Lost in the Wood

Ar Y Gweill, Successful 1st Meeting, 6th May 15 Gerry: Apple Tart (her words) Excitingly, May has seen the debut of a new knitting & crochet club in Caernarfon! 'Ar y Gweill' (literally meaning 'on the needle' in Welsh) is a weekly group to knit/ crochet, chat and eat cake together, 5.30-6.30pm, at Palas Print bookshop. The intention is to create a relaxing and sociable environment to support and inspire each other. For more news/ pics/ our ongoing adventures please follow: Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , Ar Y Gweill Tumbler Blog . It's important to get off on the right foot so the first meeting dealt with the important issue of cake. Part icebreaker, part genuine scientific (ok, cakey) research, everyone was required to state their first name and favourite type of cake. Lemon drizzle cake and coffee cake (with the strident caveat of 'no walnuts') emerged as favourites although clearly the best answer was 'large cakes' (unanimous agr...

Needle Felt Mini Workshop 17/09/13-hard at work Despite my previous blog's assurances that we're still halfway through Helfa Gelf, alas no longer, Evie (unnerving rabbit lady) & I have made it through to the other side of the month long art trail & are looking forwards to a Saturday at home catching up on tv, cakes & drinking (hopefully, wild times indeed). More on the Helfa Gelf experience soon but for today, as promised, here's a quick look at my recent needle felted workshop. A few months ago I joined a local knitting group ( Ein Clwb Gwau, every 2nd Tuesday evening @ The Heights pub, Llanberis) who do a good line in yarn bombing and are currently looking to tempt in new members by trying out different but related crafts. As I spend much of my time trying to convince people of my needle felting prowess, it fell to me to host a mini taster felty workshop. I was very lucky as it was an enthusiastic and it turned out, rather talented group of eight peopl...

Needle felted bee swarm (in progress) As my old school motto had it (see title), living bravely is a Good Idea. I'm not sure I've always embodied it, unless changing my mind & trying out various different paths in very meandering style counts (maybe by default it actually does?). Anyway, let's attribute my latest decision making to boldness rather than folly. Prompted by an adorable little shop recently coming up for rent, I've briefly been debating whether to open a workshop/ studio/ shop with my woolly partner in crime. After much thinking, planning and costing, I've put the idea on hold for at least a year or two. It'd be a big undertaking that financially & artistically I'm just not ready for it at the moment. However, all the thinking and debating has been fantastic in helping me define what it is I want to (and can) do right now. So it'll be a big goodbye to the (part time) day job in 3 weeks HURRAH!! I'll miss the many lovely peo...

It's going to be a busy week ahead with both big and small decisions to mull over. The small being a giveaway/ competition over on the facebook page. It's almost reached 100 likes and therefore cause for a mini celebration! Now I just need to decide what is sufficiently tempting without being major extravagance, what to choose mmmm.... The large, I'll tell you about soon if it comes to fruition. Scary and exciting in almost equal measure! In other news, my work may be featured in a magazine soon. Well, 'featured' may be overselling it, but I may have a little corner to nestle in as part of an interesting article... Signpost of Flowers I hope all this has teased and tempted you dear readers (or reader, if everyone else has had a better offer). In the meantime, here's something uplifting. As regular readers will be aware, I'm a little bit obsessed with my adopted town Caernarfon & its fortunes. This weekend there's a fiesta atmosphere as Gwyl A...

Fairly brief blog post today, just long enough to hint at silly summer crochet/ fun collaborative projects that are on the go. Above, Sootica, (the crazier of the two moggies with ears reminiscent of weird old cartoon 'Bat Fink') helpfully models my new stuffed crochet arrow. It's destiny awaits as a promo/ marketing tool for the next Caernarfon craft fair (Galeri, Sat 6th July) along with other colourful woolly things made by Little Miss Jones. Watch out for these! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crefft-Cyfoes-Caernarfon The pattern was made up as I went along and I was quite surprised & most pleased that it worked out so well. Think it might make amusing little cushions so may make a few although there's a very real danger of getting very side tracked. It was so enjoyable to be sitting outside in the sun crocheting, a real novelty that I got instantly hooked on (pun slightly intended). Also this week, I went along to a knitting group in 'The Heights...