Needles & Natter Thursday

Today is Thursday which means its a Needles & Natter group day :) I love these crafty mornings, it's a chance to catch up with everyone and find out what we've all been up to.

Today was especially good as I learnt how to knit using double pointed needles thanks to a lovely lady, Ali (you should really go check out her blog Domesticali, I only found it today!)

After a slight mishap with my cast-on (too tight) I was off!



Somewhere however between my cast on and my ribbing I made a mistake and ended up with 2 needles showing perfect rib and 1 needle with what can only be described as moss stitch...still 'it's only a practise' I told myself and decided to start the 'leg' of the sock, Ali had said that I only needed to knit and that the stocking stitch would be created on the outside of the knitting....So why was mine on the inside?

 

Off it all came and I started again, this time the rib was perfect...

 

Pleased with myself I moved onto the stocking stitch again, and again it's on the inside?! Below is how it should look (I've turned the knitting inside out)

 





And here is how it really looks...

 

Not a happy bunny as I can't for the life of me work out what I've done wrong...any sock knitters out there who can enlighten me?

 

Off to a wool shop in Chipping Norton tomorrow with a couple of the ladies from 'Needles' and I'm planning to take my odd sock along to see if they can identify what I'm doing wrong. Fingers crossed I can get it sorted before next week!

 

I've also added a couple more squares to my throw so all in all a rather sucessful day today :)

 

Till next time, happy stitching!

xX Fiona Xx

WIP Wednesday

quick post tonight to talk about my WIP's this week, normally I would type for hours but my acid reflux is really playing up tonight and I'm in agony but can't lie down to sleep as it makes it worse :(

So what have I been working on this week so far?

I started a dress pattern after watching 'the great british sewing bee'

I'm doing dress A circled on the model but I'm doing the shorter length circled underneath. The skirt & bodice are being sewn in the striped floral fabric and the midriff band and straps are being done in plain black.

So far this pattern has been a nightmare, I haven't made a piece of clothing since I was 15 and doing my GCSE in textiles at School so pattern reading isn't my strongest point but even my mum agreed that the pattern is very poorly written so as you can expect the sewing is taking forever!

I've been happily hooking away on my new project, using all these scrummy colours

 

I took my colour scheme from a few pictures of sea glass I found on google images, I've been wanting to hook up my own crochet blanket for ages now (I've been buying yarn since last year!!) but I've always changed my mind about patterns. I originally wanted to use Attic24's summy garden granny sqaure pattern but then I found a different one in a pattern book, then I saw several nice designs on pintrest but none really jumped out at me. Fast forward to Monday evening and during a bloghopping session I ended up at Annie's Place and found this design

and it was instant love, I love the different sizes used and the overall effect it gives of being random while still having a pattern to follow with regards to the layout. Needless to say I started hooking straight away and here's my progress as of last night.

I've since done another large sqaure, I'm using the join-as-you-go method as described on Attic24 so it's really shaping up quickly, if you weave in the ends of each square as you join it then it's even better!!

Dandy Dreams has had a little more work done as well, the wording is almost complete!!

And that's it for my progress report this week, Needles and Natter tomorrow and if Ali is there then hopefully I'll be learning how to begin knitting socks on DPN's, if she's not then I'll be hooking up more of my blanket :)

Till next time, happy stitching
xX Fiona Xx

TUSAL Tuesday~The weekly ORT report

Yes it's TUSAL Tuesday once again and this week's ORT's have a distinctly 'wooly' feel to them.

At the very bottom are some threads from Dandy Dreams but mostly they are snippets of my new hooky project but I'll tell you more about that tomorrow ;)

The sun has been shining brightly today and I spent a little time today happily hooking away in the garden, I only spent two hours out there but I've still managed to burn slightly! Summer is certainly on the way!

Happy Stitching!

xX Fiona Xx

Sunday Stitching IHSW edition

well this weekend was International Hermit & Stitch Weekend and given that it was the start of my holiday you'd have thought I'd have made time to stitch right?

Well you'd be wrong! Saturday was spend re-organising the craft room with my mum, mostly her card making stash, as she'd misplaced some recent purchases. Luckily we found them and its looking lovely and tidy (almost) at the moment.

Sunday the sun was shining brightly and finally feeling like spring so we headed over to the boot sale in the morning and I picked up several Doctor Who books including Matt Smith's biography for 50p!& Doctor Who figurines, some knitting & crochet magazines and a couple of old DS games (Jewel Quest for £5 & Cake Mania for £3!)

I spent the afternoon playing Cake Mania, it a funny little game, simple and yet addictive at the same time. I did manage to do another two letters on Dandy Dreams but its really not worth another photo just yet.

Tomorrow is the first official day of my holiday and I plan to start cutting out a dress pattern in the morning and maybe doing a little cross-stitch or crochet in the afternoon.

Hope your weekends were all a little more productive than mine :)

xX Fiona Xx

Needle & Natter Thursday & a very overdue ORT report :)

I woke up in the most blah mood today, I just didn't feel like doing anything and I have no idea why. When I went to bed I was excited about showing off my finished bracelet & cushion to my knitting friends and getting a few more stitches into Dandy Dreams but when I woke up it was like my excitement had been sucked out of me as I slept.

Regardless I went along to Needles and Natter hoping that my sour mood would improve apon seeing my friends and catching up on the weeks gossip but no, I couldn't even bring myself to thread my needle for the first hour, I just sat there listening to the babble and gossip while sipping my hot chocolate and trying to work out what the hell had happened to me.

Everyone woo'd and ahh'd appreciatively over my cushion and bracelet and a few of the women who couldn't make it to the workshop evening sat together on a table and had an impromtu lesson on wire knitting and I finally managed to get my act together and start stitching.

I really haven't done much, I've almost finished the word 'dream' but any progress is good progress as they say so here's how it looks now:

 

Sadly my mood lasted for most of the day and this evening but seeing as tomorrow is my last day at work before a week long holiday at home I'm hoping the mood will lift over the weekend, I have plans to organize my craft supplies before starting several new long awaited projects.

I realised after my monster post the other day that it has been over 2 months since my last ORT report and seeing as I'd not even taken photos to document it's progress all I can do is show you what the big jar looks like now:

 

Till next time, happy stitching

 

xX Fiona Xx

WIP Wednesday

I actually have no WIP's to show you this week, instead I have some finishes to share!!

On Tuesday night my knitting group 'Needles & Natter' held a knitted bracelet workshop which I attended and I am so pleased I did! I'd never knitted with wire before and I was surprised at how easy it was. Here is how far I got with my bracelet by the end of the 2 hour workshop:

I attached one end of the clasp during the workshop so I'd know how to attach it when I finished knitting!

Looks messy but that is how its supposed to look, honest!

 

I am planning on writing up a tutorial for this if anyone would be interested in giving it a go themselves :)

 

 Wednesday was my day off so I decided to spend a morning with my sewing machine, I sewed up one of my cross stitch pieces from the finishing pile into a cushion:

 

Had a bit of trouble sewing this one, my machine was being decidedly temeramental today and then to top it all off I found that I didn't have enough toy stuffing to fill it with! Quick trip to Hobbycraft proved less than fruitful as they are still sold out so I had to resort to my local fabric shop which actually turned out to be cheaper :)

 

After the cushion saga I decided to finish off my bracelet from the workshop and I managed it! Didn't take to long and I can see myself making a few of these for presents

 

Did a little more work on Dandy Dreams this evening but then got caught up watching the Easter Special of Jonathon Creek so I think I actually only managed to finish a single letter!! Still it's a 'needles and natter' morning in a few hours and international hermit & stitch this weekend so I'm sure I'll get some 'needle time' in over the next few days :)

 

 

till next time, happy stitching!

xX Fiona Xx

Theme-a-licious Amazon April Amazing Catch Up Post

My poor little corner of blogland has been seriously neglected this last month and a bit but not due to laziness or unwillingness to blog, I have been busy creating!

I say creating because I have been leap-frogging from craft to craft this month (march madness has gone on a little longer than needed!)

Firstly I finally finished up the baby blanket for my co-worker who gave birth to little Freddie on Mothering Sunday (March 12th for those of you not in the UK!) The blanket is basically just one huge granny square with a single round of double crochet for the edge. It's made with Sirdir Snuggly DK & Stylecraft Special DK and is 100% Acrylic.

Next up I made my Rainbow Road Cushion, again its just granny squares, this time I made 2 and sewed the seams together, I also made the pillow sham to fit inside :) Made with Rico Cotton in Aran weight.

 

Sewing wise I have been watching 'the great british sewing bee' on TV and it has inspired me to take out the machine I bought myself last year and start playing and honestly I'm a little hooked!! I'd seen a number of potential starter projects on Pinterest but the one that caught my eye initially was this one

 

 

I figured it would be easy to apart this to fit those lovely crochet hooks I bought in Chipping Norton last month. So here is my interpretation:

 

I'd had the fabric in my stash for years so it was actually nice to start cutting it up & using it, still have a good metre left though!

 

Next up I liked the look of this scissor holder and it looked a little complex to make but I couldn't have been more wrong!

 

It's actually made from a rectangle of fabric measuring 11 x 9 inches! Here's mine!

 



 

In fact it was so simple to make I've whipped up a few more for some friends in my knitting/sewing group

 

The one problem I did find with my sewing was that I was dropping pins all over the place as I sewed, my old machine had a magnet stuck on the top that I could stick the pins on but my new one didn't, the solution was found on Pinterest again here & again is very simple to make (I even got to try out my buttonhole foot!)

And my version, spotty to match my scissor case :)

 

Cross Stitching now and although I have done some, there is hardly any progress worth showing. Some stitching on Halloween Rules & Dandy Dreams:

 

Page 3 progress on Super Mario:

 







And a tiny happy dance in this small patch:

 

This was actually a very special patch, it ended up being sewn onto another crochet hook case, this one I made for my friend Jacqui's Birthday (it was a special one) and I corrected some mistakes I'd made with mine, the scissor keep is now central and I put wadding in to pad it out!

 

I gave Jacqui her present last Thursday and I'm thrilled to say she loves it!

 

So now that I'm all caught up with what I've been doing for the last month I can finally show you what I've been doing this weekend! I've been making flowers, lots and lots of crochet flowers.



No idea what I'm going to do with them just yet but they are simple and fun to make :)

 

Also I don't think I ever showed a picture of my 'new' antique sampler so here you are, here is 'Mary A' in all her glory.

So there we have it, this is the end of my Amazing Amazon April catch up post, if you've made it this far thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, hopefully blogging will improve now that I'm all caught up and I won't have such a long post to write again for a while :)

 

Till next time, happy crafting!!

xX Fiona Xx