Lost in the Wood

Lost In The Wood, Palm House Over the last month, I've discovered two splendid craft fairs in the North West, Artisans in the Palm House (Liverpool) & Vintage in the Vale (Flintshire). It was both my first time attending and participating in these events. So, here's a brief, potted & very subjective guide to each. Artisans in the Palm House is set in the stunning venue of the delightful Palm House, Sefton Park, Liverpool. Despite almost being conscripted into a marathon on the way there by a smug sports official in high-vis tabard, it turned out to be a fabulous, extremely well- organised day spent with lovely makers & an enthusiastic public in this beautiful Victorian glass house. At this point I'm going to tentatively confess that I, until fairly recently, had a mild but longstanding prejudice against Liverpool/ Merseyside which was possibly based only on the accents, the overblown Beatles legacy and the fact it wasn't Manchester (my old studenty...

Dancer My final craft fair of the season is coming up this weekend! I'll have a stall at the Plas Newydd Christmas Food & Craft fair on 30 Nov and 1 Dec.  Plas Newydd is a National Trust property and the impressive  'home of the Marquess of Anglesey, with spectacular views of Snowdonia'.  I'm told 'there will be over 50 stalls selling a wide variety of local produce and hand made crafts'. I've enjoyed a previous visit there where I sampled the tea room (of course), perused the large amount of 2nd hand books for sale in a series of meandering bookcases and looked appropriately excited by the bloody trousers & wooden leg from the Battle of Waterloo as well as the huge Whistler mural. Dancer (crochet reindeer head) will be coming with me on this final fling, come along to say hello, eat cake & take a turn (and work up an appetite/ burn off the cake) around the beautiful grounds. Up to Christmas, I'll still have work on sale at t...

The penultimate craft fair of my festive season is rearing up on it's little tinsel covered hind legs inciting all to attend, enjoy & shop at Parc Glynllifon this weekend. I'll be participating as well as lots of lovely local artists/ makers including some of my favourites: Dyfal Donc , Peris & Corr , Miss Marple Makes , Lora Wyn Jewellery, Angela Evans Jewellery and many more!

Renegade Craft Fair, Old Trueman Brewery, London Lost In The Wood stall, Renegade This time last weekend I was fully immersed in the Renegade Craft Fair experience. Surrounded by many, many wonderful stalls by fab contemporary makers and meeting more potential customers than I've ever seen at a fair, there was a very positive buzz in the spacious old brewery. I'd opted for a half stall as it was cheaper and meant less pressure on producing enough things to fill the space! Also, the thought of manouvering an even more massive & unwieldy suitcase of crochet treasures around London was fairly daunting. Running With Scissors I felt fortunate to be sharing a stall with the very lovely Sam from Running With Scissors who makes incredibly soft, gorgeous baby blankets and lots of things to make you smile. It's a shame I didn't get round to taking many photos as one with her & equally glamorous friend would have been great. At least I managed a pic of ...

Aargh, no time to write anything, just please note I'll be at Renegade Craft Fair in London this weekend! Much excitement & plenty of nerves eek!

No time to expand on this, it's a manic week ahead so just to let you know tomorrow I'll be at the Galeri in Caernarfon with the Crefft Cyfoes Caernarfon group at the first of my Christmas craft fairs (see 'News' on my website for the full list), more details soon! Lovely things to buy from great local makers. Now must dash off to manically crochet some reindeer heads and mince pies. Fa la la la la la...

The Stand Comedy Club Newly escaped from the office job (forever, hurrah!), I  immediately set off for my native city, Edinburgh, to enjoy some festival fun with family & friends. This year I've taken a slower approach, moseying up to the action/madness in gentle fashion with a cake stop with friends to ease me in (not as used to crowds these days, Caernarfon generally doesn't do frenzy despite the many summer visitors!). Who better to sample a new (well, to us) cafe with but a lady who is very well informed about good cake, Kate from Cake Poppins Cake Poppins We tried out Love Crumbs at the West Port (the old town haunt of the notorious murderers Burke & Hare, now remodelled & amusingly referred to as 'the pubic triangle' due to its lap dancing/strip bars. The bars however, nestle amongst independent shops and cafes, the College of Art & a Catholic church with a beautiful starry ceiling so it's not as insalubrious as it sounds!). Love Crumbs...

Amelia Puddle Hello folks, this week has been full of big announcements and much artiness! Peter Capaldi as the next Doctor has been met with cheerful warmth in our little cottage and sighs of relief that it wasn't someone alarming like the smug student from the BT ads or Shane Ritchie (as my friend upsettingly threw into the rumour mix). Our personal hopefuls were Ben Wishaw, 'Johnson' from Peep Show & Zawe Ashton (the fabulous 'Vod' from Fresh Meat) but Peter C is certainly ok by us. Even more excitingly, The Doctor's new companion was unveiled today, rather unbelievably, at the national Eisteddfod in Denbigh. As pictured, the producers requested a cut-price Amy Pond type so hurrah, it is I! I'm planning a bilingual effort after doing surprisingly well in my recent Welsh exam (most surprising perhaps to the people who have tried to chat with me 'ym Cymraeg'). Sadly, my make-me-look-cooler oversized sunglasses have broken so I'm looking ...

My, oh my, exciting things are afoot, I'm delighted (and greatly amused) by the forthcoming WORLD PREMIERE which will be taking place at the craft fair at Galeri, Caernarfon this Saturday, July 6th!!! Here will be unveiled the world premiere of the unique and totally new concept of YARN-POOTLING! You are cordially invited to marvel at the way Lost in the Wood Designs and collaborator/ partner in crime  Little Miss Jones http://littlemissjones.co.uk/ take the concept of yarn bombing, dilute it and make it all squishy like the cakes we enjoy eating. Little Miss Jones defines it best as "a gentler, more relaxed form of yarn-bombing" (see her very funny blog http://littlemissjones33.blogspot.co.uk/ ). So, it's a no thank you to going on dawn raids on town centres to spread our woolly treasures, instead we'll knit & crochet at a temperate pace, more than likely sitting in a garden with cats, cakes (well, me certainly) and a nice glass of something chilled or i...

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...

Mmmm, bit quiet at yesterday's craft fair @ Galeri (Caernarfon), must have been something very exciting happening somewhere else! It's a shame (although am very much in favour of exciting things happening as a general rule) as it's  a lovely venue with fab crafters,  we just need to work at enticing more people down this way, a  strategy we'll be putting our minds & crafting hands to before the next one on 6th July.    For this fair I brought a few new friends with me including Hector, the big bunny with a slight air of sadness about him, little bunnies Mille & Leo (on his racy lime shield) and the two rival crochet squirrel heads, as well as a new range of fruits in jars (they look good on a Welsh dresser, preferably nestled next to a rack of crochet toast as in my little cottage). Rather sadly, the thing that I really enjoyed making for the fair was a jar of crochet leeches. Although almost anything can be found online, there were no patterns fo...

The next craft fair that me and my collection of curious creatures, cakes & felty bugs will be attending is in Galeri (Caernarfon) on Saturday 1st June. It'd be lovely to have as many people as possible to come along to browse and support this new venture as all the stalls feature talented, local contemporary crafters/artists. I'm very happy to have recently joined this talented and friendly group 'Crefft Cyfoes Caernarfon', have a look at the facebook page for more about each of the artists & pics of the last fair  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crefft-Cyfoes-Caernarfon If you like, you can also follow the group on Twitter https://twitter.com/CrefftCyfoes , we'd be delighted if you do. The Rivals The troublesome cake-devouring mice will be sitting this one out as they're holidaying in Lotti & Wren's tea-party inspired window (and loving the attention, very vain mice) (Lotti&Wren ) so instead some crochet squirre...

What's that you say? A weekend full of crafts, comedy & tasty food, yes please, I'll take it. A dollop of sunshine, thrown in too? Great. And yes, supersize it with a bank holiday. Lovely, just lovely.  The much anticipated craft fair at Galeri in Caernarfon kicked off the weekend in splendid style. Although pretty quiet on the potential customer front, this wasn't too troubling as it was the first time the fair had been held here (apart from Christmassy ones) and the general consensus was an upbeat expectation that numbers would grow if we get the message out that a great little craft fair is here every month (on the 1st Saturday of each month). More advertising & finding ways to lure people in will hopefully work a treat especially since the stalls all looked so pretty with good quality crafts in a refreshing range. On a purely self-satisfied level, I was very pleased with my colourful little stall of curios. My crochet bunny heads attracted attention although...

Lost in the Wood Designs will have a stall at this craft fair on Saturday, 4th May (this weekend!). The previous incarnation of this small and popular craft fair was housed monthly in the Market Hall. Owing to the Hall's ongoing refurbishment, it's now found a shiny new home at Galeri in Doc Victoria. It'll be the first Saturday of the month from 10am-4pm. Please come along to see quality crafts by local artists.