Photos and Update

Hey hey! I know, I know, another long gap between posts, but as is usually the case: I have been very busy and either unable to share anything as of yet, or the things I’m doing are taking a long time and are not currently in a sharable position. Such as, I am creating a shirt right now from a self drafted block and pattern, which I’ve been working on for several months- learning all sorts about pattern drafting and so on, making numerous toiles etc. But I don’t want to put anything on here before it’s ready, as I’d rather do it in one post so you can see the progression and process in one go.

I’m also working hard on my difficult second album third film, again, with nothing especially tangible to share right now. Though saying that, I might publish some concept work towards the end of the week on here, but we shall see… I also ventured into the world of knitting believe it or not, though I haven’t really had the time to really get properly going with it unfortunately. And then there’s multiple cinema trips this month (as is the case at this time of year), as well as skating a lot before the wintery weather takes hold properly and I can’t get out as much. So, as you can see, there is a lot on my plate right now! And that’s discounting anything else going on in my personal life. But, I am trying to keep this up as much as possible!

Here’s some images of my knitting efforts:

I also came on here to share a few photos that were taken of me, alongside Caris Rianne (who was there as an Exec on the fantastic Saint Agnes dir. Kate Driver) at the excellent Bradford International Film Festival on a very wet and windy weekend in October. This one took place in Bradford Arts Centre, which was a great venue and the festival itself was super lovely, too. 100% would go again/ recommend submitting!

Right, I think I’ve updated about everything I need to update on! I’m excited about a lot of my projects right now- I’m in a great place creatively, the only downside really is that there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do! But these things do come in waves- now is a very busy time due to it being the conception of a lot of projects etc, but once I’ve figured some things out, stuff will calm down a little. I hope I haven’t been too cryptic in all this, see you in the next one xo

I Wish I Was There- last public screening?

As the title alludes, this may (or may not) be the last public screening announcement for I Wish I Was There. I'm unsure, because there's a few festivals I'm waiting to hear back from, but not many and I never expect (though I do always hope) to be selected. So, this might be the last chance to see it on a big screen, before it goes online at some point next year.

Without further ado, the festival in question (drum roll please) is the London International Animation Festival! So if it is the last one, then it's a really exciting one to end the festival run on. I'm so grateful for this selection and it's honestly one I thought I wouldn't have even a slither of a chance of getting in, as well as the fact that it was chosen from out of over 2,300 films, which makes it even more special. Though I can't lie- the imposter syndrome is hitting ridiculously hard right now. I think once I know for a fact that the festival run is over on this film, I'll do a post about imposter stuff and self doubt etc with having a somewhat 'successful'* festival run (something I've never before experienced).

*in this instance meaning getting into a number of festivals and a good submission hit rate percentage

Before I get pulled too far down this rabbit hole, I need to announce the details don't I! It's actually part of two screening blocks, the first one is at 9pm on Fri 27th November, at The Barbican, as part of the 'British Showcase'. I will be there to introduce my film, so come say hello after!

And secondly, it's showing at the intriguingly named Horse Hospital, at 7pm on Tues 1st November, as part of the 'Are You OK?' shorts, which is a special programme focussing on mental health in animation. I'll not only be there to introduce my film, but also as one of the panelists for the screen talk afterwards. I'll also aim to get along to a few of the other festival events during my time down there, as the whole programme looks amazing!

Tickets for both can be purchased from the festival website HERE xo

Crochet Cloud Sweater

I’ve always liked the idea of a cloud sweater for some reason. I’ve seen them around and always thought it’s a really cool design, so now with my crochet capabilities, I was able to make one.

I had *some* blue and white yarn (unassigned to a specific project), but only 100g of blue, rather than the 200g or so I really needed. But I did have some turquoise, which I thought could be a good mix, providing I did a sort of ombre design. I did want to test this first, because I had no idea if it would look any good. Here’s the design on paper:

But first I needed to design a ‘test cloud’:

…as I didn’t know how it would translate into crochet from the paper, especially with the fact that I was going for a ribbed look. This grid paper was pretty accurate in representing each stitch, so I sketched out a rough cloud shape and created the above test. And it actually looked pretty cloud like, or at least in my opinion. So with that, I was able to carry out the aforementioned ombre test:

I wonder if anyone else’s crochet designs go through such a scientific process or if it’s just me- fellow crochet designers please let me know!!

Side note: I learned that the odd row numbers needed to be the front of the design, while equal were the back, so all the cut yarn strands etc need to be on the even number rows. You can see the ombre one is the opposite way round to the pink/ blue one, as I didn’t realise this at first.

As I sort of predicted, the ombre unfortunately wasn’t the look I wanted. It lacked contrast and didn’t match the bold image I had in my head for this design. Which meant I had to purchase another 100g ball, which was a problem in itself, because I bought the original ball a year ago and yeah finding the same dye lot one year on wouldn’t be easy! So I was stood in Hobbycraft trying to find the closest match for about half an hour. Bet I looked really normal and not weird at all. To be honest, I can’t really tell on the finished garment that it was two different dye lots and I should be the one to notice it, so I guess I picked right! I also had to buy yet another ball, because I didn’t have quite enough yarn to do the ribbing, so I now have almost a full ball of blue to use up in another project. Great! Maybe I could do an inverted version, so it could be a white backing, with blue clouds. Might be an idea…

Anyway, knowing the scale using the grid paper, I was then able to draw out a further four clouds (five was the right amount for this). I went with a variety of shapes and sizes, as I didn’t want them too uniform or anything:

I then created a grid in Excel- the same size of the grid paper I was using, which I printed out with enough rows/ columns as I needed for the vest- I was using the same row/ stitch count as one of the previous vests I made. I then marked out the front and back in different colour felts on the grid and transferred the clouds onto tracing paper. I cut those out, so I was able to move around and position them how I wanted and then taped them down once I was happy with the layout. When it came to doing the back, I would peel off the tape and reposition the clouds, so the back would be different than the front- I didn’t want them identical.

Once the rigorous design process was over, all I had to do was crochet! I used a 4mm hook (which seems to be my standard these days), using Wendy Supreme DK acrylic yarn for the blue and Women’s Institute DK acrylic for the white. The yarns are slightly different weights/ thicknesses, but I actually didn’t mind in this context, because the thicker white yarn makes the clouds look slightly fluffier and I was fine with that. I did actually have to re-do the back panel almost in full, as well as the sleeve ribbing, but can’t be bothered to go into the whole story as it’ll not be a riveting read!

The total weight after adding the ribbing is 230g (26g was the ribbing). I used approximately 20g of the white yarn, therefore 210g of the blue. And I absolutely love the outcome! It looks exactly how I envisaged it and I’m so proud of what I achieved with this one. It might be my favourite thing I’ve made to date…

Also, just want to say that September marked 1 year of crochet. I’m not sure if ‘life changing’ might be a little extreme here, but learning crochet has had a serious impact in my life in the best possible way. Once I got over the initial hurdle/ struggle of learning it, I felt like I found my ‘thing’. It’s so versatile in terms of what you can create and there’s so many different styles and directions you can take it in. It’s a great mix of creativity and practicality and it’s got such a calming feeling when you’re creating something. I also love just coming up with a design or idea for something and then seeing it being brought to life in my hands <3

I Wish I Was There- October Screenings

Yeah so I've not blogged since *checks notes* August- which is extremely off brand. But, I have been very, very busy, as well as not being in the best state with my mental health. So this has fallen by the wayside unfortunately. And my latest crochet project has taken a lot longer than expected and don't just want to put something on here when I haven't owt to say.

The last couple of weeks have been super full on- in a good way, albeit exhausting. I've attended 4 film festivals with I Wish I Was There, 3 of which were back to back, with the next only two days after the last of those! So yeah, you can see why I might be feeling it a little bit! Though I've got to say all the festivals were absolutely amazing- I met so many lovely people, saw some great films and generally had a good old time at all of them. And it was so cool to see how each festival does things and check out a few new cinemas/ venues. So a huge thank you to Worcester, Mansfield, Spirit of Independence and Bolton for selecting my film and making me feel included and welcome at your festivals <3 Would highly recommend checking out any of the mentioned, as you won't be disappointed. I'll stick a few pics below...

But, the show is not over yet! I have a couple more to announce right now, both of which are in Bradford as it happens. I wouldn't usually apply for more than one in the same place, but to be honest I didn't think I'd get into either, so two shots is better than one, am I right?!

The first one is THIS SATURDAY! Short notice, I know. So that's Sat 10th October 7pm, at the Bradford Movie Makers Clubhouse, for the inaugural Bradford Movie Makers Film Festival. This one is run by the group featured in that amazing feature doc 'A Bunch of Amateurs', so when I heard they were putting on a film festival, I couldn't not enter my film and I'm delighted it was selected!

Tickets are FREE and you can get those HERE.

Secondly, it is screening at Bradford International Film Festival, which takes place 23rd-25th October at Bradford Arts Centre. My film is showing on Sunday 25th in the 'Hard Times: Modern Pressures' block at 11am. The full programme across the whole weekend looks absolutely amazing and I'm so honoured to be part of it. Tickets are only a fiver and you can get those HERE. See you at both xo

Crochet Cricket Vest- finally!!

I finally made my crochet cricket vest! This is something I’ve been wanting to make since I began crochet last September and I finally got round to starting it last month. It was something I’ve been putting off and putting off, because I wanted to get it exactly ‘right’ (I know, I know) and I didn’t think my skill level would have been able to provide should I have started it earlier. I definitely wasn’t ready the first few months, but I was probably more ready than I think I was and likely could have made it earlier. I was scared to start it because I didn’t want to mess it up and if you know me well then you know how much I love cricket and I really just wanted to do this piece justice!

It was also the fact of how complex I knew it would be to make which was why I was delaying it. I knew I wanted to use a combination of Almond Stitch and Half Double BLO to create a cabled effect, but there were calculations involved and that was pretty intimidating. I did a sample of the kind of look I was aiming for a while ago:

Which became my guide for getting an idea of how many rows and what sort of measurements I’d be looking at. But yeah, going into this project I felt very unsure of myself. I also needed to write this in my crochet notebook:

No idea if it worked, but I think the fact that I wrote it did something to me and I got myself out of my head and made a start on it. Like with most things (cliché alert ahead) the first steps are the hardest part, but I guess it’s a cliché because it’s true.

I sort of went about getting the size of it from measuring the sample piece, as well as using the previous two sweater vests I made as a guide. This was a lot harder though, because the ratio of the rows with Almond Stitch were about 7 rows in width to 4 rows of the HDBLO, so it wasn’t as straight forwards as using one kind of stitch. I roughed out a pattern using a spreadsheet and Photoshop.

Here’s version 1:

The blue represents the Almond, while the yellow is the HDBLO. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I changed it to 8 rows of Almond instead of the 7 I did in the sample. I wanted all the rows to begin on an odd row number, so if I went with 7, the rows would have been all messed up and some facing the wrong way etc. As I was crocheting, I also amended the pattern to make a slightly different look, with a wider patch of Almond in the middle, in order to make it more symmetrical. That was something that was irritating me for the longest time- I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if this wasn’t symmetrical! Ok, yes a little extreme I know, but it wouldn’t have sat well with me is what I probably should have said. Here’s the amended pattern:

The first half of the first panel was the hardest to devise, because that would form the basis of the whole thing. The second half would be mirrored and the back would be identical to the front, but with a shallow rounded dip for the neck, rather than a v-neck.

Also, to achieve the v-neck was another headache! It was hard to know when to start decreasing down for it and how many stitches to decrease by, in order to get the tip of the ‘v’ to finish where I wanted it to (the right height on the garment, as well as at the right width across or I was at risk of the the piece being too narrow- I really didn’t want this one to be too form fitting as it wasn’t the look I was going for here). I also didn’t want it too wide or rounded, but also not too pointy. I full on sound like Goldilocks here don’t I. I swear I’m not this high maintenance in real life! Surely you can see now why I was putting off making this one for the longest time?! These patterns I made were a massive help in figuring this all out, but it was still very much an anxiety ridden process trying to get it how I wanted and full on nerve-racking whenever I got my tape measure out to see if I was on the right tracks! But, I needn’t have worried- I got the v-neck exactly how I wanted it…

Just a quick note on the colour scheme- the off white for the main body is the traditional colour of these things and the green represents my beloved county team Worcestershire! Where myself and my brother spent many a summer… Below is me receiving a signed autograph bat from cricketing legend Gareth Batty when I was 16, for being a runner up in the ‘draw the county ground’ competition. Definitely peaked then didn’t I.

After I had created both the back and front panels, it was time to add the ribbing. I couldn’t decide (quelle surprise) how I wanted the ribbing to look, so I created 3 mockups on the photo of the test fitting. Why I am smiling so much I have no idea.

This one felt too all over the place in terms of continuity. The mix of the neck ribbing being white with the arm ribbing being green just looked a mess in all honesty!

This one felt closer, but the white ribbing didn’t give enough ‘balance’ at the top, so the design as a whole felt a bit ‘off’.

This is the one I went with- well, almost. I did start crocheting the arms with the white strip in the middle, but a few rows in, I decided it was looking too messy, so unravelled and started again with just the green. I feel this was the right choice- it has much more of a cleaner look like this.

I kept the white strip on the neck though, because I feel it pulls the design together and the neck ribbing is one stitch wider (6 total) than the arms which are 5 stitches, so it would accommodate it better. And I think the neck would have looked too plain without it.

Another quick note on the neck ribbing- I actually stitched a row of slip stitches around the base of it in order to achieve a clean looking ‘v’. I was very concerned that this wouldn’t turn into a sharp ‘v’, or would become stepped like the raw edges, so I decided upon this foundation row. I wouldn’t usually work one of these in because it can result in the garment being less stretchy around the neck, but as this is a v-neck with a lot of space for the head to fit through, it wouldn’t have mattered if I lost a bit of stretchiness in that department.

I also ran out of green part way through adding the ribbing and as I bought the yarn ages ago, there was no way I’d have been able to get the same dye lot etc, or even the yarn itself. But luckily, remember that hat I made as my first crochet thing? I found myself ‘frogging’ (undoing) it and using the yarn from that. Which I was totally fine with. The hat has just been sitting in my yarn storage box for the best part of a year- I made it much too big by mistake so wouldn’t be wearable. Whereas this, I will actually wear it. I feel enough time has elapsed since making the hat to lose any sentimental value surrounding it, especially with it being my first piece. But I have photos and memories of creating it and I’d much rather something I’ll actually use, rather than something which will just sit there.

Right, I think I’m done! This was a long one, congrats if you made it this far and I hope it made sense- apologies if not! Technical details below, some more finished pics after…

Total weight: 288g

Front panel: 124g

Back panel: 134g

Neck and arm ribbing: 30g

4mm hook, using 100% acrylic Wendy Supreme DK yarn (in which I have about 260ish grams remaining- I purchased 500g of this way back when, because I had no idea how much I’d need)! So expect some more off white garments from me in the near future! xo

I Wish I Was There- another festival announcement + pics!!

As I alluded to in my last post on this, I now have the full details for the next festival announcement and it's one of those fancy BAFTA qualifying festivals, which means my film is eligible to be put forward for consideration. So yeah, that's pretty crazy and unexpected!! The festival in question is the very excellent Bolton Film Festival, which takes place in person Weds 30th Sept- Sun 4th Oct and online Weds 7th- Sun 18th Oct.

My film is screening in two categories- 'Animation 2' and 'UK Shorts 8', full details below:

Animation 2

Wednesday 30th Sept- 12:30 Light Cinema Screen 2
Friday 2nd Oct- 16:30 KUDOS Cinema (FREE)

Thursday 8th Oct- 16:30 Online VOD Platform

UK Shorts 8
Friday 2nd Oct- 16:25 Light Cinema Screen 1
Sunday 4th Oct- 15:00 Light Cinema Screen 2
Friday 16th Oct- 20:00 Online VOD Platform

I will be at the festival in person for the majority of it, as well as in attendance for the Wed screening in the animation category, as well as the Fri screening for the UK Shorts. You can get tickets and see the full line up HERE.

...And I did promise pics in the title didn't I?! These are a few taken from the Mansfield Town FF launch event which took place about a week and a half ago. So here I am repping one of my crochet garms and dirty skate shoes and looking super awkward on the mic during an impromptu Q+A! Photography by the fantastic Elizabeth Orridge.

xo

I Wish I Was There- MORE Festival Announcements!!

This is all so new to me- I've never had so many!! And I have three in the same weekend- meaning I won't be able to attend all the screenings, unfortunately. A nice problem to have though and I'm super grateful and proud for the festival recognition it seems to be garnering of late... So without further ado, I'll get announcing!

I'll do it in the order in which they are being screened, to make things slightly less complicated. Oh and they're all BIFA qualifying festivals, which is like super cool, too. And it goes without saying, but all of the films its programmed alongside look absolutely amazing, so if ya don't like mine, you might like one of the other ones!

First up, is Worcester Film Festival- my hometown 'gig' if you like! Sadly, because of fixture clashes, I won't be able to attend the actual screening, but I WILL be in attendance for the majority of the festival which runs 22nd-26th September (I'll be heading back up north on the evening of the 25th). My film screens as part of Shorts Block 34, 10am, Saturday 26th September. Tickets to the screening are just £4 (purchase by clicking here), but you can also purchase day tickets and full festival passes from the website, as linked above. I also wrote a short ‘behind the scenes’ type thing for this one, which you can read here.

Then, on Saturday 26th September at 6pm, my film is playing at Mansfield Town Film Festival, a festival endorsed by no other than filmmaking legend Ken Loach! It’s screening in the Something Has To Give block, taking place in the Director’s Lounge. I’ll be hanging about the festival the full day on the Saturday, so come say hey! I attended the programme launch on Friday just gone and they’re a super friendly and down to earth bunch, so looking forward to heading here. Tickets are an affordable £5 and you get can those here, but like with Worcester, you can buy day and full festival passes, too.

And then on Sunday 27th September (see, I said this was busy!) it is screening at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival, taking place at The Light cinema in my current base of Sheffield! My previous film won an award at this one back in 2023, so it’s lovely that they’re having me back for more. I’m also super hyped that this is showing at The Light- the screens are enormous, so can’t wait to see how it’s going to look in such a venue! It is showing as part of the Northern Spirit shorts, which is at 12.50pm and you can get tickets for a reasonably priced £6 here. And like with the others, you can purchase full day/ festival passes.

And lastly (for now*) is that my film made the honours list for the Women X Film Festival up in Darlington, which runs 17th-20th September. My film is NOT screening at this festival, but it was an ‘almost made it’ hence the honours list. I may or may not be in attendance at this one, I’ve not yet decided- but it may be one too many, due to all the other screenings in the two weeks following this one, but we shall see…

*there’s another big one to be announced, but I don’t know which day my film is screening yet, so I’ll not post that until I have the full details or I’ll only have to create another post, essentially doing an awkward double announcement!

Ok, I think that’s everything. I love films and I love film festivals!! Can’t wait for all these- see you in the cinema xo

On a Panel- photos!!

Just sharing a few images taken last weekend at the excellent We Crip Film Festival which took place at BFI Southbank. The festival was so lovely to be part of, met some great people and watched some amazing films- would highly recommend checking this festival out next year!

Photos taken by Jess Sansom @jessicasansom_stills 

panel left to right: Sarah Meeks (BSL interpreter), Charlie Little, Tara Brown, me(!), Simon Panrucker, Emma Malins, Klarissa Webster

Also, keep your eyes peeled here for some incoming festival announcements- these are also very exciting!! xo