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Monday 10:30am - 6pm Tuesday 10:30am - 6pm Wednesday 10:30am - 6pm Thursday 10:30am - 6pm Friday 10:30am - 6pm

http://www.midgetworkshop.co.uk/

The Midget Workshop, Basingstoke (2026)

25/05/2026

Hello my Lovelies!

💜 Happy Glorious 25th of May to All of Us Who Wear the Lilac Today! 💜

Today is a special day for Discworld fans around the world, where we honour those who died defending the People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road, and honour all things Terry Pratchett. So it seems like a fitting day to share pictures of my most recent Tiny A'Tuin, who finally swam their way, at the start of May, to the awesome person who introduced me to Discworld when I was around 11. I set foot on Discworld soil for the first time in the summer of 1992, and I haven't left since.

Indeed it was the love of Discworld that made me want to learn how to crochet amigurumi in the first place. After we lost Sir Terry in 2015, there was a great coming together of his fans, many of whom have become very dear friends. One of those friends sent out Discworld related charms to anyone who wanted some, and I decided I wanted to make them something to send them in return. The first Tiny A'Tuin still lives in The Workshop (complete with a Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons badge), and two more live in The Teen's room, and accompanied him on lots of adventures when he was small. I lost count of how many of those first Tiny A'Tuins I made in the end, but I think I almost managed to get at least one onto every Roundworld continent.

I came back to crocheting Tiny A'Tuins three years ago, when I gifted one to David Tennant for his amazing portrayal of Crowley in Good Omens. My crochet skills had come on a fair bit in all that time, and it had always bugged me that the shape of the OG Tiny A'Tuins didn't match the shape of the ones Terry drew. In the end I found an excellent pattern designed by June Gilbank of June that was a much closer shape match, and with the help of Paul Kidby Official Page 's gorgeous Great A'Tuin artwork to get the colours as right as I could, I set to work. I've hooked three more of the new version since I finished the first one, and I added a brooch back to each of them so they could be worn on a black hat, or attached to anything that needed a wee Discworld reminder. I need to hook at least two more at some point for myself and The Teen - who is himself a huge Discworld fan.¹

This little turtle was hooked using Stylecraft Yarns' Special DK, is approximately 65x50mm, and took me 6 hours and 26 minutes to complete.

Whatever you're up to on this glorious day, I hope you find time for a favourite story, along with...

Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably Priced Love! And A Hard Boiled Egg!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

¹Which is just as well, as he's named in large part after one of my favourite Discworld characters.

04/05/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
I hope you're all well, and that Monday is being kind to you so far!

🌟Happy Star Wars Day!!🌟
For the first time in a few years, I actually have a Star Wars make to share with you all today! Last September The Teen went abroad for the first time with his school - an exchange trip to Holland - and understandably his number 2 cuddly¹, a Porg by the name of Patrick, got to stay home with us for the first time ever. We have a long standing family tradition of hiding/smuggling tiny bears into The Teen's packing back when we went on family holidays (which always led to glee in The Teen, and exaggerated exasperation in Mr M), so I decided to crochet him a tiny set of Porgs to carry on the tradition. I figured they were tiny enough to be easily hidden, so they could remain secret if The Teen wanted them to, but big enough to know that we were thinking of him while he was away.

Well, they apparently took a lot of finding in the end, but went down really well with The Teen and the lads he was sharing a room with ☺️ Of course, that meant that Patrick suddenly had triplets when The Teen came home, and they have now become known as Patrick's Dutch Children. We're not entirely sure how Patrick feels about this instant family - especially as they don't speak the same language, and Patrick refuses to borrow The Teen's Duolingo app to learn Dutch as he has beef with the Duolingo owl... Porgs are complicated birds with a penchant for grudges, it would seem 😂🤣😂

This awesome little pattern was designed by the even more awesome LucyRavenscar Crochet Creatures. Each tiny Porg has been crocheted using Stylecraft Special, is 45mm high, and took me around six hours to complete.

May the Force be with you, always!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

¹Monkey, who is two months younger than The Teen and has always held the Cuddly Number 1 top spot, has sadly been too fragile for Adventures for a while now. He's needed a fair amount of darning over the years, but is always an excellent patient, and still rocks his R2-D2 hoody with great joy.

14/04/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
I hope the start of the week has been kind and that all is well with you! It was back to work and school for us yesterday, which is always a bit sucky. I spent the morning with the Lyford Massif having infusion number four of 2026; it's always such a joy to see everyone there, and I was extra lucky as one of the lovely nurses who had moved on to a different ward was back for the day.

I've been having infusion treatments for my RA every four weeks for six and a half years now, and many of the nurses and patients I've met there have become like family to me. I suffer from really bad anxiety when it comes to medical appointments thanks to various nasty experiences over the last 27 years I've had RA, and whilst my BP results don't back me up on this, Lyford Ward is one of the few places I feel safe whenever I'm there. This is thanks in huge part to the wonderful staff who run the ward with such kindness and care.

As mentioned in my last post way back at the end of the March, April's Dorset Button Colour of the Month is... 💚💚GREEN💚💚!! Just like the blue shades, there are ten shades of green to choose from (much to The Teen's delight), and they all look so beautiful stitched in 2023's pattern of the year, the Steampunk Daisy. This gorgeous pattern was designed by Jen Best of Beaker Button, and is used with her incredibly kind permission.

Every 16mm button is hand sewn by me using traditional techniques and WonderFil Specialty Threads' 100% Egyptian cotton, which provides beautiful stitch definition and a lovely sheen. The finishing touch is a seed bead sewn into each centre, to add an extra bit of sparkle! Available as stitch markers, earrings, pendants, and actual buttons on request, every Steampunk Daisy button is a tiny piece of portable, historic art that takes around two hours of work to complete.

I'm back off to my blanket fort with The Workshop Woof to rest my way through today's side effects from yesterday, in front of a good (or entertainingly bad - I've not decided yet) film or two. Whatever you're up to today, I hope that it includes something that brings you joy!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

31/03/2026

Hello my Loves!
How are you all? I hope the last day of March is treating you well!

As promised, here is the TMW Dorset button pattern of 2026... the Daisy Chain!! This is a pattern designed by Dorset button champion, Jen Best of Beaker Button (used with her very kind permission), and is one of the traditional Dorset button patterns originating from the early 17th century! This pattern makes my inner historian especially happy 🥰

It's also the first pattern in TMW that has a direction to it. Up until this point, I've sewn all of my buttons in a clockwise direction, and as all the patterns I've used so far have been symmetrical, I didn't need to change anything when it came to making earrings. Now, I'm one of those people who very much prefers my earrings to be mirror images of themselves if they're not symmetrical. Therefore I've taught myself to sew this design anticlockwise as well as clockwise - in the parlance of my youth, it really twisted my melon, man! So if you treat yourself to a pair of Daisy Chain earrings then you'll receive a mirror imaged pair 🥰 Of course, if you'd rather have them both going in the same direction, that's awesome too and easy to achieve - just drop me a message with your order.

These Daisy Chain buttons are now live in ❤️All The Reds❤️ AND 💛All The Yellows💛!! They are 16mm in diameter, all hand sewn by me using traditional techniques and WonderFil Specialty Threads' 100% Egyptian cotton, which adds a beautiful sheen and stitch definition to every one. Each one takes me around an hour and forty minutes to make, and is finished with a seed bead centre to add a bit of extra sparkle. They are incredibly light to both wear and use, and are tiny pieces of historical art. They are currently available as stitch markers, earrings, pendants, and actual buttons on request.

The colour for April is green, and WonderFil has been especially generous in the amount of greens they provide - like the blues, there are ten shades of green for me to work through. My green obsessed Teen is delighted! 😂 Currently the Steampunk Daisy pattern is the only one available in green, as thanks to various ops and RA flares I haven't made it through the full pattern sets in this colour as yet. So there'll (hopefully) be three patterns hitting TMW next month. I'm also hoping to work on some amigurumi pieces too. I've got so many projects swirling round my head all the time, but never enough matches to make them - it's one of my biggest frustrations with being chronically ill!! Luckily I'm fairly patient - I'll pin 'em all down eventually 😉

Have a lovely evening everyone!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

30/03/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
I hope Monday has treated you all well! Bit of a late post from me today, but March isn't hanging around...

Here's a little reminder of the Dorset Button Pattern for 2025 - the Mandala - 💛In All The Yellows💛! This is another of my own designs, and a TMW exclusive. As with all my buttons, each one is hand sewn by me, with these beauties taking around an hour and forty-five minutes to complete every one. They are 16mm in size, have been sewn using WonderFil Specialty Threads' 100% Egyptian cotton using traditional techniques, and are finished with a seed bead centre to add an extra bit of sparkle. They make incredibly light stitch markers and so are perfect for knitting and crochet projects (and who among us can say we ever have enough stitch markers!), and are so easy to wear as earrings and pendants. I can even make them into usable buttons on request.

It's a flying stop for today, but tomorrow I'll be launching the Dorset button pattern of 2026, which is rather exciting! I hope you all have a lovely evening in the meantime - see you tomorrow!!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

29/03/2026

Hello my Lovelies!!
Hope you're all having a great weekend!

March is definitely running away from me, so here's a little reminder of 2024's Dorset button pattern in 💛All the Yellows💛! This is my Floating Flower design, which is a TMW exclusive; I don't sell my patterns, for a multitude of reasons, so if you love this design, here should be the only place you'll find it.

As always, these 16mm buttons have all been hand sewn by me, using WonderFil Specialty Threads' 100% Egyptian cotton, and finished with a seed bead centre. Each one takes me approximately an hour and a half to make. They're exceptionally light, which means they won't drag on your knitting or crochet projects, and are also very easy to wear as pieces of jewellery. They have been crafted using heritage skills that are hundreds of years old, which not only makes each one a tiny piece of art, but also a tiny piece of history, too - this really makes my inner historian very happy!

My Dorset buttons are available as stitch markers (the perfect gift for the knitter/hooker in your life - I can guarantee you there's no such thing as too many stitch markers!), earrings, pendants and actual buttons on request. Remember to message me before you order if you live in the Basingstoke area to save on postage. Links to where everything can be found are in the comments.

Whatever you're up to today, I hope today contains something that makes you smile!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

26/03/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
How's your week going? Hope all is good with you all! March has been full of Monday appointments for me; four Mondays in a row there's been something stressful to face, three of which have been medical appointments. One Monday I achieved a personal best of two medical appointments in one day - I'm not rushing to do that one again in a hurry, I can tell you! Thankfully I'm done for what remains of March, before the next lot of appointments arrive in April. Once again, chronic illness - zero stars, would not recommend.

I crocheted these little cuties back in the summer of 2023 as commissioned end of year gifts for a teaching team in the area - guess what their class was called 😉 These cubs¹ are the mini version of Little Bear Crochets' fox pattern, were around 100mm tall a piece, and took me around nineteen hours each to complete. The school's uniform colour is green, so each little cub got a tiny green Dorset button necklace to help make them feel extra fancy. The buttons themselves are around 10mm, and have not only been sewn using WonderFil Specialty Threads' 100% Egyptian cotton, but also their super thin glow in the dark thread too. Each button is finished with a tiny seed bead to keep the button as a whole in proportion. I wanted to make the buttons glow in the dark to represent how the teaching team lit the way for their students throughout their year with them, but it also turned out that the cubs were a little afraid of the dark, so were extra pleased to have their own little light with them always, too.

Well, it's back to sewing buttons for me. Whatever you're up to today, I hope you find something that makes you smile along the way.
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

¹I questioned myself on whether baby foxes were indeed called cubs as I remembered (shout out to fellow readers of Prince of the Dustbins in the 80s), and whilst they are, they're also called pups and kits, because baby foxes are just too fabulous to have only one name.

17/03/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
How's your week going so far? Hope all is well with you all. Not content with having an infusion up at the hospital yesterday (shout out to the Lyford massif!), I decided a really early morning appointment with my favourite medical centre nurse before my infusion was also a good plan. I was so worried about not waking up in time for my nurse appointment that I basically didn't sleep the night before, and then went and put my body through a whole load of medical stuff, with a bit extra on top. Quite rightly, my body is flipping me the bird today, and so I'm now under a duvet on the sofa with the Workshop Woof, waiting for the amped up side effects to foxtrot oscar. So, while I wait, how about I show you some currently available Dorset buttons?

The colour of the month for March is...
💛💛YELLOW💛💛
Two of my favourite people not only have their birthdays in March, they also share yellow as their favourite colour, so March just had to be yellow! Here are All The Yellows in Jen Best of Beaker Button 's Steampunk Daisy pattern, which I am using with her very kind permission. WonderFil Specialty Threads has some really gorgeous yellow shades that bring such a lovely glow to my Dorset buttons - the bright and buttery shades are a joy to work with, and have the beautiful sheen that all the 100% Egyptian cotton threads have in this collection.

Each 16mm button is hand sewn by me using traditional techniques and WonderFil's 100% Egyptian cotton thread, is finished with a beaded centre, and takes me around two and a half hours to complete. My Dorset buttons are currently available as stitch markers, earrings, pendants, and actual buttons on request. They are incredibly light to both wear and use for all of your yarny projects, and are a perfect piece of portable history!

Whatever you're up to today I hope there's time for something fun!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

10/03/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
How are you all? I can't believe it's the 10th of March already - another month zooming by! I finished the 2026 Dorset button pattern - yet to be revealed - in All The Reds one day before February ended, but annoyingly I haven't been non-flarey enough to get their photos taken ever since. Hopefully I'll be able to sit at my desk relatively pain free again soon, but in the meantime I'm making good progress with the 2026 pattern in March's colour...

Meanwhile, this little cutie has been patiently waiting ages for their share on my page! This little guinea pig was a Thank You make for a wonderful person who has had a huge impact on The Teen's musical life. The lovely lady in question retired last summer, and whilst that retirement is incredibly well deserved, we definitely miss seeing her during rehearsals and performances.

As those of you who have been around for a while know, when a teacher or someone special in The Teen's life moves on to pastures new, they get asked what their favourite colour is, and what their favourite animal is, so I can hook them a thank you... Now, we love guinea pigs in this house, having had five house guinea pigs over the years, so I know how hard it is to get these furry potatoes right when it comes to recreating them in pieces of art and cuddly toys. So I have to admit I internally panicked a little when the answers to my two questions for this thank you were purple, and guinea pig. Thankfully, an awesome pattern designed by Kirsty Loops came to my rescue!

I was genuinely chuffed with how this little cavy turned out in the end, and we all found them hard to say goodbye to. They've gone to an exceptionally good home though, and that always makes goodbyes much, much easier. And yes, I have been asked to hook one in green¹, which is the surest sign we have of a Good Make in The Workshop! Apparently the felt squeakies I sewed for The Teen about eleven years ago need a new friend ☺️

Edited to add: I'm trying (and in this case, failing) to remember to add how long each make of mine takes. There are two reasons for this: 1) it's something I used to always add when I put my albums together at the end of each year, and now that I'm catching up and building the albums as I go, it's something I want to carry on with from a personal interest point of view, and b) I think a lot of fibre art skills are incredibly undervalued, for a multitude of reasons that I won't get my soap box out for right now, and that hopefully by sharing how long a piece takes me to finish will provide an insight into how much time I invest into every one of my makes. It's also worth pointing out that there currently is no machine capable of making crocheted items. Every piece of crochet you see in online shops and on the high street will have been crocheted by hand. If that piece of crocheted clothing you pick up is incredibly cheap, then someone, somewhere, will not have been paid properly for their skill, or their time. With that all said...
This cutie of a cavy took me just over 14 hours to complete 💜

Wishing you all a lovely evening, and hoping the rest of your week includes lots of little bits of magic!
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

¹The Teen's favourite colour.

27/02/2026

Hello my Lovelies!
Welcome to Friday - hope you've all had a good week! It's another grey old day here in Basingstoke, and I'm still feeling really wiped out from the weekend's RA flare. But today is International Polar Bear Day, as well as International Pokémon Day, so it's hard to feel too down about things.

To add some extra brightness to today, here are All The Reds that WonderFil Specialty Threads has to offer in the 100% Egyptian cotton thread collection that I use to hand sew my Dorset buttons, in 2025's button pattern. I love this thread in particular because of the gorgeous sheen that it gives to the finish of my buttons - which is frustratingly hard to capture in photos!

2025's Dorset button pattern was the Mandala pattern, which is the second pattern of my own design, making it another TMW exclusive 🥳 As with all the Dorset buttons in this series, each 16mm button has been hand sewn by myself, and has been finished with a beaded centre to add a little extra sparkle. Every button is available as stitch markers, earrings, pendants, and actual buttons on request. If you live in the Basingstoke area, please drop me a message before you order to save on postage costs.

Whatever you're up to today, I hope it involves polar bears and Pokémon - although not necessarily at the same time...
Love and Yarny Hugs
Cheryl ###

The Midget Workshop

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31/03/2026

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Monday	10:30am - 6pm
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