CraftBomb, Craftbomb. I wanna Craftbomb

"What is this?" I hear you say.

It's being organised by Voluntary Arts Weeks and is a showcase for creativity in the arts and crafts. This year they are planning on launching the week with an explosion of colour with the National CraftBomb.
And I want to be part of it. A group of Sheffield knitters are up for it and we are currently looking for a venue. A place that we'd really love to decorate is the amazing bronze statues in the Upper Chapel Yard.

 How about this lovely, but chilly, looking lady wearing a warm scarf and gloves? Or even a multicoloured coat?

Or a bright dress for this beauty?

She wears a lovely scarf and hat, but how about giving her a warm woolly?

I'm going to ask the Upper Chapel and see what they say and if you want to get involved with the Sheffield knitters and our CraftBomb project drop me a line and I can send you the details or alternatively if you'd like to hold an event in your own town why not download the pack from the link above.

Things to do in a hotel room (Pt 1)

As some will know, I have been working away from my lovely little house in Sheffield and am currently spending the week dabbling in holes in Gloucester. Before the new year I was there for a couple of months and now I am there for another few weeks but possibly a month and this is making me very sad.

I have been trying to get my act together and start making things to sell on the wonders of etsy, da wanda, folksy and misi and the like as well as trying to set up a website selling copies and originals of my vintage knitting and crochet patterns. But being away from home has disconcerted me and I find my time is spent perving the web for craft things, tweating and generally not feeling very good about things.

So I have decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and actually get some of those random crafty idas I have bopping around into place and see what I can do in a hotel room.
And this is it (well one of the things)

Granted it's not amazingly pretty but it does offer so many potentials.

I got the fibre from visiting Get Knitted yesterday on a day off. I then used my plastic lunchbox to layer the fibre in and added a little of the complimentary shower gel to the boiling water from the kettle which was then dribbled over the fibre mat. A bit of jigging back and forth with my fingers and the mat was strong enough to take out the box and rub on the shower tray. I haven't got any bubblewrap (well it's not something that you'd usually carry around with you is it?) so I thought that the raised bits on the tray would do. A quick rinse through with cold water and a roll in a towel, then I put it on the radiator to dry.

The felted bit works well enough but the shower gel was difficult to rinse out completely and I was a bit heavy handed in the shower tray section of the proceedings but otherwise I am very happy with the result.

Next week I plan on bringing the fibre with me again along with a baking tray of some sort and some bubble wrap and see what I can get up to.

Inappropriate Content

I have been spending the afternoon have a trawl through the One World - One Heart giveaways and every now and again a screen flashes up and block the page with "INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT" scrawled over it. I'm working away at the moment so am in a hotel/b&b in Gloucester and obviously the guy has it set that there is a filter on (which I don't have a problem with) but a thought struck me on this: some blogs must be just dripping with porn and perv and other "questionable" things. Although I have to say I have no problem with porn and perv in the right context I'm a little freaked with it on a set of crafting blogs?

Surely there can't be that many porn craft sites out there? Or are there whole nooks and crannies of the web filled with yarn laying provocatively, a come hither and fondle me look in their strands. Or fat quarters piled on each other having the time of their life. Or rolls of thread in all sizes and shapes being threaded through sewing machines, bending to the will of their master. Or vintage images bare and naked waiting to be transformed under someone elses bidding.

Oh come to think of it now . . .

BTW - remember to check out my own OWOH giveaway - I promise to get better photos up this weekend