Crocheted glass (and you thought Wollmeise was hardcore).

OK. First wanted to say, thank you to Craft Corners for featuring me in their best of the web – go and have a look and admire how I am not very good at writing a blurb about my blog ;-), also the other blogs featured do look rather nice (one of them makes lingerie! I have on occasion made my own knickers but I have to say to you that mine are functional rather than attractive like that).

Second, I wanted to share with you an artist I discovered while I was in Derbyshire at New Year. I was sitting in the B&B one night, feebly eating a ginger biscuit and flicking through a little book on local artists and I thought, wait, can that really be… crochet rendered cunningly in glass? So I wrote the website address carefully down in my diary and checked when I got home and yes. This is Catherine Carr glass, and she makes the most beautiful things.

They are made from a recycled glass product and she actually crochets the glass. Her granny taught her to crochet (and these are her patterns!) and it’s a way of honouring her grandmother and keeping alive craft traditions, and also celebrating the history and skills of women workers in northern textile mills (Derbyshire is a big area for textile mills and if my dad had a blog he would tell you all about it). They’re based on pineapple crochet patterns, which I really like, and the skill involved in crocheting them out of glass must be amazing (my crocheting doesn’t look even like this when I’ve done it in wool and blocked it, thinks she looking ruefully at the cushion cover she has just finished).

I think these bowls are really wonderful, and I have added them to my mental list of things I will buy next time I have spare money, although that will probably also have to be, spare money and a table/ sideboard to display them on. Therefore, spare money, a table/ sideboard, and a house big enough that all flat surfaces are not immediately colonised by Partner ambling along with a pile of papers. But if the stars ever align and circumstances come together I would just love one of these bowls.

Thank you very much, Cathy, for letting me show your beautiful work. Next time I am in Derbyshire I will see if you are in any exhibitions near me and come and look (don’t be scared). Do have a look on Cathy’s website as it is all very impressive and there are many more pictures - for some reason I'm having trouble uploading today.

OK. Back to spring cleaning (I know it’s only January. I’ve been clearing out the cupboard under the stairs. Do you know how many empty jam jars we had got? I could have opened a shop. A very boring shop. This is what happens when you aren’t organised, you acquire duplicates, then 3 years down the line you end up on Hoarders in a room full of unopened boxes from QVC. Lucky I’ve nipped it in the bud, isn’t it?)