make things a tiny bit better for the other families who will have to go through this, I will.

So, get crafting. And come and buy!

Lots of love, Coffee xxx

PS A huge 'thank you' to Crafty (Dee) who is making this event happen, and who has been the most enormous source of comfort and strength to me in the past few months. E xxx

PPS I (Crafty) am fully behind Emma in this project and agree that we should make no apology for pulling on heart strings in this post. We have been going through this together like sisters, the pain is enormous but I am thrilled to be able to contribute something, no matter how small, to make difference to these children and their families. Fundraising is a particular forté of mine so let's hope we pull off a massive event.

We're Back!

2010-09-20T08:38:00.002+01:00

Now that even the Reception children are back in school, we are watching our numbers replenish and it's not a moment too soon.

There is a buzz about the group again as we share stories of summer and of our trickier parenting moments as well as more positive tales of the fun we've had and future plans.

Somewhat excitingly, we have had two new members join us on the strength of a feature we placed in the local parish publication. We shall definitely have to use the same medium to publicise an event we are planning. I can't share too much at this stage, but we are in cahoots with the manager of Trago Lounge and we will be needing all hands on deck for this extravaganza. There, did that whet the appetite?

"News from the group?" I hear you cry.
Okay, so we have new members, the same old life struggles and joys. Big news is that Coffee (Emma) and family are on their second break from the hospital scene and awaiting their return for round three of the chemo. I always want to say, "ding ding" when I say that. I guess, in it's simplest form, chemo is a lot like a boxing scenario. It's a fight, it's fought in rounds with short breaks in between, it's heavy going, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, there are invariably 'injuries' along the way ... In this particular ring, the chemo is doing its job and W is not suffering too many ill effects so is able to enjoy his time both in hospital (good old x box) and out of it.
In other news, well ... Celia finally has both small peeps in school, Jilly is getting inspired in the studio, Sarah is in the middle of a spell of ill health (get well soon Sarah, we miss you), there is talk that I need to start considering school options for my eldest (WHAT???), Isobel and Karen keep 'shopping' on my behalf in the local charity shops, we have two big events coming up, rumblings of a pop up business in time for Christmas ... That's all I can remember for now.

If you've been away, COME BACK! A Crafty Coffee will certainly need you in the coming weeks. Not to mention, Trago Lounge has been extremely quiet without us at full capacity.

See you Friday.
That's all folks.
C&C
xxx

Bring me Sunshine!

2010-08-20T14:16:00.002+01:00

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day," was how I sarcastically or optimistically began the day as I looked out onto an overcast, drizzly, August Friday.

Nonetheless, fine weather is more of a deterrent to us crafters than a spot of rain. Just the two tables worth of us descended on Trago Lounge this morning for a spot of relaxed crafting and delicious coffee.

Speaking of Coffee, she has escaped from the hospital, in actual fact, the whole family has had 6 days respite followed by an amount of to-ing and fro-ing before W could finally be readmitted for round two yesterday. Today Coffee made a short escape and managed to get two meals in Trago before her return to Hama Bead Hell in hospital, she and her Kid B were sewing foam shapes together this morning making up a little bag and a photo frame.

Myself and my Kid B were in attendance. Mini-me was making pom-poms while I started my second 'upcycled' rosette corsage. The first one was adorning Mini-me's headband making a rather delightful fascinator.

There was an amount of crocheting and knitting going on around the group and much drawing and colouring from the additional small people. A lovely buzz to the group today made for a very welcome break from the hum drum of daily life.

Sadly, Sunday sees Vicki's last shifts in Trago. We will all miss her very much but, seeing how good she is with the children makes me sure that she is off to do the right thing. She is off to train as a teacher in Cheltenham, much luck to you Vicki.

Love to you lovely crafters ... see as many of you as can make it next week.
xxx Crafty xxx

Another Month has Passed

2010-08-16T10:29:00.002+01:00

Hello Crafters

So, another month has passed and I have missed you all so very much at A Crafty Coffee on the Fridays I have been away.

This weekend my family and I went to Vintage at Goodwood. It was our first ever festival and was great fun for those who love art, design, film, fashion and music through the decades. Many people dressed up (60s, 70s, 40s, 50s and even some 80s) and there were LOADS of crafty ideas to rip off ... you can call anything 'vintage' if it has got even one 'old' element to it! I will add some web links to the blog as there really were some inspiring stalls/people/crafters etc.

I do hope many of you are continuing to meet up while others are on their holidays. I am planning on being at ACC this week, whether I will work some more on the blanket or upcycle some 'vintage' fabrics remains to be seen.

As for a W update, he and Emma are going back into hospital today for the second of four rounds of chemotherapy. They enjoyed 6 days respite and ALL of the leukaemic cells had been eradicated after the first round of chemo so ... so far, so good. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers though, the stays in hospital are very trying.

See you Friday,
Love to you all.
Crafty xxx

Light shining in the darkness

2010-07-16T18:03:00.002+01:00

It has been an emotional week for anyone close to Coffee and her family. A Crafty Coffee was no different and there was a definite sense of a community pulling together in crisis this morning.

The group has taken to spreading over five tables or so now, there really are quite a number of us when we get going. I saw a beautiful quilt being unpicked in order to help it's creator to have the confidence to pick it back up and work on it again. PW was in charge of that tutorial. In terms of other work, I was aware of some knitting and crocheting, but more than that ... CONVERSATION.

People were obviously keen to find out how the Reynolds' were bearing up after the news of W's illness, but they are also keen to help. KB brought along some home made cards as Coffee had requested that I bring in some thank you cards for her (people have already been incredibly generous). There was a buzz about what we could do for the boys, what we should craft. IW has taken it all in hand, we are going to knit/crochet a surprise for both of the boys. All at ACC seem keen to contribute and I think it will be something really special.

As you all know, we had to postpone the Crafty Day owing to the Race for Life. It seems more than just coincidence that I ran the race (in 29 minutes) and had a text shortly after crossing the finishing line to tell me that W had been admitted to hospital for tests. By the evening, Coffee and sent another message to say that they had a leukaemia diagnosis. The Race for Life is an emotional event with many people running in support of ..., in memory of ..., or in celebration of ... It became even more significant upon hearing this news.

A Crafty Day WILL still happen, we are obviously going to have to shelve the idea until September at the earliest but if any of you would like to help 'make it happen' please come forward. I am DREADFUL at organising but BRILLIANT at having ideas and at doing as I am told.

I will attempt to keep the blog updated over the coming months in Coffee's absence. I hope you will all find it useful and will maybe start to add your comments?

xxx

It's been too long!

2010-07-16T07:45:00.002+01:00

It has been far too long since one of us made the time to post a blog. Sorry for that.

I imagine that most of you will know by now that Coffee (Emma)'s eldest son was diagnosed with leukaemia on Sunday (11th July) and that they have a virtually solid six months of hospital encampment ahead of them. The entire family are very receptive to prayer and are graciously accepting help where it is appropriate.

As for us at A Crafty Coffee ... where do we fit in? Well, since we have really begun to gel as a community, let's look out for Sue and Sheena (the Mums) particularly.
There are some suggestions floating around of what we could craft for the boys, something matching, something completely machine washable etc. Hopefully this morning we will make a final decision on this and get cracking.

A Crafty Coffee will continue to meet throughout the summer, we anticipate depleted numbers from week to week as people take family holidays but also, some increase as people bring their little crafters to participate.

I am sorry for the reflective and solemn nature of this post.
I am sure I am not the only one who is 100% thankful that we have such a loving community here at ACC that we can all support each other through this and other tricky times.

Love Crafty x
(and Coffee of course)

New faces, gifts and more ...

2010-05-16T10:56:00.004+01:00

I (Crafty) literally don't know where to start.

Friday was possibly our most exciting meeting yet! I expect this post will come across just as jumbled as my head but I am not sure I even care. I just want to get it all out on the page.

So, um ... the most exciting element has to have been welcoming the first Crafty Baby, Nathaniel Joel who arrived on Tuesday and came along with his big sister and Mum and Dad for a drink at this week's ACC. As a group, our welcome gift has yet to materialise but Trago Lounge did not let us down. The staff bought the family a box of chocolates and a card to welcome Nathaniel to the world. We LOVE the staff in Trago, they are like a bonus part of our crafting family.

I saw many faces coming and going this week, I would guess that over 25 people came and went in the two hours I spent attempting to knit another square for Naomi's blanket. There were at least four new faces which was absolutely lovely. A new friend, Lisa came along and she found a stray Karen outside wondering where she should park. They happened to know one another already which was useful because they were both new to our group. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I didn't manage to speak to everybody this week but spent much of my time with Isobel, Jilly and Karen (another new face). I sat chatting with another unfamiliar face and, being utterly useless at these things, I omitted to introduce myself or get her name. How embarrassing?

The gift element arrived with Claire. Apparently our reputation as crafters goes before us. Somebody who had benefited from a box of 1950s patterns and two tubes of needles didn't have the heart to part with them and needed them to go to a good home so they have been left to us all at ACC. For me (and possibly Jilly) the most exciting part of this gift was actually the tubes surrounding the knitting needles. As a graphic designer I really appreciate packaging and typography. The tubes were old girdle tubes, one pink Playtex one, the other a Golden Girdle one. We tipped everything out for people to peruse and tried to get people to take what they wanted but Jilly and myself requested the tubes. Shortly before leaving I braved asking Jilly which one she would prefer so she is having the pink and I inherit the gold. My husband was quite impressed that I had got my hands on one of those and over the weekend I have discovered the reason that illustrative drawings were used in 50s underwear advertising and packaging instead of photography! You may already know this ... but apparently it was because photography would have been seen as titilating or slightly pornographic so illustrations of the women in girdles were used instead.

Anyhow, the birthday girls (Karen and Jilly both celebrated this week) tucked into croissants with their drinks while I knitted, Isobel crocheted, Nathaniel was the parcel in Pass the Parcel, and various other crafts took place. I saw Helen with some more cross stitch, and was aware of knitters and crocheters, I may have started something with this blanket for Naomi as there are three/four more blankets in progress and I suspect Priya *may* embark on one for her next project.

Just as I was toying with going home to do Helen a favour, my good friend Anna came along with Naomi (the recipient of my first ever knitted item). I adopted Naomi for quite some time, we are getting to like each other and I do like a baby that doesn't belong to me. It was lovely to have her just lying on me, taking in the world around her while I chatted with Isobel and Priya about the plans for A Crafty Day.

A Crafty Day is still a work in progress at this stage, but I think we will pull it off and members of A Crafty Coffee will have a real chance to get to know one another better and to try their hands at something different with more time to throw at creativity.

I do hope Coffee will add something to this post because she was on the other side of the group and between us we probably did spend time with everybody who came.

I can't wait to see who turn up with what crafts next week. I am determined NOT TO UNPICK everything I do at ACC next time. As Sarah pointed out, I probably need a t-shirt she has seen emblazoned with the following, "Shh, I'm counting".

TTFN Crafters.
xxx

And another...

2010-05-07T17:40:00.004+01:00

A second post by Coffee in a row? No! Surely not? It is indeed. I am feeling much better at the moment (although still having lots of ups and downs) and so I am trying to take the pressure off poor Crafty, who is suffering today with ANOTHER of her headaches. Will these bliming headaches never go. Grrrr!

Another Friday, another A Crafty Coffee. I didn't do a headcount (I think we've given up on those - it's a shame really) but we had another good turnout - spreading out onto FOUR tables this week. The Trago Lounge was as welcoming as ever and no doubt plenty of money was spent (ker-ching!). A couple of us even stayed for lunch - yummy!

SJ (my mum :) ) was back from her holiday in France, having managed to make excellent headway with her cardigan - probably due to the peace and quiet she had in the middle of the Mayenne countryside. I on the other hand had barely done any more of my WiP despite it being very simple and easy to do anywhere and in any circumstances.

Crafty was hard at work on her delicious blanket, but sadly was seen towards the end of the morning unravelling all her hard work. What a shame! Still, she had a morning of lusting over a Cath Kidston magazine/catalogue that my lovely CPN gave me this week. Am I leading Crafty into bad ways?

EN (nope, still no baby) and AP were crocheting. AP taught herself how to make granny squares this week, and was expressing her amazement that her teenage daughter was interested in having a crocheted blanket herself!

Sewing? A was working on some very beautiful quilting, and produced the most amazing looking book on crafting and Jane Austen (covet, covet). CK and HK were both beavering away at their cross-stitches which are coming on very well. And LB got a decoration finished! We should have taken a photo (must, must, MUST take photos next week!). LB and EN's littlies had a great time playing with mine and Crafty's keys and pretending to lock us into Trago's, much to the other customers' bemusement.

R joined us right at the end of the morning, having had a very tough time of it recently. She was obviously struggling to keep a brave face on it, but thankfully Crafty produced a hanky and that helped her (I think) to share some of what is going on in her life. Clearly it isn't appropriate to discuss the details here, but it does amaze me how so many people have been brought together with similar issues going on in their lives. And I am also overwhelmed with the way people are able to come to ACC and share such personal stories, and to get love and support from each other. We hope and pray that R has a better few weeks, and gets to see some light at the end of the tunnel with everything that is going on.

Well, sorry to everyone else. I wasn't paying enough attention (must try harder!) but I do know that everyone was working away, as well as chatting. I wish I had had chance to go and have a look at what everyone was up to. Maybe next week....

Hopefully next week we will have some good news to share! Whatever else you do this weekend, enjoy your crafting!

Coffee x

Long time no post...

2010-05-02T13:37:00.003+01:00

Hello. Coffee here. Long time no post. In fact, it is such a long time since I posted I couldn't remember my login details. How bad is that? Sorry Crafty! And thank you for doing such a sterling job during my metaphorical, and sometime literal, absense. You are a star!

Well, Friday saw us back at the Trago Lounge, on the last day of April (can you believe it?) and with still no baby for poor EN, who came with her MIL for support. We had yet another great turn out with ACC spreading over its usual three large table areas. As I was sandwiched in on one of the tables I'm afraid I'll only be able to report what I could see from where I was sitting.

One of the excitements of the morning was the appearance of KB's finished granny square blanket. It was stunning. Lots of colourful squares crocheted together with Aran yarn which gave the blanket a subtle look. The joining technique was admired by many, with a long discussion about whether the 'back' of the work, with its raised pattern, was even better than the front! It is hard to believe that K only learnt to crochet back in January when ACC started. I'm hoping to add in a picture of Crafty with the blanket wrapped around her here. (Coming soon....!)

There were many more blankets in progress. ACC seems to have a craze for them at the moment. Crafty was continuing her beautiful coloured squares, AF was busy conferring with IW on the progress of her 'apple' square, and even I was busy with garter stitch squares for a rough and ready garden blanket which I am working on during my (many) 'brain not quite working' phases.

CK was carrying on with her cross stitch, which, as I glanced over her shoulder, seems to be coming on well. JE also brought cross stitch, but found the low light levels in Trago made it too hard for her to work. She seemed to have a good time chatting to SR though, who in turn was carrying on with knitting a creamy coloured, cotton shrug for herself.

We had a newcomer this week, SA, who I hope felt welcomed. She won't be able to come back for a couple of weeks due to work commitments, but I hope we will see her again after that. She brought the last of a series of four matching cardigans she is knitting for a friend who is expecting twins: one pink, one purple, one light blue and one bright blue. She was working this week on the bright blue one, which was a beautiful colour and matched her skirt! Am I the only one who LOVES it when people's work matches what they are wearing?

SA and I had a good long natter, carrying on long after ACC had officially finished, as S works in an area that is close to what I was previously training to do - a job that I miss very much and an area of life that I am still very passionate about and love to talk about. It was very interesting for me to hear about a slightly different area and an alternative angle on my previous profession.

Well, that's all folks. There was loads more happening at ACC this week, but I'm afraid I didn't pay enough attention to everything that was going on. But, coffee and other beverages were drunk, WIPs were worked on, there was A LOT of chatting and laughter, and, most importantly, relationships were made and strengthened.

TTFN. Coffee xxx

Speculation

2010-04-26T18:51:00.004+01:00

There was a buzz of excitement this week as we waited to see if EN would arrive or if she was otherwise engaged delivering her Kid B ... but happily or sadly, she was there to craft with us.

Coffee is really battling through another bad low patch so it was simply wonderful to see her making Alice in Wonderland themed jewellery at the coffee table.

I planted myself in the window to knit some more blanket squares and chat with IW and KB. These two really are the expert crafters of the group. They share a dream to have a crafting barn with workshops in the Forest or similar. Personally I think this would be a wonderful and exciting project, should they ever have the capital to run such a venture. Both IW and KB were adorning some white WonderBras for 4 playground mums who were doing the Sunwalk (10k for cancer) the following day.

There were a good number of crafters again, I would guess about 20 but have long since given up counting. The exciting thing this week was that we had a new member who came along knowing her craft but not knowing anybody! Welcome Amy (sorry I don't know your initials). Amy was hand quilting a machine assembled piece of patchwork for a baby. It has a teddy bear's picnic theme and is simply beautiful.

I have to be honest and say that, aside from unpicking many rows of knitting, chatting to Amy and being upstaged in the blanket squares department by AS, I don't honestly know what everybody else was up to.

Suffice to say, Coffee will add her two penneth worth here if I have missed anything major, and we hope to have a baby update for you all asap.

Happy crafting all.
x

2010-04-16T13:48:00.004+01:00

Today saw many of us parenting types at the end of the Easter break. Some of us were in a position to take a break from our littlies, others of us came with our small people in tow.

I (Crafty) was one of those who was able to bring my DD along to craft with us. She is beavering away next to me in the garden as we speak, writing her first ever blog post.

In terms of young crafters, I noticed three boys, and six girls between 1 and 7 years. Grown up crafters were about 14 in number. Given that it is still the Easter break this seemed like a respectable amount.

Instead of looking at my beautiful balls of yarn, I actually KNITTED 12 rows this week. Since last week, armed with SJ's lovely blanket book, I have amassed no less than SIX blanket squares. Each one is a different pattern or texture and there will be five different colours in the finished blanket.

SJ was working on a cabled jumper, which was useful for me as I got to see cabling in action. This has been incredibly helpful. I actually think I may be in a position to give it a go sooner than I thought.
CK was cross stitching and socialising as usual, she is very good at spotting and welcoming a newbie and did so with TWO new people this morning. She also shared with us about a website and businessman she has discovered who has offered members of ACC a discount on his craft kits. We will add a link to this blog in due course.
JE was assembling a STUNNING Attic24 style, crocheted blanket. It is simply beautiful and is apparently a new attempt at crochet for J who is our resident knitting artist.
CC was knitting a jumper for her DH. He popped in at the end and suggested we attempted to reign her in as she is spending the family funds as fast as she can on knitting supplies. Far be it from us to discourage this behaviour, especially as he will see the benefit of this particular garment and the yarn was half price in Hobbycraft.
AS came in on her way to spending a day at the races. Having completed the cupcake jumper, she has moved onto a blanket which immediately puts mine to shame. She was VERY sweet though and said to me, 'I thought you had only just learned to knit?' as she perused my knitted squares. Hers has bobbles on it which I am keen to learn. Her DD hung round with mine, card making and writing and colouring.

Here is Crafty Junior's first blog entry:
"Today I had a grait time at a craftey cofey! and all the other weeks it is reerly fun. I love it. I brort colouring and writing. It was fun dooing colouring and making cards with my freinds."

I was hoping that Coffee would finish up here but she is struggling with her health again so I will leave this post here and if she ever wants to add to it she can.

Much springy, crafty love to you all.
xxx

Easter Holidays

2010-04-11T09:53:00.002+01:00

Hello all, Crafty here with the shenanigans from two weeks worth of A Crafty Coffee during the holidays.

Good Friday was particularly special, although somewhat different to our usual meetings. We had a photographer in to take some 'publicity shots' for our use on posters, parish newsletters etc. Both Coffee and myself are a little camera shy and elect to take photographs preserving people's identity and focusing in on their work. Our publicity photographs really challenged us on that front, maybe we will post some on here when we get the CD?

For our fellow crafters, we decided an Easter gift was in order.
We spent much time deliberating over the gift, how to approach it, what it needed to say etc. In the end, we decided that it had to be about new life, and that we had to take a crafty approach. We planted Forget-me-nots in little fibre pots tied with blue gingham ribbon or blue ric-rac and embellished with a button. We then added a hand-made label with Forget-me-not written on the front, and a bible verse from Matthew on the reverse. This is probably the bravest thing we have ever done, but the verse carries a worthwhile message for all, without (we hope) being too forceful.
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."

There were far less crafters than we are used to, Easter tends to have the effect of drawing families together so many people were off on holidays or visiting relatives. We gave some of the plants to the staff at Trago which is the least we can do as they slave after us once a week.

Friday just gone was again a more intimate affair. It gave me the chance to pick people's brains about how to tackle my first ever baby blanket and many people had great tips for me. Now that Naomi has ownership of her bear (remember my first WiP thatI had to keep a secret?), I am feeling more confident to try new things. And, a whole range of 1/2 price bamboo-cotton yarns in scrummy sorbet colours proved irresistable to me!

It was lovely to see J with her little lad, E with only 5 weeks max till we get to meet 'Spud', CK, Coffee, C, SD with her two small peeps, and KW made a chance appearance with baby J which was lovely for me as I don't get to see them that often. SJ and SR knitted away together and SJ VERY kindly brought be a book to borrow with 100 knitted squares in it for my blanket.

I imagine this week will be similarly intimate, nonetheless I look forward to showing SJ how useful her wonderful blanket book has been for me. And exploring with Coffee the potential for me to make my own 'chart' to personalise Naomi's blanket. I SO hope they like it as much as I think I will.

TTFN ....

Coffee is BACK!

2010-03-26T14:33:00.002Z

Hurrah for the springtime weather, the daffodils and tete a tetes rearing their lovely yellow heads and for the return of the lovely Coffee. NO, I don't mean the caffeinated beverage, I mean my fellow founder of A Crafty Coffee.

Now, you all know she is having a spell in hospital at the moment, and if you don't know already, you may have read between the lines and got that she is experiencing some MH difficulties. The good news is that the new medication is taking effect and that Coffee is currently able to take 3 hours of escorted leave each day. Various peeps have been 'allowed' to escort her, including ME! Wahoo, can you believe they trusted me to keep her safe?

Now, onto more Crafty matters.
There was a great number of attendees again this morning, so when I gauged opinion on whether meeting on Good Friday was indeed a Good Friday idea, I was met with an overwhelming response ... YES! Great news indeed, how wonderful to be able to take advantage of a Bank Holiday to use the Dads to have the littlies so that many of us can continue to craft away. Of course Easter is pretty significant for me, but not so for many of the group so it will be interesting to sit and chat and see what people think of the easter story and of the Jewish and Pagan festivals also celebrated at this time.
In terms of A Crafty Day, the response is again very positive. We will really try to pull together over the next month in order to organise something for July, prior to the school holidays if we can.

Physical craft wise, SJ showed me a new stitch that she is using to create this FAB cardigan, it has a beautiful textural quality to it.
Coffee is still working on her hooded cardi, it is coming quite close to being finished now which is great.
I am still doing the applique cushion for DD. A Crafty Coffee seemed like a good idea, but I didn't allow for the fact that I am actually quite gregarious and therefore spend too much time engaged in conversation.
PT is knitting her bag AND GROWING A BABY! How exciting and what lovely news to have heard this fine morning! Congratulations to her and Mr T, we wish them all the best as they embark on this amazing journey together.
SD is still feeling relieved of some of her ME symptoms which is good, she has had some tummy trouble as a result of the pain killers though so we will pray about that. She was knitting a PS3 toy for her brother who is definitely old enough to know better but ...
I saw CK, J, DJ and HK all doing some cross stitch, AS COMPLETING the cupcake jumper, IW and KB plotting and planning, C and L crafting quietly in another corner. It really is a hive of activity on a Friday morning in Trago Lounge.

Alas, no pictures again, I PROMISE to do better one of these fine days.
Love for the week.
Crafty xxx

A Wanderer Returns

2010-03-19T18:33:00.003Z

I waltzed into A Crafty Coffee this morning a little later than usual, but still before 9.30 and the place was already buzzing with craft and conversation! As I stood at the bar, a bumped into Mr Sparkles, a very good friend, and decided to sit with him so that he would feel less intimidated by the massive group of female crafters taking over the Lounge.

Sadly, Coffee has been taken into hospital, I have mentioned on here previously that she has been very unwell but things have reached new depths. Mr Sparkles was a great encouragement to talk to about this as he has first hand experience with the same illness. I am planning on making a visit to see Coffee tomorrow, all things being equal.

So, as Mr Sparkles and myself sat and enjoyed a cuppa or two, a wanderer returned! We were very pleased to welcome back DH who had to leave us owing to work commitments. She returned with a very pretty shawl she is working on, and she told us all about her job, and the interview she was having this afternoon for a new one. I was able to share with her the 'rumblings' about a crafting day and she was very happy to be a tutor for the day!

DH and myself retired to the coffee table area where there is more light. I took a quick look around and chatted to a new lady while I was on my way. I saw about 20 people again, some faces I know very well by now, but others less so. CP was tickled when I went over to sit with her and SD. She said, 'I love the way you circulate to speak to everyone, like a bride at a wedding'. I suppose I feel that since Coffee and myself 'founded' the group, I need to make sure everyone is welcome and happy and feels comfortable. It's silly really because the group would take care of itself very well without me.

So, after last week when PT and myself chatted with SD about her ME and what she would most like prayer for, I felt I should follow that up. Interestingly, S decided she would most like not to be in pain, and to have the energy to function without crashing out. I asked her how she'd been ... to which she was delighted to reply that she has had a week free of painkillers and that she has done more in the past week than she has done in ages but has not felt wiped out. I very quietly said, 'wow, what an answer to prayer'. Her friend said, 'it was all the laughter' to which I replied that laughter is a great healer but SD said, 'AND the prayer'. I feel so encouraged to offer to pray with or for people irrespective of their faith background as a result of this.

Anyway, onto more crafty matters ... two interesting things came out of this morning. Both IW and KB want to be tutors on our crafty day and KB and myself discussed having a spiritual/emotional crafting day whereby we endeavour to visually represent feelings/thoughts etc. The second VERY interesting chat was at the very end. I was intorduced to a lovely lady who wants to set up a craft based therapy group for people with mental health problems and also to have ameans for those people to be able to sell their work. I insisted that we have a conversation about it because many of our number have mental health/emotional/physical health problems and because I am aware of a group of people who want to have a premises on our High Street selling local crafts, fairtrade goods and food/drink. As we sat and chatted it became apparent that there were ways in which our groups could all overlap. How jolly exciting. WHAT NEXT?

A not so Crafty Coffee

2010-03-15T10:57:00.002Z

I arrived at least half an hour later than I said owing to having a doctor appointment for myself and Kid A, followed by a 'brief' meeting with the headteacher.

Upon my arrival I could see that there were quite a number of crafters beavering away, I would say the usual 20ish but that is a guess.

What did strike me was that there was a new member to our number, PT who had positioned herself with CK and SD among others, she was offering some words of encouragement to S regarding miraculous healings of ME sufferers. S did seem to be enormously encouraged and began to really consider what she would most like to happen if people were to pray for her.

I was also THRILLED to see that Coffee put in an appearance, she is still seriously ill but to see her up and out of the house fills me with hope for her.

As far as crafting goes, I sat myself down on a long table with EN, CP and their little girls, got my applique out of my satchel ... only to discover that I had left the thread at home. Thank goodness IW had come along with a book on felt bowls from her seemingly endless crafting library.

There is a rumble within the group of the need for some kind of crafting day, like a mini retreat where tutorials may be offered, we can share food together and generally spend more time either completing a project or trying our hand at something new in a totally safe environemnt. I am going to bite the bullet with this one and look into booking a venue in the summer, for a full day on a Saturday. This should give more of our 'working' members an opportunity to join in. I added working in inverted commas because I am not suggesting for one moment that being available on a Friday morning to craft means that one does not work!

I cannot say who or what was going on around me aside from this rumble as I was probably concentrating more on the people in my immediate proximity. I do hope this does not mean that everyone else did not feel welcome. I do sometimes struggle to make sure I speak to every attendee but now that relationships are forming and deepening, it is sometimes more beneficial to spend some quality time with one or two people in deeper conversation.

So, that's it for the 12th of March. I can't wait to test the water when I float the idea of the crafting day. Any takers to bet that IW is the first to offer to be a tutor for the day?

Some say it's Spring

2010-03-05T15:14:00.002Z

But as I desperately scraped the ice from the windscreen, for we were running late for school, I declined to agree. Late winter it is then.

I was in the playground this morning, gathering participants for A Crafty Coffee when the head teacher approached me and asked 'if I had a minute'. Eeek. Anyway, I went off to the head's office and AS called up to me that she'd see me there.

As I walked past the window of Trago Lounge I noticed that some young things had taken 'our' window seats! How rude. I entered and saw a significantly depleted number of crafters around one of the long tables. On I walked up to the bar, ordering myself a decaf latte but immediately changing my mind to fully loaded as I pondered on my meeting with the head. The staff in Trago are coming to know us quite well now so Pip and Vicki were able to joke with me about it being 'one of those days' before we'd even made it to half past nine.

Anyway, I took my place next to AS who is on the home straight with the cupcake jumper. PW was crocheting a blanket and had invited AN to join us for the first time. AN knits, is a parent of a boy in my Kid A's class and was planning on learning to crochet this morning. Slowly more and more people began to join us so although it was a slow start, we ended up with the usual number of around twenty attendees. It was great to welcome more than one new face and although I said hello to everybody who popped it, I am still unfamiliar with everyone by name which is a bit of a challenge.

Conversations this morning centred around a mother's choice to be a full time mum or a paid working mum. This is a subject very close to my heart and it was interesting to note how the perceptions of both the full time mother and the paid working mother have shifted over time. I am sure I have mentioned before that the mix of ages and experiences at A Crafty Coffee is one of the things that makes the group a community. Sharing experiences together and 'comparing notes' for want of a better turn of phrase, enables us to support one another and to learn from one another.
More frivolous conversations were around holidays, destinations and what makes a family holiday fun. SJ, C, AS and myself had a great chat about holidays that has left me yearning to take a spring break in Italy.
It transpires that I have mutual friends outside of A Crafty Coffee with two of our members, this is lovely because it shows me what a lovely community we are becoming and that we talk about the group with friends, peers and colleagues outside of the crafting circles.

Craft wise, we had the usual crochet, knitting, sewing and cross stitch. IW assumed her favourite teaching mode, and it was simply delightful to see a blanket brought in by a lady who was taught by IW to crochet only three weeks ago. Her choice of colours was simply divine, right up my street ... a chocolate brown edge moving into pinks, greens and mulberry. Mmmmmmmm, delicious, and it had a real vintage feel taking me right back to a blanket I had as a child, crocheted for me by my Great Nana.
There was a hint at a huge cross stitch Southampton Football Club badge up the other end of the table and my ears were definitely burning but I didn't get the opportunity to see it. CK was cross stitching up there with DJ, and a couple of new ladies who I don't know.
CC was knitting ANOTHER new item (some of these women are true pros), a garter stitch coat by Debbie Bliss. It is going to be beautiful. In the book it is knitted in a rich, dark grey. But CC has elected to knit hers in a lovely purple colour. I think it is going to be lovely. EN was knitting another sleeve to sleeve jumper. Apparently the first one came out huge and will fit her DD but she was knitting it for the bump so she is experimenting with finer needles and thinner yarn to make a smaller one.
LB was, again, working on her hand stitched tree decorations. Her DS and EN's DD managed to drive the young things off of the window seats with their antics. This amused most of us because, as I have said before, Trago is a child friendly venue. It strikes me that the British attitude to children and families is fairly unique within the context of the rest of Eurpope!

And so to me ... Sadly, Coffee was too ill to be with us this morning. But that was not going to stop me. I have abandoned myself in favour of Coffee's 'try anything' approach and I am learning to hand applique. My mentality has shifted somewhat from 'oh no, I can't possibly do that, I might make a mistake' to 'I've seen it on youtube, therefore I can do it'. A friend compared it to her son who watched the winter olympics on TV and can therefore ski!
So, this hand applique ... Kid B says to me that I need to have a word with 'the shop man' as they don't do mugs with her name on but they do do Mia, Phoebe and Lily (her school buddies). It occurs to me that the cushion cover I have not braved sewing because I am too afraid to cut the back pieces may have remained unfinished for a reason. I look up hand applique on t'internet and decide that I can indeed do it. I set about personalising a cushion for her and will post the photo in the next week or four!

ANOTHER month comes to an end?

2010-02-28T20:25:00.003Z

What?
Someone tell me this is some kind of joke. It seems like only five minutes ago that I was writing about the end of January. Now, I know we have not stayed on top of the blogging, but the posts have been written in draft just not posted. So it is fair to ask ... what happened to February?

A Crafty Coffee met for the final time this month on Friday. There is a bit of a buzz about the group now. People are really starting to get to know one another and, I hope, feel a sense of belonging to the group.

We welcomed back KB after a couple of weeks off for her. It turns out she has been to-ing and fro-ing to Leeds to see her DD who is having a bit of a hard time of it right now. What a wonderful mum I say, going all that way to help 'girlify' the house after a relationship break down and generally support her DD. KB has three other children too which I admire since I struggle endlessly with the two I've got! While she crocheted, I knitted, Coffee knitted, CK cross stitched, JA whipped up a burlesque outfit and C knitted, we all shared amusing parenting tails suggesting that we were not alone! And that, if KBs tales were anything to go by, it may only get harder.

A Crafty Coffee really is a special little group for that reason.
I believe CC and another lovely lady whose name escapes me, were supporting SJ in an entirely different way. It is just so wonderful to see these relationships blossoming.

PW and J only stopped in for a short time as they had volunteered themselves to walk year 2 to the library on a school trip. But, no sooner had they left than AS came in with the cupcake jumper. Apparently she is down to just the sleeves now so with only the winter Olympics and the Rugby to distract her for now she should be finished in no time.

I did bring my camera to celebrate the end of another month, the photos will be added in due course ... watch this space as I learn another new skill!

Oh by the way, I (Crafty) have finished three WiPs that I have been working on at A Crafty Coffee, and a fourth is very soon to be complete with the fifth already started.
For me this is very exciting as I literally had NO crafting skills prior to starting the group with Coffee!

End of Half Term

2010-02-28T20:13:00.003Z

After my DDs shenanigans at last week's A Crafty Coffee I was dismayed to learn that 'The Boss' was going to be working away from home leaving me with Kids A AND B to bring along to the group. Now, crafting for a six year old girl is quite a tempting prospect, not so for a 9 year old boy ... so I set to work planning appropriate activities for him before a VERY good friend offered to have him with his own sons to play football and Wii at their house. Phew!

Having learned from the previous experience taking DD with me I decided to focus my attentions on her crafts rather than mine. And, as luck would have it AS pitched up with her DD in tow and two of her little friends. So we had a full table of hot frothy milks and kiddicrafts going on. There was pom-pom making, felt purse sewing, cross stitch, colouring and of course the obligatory Nintendo DS. Why do I hate those things so much? My children hate me for it, but that changes nothing.

Trying to recall what and who else I saw is tricky as negotiating so many 6/7 year old girls addled my brain but here goes ...

CP came along with the doilies and both son and daughter. Somewhat excitingly she has asked me to quote on some graphic design work that she requires for an exhibition she is putting on in the summer. If she receives the Arts Council grant she is applying for it will mean work for Immaculate Concepts as well as for a mutual friend who is a photographer, a copywriter and of course a great show for CP.

CK popped in, and SD came along with son, daughter and a crafty mum which was nice to see. I believe she can only come along in the holidays as she works in a school.

If Coffee can remember who else was there, great. If not, MASSIVE apologies to those I missed. It just goes to show what an effect children can have on you eh?

At last....

2010-02-13T22:20:00.031Z

At last, Coffee has found the energy amidst illness (hers and children's) and lack of sleep (children's and so consequently hers) to post about February's first Crafty Coffee. Yet again, we had approaching 20 people (and a number of babies and preschoolers) with a variety of crafts. TA made her first appearance at A Crafty Coffee with the lovely I, who charmed everybody with her gorgeous smile and many questions. They brought a stash of crafting bits and bobs with them. Mmmmmm - buttons!

AS wowed us with her cupcake (designed by herself) on the jumper she is knitting for her daughter.
Crafty: She must be pretty pleased with herself because look what she treated us to later on ... further explanation later on in the post.

CP is still working on this beautiful antique doiley installation. It is representative of the little things that women do and the power and beauty that they hold when their skills are brought together. Next to her Crafty is beavering away finishing a gift bag started by her DD aged 6. She wouldn't have finished it on her DD's behalf ordinarily but the birthday party was the next day and they really needed to have it ready in time. DD designed the bag, drew the flower shape to be cut from the gingham fabric, stitched it on and blanket stitched the whole bag apart from the handles. We think we have a Crafty Coffee-er in the making!
LB returned with her vintage decs once more and next to her is a lovely little cross stitch pattern being worked up by SR.

Above is SD with yet another NEW project, she is speedy this one! Next to her is PW working on a different type of crochet. Then there is a one hour scarf, which has apparently taken five hours to date ... looking good though I think, worth the wait. Bottom right sees Coffee beavering away on the hooded cardigan. Coffee is not one for tenaciously completing a project so it is brilliant to see her bringing it back week after week to work on. To the right here is the lovely IW teaching newbie J to crochet, we just can't stop her sharing her skills, she thrives on it!

Below, DH (just realised we have two DHs) attends her final A Crafty Coffee for a while as the bank balance suggests she needs to do some paid work. Booooooo to that say we! But before she left she let me photograph one of her completed cardis as well as her WiP. We can't wait to welcome her back between jobs in the summer, or sooner if she manages to wangle the odd Friday off work.

AS's celebration (below) was particularly special, not just because she chose to share the champagne with us all at A Crafty Coffee. She has worked in educating people about the emotional effects of cancer for sometime, and prior to that had nursed in oncology (I believe) ... all told she has lived and breathed cancer for the past 20 years and is in desperate need of complete rest. Amazingly, she has handed in her notice and is taking a gap year (or 10). The particular poignance of this week for A was that she had given her last lecture, been on her last field trip and marked her last 120 exam scrpits. You could SEE the stresses flooding out of her as she knitted away, and even more so as the champagne cork popped!

Unexpected Numbers

2010-02-13T09:00:00.003Z

Wow!
Since most of the local schools had INSET days and so many of our number are parents, we were expecting to be depleted in number this week. AMAZINGLY though, the turnout was higher than ever with 21 adults at the time of the headcount and 9 or maybe more crafty kids, toddlers and babies.

I (Crafty) really needed the expertise of some of the crafters this week as I had arrived needing to undo some rows of knitting to beyond the button holes. I basically wanted to make my cushion cover bigger before knitting in the button holes (which is a whole new skill in itself). Fortunately, upon my arrival there was SD with her DD sat in the comfy window sofa. She is more or less a pro knitter and I was amused that she gave me a wonderful piece of advice but that when I checked how to execute it she said, 'Oh, I've never done it, I just read that it can help'! Ha ha ha, but it DID help. And I double checked with the lovely JE (our knitting artist) who helped me to get the stitches back on the needle.

Coffee may like to add something here when she is feeling a little more like herself. It won't take genius IQ levels to work out that she really has been very unwell of late.

I (Crafty) made the decision to leave Kid A at home with his Dad who was working at home but to bring Kid B who LOVES crafting and socialising. Unfortunately, Kid B couldn't be persuaded to being along one of her many WiPs (she started EVERYTHING on her birthday, peg dolls, hanging hearts, french knitting, button jewellery) and brought colouring instead. Trago Lounge is a very family friendly environment but even the staff struggled when some of the small people decided to play with the stones from the plant pots all over the floor! As one of the managers said though, 'We'll have to get used to it, we have a week of this ahead of us'. In many ways he is right, they will need to get used to children being children ... but it has made me think more carefully about how I will involve and engage Kid B if she comes next week.

Coffee may like to add something in here too as she made a real effort with an entire table of new crafters (with babies and toddlers) who were dragged along by EN.

I did make time to meet chat with JH and ZB who came along for the first time. JH is a real crafter and we'd love to see here again, ZB, her daughter, came along to get a 'feel' for the group rather than to participate but I think she was surprised at how comfortable and relaxed it all is. We LOVE that fact that experienced crafters, non-crafters, amateurs and people young and old can come together like this. Another lovely week.

January draws to a close.

2010-02-01T11:52:00.035Z

So, as we kiss goodbye to January, now seems like a good time to reflect on the first month's goings on at A Crafty Coffee.

Week by week we have had approaching 20 attendees, some new faces each week, some returners and some people who are only able to attend sporadically. This is exactly how we'd hope the little crafting community would be. The Facebook group is registering 39 members which is a good indication of how large the community is but not 100% accurate as there are members who are not part of Facebook. We'd love to see more cross generational crafting and conversation and if Crafty EVER gets her backside into gear we will print off those lovely posters to promote the group in local surgeries, the library and the university.

In terms of crafting ... Coffee will have to work her magic here and put in the photos because I am new to this blogging lark. (Coffee: Magic has been worked - finally!)

This week we were pleased to welcome back OB (or LB depending who she's talking to) with her retro, hand-sewn Christmas decorations. I LOVE that she is working so far ahead of time in the hope that, somewhere in the midst of bringing up three children (one a pre-schooler), she will actually finish in time for decorating the tree. We have a mutual friend in EN who came again with her DD and bump in tow. Apparently they have also suggested to two of their NCT friends that they come along and craft with us. One of the wonderful things about A Crafty Coffee and Trago Lounge is that both are welcoming of children but neither are designed for children, so it is a place to be an adult, persue a hobby but that children can fit into and be content.

A newbie this time was CP with her DD too. I personally feel privileged to have at least two practicing artists withing the group. CP is currently exhibiting a cast iron bed in Bristol but the project she is working on at A Crafty Coffee is a portable one. She has collected an array of vintage lace doilies from charity shops and the like, and is sewing them together in an 'orchestrated random' way with a view to them becoming a suspended work of art. I am personally excited by this project because of its symbolism regarding women and crafts. Follow her progress at either http://www.chantalpowell.com or http://chantalpowell.wordpress.com

Other crafts this week included a wonderful Afghan that IW was crocheting on the largest hook I have ever seen.

She brought along some more instruments of torture with which she is going to learn to rag rug under the tuition of EN ... IW described herself as 'not to be beaten' which is why she is so keen to try out new crafts. She is also a wonderful teacher and put away her Afghan to teach another newbie (L) to crochet.

Two ladies brought along some premature baby clothes that they had knitted at the suggestion of a wonderful woman who approached the group on week one, we would love to see her return and join in one day.

CK was colouring by numbers whilst chatting to DH (who was knitting away at the speed of light). I think there must be something so wonderful about emptying your brain of all that fills it for a while and simply doing as instructed. Anybody could do it, but not everybody would, I hope she felt relaxed afterwards.

I forget what else I saw taking place, I was very tired after a tricky week with a poorly DD but that is part of what the group is about, some support and chatter over a coffee and craft. I knitted one section three times before breaking it off and starting again because white yarn discolours so easily with the natural oils on our hands. At least I had experienced knitters around me to help and explain these things.

So, having been inspired by KB's bag of coloured loveliness, I left with a WiP and an intention to embark on something completely different. Watch this space!

Can I think of a more imaginative title than 'Week Two'?

2010-01-22T18:14:00.007Z

The MISERABLE weather outside did not deter a large number of people returning for a second Crafty Coffee, in fact, this week there were some new members too which was rather nice.

One new lady (J) felt so inspired that she would like to bring her mother (who is in a nursing home) along for the companionship and to see if she will remember how to knit if the needles and yarn are given to her. Her tales of her lovely (but poorly) mother were both amusing and challenging and raised unexpected emotions in more than one of us. But the chat gives a hint to the fact that A Crafty Coffee is going to be about more than just coffee and crafts.

I (Crafty) feel that I am getting to know new people, and deepening relationships with others, and all through the medium of crafting. This week I completed my [still TOP SECRET] knitting project (Coffee: it is gorgeous!), and learned to thread and use a sewing machine. I am off to the theatre on Saturday and have made my costume so I will look the part at The Rocky Horror Show. Of course, when I say 'made' I mean altered a pair of shorts and hand stitched MANY sequins onto ribbon to make a bow tie, but you know ... for me this was a project. This did leave me at a loss for a project to work on at A Crafty Coffee today, so I looked at patterns and tried to think of where to go from here (Coffee: And distracted me...).

This morning KB was hooking away on some granny squares. She very kindly, and somewhat inspiringly, brought along a beautiful quilt she has been working on. She has completed a City and Guilds course, and her expertise is more than welcome.
Some of us are complete amateurs, others aspiring, and then we have the [what I call] professionals. Or what AS calls, post grad!
AS brought along an amazing jumper she is knitting for her DD, she is designing a cupcake to knit into the pattern for the front and had beautiful seed beads to stitch on for sprinkles.
EN came along with DD (13 months) and bump in tow. She is working on a really chunky knit baby blanket and turns out to be a bit of a 'Jack of all' on the crafting front. When IW (our resident crochet teacher) was asking if anyone knew about rag rugging, EN was just the lady ... so while they chatted on such things I irresponsibly let her DD play with the plastic knitting needles on the table, much to the absolute dismay of Coffee! However, said DD has been 'attachment parented' which is a posh and educated way of saying that her parents are lazy and that she has freedom to get hurt and make mistakes. See the level of discussion we are already having as a group?

Coffee: To the right you will see a beautiful piece of patchwork that IW has done and brought in to show us. I have wanted to learn patchworking and quilting for a very long time, so now know who to go to for advice. I have even started planning my first two quilts - very basic ones - after being inspired by I's work.

Both CL (another newcomer) and SJ were working on knitted garments for themselves (good for them I say). CL was also modeling the most fabulous home knit cardi in a lovely chunky yarn with cable detail and everything. She taught me how to cast on mid-knit which has been a problem for me, and made a useful suggestion for maintaining a tight stitch when I have to make another ... **** oops, nearly let slip there!
SR came along for the first time and was emulating a lovely piece of 'Pia' jewellery in faux pearl, crystal and silver (coloured) chain. It was really wonderful to see different crafts taking place.
HD was able to pop in for the first, and possibly a rare, time. She paints. But felt completely at home drinking coffee and socialising with other crafters. She said to me that she felt the group was necessary and had good mileage. I hope she is right!
I am worried about the people I have not mentioned (like CK with her 6 year old cross stitch) and that I didn't do a headcount, but I bet Coffee will interject here and make up for my inadequacies (Coffee: No inadequacies! But I did count 18 people, again).

Sadly, this week Crafty forgot the camera (MUST try harder) ... but saw new WiPs and even some projects completed from last week. But, more important was the fact that newcomers felt welcome, and returners will return again.

Background

2010-01-16T09:03:00.010Z

Upon waking, it occurred to me that neither Coffee nor myself had posted any background to the group.

Since about September, Coffee has been teaching me how to knit, and encouraging me to pick up other crafts along the way. She is enormously talented, creative, skilled, intelligent, has a thirst for knowledge (meaning she has started more than one degree course (Coffee: Hey! I object. Although, come to think of it, you have a point...)) and has been a great help to me.

So, we have been meeting to craft together in her lovely little home. In October, this great Lounge Bar opened in the High Street and we began to take our crafts down there once a week (sometimes more as Coffee really does like her Coffee). Being on the High Street, Trago Lounge gets a lot of passing traffic and before long people were popping in for a cuppa, noticing us crafting away and telling us we should start a group.

Having sown (or should I say sewn) the seed, these people came and went, as did many others before we took seriously the need for a group in the area we inhabit. We knew that a knitting group would be too exclusive and that there are knitting groups already. We had a sense that we needed to be more encompassing than that. And, being the brilliant procrastinators we both are, we put it off to think some more.

Finally, we had a few snowy days off school, and as cabin fever set in, we found ourselves in a position to abandon our children in the care of others to frequent our favourite Lounge with a little knitting. It was on this day, Friday the 8th of January 2010 that A Crafty Coffee began its journey.

We anticipate this group evolving, relationships deepening, craft skills improving and caffeine addictions worsening over the coming year! A Crafty Coffee (as the title suggests) gives people a license to craft over coffee in an environment where the washing/ironing/vacuuming etc can't get in the way. We extend a warm welcome to all of you who choose to join in, weekly, monthly, or on an ad hoc basis.

The first OFFICIAL meeting of A Crafty Coffee

2010-01-15T18:45:00.047Z

Well, after much excitement and anticipation, especially on the part of Crafty and Coffee, the day of the first OFFICIAL meeting of A Crafty Coffee finally arrived.

Crafty: Phew. What a week. That is all it's been, a week since we 'decided' to make A Crafty Coffee official. I've been beavering away behind the scenes generating a poster, and setting up a facebook group with Coffee, while Coffee started this beautiful blog (Coffee: Thank you!). The morning was here, and we were ready!

I literally cannot believe how many people pitched up this morning ... Upon my arrival CK had already bagged the warm radiator spot for a somewhat ambitious (or so I thought) table of 8-10. Little did I know that it would be full, and people be spreading to nearby sofas and tables before Coffee even put in an appearance herself.

Coffee: Yes. The first meeting and I was late - no surprises there! As I passed the window of Trago Lounge I thought I saw a glimpse of a few knitting needles. But when I stepped inside I could hardly believe my eyes! There were about a dozen women of various ages already there, knitting, sewing, cross stitching, drinking teas, coffees, hot chocolates, and yabbering away as if they had known each other all their lives.

The final number of Crafters was 18. An unbelievable turnout for the first meeting, with hardly any advertising, only word of mouth. (Does Facebook count as word of mouth?) And there were a fair number of people who had wanted to come but couldn't make it this week. The atmosphere was great - friendly and chatty, but productive too. There were a number of projects that had been dusted off for the meeting. There were women learning new skills, including two who started to learn how to crochet and Crafty who learned how to 'increase' in knitting.

Crafty: As I waited (for I am in great need of tuition, having never been a crafter before now) my patience paid dividends. I was party to many conversations, deeper than I anticipated for the time of day and in a group of people who hadn't met much before (if at all). I guess that is what happens when like minded people come together?

Eventually, Coffee took me under her wing, but S and J also patiently and kindly offered to assist. I will learn from these wonderfully talented women.

And now for some photos of Crafty projects....

C's WiP

Vintage Christmas decorations - busy Mamas know you need to start these things early...

J's WiP

D's WiP - a hooded cable cardie for a friend's little boy

S's WiP - fingerless gloves with mitten flap (for Coffee who is too lazy to knit them herself). One down....

One to go...

Learning to crochet

A's WiP - see, there was more than just knitting and crochet, honest!

S's WiP - another sleeve done...

Crafty, learning to increase, under Coffee's inexpert tuition...

Coffee's WiP, a hooded little girl's cardie, and the all-important cup of coffee

Crafty: I have left with my 'homework' for the week. And my WiP, which I cannot name so publicly before March, will be well underway by the time we next come together.

Coffee: My challenge for the week is to make headway with my WiP, as there have been various rumblings that I take on too many projects, and don't finished them! Hmmm, need to refute this slander...

See you next week. Bye!

(All photos (except one - can you work out which one?) taken by the lovely Crafty.)

Welcome!

2010-01-09T16:21:00.002Z

Welcome to A Crafty Coffee's blog! Our first meeting will be on Friday 15th January between 9.30 (ish) and 11.30 (ish) at Trago Lounge, Portswood. Hope to see you there!