a little bit of catching up

As we are now well into the new year it is about time for me to write some more about the things I have been doing. In the autumn I visited the ExCel for a craft show. One of the stalls offered the chance to enamel a pendant. I haven't done enameling since I left school in 1970. So it was fun to see if I would get a decent result after all these years. Here is the result, and not bad if I say so myself

Now, what else have I been doing? Trying to use as much stash as possible, I started knitting. Some time ago someone mentioned a 'blankie' or comfort blanket. It didn't mean a thing to me, but when I did a search for it I found a really lovely pattern for a sheep using Aran yarn. So I ended up making 2 which went to a good home immediately. (I always have these good intentions to add something I made to my listings on eBid) Recently I came across this lovely baby yarn in a bright yellow and it just screamed 'duck blankie' at me. So I went about adaping the pattern I had and the lamb became a duck.

Looking at the lamb now, I can see a monkey. Where is that brown chunky wool?

blood, sweat, but no tears

My latest project, finished yesterday, is this basket. Not much to look at, but here is the history: About 4 years ago I started having vegetables delivered weekly. (most weeks, anyway) They come in a box tied with two pieces of string/ cotton twine. So I started to collect them as 'might come in useful' . As the ball grew, I was thinking what it could be used for. I had a go at knitting and crochet, but found it too tedious as they were comparatively short length. Then I thought Kumihimo and it worked. It was quite easy to join the pieces while working and the cord produced was nice and firm. After 7+ meters I had enough of doing that and finished it off, rolled it up and put it to one side. Well, what to do with it now? At first I thought soles for slippers, then a bag maybe, and then I saw storage baskets somewhere and I decided that is what I will do. I had enough string left for doing the sewing and it took me 3 days and a sore finger and thumb to sew it together. Kumihimo cord is really very dense and it was virtually impossible to push the needle through the cord. It had to go between the layers. A thimble would have been very useful (this is where the blood comes in) but I haven't got one -yet. The finished basket measures 8½ cm Ø at the base and 11 cm Ø at the top. So there you are - a basket made from pieces of string

My first 'real' quilt

Well, we are now in August and I had a 3 week holiday visiting my family in Germany and also travelling from there through France to Jersey. Although the drive was very hot it was interesting as we took a route on smaller roads avoiding the roads you have to pay for using. Since coming home I have lacked the inclination to make anything until last week I made a patchwork quilt, almost 80 cm square. The first really big item since starting on this road (it really is addictive) The coloured fabric is from a sample book which I had for years and the pieces were never quite big enough. Well, it worked for this and I still have some left. I admit to being scared when it came to putting the layers together and I know this is far from perfect, but the experience was a good one and I am willing to try again. Now I would like some suggestions of what to do with it. It could be used as a pram quilt, but I don't know any pram users. So please post your ideas. I'd be grateful.

makes for YDC 132 May 2015

A little time has passed and I promised I would promote the YDC auctions this time round. And they started yesterday on ebid.net ,but there is still time to involve yourself by bidding as they will finish on the 28th of the month. It's a special one to the memory of tiskets / Leslie's daughter, who died recently and the nominated charity (that changes every month) is Mary Ann Evans Hospice
Anyway, this month I have listed quite a few of my 'makes' so will share a few. Still on the patchwork there is a book cover. I do like crazy patchwork as you can use all sorts of small bits of fabric

Next there are 2 sets of place mats, both starting as a 9 patch block which is cut and reassembled. Again nice and easy and I think very effective. (note to patchworkers: if I get any terminology wrong, please tell me. I am still a novice)

Next is a mug hug, although not as you know it. It ties around a mug and has a number of pockets to hold pens, scissors, ruler and what else you want handy on your desk. The beauty of this is the mug can have a crack or missing it's handle. I have made several of these, but so far I don't own one myself. But I will....

Now something completely different: book folding. I have seen a few examples of this and found it quite intriguing. I then found a CD with instructions and decided to give it a try. I have done several now and learned that a hard backed book gives better results than paperbacks. Also if it is an old book, the paper can be quite brittle, so care needs to be taken not to tear the pages. Anyway, here is my very first one, also listed in the YDC

That is all for now. Not sure what the next project will be. Maybe I will at long last get back to making bobbin lace. I have a UFO I started about 20 years ago, so I think it's time for me to get back to it

Once upon a time there was a shirt....

or three to be precise. Cuffs and collars were a little worn, but the rest was still very good. Lovely cotton (and a pain to iron) but the owner had lost too much weight to wear them. I spent some time thinking about various ways to do something with them and one night, just before dropping off to sleep it came to me - cushion covers. Nothing too difficult, so here are the pictures

The very easy one made from squares and turning the stripes

 The back is just a large square cut from the front of the shirt which gives me the perfect closure for the cover

This was a bit more difficult and time consuming, but still fun to make

                                     

Again the front of the shirt is the back. This time with a pocket. A place to hide the TV control?

                                     
 
Number three was the one that didn't go quite as planned. I guess I got careless and made a wrong cut. So this has an extra seam that shouldn't be there, but unless you are looking for it or are an experienced patchworker, I don't think it is that obvious. I have used pieces from all three shirts and a few scraps from a dress I have just made
        

Again a pocket on the back. Hide the chocolate maybe?

There is still most of the front of the shirt left plus bits and pieces from the other two, so maybe in the future there will be cushion number 4

While I have been upcycling, I turned another pair of jeans into a bag. These were rather large (42" wast, I think) so I unpicked the waistband, added pleats to the main part before attaching the shortened band agin and rounded the corners. This is a very large bag and I am still undecided if I am going to sell it on ebid or keep it myself. But do I need another bag? probably not.......

I am back and a bit quicker than recently. I have now got photos to post of the latest Kumihimo jewellery. (If anyone wants to try , be warned: it is very addictive) The black and the pink one are made from a variety of fancy knitting yarn and the other has seed beads in brown shades added to it. Both the black and the brown will be auctioned off from the 24. March http://uk.ebid.net/perl/main.cgi?type1=a&type2=a&cat=685477&mo=user-store&title=meebo1s-Charity-Store and I have listed the pink one on ebay to see if there is any interest

I won't say any more about my crafty plans, just in case I won't get things done as I plan

Where has the time gone? It's almost a year since I last wrote. So below are photos of some of my projects. The first 3 are Kumihimo braids: 1) bracelet I made in a workshop 2) a necklace where I used different thickness for cord, and 3) my first attempt at using beads as well. Since then I have have acquired a couple of books which give more variations and I have made a couple  that have not been photographed as yet

                                       

 This (below) was yarn from a knitting magazine, but the project didn't appeal to me so made this little purse. The other side has the colours in reverse.

This glass suncatcher is a workshop result. Now I really enjoyed this and had to control myself not to buy the tools and materials. But I really haven't got space for more stuff or the time to use it. If another workshop comes my way I may well do it again. It was fun

Below I have 2 teddies that I knitted. Pierre, the second one, was a cover kit for a knitting magazine and was auctioned on ebid.net for charity (YDC) and Arthur was a pattern I found in a copy of Woman's Weekly which I found when tidying. Arthur went to Italy and if all has gone to plan he is now in Columbia. What I love about both of these, they can stand alone

 

Next is a piece of bobbin lace. I made this during my last 2 visits to Germany. The design for this candle holder included a little class dish and a tealight, but I decided to use a fake, battery light. Much safer

My sister has taken up weaving and also offers a course at her local church. During my last visit in January she asked if I wanted to have a go. Well, I did do some weaving while in school (a rather long time ago) and loved it, so I said : Yes please. Below is the result. It took me parts of 3 days and although the thought was to make a scarf, it is now a runner to protect my sideboard

Now to my first proper attempt at patchwork. I did give it away as a present and there are days when I wish I didn't. I used fabric samples from a Sanderson sample book, so the colours / patterns match perfectly. I followed instruction on a DVD (Jenny Rayment's Texture into Sudoku) I loved the 3 D effect even if there was a fair amount of hand sewing

That will do for today. I am currently using some fancy knitting yarn for Kumihimo braid and promise to post when finished. I also have a Macrameé kit with DVD to work with. So watch this space. I will try very hard not to make this just an annual blog

What can I do?

Well it seems time is running away again.I have been trying my hand at Kumihimo. Years ago I heard a lecture about it and was fascinated and really fancied having a go. But then there wasn't the simple, easy affordable equipment around as you can get now. It is very therapeutic and making the braid itself is not too difficult, once you have got into a rhythm. Now I just have a little problem: my left arm is in plaster since Monday and I have been wondering what I can do to occupy myself. The braiding itself won't be a problem, it's the finishing off that I won't be able to do. Still I will have a go and let you know how I got on.
Last week I visited a craft show in London. I always try to do as many workshops as possible (it saves me money) but as the arm was then in a sling and not plastered, that was not an option. I could only watch, but one of the things I want to do is use some of the fancy sewing machine stitches to decorate a quilted book cover. So that is another idea. Now I need to see to the family, but hopefully have something to report soon

I cannot believe that it is over a year since my last entry. I suppose I am just too busy making things and life in general to write about it. Have I made any crafty mistakes? I am sure I have, though there is nothing outstanding that I feel I need to share with the world. Lets talk about my most recent makes. I was given a challenge to make a football kit for a 6 months old. For such a young child I felt that knitted would be most comfortable and as there were vertical stripes involved I wanted to knit the top sideways. I am not a lover of adapting patterns, but I needed to do this here as the only sideways knitted garments i could find were jackets. And as to shorts .... In the end I used the pattern for dungarees, shortened the legs and left the bib off. The biggest problem was the v neck on the top. It's been a long time since I knitted anything for a small child, so forgot about the (proportionally) big head. I should have left an opening in the back to be closed with a button as any attached neckband made the opening too tight. In the end I knitted the neckband separately as you would often do for machine knitted garments. I will have to wait though till after Christmas to find out if I got all the measurements right. Here is the end result:

I was also asked to knit a cardi / jacket for a 2 year old. I found a really nice one knitted with loops. Now I have done this many many years ago, but could not remember how it was done. OK, the pattern does give instructions, but this was an English pattern and I knit the German way. Most of the time I can figure out how to do it 'my' way, but this time I was really stumped. In the end I had to ask our good friend Google and I found a couple of German 'How to' videos. I was very pleased with the end result, but somehow I don't think I'll be making another in a hurry. It takes soooo much yarn! 

In the summer I bought a small Origami book and was inspired to make a card for one of my nephews. He likes hunting and I wanted to add to his trophies in a small way

I think this is enough for today. I try not to leave it for so long before the next entry

Where does the time go? October is almost over and it's been months since my last entry. So a bit of catching up is in order. Last month I bought a Grand Calibur (manual die cutting and embossing machine) something I had my eye on for some time. And I love it. The dies are expensive, but I am still hoping to sell some of my cards to finance this hobby There is still a lot to learn, but I am beginning to get adventurous. And for that I must thank some of the demonstrators at Create & Craft (TV channel) especially Sue Wilson for Spellbinders encouraging us to look at dies not just as a whole, but taken bits of it, and Ali Reeves  on inks and stamps. There I am just starting out.
Well the first card with the Grand Calibur is the one below, and I am pleased that it sold very soon after listing it for sale on www.ebid.net. Thank you Jan

Not only is this using a very pretty die, but I have used a stamp without smudging.. Now for the next one. New dies to try and also new stamps. I can't believe that it took me almost a week to put this card together. I started with using a large die to emboss black card with the machine. Nice, but not spectacular. Then I remembered seeing embossing powder being used on embossed card. So I inked the card and used gold embossing powder and the heat gun. What a transformation! Still, the rectangular piece of card was not what I wanted, so just in time I received the set of dies with matching rubber stamps. I used the largest on the black & gold card and cut a piece of cream card with one of the smaller dies. Then I stamped on that and while ink was still wet, embossed it with gold. I like it. The very intricate background is a semi circle die, which I fell in love with and then didn't know what to do with it. For a start, it cuts out the pattern, but still stays attached to the card. I also learned how important it is to use a bit of tape to secure the die. I didn't and the die moved. At least the mistakes are not visible and I have learned a lesson. As I said earlier, I spent days moving the pieces around but in the end I finished up with this:

any comments are greatly appreciated

My latest knitted item with beads is a small black and gold lurex knitted bag with the front covered in gold beads. I am trying out Etsy for this one. We will see what happens. But back to the knitting. Because I used fairly small beads, I threaded them on to the lurex thread. Well, I have learned that that wasn't the best idea I have ever had. Knitting with 2 threads twists the yarn in the course of knitting, which is actually a good thing, except when you have to push beads up every so often. So you spend a fair amount of time untwisting the threads, which slows the knitting process down considerably. So the moral of this story is: if you knit with 2 threads and beads, the beads should be on both threads or you could end up throwing the project in a corner in frustration - I came close to it a couple of times. And the back of the bag is plain knit.
Here is the finished item

Knitting can be hazardous to your health

As you may have noticed knitting has been at the top of my activity list. Especially with beads. While at the Olympia fair I chatted with a knitter who was working on pieces for a patchwork blanket. The pieces were knitted over 2 needles effectively knitting the main part and the lining at the same time, but casting on and off as one. I really should have asked her how the casting on was done, but I forgot. Anyway, I thought about this and got the idea that it would be a good way of knitting a bag - naturally with beads. So I cast on twice as many stitches as I wanted and on the first row I knitted one and then slipped one on to another needle and when I got to the end I knitted the slipped stitches - now I was knitting in the round. I did after a while decide it was easier to divide the stitches over 4 needles. Now you may be wondering what is hazardous about that? Well, I knocked my knitting off it's perch without noticing when I got up to get something and as I wasn't looking down on returning to my chair I stepped on the knitting. (I am always bare foot in the house) So I had the dubious pleasure of extracting a needle from my foot. Yes, it did hurt. It's not to be recommended. But it had the effect that I hurried to finish the knitting. And below is the finished article, though it will need to be steamed

The colour hasn't come out very well. It's a random dyed blue sock wool with pale pink seed beads and will be auctioned off this month on ebid.net  from the 24th to the 28th April 2012

Knitting Nancy or French Knitting

We are still in April so I am catching up. Some of you will know that I found an old Nancy recently and had to ask for help on how to use it. Thank you very much to all that did. Shortly afterwards the craft show at Olympia had a workshop on French Knitting with beads. I signed up for it and , oh boy, am I hooked. It's such an easy thing to do while watching TV, so I am not getting anything else done. In the workshop we learned 3 different ways of using beads: 2 where the beads are threaded on the yarn before use and one where the beads are added after. Now you cannot complete 3 projects in an hour long workshop, so we only made samples which I turned yesterday into keyrings: 

The first has a small bead between every stitch

The second has  large beads inserted into the finished knitted tube with pony beads in between 

and the third has one largish bead between the first and second stitch

Now with the fast approaching YDC charity auctions on ebid.net I thought I might try and raise some pennies with knitted jewellery (I like to try and offer something unique if I can) So this is what I have produced to date

This is knitted in black lurex with a crystal bead every four rows

Black lurex again with 3 green seed beads between each stitch every other row. I have made earrings to go with this, but I haven't received the findings yet

This is the insertion method. Black lurex, dark wooden beads and sparkly clear pony beads

This was the first one made from green DK yarn and square glass beads

this is red lurex yarn with the inserted wooden beads and pony beads

I have one more finished necklace and matching bracelet. This time it is the black lurex and the green seed beads again , but a single bead between each stitch every other row. The effect is quite different. (sorry, no photo yet) I have a few ideas on how to vary the spacing and type of beads to use, but right now I have run out of beads!

more workshops

We are now in April and I seem to have missed the month of March. So let's go back to the workshops. No 2 was hosted by a lady calling herself and her business The Stitchwitch. She deals mainly with patchwork and quilting, so this is reflected in her workshops. This time we did something, that wasn't new to me, although I didn't know it at the time of booking. For the life of me I cannot remember what she called this, but in German it is known as Artischockentechnik. (artichoke technique) I learned to do this with pieces of ribbon, but here we worked with squares of folded fabric. I have been trying to find the finished item to remind myself of how it was done (it differed from the way I learned it) but can't find it. But here is a photo I took much earlier

The folded fabric pieces are pinned to a polystyrene shape (in this case an egg) which can be hung or used as table decoration. And you can see from the picture that it resembles somewhat an artichoke

The last workshop on this day was bead embroidery. But that I haven't touched yet, so that is something I need to finish in the next few days. And of course I have been to another craft fair last month. This time at Olympia and managed to get 3 workshops in: card making run by Debbie Moore, Hardanger for the terrified (I wasn't) and French knitting with beads. I have also knitted an orange and a purple wig, and auctioned off a quilted wall hanging for charity.

excuse the model for the hair