Free Workshop Winner

Everyone who signed up for our e-newsletter at the last 4 events Running With Scissors have been entered into a draw to win a free half day workshop. We have had 69 people sign up and the random number generator spat out number 64 as the winner (its a lot easier than pulling names out of a hat!)

The winning person has been notified and will hopefully book onto a workshop soon once they have got over the shock!

Autumn Adventures & Spring Plans

Well sorry for not posting for a while, but its been very busy here at Running With Scissors Towers! Last Saturday we had a stall at the Crucible Craft Fair and met some lovely people, I love chatting to others about all things crafty. Thanks to everyone who came along to say hello. I've also been out and about all over Sheffield doing some private sewing lessons over the last few weeks. It's great to work with people and start them off on their sewing adventures. Lots of work has been going on with our website too and we now take online booking and payment, so you don't have to hunt for your cheque book anymore (unless you rather send us a cheque that is!) We are also offering gift vouchers for Christmas (buy them online!) and are working on a new website page were we can upload your comments and any pictures you want to send us of your projects. We have also been busy behind the scenes planning our Spring workshops, more details coming soon... needless to say due to popular demand, we are re-running some of your favourites, and have added some new exciting workshops too. Also I'm very excited about a new gift workshop we are planning in December, perfect for you and your mates! - we are just finalising the details and then we'll let everyone know!

The Irish knitting bus!

This week I read in an Irish magazine about a knitting bus - how fab is that? The bus is chock full of knitting stuff and will be going around primary schools to teach little ones how to knit. The best thing is that there are 1,000 older volunteers across the country (connected to the University of the Third Age) who will join the bus in various locations and teach the children how to knit. 150 schools have already signed up for the bus to go to their school. I love the idea of older people sharing their skills with the younger generation, (to risk a pun..) it could knit a community together.

New fabric shop in Sheffield

At the weekend I found out that there was a new fabric shop opening in Sheffield... so I tracked it down today (and spent some money on lovely fabrics). It turns out that it's Fabric Warehouse, which used to be on Shalesmoor (which closed some time ago) and now its at the bottom of London Road, in what used to be the bed shop. They have quite a good selection of fabric at reasonable prices. I bought some printed cotton (for bunting making) and some printed baby cord fabric. The latter is for a new skirt, inspired by the successful 'A-Line skirt in a day' workshop which we did on Saturday... photos to follow soon! They also had some felt, fleece fabric, calico, printed dress fabric, Jersey fabric, patchwork type fabric and lots of upholstery fabric so it's well worth a visit. There's some parking behind the shop, or you can easily walk over from the bottom of The Moor. Time to get out your spending money....

Knit One, Purl One

In knitting jargon this is my current knitting project OTN or WIP ('On the needles' or 'work in progress') at the moment. It's a pattern I've had for years which I've knitted for myself and lent to other people and now I'm knitting it for my friend's birthday (after much admiration of my own version!) Some of you may have seen me knitting behind my stall at the Crucible craft fair last weekend.


What I love about the pattern is that you knit it on super chunky needles (12mm) with super chunky wool so it doesn't take that long to do. You start at the bottom of the back and knit up and over the shoulders and down each front. Then you finish off with the ribbed cuffs and border so there's not even much sewing up to do (I hate sewing up knitted things - I just want it to be instantly finished!).

I tend not to do much knitting in the summer, it's more of an autumn / winter thing to do in the long winter evenings. You also get to wear it immediately and it keeps your knees warm while you're knitting it!


I was one of the generation where we were taught to knit at school (briefly) at about aged 8 but I got in a terrible tangle - fortunately my Gran was a great knitter and she used to knit loads of stuff for me and my brother and really I learnt from her. There have been times in my life when I have found knitting very therapeutic, times when it has been a disaster and times when me and my friends have all knitted the same jumper at the same time.

I always seem to have some knitting project on the go and vast numbers of patterns which I want to knit. You can also buy some fabulous wool now. I love the fair trade Mirasol wool made from lama's wool, (or are they alpacas?) I also have a fab book of proper vintage knitting patterns which have been reprinted, but it also shows the original published version from women's weekly magazines from the 1920's onwards. I'll bring along some of my patterns / books and finished items to the workshop on Saturday too. People always seem to be really amazed when I tell them that 'knitting' is really only made up of just 2 stitches (a knit stitch or a purl stitch) - all the fancy patterns you see are just about how you combine these 2 types of stitches.

Happy knitting, stitching or sewing whatever you are up to this week.

No Ordinary Tote Bag

Well, this Saturday was our zip and buttons Tote bag workshop run by our tutor Sharon. We had a very busy day and Sharon kindly asked if I wanted to make a tote bag too (who can decline that offer?). I soon found out that this is no ordinary Tote Bag, this is an amazing tote bag! There was a choice of 2 patterns (the one we didn't do we could take home too) and then we got straight into picking fabric, interfacing (aka 'bump'), doing darts, inserting pockets and zips, (eating lunch), making made-to-measure bag straps and sewing it all together in the most ingenious way. I didn't finish mine at the workshop as I was busy helping out people and making sure everyone was full of tea and cakes, but managed to finish it over the weekend.

I decided to go with a strap attached to front and back of the bag rather than on the side seams, I also added some top stitching in a darker teal thread (one of my favourite colours). Not only do I have a fab new bag but I've learnt how to insert a zip pocket and use the scary looking machine foot to put in buttonholes. I have to say I'm rather pleased with the results....it's fast becoming my favourite bag!

I love Dresses!

Well I've got to admit I love dresses ....and hats. I love the way that women used to wear dresses every day (think of Mad Men 1950's dresses), women just looked so glamorous back then. I was wondering whether to start a campaign to encourage women to wear more dresses and more hats! (I've also enrolled on a millinery course at Sheffield College - but more of that another day). Being slightly stick shaped I find finding a dress that fits well is a bit of a rarity. So, when I decided to re-vamp an item to promote the Trashion workshop I was definitely going to do a dress. After I found a dress with a print and colour I would wear that was a couple of sizes too big I got all excited about the possibilities of adapting it and altering it to fit properly. I decided (fairly quickly) that I was going to do a halter neck, as I've always liked them but can never get them to fit very well (big issue for those of us with small boobs). It was a bit daunting at first but I found that a couple of glasses of wine helped with the courage, and then I just started chopping into the fabric just doing things by eye, not even measuring. Fortunately I'd chosen a dress in a t-shirt type fabric so I didn't need to hem everything to stop fraying. I have to admit I'm fairly pleased with the results. The dress (and my lovely new mannequin) will be coming along to the 3 craft fairs I'm doing at the Crucible theatre to promote the Running Wtih Scissors workshops - hopefully it'll cause a stir!

Felt Fanatics

Felt..felt...felt it's just so tactile I can't resist it. I have lots of felt items and I love crafting with it because it doesn't fray - just cut and use - it's my type of fabric. Making your own felt is also great fun people often get a bit confused but basically there are 3 ways to make felt:

1) get a wool jumper and wash it in the washing machine on a setting that's too hot (we've all shrunk a jumper this way in the past)

2) Needle Felting - this is dry felting using a specialist (very sharp) needle

3) Wet Felting (see more info below)

The wet felting technique is the technique our tutor Fran will be using for the felt bowl and coaster workshop on 13th August. You start with pieces of pure sheep wool. This is built up in layers and then essentially 'mashed' together to form a piece of felt. A combination of heat, friction and soap makes the tiny hooks in the wool fibres lock together with adjacent hooks so the wool becomes firmer and shrinks a bit. It's great fun (and a bit messy) to do and the end product is so unpredictable and beautiful. I've also recently come across a guy called Thomas Horst who makes exquisite designer felt dresses, in the article I read it said that he uses a Black and Decker sander, soap and garden hose! - how cool is that!

Sewing Patterns for beginners

Today I've been buying sewing patterns. This is the pattern I've bought to try out for the 'How to read a pattern' workshop for beginners .... so I need to find a teeny bit of time to give it a go. I picked it out beacuse it looks like its quite versitile you could make it in a longer length or with shorter sleves and it's for sizes 8-20 too. It ties at the back so you can wear it loose or tight and you can decide to trim it, or not. I thought it would be good with leggings, jeans or some nice wide linen trousers (....maybe another workshop!). If it works out and I think the pattern is suitable then each person would get a copy of the pattern included in the workshop and we could do some minor alterations as well so it can be amended to fit you properly. Any thoughts on the pattern? .... leave me a comment here or comment on the Running With Scissors facebook page as I've up-loaded it there too. I'm quite pleased with the choice of pattern - lets see what it's like when it's made up...

Vote for you favourite workshops

You can vote for your favourite workshops for the autumn and winter programme on the Running with Scissors facebook page. I still need to sort linking up the blog with the facebook page so apologies for that! I believe you can only vote for one option so if you have more than one preference just post a comment too. I do try hard with facebook but I'm always getting frustrated with it.

I'm hoping to meet up with some potential tutors on Friday for possible upholstery workshop and bath / beauty products so I''ll see how it goes and let you know!

Lino Print Workshop Deadline

Lino Print Workshop on 2nd July

Deadline for booking is now Midnight on Monday

Reserve your place by downloading a booking form at http://www.rwssheffield.co.uk/

Lino - not just for floors!

('Meersbrook View' Lino Print by James Green)


...well what a busy week... workshops are filling up quickly so get your skates on if your interested in booking a workshop! Our Lino Printing workshop is coming up soon with James Green on 2nd July. Lino Printing is a really hands-on way of transferring an image onto paper to form a print. Yes you use lino but it's slightly different from the stuff on your bathroom floor. It's very therapeutic carving into lino block with sharp looking tools and you get an amazing very detailed image. The best thing is that once you have your block carved you can make lots of prints in different colours, so you can make your own cards etc.

Some of James's works can be found on http://www.jamesgreenprintworks.blogspot.com/

There are also lots of clips and information about Lino Printing at http://www.craftzine.com/

Street Art in Brazil's slum districts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13389594

Here's a link to a street art project in Rio's poorest areas. Its based around a project to create murals on some of the buildings and encourage tourism into the area. A fantastic idea, it just goes to show that art can really have a significant impact on people's lives.

This is a small report from 'the strand' an arts programme on the BBC world service. I have to admit I've not heard of this before, despite listening to some BBC world service programmes - I must check it out!

Funky Felting

I'm excited to be working with Fran, who produces some lovely felt items. If you've never had a go at felting - it's great fun. It gets really messy and you really can't do it wrong. Fran came up with the genius idea of a bowl and coaster which has no seams, it's all one piece! and of course you can embellish the bowl or coaster as you wish...

Back Again....

I can't believe its been over a month since my last blog entry (I must try harder). Things have been so busy here at Running With Scissors central. I have meet with lots of lovely new tutors, spent hours enthusing about craft and had lots of coffee and cake. As a result we now have lots of new workshops ready for booking. Lino Printing with James is in early July and you can get to have a go at this lovely, very simple, but very effective technique. I especially like James 'Meersbrook View' lino print and was very tempted to purchase a print of this image at James's recent 'open day' (as part of the open up event for Sheffield artists).

Our sewing workshops are going well and 'Sewing Machines for beginners' is still the most popular workshop. We have now followed this up with a zip and button tote bag with our new dressmaking tutor, Sharon. This workshop lets you have a go at inserting a zip and producing professional looking buttonholes and 'button sewing-on' using a machine, as well as the much requested A-Line skirt in a day (I can, and will, be composing a whole blog post on this!) Also we have Fran's lovely feltmaking workshop. I absolutely love the way she combines the colours in her work and I always say ..you can never have too many useful bowls.

Embroidered book for baby Elinor

Heres a photo of me from last year - I'm holding up my page of an embroidered book that me and a few friends put together for baby Elinor, the daughter of a friend who emigrated to New Zealand. We all chose 2 British (native) Mammals to embroider and I went for a red squirrel and a mountain hare. Our friend is a big fan of native british mammals, sadly lacking in NZ, and was keen to educate her little girl asap! You can't see the embroidery very well but the squirrel's tail is in all in long stitch which took ages! I'm sure Baby Elinor appreciated it!

Back Up and Running (with scissors)

Well Running With Scissors is finally back up and running after taking a few months off to have a baby. I've had a busy time with the new arrival and all is now going well. At Running With Scissors H.Q. we have some exciting plans for 2011 and the first few workshops are now up and ready for booking via the website. More workshops are in the pipeline with some external tutors and I'm very excited about using our new venue - the new church opposite Heeley retail park. If only there was a couple more hours in the day.....

In the meantime here's a nice picture of an origami fabric flower which you can make in one of our new workshops