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Sherbet Head has moved! You can now find me over at: http://mysherbethead.wordpress.com/

handmade presents

So, tomorrow is my Mum's bithday and I decided to make her present. She's a bit crazy about scarves, so I decided to have a go at making my first ever nuno felted scarf. I learned how to do this at the felting workshop I went along to run by Heartfelt by Liz but that was a few months ago now.
I did my research and bought some merino wool online. Unfortunetely, when it arrived instead of being shades of purple and blue it turned out to be a swampy green colour. I didn't have time to return it so I did my best with what I had.




It took me around four hours to get the scarf finished, I forgot what a lengthy process it was! I'm still not too happy about the seaweed-like colour but I'm pretty chuffed that I managed to finish the scarf without it falling to pieces. Once I get some better colours I'll have a go at making another.





I also knit these little hearts from a pattern by Mochimochi to decorate the gift bag:





Happy Birthday, Mum!

half-way post.

It's been a busy month what with starting a new job, finishing the banner making workshops, starting a new project with Vegan by Nature and finding out that my membership application for Glasgow Craft Mafia has been accepted.

I have a lot to write about but not a lot of time to write it in. I'm aiming to have you updated by the end of the day, but in the meantime here are some photos.



I've been working on the Fiesta tea set pattern created by Annie Modesitt. I'd tried this pattern out earlier this year for Rachel and I's first stall at Maker Faire but I really struggled with it. I decided to give it another go as it is a great way to learn many different styles of knitting on a small scale before moving on to a larger project.



I'll post more pictures when I'm finished.

Banner workshop update and new project

Yesterday was the first of three banner making workshops at Glasgow Women's Library and it went pretty well. I think I over-planned the workshop and as a result became quite stressed when it didn't go to plan, but that's something I've learned for the next one. Between six and eight women came along and all had very different ideas of what they wanted the banner to look like, but by the end of the two-hour session we managed to come up with a design to work with. Next week, cutting and sewing! I can't wait to see how it'll look. If you missed the first one, don't worry! You can always come along to one of the other sessions.

I don't have to work until 5pm today so I decided to take some time off and dig out my knitting box. A while back I made an attempt at Annie Modesitt's Fiesta Tea Set but my hands were far too clumsy to work my way through her pattern.




I found a few patterns online that I'd like to try out but have to be able to knit in the round, so I'm revisiting Annie's pattern as a way to practice this technique on a small scale before moving onto bigger projects. This was my first row after transferring the stitches onto double sided needles:



Halfway throught the pattern I've just discovered I need another size of dsn that I don't have, I'm off to Mandor's to buy some.

Banner Making sessions @ GWL

Over the next few weeks I'll be organising and preparing to facilitate three exciting banner making sessions at Glasgow Women's Library. These will take place on:

Tuesday 22 September, 1pm to 3pm
Tuesday 29 September, 1pm to 3pm
Tuesday 6 October, 1pm to 3pm

This is part of Gude Cause which was formed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement Procession along Princes Street in Edinburgh in 1909. The culmination of this celebration will be a re-enactment of this march on 10th October 2009.

No demonstration could ever be complete without an array of colourful banners and placards, and the re-enactment of the women’s suffrage procession will be no exception.
It'd be great to see some friendly faces at the banner making sessions to use your arts and crafts skills to produce a GWL and WEA banner to be taken on the re-enactment march in October.

Give me a shout if you'dlike some more information, or have a look here:

http://www.womenslibrary.org.uk/2009/09/banner-making/

http://www.gudecause.org.uk/

You can attend one or all three of the sessions, depending on what suits you. Come along and try your hand at banner making in a friendly relaxed environment.

To register your interest or book a place: please call 0141 552 8345 or email loraine.williams@womenslibrary.org.uk or laura.dolan@womenslibrary.org.uk

update

I haven't been sewing much recently, but here's some photos of my last batch of bookmarks:

Le Tigre stitch

Here is some embroidery I've been working on for the last wee while. The pattern has been taken from an original stencil by Craig Ibarra.

The outline is worked in back stitch. Once finished, this will be in block black & white, but I'm having to put this aside just now to prepare for a craft stall.

Greenock Telegraph fame.

Two weeks ago I went along to a felting workshop run by Liz Brown of 'Heartfelt by Liz' at the McLean Museum in Greenock.

On the last day a photographer came from the Greenock Telegraph to take some photos for an article on the workshops. Here I am working on my final project.




I made a dark green cloche hat with a lime green lining. I'm still on the look-out for a ribbon to finish it off. As soon as I do, I'll post some pictures.

Handmade Haven @ Mono

Sunday saw my second stall with Vegan by Nature at Handmade Haven and our first time at the one in Mono. We managed to end up with a pretty good variety of things we'd made.



For this stall Rachel came up with the idea of a book-theme as can be seen from her amazing peter pan and catcher in the rye cakes. I decided to make some more bookmarks with x-stitch quotes and x-stitch portraits. I swapped the Woody Allen portrait at the last market for an upcycled Joan of Arc journal. I whipped up another Woody for this market because it was a lot of fun to do. I also brought along a crochet blanket that my mum made.
The newest thing I tried was the linen bags with antique lace trims. I hadn't used my sewing machine in a while and had a lot of linen lying around. I bought some old 70's-style pillowcases from a secondhand shop near where I live, turned them inside out sewed them to the inside of the linen and sewed on the lace. They were really quick and easy to make but ended up looking really effective. I'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out.



For more photos of the stall, have a look on my Flickr account

sherbet head @ May Handmade Haven.

I just stumbled upon this photo taken by Girl Industries at last month's Handmade Haven.

June Handmade Haven

I have a little stall at Handmade Haven on Saturday 28th June in Mono.

Why not come along and see what's been keeping me busy?

handmade haven.

What a week! After a silly amount of spent indoors sewing while the sun shone, I had my first stall at Glasgow Craft Mafia's 'Handmade Haven' yesterday. I couldn't believe I'd agreed to spend the hottest day this year in a darkened night club, but I was excited all the same.
The event was held over three floors full of stalls decorated with some of the best makes I've seen. I had a booth with my name on it (literally!) on the top floor which, I'd come to realise, was the hottest floor. This is how my booth ended up looking:



The quality of the photos aren't very good due to the lighting not being too good in the Buff Club. A lot of the photos I took turned out to be a blur because I was a bit shaky.



Here are four of my finished cross stitch portraits which I hung from the top of the booth. You can also see the knitted slice of cake with working LED candle I made for the Maker Faire in March. Portraits from left to right: Mark E Smith, Albert Camus, Grucho Marx, Woody Allen.

The stall was a joint one between Rachel and I. Rachel made all the bakes: two large cakes in the shape of balls of wool with knitting needles, two small thread bobbin cakes and lots of cupcakes with tooled shapes such as jumpers, socks and scarves.

I made the cross stitch portraits, book marks and cross stitch buttons



The market was pretty quiet yesterday but this gave me the chance to have a wee wander round everyone else's stalls and I got to meet some really great people. I get a lot out of hearing about what other people have been making and seeing people working away at something new behind their booth. Most of all I came away yesterday wanting to be more adventurous with what I make and wanting to become more involved in the monthly stalls.

handmade haven

I have my first stall at the Handmade Haven event which is being run by the Glasgow Craft Mafia. It's on Saturday 30th May, 1pm-6pm @ The Buff Club (enter through Butterfly & Pig).
Please come along and say hello =)

a birthday stitch

A friend of mine turned 30 last week and was having a 70's themed birthday party. I was racking my brains trying to think of what to get her for a present. Laura is a really big fan or Russell Brand and, since I had just finished making my series of x-stitch portraits, I decided to make one for her too.



I've never really liked Russell Brand and so I watched one of his stand ups while I was making this in an effort to understand what all the fuss was about. I still don't get it but I really like how this turned out.

portraits

Around a month ago I started messing around with PCStitch Pro 9, one of many cross stitch software programmes I've tried out. PCStitch Pro 9 is really easy to use and has one thing that the others lacked: common sense.
The first thing that I made was a Woody Allen portrait using the photograph transfer tool. I've seen a fair few cross stitch portraits online and I thought they looked really great. I'd tried a few portraits before I settled on the Woody Allen, all of which were in colour and would've been really expensive to do. This one was perfect because it was in black and white.


I enjoyed doing this portrait a lot and, as a result, have ended up going on to do a little series of them. I haven't had a chance to photograph them all yet as I'm considering composition etc. As soon as I have, I'll upload them.

country crafting

So yesterday I went along to the Country Crafting event in MacSorley's. I was really nervous at first because I didn't know anyone that was going. A few temper tantrums later and Philip managed to talk me into going.


I remember going to church when I was wee and being scolded for sitting in someone else's seat and I was worried that's what this would be like. Everyone was really nice, it was not the nightmare I'd imagined. A few people had brought along their own craft projets and there was knitting needles and wool so no-one was empty-handed. There was some amazing country music being played and really great cakes with edible knitting magazine transfers on the top.

I was only able to stay for a few hours as I was working last night, but I managed to talk Clare Nicolson- who was running the event- for a wee while. I've liked Clare's handmade things since I first found the craft mafia and I just found out yesterday that she's from Greenock, my hometown. How weird!

my desk.

matryoshka

I've just finished a present for my friend Aimee which I intended to give her for Christmas. It took alot longer to complete than I expected, but I'm really pleased with the end result.




I made this using a pattern created by the very talented Clare Nicolson, a textile designer and crafter from Glasgow.