Granny Square Love

The lovely Marie Pedersen is our resident yarn expert and is always on hand on a Wednesday morning to advise and guide our loyal band of followers who attend our weekly Wednesday Craft Mornings.

Today's conversation quickly turned to how much we love crocheting granny squares - they are relatively quick to make, it's a good project to do while chatting or watching TV because you go into the gaps rather than the stitches, you get a sense of satisfaction every time you complete one and there are so many things you can make from them. 

Marie has put a together a beautiful post on her blog showing a few granny square designs which she finds inspiring. Why not join her at one of her classes at The Create Place on the 1st of March or the 2nd of April.

Image courtesy of mariesmaking.com

Image courtesy of mariesmaking.com

The images are from the following sites:
1 necklace
2 coin purse
3 shoulder bag
4 dog coat

5 cushion
6 blanket
7 lamp
8 basket

Me old China

some of simply vintage beautiful candles

Melissa is the latest edition to our pop-up shop collective. Her brand simply vintage produces beautiful organic soy candles in vintage tea sets. She combines her love of all things vintage and handmade with. So the bonus is after your sweet smelling candle has burned away you will be left with a cup, saucer and cake plate to keep using.

Simply Vintage pin cushions

Alternatively you could buy one of her pin cushion tea sets or cute little pin pails. They are all in the shop now some come along and see them for yourself.

pin pails

What is Amigurumi?

Amigurumi (Am-ee-gur-oom-ee) is the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting small creatures. The word derives from the Japanese words ami (meaning crocheted or knitted) and nuigurumi (meaning stuffed doll). Becoming incredibly popular in recent times as collectors items, they can range in price online from £10-£100! 

Amigurumi Bird by Catherine Hirst

We are so excited to introduce Catherine Hirst to The Create Place to teach our very first amigurumi workshop.

Having being taught to crochet by her grandmother, she caught the craft bug at a very young age. With her art education influencing her original designs she has been teaching crochet, knitting and embroidery across the globe for over a decade. It will truly be a unique experience, so make sure you don't miss out by booking your place now! 

For more information on Catherine visit her website:

http://www.catherinehirst.com

Garter Stitch 100 event- This Sunday 2pm-5pm

Square of knitting contributed for the Garter Stitch 100 Project

Please come along and join our event this Sunday from 2pm-5pm in support of Garterstitch 100's 100 million stitches for 100 million women initiative linking to International Women's day.

It is estimated that 100 million women are missing from the world due to gender discrimination. Each stitch will represent a woman "missing" for reasons including gender provoked infanticide or abortion, sex trafficking and complications in childbirth. See 
http://garterstitch100.posterous.com/ for more info.

Please bring your creativity and a cake to share if you'd like to. We'll provide, tea, needles and yarn (but if you'd like to bring your own you are very welcome!). If you haven't knitted before we can give you some coaching. Crocheters also invited!

Why not pop in and see our lovely neighbours at Prick your Finga to buy some supplies.

A fresh look at quilting

Image courtesy of cheekyhandmades

Want to learn a fresh approach to quilting? Then why not join our quilting course starting on the 9th March. Run across three, 2 ½ hour session will cover which fabrics to use, and how to work out quantities, different kinds of wadding and their properties, thread, funny feet for your machine, cutting and stitching fabric, appliqué and patchwork, hand and free motion machine embroidery, and finally putting the whole quilt together and hand or machine quilting it. 

One of Jennie's exquisite designs

The session will be led by the wonderful Jennie who runs her own website cheekyhandmades, and her own folksy store.

We are now proud to offer concession rates on this course. Please contact us for more details.

Sign up for your place now.

Beginners Crochet- Valentine's Special

Happy Participants at Marie's session

This Saturday saw a bustling session at The Create Place with Marie Pedersen's beginners crochet session, teaching how to make a valentine's heart.

Tea, Cake, yarn and hooks were distributed and the giggles ensued. Working with this simple session everyone went away happy with their own little heart and a crochet hook to continue their new hobby with.

Missed out on this session? Check out Marie's new session on our workshop page, listed under Granny Squares. Sign up now!

Knickers to the lot of you

Leona gets stuck in

Last Sunday saw our first successful lingerie masterclass with Sara Macnab. It was an intensive introduction into sewing with lace and elastic culminating in each person taking away their very own unique pants.

Lace and trims from a sara's sewing box.

The morning saw each person experimenting with how to sew with difficult fabrics and creating samples to prepare themselves for the final design.

Working with elastic and lace

Then finally over afternoon tea and cake the girls produced their very own finished garments. Photos of the finished garments coming soon.

Pop-Up success.

A view inside our valentine's shop

Thank you to everyone who made it down to our Valentine's Pop-Up shop this weekend. It was such a success that we opened up today for a second day. 

Don't worry if you missed out, we will be open all week and next Saturday, so pop-in and buy yourself, or someone special a unique handmade gift or card.

Writing Love letters with Letter Lounge

Our appreciation goes to all our vendors who came down on Saturday to help out and Claire from Letter Lounge who was on hand to help you write a special love letter postcard. Don't worry if you left your postcard here to dry, Claire will be posting them out on time to arrive next Monday.

Check out our photos page for more images.

I only fancy you when you are drunk... and other pearls of wisdom.

Unique slogans curtesy of Violet Iris.

Last night saw The Create Place alive with activity as we hosted a kitsch valentines card making session with legendary Violet Iris. Each person received a starter pack which included badges and cards all ready to customise with their own personal selection of tit bits from Violet's vast collection of trims.

getting crafty

Cards adorned it was then time for the badge machine to come out, making our very own pins with slogans such as" you smell of wee" and "you'll do". The ultimate anti-valentine's gift for your loved one.

Valentine's little helper: Violet Iris herself.

Pop down to our Valentine's pop-up shop this Saturday 5th Feb 10am-5pm,where you can buy stock from Violet's exclusive range. Check out our photos page for more images.

Write a Letter to the one Love.

    

We are very excited to be hooking up with The Letter Lounge to host a unique event at this weekends Pop-Up Valentine's Shop. We will be inviting all attendees to come and write a secret love note to someone or something that they love. Open you heart and mind, spill the beans and get it on paper. We will provide the paper pens you just provide the words.

Watch this space for our very own unique Letter Lounge event in March.

Craft will save the world.

Life with a generous sprinkling of Vintage Glamour is what we have come to know and love about the  work of Laura Nuttall, our latest Valentine's Pop-Up vendor. These gorgeous graphic cards are clean and simple, making them simply irresistible.

We predict there will be a run on these amazing tote bags and look forward to see them being sported across London. The designs have been produced exclusively for us and will be available to buy at the Pop-Up this Saturday 5th February, 10am-5pm. Check out Laura's website for more images of her work.