Cotton and Twine

Posted on May 13, 2019 by The Little Room of Rachell

Last month I contacted Cotton and Twine Boxes on Instagram to find out whether I could buy a pattern from one of their previous subscription boxes; a flamingo tapestry kit which had really caught my eye. It’s been years since I did any tapestry. Unfortunately they didn’t have any of the subscription boxes left as the flamingo design proved to be very popular, so it sold out immediately. But jammy me was offered a free subscription box to review!

I was really pleased to find out that April’s box was also going to be a tapestry. Apparently most subscription boxes contain cross stitch projects, which would’ve been fine too, but trying tapestry again appealed. I used to enjoy it and have a pile of tapestry cushions that I made in my twenties.

If you want to see really professionally stitched tapestries then click on the tapestry tag at the bottom of this post. Kaffe Fassett’s exhibition at The American Musuem in Bath, in 2014, was fabulous, you’ll see this even with my dodgy photography.

Subscription boxes are often an event in themselves. Part of getting any treat in the post is the anticipation as you open it. I have received some boxes in the past where the items have seemingly just been plonked in without much thought, but as you can see this was certainly not the case.

The box includes all the threads and fabrics needed to complete the project together with a sweet gift, artisan tea bag and naughty treat. The zesty tropical coloured wool is Anchor tapestry wool.

The project is well designed, instructions are clear and the chart is a good size, no squinting required. There are fabrics and trimmings to match. The pom pom trim is adorable! The extra gift and sweet treat are really a nice touch as well. This arrived the week I had meant to buy some blank cards, so the little pack of cactus notelets were very gratefully received. I passed on the little bar of chocolate to Someone for a fishing treat. That wasn’t as heroic as it seems; because I had an absolute stack of Easter chocolate at the time. Now I’ve eaten it all I slightly regret that…

I haven’t completed the tapestry yet, because as you know any craft I do has to be during short and sweet sessions, but I’ve really enjoyed this stitching. It’s such a pretty design. Actually since I got this little kit I keep seeing cactus designs everywhere; on cushions, notelets, and clothing, cross stitch kits, on mugs etc etc. It’s this years’ craze replacing the owl/bird/fox/flamingo.

If you’re interested in trying a box they are £20 per month plus P&P. They ship worldwide. According to Suzanne there are a limited number of new subscription places every month and these are usually taken up very quickly. The stitching projects are mainly designed in-house at Historical Sampler Company (the parent company of Cotton and Twine) but they have started to include some guest designers.

A one-off box was offered to me for my review. All opinions are mine and completely honest. I have no affiliation with the company.

Pony Interchangeable Crochet Hooks -Review & Giveaway

Posted on September 30, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

The Pony interchangeable crochet hook set contains 8 hooks: 2.00, 2.50, 3.00, 3.50, 4.00, 4.50, 5.00 and 6.00 and a soft easy grip handle which fits all the hook sizes. There are also 2 wool needles, 10 stitch markers and a knitters gauge which cunningly doubles as a lid.

The hooks are neatly stored in a box and are described as super slick, colour anodised aluminium, extra polished. If you’ve been crocheting for a while you tend to have your favourite hooks already, but I thought this might be handy to give a newbie, or keep as a spare set at work, if you’re a lunchtime hooker, in a caravan or holiday home.

Tip: while putting the handle onto the hooks is a piece of cake, taking it off involved a fair bit of pushing and pulling. I advise holding the hook end with a rubber washing up glove, which will give a bit more grip and protect your fingers from the point.

You can email groves@stockistenquiries.co.uk for stockist information. I note that the set is currently for sale on Amazon UK for £40.95 (free p&p.) This is NOT an affiliate link.

*The set was supplied by a representative of Pony for my use. All opinions are mine and honest.*

A free set is available for a UK reader as part of a giveaway. Please leave a comment below for a chance to win. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner and will contact you to pass on your details to the rep. of Pony. The giveaway is open now until Sunday 9th October at noon (GMT.)

09/10/16 The winner of the giveaway is Natalie R

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Edward’s Imaginarium – book review

Posted on September 13, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

I’ve been lucky enough to be sent a copy of Kerry Lord’s Edward’s Imaginarium by Pavilion Books and am the last to take part in a blog tour for this amazing new book. For other posts in the blog tour see: TOFT blog, Crafts from the Cwtch, Monty Knits, Crochetime, and The Twisted Yarn.

As you can see from the photo below; it’s a flip book which enables you to design your own monster, choosing from 24 different head, arm and leg patterns. There is a choice of tails too. The blurb states there are “Over a million easy-to-make monsters” I wondered if this might be an exaggeration, but got the resident mathematician on the case. It’s entirely possible if you take into account different colours, patterns, tails and other features.

A flip book of patterns is such an ingenious idea, really so simple that I am surprised the concept has not been replicated by other designers. I’m sure it will be! If making all those decisions is too stressful, or you just wanted to get started without delay, there are 40 ready picked monsters in the gallery section.For added inspiration and to see others’ creations go to #edsflipbook on Instagram.

There are 3 skill levels for each selection of patterns. This book would be suitable for someone who has mastered the basics of crochet, but not a complete newbie I would say. There are instructional help videos on the TOFT website. It could also be used as a starting point for experienced crocheters; giving initial inspiration and ideas, but then you could really go to town adapting patterns and designing your own features. I could well imagine someone going on to make a whole wardrobe to dress their monster too. The possibilities are endless.

There are plenty of instruction pages including: stitch tutorials, the order of sewing up the parts, stuffing and sewing body parts (that sounds funny doesn’t it?!)

Kerry has written little bios for some of the gallery monsters. Here’s part of one: “If you’ve ever adventured into the forest alone on a summer’s day, stretching your legs and absentmindedly banging the odd tree trunk with a stick, it’s more than likely that someone very like Willow will have been watching you…..” This will really appeal to young children. You could ask a child to design a monster, perhaps drawing or painting the kind of creature they imagine, then match it to patterns.

Edward’s Imaginarium was published last week as is currently on sale for £10.49 (UK) from Amazon /from $9.97 (US) or £14.99 from TOFT with bonus pdf patterns from Kerry Lord.

*A copy of the book was supplied by the publisher for my review. All opinions are mine and honest. Having looked through Edward’s Imaginarium I can wholeheartedly recommend it. There is a wealth of information and inspiration.*

A free copy is available for a UK reader as part of a giveaway. Hurray! I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner, I’ll then contact you and pass your details to Pavilion Books. For a chance to be the lucky winner please leave a comment below. The giveaway is open now until Sunday 25th at noon (GMT).

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Designer Yarn Play

Posted on August 16, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

Near the end of May I received an email from Black Sheep Wools asking if I would like to review some new designer yarn. Well of course the answer was yes! Who isn’t going to want to try brand new designer yarn, for free? Then I was told I’d need to complete a non-disclosure agreement, I was not to tell anyone about the yarn or even that I was to be doing a review. How secret squirrel was that?! I’ve been sent yarn and other products before from various companies and have never seen a disclosure form. I admit that I felt quite excited and started to look around for crochet patterns; this would be the time to start on my first crochet garment, no more blankets, hats or scarves for me, this was obviously going to be a lovely big bale of yarn, suitable for a cardie, jumper or huge wrap, otherwise why all the secrecy and legally binding paperwork?

At the beginning of June a little parcel was popped through my letterbox, just as I was heading out. Oh…

I’d obviously been very convinced and convincing about the quantity of yarn due to arrive, as Someone said “Is that it?!” “Mmmmm, yes it seems to be.”

Shortly after that an email came full of guidelines for the blog post; must be no shorter than xxx words, must contain no more than 4 links to the website, but should include one to x and x and x, the review must contain both positives and negatives, though obviously more positives than negatives, an original design could be submitted to the company website and would be appreciated, along with the blog post etc, etc, etc…

I may be about to fail short of some of these guidelines but this is my space, I have used the yarn and will tell you as many details about it as I can, given the quantity. The moral of the story is that sometimes bloggers get free things to play and have fun with, other times freebies come with expectations. Be prepared. But Black Sheep Wools seem like a good company and obviously have very discerning tastes in craft bloggers (the need for a winking smiley feels strong here, but I will not break my no emoticons in a post rule) also I can’t imagine ever writing a ‘review’ which wasn’t honest. If you want an honest opinion I’m your girl.

I’ve never used any Louisa Harding yarns before so this was a new experience.

Here goes…

Yarn details:

Louisa Harding – Esquel
60% merino, 20% llama, 20% silk
50g ball, 106 yards (97 mts)
Suggested neeedles: US 8 (5mm)
Suggested tension 18 sts x 24 rows

This lovely yarn feels quite soft but also due to its thickness of the strand (and the silk?) it’s strong. The band doesn’t say, but I think it’s aran as it needs 5mm needles and is thicker than other designer DK yarns I’ve used. I decided to make more fingerless mitts as it seemed just the right amount of yarn for a pair. I’m going to give these away as a present.

I used much smaller needles than the recommended 5mm, but the resulting fabric is thick and makes warm mitts.

Although it’s really annoying it seems that it’s sometimes inevitable that wool yarns have knots in them. This is one disadvantage to using woolen blends, unlike acrylics which rarely have this problem, but most synthetic fibres do not have the quality feel of yarn like this. Unlike a ball of baby cashermino I once used which once had 4 or 5 knots in one 50g ball, this ball of Esquel had only the one. I decided to cut the yarn and start the cuff again, the fewer darned ends in a pair of mitts which will see plenty of wear and tear, the better.

Lots of gratuitous tomato pics today I’m afraid, in my search for better light they seemed as good a backdrop as any. It’s great to come home after a hol to 8 plants groaning with ripe and nearly ripe red and yellows! Sorry – back to the yarn…

I would recommend Esquel, because it comes in such lovely colours, the feel of the knitted material is fairly soft and also seems as if it will be hard-wearing and warm. I bet a knitted, or crocheted, jumper would be super toasty in the winter.

If you’d like to check out Louisa Harding’s Esquel in Black Sheep Wool’s online yarn shop it’s currently £5.35 a ball.

As I photographed the mitts outside on my emergency-stepladder-storm-resistant-stand-up-tomato-plants-please-don’t-fall-over-device look at what I saw…I’ve grown a rabbit!

Here endeth the review. A Manhattan is waiting for me on the other side. Happy ~~cocktail hour~~ weekend everyone!

2013

Posted on December 30, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

A selection of this year’s highlights. (Top of my list for 2014 is to enjoy putting the CAL blocks together, after a refreshing break. You should know I’m basically pre-empting comments here!) I’ve got many, many more photos of craft events, exhibitions and shops I’ve been lucky enough to visit too, probably enough for another gallery times ten. What a fun and creative year.

Meeting other crafty peeps has been a highlight, I see I wrote the same on last year’s gallery 2012. I’ve always loved meeting new people and not being a shy sort find it all a bit of an adventure. Putting on some music, the radio or an audio book and settling down to make something is one of my favourite ways to relax, apart from reading, cooking or baking. But I have to say that there’s nothing like meeting others – having a good chat and seeing what they’re making. Social crafting seems to be one of the best ways to meet people too. I reckon if you’re shy then joining a crafting group works well as you can always focus on what you’re crocheting, knitting or sewing or whatever to calm your initial nerves. If you’re stuck for conversation just ask what kind of yarn (or whatever) they’re using and generally you’re off!

Have you joined any new crafty groups this year? Taken part in any workshops? Do you enjoy social crafting, or prefer it to be solely during your alone time?