Tag: needle felting

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Crafting at Craster

Posted on by Jackie B

Yesterday I was in the pretty Northumbrian fishing village of Craster. I’ve just gone back to the local craft group recently after a long break. They meet in the village hall in the centre of Craster on a Tuesday morning, from around 10-12, and for the princely sum of £2 we get tea or coffee and biscuits, sometimes delicious home baking from group members too… and, a raffle, not to mention the great company. It’s such a lovely friendly group.

On this occasion I took Buddy the Labrador too. He would have been left home alone otherwise. He’s a chilled old boy, so, although when he enters a room full of people he seems to think he’s arrived at a meeting of his personal fan club (he just loves meeting people), he soon settles and goes to sleep under the table. Fortunately there are a lot of dog lovers in the group who sometimes bring their own. Buddy made friends with Tilly the miniature schnauzer, who wasn’t sure at first (Buddy is huge).

I took some spinning, but there was a lot of knitting as well as crochet, needle felting, and sewing going on.

Afterwards I took the opportunity to give Buddy a walk and explore the village – I haven’t done that for years!

Craster is famous for its kippers. These smoked herrings are a real local delicacy: on smoking days you can smell the process and see the smoke emerging from the chimneys of Robsons Smokehouse, just a few yards from where I’d been crafting. The business has been run by the same family for four generations and includes a seafood restaurant.

Buddy stopped for a long drink at the dog bowl outside the Mick Oxley Gallery. We walked towards the harbour, past the village pub, the Jolly Fisherman, which serves excellent food.

It was a still, rather murky day and the sea was calm as we approached the harbour. This place holds fond childhood memories. When we were small, my brother and I would get damaged and unusable herring from the smokehouse to use as fishing bait, then go fishing for crabs and small fish off the pier.

Close to the harbour the War Memorial has been decorated with knitted and crocheted poppies prior to Remembrance Day on 11th November. These have been made by members of the craft group.

The poppies extend to the adjacent park bench…

…and the railing overlooking the harbour.

Down on the tiny beach, some canoeists were preparing to take to the water.

Although Craster is popular with tourists, with many of the dwellings in the village now converted to luxury holiday accommodation, it remains a working fishing port.

Craster also sits on the Northumberland Coastal Path. Despite the grey day there were still plenty of walkers about. Buddy and I joined them, heading north out of the village, through the gate and along this well-beaten track – dogs must be kept on lead as sheep graze here. Directly ahead, looming eerily from the mist, are the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle.

Along the the path, the gorse is still in bloom, adding a welcome splash of colour to the dull day.

Soon it was time to turn back, switching the view to the village.

What a lovely way to spend a morning!

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Crafty Throwback – A Parade of Ponies

Posted on by Jackie B

A few years ago a lovely friend of ours gave birth to a daughter. I usually knit clothes for new babies but this time I decided to do something different. I thought it would be fun to make a soft toy. The new mum has been a keen horsewoman since she was a little girl and has several horses. I thought I’d make a toy horse and make it as much like her favourite one as possible. I found a crochet pattern on Ravelry but adapted it quite a lot, changing the hooves, legs and ears significantly. That’s how I came to make a toy version of Mr Messy the chestnut cob. He’s very showy with a blonde mane and tail. I copied his white feet, crocheting them in white yarn – this worked at the second attempt. I was working from a picture of Mr Messy that had been taken after he’d been through some mud so I didn’t realise he had any white on his legs at all! I used beads for eyes, sewed on a felt patch for his white face and embroidered on his other features then attached a fringe for the mane and some longer strands for the tail.

  • photo: A Heatherington

When our friend had a second child, a boy this time, what could I do but make a version of her second favourite horse, Hettie the black mare.

Having seen the two I made for the babies, another friend ordered one of each of her two horses, a couple of hunters, both bay geldings, Roper and Toasty. I only have a picture of Roper here. but when I made these two I became aware of just how many different browns there are. At one point daughter was following a horse around holding up three balls of yarn so she could find the best match. I only make them now and again, but if I ever set up a business doing these I’d have to call it “Fifty Shades of Bay”!

Before long that baby girl I first made a horse for was big enough to be riding a pony of her own. Here she is with Tansy the Exmoor pony.

Around this time I’d learnt how to do needle felting, and this seemed like a great way to do facial details so I surface felted the little white star or Tansy’s forehead, her nostrils and the lighter colouring on her muzzle.

The other detail I always add are the horseshoes, like on the latest mini horse that I just finished last week – a nice finishing touch!

They are fun to do (though I wouldn’t want to be making them full time) and once you’ve overcome the initial colour matching challenge they come together quite quickly. They’ve always gone down really well with their new owners, a sort of cartoon miniature version of a much loved horse or pony.

Many thanks to A Heatherington and A Straughan for the photographs of their children and horses!

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A Productive Week

Posted on by Jackie B

I finished off a couple of projects this week which is always satisfying.

I crocheted this horse – a commission from a friend who will be giving it as a Christmas gift to a horse owner.

He’s a sort of caricature of her actual horse and I’ve replicated the colour and markings. His eyes are glass beads and the details are needle-felted. He’s wearing horseshoes embroidered in metallic thread.

I’ve made several of these over the last few years. One of the hardest things is finding the right colour yarn. I’ve modified the design from a pattern I found online and have refined it a bit more every time I’ve done it.

The second item I completed was a pair of brioche hand warmers for K. They will be part of his Christmas present. He’d requested some similar to some I made for myself a while back, but he wanted them in a much more neutral colour than the bright pink and grey stripes I used last time. He intends to use these for fishing – hopefully his hands will stay warm and his fingers will stay unencumbered for tying on lures and so on. I used this from my stash. It’s lost its band but I think it’s Stylecraft Special DK 100% acrylic. Most importantly it’s machine washable as, depending of how successful the fishing is, could potentially end up slimy, wet and stinking of fish after every wearing!

With a knitted project done I had nothing cast on so I’ve started some socks for myself – the pattern was given to me by a friend at one of my knit and natter groups – I’m using the version with the contrasting welt, heel and toe and using more yarn from the stash – I have a feeling both may be from Flying Tiger. I’ve bought all sorts of crafty things from the Newcastle store in recent years but I hear that this branch has now closed – I’m quite sad about that.

I’ve also been prepping and spinning alpaca fibre. I spun some I prepped a while back. The three larger skeins are 2ply, each about 100 yards. The smaller skeins (the white is more alpaca and the blue is merino) are my first attempt at chain plying, using some singles left over on bobbins after plying. I felt that this got better as I went along, but I must remember not to overtwist next time.

I washed a batch of the alpaca fibre I skirted last week and hand carded it. I’m improvising with pet grooming brushes until I get proper carders (I have it on good authority that Santa Claus is bringing me some…if I’m good). I’ve braided the roving as I intend to dye it eventually. It does look rather messier than the braids of fibre that you buy, but in it’s current undyed state I thought it resembled the hair of Elsa from Frozen. I promise not to put it over my shoulder and start singing Let it Go!

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My Own Personal Unicorn

Posted on by Jackie B

I’ve had the house to myself for most of the day, so I finished a project that has been hanging around since last Christmas. It’s a rather sweet needle felted unicorn, made from a kit I received as a gift. It was my first attempt at needle felting.

To a point, these kits are a bit of a cheat. If you were making this from scratch you’d make a skeleton or armature and needle felt over that, but this kit came with a polystyrene base, so it was just a case of making the legs and ears, covering the body/head shape and felting it all together. The instructions were not great: a sheet of tiny photographs and no explanatory text. Once I’d worked out what to do, I found there’s something very satisfying about wielding that felting needle, especially if you are in a bad mood. I did learn that getting carried away has its drawbacks however. If you miss it really hurts. Also, those needles break really easily.

The most fiddly part was the unicorn’s horn. This involved twisting some of the purple fibres and a white thread around a short piece of pipe cleaner and securing it with hot glue. I went for a more free-flowing mane and tail than the one on the box illustration, so they don’t look that similar. You finish it off with embroidered eyelashes. I love putting the eye on a toy or animal. I always take a lot of care getting the placement right – it seems to be the most important thing that brings it to life. I rather like it!

When I’d finished I looked out the window and there were seven collared doves in one of the trees in our garden. They usually seem to gather when it’s stormy to shelter from the weather. These three looked particularly cosy with their feathers all fluffed up.

I didn’t stay in the house all day: I nipped out to pick son up from Alnmouth Golf Club at Foxton and parked up with my knitting while I waited for him. I had a great view over the golf course towards Coquet Island. Being Mum’s Taxi does sometimes have its compensations!

Back home, Unicorn is now sitting in pride of place. I need to think of a suitable name for him/her. Any suggestions?