Poppy day: making and memories

It's almost November 11 and poppies are everywhere, tucked into buttonholes, on the front of cars, tied into trees and fixed on the front of cars.

Mark Remembrance Sunday with a knitted or crocheted poppy with this poppy pattern from Woman's Weekly, which also has instructions for making a wreath of them.

If you need a bit of help, watch this YouTube poppy-making video.












Sir Cliff Richard has been knitting poppies this week, being taught to knit by a fan – more on knitting celebrities here, and those who crochet here.

Earlier this year, at the Chelsea Flower Show, I was moved by the carpet of 300,000 crocheted poppies, called 5,000 Poppies. The project was started by Australians Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight, who initially set out to crochet 120 poppies to honour their fathers who both fought in World War II, and the Chelsea garden was created by Phillip Johnson.

More recently, driving towards Calais after a holiday, we passed Etaples military cemetery. We've seen quite a few, but the impact of all those uniform headstones (over 11,000 here) never diminishes. This cemetery was on the site of a hospital, so there are soldiers from many countries and both world wars buried there, as well as some of the nurses who cared for them.

My own great-grandfather's remains are in another cemetery in northern France, and one day I'll go and visit.

One of my favourite screensaver pix: a shot of poppies from my garden.

Wool Week 2016: new yarn resolutions

I will learn (again) how to crochet. I went on a one-day course a few years ago, didn't practise enough and the knowledge unwound, like stitches from a hook. And I'm desperate to crochet granny squares!

I will make myself a knitting bag to store my supplies, whether it’s knitted, sewn – whatever.Work will start within the week on my OH's long, navy scarf.

I'll give finger-knitting another go. I tried it with this Craftsy finger-knitting tutorial, then went on holiday and kept fiddling away with my handmade T-shirt yarn, but couldn't remember how to cast off!

And talking of my handmade T-shirt yarn, I need to use it somehow.

There's a guerilla weaving idea I have for a dark corner down the road. It'll take (me) too long to knit something for the spot, but weaving some bright, maybe white, wool would look great, and make a point to the local council about streetlamp repair!

And until this afternoon, also on this list would have been finishing my dad’s cowl. He was convinced he’d lost the first one I knitted him, and was gutted, so I'd started a replacement, but he texted today – so happy – to say he’d found it.

Knitting hits our screens

Given the number of crafters out there, you might expect to see craft portrayed in films a little more often. But it proves elusive... there was Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker last year (who learnt to sew for the role), back in 1995 Winona Ryder sat and stitched in How to Make an American Quilt. The film of the enjoyable book, The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs, has been 'in production' for about a decade.

But now there are two new knitting viewing experiences to enjoy!

On small screens now, via Netflix, as part of the Slow TV movement, are National Knitting Evening and National Knitting Night. Both are Norwegian, and feature different knitters, tutorials and world record attempts.

And on the big screen, from September 23 in Shetland, nationwide from October 9, is Yarn – the Movie. It's an award-winning Icelandic documentary that also takes us to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Hawaii, Cuba, USA and Canada on a journey that explores the endless possibilities of yarn, with artists who work with yarn through knitting, crochet and other modes of creative expression.

I'm a big fan of Iceland – I've been three times – and it was the first place I ever saw graffiti knitting.

Watch the Yarn – the Movie trailer and find your nearest screening.

Read up on Kate Winslet – and more famous crafters
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Meet crochet's famous fans

Discover the big names who are hooked on crochet...

Aretha Franklin
'C-R-O-C-H-E-T, find out what it means to me...'
We have no idea whether the queen of soul plans to rework one of her greatest hits, but we can confirm that she likes to crochet. She has told a biographer: '‘I crochet. I’ve made a number of skirts, berets, various articles.’

Eva Longoria
Wearing her art, or perhaps craft, on her sleeve, Eva Longoria dons a little lacy number. She told AskMen how she likes to crochet while filming: 'When we do Desperate Housewives; you don’t have any time in your trailer and you’re just constantly going back and forth. We do 14 pages [of script] in a day. Then I would go to the movie, and it was like vacation. It was more like two pages a day. I'd watch movies in my trailer. I was crocheting.'

Bette Davis
For Bette Davis, art imitated life: she took her hobbies to work with her, knitting on camera in several films, frequently between takes, and crocheting some rather intricate lace throughout the 1940 film The Letter.

Jane Seymour
Actress Jane Seymour, best known for Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman is an all-round creative type and crochet fan, saying: 'I love to play with colour and texture. Ever since I can remember, I've been making my own clothes, embroidering, knitting and crocheting.'

Meryl Streep
Mamma mia! Another actress who likes to crochet between scenes. We know this because one of her co-stars on Silkwood talked about it in an interview. And who was that co-star?...

Cher
The co-star with whom Meryl Streep shared crocheting sessions on the set of Silkwood was none other than Cher, who said about working with Meryl: 'We’d knit, crochet, and joke about men.'

New Year craft resolutions

Finish what I start?
Not always as easily said as done. I like instant gratification and random inspiration, so I'm easily distracted.
Tidy my raw materials?
The yarn is in two wicker picnic baskets now. The sewing stuff is in my découpaged sewing box. However, the felt, ribbons and fabric scraps would be better off anywhere but the torn carrier bag that my OH got when he bought a coat in Florence last year... The jewellery findings are housed, as ever, in a wooden box that first contained Chinese bowls and spoons. I got it as a Christmas present about 25 years ago and later painted it red.
Learn how to crochet granny squares?
Ummm, I believe this was my resolution last year!

Treating myself to a craft day

I've got a day off next week, and I'm going to be totally self-indulgent: I'm going to spend the day crocheting, knitting and sewing.
The crochet is a border for my knitted squares blanket. I started this border a few months ago and I reckon I'm halfway there, so I should be able to finish it as it's only about 3cm wide and I'm doing half treble stitch.
The knitting is a simple snood in divine Rowan yarn with a colourway designed by Kaffe Fassett, and it's a Christmas present so it has a built-in deadline!
The sewing is getting on with the two skirts from 'Dressmaking: the complete step-by-step guide'. I've stuck together the printed-out PDFs that make the pattern. Just need to remember to buy a couple of zips this week...

Our very own stitch and bitch

Exciting! Our local pub has been taken over by a new manager, who was keen to know what events he should run. I suggested a craft club... and this weekend I was in the pub (another one) talking to his girlfriend and another creative friend, and she's keen on the idea and so it's all going ahead this Thursday. She's calling it 'stitch and bitch' although I don't think it's (yet) affiliated to the official Stitch 'n Bitch site, so we're turning up with our knitting and crochet. There will be at least three of us (it's a small village...) . It'll be a great opportunity for me to finish my treble crochet edging for my knitted squares blanket, and to have a little refresher on how exactly the purl stitch goes. I know, it's really easy but I just can't remember.
I did run a craft club at work for a while (about the same size community as the village I live in) but it was very hard to find a time that suited everyone, and despite massive initial interest, people just didn't turn up regularly enough. Hopefully, this one will go better!

Made for me...

There's a little flare of happiness that comes from seeing items that you use every day being handmade. And here are two that were handmade for me by friends. Here's my crocheted iPhone cover, made for me by Janey, who knits and crochets (and clog-dances) like a goddess.

And down below is my Kindle cover, made for me by Kirsten, who's a mistress of precision and dispenser of sound advice. I turned it inside out - but the stitching is so neat you'd hardly notice...

I learnt to crochet!

Well, perhaps that's exaggerating a little... I went on a one-day course at wonderful West Dean college in Sussex. Our tutor, Lucinda Guy, is the author of the book I used when I last tried to learn: Kids Learn to Crochet - yes, it's good to know your level!
She went from the basics: tying a slipknot to cast on, all the way through to double treble.
Strangely, I had most difficulty with the simpler things: like the slipknot - I hadn't realised I was using a granny knot, which doesn't work as well. But by the time we started with the trebles it clicked.
As I drove home I was itching to get started: so I did. With Lucinda's takeaway instructions I struck while the hook was hot and started crocheting a double treble border for the knitted squares blanket I made some time ago.
My goal is to get on to granny squares by the end of the year...