Crafting New Year Resolutions

It’s that time of year again. How many people make resolutions at New Year, only to find that by one month in, those resolutions, whilst not completely forgotten, are but dim memories? By now, at the end of January, we have a good idea which resolutions have a chance of survival, and which are already dead in the water.

Crafting resolutions can be just as difficult to stick to as losing weight (like suddenly the habits of a lifetime are going to change?), exercising more (that gym membership can be expensive), and eating less chocolate (that was never going to happen!). Here are a few resolutions that you may find familiar.

1. Organise those craft supplies
2. Use up things from the stash
3. Only buy something new to replace something that has been used
4. Learn a new craft
5. Only start a new project when at least one UFO (UnFinished Object) has been finished
6. Buy something that looks great and is made by someone else, instead of thinking "That’s great - I could make that!” and never actually getting around to it

How can we give those resolutions a better chance of success? Let’s have a look at them one by one.

Organising Craft Supplies
You’ve decided you are going to knit that jumper you’ve been meaning to do for years. You have the yarn (from your stash, of course!). You have the needles. You have the pattern. Now all you need is a row counter, because you’ve tried pen and paper and that just doesn’t work for you. You know you have at least 4 of them, because last time you started a knitting project you couldn’t find the ones you inherited from your grandmother so you bought some more. Where, oh where, did you put them? Any of them?

The perfect solution is to build an extension to the house and call it the crafting annexe. Then you could have enough room to carefully stack everything in clear, carefully labelled boxes, or in the specially built cupboards and drawers. Bliss! But somehow I don’t think this is very realistic.

A slightly less perfect solution is to at least try to keep all the like things together. For example, keep all knitting things together, all embroidery things together, all scrapbooking things together, etc, etc. Don’t get too obsessive about it, though, because some supplies cross borders between crafts, and you need to pick just one place to put them. But at least when you go looking for something, if it’s not in the first place you look, it should be in the second.

But the best piece of advice is to try, and I mean really try, to put things away when you have finished with them. A tip that might be worth trying for this is to not just automatically put things back in the place you found them, but in the first place you looked for them. The assumption is that next time you are looking, you will look for it in the same way, and look! There it is in the first place you looked!

So how about giving it a go. Keep crafting though – don’t let organising crafting supplies become your hobby!

Next time we’ll tackle the challenge of using up those things in the stash.

Summer Gardens

Yes, we survived the silly season, and now we turn our attention to the new year.  The Christmas decorations have been put into storage, and it’s time to get some colours other than red and white into our lives.

The Fireplace display here at Rankin Cottage Crafts has been changed to show all the lovely colours you can find in a summer garden. Spring isn’t the only time of year when the garden is lovely to be in!







Our members have stitched clothes to dress the little girls in your life, and hangings to dress the home.











If you want to spend quality time looking after your garden, we have the perfect garden gloves for you.











If you can’t quite see yourself in the garden, or don’t have any flowers to pick, why not try some flowers that don’t require any watering?

It's Time to Jingle Bells!

The countdown to Christmas has well and truly started. Christmas decorations have been in the shops for months (well, it certainly seems that way), and I’m sure some places have already started having Christmas parties.

At Rankin Cottage Crafts we wait until November before putting the Christmas display up, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t prepared for it – have a look at this!

Our members have been busy making so many seasonal items there almost isn’t enough space to put them all. 

and how about this unusual
Christmas tree wreath 

There are handmade decorations for the tree

If you are planning to make your own Christmas cakes and puddings, you will need a suitable apron. 

But if not, we already have a good selection in Rankin Cottage. 

If you aren’t a pudding person, don’t worry, we have other choices too – come in and have a browse!