Bubbles

Funky garments for boys can be a hard thing to get right. This pattern has a visually simple but engaging twisted stitch panel, and a very ”useful” seamless shape, knit in the round. Match this with a washable yarn in the “right” colour, and it is bound to be a hit, both to wear and create.

Bring it, Winter!

Knit on 4mm circular needles using James Brett Marble, this pattern is written in 3 sizes from 3-10 yrs.

£3.00

MTG

About 12 years ago I entered the world of high fantasy, with Dungeons and Dragons, Tolkien, Tad Williams, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Magic the Gathering. I enjoyed the flexibility of "Magic", a 2 player game in it's simplest form, multi-player options, or when a bored teenager, play-test your decks against yourself. I played for several years, before my contempories where spending too much money and too much time on it and totally outstripped me in there playing ability. Or maybe I got Laid. Anyway, my younger brothers where not very literate when we entered this realm, and it always confused me how something so complex as a rulebook, or deck of cards managed to teach someone to read. Thankfully, with the move out of toddlerhood comes the joys of educational concerns.

My siblings and I where/are home-educated autonomously, as was/is the Man. I put it like that because I don't feel education stops when a government has decided so, but continues throughout life, if you let it. I am certainly still learning in the same manner I was 15 years ago.

So this is where I come from in terms of parenting, but I still ponder on how the process works!

The Boy is now school-age. He plays Role-playing games, builds crazy Lego structures, and sews pullovers for his bears. But a strange thing is happening. He is Learning To Read. Because he wants to?! I surmise because he wants to do things he needs to read for. Like playing Magic. He has figured he is at a disadvantage playing open-handed with me telling him what his cards do. I am putting many cards with the same artwork in his deck, that aren't too complicated. So he is coming across the terms "Haste", "Shadow", and "Flying" fairly frequently. He started the writing of garbled letters in huge long lines, then getting literate people to read them for him(does everyone do that?). My heart melted.

If I then suggest we do something to advance his progress, he sees the connection to an interest he has and the activity I am offering, and he takes it.

So thankyou, Richard Garfield, for creating something that makes learning to read fun for parents, and is bringing my son closer into my life.

designing for magazines

Designing a pattern is an interesting process to me, and I have honed it a lot in the past year I have been concentrating on it. Not far off my goal of 1 a month for a year, it now takes me half the time from inspiration to publication.
I think some of this is due to my rigorous note taking and formula writing, but also my process has been helped by my attempt to get my patterns into some magazines, both in-the-flesh ones and online.(which, by the way, I have done, here)

Working in a template, seeing the common factors for pattern submissions, and the more abstract concept submissions some go for, they all give some insight as to how to put across your own creative idea to another individual. This has then been useful for working on many projects of my own, skipping from one to another, and shifting my inspiration, without making them all become the same, as I record, photograph and sketch and summarize along the way.

So, the money isn't great. 70 quid for one or two full weeks work when I have young children is a little irksome. And giving someone else rights to my work is a little concerning too, I can't quite put my finger on it. But if at the end my process and therefore patterns are better off and more polished, and I get more airtime, that has got to be worth the hassle, at least for now.



Image courtesy of Kate Heppell, Practical Publishing

beading workshops nov-jan

I have been running beading workshops for about 9 months, from my home in Thurmaston, on a monthly basis. So far I have mostly been facilitating the participants own inspiration, helping with and suggesting new techniques, and sorting things out when they have gone wrong! I am now getting the feeling that some more formal instruction would be beneficial to these sessions, in terms of being exposed to new techniques and project ideas.

These sessions are now evolving, and need booking in advance, so I can plan the topic, and invest in the materials. The timing has changed too, to eliminate the lunch break that was always rushed, and took away precious beading time!

The main reason I have set an age limit on this group is due to the level of input younger students need. I teach in a hands-on way, moving round the group and seeing how each student is doing, and helping them move on. I notice that I invariably spend more time with the younger ones, even with this age cap, so I wouldn't want to extend the range of this group.

Thursday, 10-1.

Each session costs £7.00

17/11-Baubles

15/12-Tassels

12/1-Brick stitch chains

Please email me for a booking form.

Additionally, I am looking to run another regular session in the south of the city, so if anyone wants to host it I would love to talk to you!

You can also book me to run any session I have done before, for the cost of £10/hour, plus materials and travelling costs.

TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS

Baubles

jazz up an ordinary-looking bauble into something astonishing using seed beads and bugles. Some good examples can be seen in Julie Ashfords book .

Tassels

using seed beads, sieves and donut beads, create tassels with festive charm, or just plain fun! Take a look in the book above, or just search Google for examples.

Brick stitch chains

A versatile and technique, Brick stitch is a rather different way of building up a beaded fabric, and can be put to many uses. We shall be making thin hoops, and linking them together, rather like a paper chain...