A New Year Welcome WIP

Hello again all. I hope everyone had a lovely, restful Christmas and that you are enjoying a refreshing start to the new year.

I've been sewing for a few years now, but only by hand until 2009 when I got my sewing machine. I even pieced and quilted an entire lap quilt by hand over the course of a year - I promise to show you that one day.

I still feel as though I am getting used to the machine, and learning to think like a machine sewist rather than transferring hand-sewing techniques. So it seems a rather fitting time of year to have started my newest WIP - the Welcome Quilt from Quilt Yourself Gorgeous by Mandy Shaw.

I especially liked the idea behind this opening project in the book, a sampler quilt which aims to teach you lots of techniques. A perfect start to a new year!

Mandy Shaw suggests using a bundle of Fat Eighths. I was impatient to start so I raided the scrap drawer instead:

I completed the central panel today. In this small piece - a little more than a foot square - I have done traditional patchwork piecing, folded flying geese, prairie points, curved appliqué using sew-in interfacing and foundation piecing. The hearts above are from another part of the sampler which uses fusible webbing. I'm now foundation piecing a row of pieced flying geese.

Phew! That's a lot of techniques, and there are more to come - Pinwheel and Bow Tie Blocks among them!

This is like a crash course in piecing techniques. I'm struggling a little to line up my foundation piecing fabric perfectly, but I'm not stressing too much - it will come in time. I wasn't too sure about the dotty blue fabric as the background at first but now it's all together it looks like the school is in the middle of a snowstorm, don't you think?

How cute? :)

Christmas Scarf and Mitts

Another Christmas present here, this time for my mam. I fell in love with Rowan Cashsoft while in Hobbycraft - it is so soft and smooshy. This is probably the nicest yarn I have used so far.

I made her a Falling Water scarf using 2 skeins, shown here blocking:

And to go with it, a pair of Nalu Mitts in the same shade. I used pretty much an entire skein for these.

Here's the Ravelry page for this pattern, since this is the type of pattern you instantly fall in love with and I want you to be able to find it as soon as possible :) . I could hardly bear to give them away! I think I am going to have to make a pair for myself.

I hope they will help to keep my mam warm in the Scottish Highlands. Well, they will add another layer, at least!

Bliss WIP

I don't know if it was because of my knitcroblo post in April that reminded me of my previous obsession with cross-stitching, or whether it has been watching Kirstie's Homemade Home, or seeing Mooncalf make lots of cute little cross-stitch pieces. Whatever it was, when I saw a display of cross-stitching books at a local charity shop I stopped for a closer look.

Someone had had a clearout! Clearouts are wonderful for a thrifty-minded crafter, whether on eBay, a Ravelry destash page or a car boot sale. I picked up this lovely little gem for 50p:

Yes, it's a desk calendar from 2007, but each page has a cross-stitch chart, and they are so adorable:

How cute? I just love these patterns. It has taken me a while, but I am slowly falling in love with the Shabby Chic style of decorating, and some of these would just fit right in to a shabby chic kitchen, don't you think?

Giveaway Day

It's not me who is hosting a giveaway, but if you like handcrafting supplies or pretty handmade items (who doesn't?) get yourself over to the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day lists.

Sewing and Knitting Supplies list

Handcrafted Items and Supplies

Handcrafted Items list

The giveaways have been running since Monday, but they don't close until tomorrow so you still have time to enter and hopefully win some lovely goodies!

Of course, lovely goodies are not the only benefit of giveaway day. It also gives you the chance to discover some new blogs. Here are some that I have added to my RSS feed so far. Check them out!

A Day in the life of Val

Cluck Cluck Sew

Katie's Korner

EmmmyLizzzy

Amy's Creative Side

Quilt Taffy

Stolen Moments

Handmade by Alissa

Quilting Barbie

wishes, true and kind

I also came across this website and haven't been able to drag myself away. I've since added a lumber conversion chart to my bookmarks and checked prices for lumber and workbenches. I've thought seriously about replacing the dodgy 99p spirit level in the toolkit with something that actually measures straight(!). I've mentally decorated my house with The 5 Shelf, The Easy, Three Cube Bench, The Easiest Rustic Modern Console Ever, The Tryde Side Table and Coffee Table and The Simple Spa Bench! And these are all in the first-time-never-built-anything-before category.

I have a bee in my bonnet. Don't be surprised if you start seeing pictures of drills, jigsaws and sawdust here in the next few months.

Good luck in the giveaways!

WIP Wednesday the first

Look at these mouth-watering jewel colours:

This is Rico Superba yarn. I am currently working on a pair of Flutter-by socks with this. The pattern is very cute and works particularly well with variegated yarns. I think this yarn might be a bit too variegated though, so I'm leaving the foot section in plain stocking stitch. I can't wait until these are done!

Christmas Socks

I have been knitting for just over a year, so I felt it was perhaps a little soon to start knitting Christmas gifts. However, I bit the bullet and knitted simple items for a few people in my family.

For my dad, who always has cold feet:

Socks, of course. These are made from Rico Safari and I followed Silver's Sock Class as always! I modified this to a 3x1 rib, which looks a bit more 'manly' to me, and increased the stitch count to 68.

In the absence of sock blockers, I pinned these out instead and misted them with water. It worked very well and they were nice and flat and neat for me to wrap up and send. They are currently working their way through the clogged up Royal Mail system, which is very backlogged by the recent snow - and they say there is more to come!

I like these socks so much I am knitting another pair exactly the same for Mr. Jelliebeans. He has been wearing his space socks as often as they are available during the chilly spell and he is begging me for another pair. He has been well and truly bitten by the hand-knitted sock bug.

Did you spy my blocking boards in the first picture? They were a nice little charity shop find:

 More Christmas knitting to come!

The Trouble With Not Blogging . . .

 . . . is that eventually you have to try and catch up.

Thank you for the responses to my post about my charity shop finds. Some of my 'yarn cakes' have been turned into a Tempest.
This is now finished but for the buttons. Since I have yet to take a proper picture, here is a teaser:

At first I wasn't sure I would ever wear it, because it's a bit on the 'rough and ready' side because of the different yarn textures. With the right outfit it looks punky/emo, though, and the colours are scrummy together.


A totally different look is my crocheted 'Fat Bottomed Bag' from the Happy Hooker. I made this with leftover Patons Sorbet. Very summery and quick to make up!

A probable lapse-of-judgement project is the 'Zip and Zing' hoodie from Simply Knitting magazine 68. There's nothing wrong with the pattern (Susan40james is working on a lovely version using the recommended yarn) and I learned a lot doing it. Maybe the most important lesson is this - if a yarn isn't working with any project because it looks cheap, it probably isn't worth spending the time knitting a adult-sized hoodie with it just because you bought 10 balls of it and you want to turn it into something.

Oh, and I also forgot what size I usually wear and made it too big.

But - pockets! A zip! Picked up stitches! Not wasted, but not really wearable either. Other knitters must have these projects lurking in the back of a wardrobe somewhere, right?

I have some new cute socks for me:

 and some xmas socks currently on the needles.

This is my first time using Rico sock yarn. This is a bit rougher than the Regia I've been using so far - thinner too - but I like it, and I love the way the colour is working up.

That's not all, but it's all for now!