Lost in the Wood

Hello, hope you have all had a splendid Christmas! Mine was very lovely indeed as I've been enjoying a week in my home town of Edinburgh with the delights of spending time with family & friends, delicious home cooked food, planning crafty & arty makes for 2013, dangerous trips to Hobbycraft (find it hard to retain spending control) and seeking inspiration in my new book of Grimm Tales (by Philip Pullman) . While there's been a remarkable absence of tension  in our household this festive season, there has been tension of other kind (please be generous & excuse the pun). I've been told that my crocheting is very neat which sounds like an unequivocally good thing but others have warned that my tension is too tight. While I've not been at all concerned about this, I do realise that attempts to crochet something larger than my small creatures/ foods and which require to be a more specific size, ie a piece of clothing, are likely to come out far smaller than in...

Hello to all, much excitement in the Lost in the Wood Designs camp today as we've made our debut on Folksy! Finally got round to reading enough instructions to enable me to list a few items for sale. Please come to see my items http://folksy.com/shops/lostinthewooddesigns Things never are as straightforwards as I expect though and it took a while to sort out various details such as the banner (the shape wasn't compatible with my logo so a completely new one was needed, more on that in a bit...), calculating likely postal charges taking into account weight, large letter/ package/ parcel options- bewildering even with a Post Office pricing guide and writing nice informative descriptions.   While I can design and make my crochet & needle felt creations, take decent photos & make adjustments to the pics ie lighting/ contrast etc, decide on packaging and use social media & websites to promote my items, what I can't begin to tackle is anything involving paintin...

Two of my favourite businesses have very sweetly given house room to a selection of Lost in the Wood Designs Christmassy items, most exciting! Pop into the truly lovely boutique shop Lotti & Wren (Palace Street, Caernarfon) www.facebook.com/lottiandwren to admire and buy 'Night Before Christmas' pie & carrot sets (above), individual crochet mince pies, tree decorations, single cards and Winter Warmer decorated teacups.                                            Lebkuchen Teacup                                            Carnival Teacup  ...

Last weekend was the much anticipated iard Glynllifon Christmas Craft Fair and the first public outing for my strange Christmassy creations. Crochet mince pies and carrots for Rudolph, a range of cards, 'Winter Warmer' decorated teacups, lovely clementines and little lebkuchen were arranged as a feast table. I was heartened by the positive reaction to it all, which was mostly amused interest and people doing a double take after thinking I was a rouge/rival pie seller! While it seemed people were mostly not convinced that crocheted food was the festive ornaments they'd been seeking, at least the concept is now a bit more familiar and hopefully will consider it in the future (what seasonal fun we could all have together, the possibilities are endless!). On reflection, I'd have changed some of the items offered, bringing back the needle felted robins, offering more hanging mini pie tree decorations, having single Christmas cards for sale rather than as packs and havin...

Today has been a day of crocheting, sewing, glueing, photographing and yes, ironing of mistletoe (the crochet kind). The weekend's craft fair looms ahead and me and my able/infuriating assistants (two curious cats) have made big efforts to be at least vaguely presentable and ready. I'm quite excited by the space I'm going to be in at the fair, a little corner with a sweet, old looking window, perfect for hanging up glass bunting (handmade by my clever mum) and sprigs of crochet mistletoe. I'd like it to look like a scene from a Dickens novel (obviously a charming curiosity shop type, not a slum dwelling) and will endeavour to hunt out my old copy of 'A Christmas Carol'. (no success on the initial look although I have been distracted by finding lots of interesting books I'd forgotten I own) as 'set' dressing. While most of my creations are original, I did borrow the pattern for the crochet from an inspiring book '100 Flowers to Knit & Croche...

It's going to be the first festive season for Lost in the Wood Designs and while I have experienced selling at a Christmas craft fair before (last year as the lampwork bead and jewellery-orientated 'Ginger & I') the one this month really will be a launch of this enterprise. This time I'm oscilating between being nerves and excitement. Worried about having enough stock, people liking my work (especially since it's a bit more niche than last year's items) and generating interest, but also hugely looking forwards to setting out my stall (figuratively and actually) and presenting my work, hopefully in an eye-catching & attractive manner. Despite intending a very organised approach to the festive season, centering round a comprehensive planner for Christmas makes drawn up in August (having learned something from last year's October panic), predictably I'm a stressed out crafting bunny now. I can see from the various crafters I follow on twitter ...

We ventured over the border last weekend to the fleshpots of Manchester to visit the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair held at Spinningfields. www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk Promising over 160 quality artists & makers, selected by a panel of 'craft experts' expectations were high (although we did also combine the trip with a night out to visit friends so all the weekend excitements were not all pinned on the crafts). Despite my initial sense of being slightly overwhelmed by the many aisles of stalls stretched out before me, the mild stress of only having 2 hours to consume it all (it closed at 7pm on Friday night) and a concern about the levels of pretension that may be involved (set by an extremely 'arty' looking lady with very bold eyebrows and over sized bow headband sat near the entrance), it all turned well. The promised quality was indeed there, with seemingly a good mix of the accessible and easy to love as well as more 'challenging...