An Afternoon with Crafters

On Saturday I went to the Handmade Fair with my crafty friends and one of their Mums. It was at Hampton Court Palace, a place I have not been to so that alone was worth it. Look at these trees! Conical yew trees all over the lawn. They are so whimsical. 

One of the things going on was 'world pomination' an attempt to break the world record for the most pompoms made or collected or something. Here are some of them.

This is a galleon made from an old silver teapot. This is not a very good photo but I loved everything on this stall. It was run by a daughter, mother and father, the daughter made jewellery, the father amazing things from reclaimed objects and the mother paintings. 

The fair was organised by Kirsty Allsop, and throughout the day she was hosting chats with various heroes of the craft world. Cleo and I went to watch her talking to Kaffe Fasset. It was very interesting and he seems a very nice man.

We wandered around looking at all the goodies. I didn't really buy much-at first, but had a bit of a naughty splurge in the last tent we looked in. I bought a giant crochet hook-24mm, and had a lesson on how to do tunisian crochet from the woman who sold it to me. I have never really looked at how to do this as I assumed it would be horribly difficult. No-it is incredibly simple! I have had a couple of goes on a small hook, but the giant hook I bought is designed particularly for this as it is long and has a stopper on the end, so I will make something with that too. So far though I have made a strip and a small rug, just finished tonight to replace the now tatty t-shirt rug in the bathroom.

Love the eye scarf.

And this little alien creature; 

More pom-poms. 

Nearly home, past the allotments with the gorgeous sunflowers. My feet were hurting but I enjoyed the walk from the station. My feet hurt because of the ridiculously worn heel on my favourite boots. I successfully got them re-heeled today near the school I was at. I spotted the shoe repair place the other lunchtime. Two days worked this week, and one of them year one! It was ok, and today with reception was lovely.