It was Alex Bellos who started it all off. I can't remember which of his books it was now, because of course I no longer have it (this is becoming an habitual refrain); but he happened to mention hyperbolic crochet and I was immediately intrigued. Here's
Peyote? That's the cactus, right? The one that produces mescaline? Actually, not in this case. I'm not planning a screed against mind-altering substances here (not that I'm interested in taking them myself, since I can quite happily manage to be as strange as anyone
It started with the Southbanks. I picked up some more fabric in a sale to make a few more of them, since they are so immensely useful, which means I'm going to end up with one in every colour I want to wear. Thankfully for my wallet, that
I used to be in the SCA, which stands for the Society for Creative Anachronism. This was (and still is) a mediaeval re-enactment society, probably best known for the fighting. People get themselves up in mediaeval armour, with a good deal of padding, and engage in mock sword fights with
Many years ago, I used to make bobbin lace; and then the furry gentleman in my icon walked into my life, along with his brother. The furry gentleman in the icon was called Minsky, and he was by far the most intelligent cat I've ever had the privilege
A long time ago I was on Facebook, before I found out enough about it to make me twitchy. I was mostly there for the games; and the game I enjoyed most was called Fluff Friends. Fluff Friends was great for a number of reasons. First of all, though there
Yesterday I was writing about designing for Kasia; and that was great fun to do, but in fact she had a fairly unusual figure. And you really wouldn't believe that from looking at pattern envelopes (though, thankfully, that is changing these days). Manufacturers of both patterns and ready-to-wear
There is not very much that inspires my creativity better than another similarly creative person; so today I'm going to tell you about Kasia. Kasia wasn't her real name, but she was Polish, so it will do. I met her through my next-door neighbour, who quite
I'm sure I can't be the only person in the world who hates knitting i-cords, as otherwise the French knitting dollies that are frequently given to children (and probably used by more adults than you'd think, as well) would never have been invented. But
Does baking count as a craft? Not sure, but it can certainly generate anecdotes, so I'm going to count it. If you're in the Vegan Society, you can get free nutritional advice. Now I've been having a bit of hassle with Stroppy Sibyl the
Today we're having a little change. I'm going to talk about one of my more obscure crafts; it has various names, including "filet lace" and "lacis". I usually refer to it as "filet embroidery" or just "filet" -
I could have chosen several subtitles here, but the one that comes most forcefully to mind is "I Shall Never Do This Again". Having said that... I'm quite glad I did it once. I like random yarn, or at least I like the old-fashioned sort where