Things I realised this week: why I like knitting

Ah spring. There you are all green and springy, making things start to grow and inspiring me to start All. The. Projects. 

This week I realised just why I like knitting so much. Sure, it takes a relatively long time to get from a ball of string yarn to a finished sweater - but: 

1.  it's pretty portable. You can do it on the bus, on the sofa, in bed and standing up (and in most other places and positions, although please don't knit whilst driving or operating heavy machinery obvs).  

2. it's also highly pick up and put downable: you can do it for a few hours or a few minutes at a time. Just pick up the needles and knit a row, or two. 

3. Knitting is quiet - you can do it on your own, or in company.   

4. knitting is easy. If you go wrong, you can tink back (or frog) and put it right. 

Sewing on the other hand. Well, it's not quite the same. I want to sew, and to make all of the things, and I have lots of fabric. But:

1. Sewing requires quite a lot of preparation - getting the machine, scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat, thread and fabric all together. 

2. Sewing has lots of stages: pattern tracing, cutting the fabric, making a toile, adjusting the toile, adjusting the pattern, cutting out the real fabric, sewing it up, adjusting it, finishing it off. 

3. Sewing often involves multiple gadgets (sewing machine, overlocker, iron, ironing board, tailors ham, tailors dummy)

4. Sometimes sewing requires all of those gadgets at almost the same time. 

5. Using the sewing machine and/or overlocker is not compatible with watching TV. 

6. Cutting fabric is final - although mistakes in stitching can usually be retrieved. 

Note to self: if you want to finish that quilt you actually have to do some sewing. Just thinking about it does not appear to be having any actual effect on the number of blocks which have been trimmed to size and stitched together.

Sigh. 

Pass my knitting bag. 

Things I realised this week: about quilting

On Friday last week, my mother-in-law suggested that I spend the afternoon at the Spring Quilt Festival being held on the outskirts of Edinburgh. She went in the morning with the ladies from her sewing group, and came over afterwards to look after little bean while I skipped off for the afternoon. 

I had never been to a quilt show before. I've read a lot about QuiltCon and those mind-blowing American quilt shows with millions of breathtaking quilts and booths and yeah, and I've seen all the lovely pictures of the Quilt Show at Malvern and places. But, it was nothing like any of that, and it was not at all what I expected. 

There were lots of forbidding signs saying that you Must Not Take Photographs, and Dont Touch the Quilts. And then the exhibition itself was slightly underwhelming. There were some small pieces displayed downstairs, and some full-size quilts upstairs. Some of it was very lovely and impressive, but there just wasn't very much of it. 

Above all, the festival seemed to be about the stalls. Crammed with fat quarters and quilters gadgets and bolts of fabric in every colour under the sun. Fat quarters were this price on one table and that price on another, and there were Frozen fabrics and Star Wars fabrics and Japanese fabrics and batik and flannel and prints and solids and cottons and tweeds. There was some very lovely stuff. I'd show you some photographs, but all those forbidding signs put me off. 

I was rather overwhelmed. I looked at the quilts. There were lots I didn't really care for. There were some I admired (wow, you  collected 205 colours of silk, and appliqued them with invisible thread; you quilted that amazing design with a regular sewing machine: respect) but none that really made me want to study the colours and techniques and patterns and then rip it off the wall to take it home. 

As I wandered round and round looking at this and that, I had a few thoughts. 

1. It seems vaguely completely ridiculous to me to spend many many ££ on fabric to make a quilt, when I have oodles of fabric scraps and old clothes which could be repurposed into equally beautiful quilt tops. And, it seems completely ridiculous to spend many ££ on fabric to make quilts when there is so much textile waste in our society. 

2. I love the bright and modern and clean looks of modern quilts. I like quilts with space. I don't like the traditional flowery and busy designs involving lots of piecing. I also like improv quilting and quilts which are given meaning because of the fabrics included in them: uniforms from soldiers lost in conflict; clothes from people we love - the things children wore when they were small; a life time of scraps from a grandparents house. 

3. I have one quilt top in progress (and not finished yet), so what do I know?

Of course, I didn't let the opportunity pass me by, and came home with a few fat quarters in my bag. I managed to resist the sparkly Frozen fabrics, and the cool Star Wars prints, but bought a few Christmas sorts of things to make something festive. There's nothing like long-range project planning is there?

Making Stuff Happen: Feb update

It's bright and crispy outside, and I've been working hard on that 2016 to-do list. I thought I might do a little Feb update to record progress. 

1. Tame the stashes 
Progress: after halving the yarn stash, I have done a bit of fabric organising. It's in a new place. It's more accessible. I've also bought some more fabric for very specific projects. The fabric stash cull is yet to come, but sewing plans are being made.

2. Use the stash!
Progress: I'm doing really well with the yarn - and several new WIPs on the needles which all come from the stash: some new socks; a cowl and a tank top for the bean. 

3. Make some things to fill gaps in my wardrobe: 
After ordering a pattern, I have now ordered and received some blue jersey to make a navy skirt. The cowl I planned to make is all but finished, it just needs grafting.... 

4. Finish the UFOs
Progress: one pair of socks has been repaired, and the fourth (and final) fabric bag has been sewn. 

5. Continue to work on mending,  exploring different techniques and making mending a social thing too by doing it with friends.
Progress: the invitation to come and mend still stands, but we haven't managed to find an agreeable date! Meanwhile the mending pile keeps on growing...

2016: making stuff happen

The theme for this year is making stuff happen. It's easy to make plans, but this year is about really doing it.

There are a few big things that we are trying to do which will affect the whole family (to do with where we live), and there are lots of crafty goals too.

This is the crafty list (believe me, you don't want to see the Other List - it's very long and very dull):

1. Tame the stashes (yarn and fabric, oh and patterns and craft books)
Progress: The yarn stash has already been halved; fabric is up next...

2. Use the stash!
Progress: one knitted WIP

3. Make some things to fill gaps in my wardrobe: 2 jersey skirts for work, one black, one blue; make a cowl and a new hat; use some of the jersey in the stash to make some tops for work.
Progress: pattern for skirt ordered.

4. Finish the UFOs
Progress: currently working on some sock repairs and some sewing that was cut out before Christmas but not completed.

5. Continue to work on mending,  exploring different techniques and making mending a social thing too by doing it with friends.
Progress: have invited a friend to come over for a mending session after she complained about holes in the knees of her son's trousers.

Jolly Holly (FO)

December was a super crazy work month, so I had barely time to breathe let alone craft or blog. But, because I work part-time and have one day a week at home with children, there was at least a few minutes here and there to make some little things with them. 

Inspired by something I saw somewhere (the exact source escapes me now) we made a couple of Jolly Holly brooches to give as teacher gifts.

I used a cookie cutter for the basic shape, then cut it out in two colours of felt, one slightly larger than the other. We sewed along the midline with some embroidery thread, and then added a red button or bell for the berry. 

My 7 yr old managed the sewing himself, but my 5 yr old found it a bit hard, so I had to help. 

I sewed on the bell/button and attached a safety pin to the back, but a more confident child sewer might be able to do that herself. 

We pinned the finished brooches on cards so that they doubled as Christmas cards. Simple and sweet!

Heroes

Lots has been happening here, but the blogger app on my phone has stopped working, so none of the posts I have written recently have made it through the ether to the blog. I'm having to write this on a laptop, which feels very retro and strange...

Anyway, if you are sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.

The other day I found myself at home with two boys (one larger, one smaller). It was raining, so we needed something to do other than watch TV (which the larger boy would do all day if permitted). 

I had seen a blog somewhere (can't find it now) about making superhero masks, which seemed perfect for the bean, as his role play usually involves being a superhero or a ninja (or both). We have a good pile of craft felt in the house, and we set to work using the felt and some aged bondaweb.

The bean chose which masks he wanted to make; we made some templates using paper and bondaweb; cut them out and ironed them onto the felt. Easy peasy.

Of course, I will not mention at all, the small - really very small - incident with the new iron and a piece of black felt. I guess it must be another of those arcane rules of physics that when buying a new iron it is necessary, in a balancing kind of a way, for the dial on the new iron to work in the opposite way to the dial on the old iron. So, I feel entirely blameless here when I tell you that innocently turned the dial the wrong way and melted lots a tiny bit of black felt onto the footplate of our new iron. I say 'our' iron, but I should be clear about this: my husband bought the iron; he chose it and paid for it and has - until last week - been the only person in the house to use it. Fortunately I did manage to remove the evidence of this small mishap from the shiny iron, so my husband is None. The. Wiser.

Anyway, superheroes are not to be phased by such happenings, and we made 3 masks in all, one for each child superhero in the house. Note the glinting eye of Batbaby...