Hello Chester!

Hello, hello.  I'm over the moon and really excited. Chester is finally finished! I bet you are all dyeing to see a picture of him?  Well just hang on one minute! I have to get the important stuff out of the way first.

Favecraftsblog are offering the chance to one lucky blogger to feature in their newsletter.  All they ask is for a mention, so please visit their site to see what they are all about  http://www.favecraftsblog.com/about/ and hopefully Chester and I may feature.

Before you have your first peek at the finished Chester, I would like to mention the creator of the pattern.  It was taken from a book called 'Hello my name is Amineko' written by Nekoyama.  My sister-in-law http://www.limegreenlizzie.co.uk/ started making Amineko first of all and this gave me the inspiration to try an extreme crochet version of Amineko.  Hence Chester was born!

Ok!    A drum roll please!    Here he is!  

I am really pleased with him.  He took me long enough!  I've been making him now since Christmas on and off, more on than off really. It took me all day yesterday to add his nose, mouth, eyes and ears. This photo was taken very quickly yesterday evening before we went out. I finished him at 6pm and we were due at friends down the road at 6.30pm.  Not bad timing really!

I think he's going to be quite a character!  

Here are some facts about him.

He's about 6'5" tall!

His legs and arms took a whole single duvet to stuff them!

He's put on weight since I started making him ... his waist is 50" now!

His first journey was rather undignified I'm afraid!  He wouldn't actually fit in the back seat of the car.  We had to put the seats down to fit him in the boot!  

Well I hope you like him and please keep an eye out for him, to see where he gets to in the future.  

If anyone is interested in an extreme crochet workshop, I have a couple going on over the next few months in the Devon area and I would be happy to travel a reasonable distance if a group of you fancied having a go.  Why not email me on alisonjoyw@hotmail.co.uk and have a chat, I'm sure we can arrange something.

One last thing, I am linking up to Handmade Monday over at http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog so why not pop over and see what other craft bloggers are up to.

I'm also linking to http://thirtyhandmadedays.com/ who I recently stumbled upon, so why not have a look at them too?
If you like what you see, why not sign up to my blog, I look forward to reading yours too!

Bye for now x
Happy crafting!

Knitted Wire Brooch Workshop - Countess Wear Village Hall

Hi there!  Happy Monday!

Have had a very busy weekend with my daughter's birthday.  She and her boyfriend cooked a meal for 16 on Saturday night.  Absolutely delicious :) Just managed to seat everyone at the dining table! Our other daughter and her boyfriend came to stay for the weekend too. So lots of fun, eating and drinking all weekend :)

Today I have been busy starting to think about the Knitted Wire Brooch Workshop I am running at Countess Wear Village Hall http://www.countesswearvillagehall.co.uk/vh/Courses.html  If you are interested in any of the courses on offer here, please contact them via the link to their website.

Here is the kind of brooch we will be making.   

I have started measuring out the wire so everyone can have a choice of colour.

Still a few more to go as we may have up to 12 crafters.

Glass pearls for the centre of the brooch.  Oooh which colours to order?

Would you believe that this has taken me all afternoon to sort out and I'm still not finished!

Chester

Unfortunately Chester has ground to a halt until I can decide what to stuff his arms and legs with!

I emailed a foam company to see if they could help with any waste bits of foam but they haven't got back to me yet!  Maybe I shall have to try somewhere else.

Taffy

Taffy is relaxing at the moment and having a fitting for his new boots, kindly being made for him by my daughter! The birthday weekend and Uni work seem to have got in the way though!  Should be finished soon hopefully.

Needle Felting

I've been having a play on something a little smaller than Chester recently!  This is a tiny needle felted picture which is a fraction under 2" square.  It is made completely from scraps of carpet yarn needle felted together.  It's not backed on felt or any fabric and was done using a single needle.  I really must invest in one of those multiple needles!  This is my first attempt at something like this so the picture was made up as I went along.  I shall have to see if I can find a few inspiring designs so I can try another one.

Ok, shall be at work for the next 3 days so not too much time for crafting :( boo hoo! but needs must.

Folksy

Just a last minute thought!  I've got a small shop on Folksy (only two items on there at the moment!) and am thinking of getting organised on the selling front and putting more items on.  If you've had any experience with Folksy or Etsy I would love to here how well your items sold or didn't as the case may be!

Thank you for taking time to read my ramblings, I've enjoyed my little chat with you all :)  I read, appreciate and reply to all comments you leave so please feel free to stop by for a chat.  

Bye, see you all again soon!

Oh dear!

Hello everyone!

No posts from me recently, sorry :( and this one isn't the most interesting I'm afraid!  

Haven't felt at my most chatty recently (unusual for me, some would say!).  

Seem to have a creative block with Chester! 

If you do not know who Chester is then click on the link below :) 

http://fiddlyfingers.blogspot.com/2012/02/stuffed-chester.html

I desperately want to finish him!!!

 But need to find some way of stuffing his arms and legs.  

They need to remain flexible too! 

I could use bean bag beans again but that means making a case to fit inside each arm and leg and I don't fancy doing that I think it would be rather fiddly.  

Foam is a possibility? 

Or maybe good old polyester stuffing, although I think that may move around into all the wrong places over time and I don't want to stuff it so firmly that they wont move :( 

So .... you see my dilemma and hence no posts and no pictures!  

I'll keep mulling it over in my little brain and with a bit of help from you guys I'm sure I shall come up with a solution in the not too, distant future!

On a slightly lighter note :)  I have been making a bit of mini bunting.  It was nice to work on something small for a change.

This first one is made from a lovely small heart fabric.  I have added a 20p piece to give you an idea of scale.

They have 7 triangles on each and the cord is about 1m in length.

A couple of close-ups so you can see the fabric better.

I shall be making more of these, and other designs as well, to sell at a craft fair I am doing in the next few months.  If anyone is interested in buying one (or two) why not email me at alisonjoyw@hotmail.co.uk and we can work something out.  I have a pay-pal account and am considering adding a button to my blog if people would like to pay that way.  They will be about £3.75 plus postage.

Well, have to go and get the tea sorted now!  Sorry this post's a bit bor r r ring.  I'll try better next time, just didn't want you to think I had forgotten any of you.  

Bye for now xxx

Chester the Extreme Crochet Cat - an update on progress!

Hi there!
I've been a bit busy lately so sorry if it's been a while since my last post.  I've been crocheting my little heart out, trying my hardest to get Chester finished!  For those of you who are not familiar with Chester the Extreme Crochet Cat , if you click on this link it will take you to the post on my blog which explains a bit more! http://fiddlyfingers.blogspot.com/2012/01/chester-extreme-crochet-cat.html
Well not many pictures to support the amount of work involved really ....

Before you ask, yes the legs are the same - different colours I know, but the grey toes and the size are the same, just the picture doesn't make it look like they are!

Legs and arms now! Legs are the shortest ones.  That surprised me really, thought they would be the longest!

To give you an idea how much is involved, I started the last arm at about 11am today and finished at about 3.30pm ish.  Ok I put a couple of loads of washing in and out of the machine and stopped for lunch as well but you don't have to be Einstein to work out why it's taken all week to get these finished!

Now I need to work out how to stuff them, before I stitch them on!  To be honest I think I should have stuffed the toes and hands before I crocheted the narrow bits!!  But ... it's too late now!

I have managed one ear too!  But I've stopped now ... I'm completely crocheted out for today.  Just another ear and the mouth to go.  There's light at the end of the tunnel!!

Can anyone suggest any magazines or websites who may be interested in Chester the Extreme Crochet Cat?  When he's finished of course!!!  

Just before I go.  Taffy has been a very helpful bear today so I shall put up a post over the weekend, showing you how he helped.

That's it for now then.  We're cracking open the wine!  It's Friday!!!!!  See you soon xx

Taffy's Walk in Kingston, Devon

Hi there!
A separate little post so you can see what Taffy got up to on his walk at the weekend!

It had turned very cold the day before Taffy's walk.  Ice skating was a must across some puddles!  Hold on tight to daddy's hand!

Taffy decides to have a go at rock climbing!  Do be careful Taffy!  I don't think Uncle Martin should have suggested this!

A well deserved rest!

What a big pipe Taffy?!

Careful Taffy!  I think this has something to do with Uncle Martin.  He's a bad influence on you Taffy!

Look out for Taffy's next adventure! Who knows where it will be!

A busy weekend in Devon!

Hello again!
Where do I start.  At the beginning may be a good idea!  Had a brilliant weekend with our friends Ally and Martin.  Bit of crafting for Ally and me, a rather wet walk with Taffy, an evening of food and drinks to include some more friends, a lovely Sunday roast and a bit of extreme crochet to end it all.  What a fantastic weekend!

This is how it started.  Ally and I getting a bit sticky!

We were attempting to make string hearts.  So far so good, but unfortunately we ran out of glue!  We used sooo .... much but really we needed to wrap even more string around as when we popped the balloons, although the string was quite rigid, it needed more to keep it's shape.

This is what it looks like when the balloons are popped, but it wasn't stiff enough to glue together and hang.  I just put it into place for the photo.  Sorry about photo.  I couldn't get it to rotate as it was the correct way up in the file but for some unknown reason Google blogger entered it sideways?!?  So, not the most successful crafting attempt, but rather good fun trying.

Here we all are on our walk.  As you can see it was a bit damp!  We've stopped for a cup of hot tea and a hot cross bun!  The walk started from a little village called Kingston and that is the Erme estuary you can see in the background.  Would have been beautiful if it had been sunny!

Taffy came along with us.  You can see what he got up to in another post "Taffy's walk". 

Ally and Martin - 'on the edge'!

A wonderful walk with stunning views.  Here you can see Bigbury and Burgh Island  (top right).
Poor Rob carried the picnic all the way round but because of the weather we had to have it back in the car.  We drove to Bigbury and ate it in the car park overlooking Burgh Island!!!

That evening, more friends arrived to share a meal and drinks.  A lovely evening enjoyed by all but no pickies I'm afraid!

And the next day after a scrummy roast, Martin was sent packing so he didn't get stuck in the snow on his way back to Eastbourne and Ally and I were free to start crocheting!

Now, I can't actually take any credit for this rather funky basket.  It was all Ally's work!  She was the guinea pig for a practice run of the Extreme Crochet Workshop I am doing at http://www.countesswearvillagehall.co.uk/vh/Courses.html.

We were really pleased with the way it turned out.

We used the hooks Rob made in my previous blog titled 'How to Get on Google with Extreme Crochet' and 20 strands of yarn at a time!  This is the first of many patterns I will be trialling before the workshop at the end of April.  But I think you will agree, it was a fantastic achievement especially as Ally would probably be the first to say, she is more of a knitter than a crocheter, but she said she really enjoyed working on such a large scale.

We had a wonderful weekend.  I took Ally to the station to catch the train this morning and then came back to write my post.  Hope you liked it.  My tummy is beginning to say it's lunchtime so will put a quick post up about Taffy's Walk after lunch.  See you all soon xx

Stuffed Chester!!

Hello guys
It's gorgeous down here in Devon today, makes me feel good as I have things to do and places to be but would far rather be doing something else (like a little crochet, perhaps?)
This is a very quick post .  I'm squeezing it in before the weekend as I don't think I shall have time for another because we have friends coming to stay.
Just wanted to update you with some pictures of Chester's progress.  Look at the size of him!

You can see I have now stuffed both his body and his head and sewn them firmly together.  I've used bean bag beans as I have a load upstairs that in a previous life were a chair!

We had great fun filling him with beans!  You can see from the picture I had to make a bag to put them in first.

I took a photo of him in the kitchen, near the cooker so you could get some idea of scale.  He's a little taller than I thought he may be!!  And he does have a tendency to look like a bowling pin (skittle) at the moment!!  What do you think?  (Please mind Chester's feelings when you comment on this!!! He is very sensitive!) Hopefully when he gets ears and a nose, arms and legs etc his looks should improve!

Here I am sewing his head and body together.  I found this bit very theraputic for some reason!  I think it was the thought of containing all those beans and finally getting to see how he looked.

If I sat on the sofa next to Chester, he would be far taller than me!  My head comes just above the top of the cushions.  I still need to sew all his ends in - I suppose really I should have done this before I stuffed him but I couldn't wait any longer and sewing in ends is nobody's favourite job.  Am I right?

Well I really must go!  I could quite happily sit here and chat to all you lovely people but I have a lot to fit in before this evening when our friends arrive.  Ally and I are having a 'play day' tomorrow so I'll take some pictures to show you what we get up to.  A bit of glueing string and a bit of extreme crochet using the hunky hooks I mentioned in my previous blog!!

Take care folks.  Have a good weekend!  Bye ... from a lovely sunny Devon!!!