I was there!

where? Here:

Grand opening this afternoon of Platt Hall Costume Gallery and son Ben and I had a quick curryesque meal in Rusholme's curry mile and hot footed to press the flesh with all the lovely people at Platt. I am so proud of daughter Rosie, who is one of the team to get this show on the road.

Saw Audrey Hepburn's fuschia Givenchy dress, and marvelled at the exquisite embroidery, and got to meet the artist who made this: http://www.susiemacmurray.co.uk/



and had champers and cakes too!

Recommended if you are in the North West.

when the humble knit becomes an art form!

in the shape of a tea cozy - I am supposed to nip to the shop to get some milk and browsed through my inbox, followed a link to amazon and then discovered THIS:

http://www.grandpurlbaa.com

Success!

On Saturday I sold THREE items to one person - how amazing! Anyway, luckily I had bought some gorgeous tissue paper so everything was wrapped and dispatched today, but my shop is a little emptier!

So I have been busy making cards, and exploring ways of using fine crochet to make scarves like in the previous picture. I make it up as I go along and had a need for some faded sea grass kind of blue cotton yarn, which I found down the road in a craft centre called Blakemere, here in Cheshire. Above are some cards I made today and I also put a business card in the local shop, which gets amazingly busy, since living in the heart of the country, the shop is like a magnet for people who nip in for papers, bread, jam, veggies and all. In fact, I could probably do all my shopping here!

getting there...

I had a brief chat with my daughter today regarding my cards, but she was in Oxfam, so unable to speak for long. The upshot is that the guys who order stuff for the Gallery love my cards and want to sell them in the shop! It's a bit scary since each one is hand produced! May know further over the weekend, but it's a great start, in an a hugely competitive market.

Made a feeble attempt at making crochet slippers today. Several modifications needed as they really are quite hideous.

Finally got the organic italianate scarf up on Folksy

granny

I vow never to do another, they are such a faff, but the end result is great.
Funnily enough, I was shopping in our local little market town today and went to the Country Market where lovely people make lovely things like cakes and jam and crafty bits. Two little ladies were trying to figure out how to crochet as they had forgotten (used to do it years ago..) so I lent a hand. Had the odd experience of teaching grannies how to make grannies. What fun!
I am now checking out how to make woolly slippers as these seem to be the latest thing with grannies these days. What goes around comes around .

cards

I showed my daughter my new cards and asked for her humble professional opinion (she works in a gallery and has a top degree in fashion design, clever girl) and she LOVES them. Okay so she may be a bit biased but now she will see if they can go into the new shop opening on Mother's Day weekend. It could be that stock has already been ordered, etc etc. but at least I crossed that barrier and asked her! I am not very good at the marketing thing, like many creative people. When you have an emotional attachment to your product it's hard to be rejected, but it's something that needs to be dealt with.

I spent a big chunk of the weekend making them and got immersed in tiny scraps of fabric and glued up my ironing board. Ordered some business cards too from 123 where you make your own. And I ordered some amazingly good value cards and envelopes (cheaper than ebay methinks) from Liz's crafts.

Also went to an amazing exhibition, which was really quite shocking at Manchester Art Gallery