Crafty beginnings...

I have my Mum to thank for kick starting my interest in crafts. We spent lots of time when I was younger trying out a mixture of small projects, including making felt finger puppets, French knitting, calligraphy, pressing flowers, quilling, tapestry, creating Fimo models, and making Fingermouse puppets! I did think about trying others too, but never did...lace making springs to mind! My interest in making things went through cycles, however when I as a teenager I chose to study textiles at school rather than cooking or woodwork, so I got stuck in to creating projects regularly for a few years. I loved the textile lessons and the hours spent trying lots of techniques and creating projects using fabric and thread. I have fond memories of the final projects I made, a cushion and an embroidery panel. I earned the title of ‘the French knot queen’ by a friend at school, as one of my final projects involved an over ambitious desire to fill a large space of the embroidery panel with French knots…it took weeks to finish! I hold a real affection towards French knots and I’m sure that they will feature as a key stitch in future embroidery projects. When I finished school I did still have an interest in crafts which has stayed with me, but it was something that I have never acted on. Over the years I have collected magazines, lots of patterned paper and card, beads and ribbon samples but never dedicated time to making things with my supplies!

In August, with my desire to get started with something crafty, I mulled over the possibilities and I decided to start my craft journey with knitting. My mum taught me to knit when I was very young. Having completely forgotten the basic knit stitch, added to the fact that I had never cast on before, I had to work out what to do to get started. I turned to the internet to see what I could uncover to get me started…and wow there is a world of tutorial videos out there! After watching the videos and reading information about how to cast on, doing the knit and purl stitches, couldn’t wait to get started. I knitted a square (with added holes!) reasonably quickly and I had a good feeling about it, I definitely knew I’d made the right choice for the first skills to learn (again). I was so into it I signed up for a 6 week knitting course this Autumn and learnt so much more…I’ll tell you about that soon.

If you are looking to start knitting I recommend YouTube for great videos as a starting point…hopefully I will be able to find some good books that I can tell you about over the next few months as I continue to learn. So that’s where it all began…