Our meeting on March 27th, only the second meeting of the Sotonettes and our first proper activity since becoming a WI, was Speed Crafting!
Speed Crafting was our WI take on speed dating, a lot of tables with different crafty activities to try out for 20 minutes, before moving on to the next craft! While a lot of us were already quite crafty, there were also a lot of ladies who definitely didn’t feel very crafty, or hadn’t tried out some of the crafts on offer before. This was a great way to get people involved in trying out something they hadn’t tried before, maybe learn a new skill, discover a passion for craft they didn’t know they had and, if nothing else, have some fun with new and old friends!
At the start of the meeting, two police officers from Hampshire constabulary and Katie from Southampton Rape Crisis were kind enough to come along and give us a talk on personal safety in Southampton. On the night after our first meeting there were 3 attacks on women around the city, which really brought home the need to be safe in getting around after dark. Please stay safe when travelling to our meetings, if you travel alone and are worried let us know and we can try to pair you up with someone travelling in your direction.
After the announcements, it was time to get down to all the fun of speed crafting. There was an origami table, with our own committee member Christabel teaching us how to make origami stars and cranes from old magazines. Our president Emma showed us how to make really simple roses out of felt and corsages out of tape measures. Out campaigns lady, Hannah, was on the Days for Girls table, telling us all about the campaign and how to get involved – from donating bags, soaps and fabric, to cutting out patterns and sewing the sanitary items together. As well as our own committee members, we had Sarah Filmer come along with and her Blue Jumper knitting project and showing people how to knit, as well as Tina Adams showing us how to make and decorate cards, including some fancy heat embossing.
The whistle was blown and we all got crafting. It certainly seemed like everyone really enjoyed everything they got to try out, and got to take home some of their own beautiful creations (how often can you say that about Speed Dating?). After 20 minutes, the whistle went again, and we all moved on to the next craft table. While 20 minutes might not seem like a long time to learn a craft or create something, it was great to get a taster of so many different crafts that you could try again at home – I know some of you have definitely been giving them a go since the meeting, next time we’ll all be decked out in felt flowers, origami stars and knitted scarves (or is that just me?).
If you really enjoyed a particular craft, didn’t feel you had enough time to learn properly or would like to try something we didn’t have on the night – don’t forget we have our ‘Ideas Line’ up at meetings where you can make suggestions for things you’d like to do with us in future.
The blog has developed quite a lot lately. We now have a galleries tab, with pictures from past events and meetings. If you have taken any pictures you would like to have added to a gallery, email them to us and let us know who is in them and when they were taken.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 24th April. If you have any questions about us, our meetings or becoming a member; leave a comment here, visit our facebook or website, or email info@sotonettes.co.uk.
We hope to see you at our next meeting,
Sotonettes
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