It’s new hobby time again!

Alternative title: I love stabbing things.

A while ago one of my choir friends gifted me some needle felting goodies so I could give it a try. For some reason I built it up in my mind so much that I couldn’t even try in case I got it ‘wrong’, so the whole bag just sat in my crafty drawer unused. But I still really wanted to try needle felting, so when I saw that I Sew 2 was hosting a workshop I signed up straight away.

The workshop was taught by Lynn McGill of Lin Pin (go check out her page) and five of us showed up despite Storm Gareth raging outside. The others had all been before, but they were so friendly and welcoming and I didn’t feel like the odd one out at all.

Most of us decided to make Easter bunnies so Lin gave a quick tutorial on how to make one. The way she explained it is quite like amigurumi; it’s much easier if you break down what you want to make into simple shapes. A sphere for the head, an egg for the body, cylinders for the front legs and so on. She also showed us different ways to roll and fold the wool, and how to neaten up the edges.

Then it was our turn. I briefly considered making a psychedelic rabbit because 1. I loves colour and 2. Look at all the beautiful options!

But just this once I decided to be sensible and stick with one colour. I chose this hank of grey because of the flecks of light and dark, just like you’d get in a real rabbit’s fur.

At first I was a bit too gentle, scared of breaking the needle or stabbing myself or that dreaded getting it ‘wrong’, but Lin gave me some pointers and a big scoop of encouragement and I went for it.

Funny thing is, I did break a needle.

And I did stab myself. Several times.

But it wasn’t the end of the world, and after 2.5 hours I had created something that I’m so proud of.

I made that!!

At the end of the workshop I was chatting with Lin and I mentioned that it might be nice to add some flowers to the grass base, at which point she started loading me up with various colours to take away with me! If this is what all I Sew 2 workshops are like then I will most definitely be going back for more.

So now I know that needle felting is really very easy and I can actually do it, I’m going to dig out that bag of bits my friend gave me and get some pretties made. Watch this space!

Hannah

xXx

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Pottery painting

Yep, it’s new hobby time again. Although this one will probably be much more sporadic than the others.

Last week my friend at work asked if I would like to go with her to try pottery painting, and I (being unable to resist anything crafty) said heck yes! So on Friday we went along to The Craft Pottery in the city centre.

First things first we had to select an item to paint, which sounds easy enough, but actually took us 10-15 minutes. They have so. much. choice. There are bowls and plates, mugs, egg cups, square tiles, faeries, bunnies, cookie jars, sugar skulls, camper vans, the list goes on! My friend was planning to paint a plain mug with a star wars character, but ended up choosing a novelty mug in the shape of a castle. I kept it simple and went with a little noodle bowl, although I will definitely have to go back soon to paint the ‘cup and saucer’ soup bowl I spent ages dithering over.

After noodling around on Google images earlier in the day I decided I wanted a pattern made up of little dots, and a cat peeking over an edge, but that was as specific as it got until I sat down with the blank bowl in front of me. Which made choosing colours another difficult decision.

The Craft have these clever plates on every table to show you how the colours will look.

There are so many beautiful colours I couldn’t choose just one so I went for a rainbow. You can’t go wrong with a rainbow.

And I must have been in a particularly loving mood because I decided to do a heart. Pencil marks burn off in the kiln so I sketched in the shape as a guide for my dots and got started.

I wanted pretty strong colours so each dot needed 3 coats.

At the start I was worried about the colours running or me smudging them, but the paint dries really quickly so neither was a problem.

We painted and chatted away, with occasional help and feedback for each other, and the time just flew by.

By the time I finished the inside of my bowl 2 hours had whizzed past! The £3 painters fee gets you unlimited time though, so I decided to also paint the outside of my bowl. This time keeping it simple with some rainbow stripes.

By then my friend was finishing up (I wish I’d taken a photo of her castle, it was amazing) so I just had time for a quick cheeky cat on the base of my bowl.

Then we were finished, just over 3 hours later! We left our goodies where they were, paid for our pieces, and headed out for a coffee. The staff will glaze and fire them and we’ll go back later this week to collect our finished items. I’m so excited to see what the colours look like.

So if you’re ever in Glasgow I highly recommend checking out The Craft Pottery. It’s super fun and really quite relaxing, plus you get to take home your very own work of art at the end of it.

Hannah

xXx

New hobbies

My name’s Hannah and I’m addicted to new hobbies.

Last week I tried archery, and I’m so in love that I went for an extra session on Monday.

During the week my winnings arrived from Julia’s giveaway.

There are several super cute things I want to make (mainly the cat on the cover!), but I decided to start with a pretty patchwork star because it looked relatively simple. So I headed to Hobbycraft to pick up some fat quarters and had my first go at patchwork sewing

Of course I was hooked, and just had to try another one

Front

and back

The second definitely turned out better. There’s still room for improvement though!

While shopping for fabric, I found a tatting shuttle for £1 in the clearance section. This one is going to take a loooooot of practice, but I’m still loving it. I know how beautiful tatted pieces can be and I’m determined to reach that level one day.

The problem is I don’t stop my old hobbies to make room for the new ones; my long bank holiday weekend was a cycle of sewing, crochet, Tunisian, knitting, and tatting on repeat. With one break for archery and another for running. If I were paid for my hobbies they could be a full time job!

I clearly need to win the lottery I never play, so there’s time enough for all these pastimes. Plus the new ones I know I’m going to pick up in the future.

Does anyone have any tips on juggling all these different crafts? Or maybe new ones I could add to my repertoire (there’s no such thing as too many)? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx