Meme

I don't want to do memes on this, but I couldn't resist. Here it is:


Crafting meme

If you want to be tagged, you're tagged.

Answer honestly.

How many crafts do you actively do?
At the moment? 4. Knitting, beaded crochet, braiding (Japanese and fill-gap) and cross stitching.

How many crafts do you know how to do?
Many. Some of them are. . .
Wood carving, beading (stringing, off loom and loomed), sewing (both hand and machine), embroidery, knitting, crochet, braiding (Western, Japanese, Peruvian, fill-gap and lucetting), cross stitch, Tapestry needlework, weaving (traditional and inkle), spinning (spindle and wheel), glass painting, and origami.
Obviously, I'm never bored for something to do.

Crafting item you use the most?
Mine is my magnifying lens (with inset) on a flexible neck with clamp. I put it away one day and was lost. I use it EVERY day. I bought it over 5 years ago and it's the BEST thing I ever bought. If I see another one, I'll buy it and install it downstairs. The one I have now lives attached to this desk.

Crafting item you use the least?
My thread heaven. I bought it 6 years ago at "the" harrow beading fair, for beading, and I've never used it. If I want to condition thread (a rare thing), I'll use beeswax.

Most important crafting item?
Scissors.
I have a pair of "Dura Sharp" scissors I bought in the mid-eighties to use for hand sewing/clothes making. They cost me a pretty penny at the time ($12 - I was a student and money was tight) and I now have them hanging on a hook within arms reach. I've only had to sharpen them twice in all this time. I use them for projects that I finish at this desk.
I also have many other pairs of scissors (including those specific for the task), all over the house.

Most treasured crafting item?
My antique steel crochet hooks from the US (a few from my grandmother, now dead) and the UK. They're all in tiny sizes not made anymore and I use them for beaded crochet ropes.

Item you'd never part with?
This is a hard one - but I guess that would be my first pair of fiskar embroidery scissors (bought in the late 70's/early 80's.) Only because they've travelled with me for many years.
I'm so afraid of losing that pair in particular, I now buy and use cheap pairs of spring-loaded clip-scissors to use on journeys.

Cheap "impulse buy" item you now wonder how you'd do without?
Ah - that would be those cheap (£1 - 1.50) pairs of spring-loaded clip-scissors with a cover (steel blades, white plastic molding with oval blue insert on the hinge) that you find at most craft fairs - they hold a decent sharpness, are small so they fit anywhere, have a cover so you don't need to worry about puncturing holes in your project or yourself trying to find them, and they're cheap enough you don't fret if you lose them.

Item you have lots of?
Needles. I have hundreds of them from very fine twisted wire beading needles, to tiny quilting needles, dozens of cross stitch needles kept from kits, all the way to plastic yarn needles and large mattress stitching needles (not that I've ever needed to use those.).

Item you only have one of?
That magnifying lens on the flexible neck. Only ever bought one, and then when I wanted another (6 months later), I couldn't find any one that sold them. Still can't. Other single items - Sewing machine, Loom, Spinning wheel and an Tapestry frame holder.

Item you have that you wonder why you bought it?
That would be my tapestry frame holder. I bought it at a time I was doing a lot of stitching sitting on the sofa, used it a while and it gave me horrible back-ache. I could never adjust it for my use (long legs, short body and long neck.), and it has been sitting in the corner of the room gathering dust for the last 5 years. I'm debating how exactly I'm going to get rid of it - since noone I know does needlework - charity, Freeserve, Ebay or just burn it as a sacrifice to bad judgement.

Most expensive item?
My Janome 3000 sewing machine. It was a joint Christmas gift one year from my boyfriend and father and it was expensive at the time even with the part-exchange of my late Mother's industrial singer sewing machine.
I wanted it so much I volunteered to sacrifice three years of gifts from them both - which they bought me anyway. *G*.

Cheapest item?
A free tabletop 4-shaft loom. It was (and is) a wonderful thing.
I also, like many crafters, scavenge materials to make crafting items. I recycle unwanted materials, like very thick cardboard to make braiding card templates or I cut up thinner cardboard from boxes used as packaging to make yarn/thread bobbins for the making of braids; or I'll de-construct old craft items to make new ones - like the gift I got of a wire beading loom that was unstable and unusable, so I cut it apart in order to make hanging hooks for an off-loom bead netting project (still in progress).

The weirdest place(s) you buy crafting materials from?
Any fishing store. I can get tiny solid rings to use in making bracelets and necklaces. I buy fishing cable for stringing, I buy plastic fishing line holders (not reels) to use to use as shuttles for inkle loom weaving (cheap and do the same thing as an expensive weaving shuttle).
The other place is a hardware store - e.g. I buy tiny screw and nut sets to hold the last stitch when I'm not working on a piece of beaded crochet.

How many craft stores do you regularly go to?
Hmm. At this time, about 7. There's the "Sew-in" fabric store in either Chorlton or Didsbury, Kendal Milne's on Deansgate (3rd or 4th floor), Fred Aldous, Abakhan Fabrics, The needlework shop in Lichfield (only one now), the bead shop in Lichfield (there's also only one) and the ARK.
If DESPERATE, I'll go to Hobbycraft, but I'm usually disappointed. Those places are WAY too expensive for what they are and what they could be.
I've just discovered an apparently very well stocked artist's shop off Sackville street and I'm getting ready to check out prices. We'll see if it makes the grade.

Any unsung treasure place you buy materials from?
The ARK in Manchester. It is a wholesale habadashery place that sells dozens of colours (and quite a few sizes) of bonded nylon thread in reels (1000m or more depending on the thickness of the thread) at £6 a reel. They sell ribbons, embroidery thread (not the good companies) for very cheap, have a small stock of Milward knitting needles (from 75p for plain needles to 1.50 for a set of 4 DP's) They sell an amazing amount of cheap stuff, and the only three catches are that: 1) you don't know what will be in stock (one time I went, they had boxes of vintage Coats #8 crochet cotton for $3 a ball - I bought 4 balls, and I'm sorry I didn't have the money to buy any more.). 2) You MUST pay cash. and 3) you have to spend a minimum of £5.
Oh, I forget, you NEED to drive to get there and if you do, the parking is horrendous.

Do you buy from the internet?
Yes. Unfortunately, I have to (I prefer to handle and see items before I buy them). The days of the cheap craft store "on every corner" seems like it's gradually coming to an end in Manchester and I need materials for my projects. About ten years ago, craft/yarn/fabric places were practically everywhere it seems. But they're all closing down one by one. It's very sad and I'm getting very panicky.

How big is your stash of crafting tools?
It's too big. I have one room, three toolchests, two small and two medium holdall bags, 4 boxes, 4 large tupperware containers and a medium cosmetics bag to hold everything I own. I'd be ashamed of the amount, but I know I'm not the only one like this. *smile*.

If you read this and want to fill it out, go ahead - but could you please post a copy of your
answers here as a comment?

Thank you.

Later.