A Stitch In Time

...And after!

What a difference a week makes (168 little hours!):

It may be much cleaner and tidier, but it does also feel a little like we've moved out! David is finally moving in with his three cats and another houseful of stuff, in a couple of weeks when his house sale is completed so it won't be like this for long. Which is good because the hollow echo created in such an empty room is starting to make me feel very small!
On a semi-serious note, thank you so much for all your lovely messages after last weeks post, they reminded me  why I love blogging and made me want to get straight back into it! I managed to restrain myself though and we had a lovely computer-free family weekend.

Apart from tidying the dining room (the rest of the house is still in the same state, but one step at a time, hey?!), I decorated some T-shirts for Annie and Eliza with their initials.

They lurrrve them! I was thinking of writing a tutorial if anyone's interested because they're so easy and they got such a joyful response from the girls. I'm having to wash them every night  so they can wear them again the next day!

I've also been fabric shopping and have amassed the following fabric stock for the bird in a tree apron:

And beautiful, multi-tonal thread:

Much to David's bemusement as I already own all of these:

They're obviously not the same though, are they...?!

I also bought Invisible Machine Applique by Dawn Cameron-Dick to try out on the apron.

As we all know, there are two distinct types of crafting books, the beautiful, eye candy, lust after type like Amy Butler, Lotta Jansdotter and the quintessential example of this type; Japanese crafting books, all inspirational style but no English instructions! And then there's the informative, educational, show-you-how type. This book falls into the second category, I'm not particularly moved by any of the projects, they're just not me. But the technical info is amazing. I sat with this book for hours on Sunday evening ooohing and ahhhing and saying, "well, I didn't know that", "Ohhh, I see", "well I never!" (all very irritating for David who was trying to concentrate on Lost and 24). It's very well-written; the instructions are so clear and simple I feel really confident about trying her technique out.
Sounds like famous last words.... I'll update you next week with some samples hopefully.

Until then, blogging friends, happy crafting and have a good week!

Flat Out

This is how I felt for much of the Easter school holiday:

I wasn't ill, I just found this 'break' a bit intense (relentless is the word that actually comes to mind).



Now Annie and Eliza are back to school/play school I've been able to indulge in a little crafting and I'm slowly coming round!



I've nothing finished to show, but several nearly completed projects...



... just to prove I'm still a crafter!
 

Fair Isle, Intarsia and more Blocking Fever!

I'm still plodding on with my blanket. 

     

In order to maintain interest I borrowed this book from the library:

    
I was after a heart motif which I found:

I also found lots of other designs which I wanted to try out. The graphs are easy to follow and there's a wealth of inspiration between the pages.

The book's also really good for advice on techniques such as weaving yarn in, in order to carry it across the back of the work and for twisting the yarns together when changing from one colour to another.

It's not what you'd call a coffee table book though, you wouldn't idly flick through it dreaming of one day having the time and resources to make the beauties within. This is mainly because there are actually no pictures of any knitting within the pages: I know; crazy!

It's crammed full of coloured graphs of motifs but there is not one single picture showing you what a design actually looks like knitted up. So I've obliged here and provided knitted samples!

If you are bored with the whole blocking story then look away now. My fascination continues and I noticed in the response to Alicia's post on the subject, there were requests to see before and after pictures. So here we go:

Before:

During:

And after:

Unfortunately, blocking can't disguise terribly ropey edges and the odd hole, but other than that it's fairly miraculous, you end up with a lovely pile of beauties like this:

Blocking

I started blocking my blanket squares today.



Even though I've been knitting since I was little and as a teenager I made lots of jumpers and cardigans, (I know, so uncool, if only crafting was as fashionable in the 80's!), I've never blocked anything before. If you are a blocking expert, please look away! I've kind of worked out how to do it through other people's blogs, like Alicia's. But I'm not entirely confident that I'm doing it properly.



My  big lesson for this month is don't wait until you have a pile of squares as big as that above before you start blocking. I only have enough pins to do six at a time!



I'm amazed at what a difference blocking makes though, it really is the difference between a professional and botched finish! Not that I've gone for out-and-out professionalism. I've broken so many golden rules: Using vastly differing weights of yarn, mixing crochet and knit, letting my Mum finish squares for me when our tensions are wildly different, so they have a kind of tapered, triangular effect... Seeing them all laid out on my bed has spurred me on though as it's easier to envisage the finished project and has re-ignited my passion!

Work in Progress, Buttons and Red Noses

 

I bought a bumper bag of yellow, orange and red buttons from Ebay. There are a few beauties in there but I mainly wanted to bulk up my stock of sunshine colours which was paling in comparison to my sea of blues and greens. I find it so hard to actually use buttons but the more I have the easier it gets. It's not so difficult if your stash doesn't deplete drastically when you use just one or two!

On a totally irrelevant note and using my blog for a purpose completely removed from it's original intent: Vote for Tara! I have become totally sucked into Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, not for any worthy, selfless, making-the-world-a-better-place reasons, or because Annie watches it and I got drawn in (it worked the other way round). But because it's fabulous entertainment. Watch it and vote for T.P.T., it'll be a travesty of taste if she doesn't win first place!

 

Sneak Preview

Here's a peep at the preparations I've been making for my his 'n' hers submission to Amy's Valentine themed tie-one-on for Jan/Feb.

A preliminary sketch:

Some materials:



Now I just have to give the house an (incredibly overdue) thorough clean. Then I can begin without the usual accompanying feelings of guilt, familiar to every crafter who attempts to make something for no other reason than personal enjoyment and satisfaction!

So much to do...

Here are some more fabrics that are waiting patiently to be used

I bought the Christmas ones to make items from to sell at the N.C.T. craft fair next Monday (13th November at Wymondham High School from 7p.m.), and I do feel a sense of urgency in using them because I don't think they'll be popular in January! I thought I might make some Christmas bunting with the Elvis in Snowflake (see below) and Dancing Snowmen fabrics. The Christmas shopping ladies I think I'll combine with some red gingham or a red and white polka fabric for a Christmas apron. Some fabric covered notebooks would look good too.

Talking of which, I bought this book from a fab Ebay store called Crafty Creations, which sells a huge range of making books including lots of Japanese ones. The Japanese crafting books seem so much more contemporary and stylish than the ones I'm used to seeing in English book shops. But then I suppose the Japanese are more advanced than us in a lot of ways. Anyway, I chose this book because it has fabric covered note books and I thought I would get some ideas of how to go about constructing them. The only slight draw back is that the instructions look like this:

Having said that about English craft books, I borrowed Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor from the library this morning. In which I found these gorgeous creations:

Oh dear, so little time and so much I want to make... So I'm spending the weekend watching these DVDs  which I also hired from the library. I watched Donnie Darko again yesterday, and found that, even though I thought I did, I didn't entirely understand it after all. I really enjoyed it though, it's one of those films that you get more from every time you watch it and the soundtrack has some great blasts from the past! Of course, Jake Gyllenhall gives a great performance, which is my round-a-bout way of justifying hiring Brokeback Mountain!

Next time: hopefully some finished works to post about (depending on how gripping the above films are).

Clean and pressed and ready to go...

 Isn't this fabric fabulous?! I can't wait to use it, I'm thinking of making a couple of adult size aprons with The King's fans in mind, or maybe a few plain coloured or black butcher's aprons with the Elvis panels for a big pocket, unless anyone has any better ideas...? Because I love it so much, here's a close up:

Now I've never been a great fan of his music, although when I was a teenager my best friend and I spent quite a few hours listening to 'Hound Dog' and 'Return To Sender' and I've loved 'In The Ghetto' since the KLF put it on 'Chill Out', oh, and 'Always on my mind' moves me. Maybe I am a fan at heart, I just don't own any of his albums... Anyway, he was fabulously good-looking, so incredibly photogenic and stylish in his own entirely original way; he makes for a striking fabric print!

This is a Christmas Elvis-in-Snowflake fabric which just makes me smile, I think of all those people who swear they've seen Elvis in the clouds or their tea leaves and think it's a sign he's still with us...

The Saga Continues...

So I thought the sewing machine crisis was over... I cleaned and oiled it, wound a bobbin on, all the time feeling very self-satisfied. Then disaster struck; I couldn't get the fly-wheel to re-engage and so I am machine-less again. A  mechanic is coming to see it next Tuesday. Moving swiftly on...

Here are some Works In Progress:

This is a piece of fabric I bought on Ebay a few months ago. My plan is to quilt/embroider it, then frame it and hang it in my bathroom. The positive outcome of having no sewing machine is that it's enabling me to spend some time on all the hand-sewn jobs that I feel too guilty to work on when I could be making things to sell. And I enjoy hand-sewing, I like the added control, and because it's literally 'hands on' I think it's more intimate. Generally hand-sewn pieces take longer, so I consider the choices and decisions I make more deeply.

Here's something else I can crack on with while the S.M.C. continues. I'm knitting a patchwork blanket in muted pinks and greens for my bed, to keep me warm. Making this reminds me of Tita from 'Like Water For Chocolate', a good film and a gorgeous book.

My Mum lent this to me when I went to stay last week. I really want to learn how to crochet so that I can make one of those multi-coloured patchworked granny crochet blankets, or one of the really cute crocheted animals I've seen around, I think they're called 'granimals' (what a fab name). I also thought while I'm practising I could make some squares for my blanket.

And finally one of Annie's W.I.Ps: her first piece of knitting- she's making a scarf for her baby-doll.

My multi-talented daughter is also responsible for my new 'author' portrait. I encouraged her to draw what she could see rather than what she thought was there, and to be honest, there is an actual resemblance, I can see where she's coming from! And I'm actually quite fond of it now.

So I have plenty to occupy my hands and mind. Pictures of fabrics waiting to be cut and stitched next time...