Buonasera!

Hello my lovelies - when did there become 51 of you! How are you all? I hope you had a brilliant bank holiday weekend; I'm shattered! Why is it that holiday's are never relaxing and you always come back needing more time off??



I think I'm just about recovered now, Sicily was absolutely beautiful and the wedding was very fun although being in Italian we had no idea what was going on whatsoever!



I really need to catch up on some Ravelry / Blog reading; so many beautiful things posted that I want to see!

I've been busy with my scarf, just a few rows a day but good progress I think



Do you remember last week I mentioned the dreaded DPNs? Well I bought a set ages ago and they've sat un-used in my needle roll. In truth I bought them because Alice (Crochet with Raymond) had used them and I thought "she's a great knitter, I must need these!" I decided then to give it a go...



I must say I don't really love using DPNs, they're quite fiddly and I ended up poking myself a lot!




But I got quite far and even got a bit brave and changed colours!




Ta dah! Ok not the most amazing thing ever but it's alright isn't it?

When I'm sewing bunting

Hellloooooooooo!

Whoever sent us beautiful sunshine thank you!! It's been so lovely today :-) I met a friend for lunch and gave her the baby granny stripe I'd been working on for her absolutely gorgeous little son J! He is the most beautiful little baby e-v-e-r!



Bye bye blanket! I'm pleased to see it go, it was made for someone else & is now with its rightful owner. I just hope he doesn't dribble on it toooo much!

I'm super excited about the end of this week, we're off to Sicily for the bank holiday weekend for a friends wedding! My friend's a very lucky lady (marrying an Italian and all that!) and I've known her for years yet I had no idea what to get her. I also never got her a present when her daughter was born (we live far away!) so there was only one thing for it...

Bunting time!



I know one should be quite humble about ones projects but I really really love this and I have to give it away!!! What I really love is the fabric & the colors, which I didn't make, so I'm actually loving someone elses creativity instead. I have quite a nice stash of fabrics now in greens, reds & blues, some of the patterns (like these dots) are reoccuring so this kinda just happened!



The tape at the top has worked really well. Normally I use bias binding but I bought this huge roll of tape for some ridiculously cheap price (10 zips and this for £2!) and it's going to last me ages so I'm very happy! It also works quite well in white. Like I said, love it!



But guess what... I made a lot more triangle flags that I haven't sewn together yet so there's more bunting to come! I might keep it or I might sell it again :-) Or I might do both!

When I get back from my hols I'll show you something else I've been learning. *Cough* knitting with DPNs *cough*!!

See you soon!

x x x x

Hexagon blanket; an update!

Hexagons!! I haven't forgotten you and I do still love you very much. You will be a very cherished and much used blanket when finished (if this ever actually happens!!!!!!)

See I'm good really, I still crochet occasionally but it's nice to have a few labours of love right?



I've made some new variations while trying to stick with the same colour theme. There's no pattern apart from the outsides, the middles can be pretty much anything as long as it's the shame shade. Ish...

I quite like them stacked :-)



It's a real slow process because I haven't made many in so long, I've run out of my little production line where I always had a new hexagon to sew onto the blanket!



But this is what I currently have sat on my sofa right now :-) It's coming along well I think! I haven't really decided how big to go but that will work itself out when I get there. Then I have the fun task of making some half hexagons (I want straight edges!!!)



It's Friday (THANK F....ULLY!) and the sun is SHINING; it is lovely. I want to spend all weekend making stuff, really I want to make another skirt (shhhhh!) but I need more fabric (SHHHHH!)

I hope you're all well and having / embarking on a nice weekend. Thanks for all the lovely skirty comments, I wholeheartedly recommend getting your sewing machines out (if you don't have one, get one!) and making something; anything will do! Take care :-)



x x x x

Moss stitch & skirts

Helloooooo!

Have you had a nice weekend? It was over far too fast, as if it is Monday again. Hmpf! I really need to get back to some crocheting soon - I feel as if we're drifting apart! My other creative loves have made my hooks take a back seat. Oh well at least they have a cosy home while they wait to be used...

This is the yarn I bought on my trip to Ramsbottom a few weekends ago. I love anything that's big and valuable!





I could only get one ball from Clark Craft so scoured the internet and found a great site Zips n Clips which didn't have a postage charge, yessssss!





I've started to knit a scarf in moss stitch. It's a bit fiddly because you have to K1 P1 all the way along row but I think the result is fantastic!

I've cast on 23 rows which seems a lot easier as each row starts and ends with a knit stitch. An even number was more complicated and I can't remember quite how it went!

 

The result is these little lumpy bumpy things which are quite cool and it makes a change from all the things I've done in stocking or garter stitch.
Now even though I've set myself a challenge not to buy anything between now & a weekend away in Sicily (what a great location for a wedding!) I have managed to come up with the following excuses:

a) I needed to buy more of the King Cole Chunky or I couldn't finish the scarf

b) I needed to buy plastic boxes (4 for £4!) to store my yarn as I discovered a couple of moths in the house...

c) I need to buy this yarn because I ran out a year ago and just found out what it was called (and that it was discontinued and could therefore run out at any moment!)





Not a great start.... and then

d) I needed to buy more fabric because I had run out for my sewing project!

I signed up to BurdaStyle a few months ago; I love clothes and I buy too many so I thought if I can't make some myself I clearly don't love them enough. Then I made the mistake of going into Leons (dammit!) and coming away with the most adorable black fabric covered in Russian dolls!

This was the pattern in all it's printed glory (hope I'm not infringing any copyright here, it is quite small afterall!) all 22 pages (42 if you count the other pattern I printed by mistake)



This is the pattern cut out to size with much help and much thanks to J who was very helpful!



... And here it is laid out and ready to cut. I hadn't quite worked out at this point I needed four of the large pieces (the front and back) and they should have been cut as one piece... This is how I ended up buying more fabric!


I didn't take many photos after that because I got a bit carried away. This is the skirt with pleats and sides sewn ready for a zip.


This zip!



Then it all kind of magically came together and I was pretty amazed. It even fits!



I'll have to give you a proper photo (yes this is me...) because J failed in his photo taking despite actually being very good*

*usually



Well that's me and that was my weekend, complete with a BBQ and everything. Hooks I do love you really :-)

x x x x

A little help from my friends

Good evening! Hope you're all doing ok, things here got a bit scary last night and unfortunately (as you've probably seen) we had a fair amount of rioting in Manchester. I live just outside the city centre so far enough away to be out of harms way but we could see smoke from Salford and the air was filled with sirens all night. To be honest it was a little too much!

This morning we headed into town to join the clean up team, my lovely manager let me have the time off work, horray! By the time we arrived it was almost back to normal, shops were being boarded up, Wilkinsons was giving out brooms and the City Council's street cleaning teams were in full force handing out litter pickers, bags and gloves.



I'm really proud of my city and everyone who turned out! Being in a better mood today I've been getting on with some knitting and now I need some ideas! I saved this photo as inspiration but unfortunately I can't remember where from to link back to it (if anyone recognises it please let me know). and the lovely Ms C from Happy Elastic showed me how to search for images on Google and voila! It's from Mymlenogmy in Norway :-)



I didn't have the exact colours so tried using a few stylecraft shades as alternatives; it didn't work! So I carried on making squares with all the colours I have and now I've got this lovely lot (plus a couple more):



The problem is while they look great in a line they don't look great in a square!



I just can't seem to match them up right...



These are the best colour combinations I can come up with. I've added a few other colours since like the green but that hasn't really helped. My mum suggested sewing them all together and making a snake! I quite like this idea actually but I wanted to get some other oppinions to. So.... Any ideas my lovelies?!

x x x x

Frogging!

When I came home from work yesterday I was full of intentions to get blogging about some of the knitting I've been doing. I turned my laptop on, checked my emails, Twitter and Facebook first and saw a message from my friend. It warned people to stay away from Lewisham in London as there had been outbursts of rioting.

For the rest of the night I was glued to Twitter, BBC news & the telly. I grew up not a million miles from Croydon and fortunately all is well in my home town for now but a lot of places near by are in a bad way.

Needless to say I didn't particularly feel like blogging after that, I think I only managed to knit one row all night! I would very much like the world to be a better place right now.

So lets try and talk about happier things like this.



This is the first thing I ever knitted, it's a scarf but you can see it's not exactly finished because I ran out of yarn. Then my LYS stopped selling it (I since found out it was discontinued). Then I lost the label and couldn't remember what it was called!



I loved the way it effortlessly made beautiful pink and purple stripes!



My scarf now looks like this.



!!!

I know! I'm a bit miffed I frogged my first ever project but I decided if I ever wanted to finish it I'd need to make it half as wide thus making it twice as long. Then I thought why not put a photo on Ravelry and see if anyone can identify it...



Some lovely and extremely helpful people in the We Love Lucy group on Ravelry gave me great pointers on where to get help, and then someone posted saying they knew the yarn!! I now know that it's a Wendy Chameleon yarn in the colour Derwent. I also now know (having paid for them!) that I can get balls from ebay. I now realise I probably didn't need to frog it afterall!!!

Oh well, such is life :-) Stay safe!

x x x x

A grand day out

Hello, good evening! It's Friday here but because I've been off work today I keep thinking it's Saturday. Isn't that a lovely feeling when you realise you have more weekend left than you thought??


Today has been fab, my folks are up from London so we took them on a little jaunt to Ramsbottom via Bury on a steam train on the East Lancs Railway! My Dad loves me so much right now. I've been to Bury before but never the old station - what a surprise it was!







When we arrvied what should be the first thing I see, but Clark Craft right outside the station! This shop was seriously amazing, I could have spent a fortune and all day looking around; there was nothing they didn't have!


My favourite purchase was these vintage looking (aka old) knitting needles in imperial sizes (I think they're about a UK 2) for 90p!


I just LOVE the colour!

We headed off to the town centre, found a lovely little tea shop, wandered some more and eventually I found this absolute bargain of a book in one of the charity shops.


£1.50!!!


It's about an inch thick or more and is packed full of sewing information!! Much more than my head will ever comprehend but hopefully it will help with the skirt I've started making; more on that another day :-)


This pattern has got to be the best though, Derek the Dinosaur!!!


Closely followed by the cuddly crocodile...!

Hope you're all having a great weekend too, much love!

x x x x

A place for everything (ok, a place for some things...)

Phew! Monday is finally over - the bad part anyway, now I'm home I can do whatever I jolly well please! I'm not a Monday fan as it signals 5 days of work but I'm only in for 4 this week so already it's feeling like a Tuesday :-) I haven't been very hooky or knitty today. Usually I get to knit at lunch but I was quite rushed today and had a meeting this afternoon so I'm going to get down to something yarn related very soon...

First though I want to show you what I was upto this weekend. A colleague from where I used to work got in touch asking if anyone I knew could donate raffle prizes to a charity fundraiser he's organising. Apart from a load of junk in my flat I really don't have much to giveaway (that would be wanted!) but I can make things :-D After a few messages back and forth we settled on some heart shaped door hangers. At first I was going to crochet them but realistically this would have taken a lot longer than just sewing them so I grabbed my trusty Brother machine and off I went!


I'm not mad mad mad on them (although I love the idea) because they're a bit of a weird shape in my opinion! They went a bit pointy around the tops even though I was quite careful when sewing, but they are ok and hopefully they'll make a nice prize.



They're pretty easy to make by the way, if you wanted to give it a go.

1. Just sew two heart shapes together (right sides facing) making sure you poke some ribbon out of the top (you want the loop between the two sides).

2. Leave a gap big enough to turn the right way round and stuff. I sprayed my filling with a little peppermint oil to give it a nice smell, you could put lavender in or anything you like. See, just two steps ;-)

That wasn't what I wanted to show you though, oh no!

You see I've been experimenting with button holes... (possibly the most exciting setting on my sewing machine - it just does it for you!!!)



And digging out pretty buttons from my tins...



Sewing little poppers... Ok ok I'll get on with it :-)



Ta-dah!!! My brand new knitting needle / crochet hook roll. I LOVE it!! I already have one I admit, I made it years ago back here but you can tell it was pretty basic and there are nowhere near enough places for all the hooks and needles I have now!



Not to mention that everything kept falling out of it...



Now there are spaces for my DPNs (ok, never used them...!) and my growing hook farm!







Many places for needles old and future!



And the little flap keeps everyhing (well almost everything) secure



If I'd given it more thought I might have made little flaps for all the hooks as they can (and do) still fall out. I didn't really plan how I was going to put it together and kinda made it up as I went along (which is why the last one needed replacing!) but I'm actually pretty happy and I think it will serve its purpose well enough.

The fabric is all from Leon's in Chorlton, Manchester - I'm going to have to get you guys a photo if they'll let me it's simply amazing! Every time I go in I find something new and beautiful, sometimes it even ends up coming home with me!

Ok knitting time now, I need to get a few more pieces made so I can show you and get your opinion as I've hit a bit of a creative block!

Byeeeeee

x x x x