Little projects

Although I'm technically still making a blanket (which is definitely not a little project) it's become side lined with all the little things I've been making instead ♥

My mum kindly took these photos for me of the present I made her for mothers day.  The pattern is
Amigurumi Potted Plant by Lion Brand, which according to Ravelry I saved three years ago!  It always helps to save things for later x

You can sneakily peak my parents garden in the background, it's absolutely lush and they've spent a lot of time on it, especially in the last couple of years.  We had a BBQ at the weekend, after an initial technical hitch because we didn't have fire lighters we threw on a whole bag of kindling (overkill?) and I've got to say we did pretty well!  My Dad was the most relieved because his last BBQ took about 4 hours and I think the food ended up being oven cooked because the coals didn't get hot!

J & I went to London last weekend and spotted on the Underground that the Olympic park is now open (and free) so we decided to have a visit.

I really like what they've done with the landscaping because it's not at all formal and there are lots of wild flowers to encourage wildlife





The park was absolutely packed so although it was a bit too busy it's nice to see the area being used.  I'm pretty sure that before 2012 (and before construction began) it was a bit of a wasteland here so to be able to enjoy it now is quite lovely.

I'm still disappointed that this isn't actually a roller coaster.

I think the helter skelter was £6 to go on, which if you ask me is a complete rip off.  I went on one two years ago at Tatton Park flower show for about a pound!  Grrrr

Despite the pricey food (bring a picnic) there is loads of cool stuff for kids like a climbing wall, fountains and play areas

Back at home my Dad helped me to put together a charm bracelet.  I only asked him for some pliers or something to help pull apart the jump rings and he came back with about 5 different tools, a stand to hold the chain with a magnifying glass and solder.  Result!

This is my first attempt at jewellery making and while it was incredibly frustrating at first, and I stabbed myself with some pliers between the eyes (luckily not in the eyes) I quite enjoyed it.  Actually no I didn't, I liked it when it was finished!!

Sadly it was not made for me and has been given to F for her birthday.  She's a music teacher and her girlfriend is really into tennis so I was lucky to find the most appropriate charms!

I had to make the little rings above the flowers on the end (this is how I stabbed myself) but look how neat!!  Not bad for a first go?

They're all soldered into place to keep them from falling off, no corners were cut here where my Dad was concerned!

Alas I think weekend chores are calling :-(  We had a good old tidy a few weeks ago to be slightly more presentable when the first of our friends came to visit, but now it's state again!

x x x x

P.S I met little O at the weekend and my friends really loved his presents! ♥

Button Bracelets Tutorial

I'm not sure how many people want to make one of these but I think they're great, and with Christmas coming up I thought it might be a good present to make for kids and big kids like me :-)  I'm going to make another in red and green.

First things first then, you need some stuff.  Hopefully you have most of it in your crafty stash!  If not then what better excuse to go shopping, but as the idea of this is to recycle why not see if you've got anything around the house.  Old clothes you can cut the buttons off?

1 :: Buttons
2 :: Elastic thread

I bought mine from the Rubbish Revamped ladies because I suspected I wouldn't get out to buy any, but you can get probably it in any decent craft shop or on the tinternet

3 :: Scissors
4 :: Something to hold the end of the elastic.  I'm using little wooden pegs (because they're cute) but paperclips would be just fine

Start by cutting your elastic thread, I used about 25/30 cm because your thread needs to weave in an out of the buttons and you need to tie it off, so it's probably more than you'd think.  Secure the end with your peg/clip.

Now for the real fun...  Start choosing your buttons!!

I already made a medium sized bracelet so I'm going to pick out the smallest ones but you can choose whatever you want.  Alternating sizes look pretty cool.

Most buttons have four holes so you want to thread diagonally across these, like the dark green button on the end.  Make sure you thread from the back as well, unless (as I found) some buttons are actually prettier on the back, then thread those from the front instead.

Another tip, if you want your buttons to alternate in colour like this, you need to thread two of the same colour at a a time; red, red, green, green.  If you thread red, green, red, green you'll get all your red on one side and all your green on the other, but this is equally as lovely.

My favourite thing is picking out interesting buttons.  I love this ♥  You can also layer two buttons together like this for a centre piece (makes a great ring too).

When you're done snip both ends until they're the same length.  Another tip, if you want to keep the length but one side is longer than the other, slide some buttons off and put them on the longer side

Now for the hard bit...  Knotting!  I hate this bit, I found it quite hard, but no pain no gain?  You'll want to hold the two pieces together and do an 'overhand knot' rather than a shoelace type knot because it will probably come undone and then there'll be buttons everywhere.

But now you're done!

You can blob some clear nail varnish on the knot if you want just to hold everything together

Wear, enjoy, make yourself a brew and congratulation yourself on being a master of craft ;-)

x x x x

Rubbish, Revamped!

Yesterday I went along to a series of drop in workshops run by a group called Rubbish Revamped who were training some of our WI to make things out of pre-used, pre-loved and pre-worn stuff. Their motto is 'Reduce, Reuse, Revamp, Recycle' and they're a fabulous bunch of ladies who seem to be able to make anything out of anything!


My first workshop( and the one I was most looking forward to) was button jewellery ♥

I bought along some of my own Papermania buttons in red and green, the same I used for my upcycled skirt.


I can't rate these buttons enough! For £3 you get so many! I quite like that lots of them are patterned or have writing on them so you can end up with something quite funky.  I've not been paid to say that, but Papermania if you're listening feel free to send me more ;-)


I was quite excited by my creation! I've told J at least three times, "Look I made this!!" and he's humoured me so far. I hear though that there are people out there who have button phobias, and can't stand anything with buttons on them! I can imagine that would make life quite difficult. Jeans? Nope!

I bought some of the elastic so I could make more at home.  It probably only took 15 minutes and that included getting a cup of tea and chatting.  I like short therapeutic projects like this!


Moving on I started on making something called a Suffolk Broach. You only need a tiny scrap of fabric and a button for this project and it's pretty simple as well. I went for fabrics that clashed a lot but it seemed to work bizarrely.  You can make them into badges or hair pieces, anything really.  Smaller puffs make good necklaces and rings too.


I found that absolute perfect button to sew onto the top of mine, see how it's a bit like the fabric puffs?


There was also a do-it-yourself table with scraps of paper and punches of different shapes. Who'd have thought that the inside of envelopes could be so interesting! Next time you get a bill have a look, you might find something useful :)


I made some paper bunting out of the heart stamps in two sizes and it fits nicely on my greenhouse ♥

Now we weren't just learning how to make lovely things out of recycled materials, no! The ladies at Rubbish Revamped were also giving us tips on how to train others you see, because we're going to share these skills with the world*!

*maybe just a little part of it

We're probably going to run some sessions next year but it occurred to me this morning that I could also share it online with you! I need better light so I think I'll have to wait til next weekend so I can take photos as I go, but if anyone is interested then come back soon :)

x x x x

Paper

I've re-written the start of this post about 12 times, I don't know what's wrong with my brain!  What it's trying to say through the medium of blogging is I went to the Manchester Art Gallery on Sunday with J.  He's not really into art and I'm also not interested in portraits or pottery or anything like that, but they had a very nice (free) exhibition on called The First Cut, which is a collection of work from artists who use paper as their medium, not painting or drawing on paper, but actually using the paper as the piece itself.


Some of the hand cut pieces are simply incredible, they must have taken hours upon hours upon hours to finish which is one of the reasons they are by far my favourite pieces, there's always something new to spot with all the detail involved.


I thought this was very clever, a map of the world according to the currency they use.  Nothing political or religious about it, just straightforward fact.  You also get a sense of quite how massive Russia actually is, in case you'd forgotten!


There were some nice trees you could wander about in, and some paper wreaths - ok not actually wreaths, but would look very cool on my door!


Some more cut birds, shoddily photographed on my phone.


And then this cool little thing with bunting!  I really love the little pencils and tulips, I notice something new every time I have a look.

So while I don't have the time or patients to be quite as creative as these clever people, telling you about our trip does lead nicely into showing you some of the paper crafting I did over Christmas :)


Now alas I have quite bad pictures, but I can't seem to get them any better so you'll have to bear with...  My mum & dad got me a big book of scrap booking type paper when we were over in New York so I made some tiny bunting that now adorns the shelves.

Notice the empty picture frame, I got that as a present last last Christmas......


It was nice to have something to put up after Christmas, probably why I haven't felt so dull or glum this January! 

They're pretty easy to make, it's a folded piece of paper so there's no back so to speak.  My mums got these weird little punch things; you roll it across the paper (with a foam board underneath) and it punches holes in different patterns.  Amazing!  I opted for a simple line so I could do running stitch, I've since discovered she's got one that makes holes for blanket stitch...


I also dug out one of my mums crafting books and found an origami tutorial to make lanterns.  Unfortunately they didn't work with my paper (and it meant cutting it into squares) so I had to drag everyone to Hobbycraft, which was a real shame.


Origami paper in hand, I made lanterns. Ta-dah!


I have more to make, and then they'll go on some battery fairy lights o brighten the place because that's what we need J, more stuff!!

I've made some decent progress on my Nan's chair throw but still need to photograph that, and I've started a new snood for a friends mum, so lots of things to come soon hopefully, and to show you the needles I got for Christmas :o  They are to die for!!!

Thanks for stopping by, as always your reading, comments or whatever you do gives me that nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Much love from me

x x x x

P.S I was right last time, we did end up at the LFS...  Meet Bandit!

Hello Twenty Thirteen

Happy New Year my lovelies :D It's good to be back but I can't tell you how much I wish it were still the holidays, even though I know it wouldn't be as special if it lasted forever. We spent a very long week down at my folks in London, although a week didn't seem long enough in the end!

Christmas Day was very chilled out and merry. I was up early to see my brother before he had to work (!!) which meant opening presents, followed by more presents when J got up (fair-isle slippers!), followed by party food for lunch, mulled wine, dinner making, a nap, plying my parents with alcohol while they were being busy, my brother coming home still in good spirits, more presents, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Crackers, Trivial Pursuit (my Dad lost) Christmas Pudding and then bed.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, or if that's not your thing a peaceful end to the year :)

I can't quite believe where the year has gone but looking back at my projects for the year sort of puts things into an order I can make sense of! I really enjoyed making little mosaics at the beginning of last year so I've done the same now, only this time I've discovered Pic Monkey which is a brilliant website for making collages, mosaics and editing photos - a huge time saver.

There are four projects from last year that I've finished which was one of my 2012 resolutions, but I've also started this year with more unfinished WIPs. Oh well!

1. Hexagon blanket - completed :)
2. A stockinette stitch cushion cover. I've cast on too many stitches for the cushion inner I have so I may start this again...
3. Spring Garden Granny Squares. These haven't worked out so well when joined, I'm wondering whether to make more squares in different colours and make a small lap blanket...!

4. Nanny throw. I don't think this is a project I've blogged about yet so more about this later!
5. Bubble Gum Ripple Blanket
6. Pomegrante snood.

7. Little Woolie Inspired Cushion. I should finish this soon, I've only got a few more rows to do!
8. Ribbed Phone Cover
9. Stripy Snood


1. Crochet hook handle, made from Fimo
2. Moss Stitch Scarf
3. Crochet owl

4. Crochet Father Christmas
5. Knitted bunting
6. Knitted cable hat

7. Bunting
8. Knitted cat mouse hat
9. Polka dot skirt


1. First pomegranate snood
2. Turquoise cable hat
3. Lingonberry biscuits :)

4. Winter striped scarf
5. Snowflake Christmas card
6. Chunky mustard snood

7. Pink fluffy scarf
8. Grass cable snood
9. Giveaway cactus

I've got loadssss of other things to show you that I started over the holidays too, lets cross our fingers for some good weather this weekend and I'll try to get some half decent photos to share :)

x x x x

Hooky handles

Cold!!! It's gone all cold now and I don't like it

>:-[
Okay... There are *some* things I like about it. I like snuggling up under my blankets, wearing gloves and scarves and my nice new red duffel coat. I also like those clear crisp sunny days but I also like those clear *warm* sunny days; I am definitely a warm loving person. Still, this can only mean that Christmas will be here soon & I love Christmas.

This was our beloved pancake stack on Sunday morning. Mmmmmm!

I don't really have much to show you from the land of knit & crochet, mainly because I don't want to get out of my blanket to photograph the stripes of my Little Woollie inspired cushion but I'm excited to say I learnt how to do bobble stitches last night and I'm very excited about it indeed!

One thing that I have been doing, which involves having the oven on and thus heating the house, is making handles for my new crochet hooks. I forgot how strange it is to crochet with a handle now that I'm so used to having them, so when I tried using my new Boyes hooks it just wasn't happening!

I bought some Fimo from ebay which arrived at the weekend and made 5 handles on Saturday. I waited for some green to arrive (the shop sent me white instead by mistake but I got to keep it for free which was a bonus!) because I was going to make one in every colour but the yellow and orange just didn't do it for me so I've kept to a narrower palette instead.

Fimo is great, it only takes about thirty minutes to set and then voila! Beautiful crochet hooks.

For anyone interested in making their own it's really easy.

1. I rolled the main colour into a round ball first so it had no creases or lumps and then rolled it into a sausage shape.

2. Push the hook through the Fimo, be careful not to break through it but if you do repeat step 1!

3. Roll tiny balls of white Fimo and gently press into the handle.

4. Roll across a flat surface, preferably with something other than your hand - I used a Tupperware lid until the dots lay flush with the handle.

5. Neaten up both ends, I used my fingernail to flatten the Fimo where the hook itself pokes out because my last hook handles were a bit of a mess here.

6. Bake and try not to get too excited!

 

I think you should all pop over to see Tiny Tin Bird on Little Tin Bird aka Heather's blog to see her gorgeous new baby! She is keeping us all very well updated and he isn't even two weeks old :)

x x x x