Hello and welcome to Yarnsmith Studio, 

If this is your first visit let me introduce myself -  my name is Tracy and I am based near to Brighstone on the beautiful Isle of Wight, where I have lived since 2007. It truly is a magical place with inspiration and colour everywhere, provided you keep  your eyes open to all that nature provides. We all get caught up in the mundane, everyday things and sometimes forget to look around us, I am lucky in that my drive home from my day job provides some beautiful scenery and views.

Why Yarnsmith - it seems to capture all that I do perfectly. I take yarns and threads in the Old English definition of the word Smith I 'forge, fabricate and design' with yarns. 

Seagull study

I love nature and find great inspiration from all its shapes and forms, I am currently working on a series of nature pieces which have evolved from the Seagull Study, more on these to follow later in the year.

I also love to take the everyday objects and give them a little quirk - such as my cactus pincushions.

My day job is as owner of TAJ Crafts, which is a yarn and embroidery shop based at Holliers Farm, Branstone, near Sandown, it is on the same site as the House of Chilli. I am surrounded by beautiful colour all day, and get to meet some amazing and talented people every day. 

I teach crochet and knitting, covering a range of topics, more details to be found on the classes and workshops page above. 

Whatever you do, happy crafting I look forward to welcoming you into the studio again soon.

Tracy

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Crafting in Public

A good friend of mine, Su Douglas just blogged about crafting whilst commuting and it got me thinking about my crafting habits. I cannot craft on my daily commute from Brighstone to Shalfleet, mostly because it is me driving.
Those of you who know me personally know that I always carry at least one project with me - everywhere...
I have mindless knitting for hospital waiting rooms, complicated stuff to work on at the shop and projects for Jo and I at home, as not everyone appreciates the extra love that out 5 cats weave into whatever I make.
As Su mentions, it can give you an extra space next to you as no-one wants to sit next to the mad woman who is crafting in public. Although I have found it is almost as good as having an animal with you for starting conversations, mostly starting with a wistful 'I used to do that all the time, but no one wants it any more'. Or the perennial - 'you don't see people doing that anymore', I'm not sure we ever did see much of it public, but as a youngster growing up our house was always full of crafting. My mum taught me to knit when I was 9 and I taught myself to crochet around the same time, I cannot remember a time when I did not craft, what age did you start?
Where does the idea that all we create has to be for anyone else come from? Modern throw away fashions mass produced for pennies in some far flung places mean that it is never going to be economically viable to produce your own knitted/crocheted garments. But those items that you create with your own hands with time and love have so much more value than the cheap clothes available on the High Street.
I must confess to not making very much for myself or Jo recently, but that is due to making samples for the shop and also items for Open Studios.
Open Studios went very well, thank you to all who came along and supported us in the Church and hall at Shalfleet. It taught me a valuable lesson - don't make things that you think people will like to buy, make what is in your heart. I failed to do that at Shalfleet, so it is back to the ideas pad and sketch book for me, I have lots of ideas running around in my head, I just need to work out the practicalities of converting my visions into reality. More about this process to follow in future posts.
What are you working on at the moment?
Do you craft in public? If you do how do you find the reactions of the people around you?
Until next time, happy crafting
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What a year its been

Hello everyone,
Well what a year it has been, I have gone from being a crafts person creating lovely things for Open Studios and Quay Arts in Newport, also teaching in various locations to a shop owner.
Along the way I have battled against breast cancer, and this post is not going to dwell - this is the time to look forward.
My shop is TAJ Crafts, based at Holliers Barns, Branstone, nr Sandown, PO36 0LT. It opened last August, just after my diagnosis, more information can be found on our website and now 10 months later I am back full time in the shop. It has been quite a ride so far.
I am teaching again and trying to get my mojo back for open studios, which is fast approaching...
Below are images of a few things I have been creating over the last little while, along with a couple of works in progress

                      This shawl was crocheted using Drops Delight a lovely variegated 4ply yarn

Ripple blanket which will be single bed size when completed, along with my sample swatches to try and keep the ripple colours as random as possible. The ripple pattern is the Neat Ripple from Lucy at Attic24. The pattern can be found on her blog

lots and lots of granny squares which are now being crocheted together to make another single bed size blanket










This is the start of the Lily Pond blanket along with my version of Attic24 Jolly Chunky Bag






The above selection are all using various combinations of the colours used in the Stylecraft yarns CAL Lily Pond blanket, information on the Crochet ALong can be found here.

Its good to be back, happy crafting whatever you are doing.

Best wishes

Tracy
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Missing in Action

Well I have been, I don't know about you but I really don't know where the weeks are going to.
A lot has been going on in my universe over the last couple of months and now I can share some of the details.
 
Some of you may have noticed that I have been allowed to Craft bomb the Quay Arts Centre again this year, my thanks go to Melanie Swan, Angela and Caroline for their help on the day. It will be coming down Tuesday 20th but it will be going back up to help celebrate Festival in June.
 
It is a bit of an international affair this year as the squares on the brick pillar and the sofa cushion come from around the world. They are contributions from a granny square swap group I belong to, there are some very talented people out there.

I have been busy teaching again and three lovely ladies had a great time making crochet flowers yesterday. Andrea turned her creations into a beautiful headband for her daughter, isn't it lovely?

 
While the sun was shining on Saturday I attended Melanie Swan's dyeing from the garden workshop at Jubilee Stores, it was very inspiring, I can honestly say that some of the ideas and techniques Melanie taught me will be turning up in my collage pieces. Thank you Melanie for the inspiration.


The images on the left were some of the processes that we learnt on Saturday, I will post more details from this later in the week. I need to be a good girl and carefully log which plants we used to dye with and which mordant and modifiers were used. It is something I need to become better at so that I can recreate things rather than just winging it!


But I have saved the best for last - we are going to be opening a shop in July! It will be selling knitting yarns and embroidery threads, I have been busy sourcing threads and yarns that are not currently available on the Island. Its like Christmas, this week I am waiting for sample books and reps to get in touch.
 
This is your opportunity to help us shape the stock we carry and workshops that we provide - so I am asking you to think about what you would like to be able to buy or learn, and let us know. If you let me know then I can explore the possibilities.
 
I think that is enough from me for now, I will be posting regularly to keep you up to date with developments.

Wishing you all happy crafting whatever your passion.

Best wishes

Tracy

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Forthcoming workshops in May:
 
Sunday 25th - Crocheting Granny Squares, this workshop is suitable for beginners 1 - 4 pm at Quay Arts, Tel: Box Office on 01983 822490 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlightingCost £15

Tuesday 27th and Friday 30th - Children's beginners Crochet and Knitting at West Wight Alpacas, Wellow, Tel: 01983 760900 Email: enquiries@westwightalpacas.co.uk  Morning and Afternoon sessions Cost £15  (age 9+)


 

Ta Dah!

Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are all enjoying the change in the weather, as I write this the sun is shining and the birds are tweeting. Rain is forecast for later but we can't have everything can we.

On my last post I showed you a picture of a piece of fabric from Hillary's Blinds Country Retreat fabric range. They have been running a Country Craft Competition - to cut, stitch and blog. I have accepted their challenge to make something from it, it took me a while to work out what I wanted to make...
A bag? An owl? A doorstop? all these were good ideas but I wanted something that I could use afterwards, so what do I need?

A bowl to put the small balls of wool into when I am teaching - what a good idea.
 
Let me share how I did it -
 



Items required:
1m of fabric
Washing line
pins, scissors
Sewing machine
 
 


Firstly cut up the fabric into 1" strips.

                           
                                                            Wrap the fabric around the washing line as in the picture
 
 
 

 
 
Then start to twirl them round, securing with pins.
Place the twirl under your sewing machine foot, it should just about fit, then using a zigzag stitch sew over the curves, sewing the strips together. The settings on my machine were 4.5 width and 1.5 length, but experiment if unsure as you need the stitches to catch both parts of the wrapped line. 
Continue to wrap the fabric around the washing line - I found it helped to pin the joins between strips as it stops the fabric unravelling itself.
 

 

As you wrap it around continue to sew the strips together until it is the size you want the bowl base to be, I made mine 9.5" across.

 

When you are ready to come up the sides of the bowl, turn the base upright as you sew the next round on. The tighter the angle the steeper the bowl sides will be, I went for as near to 90 degrees as possible. It looks a bit funny at first, but will come together the further up the sides you go.


 






If you want handles on the sides of the bowl, lift a length of wrapped line and stitch over this then re attach when your handle is long enough. I lifted a 4.5" strip and then left a space of 3" before reattaching it to the sides, see the picture below:



When your bowl is finished, cut the washing line, leaving a length of fabric to cove the end. Wrap the fabric to the end of the washing line and then back on itself, Sew to the bowl either by hand or by machine.







 
When you've finished just trim up any loose strands from the fabric, fill and use.

Ta Dah!

I quite like the way that the poppy design has splintered, but all the lovely colours still shine through.
 

 
 
 
 But of course none of this is possible without the very special supervisory skills of Scoobie who took up station in his box on my worktop. Bless. 

Happy Crafting everyone and watch out for the next post when I will be unveiling this year's Craftbomb event. Hope you are all excited, I can't wait its going to be epic...

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Its been a while..

Well, where does the time go to? Has it really been a month since I last posted...
What have I been up to you ask? I have been teaching and to those who have been to class - hello, I hope you are all getting on well with your projects.
I have also been getting on well with my projects, my favourite has been the flower hearts

 

This was featured in a crochet magazine recently and is by the lovely Lucy of Attic24 fame, her blog can be found here I always find so much inspiration looking at the lovely images she posts, I hope you do to.



I have also been making more owls, they make a small appearance in the Style of Wight magazine this month, ah fame at last...
My next challenge is going to be to make something from this

It is a metre square of fabric from the new range at Hilary's blinds, they have some pretty fabrics, and to celebrate the launch they are running a competition. I opted for the wild poppies vermillion and have been trying to think of something to make that I could continue to use.
Drumroll please.... I have decided what to make - but I am not going to reveal all yet. A lady must have some secrets.

More in my next post, also look out for news of the next Craft Bomb event at Quay Arts they are letting me loose again this year, would you like to join me?

Until next time I hope that all your patterns are easy and that your yarn doesn't tangle.

Happy Crafting.

Tracy
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Workshop Samples and new dates

Welcome to my crafting world. I have been busy these last few weeks creating samples to tempt you all to try different techniques. The workshop list has been updated to include a few new dates at the West Wight Alpaca Farm

My first effort was the African Flower Bag which is made using the African Flower motif hexagons and is gorgeous. The blog it is on has some lovely ideas and patterns and is well worth a quick look.

The African Flower Motif class is running on Saturday 8th February @ OliVen, Sunday 23rd February @ Quay Arts or Saturday 29th March @ OliVen

On a lighter note a friend of mine recently had a mammoth organisational task, so we dubbed her the official 'cat herder', its a little late but I made her a sign for her desk along with a little fluffy cat, Pink of course for our Jeni. She recently came to the crochet owl workshop and of course her owl is also pink, all we need to find now is a beautiful pea green boat pattern and she has the makings of a poem....
 
Until next time, make sure you stay warm, dry and most importantly keep crafting!

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