ScrapHappy September 2022

Last month I showed you the start of the latest scrappy crochet bunting. With all the donated scraps it was easy to find enough so that each of the flags was a different colour and so that I had enough to stretch across the width of the shop. Since each triangle tends to curl a little, I decided to counter this by sewing a couple of metal beads (from a pre-loved collection) on the point of each.

My other scrappy activity in the shop this month has been to put together some texture packs from lots of odds and ends of yarn. I came across a few such packs in a stash that I bought and they proved popular with customers, so now I’ve started to make my own. Each one contains a minimum of 30 m (and generally much more) of yarn in lengths of about 3m (plus some extra shorter bits if there are scraps left over). I select interesting mixes of textures and put them together in colour-themed packs. The packaging is all reused: cardboard from boxes and polythene wrap from packs of wool or fabric. They get bought for use in embroidery, weaving and macramé amongst other things, giving crafters a range of interesting yarn without having to buy lots of balls that would mostly go unused.

So, I’m not just making things with scraps myself, I also feel like I’m spreading the love of scraps to a wider audience.

-oOo-

I’ve been inspired to write this (and future) ScrapHappy posts by Kate,  Tall Tales from Chiconia. On the fifteenth of every month lots of folk often publish a ScrapHappy post, do check them out:

Kate,  Gun, Eva,  Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, JanMoira, SandraChrisAlys, ClaireJeanJon, DawnJuleGwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue LVera, NanetteAnn, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, DebbieroseNóilin and Viv

If you fancy joining, contact Kate and she’ll add you to the list. It would be lovely to see more non-sewing posts, but any use of scraps is welcome.

Write off

It’s a strange thing, writer’s block. I’m not sure why, but somehow I just haven’t been able to bring myself to write anything much for weeks – no letters, no work on the book and (as you may have noticed) no blog posts. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to share, it just felt incredibly reluctant to put fingers to keyboard. I’ve been quite busy – the root canal work is finally completed, I’ve finally finished a series of doctor’s appointments and I’ve spent two weekends away with two different sets of lovely ladies (hello to The Crochet Sanctuary Crowd and the Fabulous Fifties). I have stitched, hooked, knitted and sorted. Three boxes of books have gone to the Oxfam book shop, a box of craft materials has gone to be sold at an Emmaus shop that has a specialist craft section and a bag of bras has gone for recycling/reuse. I have had a great harvest of chillies and sweet peppers and a mediocre harvest of courgettes, peas and potatoes. There has been a new member of the household – Mimi the dressmakers dummy and I have learnt to do macrame. So, all-in-all, a busy time. It’s just that I wasn’t inspired to write, or even take many photographs. However, here is a little selection of what I’ve been making, doing and growing, with the hope that the next blog post will come more easily and sooner…

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