Cleverly Crafty

It's been such a busy week that I keep forgetting what I've been up to!  Last Friday me and my sister went through to Glasgow to the Hobbycraft & Creative Stitches exhibition.  There are 2 exhibitions held every year, one in spring and one in autumn, it's generally a mix of many crafty things.  Normally papercraft, needlecraft, to woodcrafting and almost everything else in between.

I did go with a few specific things in mind, namely some scrapbooking supplies suitable for little baby boys.  For some reason, for the thousands of pictures I must have taken of our little dude in the last 21 months I haven't scrapped any of them!  Can't explain it, there is no logical reason for not having done anything with his photos and trying to record the small details of his life so far.  My mojo has been on holiday for a while!  Anyway I thought I'd go looking for something to spark my interest but I was sadly dissappointed, nothing much that spoke to me - lots for cardmakers/stampers, lots of bling/glittery paper but nothing that said little baby boy.

What there was on display though, was a fantastic display to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, you could walk through it!  The entire display was knitted - everything from the rocks and grass outside to all the fish, divers and deep sea essentials.  To say it was brilliant is a total understatement, the talents of those who made it is amazing!

Knitting is one thing I just cannot get to grips with, over the years I've tried many times to do it but it's never been successful, in fact I find it quite stressful so I don't do it.  I put it down to being left handed by that can't be it, there are bound to be many, many left handers who can knit perfectly well so I just have to face that I'm no good at it.  Although it does slightly annoy me that I've never quite figured it out yet.  I grew up with 2 grandmothers who were particularly good with their hands.  One was a seamstress for a living and carried on doing alterations for the majority of the population of the small fishing village she lived in, well into her retirement, she had her sewing table set up in her livingroom and her machine was used daily.  The other was a knitter, latterly making up sample garments for new knitting patterns for companies like Patons & Baldwin.  Every image I have of her she was either in the middle of knitting something or had a bag of knitting at her side.

When I think about it, it's only right that I do some kind of practical/creative hobby.  I've got some good heritage to live up too.