Speculation

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

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

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 ....