Featuring: The Lollipop Stop

Today I am featuring a very talented little lady indeed. Lauren is the owner and creator of The Lollipop Stop, one of my favourite project bag and stitchmarker sellers. I've known Lauren for a few years now and swooped on the first few bags she made, demanding robots and cherries. They're always lusted over whenever I swank them in public so I thought I would share further still.

You're also doubly lucky today, as Lauren is offering you, yes YOU the chance to win a project bag. There are 3 designs to choose from. To enter, simply reply to this post telling me which bag you'd like to receive before Midnight (GMT) on Thursday the 24th. If you'd like to increase your chances of winning, you can get an extra entry for following me and another one if you mention this giveaway on your blog! So that's 3 chances to win; please don't forget to leave a comment to tell me if you have mentioned me out there in the blogosphere.

Enjoy!

Knit Tote

What are your favourite hobbies?
Knitting goes without saying! I started sewing due to some wrist problems, but now I also love the quickness and cuteness of sewing projects. Other than that, I love playing and watching sport, socialising and eating (what do you mean, that’s not a hobby?!)
Favourite Childhood Game?
Kiss chase. Well, that’s one I remember! Also, Stuck in the Mud, British Bulldog, Tag…I was quite active. But I was also addicted to the local libraries after I outread my school one, and would regularly read well into the night and wake up tired the next day.
Where do you find inspiration?
I don’t really know; I browse the internet a lot when looking for materials, but you can’t beat a good walk out in the woods or down by the river to get invigorated. I love mini-trips around England (and the rest of the UK!) as there is such variety in the landscape and so much to explore.
Are you an early bird or midnight owl?
I get grumpy if I don’t get my sleep or if I’m tired, but put on some cheesy music and I could dance all night! I’m quite cheerful by nature, and mornings are great, especially if you’re up early and have achieved something before you’re usually awake.
Tell us about a dream you recently remember
Eek, I dream about work quite a lot –recently I stood up to an annoying senior member at work and that was quite exciting (in the dream!) I have quite vivid dreams, and apparently I eat a lot in my sleep!!

Robot Tote

Comfort Food of choice?
Crunchy peanut butter on a cinnamon and raisin bagel, yum.
When you daydream, where do you tend to end up?
On a summer’s day, outside on a comfy seat, upbeat music on to singalong to, drink in one hand, project in the other :D (even better with friends!)
Tell us about the Lollipop Stop
Learning to sew bags all originated from inheriting a friend’s sewing machine [edited to add- that was yours truly, ahem] and discovering free online tutorials. The Lollipop Stop came about because I was lucky enough to have a great knit group who were suitably impressed and demanding of the bags I made; and selling them means my living room isn’t overflowing with cute colourful project bags!

Strut Tote

Joyfully You Capture

 

I have been off the boil lately in terms of this weekly challenge. I saw 'emotions' and groaned.... I felt like poop, did I want to photograph that? NO

In my efforts to revive playfulness this weekend, I had lots of fun. I posted about dancing in a random tent in Deptford Market here. Here's shots of the best emotion ever: happiness. 

Enjoy life people! x

Featured: Yarn to Knit

This time my featured crafter is Yarn to Knit, an indie dyer who very kindly invited me and my friend into her home to craft and yarn gaze. It all begun as a suggestion to my friend of Yarn and Spices that we should check out some local dyers/ yarn shops. She casually replied to the Yarn to Knit, 'Oh Martina? She's lovely'. I was there!

We arrived and sat round happily, talking knitting and crochet, each with projects in our laps and plenty of tea to keep us refreshed. We chatted about recent shows Martina has attended (Unravel has just gone and she will be at Wonderwool- so keep your eyes peeled). Then Martina thought she'd get out some skeins to show us, and my friend and I promptly lost all ability to speak, save for some Gollum impressions. 

I mean look at just these two boxes? Aren't they delicious?

I dived in, pulling out warm skeins of plush british breeds and cool skeins with silk and bambo blends. I had a hard job narrowing things down....

 I reduced this pile one sad skein at a time, it was not easy! I finally settled on a sock yarn in the colourway 'Red Wine' and two skeins of DK in 'Peacock'. Yes, yes, I know that I'm dewstashing but it's my birthday soon so I'm allowed. Especially as I've been so discplined. It would've been rude not to buy after all that fondling anyway right?

We finished with more cake and cookies. It was generally a day made of win. Thanks Martina- you were such a poppet to feed us and supply us with yummy yarns!

Knit news

No you are not seeing double- that is TWO copies of Cookie A's new book 'Knit.Sock.Love'. I have been keeping very quiet about my double purchase since the beginning of February! I had the pleasure of meeting Cookie at my local LYS, Loop, over a month ago but having had one of the books signed for a friend, I wanted to wait until her book arrived. Thanks to increases in postal service security in the US however, it took an AGE to get there. 

So I can now tell you what a prize num-nut I made of myself with Cookie A. Joy! I had thought the book signing was being held the day before and that was the day I lay on the sofa with plague, or flu depending on whether you believe me or the doctor. On Sunday, I dragged myself to the farmer's market to get fresh produce to make me better and walked past Loop..... Cookie A was there! 

So I nervously went in and wished I'd worn better knitwear. I pretended to be looking at several skeins before finally plucking up the courage to say hi and ask for two signed books. Cookie was lovely and so charming. I was all excited to chat to her about her recent travels, having been following her and Anne Hansen's progress via blogland. I then froze, realising I must sound like such a stalker! It took her a while to coax a sentence out of me after this, then she blew it by saying 'I love that scarf' (pointing at man beasts Daybreak), 'Did you make that?'

I recovered speech just to squeak 'yes, thank you, bye now'.

What a dork.

I redeemed myself by getting into a conversation via blogland commenting and email with Anne about missing her that day, making a dork of myself and recommending a few last places for her to try in London. I'm hoping she told Cookie that I'm not such a muppet really, I just get scared by someone who can thinking in cables and socks that way she does....

South London Wonder

It's definitely a slow and sleepy morning this morning. The South London exploration was indeed, fun but I am tired tired tired this morning. 

The invite outlined our itinerary for the day:

We'll be meeting in Brixton Village Market in Brick Box.
The walk will snake through Ruskin Park, go through some of the more scenic parts of Peckham, en route to Deptford Flea Market. If there is sufficient energy to continue we'll push on through Greenwich to Woolwich ferry which will be the final destination. 

That's about a 9 mile walk, with 30 odd people and stopping en route for activitities. Such as:

More libraries to save

Games of Pass The Parcel in the park with some very suspect drinks

Lunch at The Train- a cafe inside a train

Dancing to reggae

And some pubs, Mexican food and.... suddenly it was all quite late

We didn't make it to Woolwich......