Claire Cullingworth

@ccullingworth

Mending clothes & creative sewing projects. Church of England priest, community worker, spiritual director, and playing with the overlap of creativity, prayer and story telling. Fan of #TheArchers

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Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· 9d

30 years of being married to this amiable weirdo. We were so very young!

A wedding photo in a frame. The couple are ridiculously young and fresh faced, with no idea what the next 30 years will hold, or what on earth they are doing, bless em. He's wearing a blue/grey suit with a dark tie and flowers in his button hole. She (me) is wearing a deep red dress and has a bouquet. Deep green trees in the background.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· 10d

An underwhelming photo - but I learned a new approach to fixing those annoying little holes you get in t-shirts, and it's almost invisible (hence how underwhelming the photo is!). It was over 1cm across and now it's gone. Very pleased with how it came out. Love a new technique! #TinyJoys

A close up of the fabric of a black t-shirt. There's an area of fabric about 2cm across, in the middle where the texture is slightly different, but other than that, there really isn't a lot to see!

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jul 2

Norris guarding the yarn that she *definitely* hasn't just chased across the floor and unraveled.

A tabby and white cat making a loaf shape on top of a tangle of thick red t-shirt yarn. Totally not responsible for the tangle being there in the first place. Why would you even think that??

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 29

Just looking after it, till someone comes to pick it up.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 29

"It was like this when I got here. Honest, gov"

A tabby and white cat is lying on a carpet. There's a tangle of thick red t-shirt yarn on the floor, which she is sprawled on top of. She is glaring, defiantly at the photographer.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 23

A close up of the middle and a photo of it when half finished, for those who like to see how things are made. Patchwork, reverse applique and some quilting. I recruited my husband and his video projector to help get the labyrinth path traced onto the fabric in the first place.

A close up of the centre of a labyrinth. A green piece of fabric has the path cut into it, revealing a busy piece of random patchwork behind it. Lots of blues and pinks and oranges and yellows.

The same green cloth with patchwork behind it. It's held up to a sunny window, so you can see that the patchwork goes behind the whole of the green top sheet.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 23

Really pleased with how this labyrinth has turned out - and it seems a really fitting image for the room where I meet people for spiritual direction. Churches have been using labyrinths as a aid to prayer for centuries. The cat is very fond of it too. Presumably she's dreaming of being a Minotoar?

A quilted fabric wall hanging, on a wall. It's a plain blue-green fabric background with a labyrinth path cut into it. Where the top fabric is cut away, you can see that there's a second layer behind it, made of brightly coloured patchwork.

The same labyrinth, half folded and lying on the floor. A tabby and white cat is curled up asleep in the centre of it, dreaming mythological dreams.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 16

Using up scraps of yarn. It's reassuring to get to a stage where I can easily try it on and check that it's going to fit. Just the sleeves to knit, the collar to sew down properly and about a million ends to sew in. Progress photo mainly for @crikeys.bsky.social

My torso! Wearing a half knitted jumper, in marled greens and blues, giving a striped effect. As yet, it has no sleeves, and there are loose ends of wool dangling from it.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 14

Our garden got a bit overgrown last year and the ivy made a decent attempt at swallowing up the bird table. When I cleared it yesterday, I found out someone had rather been taking advantage of the situation! I suspect it was last spring, not this one, it doesn't look recently lived in. #TinyJoys

A close up of a wooden bird table with a little roof over it, surrounded by ivy. On the table is a bird nest, beautifully woven together out of very fine twigs.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Jun 5

Here's mine, so far. I can't quite tell yet, if it's going to be baggy in a comfy sort of way, or HUGE! I did a couple of gauge swatches so it should be fine, but I'm not very confident! Once I get past the arm holes, I'm going to take it off the needle and try it on, just to reassure myself.

A partially knitted jumper, knitted from the top down, all in one piece. It's got stripes of various shades of blue, grey and green all blended together.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· May 26

Algorithms sure do love to preach to the converted 😂 #craftsky

A screenshot of part of a FB page. A video clip is ready to go. There's a pile of tiny, assorted red and white pieces of fabric, with the words "Do not EVER throw out fabric scraps!" appearing over the top of them.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· May 2

A heron sculpture for @everyheron.bsky.social and anyone else who loves them. It lives in a fishpond at the Botanical Gardens in Durham (uk)

A sculpture of a heron, made out what looks like rusty scrap metal. It's standing on a rock, on the edge of a large fishpond

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· May 1

Not actually my pet, but O wish it was..... I was just chatting to one of my kids about early sci-fi aliens, and dug up this very fine definitely-not-just-a-dog-in-a-fluffy-coat example.

Two screenshots front Star Trek, the original series. The alien creature looks suspiciously like a small dog, wrapped in fake fur, with a horn on his head. Held by Spock in the 1st photo, just on his own, in the second

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 26

Resewn armpit. Mainly just sewing up the seam that had come unstitched, but also some extra stitches to give me a stronger edge to sew into.

Where the arm meets the main body of the jumper. The seam has been sewn back up with a paler, greyer yarn.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 26

This is where the dropped stitches started. A bit of Swiss darning to recreate the broken threads and reinforce the worn bits.

The shoulder and neckline of the jumper. One patch is a slightly paler, greyer colour, where a patch of Swiss darning has recreated missing stitches

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 26

Armpit issues

The seam where the arm of the jumper meets the main body. A hole about 3 inches in length and some loose ends showing

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 26

A good start and a mending progress photo. 1 crochet hook per column of dropped stitches, working them back up. A sheet of paper between the front and back so I don't accidentally hook through the back layer and join front to back!

A close up of the ladder in the jumper. There are 2 columns of dropped stitches. The topmost stitch of each has a crochet hook through it. There's a sheet of paper between the front and back layer of knitting

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 26

Next mending project. This one looks like a fun challenge. The yarn shop where I've been teaching mending sent it my way, when a customer came in with it saying "Please help!" The ladders are the most dramatic damage. There's also an armpit hole and a few other smaller issues

A jumper knitted with speckled cream wool. Down the front are two long and wide ladders, where a stitch has broken and its started to unravel.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 9

Pretty pleased with how it came out. It's not quite an invisible mend - but it's not far off.

The neckline of the cardigan, after it's been mended. There's a patch about a cm by a cm, where the stitching looks distorted, but otherwise, the hole is gone. It's not quite an invisible mend, but it's not far off!

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 9

I think the damage was caused by something snagging on the label and pulling it, because it's right along the edge of it, and there's no thinning around the hole, so it's a tear, rather than gradual rubbing. The placement of the label made it a little awkward to darn, but it worked.

The back of the neck, of the pink cardigan. You can see the label, (which reads "Pure Cashmere" and "John Lewis"). The hole is just down the side of the label, where it is sewn onto the knitted fabric.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 9

I changed my mind about the thread to use, and went with the one that's on the far left (the middle one). It was significantly finer and I ended up preferring it.

A finely knit fuchsia pink cashmere cardigan is pinned onto a block of foam, through a sheet of paper. A needle and thread are ready, to start darning the small hole in the middle of it, where the ribbing meets the main body of the knit.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 8

Visible mending will always be my favourite, but there's a lot of satisfaction in making a mend as discrete as possible, too. I've rummaging in my stash to see what might be a good colour match for this cashmere cardigan. What do you reckon?

A fuchsia pink cashmere cardigan lies folded on a wooden table. Behind it are a selection of different pink yarns, all hoping to get selected for this darning task.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Apr 4

Tiny jumper, just because I'm between bigger knitting projects and it looked fun. And sometimes it's helpful to have something to do with my hands.

A tiny striped knitted jumper, smaller than the palm of the hand that holds it.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 31

The soundtrack to my walk home from church this evening. (The mist joy-giving app!) #TinyJoys

À screenshot from the Merlin App, showing 3 birds have been detected by their song: a robin, a blackbird and a song thrush

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 29

Anyone else have a cat who is obsessed with Palm Crosses? Norris has just successfully stolen a couple that were carefully stashed about 6 feet above her head height. (I have reclaimed them and hidden them better) I should not have let her watch me, as I put them there!

A blue felt covered notice board, attached to a wall in a corridor. It's got some rotas, some postcard, some fabric bits and bobs and at the top, well out of reach of a cat, some palm crosses, from previous years. Unfortunately, a tabby and white cat doesn't know they are supposed to be out of reach and has launched herself on to the notice board, with a mighty leap, then a scramble, then a tumble, with her loot.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 27

This dropped piece of string that looks like it's doing a little dance. Made me smile on my walk to work this morning #TinyJoys

A green piece of string dropped on a tarmac pavement. The frayed ends make it look like a stick person doing a groovy damce

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 21

I'm currently leading a day retreat at a castle and our host just brought these daffodils in and placed them in a patch of sunshine. Breathtaking loveliness #TinyJoys

A glass vase with a large number of daffodils in, on a simple modern table, in a patch of sunlight. The background is a dark wooden cabinet, which just emphasises the glorious brightness of the yellow.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 18

Rook! So big and black and fierce looking, right on my window sill! Look at that beak! The #tinyjoys hashtag doesn't seem quite right for something of this size. There are another 2 nearby, watching. They keep flying in and scuffling in an attempt to take possession of the bird table.

A view through a dirty window. There's a huge black bird, with a rough looking grey beak, taking up all the space on a small shelf outside the window, with bird food on it.

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 18

Awfully glad they clarified that. Now....how do I get the biro marks off the screen?

The screen of a Kindle E-reader. Text on the screen reads "Write-On Pages! Any references to "writing in this book" refer to the original printed version. Readers should write on a separate piece of paper in these instances"

Claire Cullingworth@ccullingworth· Mar 10

She wants to help with the spinning. But she may not. So she sits and yearns.