Free Comic Book (Craft) Day

The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day. I made sure to go out and celebrate with my fellow Bucks-based-nerds at Dead Universe Comics in Friar's Square (Facebook), then I came home and started planning for my fiancée's epic Heroes and Villains barbecue birthday party.

I'm something of a magpie for craft materials; I buy things when I see them and find a use for them later! Rummaging in my craft box, I came across some coloured twine I bought from The Works, and two 1.5m samples of Marvel wallpaper from B&Q. The project that presented itself was obvious: bunting.

The height of the flag is also 105mm

I started with working out how widely-spaced the holes on my hole-punch are. Then - aiming for five flags on each width - I settled on 105mm width and height, and laid it out. I didn't refer to where the design is in relation to the flags, because it would have been too much of a headache, and I wanted to reduce wastage. If you wanted to, you could obviously draw the triangles out on the front to get the ideal images.

I cut all the flags out, and punched holes in the top, then strung them along the twine and secured with tape on the back. My bunting is one-sided; to make it double-sided, cut the same number of flags again but don't put holes in. Then glue the un-punched triangles onto the back. The length of twine on the reel wasn't labeled, but I think I had 4.5-5m. With about 20cm left at each end and 6-7cm between flags I had 30 flags on my bunting. It's not an exact science, of course, I decided not to be over-accurate.

I think it took me an hour (about half of my Bob-Hoskins-tribute viewing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and looks better than I expected. Hurrah!

A footnote: The cross stitch in the picture is this kit, which we bought from Hobbycraft. It was The Girl's first embroidery but she's very good at the detail and - unlike me - always gets projects finished.

Grandpa's Gardening

"Grandpa's Gardening" is a term my mum coined to describe sitting (or sleeping) in the garden and calling it gardening. I had an excellent time "gardening" today, whilst Emily along with the lovely Peta Evans of Living Image Gardens, transformed our garden.

Before: patio

Peta repositioned the patio stones
over sand and plum slate

Our garden is long and narrow, and mostly in shade. The patio end is never in direct sunlight. Peta helped Emily to choose alpines and other plans that would thrive without much light. The plan was to create a rockery on the right of this image, and a barbecue space on the left. We don't own the house, so couldn't go for a full garden redesign, but these changes have turned what we have from just a neat garden a really special place to be.

The materials and plants came from B&Q. The slate is "plum slate" in two sizes (small and large), laid over sharp sand to form the barbecue pit (the sand was also added to our chalky soil to help out the alpines). The barbecue is Longley by Blooma.

The completed barbecue pit

To create the rockery, Peta used timber to frame the bed, and filled it with a mix of the soil that was taken away from the barbecue pit, compost, and sand. Three larger stones created a space for a raised bed at the back. There were some large cobbles in the garden that they used to add interest around the plants.

The rockery is framed and raised with timber beams; large stones add another level

The final touches were three lamps for citronella candles (Blooma at B&Q) and the gorgeous reconditioned, cast iron bench Emily found at the South Bucks Hospice shop at Aston Clinton. We also have some lovely solar dragonfly lamps and post lamps to bring some colour to the garden at night.

I am really looking forward to summer in our gorgeous garden. One of the things I really love is sitting in the garden and working or reading outside with the cat. When I had the choice as a child I would always work outside. I haven't done any gardening myself for over ten years, but the sight and smell of summer flowers relaxes me. When I am having difficulties with my mental health, I find that sunshine is good for me, but hard to force myself into. Having a lovely setting, and somewhere to sit, makes even the worst of days that little bit brighter. 

The completed rockery and reconditioned bench

Chilterns Ripple Rug

I have been fascinated with t-shirt yarn for some time, and bought some back in January with a view to making a blanket for the cat. It proved trickier than I had expected, and the cat had selected her bed before I got anywhere, but I am working towards finishing a long treatment at the moment and was thinking about a thank you present for the community that has supported me through it. I wanted to make something for one of the treatment rooms, and settled on a rug.

We are surrounded here in Bucks by the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (at least, so long as it's not driven through by a high-speed train, but that's another story). I was drawn to the idea of a ripple blanket - like the peaks of the hills - made in t-shirt yarn to be about 1.5m in diameter, and chose to use the 12-point Rainbow Ripple Blanket (Ravelry). I spent a bit of time in my stash and at Hobbycraft selecting just the right colours of Boodles to represent the Chilterns; grey for flint, two greens for the woodland and fields, two blues for the sky and water, and a white chalk border.

The Chilterns ripple rug: flint, water, fields, sky, woodland and chalk
Pattern, Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket (c) Celeste Young

The process of making a gift is always tied up in enjoyment and worry for me. I always worry about the recipient, and how they will react. In this project, I've also found the time I spent working was a good time to reflect on what this period of treatment has meant for me, and how I'm going to move on. Ending with a craft project gave me time to think that I might otherwise have not made space for.

I found it really easy to work up, and used a 12mm hook to make it slightly looser in texture. The nature of Boodles is that some skeins are very thick whilst others are very thin, and the thick yarn was far too thick for the 9mm hook they recommend. My only real problem has been blocking it; it takes blocking pretty well in the short term but will quickly shrink back. I'm not sure how well it will actually work as a rug but hope that when it's in situ it will wear in. I am still considering stitching it to a backing to hold the shape, but I like the effect of being able to see the floor through the holes.

If I were to make it again, I would probably choose an even bigger crochet hook, to try and avoid it folding in on itself. 

Quick and easy: Shoelaces

I recently, finally, retired my Games Maker trainers. Although I was selected as a Games Maker in the Venue Protocol Team (Copper Box) for both the Olympics and Paralympics in London 2012, I broke my leg on the 30th June, and didn't make it to the games (it was early September before I was anything like fully mobile again, but because I was immediately post-op the Paralympics remained off-limits). Nonetheless, I've worn the trainers for years. They were the only shoes comfortable when my leg was healing, and I love wearing them, but to avoid wearing them out I've decided to retire them.

I couldn't find any I really loved to replace them. The Vans/Liberty collection are lovely but a bit fussier than I like for everyday. In the end I opted for a really cheap-and-cheerful pair of boys' trainers from Tesco (£4 on sale after Christmas). I wasted a lot of time looking for fun, silly or decorative shoe laces but they all seemed expensive and not quite right.

Finished laces

The Now That's Pretty shoelace tutorial was an epiphany! I dug around in my craft box (I'm really trying not to buy materials if I don't need to) and found 2.1m of gold satin ribbon, 20mm wide. Gold isn't a colour I usually use, but I wanted a quick craft fix and our lovely local Haberdasher is sadly not open 24 hours, so I cut it into 2 lengths, sealed the ends with a gas lighter, and followed the instructions on Ally's blog. My gold glittery nail polish (bought to make green-and-gold nails for Aylesbury Concert Band gigs) sealed the tops.

Before and after:
F&F trainers

After seeing them on the trainers, it all looked a bit incongruous. I had just bought a lovely pair of 'vintage' (nineties?) Marks and Spencer boots from my local Cancer Research UK shop, and I tried the laces in them. They are perfect together.

If I were to go ahead and make these again, there are a few alterations I would make to my version:

• I would ruche the top of the laces tighter.
• I would use clear sellotape instead of Scotch Tape, to make a slightly sharper finish.

It took about 45 minutes to do both (I'm quite slow, you could probably do it faster!) and I will definitely make more ribbon laces, it's a great way to add some glam to a boring pair of shoes. They feel just a bit more 'me'.

Perfect

Hooked on crochet

I've been a knitter for my adult craft-life. I define myself as such and seek out likeminded yarnies (what can I say? - tribalism suits me). I have attempted to crochet before, but never got far beyond basics and got bored.

Recently my yarnie-side has been horrified to discover that not only is crochet easier than I thought, it's actually really fun. I needed a project to take on a plane with me, and my hit-rate at getting knitting onto airlines is pretty hit-and-miss at the best of times. I was flying into the US and generally didn't like the idea of trying to explain to the TSA that they didn't need to confiscate my hard work and lovely needles, because Denise interchangeable needles are certified airline safe. So, grudgingly, I thought I'd give crochet one last chance.

One conference and two sets of bunting later ("My First Bunting" and "Big Gay Bunting"), it turns out I really love the instant-gratification feel of small crochet projects. They seem to work up faster than their knitted equivalents and use less yarn.

Grey Totoro Amigurumi
pattern (c) Lucy Ravenscar

Naturally, I progressed to amigurumi, which has been the one craft area where I have never felt knitting really cuts it. My Neighbour Totoro worked up with a lovely, dense fabric, really easy to stuff.

In my charity knitting endeavours, I have been teaching people to do yarncrafts as part of a social group. The vast majority find crochet much easier than knitting. We've made Attic24's striped wristwarmers and Crochet in Color's mitts to get people used to various stitches and the difference between working in the round and on the flat, as well as teaching about gauge and making the existing pattern man-hand-sized. Not bad for the first month at a new craft!

pattern (c) Crochet in Color

The joy of having both crafts in my arsenal of yarny goodness is that I can pick and choose. Some projects just look better in one than the other. Amigurumi is a great technique for a sturdy cuddly toy, but I prefer the knit look for clothes. If I've learned one thing from my great crochet binge, it's that flexibility is a good thing. Binarism is so passé, let's transgress some yarncraft boundaries!

Learning to Draw

One of my friends challenged a group of us on a social networking site to draw from this online tutorial. I am no great artist, but I thought I'd give it a go, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! I think I might even put it on the fridge.

I was surprised by how relaxing it was. I have always associated drawing with stress - I've never felt I'm very good at it, and one art teacher in particular used to very publicly despair of me - but just working methodically on a drawing from a tutorial was quite chilled out and very absorbing. A bit like following a tricky knitting pattern.