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!