Learning to knit

My knitting is progressing slowly...but surely :)

I first bought a book with the intention of learning to knit in October, at the Knitting and Stitching Show.  Quadrille had 15% off everything on their stand, and they had this gorgeous 'Learn to Knit, Love to Knit' book.  I loved it, bought it...and then ignored it for a few months!

However, at Christmas (always a good opportunity to learn new things), I asked my mum for knitting needles, and set myself down to learn on the 1st of January.  The Learn to Knit book, as it turns out, is excellent - Kimberlee, at the Knitting Mama, recommends it for learners, and I have found the instructions and the associated pictures really easy to follow - although it was handy to have my mum around as well, for some additional clarification if required.

At the moment, I'm part way through two patterns:

• A simple baby blanket, from a pattern mum gave me along with my new knitting needles.  I'm knitting it in yellow, as Baby T's gender is a surprise until he/she arrives with us.  This has been a good first pattern, as it's giving me the chance to hone my basic skills on a big block of knitting!  I have made a few faux pas so far, but I'm also hopeful that as it's a blanket, it'll not be too noticeable!
  
  The one thing I am noticing about knitting, rather than crocheting, is that it does take a lot longer to produce something - there's is a lot more empty space in crocheting, particularly when you're doing treble crochets!  So let's hope the blanket is finished in the four months that I have left before Baby T makes their appearance!
  
  
  
  
  
• Wrist warmers, from the Learn to Knit book.  I got a few of these teal coloured hanks of wool at the Knitting and Stitching show, and thought they would be perfect for the wrist warmers in the book.  This is a simple pattern, and also a much smaller project that the baby blanket, so hopefully will be something I can make up fairly quickly!

I'm really enjoying knitting so far, and I'm looking forward to keeping you updated with my progress!

2015 Craft Resolutions

Happy New Year to you all!

It's a bit of a shock to realise that it's already the 6th of January - our Christmas visit to Wrexham and the following trip over new year to Belfast meant the holiday absolutely flew in.  Back to porridge this week unfortunately - dragging myself out of bed yesterday and today was a massive struggle!

A quick recap on my 2014 resolutions before I have a think about my plans for 2015.

Sewing room

• Success on the sewing room - I made our spare room into my little sewing haven, and it's been a fantastic space for sewing this year.  However, as you know, a bit of a change in our circumstances mean that sewing room is soon to become baby room, and so it's likely that the sewing room will have to be retired fairly soon.  I'll probably try to move the desk, and the faithful Matilda the mannequin into the other spare room, so we'll have to see how things go this coming year

Dresses

• One dress made in 2014, instead of the two I had planned for - I know, not impressive!  I was so pleased with the one I did make, but then illness, and of course, a bit of a changing shape now, mean that making dresses has been a bit low on the priority list!  I do have plenty of patterns, so I might get a maternity dress made (we'll see!) - otherwise, it might provide a bit of motivation for losing baby weight once Baby T arrives!

Craft classes

• I got two classes last year - one on linings, and one on making your own designer jeans! I've done part of the jeans one, and part of the linings one - they're both on hold, as making jeans would be a bit daft at this stage - and I'm not making any lined garments at the moment either, for a similar reason!

2015 resolutions

Learn to knit

With the fact that we're having a baby, comes an irresistible desire to knit tiny cute clothes!  I got the most gorgeous book for my secret santa present at work, and decided that I definitely need to learn to knit - I love crocheting, but knitting will bit good to broaden the spectrum and somehow use up my extra yarn!

The reason for learning to knit!

For Christmas, my mum got my a knitting bag, and a whole set of bamboo knitting needles - as well as a simple pattern and some wool (oops, already accumulating more...!).  I've started making a simple blanket, and can now cast on, and do the knit and purl stitches.  Not very impressive thus far...still, I have stitches on needles, so that's got to be a good thing!

Make a quilt

Quilting initially seemed a bit old fashioned to me, when I first started sewing.  But as I've explored the sewing world some more, I've seen some of the really brilliant quilts done with modern patterns, and anyway, vintage is in :)!  I'd love to make a quilt for the baby - a first step is some very cute material which I picked up in Bath a while ago - these little owls are just adorable.  That's my key project for before Baby T is born.

I'm only going to make these two resolutions for now - I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do on the sewing front pre baby, and I'm sure it'll be even less once Baby T arrives, so I'm not being too ambitious!  But I hope that 2015 will be great - for lots of reasons, not just the crafting that's up ahead...!

Happy Handmade Christmas (stockings)

A very happy Christmas to all my blog readers!  As yesterday was the first day of my holiday, Pete and I had a lovely relaxing day at home, generally putting our feet up before the Christmas rush.  I took the opportunity to do a bit of sewing, which was really nice.

For the first year, we've decided to do Christmas stockings for each other - I thought it would be nice to get this little tradition into play before baby comes along next year!  I've seen a few stockings about, but as my mantra often is these days, why buy it when I can make it myself!?

This free stocking template from Love Sewing magazine came in very handy.  It was intended for a Scandinavian paper piecing stocking, but I definitely didn't have time for that malarky today, and it was a great template for my needs as well.

I used A4 pieces of felt for the body of the stocking.  Obviously, I wanted the stockings to be bigger than one A4 piece of felt (assuming that my hubby has been out buying me lots of pressies!), so each stocking piece was made of 2 pieces of felt, which I attached with some lovely red spotty bias binding which I had lying about.  I thought the green, red and white was a lovely festive combination.

To differentiate between them, it seemed like the best idea was to put our initials on the stockings - I managed a slightly wonky R and P done in white, just to complete the effect!

Looking forward to waking up to these full on Christmas morning - I suppose I'd better get my wrapping finished or 'P' might be a bit disappointed...!

Happy Christmas, and every blessing for the New Year!

Christmas tree decoration

Less than a week until Christmas!  I love this time of year - it's so fun getting the house decorated, and I love the Christmas sights and smells!  I did manage a little bit of Christmas craft when I was sorting through some of my ribbons and bits and pieces in the sewing room.

This was such a simple little craft to do, and results in a lovely little handmade decoration for your tree.  Last year, someone got me these cute little metal Christmas trees.  I have lots of ribbons about - some of them which I've bought, and some have come from presents and wrapping on gifts.

All I did was wrap the Christmas tree in a length of festive ribbon.  When I was finished, I secured the base of the tree with a little stitch, and that kept it all together.  I also added a loop of thread to the top of the decoration, and it was ready for hanging on our tree!

Here's our tree, looking festive!  We're off to Wales to stay with the Townsend contingent on Christmas Eve - can't wait!

Tartan snood

I've really not been a very conscientious blogger - or sewer - recently - many apologies.  Real life has somewhat got in the way!  For those of you who aren't on Facebook with me, we have had some very happy news - we're expecting a baby :)!  Baby T is due at the end of May 2015.  We're really excited - and I'm finally beginning to feel like a 'real person' again - not feeling sick every time I look at food, which is nice, and also getting a bit more energy back, now that I'm into the second trimester.

With Baby T on the way, this means we're starting to think about the sewing room - which will become baby's bedroom.  At the moment it's cluttered with sewing stuff (and other mess!), so I've been trying to sort through some of my fabric / sewing things, and have discovered various lovely fabrics which I had completely forgotten about.

One of those was this gorgeous tartan - which I bought way back in May, in Bude.  I absolutely loved the colours - bright colours are my absolute favourite.  I had the notion that I wanted to make a snood out of it, but never quite got round to it - especially as it then came into the summer, and scarves were the last thing we needed this year!

Still, when I dug it out today, I thought I would seize the opportunity to make myself a snood at last - particularly as I've not really sewn anything in ages, and this was a really easy little project.  I did a quick Google search, and found this handy tutorial.  As usual, I didn't quite follow the instructions - my material wasn't 66 inches long - a mere 57 inches - and it certainly wasn't stretchy, but it made up just as I wanted it, which is the important thing.

I took advantage of the bright (but chilly) afternoon, and got the husband out to take a few photos for me...!  You can wear this snood loosely round your neck, if you're somewhere fairly warm and are just wearing a scarf as an accessory - something which I do quite often!  On the other hand, there's enough fabric there to wrap round once, which will be perfect for me when I'm walking to work and need something to keep me cosy.

I've a suspicion I'll be wearing this a lot - time to dig out all my bright colours in time for the winter!

Crochet beaded bracelets

This year at the Knitting and Stitching Show we decided we would only do one class, giving us a bit more time to browse the stands!  We picked an hour long class, taken by Kath Orsman, which was to crochet a beaded bracelet from wire.

Kath had already done the 'boring bit' for us - feeding all the tiny beads onto the wire in preparation for the class.  The technique was really simple - crochet the wire as you would normal wool, and ensure that you caught a little bead every other stitch.  You needed to crochet a piece of wire double the width of your wrist, and then another piece half that length.  Then you folded the double length piece, and plaited the three pieces together.

We were also provided with the fastener for the bracelet, and the little bits and pieces which allow you to attach them professionally, such as the crimp beads.  I think the finished product looks fantastic, and I've worn it a couple of times already!

A really inspirational and fun class, with lovely results.  It really was a highlight of our day at the show, and I'm hoping to make some more bracelets from the pattern that Kath gave us.

The Knitting and Stitching Show 2014

Another year, another trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace!

This year, Naomi had the bright idea that we could make a weekend of it, and go down to London on Friday night. The three of us ladies got our husbands involved, and we all ended up heading down to London on Friday night. Liz and Mark stayed in the centre of London, while Naomi, Vincent, Pete and I ended up staying further out, in the Crowne Plaza at Ealing. Our hotel was lovely, and it certainly made for a more restful experience this year, rather than the crazy early start which we had last year - never ideal for a Saturday morning!

We started our Saturday with a trip to the Hummingbird Bakery in Soho. A s'more cupcake seemed the perfect beginning to the weekend in my opinion! The cafe hasn't got much seating space, but it was a good place to meet Liz and indulge in some cupcake goodness before us ladies headed off to Alexandra Palace.

The show was apparently sold out, and it was packed when we arrived around 12:30 or so. We enjoyed the familiarity this year - having been last year, a lot of the stands were similar, and we knew more what we liked and what we wanted.  I bought a ridiculous amount of wool, but at least I actually had my magazine that I was basing my purchases from with me, so I knew I was buying the right amounts of wool and the right brands! I'm going to crochet a cushion cover, and I've another jumper I want to make after I finish the current one!

I also bought a bit of fabric, a new sewing box, and a book on learning to knit - I'll see when I actually get round to that, as there's a lot of other things on my plate right now...!

Here are Naomi and I, laden with purchases...(mostly mine, including the huge bag Naomi is carrying...!). Sadly, I didn't get a photo of Liz - she bought lots of wool, and is planning to knit like crazy before her baby arrives on the 31st of December!

We just did one class last year, to give us a bit more time to browse. We learned how to crochet with wire and beads, and made lovely beaded bracelets - I'll get a post on that uploaded soon.

At the end of a great day, we had a relaxing evening and dinner. Naomi and I, plus husbands, took the chance on Sunday, after church in the morning, to go to the Tower of London. I was able to get the four of us in free with work, so it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Another sucessful trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show - already looking forward to 2015!