Yarn Along - Craft-tastic!

So who remembers the incredible craft phenomenon that was 'Golden Hands'?

 Several years ago I acquired a complete set of the 1970s craft part-work extravaganza  'Golden Hands' from a garage sale locally (courtesy of my lovely Mum, I seem to remember). When I got them I really enjoyed going through them and looking at all the projects, almost every craft you can imagine is covered from that seventies staple, macrame, through ceramics and knitting all the way to making villages out of matchboxes! Last weekend I decided it was time to donate the whole set to a nearby church hall booksale so I pulled them out to dust them off and made what I, an erstwhile bookdealer, consider to be a rookie mistake - I began to browse through them. I can't believe what I found!

Last Christmas I was at a craft fair at the wonderful Cowslip Workshops helping to man the stall for Peredur Trust the local charity that I am involved with. The stall next to ours was busy all day and when I finally got to have a really good look at what they were selling I saw beautiful rings and bangles made from old cutlery, even vintage sugar tongs! I thought that was a really great modern take on upcycling and how brilliant it was that our environmental concerns were leading people along a whole new path creatively.

Well here it is in all its glorious seventies styling right there in 'Golden Hands'!


 


Suffice it to say that all seven volumes are now back in their rightful place and I will be going through them with a fine tooth comb to check for some bang up to date ideas and inspiration!

This week I have cast on another little cowl this time with the blue merino that I spun as a slub yarn and plied with blue metallic thread with tiny pink beads.

 I love blue and pink together and I feel another yarn coming on along those lines. As I am joining in with Ginny I will also say that I have finished listening to Mansfield Park. It was a good listen though I have to admit to harbouring uncharitable and on occasion, violent, thoughts about Fanny Price. She is very irritating at times and she and Mrs Norris need  a good shake. There, literary criticism courtesy of Misty Cottage Crafts! I started listening to Jojo Moyes' Night Music yesterday whilst cooking the dinner but as it wasn't a very complicated meal (turkey risotto, if you are interested) it is too early to say what it is going to be like. I have read several of her books before and have thoroughly enjoyed them, so I am optimistic.

I am on a bit of a spinning mission this week as well. I bought 1KG of haunui fibre from Wingham Wool Works some time ago and as they are coming to Cornwall next weekend I felt I should try to spin what I already have before going to hanker after more fibre.

I am planning to find something colourful to ply it with so I can make something lovely eventually.

I have also been doing some more needle felting. I am using part of the red felt that I mentioned in and pictured in my last post.

I have not worked with red much before, being more of a blues, pinks and purple person but I do like the red and green together so far.

Finally, it was our local horse and dog show on Bank Holiday Monday and the Misty Cottage daughter showed the Misty Cottage dog and came out with a Highly Commended rosette for 'Dog with the Most Appealing Eyes'! I think we could have got a first if there had been a class for 'Dog with the Worst Manners' but that is a story for another day.


I'm joining in with Frontier Dreams today for the first time - hope I have got the linky thingy properly sorted.

Comments

  1. Love your comments about Mansfield Park -- it's never been high up on my list of Austin favorites for that reason. Fanny Price has always seemed quite stuck-up, and thus rubbed me the wrong way. Not sure if you go in for web series on YouTube, but I've been enjoying From Mansfield with Love (attempting to include link, not sure if it will work https://www.youtube.com/user/MansfieldWithLove) which is a modern retelling of the story, and Fanny (or Frankie, as she's called) is much more reasonable.

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  2. Love the blue yarn for your cowl. And the needlefelting does look gorgeous in those colours.

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  3. I've seen jewelry just like that at craft shows here in the U.S. Those books are definitely keepers!

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    1. I agree, I will go back through them in the winter probably by the fire with hot chocolate and a notepad!

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  4. I remember Golden Hands - my mum had the whole set but gave them away years ago. I have, however, inherited her collection of Stitchcraft and am slowly crafting my way through each issue and blogging about my journey. It is such fun as it is amazing how many wonderful patterns there are. I'm up to 1934 at the moment!

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    1. I've just had a look at your Stitchcraft blogging adventure - what an amazing undertaking! There is so much interesting stuff there.

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