The Frumplingtons

Never having been a member of the Scouts, maybe I always felt I’d missed out on an important life experience. Whatever my motivation, once I’d bought a copy of Des Pawson’s ‘Pocket guide to knots and splices‘ a few years ago, I set about making up for lost time by tying knots in anything I could find that was even remotely knottable. As a result of my over-enthusiasm, I have several pairs of old shoes whose laces I still can’t untie. I’m just waiting for Des to bring out a pocket guide to getting out of a tangle, but he seems in no hurry to write one.

This week, though, I did finally manage to tie one of Des Pawson’s more fascinating knots: a four strand crown sennit. The book shows it tied with four different coloured cords, but I managed it using just two kinds of parcel string. For anyone who doesn’t have the book yet, here’s how the knot should look from above. I’ve also shown (at the end of the post) what you get if you do a lot of crown knots. If you’ve ever fancied making your own skipping rope, now’s your chance.

Des Pawson’s little handbook contains several knots that are normally used by rock climbers. I’ve practised some of these, too. If anyone’s feeling brave and would like to try abseiling off the balcony outside Frumplington Towers, I’d be only too happy to try out some of my knots on their climbing ropes. Leave us a comment to arrange a suitable time and date. Oh, and remember to take out lots of life insurance; I do still sometimes put left over right when it ought to be right over left. Nobody’s perfect, though, are they?

I’ve never done any quilling before. And, as I often say to Shana, I also don’t do fiddly. After seeing some quilled snowflake’s on someone’s blog recently, however, I thought I’d give it a shot. Now, don’t be harsh. This is my first effort, after all.

It’s even better when you consider that I was using the most rudimentary of tools. Who’d ever have thought a corned beef tin key could be used for the delicate art of quilling?

I’ve done so much cutting and snipping this past week, that I’m starting to feel like Edward Scissorhands. It’s all been for a good cause, though — Shana and I are trying to save the planet! The easiest way to do it, we figured (and hey, why wear yourself out when you can save the Earth without breaking into a sweat?), would be to increase the amount we recycle. So, taking inspiration from a project Shana found on the ‘Net, we decided to recycle our old supermarket carrier bags and turn them into one single super-duper recycled shopping bag.

Luckily, we had plenty of raw materials to hand. We needed them, too; by the time it was finished, I had cut up a total of 47 Asda bags. I used a special spiral cutting technique and reduced the bags to one-inch-wide strips of plastic yarn; Shana then knitted (yes, knitted!) the yarn in much the same way as you might knit with wool, and transformed it all into the luxury recycled bag pictured below.

If you work out what Shana’s labour costs would have been if she had been doing this for an employer, you will soon realise that the bag she produced is worth something like what a genuine original Louis Vuitton bag would be. (Just for the record, I checked earlier and found one bag called the ‘Hampstead’ that was priced at £665 on the Louis Vuitton website. Guess what Shana won’t be getting this Christmas!)

Synchronicity — or what?

During my spell as assistant recycled bag maker, I didn’t do much reading, so I was browsing in our mini-library this evening, looking for something interesting but not too taxing. I chose the New Scientist book, “Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze?” and opened into it at a random page. Here’s the question I found:

What generates the energy that makes thin, white supermarket bags so noisy?

Now, of all the questions I could have landed on (and there are 115 of them altogether), why the heck should it have been that one? You don’t think someone’s trying to tell me something, do you?

Shana seems to think I need more fibre in my diet. She could be right. And, technically, I suppose wool is a kind of fibre. And when Shana first presented me with this cake, I must admit I was tempted to take a bite out of it. Until I realised it was actually knitted!

This year Shana has taken up the needles again, and it’s fascinating to see how versatile she can be, especially as she has hardly even looked at a ball of wool for the past year. Here’s one of the first things she made since resuming her adventures in knitting. I was overawed by the complexity of this little racing car, the number of different colours involved, and the small size of some of the parts. I joked that it reminded me of Penelope Pitstop from the cartoon classic, “Wacky Races”. But seriously, I really like what Shana has made recently. She’s gonna have to do that cake again, though: next time, I want jam and cream filling — and plenty of it.

Shana’s busy doing crafts again. I’m not exactly sure what she’s making at the moment, but I do know it’s some kind of humanoid figure.

Shana always likes to surprise me with a finished item rather than showing me all the various different stages of the creative process. As a result, I don’t often get to see the ‘innards’ of these things. Today, however, is different. Here we can see, even though the photo is a bit grainy, a ‘hidden camera’ shot of Shana’s latest project. It seems, as far as I can tell, to be made of what Shana (and lots of other keen crafters, come to that) likes to call ‘chenille stems’. Frankly, they look more like pipe cleaners to me. Of course, as Shana doesn’t smoke a pipe any more, I suppose they can’t be pipe cleaners; so, ‘chenille stems’ it is, then (even if the name does sound a bit lah-de-dah).

I’m more intrigued by the fact that this chenille stem person appears to be wrapped in bandages. Can it be that Shana is making one of those ancient Egyptian mummies? Time will tell, I guess. But at the moment, it all looks more like a pipe cleaner version of “Alien Autopsy” than anything else. I wonder what planet it’s meant to be from?

Today is Chris’s Birthday, or B-Day if you prefer!

Due to having signed The Frumplingtons Official Secrets Act, I am unable to reveal his age. All I can say is that it is somewhere between…sorry can’t even reveal that!!

Because it’s Chris’s Birthday, we have planned a wonderfully exciting weekend. The Frumplingtons Good Life Re-enactment will be taking place over the next few days. I’m sure you all remember the Good Life, Tom & Barbara…yes?

Good, well we’re starting with the small stuff first. I found some wonderful seeds on ebay, Asparagus Sprengeri and Kalanchoe Blossfelldiana. Chris found a site to make our own plant pots.

As I sit here typing this, Chris is busy folding pieces of brown wrapping paper, the site uses newspaper, but we don’t read newspapers! The brown paper works brilliantly, we already have our first seed planted! Go on, try it, you know you want to!

Now I need to fathom out where to put the chickens…pigs…

For those who haven’t noticed, I have a rather serious addiction to craftwork. That is why I rarely write a post, so busy sticking pins in myself!

Although I’ve done many different crafts since I was a wee nipper, it is only over the last few months I’ve started making stuff again. And I now feel I’m at that stage where I can take on something more challenging.

I’ve spotted some lovely sparkly fabric on eBay, and now I’ve found the pattern I was looking for. Chris is going to be so pleased when I’ve finished making his Elvis costume, not that he likes Elvis, but he’s going to look stunning when he struts his stuff next to the new Hot Tub.

The big question is…shall I use black fabric, white…or pink? I’d welcome your thoughts on what might suit Chris best

Shana

I’ve been buying bits ‘n’ bobs on ebay ready for my next big craft adventure. It’s not a hobby, it’s an OBSESSION!!

One of the items I purchased was ric-rac, to me that sounds like some type of medieval torture instrument. Never mind the thumb-screws, torture by ric-rac sounds far more terrifying!

To purchase my delightfully crafty works, then nip over to ebay and peruse the goodies we have on offer in The Frumplingtons Shoppe

And if you’re wondering why, when Chris needed a new pair of slippers, I didn’t make him a new pair. Well the answer is simple…I couldn’t find a large enough piece of fabric

Shana

This is the first major cross-stitch project I’ve done in years. The kit is by Heritage Stitchcraft, and was purchased from Johnson Crafts.

I ran out of thread and emailed Heritage Crafts directly, they very kindly sent me some more thread. It’s nice to now there are still some good people in the world

My first attempt to do the framing myself, by cutting out the mount etc., ended disastrously. But the place I got the supplies from do offer all the necessary tools, I’m just too much of a tight-wad to buy equipment at the moment! The company is called FrameCo Picture Framing Supplies their service is excellent and delivery was prompt. It was just my useless attempts at cutting the mount that was the problem!

I then decided to source a new frame, complete with mount. And I found a good one, Moonshine Framing in Cornwall. The frame, mount, backing and fittings was sent promptly, safely packaged and not too expensive.

So that is the saga of Archibald the Dragon, or Sir Archibald as he prefers to be referred to!

And my next cross stitch project is already underway…

Shana

I’ve only recently started cross-stitching again. And after wrestling with a large piece of canvas decided I needed to get an embroidery hoop or frame. Frames scare me, you have to stitch the fabric to the frame before you start real stitching!

Trundling around the interweb looking for yarns for macrame, I found a wonderful company called Texere Yarns. I can highly recommend you order their catalogue, it comes with a stack of yarn samples, which I find irresistable!

Also at Texere Yarns, I found Easy Clip Frames. This is surely the best thing since sliced bread. You simply lay your fabric over the frame, then using plastic clips secure it in place. Tighten the top and bottom bars and hey presto! you’re ready to sew. They do a range of sizes, I use the 12″ x 18″. I did notice when I first used the frame it coloured the fabric a little. So I’ve wrapped masking tape around the top and bottom bars, not a major problem. You can find more info here; Easy Clip Frames

And no, I don’t receive any commission from them!

Shana