Crafting Balance - 3KCBWDAY7

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Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both? If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it? Is it because the items that you best enjoy crafting are more suited to the needles or the hook? Do you plan on ever trying to take up and fully learn the other craft? If you are equally comfortable knitting as you are crocheting, how do you balance both crafts? Do you always have projects of each on the go, or do you go through periods of favouring one over the other? How did you come to learn and love your craft(s)?

You would never know it from my blog or my Ravelry Projects Page, but I actually learnt how to crochet before I learnt to knit.  I taught myself from a book, The Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques. I really enjoyed learning to crochet and loved the sturdy 3D forms I could make and the lacy blankets that I was having fun with.

Early Crochet

1. Acorn Project Bag, 2. Beaded Necklace, 3. Crochet French Knitter Caddy, 4. Baby Blanket

Then as I was looking at the more advanced crochet patterns I found myself wanting to create smooth fabric.  I liked the idea of learning to knit so I could create smooth fabrics and then apply lacy crochet to embellish them.  I tried to find a book to teach me to knit and found I got the basics but when I tried to understand knitting patterns I struggled.  So I took a class to learn how to knit and was taught how to read patterns.  And I'm afraid that was it, I was addicted to the needle as opposed to the hook.  I left the hook stranded as I explored my passion.

Early Knitting

1. Kid Classic Bolero Jacket, 2. Baby Hat, 3. Hat, 4. Kidsilk Haze Scarf

It is only recently, nearly 4 years later, that I find myself wanting to crochet more.  I think Marie at Underground Crafter was the instigator, when she sent me the Tunisian Crochet Hook and instructions how to use it.  That made me start looking at how interesting crochet could be, and it didn't all have to be bags and toys.

Also looking at modern crochet magazines has inspired me to start improving my skills, in particular patterns such as; Infinity Wrap, Rosemary Sweater, Rapunzel and Boteh Scarf.

There have recently been members of my knitting group who have brought crochet projects that have really interested me.  I want to move past the small scale projects and start moving up.  I really want to increase my crochet skills so that I can chose the best craft for each design idea I have.

It will be quite a long road to learning how to crochet as well as I can, but I spent 4 years getting to the stage I am with knitting, so why not spend the same amount of effort of learning to crochet too?

Improving Your Skillset - 3KCBWDAY6

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How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

I have been knitting and crocheting since 2008.  So that's nearly 4 years.  I forget that I haven't been knitting forever because I jumped into the knitting world with both feet and didn't stop to look.  I love learning and knitting became my focus.  Crochet got left behind in my passion for knitting and knitting techniques.

In a way I was lucky to start my love affair with knitting when I did, because there was a place called Ravelry all ready and waiting for me to join.  I got a massive boost in my learning curve from reading forum threads and finding free patterns and tutorials.  There were also great blogs and websites with tutorials, and YouTube was full of videos.

I feel like I have learnt so much already, but the most important thing I've come to understand is that there is no end to the learning in crafting.  You can become a master crafter and still have massive holes in your experience and learning.  It's really exciting because I know I'll never reach a limit to what I'm able to discover.

Every year I say to myself "I will learn how to do......", and I never do.  Usually because something else new and interesting comes up.  I've decided to stop setting myself these goals that I never achieve, because it always makes me cross at myself for not getting on with it.

I've decided that I will try and find new ways of doing simple things, like casting on, or creating selvedges or doing jogless stripes.  I will also try new techniques when I fall in love with a pattern that requires me to learn something.  For instance, I really want to learn how to do entrelac, but I have yet to find the perfect pattern that makes me itch to do it.  When I find it, I will learn, but I won't spend the time on the technique until I find something that uses it.  Mind you, Harlequien from Sweet Shawlettes by Jean Moss is definitely making my fingers twitch.

Recently I have found myself wanting to learn more about crochet again.  I think it is the birth of new babies in the family.  I want to make toys and all the cute ones are crochet!  I am enjoying learning more about making 3D forms and I think it will probably lead on to doing more crochet accessories too.

Gratuitous Crochet Photo to Liven Up The Post

I have seen some amazing crochet shawls and would love to have the confidence to try and do them.  I think once I have worked my way through my current Craftsy course I will perhaps look for other courses on crochet, to improve my crochet skills.  They seem to have atrophied a little during my knitting frenzy of the last 4 years!  The Craftsy system of learning seems to suit me well, and it means I don't have to give up on doing courses simply because of my health.  I like being able to learn at my own pace in my own home.  I have had to give up going to Adult Education classes because I could only manage to attend about half of them.  Craftsy have filled a gap the Adult Education courses have left.  It is a way of learning in a structured manner from an experienced teacher.  I think having some guided learning is a good thing for me.  It reduces my normal scatter gun approach.

I am hoping to reduce my frantic race to learn everything, that I seem to have adopted.  I keep forgetting that I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me.  I can take as long as I want to try new skills.  I don't have to hurry.  I can take my time and enjoy the learning and the practical application of that learning.  I think it is time to slow down and just enjoy my crafting for a while, rather than treating it like a university course, that gets marked and analysed!  It's time for me to slow down and crochet the roses.

Something A Bit Different - 3KCBWDAY5

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Something a Bit Different is something that normally feels a little tricky for me to get my head round.  Last year I did a simple slide show of photographs set to music.  I've done that one now and it wasn't particularly imaginative.  It's hard for me to do things that require physical effort, such as "interpretative dance", which is always suggested for some reason.  I did think of doing some live blogging thing but I am going out today to catch up with old friends.  Therefore that plan is out of the window.  So I've come up with this;

and this;

I am going to create a project from these yarns.  It doesn't sound very different yet does it?  Well here comes the interesting bit - you are going to help me design my project.

I'm going to start with a basic pattern that is already written, my More Than a Triangle Shawl pattern.   It's a really simple pattern that creates a basic shape and in the photo below you can see a striped version I created.

So, with this pattern as the basis of the design, I am going to let you determine how the project knits up.  I want you to leave a comment, and in that comment I want you to leave a number between 1 and 8, and where in the world you are, just country or state, nothing too specific.  Each number represents one of the colours in the first photograph (I won't tell you which is which as I want it to be really random).  I will then knit one stripe in that colour.  The coloured stripes will be alternated with the cream coloured yarn in the second photograph.

I will knit the stripes determined by the comments left until I reach the end of the numbers, and then I will repeat that stripe pattern until I either run out of yarn or get a decent sized shawl.  I want to know where each comment comes from not only out of sheer nosiness, but also because, as I said on the first day of this Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, I am excited about how this event draws people from across the world together.

Once I have knit the shawl I will put all the commenters into a random draw and the winner will get the finished shawl.  Even if your stripe isn't included in the finished shawl, because I had loads of comments, you will be entered into the draw.  I will, however, only keep the comments on this post open until the end of this event.  I will close this contest at Midnight, GMT, on Monday 30th April.

The yarn is pure wool and it is approximately 3-4 ply in weight.  You will have to hand wash the shawl, but I hope there will be enough people interested in the shawl, despite that, to get enough stripes to make a decent shawl size.

I can't promise how long it will take to finish.  The above shawl took me 2 weeks but you might have to allow 2-3 months as I won't be working on the shawl exclusively.

I will blog about my progress on the shawl and I hope that you will be interested in the progress of something you have helped design!  My comment system doesn't post until I approve each comment, so your number won't show immediately, which means no one will know what the preceding numbers are.  I might end up with several stripes being the same colour or just three colours in the whole shawl.

I won't make the draw until the shawl is finished. I think my comment system makes you leave an email address so I should be able to get in touch with the winner, but even so, I will announce the winner in my "ta-dah, I've finished" post.

As you may have already guessed from my "tell me where you are" requirement, I will send the shawl to anywhere in the world, so anyone can enter.  I hope you do join in with this Something A Bit Different, as now I have thought it up I'm kind of excited about placing myself in your hands.  This will be a shawl created with input from around the world and will be sent to someone who joined in with the fun.

I look forward to casting on, help me get started!


UPDATE

I decided to make the start of the shawl begin with 30 rows of the main colour, to make sure that every stripe got a decent length.  I have my main colour all done and I'm ready to start striping.

Apologies for the poor photo quality, it was taken with my phone using a flash because it is so dreary here today.

I've also picked random numbers and assigned them to the yarns.  I then tied the numbers to the skeins so I don't forget which colour is which number.

I hope I haven't given anyone any clues as to which colour is which number!  Thank you so much everyone who has left a number so far.  It is so much fun finding out where everyone is reading.

Update @ 01/05/2012

I have started knitting the stripes now and this is what I have produced so far.

And you will be pleased to note that I am weaving in the ends as I go!

Comments are now closed!

A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons? - 3KCBWDAY4

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As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Have a look through your finished projects and explain the seasonality of your craft to your readers. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

My crafting is definitely affected by the weather.  As soon as the weather starts to change I want to change my projects.  This can result in many unfinished WIPs.  We had a brief window of unseasonably warm weather in March and all I wanted to do was knit Summer tops, despite the window of warm weather only lasting a week.  I was so sure it was the beginning of Summer - what a fool!  I live in the UK where we have two Summers, one in March that lasts for a week and one in September that also lasts a week and only appears after the kids have gone back to school.

You would think with our very brief stints of truly lovely weather we Brits would be more sensible about knitting Summer projects, but we aren't.  We get giddy when the sun shines properly, in a blue sky, because it happens so rarely.  We want to cast aside our woolly knits and reach for the cottons and the linen blends.   I spent our brief window of sunshine planning what my Summer knits were going to be.  I even bought some nice Summer yarn to knit with.

I was going to knit my Aqua coloured Louisa Harding Mulberry into a Tulip Peasant Blouse by Connie Chang Chincio.  I had it all planned, and then we had a week of hail.  Great big ice chunks hurling from the sky will make even the most optimistic knitter reach for thick woolly knits. So instead of casting on my nice summery project, I went back to my regular knitting.  But that burst of sun has awoken my desire for light weight projects.

What I really need to do, is get some more light cover ups, as that is the kind of thing we need during our warmer months in the UK.  One project that really suits this country is the Wrapigan I made last Spring.

This is a cardigan in 4 ply or sock weight yarn.  It is light weight but great as a cover up in slightly cooler temperatures, in the Spring and Autumn mainly, but also in the middle of our regularly rubbish Summers too.

I have another sock weight cardigan that I am currently working on.  I started it last Autumn.

It's an Austin Hoodie, another pattern by Connie Chang Chinchio.  She does great light weight knits and these really do suit our moderate climate.  We don't get many really really cold months here, but we also don't get many really really hot months either.  This moderation makes the lines between Winter and Summer knitting much more blurred.  It makes it harder to keep up the momentum with trying to plan ahead for the seasons, because sometimes they don't really change that much.

One way I did manage to keep ahead of the seasons this year was to knit a picnic blanket that was to be used THIS Summer.  I knit it over the last Winter, and strangely enough it has had a LOT of use during the cold weather, despite it's intended use, as it is very cosy to huddle under.  It is the Mitered Crosses Blanket for Japan.

I can't wait to use this blanket as it was intended.  The aran weight garter stitch makes a lovely spongey grass covering, and as it has a high acrylic content it can be easily washed.

I knew that this blanket would have to be cool weather knitting, as the thick acryclic yarn would make my hands all hot and bothered in any kind of heat.  Though normally modular knits are perfect for warm weather, as it means you aren't sitting under a pile of yarn.

This notion of sitting under a pile of yarn is often why I don't plan ahead for my knits.  In Winter the idea is comforting and warming, whereas in the Summer it is a very unpleasant image.  This means that often I am out of sync with my knits.  I finish a project just as the season is changing, which means it gets put away for 6 months, until it is the right time to be used.  It is sad, but true, and I don't think I'm alone in this method of "planning" my knits.  I don't think I'll ever change, but I do hope that I can pick up my Austin Hoodie again now the weather is warming up, as it will be a perfect weight to throw on over a t-shirt when I pop to the shops.  It would be nice to think I'll finally get it finished and out of the WIP pile.  Maybe then I can start doing proper Summer knits, perhaps that nice tunic pattern.....

Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero - 3KCBWDAY3

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Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don't forget to show them off. Remember to get permission from the owner if you wish to use another person's pictures.

Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero - This is a really really tough one for me.  I find it so hard to narrow down my hero to one or two people who really challenge and inspire me.  There are so many incredibly creative people out there, and so many of them make me want to knit and crochet better.

One of my first knitting crushes was on Jared Flood aka Brooklyn Tweed.  When I first found his blog I fell in love with his clean and elegant photography style and the designs that were inspired by the tradition of centuries of knitting history, but with a contemporary edge.  The first knitting pattern I ever downloaded was Porom.

Aw bless, I was such a naive, young knitter then, this photo was taken on 1st January 2009.  This hat design started my own designing.  I wanted a scarf to go with this hat and I couldn't find one that would work, so I designed the Romberry Scarf, which was released in May of that year.

I was so worried about using the stitch pattern from the hat, in my scarf pattern, that I emailed Jared to ask for his permission.  He kindly replied and told me that it wasn't his stitch pattern and it had been around for many years and he got it from a stitch dictionary.  He also wished me luck.  I was like a star struck teenager for days afterwards.

Since then, I recently knitted the Leaves of Grass Shawl.  You can read all about that project here, if you are interested.

I feel that I should also include another knitting hero of mine.  Someone who is a hero of mine for different reasons, Woolly Wormhead.  This designer is someone who is open about her mental health and some of the difficulties that it creates.  She is someone who mainly self publishes her designs so that she can control her work pressures with a lilttle less difficulty.  I love her designs and the way she can take a simple hat and make it wonderful and fun and unusual.

The above hat is Quynn and the project details are here on my Ravelry page.  Woolly Wormhead has taught me the beauty of the hat.  I love how a good hat pattern can teach you so many new techniques in a quick and portable project, which results in a useful item.

Hats are a great way to try out things like lace, in  a double knit or aran weight wool.  You can find out whether you enjoy that kind of knitting or not.

Ivydene, was a project I knitted in July 2010 and it took all of 24 hours!  I gave this hat away for Christmas to my sister-in-law.  I loved that hat, I must knit it again for myself and keep it this time!

Essentially one of the reasons Woolly Wormhead is my hero is that she is an incredibly talented designer who writes great patterns and tutorials that are clear and informative.  Just as important, to me, is that she is a designer who doesn't pretend to have a pretty and easy life.  She works really hard to provide for her family without pushing her health too far.  I want to work like her.  I dream of the days when I could sell enough patterns to, at the very least, support my crafting habit.  I know I'll never have the output of a healthy person who is able to go out teaching and write books and magazine articles, but self publishing is a way that I can make a tiny piece of money to contribute towards my crafting spending.  I will never be able to earn enough to support myself, because I can't work that hard, but I can make a contribution through self-publishing.  This is why Woolly Wormhead is one of my knitting heroes, she does what I dream of, and makes me believe that one day it might be possible.

There are so many more knitters and crocheters that I would love to list here, but I haven't got the space.  Nearly everyone who crafts online, on blogs, Ravelry, and Craftsy, or people I meet at knitting groups or yarn stores or see in magazines, these are my heroes.  They are the people who craft every day whether they are in the limelight or not, whether they make a living from their craft or not, they do it because they love it.  They do it because they want each project to be better than their last.  They do it because yarn makes them happy and wrapping that yarn around people they love makes them even more happy.  So, if you are reading this, know that you too are my hero.  Keep crafting!

Photography Challenge Day! - KCBWDAY2

Today is the Photography Challenge Day.  Here is my entry.

Big Teal Bird Needs More Food to Get Bigger, but finds The Bird Feeder Not Quite Big Enough

This is the bird I crocheted from Stacey Trock's Woodland Animals Amigurumi Class, that I first talked about here.

I love my huge Teal Bird, I kind of wish he was staying in my house, rather than travelling down to Dorset for my niece's birthday next month.  Ah well, I can enjoy him until then, especially as I've already ordered the yarn for a teddy bear from the same class.  I have become a toy junkie!

Colour Lovers - 3KCBWDAY1

Welcome to the Third Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Stitched Together Style!  If you have been visiting here a while, you might remember last year was my first outing with this spectacular event.  I really wasn't sure if I was going to take part, at all, this year as my health has been poor of late, but I decided to have a go and try and take part as much as I can.    This means I might not post every day, particularly on the more active participation days, but I decided I did at least want to try to join in with this really great event.

Last year I found so many interesting new blogs to read and subscribe to, and I am pretty sure I gained a few new commenters too.  I love how this one week gives such a broad insight into how bloggers around the world view themselves and their crafts.  It also gives us a peek inside their lives.  This is why I want to join in with this event, even if it is just for a few posts.  I want to be part of something that is so large and interesting, in whatever small way I can.

So on to the first day's topic - Colour.

Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

I love colour.  There is no two ways about it, I will choose a vivid and glorious colour over black every day, except in my clothing staples of skirts and trousers.  I always like to have black skirts and trousers so I can wear a bright contrasting top, preferably hand knitted, but I will settle for shop bought, if my knitted wardrobe isn't quite there yet.  I have a couple of favourite colours, purple and teal.  I also really like lime green and cobalt blue.  I always go for these colours, given the choice.  They are the colours that lift my spirits.

For instance, here is the yarn I bought for my 4 ply version of Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl.

I bought these two yarns from different dyers about a month apart without a project in mind.  I just bought the yarn because I liked it.  They went perfectly together, but it wasn't planned, it is just that this particular shade is something I happen to love.  It will always be my first choice of colour.

Because, I keep repeating colourways in my stash, I am trying really hard to expand my colour choices.  I keep forgetting that lots of colours suit me and when I am making garments or accessories I should be using colours that work with the wardrobe I have, as well as the wardrobe I want to have.  For this reason, for one of the first times ever I actually bought black yarn for something other than toy knitting!  I never buy black yarn, because black is the colour I get from the clothing stores.  But I bought black because I wanted to make a black cotton dress.  I wanted something that I could jazz up with zingy bright coloured shawls and cardigans.  I actually bought a yarn that would work with my wardrobe and my existing knits.

I have another thing that forces my colour selection, other than my overriding desire for teal and purple, and that is my budget.  Most of my garment sized yarn purchases are from eBay or from clearance sections of various websites.  I don't have a lot of money so when I see a great bargain of a nice yarn in a decent quantity, I tend to buy it, unless it is a colour I really can't wear.  This isn't a bad thing, as it forces me to look at a colour in a different light.  Clearance yarns tend to be from discontinued colours or yarns, which means they aren't necessarily in colours that scream "BUY ME".  The black yarn was a case like this.  But I also managed to get some purple yarn for a bargain last month too!  It is very unusual to get one of my favourite colours as a bargain, so I had to get it!

I have actually got some really lovely yarns on clearance that I would never have been able to afford any other way.  Two of my recent favourites are, Maylla and Sawya.

Both of these yarns are made by Mirasol, which is a fair trade yarn, so I feel bad about not paying full price, but I wouldn't be buying them at all at the recommended retail price.  This muted blend of greens is not completely outside the norm for me, but I wouldn't have selected it as my first choice normally.  It is a much more muted shade than I would normally jump at knitting with.  I think, however, it will be a great yarn to knit with and more importantly to wear.  At the end of the day that is what I am doing with this yarn.  I am buying it to turn into something to wear or to use around the house.  If I was buying clothes from a store I would definitely buy something in this particular blend of colours.

The Sawya yarn is again a selection I normally would not make as an initial impulse to knit with.  It is cream.  A colour I normally steer well clear of outside of floaty blouses.

This cream wasn't just an off-white shade though.  The more I look at it, the more I love it.  This soft buttery colour really is enhanced by the delicious yarn.  I think it is much easier to love a colour if the yarn is gorgeous too!

These bargain purchases are really good for me.  They pull me away from my favourite hues.  They make me look again at what I really need from my colour.  Do I need it to make my heart sing, or do I need it to be flattering and versatile?  Basically I need my colours to do both.  My bargain yarns are primarily what I can afford and I buy sock and lace weight yarns to make my heart sing.  I can afford single skeins of jewel like colours to lift my heart and my outfits.

This BabyLongLegs Semi-Precious 4 ply yarns has to be a perfect example of my "treat" yarns.  A single skein of mouthwatering colour on a beautiful yarn base.  It will become a flash of colour around my neck, to make me smile on a grey day.  This is a sample of a true colour of my heart. 

I think we need all kinds of colours in our lives, those that are there to blend and comfort, and those that are an accent or a highlight against the background hues.  I know what I prefer, but I am beginning to understand, not just because of my bank balance, that the background colours can be just as heart-warming and dramatic in their own way.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2012

I have hummed and hawed about whether to join in this year or not, I'm going to give it a go, as I enjoyed last year so much.

For full details, click the button, and I'll see you tomorrow for Day 1..... I hope!

Leatherwork

Yes, you read that title right.  Leatherwork!  I have made my first foray into working with leather.  A few months ago I got a lovely new phone.  It is all singing and dancing and I love it.  What I didn't love was the thought of getting it scratched.  As an emergency measure I hand stitched a quick little pouch made of crafting felt.  It worked while I pondered what sort of case to make properly.

After some internal debating I remembered that I had a bag of leather scraps, one of which might just be the right size for a case.  So I ordered some leather sewing needles and started cutting my leather.  I have to say, cutting into this leather scrap was pretty scarey.  I knew if I did it wrong I didn't have any other pieces big enough to try again.  I wasn't going to buy more leather especially for this case, so it had to be right first time.  I got the leather cut and then fitted my leather sewing needle to my sewing machine.

You need a special needle because it has to be extra sharp and strong to pierce the thick leather.  I took some of the scraps of leather left over and started practicing.  I lengthened the stitch as long as it would go and eased the tension off.  The thread stopped looking like it was about to cut the leather in half and I thought I'd have a go with the actual item.

The case itself was very simple.  It was long rectangle with one end folded over to hold the phone and a flap to cover the envelope bit.

 

It was very simple to stitch two straight lines.  This leather sewing isn't as bad as I thought it would be!

I used a bag clasp to keep the case closed.  I think I originally got the clasp from U-Handbag, but they don't seem to stock it anymore.  The closest I have found to the clasp I used, in another UK online shop, is from MacCulloch & Wallis.  The bottom part of the clasp has prongs that go through the leather and fold in, to hold it in place and the top half has screws that hold it in place.  This required much pressure from an tailor's awl to pierce the leather in the envelope part of the case, but I think that effort was rewarded.

I think the clasp gives it a very professional and polished look.  It does, however, mean that the prongs will scratch the very phone I am trying to protect.  So I took a piece of fleece and made it into a liner for the case.  I simply folded it in half and zig-zag stitched around the edges.  To hold the fleece in place, I used fabric glue, applied around the top edge.  I don't think I did it too well as the fleece is starting to come away from the leather.  I might have to try again to get it to stick.  I know it isn't the glue's fault as it works fine with putting fabric into purse frames with nothing else to hold it in place, so it must have been user error.  Luckily, I can try again!

Despite my glue user errors, you can't see the lining from the outside, and I think it looks pretty professional for a girl who has never sewn leather before.

I am very tempted to try some more items now from my scraps.  Of course, after I finished the case I remembered that my friends had given me tonnes of leather from their sofa that they were throwing out.  They hacked a massive chunk from the back before throwing it away, just for me.  This means that I didn't need to worry so much about messing up the cutting, though I have to admit, I do like prefer this look for a phone case to the shiny chestnut finish of the sofa leather.  That leather will be used for a bag...... one day ;-)

To look at other finished projects, click the button.

Working on Simple Things

This week I have mainly been working on simple things - hence the title of the post ;-)  This is because I have been helping a friend tech edit her pattern and this is using most of my brain power.  Plus, I haven't been very well over the last week.  I spent most of Monday in bed feeling sorry for myself, not even able to tolerate the radio.  That's when you know I'm really sick, when I don't even listen to music.  I'm starting to feel much brighter now, but it has left me without much that is interesting to show you.  Here are my Kaffe Fassett yarn socks.

I have finished the foot and I'm now onto the leg.  This way of doing socks looks really odd until you put them on your foot.  Here is the sock flatted sideways.

It looks a little more like a foot this way, doesn't it?  I do love this yarn.  The colours are much brighter than I normally go for.  I think I'm starting to be drawn towards bright socks, as I find them so cheerful to have them on my feet.

Next on my simple things list is my simple ribbed scarf.  I made the scarf too wide initially, so after a few inches I did some maths and realised I would get a very short and wide scarf and that wasn't what I wanted.  I ripped back and cast on 41 stitches instead.  This seems to be about the right width and will make a nice long and loopy scarf.

This scarf has been perfect "getting over feeling poorly" knitting.  There is nothing more soothing than 1 x 1 ribbing in delicious yarn on nice slick needles.  The fabric of the scarf is coming out beautifully.  The new method of casting on has worked a treat as well.  I'm definitely keeping that one in my toolbox of tricks for the future.

I have made progress on my crochet project as well.  I have nearly finished the body of my Teal Bird.

The pattern uses yellow for the beak, but I haven't been able to track down a yellowish colour that would work, in this yarn, so I have ordered some black yarn.  I think it will come in useful for further projects.  If it doesn't get used, it hasn't cost me very much as this yarn is pretty cheap.  I'm glad I used it because the body of the bird is really squishy, even without putting the stuffing inside.

I've stalled at this point, until the black yarn arrives, as I want to have the beak made up before I add the wings and eyes.  At that point I will go back to my Craftsy class and learn the best way of attaching the bits to the body.  It will be interesting to see if there are any special techniques that I've not used before, as most of the toys I have made before have been knitted.  I am really looking forward to seeing this birdy finished.  I think it's going to look so cute.

So there you have it.  Three simple and straight forward projects to occupy my hands whilst my brain rests after tech editing maths work.  I do love that about crafting - there is a project for every occasion!  To see other crafters' projects, click on the button!

A Friday Finish

I actually finished this project a while ago, but didn't get round to blogging about it.  This surprises me as I LOVE it.  I wear it all the time.  It has stripes and garter stitch and lovely colours.  Can you guess what it is yet?  Yes, that's right.  It's the Color Affection!

Hasn't it come out well?  I loved making this shawl so much, but I also adore wearing it.  It is such a flexible shawl.

It is a great shawl, but it also makes a great squishy scarf too.  I won't get much chance to wear it as a scarf for now, but when the cold weather starts again, I think I will wear it in that fashion, a great deal.

I love the asymmetry of the pattern.  It makes it so interesting.  The picture below was the best I could get of it laying flat.

It's pretty wide and shallow, which makes it a tricky one to photograph without a stepladder!  But as this project looks best wrapped around a body, that's not too much of a problem.

I love how the colours work together.  I am pretty sure that I will knit another one of these at some point, when I look at the stash again.  It does leave quite a bit of yarn over and I think next time I might extend the middle section a bit to try and make it deeper.  I would like the shawl to be about 2" deeper to rest on my elbows when wearing it wrapped around, like the photo above.  It just makes it warmer if it is that little bit longer.  But that is the only issue I have with this project.  Everything else about it has been a great success.  I can truthfully say, I LOVE this project and wear it all the time.  Garter stitch wins again!

Oh by the way, I have finally got Instagram, as they have brought out an Android version.  If you want to follow me I'm stitchedtogether. If you want me to follow you, then leave your username in the comments and I'll add you.  I'm enjoying my new toy very much.  It's great to be able to just snap and share things.

If you want to look at other finished projects, click one of the buttons.