Another Bag for the Collection.

I very seldom buy bags - it's not really my thing, but I do seen to have a habit of making them. My latest is a felted clutch from One Skein. It took no time at all to knit, though the fact that it was knit on a 10mm needle was slightly problematic when it came to placing stitch markers, I didn't have any big enough, so I improvised by using some key rings.
Anyway, here it is before felting.



Here it is after felting, finished off with a brooch that belongs to my mum.



I made the clutch to go with an outfit I'd got for my cousins wedding.
I don't have a photo of me wearing the said outfit, but I did do have one of the dress, shoes and clutch before I packed them.



The wedding was in Poland, the bride is polish, so all the family went over to Poland for 5 days, the wedding celebrations lasted for 2 days. We all had a great time. We drank vodka and had a bit of a dance, had more vodka and danced a bit more, which was remarkable for me, bearing that I don't normally do either.

Bookmark and Stuff.

It's a while since I've done any cross stitching and I made a couple of little mistakes on the bookmark, but unless you know where they are you can't really see what I've done wrong. I also wish I'd made have made it a little bit longer, but it doesn't really matter. The pattern came from a 1998 edition of Cross Stitcher magazine that my mums friend gave me.



Thought I'd show you some of the other cross stitches I've done. I made my mum these silhouettes several years ago. I haven't really done much cross stitch since making the silhouettes, apart from the odd bookmark, because I think you are quite limited as to what to do with cross stitching, but that could just be my lack of imagination.



I've added some new links to my blog in a little music section, if you're interested. They are all MySpace sites, cause it's the easiest way to hear some of the bands/artists music. My current favourite is Kate Nash, I heard Foundations the other week and at first I wasn't really sure, but by the time the song had finished I loved it. The only trouble is that there isn't an album yet.

Progress

Well a bit of progress anyway. I've started knitting my Jaywalker socks again, after giving the other one to my mum to rip out for me - I never have the heart to do it myself. Now I've change up to bigger needles it's turned out fine, though I did get a bit carried away when it came to decreasing for the foot, so I had to pull it back about four rounds. I've finished one and am now onto the second sock, which is really quite appalling considering I would normally have knitted a pair of sock within a week, I must have been working on this pair for at over a month.



When I blogged last it was supposed to bring up to date everything I've made in the past few months, but I forgot all about these placemats that my mum and I made for Christmas. Mum made the mat's and I then sewed the snowflake onto them. You can't really see in the photo, but the snowflake is sewn in silver coloured thread, which wasn't much fun to sew with, it kept snapping. One of the many, many times it snapped it whipped up and hit me in the head, lets just say that a few expletives were used!



The only other thing I'm working on is a cross stitch bookmark. Cross stitch was kind of my introduction to craft and I've made several of these bookmarks for family a few years ago, but I never made one for myself. I've started to run out of bookmarks recently, because if I get a bit bored of a book I put it down for a while and read something else, but I've done it quite a few times now, hence my decision to make one.

Back to Blogging

It hasn't taken quite as long as last time to post again, just over a month, but in my defence I was on holiday for 2 weeks during that time. I was in Corralejo, Fuerteventura getting prickly heat instead of a tan, oh well maybe I'm just destined to be "pale and interesting" forever. I'm really annoyed though, people always used to tell me I'd grow out of it, but I'm 24 and I still get prickly heat.



I made a summer skirt before I want on holiday, before I posted last actually, but to be honest with you I couldn't be arsed to take a photograph. I got a chance to ware it while I was on holiday, though I had to careful because Fuerteventura is quite a breezy island and it's quite a full skirt, it nearly ended up around my ears a few times. I don't have a photo of me wearing the skirt in sunny Corralejo, but I do have one that I took the other night, which is better than nothing.




Right now I'm working on a crochet bag for myself. I'm not following a pattern as such, though I am using a Essential Crochet pattern as a guide. I've been finding it quite difficult to concentrate on things that I'm making for myself lately, I haven't picked up the bag for days. If I'm making something for anyone else I'm more disciplined and I'll get of my lazy arse and pick up my needles or hook and crack on with whatever I'm making, but at the moment I would rather go on the internet and play games or look at random photos.
I've go a few months though before I need the bag, so hopefully my crafty slump will have ended well before then.
There really isn't much point in showing you a photo of the bag so far 'cause it's just a white rectangle at the moment, so I'll show you a photo of the latest pair of socks. I started them while I was on holiday, but it wasn't until I'd nearly finished the ankle part of the sock that I noticed how narrow it looked and realized that I couldn't get the sock over my heel. So that has been temporarily abandoned.

2006, Bad Year For Bloging, Good Year For Crafts!

I know it's bit far into February be referring to the new year, but I've been really lazy when it comes to updating my blog over the last few months, so I'm going to try to bring you up the date.

First of all I have 6 new books, Knitting on the Road, Scarf Style, Essential Crochet, One Skein, Happy Hooker and Spin to Knit - Spin to Knit was a Christmas present from my sister.



Speaking of Christmas presents, my parents got me a Boye Needlemaster



Are they not the most beautiful coloured knitting needles you've ever seen? There is only one thing about my Needlemaster I don't like, the case the needles are in. With all the lovely coloured needles in the Needlemaster you would think that they would have continued the colourful theme, but I'm afraid not, what colour did they chose, shitty brown. I mean black would have been better then dysentery beige. I might see if I can cover it somehow or make a whole new case.



I'd been trying to think of a way of keeping my double pointed needles together, all I could think of was cigar holders, and the ones I saw on the internet were like £8 or something. One day my mum presented me with a toothbrush case. They are the perfect length for DPN's, there is also enough room for a pencil and the best bit is that they are only 50pence.



Now onto the knitting. I've made 5 pairs of socks in the last few months, but I only have a photo of 2 of them.
1st. These are what I made for my mum, with a pattern form Knitting on the Road.



2nd. Jaywalker socks for my sisters friend Faye.



Most of socks I made were for Christmas presents. My sister asked me if I'd make some for her friends Faye and Jonathan again, I also made a pair for my auntie and my nana.

And finally I've made 2 little crochet bears, photographed next to a CD to give an idea of the size.



I found the pattern onCrochetville. The bear in the original pattern was about 7 1/2 inchs high, but I used a smaller hook and crochet cotton for the white bear and random bits of pink & cream embroidery silks for the pink one.

Branching Out

I know I haven't posted for ages, but I've still been knitting, as well as sewing. So I'm going to try and bring you up to date.

First off here is a photo of my finished Nicole from Rowan mag no. 39.


nicole pattern rowan mag#39 

I had to rip the stitch pattern out on the back a few times, but once I got the hang of it, it came out really well. It took a while to find the buttons, but I'm glad I kept looking, I think it finishes it off well.

For some reason I've been making a lot of bags lately, previously not being that much of a bag person.


abyssus nauta(hello sailor) bag 


ribbon bag 

The basic bag pattern came from Stitch n' Bitch Handbook, then I just added the ribbons.

My mum used to make clothes for my sister and I when we were little, so when I decided to give something a bit more complicated a whirl I asked for her help. I'd been looking around that shop for a summer dress but I didn't see one that I liked, so I came the the conclusion that is what I should make. I found a pattern and fabric at a shop in Leeds and, with the help of my mum, I got to work.


summer dress 
It's a Simplicity design from the New Lookrange.

It actually worked out a lot better than I expected. The body side seams and the skirt side seams don't quite match up, but I don't think it's too bad for my first item of clothing. I had to cut about 5in of the bottom so that I didn't look like I was standing in a hole, but on the hole I'm really pleased with the result.

It was my birthday at the end of May, and for my birthday my parents got me Kit in a Tin. It's made with Rowan Holiday and Summer Tweed, I don't know if you've seen rowan holiday, but it's quite a weird yarn to knit with.

knit tin bag 

I decided to condence my photos with Mosaic Maker so that the post isn't really long, but if you want see a bigger photo of the things I finished you can look in my Flickr Gallery.

Sorry

It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm having trouble remembering what I've done since I last wrote.

I had 2 knitting projects on the go last time I posted. I've finished the After Bertha Socks that I was making for my sister, I used Opal Uni 4ply leftover from the socks that I made her last year, so again she mismatched socks.



Pattern After Bertha from Socks, Socks, Socks.
Yarn Opal Uni 4ply.

And I've very nearly finished Nichole. Not before I ripped out the patter detail a few times though. There are lost of yarn forwards and lifting stitches over other stitches in the pattern, not to mention that you are decreasing at 1 st at each edge at the same time, I got so sick of counting stitches to make sure that I hadn't lost any when I shouldn't have!


nicole front 

Since I took that photo I've sewn the sides together. I just need to sew the straps to the back and find 4 buttons for the front, so far I haven't seen any that I like, but there are one or two more shops I can try.

I'll post again soon with my current projects, knitting and sewing - I'm diversifying :D