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