In the interests of transparency: quilt festival haul

Despite my feelings about spending lots of ££ on fabric, I did come home from the Quilt Festival with a few fat quarters in my bag. 

Most are destined for some Christmas projects, and were all reasonably priced at £1 per FQ. Dontcha just love those penguins?

Then there were a few fillers/neutrals (also £1 per FQ)

And finally, I splashed out on some half-metre cuts from Kaleidoscope Fabrics for a special project I am planning. These cost a bit more...

They go perfectly (as I hoped) with these jelly roll strips. The project will be for our bedroom. One day. 

Bag Lady (FO)

Christmas was a bit of a crafting disaster this year.  I don't think any of the craft projects I planned actually came to anything, so the only things that got made were fudge and peppermint bark (which were both excellent by the way).

No-one noticed about the crafty stuff. 

Sniff.

Even if I didn't finish anything in time for Christmas, I did start a few things, and one afternoon -  before the big day - I cut out a wee pile of these fat-quarter shopping bags. I was given some fat quarters by my MIL a year or two back, and this seemed like a perfect project for those particular bits of fabric. 

Last week I summoned up the effort to get the sewing machine out and start stitching. For something so simple, there seemed to be a lot of sewing to do, and it took me two whole evenings to progress from a pile of fabric shapes to three finished bags!

Let's just go through the details then. These bags have a handle facing, which is finished at the raw edge (2 seams), attached to the bag fabric (6 seams), then joined at the handles (2 seams), and top stitched (3 seams). After that the sides and bottom of the bag are finished with French seams (6 seams) and the corners bagged out, again with French seams (4 seams). 

Add to that pressing, turning inside/outside and pinning (where required). All together it's a lot of small seams to stitch and restitch, and takes a bit of time. A 20 minute tote this ain't. 

Sigh.

I  cut out 4 bags, but because I am very stupid a design visionary, on the first one I omitted to place the fold of the pattern piece on the fold of the fabric and ended up with some different shaped pieces. I decided to leave my hacked version to last, and made up the other three as per the instructions. 

I say that as if I followed the instructions to the letter, but I didn't. We'll just gloss over the other mistake I made with the French seams shall we, oh, and the fact that I completely forgot about the elastic loops too? Ye-es. 

So, here they are: three pretty cute bags. 

The flowery ones have been sent off to live with my parents. The green one is for my brother, and should soon be joined by the design hacked alter-ego version (when I get off my a*se to sew it up, ahem). 

So, my overall verdict: a nice project to do if you don't mind spending a bit of time sewing seams, and you have some fat quarters to 'use' up. Things might go a bit quicker with the overlocker perhaps, so I might try that for bag four.  (I did pink all my raw edges, just because). 

I like the integral handles and the handle facing - because, well I might be over those webbing or self-fabric handles that most shopping bags have and which inevitably break/wear through. 

I guess the bottom will fall out of these first...

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!

Stash Busting New Year Styley (FO)

The New Year arrived at our house along with the spring cleaning and sorting bug. Over the weekend there was a flurry of cleaning, sorting, recycling and general tidying up. 

Several cupboards and bed bases were sorted and organised, and two or three bags of stuff left the house never to return. My daughter's bed base is the home to part (ahem) of my fabric stash. Because I have been making a few things here and there, I thought I might be able to fit another chunk of the stash in there too, and I did my best to make that happen. 

I failed. 

I have quite a lot of nearly worn-out clothes which I have put aside for upcycling into something else. This included a pair of pyjamas of mine in a nice red/grey check with a sparkly. As everyone else in the family was happily occupied, I took the opportunity to upcycle these pjs into something useful.

First I cut the trousers and top into useable pieces of fabric that were roughly square or rectangular. I left hem finishes where appropriate.

Then after a quick iron, I set about making a set of fabric gift bags to add the pile we use for Christmas and birthdays. I have been making these bags for a couple of years now, inspired by Soule Mama. They make wrapping gifts pretty quick - no hunting for paper or tape or scissors - and make tidying up a breeze too: fold up and put back in the box. Easy! 

Wherever possible I used existing hem/edge finishes for the opening of the bags, and I worked with existing seams too, to minimise my sewing effort. I have learned not to make the bags too small, so aimed for something that is at least big enough to fit a novel. I ended up with 7 bags of various sizes.

It didn't make much of a difference to the fabric stash under my daughters bed, but it's a start. One thing dealt with. And, as we didn't have enough fabric bags for all of our Christmas wrapping, it'll be a good addition to that stash...

The best present. Ever. (FO)

Last year I made my husband some shoe bags for Christmas, which he declared were The Best Present Ever. High praise, no? Flattery like that gets you everywhere...

He likes them for all sorts of reasons:

:: he has expensive taste in shoes, which he keeps for years decades
:: they don't take up any room in the house
:: they help him keep his shoes shiny and dust free

I like them too, for different reasons:

:: they are really easy to make
:: I made them from the stash
:: they are quick and cheap and have a high appreciation factor

After the raging success if last year's bags, an order was placed for more. Last year I upcycled some unused pillowcases (unused because they were the wrong size/shape for our pillows). This year I homed in on a linen skirt that had been hanging about in the upcycling pile for aaaaages.

It looked promising: a natural fibre in a neutral colour, and after a quick eyeball for size, I calculated that I could cut it up to make two new shoe bags in next to no time.

The first step was to cut the top of the skirt off. Choppity chop.

Then I ripped the central seams of the skirt. Riiiiip.

This left me with two rectangular pieces of cloth, each joined at the side seam and with the original hem. I spent a bit of time looking at the hem deciding what to do with it. I wanted my bags to have drawstrings, so needed a casing to run the strings through.The hem finish seemed to be perfect for this purpose,  so I just needed to sew the side and bottom of the bags together.

For durability and neatness and just because I like it, I used French seams. And, I bagged the bottom of the bags too, to give them a bit of shape.

Finally, I ran some tape through the hem casings to make drawstrings. All in all, a really quick little project. I reckon it was under half an hour, including all the rummaging and ironing. Result.

'Tis the season

Winter is almost here. My pockets are stuffed with hats and gloves, and the nights are getting longer and longer. Maybe it was the clocks going back that did it, that caused a switch in my brain to turn on. 

C R A F T! 

it says

M A K E!

Knit, sew, cut, stick, bake, glue - just DO something. Christmas is a-comin, dontcha know?

My fingers are itching to make and do. My head is full of ideas and plans, There are lists and notes, books, magazines, blogs and websites and flashes of inspiration here and there. In the last week I have bought card stock, circular hole punches and a new guillotine. I am lusting after fabric and yarn - but trying to restrain myself to shopping in the stash. That is the challenge: Use. The. Stash. 

I am planning:

• A zippered bag for shoe cleaning kit for DH (probably the Purl Bee one)
• A waistcoat for the bean (BBC vest by Schwin designs)
• A dress for the jelly bean (Figgy's Sunki dress)
• Zippered pouches/project bags for the jelly bean
• Some raglan tees for the bean (Recess raglan tee by See Kate Sew)
• Some self-made bias tape for my MIL
• A knitted cowl for the bean
• To finish the Phoebe cardigan for the jelly bean

Then there is a Christmas cake to make, plus peppermint bark, fudge and a whole pile of Christmas cards to make (and write). And, of course I could add a few more projects like: make decorations, finish that quilt top I have barely started and tidy up some of the other WIPS lurking in corners. But doing that would be ALL kinds of crazy, and I am definitely not crazy: I am completely in control (yeah). 

Since the crafting fever began last week 18 Christmas cards have been made, Christmas cake ingredients have been bought and the patterns for Sunki dress and BBC vest printed out. And, yesterday I bought two presents!

On the twelfth day...

Status update:

Cards written: 21
Cards received: 12 or so
Cards posted: 20
Mince pies made: 18
Socks completed: 1

The shopping raid was a reasonable success. I managed to gather a fair number of suitable gifts by visiting only two shops. There are just one or two things to left to buy, but still a whole host of things to make. Yikes!

Better get on....

One week in

We are one week into Advent, and already finding it hard to remember to open the calendars each morning! I cant imagine why that is, given the amount of chocolate which is available therein. 

Before you gasp in horror at the thought of chocolate advent calendars, I hasten to point out that the three calendars we have (yes, three) are the result of some grandmotherly rivalry generosity. 

We have a lovely fabric calendar with pockets, made by my mother-in-law, and for which she supplies chocolate each year. In addition, my mother sends the children a chocolate Advent calendar as well. So we have three. All of them chocolatey. 

In other news, progress on the Christmas list is going slowly because there have been some w o r k things to get out of the way. Still, the sock has grown a bit since yesterday, and I have ordered the turkey. The Christmas tree is next.

In other non-knitting and non-Christmas news, little bean is now crawling. He spent a week or so moving around in a non-conventional double knee shuffle, and then on Monday he managed to co-ordinate his limbs. He is only 6.5 months! So, we are rapidly adjusting to life with a very mobile baby.

On the seventh day...

Status update:
Jelly bean socks now cast on.
Christmas cards received: 3
Written: 13
Sent (or delivered): 1

Last night the husband and I went out together, probably for the first time since little bean was born. It was the husbands work Christmas do. We had a great time, with some really lovely food (really lovely) at cafe st. Honore. (It's a lovely place to eat and if you are a fan of Alexander McCall Smith you might have seen it mentioned in one or two of his Edinburgh novels).

My in-laws babysat and we got home to find two out of three children had been wailing and/or gnashing their teeth at our absence. Oh. Dear.

The evening out also meant no time for getting on with Christmas things, but hey, I'm feeling super relaxed about everything this year. I don't know why as I have done next to no gift shopping and no real plan of strategy for the people I do need to buy for.

But I have made the cake and a hat for the baby. Its a start.

Homework update (FO)

It has been a wild wild day here, with snow and rain and howling winds. We are all safe (so far).

While little bean and I were inside keeping cosy by the stove, I managed to finish off the last few rows of his hat. I still need to make a pompom and sew in the ends, but I'm ticking this one off the list. Done.

Baby hat, knitted in 4 ply oddment (grey ribbed brim) and variegated sock yarn (Regia I think). No pattern. I just winged it based on 100 stitches on 2.25mm needles, with a few stitches added after the ribbing to make it comfy.

As if babies were not charming enough, they are so amenable to modelling knits even at the dinner table. Cute huh?

Christmas 2013 in numbers:
cards received: 2
cards written: 12
cards posted: 0

Christmas Socks (FO)

2013 is proving to be fairly productive, and there is another FO to show even before the first month is ended! (2012 what *were* you doing?)

Some socks - for me. This yarn was a Christmas gift from my MIL, (although the labels got a bit muddled and my son ended up opening it...), and I thought it would make good winter/boot socks, so I rattled some off.

Pattern: generic top down socks

Yarn: Wendy Roam Fusion 4 ply (about 60g) in 'Heath'

Time taken: started and finished January 2013

The colour is truest in the bottom photo, a pleasant pinky, orangey-yellow heathered yarn. I've worn them already, and can report a pleasant squashy and warm experience just right for snowy January days. it's noticeable how much thicker and bouncier these new socks are compared to the rest of my (handknit) sock collection. Then again, I notice that I made this pair - the oldest socks in my current collection - in 2007! No wonder they are getting a bit thin (but still no holes). 

Last minute elving...

The elves work is pretty much done, but I thought I would just cast on one more thing, just in case there's time....

Elving #2

More elving today.... This will be a hat for my brother, and those pink socks I showed you on Friday are now finished and safely stashed in the gift pile, and a small boy sock sprang off the needles as well today. Progress.

On the down side there is only one mince pie left....

Elving ..

I'm listening to some presentations, and doing a spot of elving at the same time. Small girl sock no. 1 now at the toe.....

An autumnal flood

I've been away too long for comfort, and have oodles of news and FOs to share. So, expect a virtual flood of blogging from me. Here's a sneak preview of the things I've been up to...

Drama #2

The drama continues here, although we have now watched all of The Killing (series 1). It's good - and I am looking forward to catching up with series 2 sometime...

Putting that aside, perhaps it is just as well I started my Christmas crafting when I did. There has been little action on that score since the beginning of December. And, the socks I have started for DH have stalled a bit - they are toe-up and just look a bit, well, wrong. I am undecided at the moment, but am waiting for a new moon or something before they go to the frog pond...

The other dramas in our house have been a little less knitterly.

On Saturday the television stopped working - the remote control worked, but the telly did not. Fuse was checked, words were sworn and various things banged, bodged and shaken. To no avail. It was dead. It had departed. It was an ex-TV.

Given that we my husband has been discussing buying a new telly for months now, it didnt take us long to come to the conclusion that we should buy a new one. The old telly (about 10 years old - so box shaped rather than a flat screen) had been on the blink for a while. DH has been researching all the options - wireless, dongles, boxes, recorders, LCD, LED. But it all just made my head hurt, so I told him we should wait until the old one gave up, and that's what we did. On Sunday morning decisions were made, and a new TV was procured (look it up on tinternets, ring up shop, pay and collect later). One thing sorted.

Yesterday, I got into the office and sat quietly at my desk sewing on some buttons while my laptop powered up and my inbox caught up with itself. I was finishing those wee jackets I started a week or so ago, for those little twins I mentioned. As I sat and sewed, I scanned my inbox - and there was a birth announcement! Eek! Born on Friday, a few weeks earlier than expected and hoped, but safely born and good sizes (c. 4lb each). Welcome to the world little ones - Nathaniel and Lilith - we wish you and your clever mama and papa all the very best. There is a parcel of things on its way - including those two hats, and two wee jackets (paxton pattern from stitchymama via ravelry).

Two baby beanies.

Pattern: own recipe/tutorial

yarn: small amounts of 4 ply from the stash

Pattern: Paxton Preemie and Newborn Jacket

Yarn: 100% cotton DK (pink = Sirdar Carousel; blue = Jonelle) from stash

Size: 6-8lb (preemie/small newborn)

Notes: no mods - jacket with long sleeves. buttons from stash. This is the second time I have made these jackets - they knit up quickly and take almost no time to finish because of their top-down seamless construction.

This morning, after counselling both of my small people NOT to sit on window ledge next to Christmas tree, a few moments later the bean arrives in the dining room (where I am waging war on a tsunami of crayons and pens and bits of paper that have suddenly hurled themselves onto the floor) announcing that the wire has got his leg and the christmas tree has fallen down. The jelly bean wets herself at that very moment and my sense of humour disappears very rapidly. No-one was hurt, and the only thing broken (apart from my spirit) were a couple of decorations on the tree. Grrr.

Santa came to the rescue. In times like that emergency chocolate really is the answer, and if that is shaped like santa, then all well and good...

Heads, fingers and toes (FOs)

A quick post to catch up on some of the little things that have recently made their way into my gift stash.

These are girl socks for the jelly bean, knitted with sparkly Berocco sock yarn. See those sparkles?

Followed by handwarmers for my dad, knitted with some mystery grey 4 ply. I think this yarn came from grandmothers house. There were several partial balls which - as you can see - were clearly from different dye lots. I hope the subtle difference in colour is not too noticeable when being worn! It feels like quite a woolly yarn, and it has bloomed and softened with washing. I improvised the pattern based on the ones I made for myself a few weeks back, but using slightly more stitches to accommodate a manly hand.

Last and not least are two very weeny baby beanies for those twins. Anticipating smallish babies and smallish heads, I adapted my baby beanie pattern, using 80 stitches rather than 100... Oh, and rather than an i-cord stalk with knot, I made wee circles instead. Cute huh?

Drama....

There has been something of a post illness lull in this house. I have taken up one or two little projects to keep myself occupied - some weeny jackets for those twins I mentioned - but for the last couple of days I have been enjoying myself enormously making endless pompoms and watching the Killing (series 1). [If you dont know it, its a Danish crime thriller/drama series which moves very slowly over 20 episodes and which has the enigmatic Anna Lund as the main character. Anna is of course famous for her knitwear - witness last week's discussion on BBC R4's woman's hour...]

We have been easing ourselves into the Killing over the last few weeks. After episode one, DH said he wasn't too bothered about it, and I watched the next few on my own. Somehow DH managed to be in the room when I watched episodes 5 and 6. Can you see what is coming next? When I got back from pilates last week, there he was watching episode 7 on his own. His face was suitably guilty...

Trouble is, what with the Danish and the subtitles and all, you have to really concentrate on the screen lest you miss a significant comment or detail. It is not the time to be knitting anything with charts, or rows that needs counting. I even found it hard to increase every other row when knitting weeny jacket no 1. It all looked tickety boo until I looked at it carefully in daylight and had to rip back a few rows to fix the increases I had missed.

Last night I managed a double bill of the Killing, and switched to pompoms. They are a lot more forgiving - although I do of course have to put them down now and again to really concentrate on the drama.

Can you tell what it is yet? I've come over all Martha Stewart, and I'm making a christmas wreath with pompoms. It's eating into my stash very nicely, and using up some of the dodgier balls of yarn in an entirely pleasing way, as well as some of the less dodgy things. Dont you just love how pompoms made with mohair turn out? Gorgeous.

I made the base for my wreath out of a coat hanger, bent into a suitable shape and padded with some strips of fabric topped with toy stuffing. This was secured with yarn. Lots of yarn. I used up some peach coloured yarn underneath, and then topped this with white yarn, as the pompoms are mainly white/cream. DH approves of the stashbusting - and it's using up quite a lot of yarn. The bean inspected the half finished wreath this morning, and declared it gorgeous. I promise to show it off when it's finished...

In other news, we have had our first snow of the season. Not enough to make snowmen or throw snowballs, but just enough to dust the grass and verges with white and to freeze the earth to stone (good job I dug most of the spuds up last week).

DH is further north at the moment - near to Loch Fyne - in a lot more snow. He set off very early yesterday and arrived safely - waiting for the road at Rest and Be Thankful to open, rather than taking the long diversion. But the weather meant that they did no work because it took all day to get their equipment up 5 miles of snowy track to their site. So, it looks like he will be there most of the week. Best get cracking on his Christmas socks then....

Making Monday: Christmas is coming...

Winter vomiting disease has been and - hopefully - gone in our house now, so normal service is resumed. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say the washing machine got quite a work out....

Despite it all, there has been plenty of Christmas crafting this year. I don't know why I've started so early, or been so organised about it. Who knows? But - without wishing to boast - the christmas basket is starting to brim with handcrafted goodies all made from stuff I was hoarding  the stash. So far I have made:

• three pairs of socks (one adult; two child);
• two men's hankies (upcycled from an old shirt);
• three quilts for a dolls bed (also upcycled from various shirts and sheets);
• and one pair of handwarmers.

Here are a few shots of these projects...



In the midst of all this I have also made a pair of socks for my brother's birthday (happy birthday boy!), a cowboy/Woody style waistcoat for a 5 yr old's birthday (happy birthday Digby!) and a baby hat for a newly hatched sister belonging to one of the bean's friends.

Here are the birthday socks...

pattern: generic top down

yarn: German sock yarn, bought at Peebles show in 2010.

You'll have to wait for pics of the other things. The baby hat and socks for the jelly bean will be worth waiting for - they are knit in that fab Berocco sock yarn I had for my birthday. It's gorgeous stuff and I'm just hoping there will be enough left to make some socks for me!

But, now all that's finished, I'm not quite sure what to do next. Someone at work is expecting twins in the new year and I was thinking about making some weeny jackets for them; I've got a Clothkits dress for the jelly bean languishing somewhere, and various plans for dressing up clothes to add to our dressing up basket, plus a friend that I owe a hat .... Any suggestions? Perhaps a glass of sloe gin will help? It can't hurt, can it?

The Cardigan of Doom (again)

On Saturday evening, I was booked to baby sit for a family we know. They had a dinner of spectacular proportion to go to (17 courses or perhaps 29), and I knew that I would have a long evening to entertain myself. The plan was this: to seam the cardigan of doom and continue with the knitted edging which goes on for several hundred yards seemingly. I got my bag ready in good time, and when the time was right, I set off to supervise someone else's children into bed (with an obligatory story or two) and then settle down on someone else's sofa for the evening. After reading the paper and spending some time trying to work out which combination of FOUR remote controls resulted in a tv with both sound AND picture, I picked up my bag to begin. I hauled the sorry nicely blocked pieces out of my knitting bag and set them aside. Then I reached in for my scissors and needle case. And, it was at this point that my plans for the evening broke down. Neither scissors nor needle case were actually in my bag - and I believe scientists have established beyond doubt that those two things are fundamental for sewing up anything you might care to mention. I was stumped. I was flummoxed. I was completely bojangled.

Fortunately, before leaving my own two chiddlers at home for the evening, I had stuffed the boy socks into my knitting bag, just in case.

Just as well. Sock two progressed from just started to more than half done, just like that. I finished it last night, and tried it on my sleeping son to make sure it wasn't too small. Save for one small detail (some blocks of duplicate stitch on the sole to indicate the approximate size of the sock- I'll show you sometime) - they are all done and in the (very smug) Christmas box. And the cardigan of doom still mocks me from the knitting bag...