Spiny Critter

Here's a new addition to my shop. He licks envelopes and shop windows.

Sunlight and Sweet Melancholy

As I write we are being pelted with windswept tree branches. Nothing too big thankfully, more like large twigs. Sandwiched between a succession of grey and windy days there was a sunny one. I was ready with the tripod and a roll of white wallpaper and my trusty and versatile Canon Ixus. Oh, and a piece of string to suspend the paper from the paper towel-holder. My mission: To photograph my sock creatures.

The sun shone obligingly onto the extending kitchen worktop, but it does move around and sink low very quickly. So the clock (if I had one) was ticking. Sock monsters are not very co-operative either. I had to scour the trailer for discreet objects that could hide behind the critters and hold them up, things like small paint pots and paperclips.

Normally, while I potter I am more than content with having Huey Morgan in the background and his 'if it's cool he'll play it' style radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music. But while I got absorbed in my task I felt I needed an album to unfold around me. I downloaded Nina Nastasia's 2010 release, Outlaster.

I played it all the way through, and then immediately had to play the whole album again. I knew this wasn't really going to be background music since I have often been sucked into her second album, The Blackened Air, and wallowed in its delicate darkness. Outlaster is a more deliciously lush offering. There are moments where you find that you have simply stopped what you were doing and are listening, really listening. It is not just the unpretentious clarity of her voice, or the compelling lyrics. There is her gently meticulous guitar playing and the strings that swoop and scrape in raw, rough-edged, folky gusts.

Nina Nastasia's rare gift of a voice is an intimate, winged presence that is able to either freeze or melt your heart; that can powerfully soar and twist, or brush ultra-gently against you, suddenly summoning goose bumps. Mojo commented on its ability to "suck the air out of the room"
Fat Cat Records 

If you embrace melancholia and cheer in unsentimental equal measure then this might be your cup of tea, but listen alone, because if anyone talks over this music it would be hard to forgive.

Postcards From The Edge of a Village

A little while ago I put together the Little Tin Hut website, which has a gallery of some of my favourite projects that I have made since we took to the road in our Airstream. The sock creatures get great reactions, and I have had some 'commissons', which I have been very pleased about. Recently I have put other projects on hold while I have been sewing and stuffing until I now have a box of critters. Next, I'm hoping for good light so that I can photograph what I've made so far and then put them in an online shop.

I have the trailer to myself a lot more at the moment while Pete is out helping a friend with a vintage Airstream restoration project. I have even become an early riser, although this week it's been more of a struggle. As well as an alarm to wake me, repeatedly, I need one to yell at me at night, "Get to bed!" We have always been nocturnal creatures and it is a really hard habit to break. I always want to squeeze a bit more out of the day. Plus some of the most absorbing films are shown late at night. You don't get any Pedro Almodovar in the nine o'clock prime time spot, or Roadhouse! (Mr Swayze does T'ai Chi and defends a crappy bar against thugs. What more do you need to know?).

Regular brisk walks also have to be fitted into the days. It is about half a mile to the nearest village and if there was a village shop I could perfectly combine picking up milk and bread with stretching my legs and taking the marvelous Worcestershire air. But there isn't. Instead I have taken to writing post cards to friends, you know, like we did in the old days, and then striding out towards the post box, envelope in hand. If you receive one of these and wonder why I didn't just text you or send you an email, just indulge me and know that you will be helping me to keep alive the ancient art of handwriting whilst looking after my cardiovascular health in one gesture. I thank you.

Crafty Airstreamers

Last weekend at the fourth UKAirstreamers Gathering near Ludlow we had the first 'Unhitch and Stitch on the Sunday' afternoon. There was some knitting going on, and some exchanging of techniques. I learnt how to cast on with my thumb and other crafties who had forgotten how to knit, had their memories jogged.

I got engrossed in teaching four young Airstreamers how to make sock creatures. Alice and Will had to go home before finishing so I hope I'll be getting photos of their creatures sometime. Jordan and Rory weren't in a hurry, as this is their farm, and they each managed to make a creature in one afternoon. Check them out! Aren't they brilliant?

There is much more about the completely fabulous time we had at our UKAirstreamers Gathering on our other blog, Pete And Tracey On The Road.

Mad As A Box Of Critters

The sock critter commission has arrived at its destination and everyone is happy, especially me. The walk to the local village post office with a box of critters under my arm was most enjoyable. And here's a sneak peek at the crazy little monsters.



They will be for small kiddies so the eyes are firmly sewn-on felt instead of buttons. And you might have noticed a glimpse of the Airstream in the background. I've been enjoying a bit more of the al fresco life and sewing outside, under the awning. Sucks to be me!

Things Take On A Life Of Their Own

I'm still in sock creature mode. Some lovely friends have asked me to make some for them. If I wanted to big myself up a bit I could call it a commission. Either way, I am completely chuffed to have been asked.

Since they are going to be given away as presents I had better not reveal too much here. You never know who's looking, and I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises.



When I visited my best friend in London last weekend she was displaying flowers in a tall vase I had made for her. I used to go to a pottery class when we lived in Cumbria. Actually it wasn't so much a class as a space in which to experiment with clay, with a very experienced potter on hand for guidance. I loved it with a passion and I hope I can take it up again sometime. It was such a messy, tactile experience. The clay felt heavy, pliable and yet resistant. Although the potter, with his thirty-odd years of sculpting and throwing could make the clay obey him. It literally surrendered to the movements of his hands.

The processes seemed like a kind of alchemy to me. From this grey, earthy lump to a pinkish and lighter, biscuit-fired form. Then coated in liquefied, dull minerals which magically transformed into glossy, glassy, translucent colours after firing in unimaginable heat. The whole craft was an incredible marriage of primitive and intuitive with technical and scientific. Mind blowing.

Seeing this vase again, to my eyes it had a charm to it but it was also clumsy and lacking the grace I had envisioned when I was designing it. How often is that the way? So gratifying though, to see something I had made having been integrated into my friend's day to day life. Like the tea cosy I knitted for her a couple of Christmases ago, sitting askew on her teapot.

Making stuff is engrossing and satisfying. Giving stuff away and seeing it take on a life of its own is beyond gratifying.

Purple Sock Bunny

We had a visit from one of Pete's oldest friends, Andrew and his two young sons, James and David. David, the youngest, is four and he seemed to like our sock creatures so we decided we would start to make one there and then. We chose a sock in David's current favourite colour, purple, and I set to work with the scissors.


It was fun to work quickly, freed from the tyranny of neatness, the emphasis more on showing how it's done and getting David involved in the decisions. He suggested it could be a purple rabbit, and he chose one pink and one purple button for the eyes. I got him to put in some of the polyester stuffing, and when I suggested that he might want to add more because it was going to be a bit squishy, he thought it would be nice like that. So we went with soft and squishy.


I finished it after he went home, taking a bit of license with the facial features and adding a fluffy tail, which wasn't in the original brief but a cute and tactile detail and well worth the fiddlyness involved.

Stripey, Spiney Sock Chums News

Update on the two who flew the nest: They both made it to London, and they have names.


This is Brewster...

...and this is Stella. She's a girl!

Well Hello!

These two beauties are my new favourites but, since I'm not keeping them I can't get too attached. I usually can't resist giving them names but once you have named them it's a bit tough to let them go.


This chap's destiny is to be an urban sock monster in London, or maybe he'll just sit in the post office depot for a few weeks before being returned to me. What an adventure.


I was so taken with the finished creature, especially the stripey spines and because he looks so good in the Airstream, that I decided to make another similar one. It turns out I had an ideal piece of orange and black sock left over from my very first attempt at one of John Murphy's Stupid Sock Creatures.


It seems a shame to split up these two.


Good luck in the big smoke, oh spiny one.

Crocheter's Block

Oh dear, I am stuck. I can't seem to make a decision about colours.

I have been thinking about making a throw, or blanket for the Airstream. I like the cosiness and familiarity of retro or traditional afghans, but our trailer has a modern interior with a fairly monochromatic colour scheme. I am happy to mix up contemporary and retro styles but I think the colours need to be just right. The granny square blankets lend themselves to fun colours but in this interior it could dominate. So I thought about sticking with the monochromatic scheme, or would that be too boring? What about adding splashes and flashes of colour?

I tried a few sample squares. They were too awful to even show here on the blog. Pete said they were a bit pearly king and queen, which is definitely not the look I'm going for. Maybe squares are too grannyish after all. Perhaps stripes would be better, or one big square radiating out from the centre.

Ooh I don't know. My indecision is making my head hurt. When we had our 1973 VW campervan we could just put in anything red, orange, rainbow-coloured, stripey, spotted and it would add to the grooviness. Mind you we didn't have to live in it.

As a reaction against the black and white disappointment I started a new project with as many random colours as I could muster. This piece is going to be felted and then cut into petal shapes and sewn together to make a flower. At least that's the theory. I'm following instructions from a Nicky Epstein book, except her colours are more restrained. I clearly need to get something out of my system.


Meanwhile I also continue to add to the monster menagerie.


I can't post pics of the finished wonders yet because they are destined for new homes and I don't want to dilute that first encounter.

Do You Really Need Those Socks?

The blame for my still-growing collection of buttons falls upon the sock creatures. Most of them have buttons for eyes, or noses. Previously the only buttons I had around were those spare ones that come attached to a new shirt or jacket. Now I am on the lookout for just the right button-eyes. Also, beads. Is there any hope for me? Is this a one-way slide into haberdashery delirium?


Last summer when we were touring the Highlands of Scotland and rain kept us indoors for a couple of days, I decided it was time to pluck up the courage to delve into "Stupid Sock Creatures" by John Murphy. It had been recommended by a Stitch And Bitch pal from our pre-nomadic days. I had been carrying it around, plus some stuffing and a rather worrying pair of orange and black striped socks for long enough. The time had come to bring these strangers together.

Anyway, John Murphy uses white buttons with a black centre for the eyes. I have never found them, yet. But I've grown used to, and even fond of the vacant look you get with a plain old button. And so far I like them to be quite traditional and buttony. Certain colours can also be a bit scary, which can be OK too.


Reactions to my little sock world vary between "Yes, but what is it?" to "Can you make me one, with a beard?"

More instructions and ideas can be found in "Stray Sock Sewing" by Daniel. The style is less bizarre but still quirky and sometimes cute. There are different techniques too. John Murphy's creatures are usually stitched together inside out then turned out the right way, stuffed and finished. The whole process is accompanied by a frisson of anticipation since you can't really know for sure how your creature will look until the later stages of construction.


Daniel's creations often start with stuffing the main body and head then attaching limbs. There's more embellishment too. So far I have found with this process I can see the creature evolving and can make adaptations as I go. The character of the thing reveals itself sooner and changes can be made if they will suit it better.


I think with both styles one of the most important things is that you can still see in the finished design that it's a pair of socks with some buttons sewn on.

Take One Pair Of Socks...

Surly sock pooch.




"I'm smiling on the inside."