wineandtwine

• 2011-12-04 57 notes

  Yesterday we Wine & Twine folk had a table at the first ever Christmas Craft Fair at St Cuthberts Hall, Bedford. Here are some piccies of the crafty goodness we made The fair was great fun, lovely atmosphere and lots of lovely stalls. And, our takings from the day will certainly pay for some festive drinkies! Hurrah!

• 2011-07-27 2 notes

  There is some argument about who made the macrame hanging basket that hangs in the corner of my parents front room. I say it was me. Gemma says it was her. Either way, we both spent a lot of our childhood making such things. I seem to remember our hardest challenge was a macrame elephant. Classy. 

  Anyhow, today someone went and drove into the back of my brand new car. I was annoyed. It is dented, and I will have to claim on the insurance. I needed to cheer my self up. So, I went to the garden centre and bought some brightly coloured string. Then I came home, took down the old macrame hanger, and set about reproducing it. I did not a bad job, I think. Bring on the macrame revival. Charming in red.

• 2011-01-15 0 notes

  The musician boyfriend returns tomorrow. Hooray! The house has been very tidy yet eerily quiet without him.

  During the day I design greetings cards. I bloody love it! It’s amazing. I get to draw all day for money. Working from home means I do get lonely from time to time, but on the bright side I don’t have any office bitching or politics to worry about… And a very short commute!

  I also provide black and white illustrations to Bunnycup Embroidery  when I can find the time! Crafters buy the patterns and stitch them onto personalised things like baby bibs and beach towels with their very snazzy embroidery machines. I would love to know how to do that. 

  I thought I’d share a few of the recent designs. There are 12 in the whole pixie house set. If you happen to read this and you are a machine embroiderer, you really must check out Ashley’s website. She’s got hundreds of super cute designs.

  Toodle-pip

  Risax

• 2011-01-12 3 notes

  Crochet Blanket

  Recently Tracey and I went to a crochet class in Bedford. I went because I really wanted to learn how to make Japanese knitted toys. I’m still working round to that to be honest, but Emily got me a fab book with some simple toy patterns that I will play with at some point.

  Life for me is pretty much one of solitude most days. I work from home and live with my boyfriend who has a really selfish hobby. He returns from work and spends his evenings writing music. Then he goes on holidays to play said music to appreciative foreigners in really interesting countries abroad. I stay at home.*sigh* This does mean I get a lot of time in the evenings on my own that I fill by doing crafty things whilst listening to Gene Clark.

  This blanket has 100 squares. Each square took me about one hour to make and then I had to crochet the buggers together. I plan to make a cushion next, after I have added a border of crochet stitches to the blanket.

  Risa

  

• 2010-12-30 1 note

  Patchwork Pattern Maker

  Hello Wine and Twine peeps,

  thought you might enjoy this. Its a patchwork pattern maker from the V&A. You upload a photo, and it makes it into a patchwork pattern for you. Enjoy x

• 2010-12-19 2 notes

  I have been doing some festive baking! In the interest of the environment, for the last two or three years I have been making something (usually something edible!) to give to my friends instead of giving out Christmas cards. This year I have made cinnamon Christmas tree biscuits to be hung on the Christmas tree. I gave them out to my friends last night. I think they seemed to be well received! Merry Christmas everyone!

• 2010-12-18 1 note

  That darn yarn

  Cheesy video that helped me achieve knitting pattern victory. 

• 5 notes

  Hallo. I promised to post here earlier, but, recently I have been defeated by a knitting pattern….until today.I am trying to knit myself a Christmas/ New Year jumper. Well, fine chance of that now, but still, I persevere. I cast on 99 stitches 8 times, and then undid it. Then I despaired. If knotted wool was worth crying over I might have had a little sob. But it ain’t.

  I have this Rowan knitting pattern book you see. Everything in it is beautiful. The purelife winter collection. Yuppie, organic, wool from sheep that go Baaaaaa. They might frolick and skip too. Maybe they gamble, but I have heard bad things about gambling lambs. Baaaaaa Baaaaa.

  Of course, I fell in love with the one with the lacy fancy schmatnzy pattern, which I couldn’t knit. It has this stitch called ‘yarn forward’. I mean, what is that? Putting the wool forward doesn’t make a stitch? What are you meant to DO with the wool after you have brought it forward. Only one thing for it. I had to look in my Nana’s knitting book (pictured). Anything you need to know about knitting is in there. Including how to make knitted knickers. Whole pages on gussets. And, well, some stuff about how to do ‘yarn forward’ too. It also has some very yummy simple cardigans. And, it tells you how to design your own jumpers too. Totally great. After I recovered from my initial round of disappointment and defeat (that took a week before I could look at it again), I had another go, and finally, with much help from two books, the internet and my Ma, some success. I have knitted 2 inches of the pattern. Hurrah hurrah!

  So, two weeks and another snow fall later I feel able to make a post about my jumper. It is going to take me ages. Juniper is helping. That means it will take longer. I hope I love love love it at the end. This might turn into an annual post in which, each year, I tell you how much further I have got with the infamous lacy jumper. But, I live in hope I might wear it before spring.

   I made some Christmas cards aswell recently, but I think they are too rubbish to send to people. I’ll post them here so you laugh at my inept painting. Happy Christmas one and all!

  Love Elaine :)

• 2010-11-24 2 notes

  First post! Wow…

  Here is some of what we got up to last weekend, when we all met up to drink, eat, chat and make christmas decorations.

  I wonder how many tiny origami stars Caroline has made now? Which reminds me, for those that want the link, this is where you buy paper for tiny origami stars, and all sorts of other lovely origami paper. www.roze.co.uk

  Okay, there may yet be more to this post…but its past my bedtime so I will have to write it tomorrow. Night night all.