Bagulele fun

I have just spent a fab weekend at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain helping my friend Teeny B sell the handcrafted ukulele bags she has designed: Bag-uleles . Here she is with our new friend Cale.

Along with jamming and seeing uke celebs from around the world perform, we made some great new friends and the bags got great feedback with oodles of sales and orders. 

And here we are having a farewell hot chocolate with Cale, Sarah and Co at the excellent Brew Rooms coffee house.

Lancashire Handicraft Heritage

My Mum's side of the family is from the village of Bacup in Lancashire. Each year on Easter Saturday, a very unusual Morris dancing troupe, called the Britannia Coconutters, make their way around the town performing a clog dance involving beating rhythmically on wooden discs strapped to their hands and knees.

Although Morris has its critics there is something primeval about this pagan custom that I really enjoy, and it is certainly a spectacle. I also love the traditional Northern music played by Stacksteads Brass Band which accompanies the dance.

Here are some videos I took:

This year I really wanted to get back to my heritage and have some traditional folk clogs to wear to watch the "Nutters". Master clogmaker Phil Howard was kind enough to let me visit his home workshop in Stockport to be fitted up for handmade clogs.

I was really delighted that a lady in Bacup stopped in the street to show her little granddaughter the clogs, saying that they are what she used to wear as a child, as did my grandparents . They are beautifully crafted and I hope to try some dance workshops with the City Clickers in October.

European Train Adventure Part 1

So here is the yarnbomb I left at the Mannequin Pis in Brussels. I love that he made his way into the photos of oblivious tourists! He had a little ribbon at the back with a link to the blog, and I was hoping someone would pay us a visit. . . . .

Buen viaje to me!

Very shortly I will be going on a train adventure visiting Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Paris. My plan is to yarnbomb each city as I go, and it is just possible that whoever is reading this has found one of my yarnbombs! If that is you - Welcome!!! please leave a comment to introduce yourself. It would be great to find out who has seen my yarnbombs, and why we happened to be passing through the same place.

A crafty birthday part 2: Sylvanian fascinator

Being able to recall and log happy memories is turning out to be one of my favourite things about blogging. I am about to go on a little train adventure (more on that later!) and am taking a moment to think of the friends I will miss while I am gone.Without their encouragement and support I'd never have had the nerve to go, and Ariane deserves a special mention for the generosity, hospitality and inspiration she has offered.


Here are some photos of the wonderfully ridiculous fascinator she made for me to wear at our joint birthday tea party.


xx

A crafty birthday part 1: The doodle cup

I was really lucky to have some beautiful hand crafted gifts for my birthday this year.


This teacup was painted by my friend Meg, using ceramic paint pens. Meg says she hasn't done anything creative in years. I really love the choice of colours and the stream of consciousness that is Meg's doodle style! Is that a heart? Next to a Catherine wheel, next to a chess board?


Thanks Meg! 


xx 

And this makes it all worthwhile

At the risk of sounding like an old git, when I was a child, people appreciated handmade goods - you were made to! Growing up involved being regularly forced into scratchy jumpers, embarrassing hats and garish cardigans so that the maker could see them in use. It's an etiquette which sadly no longer seems to exist. I may be glad that the ritual child humiliation has died out, but unfortunately it has taken a lovely ethos with it. Handmade clothes, usually made by a family member who belonged to a prior generation, don't tend to be at the cutting edge of fashion, but we were taught that there is love, time and thought in every single stitch. That's something you can't buy, even at Cath Kidston ;-)


All that we were expected to provide in return for all this love and doting, was the pleasure for the maker of seeing a beloved child wearing something they had taken the time to make. It's a disappointment waiting at the end of many a craft project that this tradition hasn't survived.


All this said, you can imagine what a delight it was to receive these photos along with a commission to make another hat in size 3-6 months. A huge thank you to our tiny model and her Mum. Prepare for cuteness overload!