Sea and Wood

Vicarious Crafting

2010-07-28T13:42:00.001+01:00

Well, we are half-way through week two of a seven-week summer holiday. D is four weeks old, K is 4 & 3/4yrs, and it's raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaining. Again. So my happy little dreams of taking the baby down to the park and letting her kick about on a rug in the sunshine whilst big girl climbs and runs to her heart's content have been pretty much shattered. S'what I get for being optimistic. Sigh.

What can you do in such a situation? Only craft, of course, and since D spends her time clamped to my chest one way or another, my hands aren't all that free. I'm working on a couple of long-term projects; one of which is to restock the shop with Mr Suns asap and the other is a granny square shrug adapted from The Crochet Bible which will feature the three squares I received from Izabela last year. Both of those are...well, kinda boring as they're repeated patterns with not much variation and only the finished product is worth photographing. Another two projects I can't show you just yet - a birthday amigurumi is diving into the post today, so that can't be revealed until the recipient has seen it, and I'm not quite finished stitching the new fringe onto my plain black sling. I'll do a proper write-up of 150 Crochet Trims when I get that done.

So much for my own work. I'm very carefully not mentioning the large heaps of yarn I've just ordered to make two items from Cute Crochet for Tiny Tots for K, nor the jacket from Crochet in No Time and cardigan from The Crochet Bible, neither of which I've finished yet for D. Ahem. In the meantime I'm living la vida crafta through the hands of K, who's been very busy this week, bless her.

Thomas The Tank Engine

A cheap and dirty trick to while away a wet Friday afternoon; we picked this kit up in the pound shop last week. K painted the larger areas and I completed the detail simply because the paint was so rubbish it would barely go on. Lesson learned (again) - cheap kid's craft sets are 100% crap. But she's happy with her work!

Black & White Baby Mobile

I recently bought The Social Baby, having enjoyed the toddler version with K - despite being pretty darn good at understanding baby communication (if I do say so myself - three years of experience teaching baby signing now!), we've found it quite useful and it's been a good refresher for these early weeks. I also got their Baby Shapes books for something for the girls to interact together with before D is really ready for toys - they've proved a real hit and K has made this fantastic mobile of black & white shapes which hangs over the nappy change station. D is certainly appreciating it and I loved K's reply when asked about the wiggly lines: "They're secret messages for D".

Berk, Drut and Boni from Trap Door

Lastly, this morning's creations - thanks to some wonderful salt dough from our friend Kirstine - Berk, Drut and Boni from the TV series Trap Door. One that A and I grew up with and K has loved ever since she was tiny. Long may the Globbits continue in this house!

If you go down to the woods today...

2010-07-15T18:46:00.001+01:00

...well. If you went down to K's preschool yesterday morning you'd have found the whole class picnicking away in the hall, since it's wet and horrible! It's her last week of preschool (and we have had much wailing about it), so there are lots of events on and Wednesday was their Teddy Bears' Picnic. K is much more obsessed with cats than bears, so we had to scrabble in the toybox a bit to find one. All we could find was a little one of just 8ins tall - and this was after I'd opened my big mouth and suggested I may be able to make something from Crochet for Bears to Wear. Oh dear. I do like to destruct-test patterns from time to time, and although the book is designed for toys of 18ins tall, there's a very clever conversion which means you can resize the outfits. I have to say I was extremely sceptical as to whether it would work, given that I was changing not only the size of the bear but the yarn and the hook as well - but it did!

Bear-y Pickin' Dress

It's a near-perfect fit. I'm not quite sure about the shoulders as it's a little too large, but given that D was going into her first growth spurt and feeding like crazy as I was trying to count rows, it's probably my mistake. Otherwise, it's absolutely spot on. And so very satisfying to make something so quickly!

Of course, when bear has a pretty dress, K must have a pretty dress too. It was quite by chance that she picked the bear's colours before remembering that she had a dress in the same lilacs and greens, so all that remained was to whizz up another quick hairband to match.

The full outfit!

Close-up hairband and scowl

If you'd like to make this hairband, download the pattern for free from here or from the Free Patterns page above where they all live. Just the thing for a party or a picnic!

I've been a bit busy making something...

2010-07-04T17:59:00.002+01:00

...well, someone, anyway!

This is Danika, my youngest daughter, at four days old. Isn't she a peach? She took her own sweet time coming but was a wonderful home waterbirth. It's been honestly hell being pregnant in the summer time (K was born in November so a very different experience). I've not had the energy to do anything at all, really - a bit of listless crochet here and there and I made a start on her birth sampler, but absolutely everything has seemed exhausting.

I don't really have any crafting plans at the moment but I do have some new books to enjoy - A bought me two drawing books for my birthday in May (How to Draw and Paint Dragons and Draw Faeries), and in desparation at going over dates I treated myself to three new crochet books.

These are:

Cute Crochet for Tiny Tots, which I've had from the library before - I've actually bought it to make a poncho for K but will have to upsize the pattern to size 5-6 myself, eek!

Crochet for Bears to Wear - Jessie Cat (our Sing & Sign mascot) will be getting a whole new wardrobe next year!

150 Crochet Trims: Designs for Beautiful Decorative Edgings, from Lacy Borders to Bobbles, Braids, and Fringes. Whilst pregnant I bought a nice green maxi dress and promptly got grease all down the lap, which will not come out of the microfibre fabric, so I plan to hack it to tunic length and hem it with a pretty crochet fringe (mostly to cover the inevitable sewing machine cock ups, I'm hopeless with clothes!). I love this book and I want to put edgings on absolutely everything I and the girls own now! My one concern is finding somewhere I can buy perle cotton by the ball rather than the skein or it's going to be an expensive obsession (since when are my crafting whims ever cheap?).

Anyway, it's taken three days to type this post one-handed with a sleeping or nursing D on my arm, so I'll love you and leave you here before she wakes up again!

What We Made For The Cat Swap!

2010-04-29T10:53:00.006+01:00

Aah, our parcel has arrived safely in Scotland, thank goodness - and all in one piece, phew! See what Kirsty & Devin thought of what we sent here. Kirsty's pictures are much better than mine so do take a look!

What I made for Kirsty

Clockwise: Coraline picture, amigurumi cat, cat-themed ribbons & buttons stash, cat cross-stitch keyring kit.

I'll talk more about the picture in a minute, but just wanted to mention that the cute kitty is made from a pattern by The Ole Attic Chest on Etsy - it was one of the first things I ever bought on Etsy and although I've been wanting to try it out for ages it just never made it to the top of the pile. In a way it's been a good thing, though, as I've built my confidence on yarn substitution quite significantly over that time. Mine isn't as fluffy as it's "supposed" to be, but the Stylecraft "Caberet" yarn really made me think of how cats aren't always sweet little kittens...this fellow is a teenage cat bristling with magic and adventure.

I included the cross stitch kit as I knew Kirsty was interested in trying different crafts and I figure these little kits are a great way to sample something without the fatigue factor which often comes with cross stitch.

Coraline Page

I was really pleased with how this came out - and by how much it was appreciated! It was one of those ideas that came to me in the middle of the night (which I see a lot of, being heavily pregnant now!) and took quite some experimenting to get the exact combination of water and ink stain which would make the page look age-faded/charred rather than as though I'd dumped a pot of tea over it! I'd also considered using a page from Rudyard Kipling's The Cat Who Walked By Himself, which I've always loved, but knowing how much Kirsty liked Coraline it was an easy choice. I may make one for myself, actually, though the copy I have of Kipling isn't as nice as I'd like it to be in terms of the font and layout.

What we made for Devin

Definitely a joint effort, this one - K made the card entirely by herself, she's getting really good with scissors now. Everything else she either did part of or had all the creative input for. She painted the bottom coat of the cat mask herself - and how we grinned when a blank version of the same mask arrived in our parcel from Devin - she's already part through a Wilbur from Winnie the Witch mask and now she's keen to raid my yarn box to make a ginger cat too! She was very definite that the cat mask should look like a Jellicle Cat - we got the new Axel Scheffler-illustrated version of TS Elliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats last time we were at the wonderful Seven Stories and it's a firm favourite.

Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats are rather small;
Jellicle Cats are merry and bright,
And pleasant to hear when they caterwaul.
Jellicle Cats have cheerful faces,
Jellicle Cats have bright black eyes;
They like to practise their airs and graces
And wait for the Jellicle Moon to rise.

The yarn was unbelievably fiddly to work with, so I ended up doing a lot of the glueing part myself, but she did supervise!

What else...the amigurumi Pocket Cat is from Amigurumi World, so I made it as K is not quite up to crochet yet, but all the decisions on colour and so on were hers. Ditto with the cat toy, which we made for Devin's gran's cat Clyde :D I mostly made up the pattern for that but major props to the user Windy on Something Awful - probably not a place you'd expect to find a big bunch of people armed with hooks and yarn but the world is an unusual place to say the least! Tomsk very much enjoyed the prototype I made beforehand even though he was obviously poorly at that stage, so I'm doubly grateful to Windy for the idea.

K also chose the cat stickers, of course, and was instrumental in helping with the chocolate lollipops (yes, we did a test batch for her first!) - kit for making those was bought from Jen's Chocolate Making Factory on eBay, who I'd definitely recommend for speedy service! We borrowed the edible glitter used for the eyes and noses from my mum, a long-time cake decorator. They're great fun to make and I think we'll probably do this sort of thing instead of party bags - at least, I'd love to *think* we will; whether we'll have time when Little Bump comes along I don't know!

So there you go - much fun had in the making and receiving of another swap. I doubt I'll be able to do another in the next year so I'm glad it was such a good one! Many thanks to Chrissy of Spoilt Pig for organising and to Kirsty & Devin for being such great partners.

Happy St George's Day!

2010-04-23T11:01:00.002+01:00

Download the pattern for this hairband!

Small girl had to go to preschool today "dressed in red and white" for St George's Day. Blimey. It was wall-to-wall England shirts in there when I dropped her off! Madam herself chose red and white spotted socks, red trousers and a red and white striped top. Yesterday I whizzed up this quick hairband for her (because, you know, she's four and everything has to match!), and I thought it would be a nice thing to share with you.

It's dead easy to make so the pattern should be fine whatever your level of experience, custom fits to your child (or you!) and takes maybe an hour or so - it's only three rows of treble but the way it's put together gives it a nice neat edge and allows the natural stretch of the yarn to make it a good fit. It uses Patons 100% mercerised DK cotton but I think the method of fitting will probably allow you to use any yarn (do let me know if you try it out!). You could also easily make this in blue and white for St Andrew's Day, or any tricolour flag you fancy - why not try gold, white and green for Ireland or red, white and blue for France or America?

Have a go and let me know how it goes for you! Download here or from the Free Patterns page above where they all live. And have a great St George's Day! :-)

Cat Swap Sent

2010-04-22T15:22:00.004+01:00

A plethora of parcels

Photographed in a bit of a hurry as we rushed off to the post office today, but here is our cat swap ready to go! It was so hard to arrange everything into the tinest bit of sunlight we had and you can barely see the big, flat parcels underneath everything else - of course it's beautiful now, typical. Anyway, the red parcels are for Kirsty and the green for Devin. We hope they'll like them - we had lots of fun putting it all together! Pics of the contents to come once I know it's been received safe and sound.

What to do now? I'm struggling to do any cross stitch at the moment as I can't get the frame close enough due to the bump, so that's all had to be shelved for the time being (also, have you ever tried to stitch whilst sitting on an exercise ball? I don't recommend it!). I have an almost-finished birthday commission to put the last touches to, but I'm in a bit of a quandry as to how to complete it. Time to speak to the person whose idea it was, I think!

I'm really tempted to take part in the Stitch Yourself Event that Stitch London/Science Museum are running - given that the closing date is around the time I'm due I'm thinking a very very very pregnant amigurumi me might have to be made. That's eight weeks off. EIGHT WEEKS!!!!

And of course there's Little Bump's cardigan to be getting on with (and the washing and ironing of all the other clothes). Ho hum...

In Memory; and Cat Swap Received

2010-04-19T12:29:00.002+01:00

Tomsk, aged about 3.

Firstly, the sad news that our beloved moggy Tomsk passed away this weekend. He was just 11 and it's been a big shock to us all; he'd been recovering well from his bladder problems but took a turn for the worse on Saturday. We got him to the vet in plenty of time, but sadly his poor little heart couldn't take the strain of the operation. We were able to go and say goodbye; his last hours with us were spent snoozing in the sunshine. Thank you to everyone on Facebook and Twitter for so many kind words, it means a lot. He was a big old soppy daft fool of a cat; always kind and very popular with visiting children because he was so patient. We called him "our bear of very little brain" and he was rather Pooh-like in his innocence and gentle nature (although he certainly knew how to work those great big eyes like Puss In Boots from Shrek 2!). Even Ash, our grey cat, seems to be missing him, though they were never really friends - she is sleeping a great deal at the moment and being very affectionate when she's awake. Goodnight, sweetheart - I will always remember you trying to chase the snowflakes through the window, you daft old thing.

On to some crafty things: many thanks to Kirsty & Devin from Feline Dream for their immaculate timing - the parcels arrived safely today - and for their patience as we're going to be a few days late posting out due to all the happenings this weekend. I happened to look at their blog this morning and saw all the gorgeous wrapping - and amazingly the postman knocked just ten minutes later. Of course I had to wait until K was back from preschool before I could dive in!

K's parcel from Devin

A lovely card, Hello Kitty Pez and iron-on patches for clothes, cat stickers, bookmark, two great fridge magnets and a wooden cat mask. K says "It's lovely! I love everything!". Naturally the Pez are her favourite at the moment :rolleyes: but she's already given the magnets pride of place on the fridge and is brimming with ideas for which clothes to put the patches on and how to decorate the mask. So thank you very much from K!

My parcel from Kirsty

How fab is that! Two mosaic coasters (which are backed with pink jaguar-print felt, no less), three sheets of big cat print felt, two packs of buttons, an origami card (I MUST get the instructions for that!), some paw-print stamped labels and a silver Scraperfoil. I haven't done one of those in yeeeeeaars...I think I will stash it safely away to do when Little Bump is napping (fingers crossed) and K is at preschool; I'm currently making a pile of books and small projects to do as I found it very helpful to have something for me that wasn't baby or housework when K was small.

Thank you so much to both of you and to Chrissy from I Love Spoilt Pig for organising - we are not too far behind on finishing our parcel so hopefully it'll be dispatched in the next few days.

A Sneaky Peek

2010-04-16T13:06:00.002+01:00

Can you guess what it is yet?

I can't show you anything completed yet! But here are a few of the pieces we've been working on for the Cat Swap - a sneaky peek for you until it's received safely by our partners! There are quite a few bits and pieces which are last-minute makes which will join these, but even seeing these four components together my swap anxiety is lessening - I always worry that it's not enough or not right, but I think we're getting there nicely.

It's been a rather cat-themed time since my last post - one of our moggies had a sudden attack of awful cystitis and spent two days with the vet. Coming so soon on the heels of our scare with Little Bump, and right at the beginning of a new term for me, it's all been very tiring. He is now pretty fine, thankfully, and both cats are adjusting to their new foods and feeding regime.

Poor K has not had much of an Easter holiday - with mummy being exhausted and needing to stay fairly close to home to make sure the cat was recovering well, we've not been out and about much. In fact one of her highlights has been running into some of her preschool friends at Hobbycraft! She's very keen to get back to school now, and I'm looking forward to getting some kind of routine back too. I happened to glance at the pregnancy ticker I use on a parenting forum and was rather shocked to see it saying "about 65 days to go"! That sounds an awful lot closer than "nine weeks" or "two months" or "in June" somehow. I still haven't finished even half of the cardigan I'm working on, but I need to keep reminding myself that she won't actually need it until this time next year (unless she outweighs her 8lbs 3oz older sister by some significant way, that is!).

All in all, it's slow baby steps (if you'll pardon the pun) towards getting things finished, and that's about all I can manage right now.

Spring Loveliness

2010-04-07T15:38:00.005+01:00

I can't show you much of my own work at the moment, I'm afraid - between keeping some things hidden for the Cat Swap and Little Bump giving us a worrying time over Easter weekend (we are both fine but it was very scary!), to be honest I've not got a lot done. I'm exceedingly tired and even sitting to crochet is at best uncomfortable and at worst just makes me nod off.

However, I can show you my lovely K in her second brand new dress from ilovebreadandjam.com - an Easter gift from grandparents, and well-deserved as she's put up with a lot over the last few days of my being too shattered to do anything fun with her. She looks more grown-up than ever, I think. Like the previous dress, it's a great fit and washes and wears beautifully. Can't reccommend this shop highly enough!

I also wanted to show off these fab Spring Creatures K made at preschool - aren't they fun?

I have no idea what they're "supposed" to be, of course, but she is most insistent that the larger one "definitely has boobs for feeding babies, just like you mum". Apparently these were specially chosen and the creature even has boobs on its back "in case it has lots of babies".

I have got one thing of mine I can show you - apologies for the terrible picture; natural light in our house is hard come by and involves a certain amount of climbing/crawling; at almost 30wks pregnant I'm finding it very hard to reach! This is a stripy jacket for Little Bump in the 12mo size. It's from Crochet in No Time, of course, and uses Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino this time. It's the first time I've used the Baby version - just as nice to work with as the DK but with being thinner, doesn't work up quite as quickly as I'm used to. Still, it's progressing nicely and both K and I are pleased with the colours she chose - it's so nice to work with something that isn't pastel for a small child.

I do like the clever way these cardigans are put together, same as the ballet cardigans I did a while back - the sleeve is crocheted in a flat piece (you can just see the other side of it peeking out from underneath), and then instead of stopping there and having to set the sleeve into the front and back sides, the side is extended down and worked in stripes up and over the shoulder, back and forth until you get the whole of the front side and half of the back done. Repeat on the other side, and all you have to stitch together is the sleeve seams and one seam up the back. Much easier and sturdier, I think.

More hatty goodness

2010-03-26T16:04:00.000Z

I did it! I got the wave stitch to work with the existing pattern, I'm so pleased. Look at that cute little duck swimming along the river! So obviously I'm keeping that one for Little Bump; the little ladybird hat is for another friend whose baby is due in May (omg, that means ours isn't far behind!). Seems it's a seriously big year for babies; just heard of another two friends due in September.

I do love that little duck! Again, that's from the stash I was sent in the button swap last year. I wish I could share the pattern for the hat with you but I can't work out whether it would be considered too close to the published pattern it's based on. I've changed the colours and dropped the published embellishments, but only two of the rows are a different stitch. There again, there are only so many ways you can form a hat-shape with crochet, aren't there...the pattern of increases is the same for most hats, it's just a matter of how many stitches you start with to get the end circumference. Copying and inspiring is such a minefield, isn't it? Where's the line between look-and-feel and the actual technicalities of a pattern? I think it's beyond me at the moment!

So I've mostly been working on these this week, but I have started the stripy jacket for Little Bump, something for the Cat Swap, and I intend to haul out the Owl In Flight cross stitch shortly as well. Expect some progress pics there in the next few days!

Out In The Garden...

2010-03-26T14:00:00.004Z

...what do you see?

Peek....

......a.....

....BOO!!

It's Jessie Cat!

Yep, it's that time again - I CAN Chatterbox Challenge, and it's happening in my Sing & Sign classes this week (I'm doing it a bit earlier than most because I wanted to make sure it was done before baby arrives!). The theme this year is Minibeasts And The Garden, so Jessie is going as a flower. I will be stealing K's butterfly wings - too tired to make myself much this year, unfortunately. I'll still look very silly as I'll also be borrowing her deedly-boppers!

I know everyone's been charity-mugged by all sorts of worthy causes lately but if you do have a quid or two to spare, please do consider donating to I CAN. They're such a wonderful charity; Sing & Sign raised over £7000 nationally last year and it means so much to us to help children with communication difficulties alongside giving all our familes such a great start in life.

This was a really quick and easy costume to make - strips of felt, folded over petal shapes, stitched togther and threaded with elastic to give a snug fit. I did work out a neat trick for threading the elastic through - put a pin through the elastic, stick the pin into the rubber on the end of of a pencil, and thread the pencil through the tube of fabric. Loads easier than fiddling with needles or safety pins, I must say!

Two Heads Are Better Than One

2010-03-19T11:44:00.004Z

And suddenly, just like that, I'm crafting again.

Aren't they cute! Pattern is from Crochet in No Time, my favourite pattern book ever, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. Turns out I needed to work with lovely materials again to get my mojo back...I do hate using acrylic all the time. All my commissions are finished (HUGE CHEER!), and although I plan to restock the shop with cakes, suns and my new stars, I'm going to just pace myself on that so I can get on with some fun stuff. Like, a stripy new jacket for Little Bump from the same book - K picked a gorgeous jewel-purple to go with the cream, and if I remember rightly I have some similarly purple clothes stashed away in the same size. And the Cat Swap, of course, and maybe even this Kid's Swap over at Adventures Of A Lady In Training - given that we kinda planted the seed for it...:D

Anyway, these two little hats are for a pair of Summer babies (so they're size 6mo, ready for the cool weather). The stripy one is for my own Little Bump - colours and stripes dictated by Big Sis - and the blue one with buttons is for my oldest friend over in Germany, whose first baby is due just four weeks after ours. And it's all from stash, too - the yarn from various other projects and the buttons all came in the lovely little jar I got in the Button Swap last year. Good, eh? I'm so pleased I had some of this blue in, it'll go very nicely with my new Moby sling.

Hmm. As I've been writing this I've had an idea for another hat...I wonder if I can adapt that pattern to have a wave stitch in it. There's a little yellow duck button in that glass jar which is just begging to be on baby clothes...

I really love Bread & Jam!

2010-03-16T12:38:00.004Z

Look at my gorgeous girl in her gorgeous new dress! Not one of mine, I hasten to add - my sewing skills are really not up to dressmaking right now, but if I could make something like this, I surely would. It is honestly my ideal dress for a little girl - plenty of room to run in, cool enough for summer and enough room for a top underneath in winter; not a faff to wash or iron, and best of all...just look at that fabric. Bright and feminine, but not a sign of baby pink, no slogans, just a perfect Little Girl Dress in simple-to-care for fabric. This is the Runaway Dress from www.ilovebreadandjam.com, who I discovered on Sunday via a tweet from Little Stuff (who you may remember featured some of my work last year). Actually I'm quite jealous cos I think they should make grown-up sizes in these too (particularly if there's space for Little Bump - so fed up of nothing fitting properly at the moment!).

Small girl is VERY happy. I can't see us parting her from this dress any time this week, and you know what? I think she may end up with several of these this year (and of course Little Bump will grow into them eventually!). The fabrics are fantastic and I love that they're limited runs rather than mass-produced - although I am slightly cheesed off that my favorite Japanese print is sold out, ho hum. K loved being able to look at the range of prints and choose her very own - this took her eye straight away, but she was keen to page through the swatches and work out which one she really wanted.

Delivery was super-fast - we ordered on Sunday and here it is today - with good communication. The quality is lovely; the fabric is crisp but soft, the stitching firm and the top half of the dress is nicely lined in the same contrasting fabric as is around the hem. It's fastened with a concealed zip up the side, the first time K has had one like this, so I don't know how she'll deal with putting it on herself - but I'm grateful that it's not fastened with the fiddly little buttons the high street shops seem to think are the bee's knees (do they not realise buttons catch on long hair and rip it out?).

I asked K for her opinion:

"I like it! I like the blue zip, and I can run around fast or slow, and I like the pattern and it's really comfy. I'm extremely happy and I'm twirling around!"

Can't give a better review than that, can you...:D

I have no real craft news, sorry. I have managed to finish a few more preordered bits and pieces, but I'm on my third play-through of Dragon Age and the expansion pack is out in the US today...it should be with me next week. I think my brain is starting to pack to come home from a rather extended vacation, though - on Sunday K and I designed and stitched our very own pattern on some Binca and she learned how to cross-stitch, at least a little (a cat, natch). Once I can work out a downloadable format, I'll put that up - I've noticed a real dearth of free patterns for Binca so perhaps I'll do some work on that; it's a great way to start sewing and helps those all-important fine motor skills. Whilst I don't yet have Gamer's Thumb, I have wrenched my shoulder a bit just from sleeping awkwardly so I'm pacing my return to "work" easily when it comes to crochet and sewing myself. Making patterns should avoid that!

Course, I probably shouldn't have joined the Cat Swap over at ilovespoiltpig.com...but I have these gorgeous amigurumi kitty patterns I've been dying to try out!

Happy St David's Day

2010-03-01T13:26:00.004Z

I'm not Welsh, but I did grow up in the NW of England, well in sight of the Welsh mountains, and I've always had a fondness for the place (not least because of a minor obsession with little steam trains which made up a big part of our family holidays as a child!). Despite the miserable sleet that's just started, spring is definitely starting to come up a little bit - or is it cheating to have a hyacinth on the windowledge?!

So for all my Welsh friends and followers, and for anyone just wanting a bright new addition to the still-required winter coat, don't forget there's a free crochet daffodil pattern to download here:

Download PDF here

It's a great size to be made into a brooch, or to go on a child's hat like this one.

Enjoy!

In other news...well, there isn't any. Taking a holiday is not something we're able to do at the moment, much as I could do with a break, so I've been having my regular "I'm too stressed to think" stop a bit early this year. I do this by mostly abandoning everything I can get away with and plunging into the realms of fantasy. This is a habit I picked up at about the age of 18 when I first discovered fantasy sagas stopped me worrying about revising, and it's something I've done pretty much every year in late spring to deal with exam stress (given that I didn't stop studying until 2000, it's been quite an ingrained habit and I automatically reach for the books now!). This year, I'm getting to play D&D biweekly, I have a nice collection of swords & sorcery novels, and for the last three weeks I've been submerged in the incredible Dragon Age (trailer here, game rating 18 or M, not suitable for young children). So I've been married to the XBox for at least 100+ hours over the last few weeks, and not picked up a hook or needle in all that time. Oddly, I haven't missed it - my brains really are shot to pieces at the moment. The mind-vacation will no doubt run its course eventually and I'll be back to finishing the last few orders off and making a start on some projects for Little Bump (now 24wks), as well as hopefully putting a few new bits and pieces in the shop.

Until then, you'll find me squirrelled away with dice, pencils, heaps of books and gamer's thumb...

Owl In Flight Week 5

2010-02-05T11:44:00.005Z

Here's where I was last week:

Week 4

And here's the first 1/6th of the pattern completed!

Week 5

Still a long way to go, but you can really see how it's coming along now that I've completed one whole sheet of the pattern (now measures 11x17cm). The depth of shading is really fantastic...I really need to get that new daylight bulb, these pictures aren't doing it justice at all.

I've made a start on the next sheet down (where you can see the new blue patch starting), mostly to get a fairly dull bit out of the way - there's nothing but fence and sky and an owl claw here! Also because I'm too lazy to be taking the fabric out of the frame often - it's on rollers so I just moved it around and slack it off after each session.

No crafting tonight as I have a date with my beloved! But over the weekend I hope to finish at least one more commission, I'm really starting to see the end in sight now. At some point I'm going to get the machine out again and have a good fiddle - many thanks to Gail, who suggested that the plastic foot is possibly for embroidery, and to Kirstine for loads of helpful ideas. I may be picking both your brains again in future! I did actually get a bit of sewing done yesterday; K was given a "make your own" doll for Christmas, but the materials supplied (er, mostly sticky tape) meant it was an ornament rather than a doll you could play with. So we decided we'd get making our own and so far the doll has a shiny turquoise satin tube dress and a freaky fun-fur crocheted dress-thingie. K likes them, anyway! We've been drawing outfits in a sketchbook which has been loads of fun to do together. Pics next week, probably.

These Feet Were Made For...

2010-02-04T10:03:00.005Z

...scaring the hell out of me, sigh.

Whose feet are those?

I have a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine, a Singer 2808C. Some days, we get on great - everything flows smoothly and the final product is something I can be proud of (and evetually ends up in the shop or being worn!). More often than not, though, I approach it with bafflement and not a small amount of terror. In theory, I know why it does crazy things like bird's nesting, but it seems to happen randomly, so each sewing session is filled with trepidation.

One of the things that really puzzles me is "what on earth are these extra feet for?". They certainly aren't in the manual! I've studied Florence's Guide To Feet til I'm blue in the face and they just aren't there. I presume the one already attatched is a standard presser foot, but what on earth are these plastic ones for? Is that big flat one even a foot? I can't see where you'd attach it. And do I need to buy more? Zips and buttonholes terrify me and it's really holding me back from tackling projects I'd love to do, so it would make sense to help myself by having the right equipment. Having bought Bend-the-Rules Sewing and One-Yard Wonders recently (not to mention a heap of fabric scraps for making doll clothes), I'm itching to sew...but the fear, oh dear.

So, lovely readers, can you help a poor addled brain and set me on the track to actually making something which isn't just straight lines?

Flower Hair Band

2010-01-31T15:15:00.006Z

New design - surface embroidery on this one!

And the ideas keep coming...! I spent a lot of Monday night fiddling with this and eventually frogged it all out and started again, ho hum. I do love cherry blossoms on a blue sky, though. Said hairband and K are now off to the park with Daddy to learn how to skip, since Little Bump was less than pleased last time I tried it!

Oh, mum, not another picture - I'm off to the park!

I now have two willing models to try out my custom-fit theory and once I've made sure that these do actually fit people other than K, I'll be listing the whole set of patterns in my Etsy shop, Seawood Designs. I'm not intending to actually make many of these - with Little Bump on the way I'm trying to slow down the amount of actual physical making of stuff at the moment - but you know, talk nicely to me and I might do a few custom orders before he/she arrives!

Zebra Stripes and Owl In Flight Week 4

2010-01-29T12:08:00.007Z

Oh dear, really not been up to much recently, hence the lack of interesting updates (sorry). I've discovered the knack of being able to sit in front of the telly without actually doing anything, it seems...not good for the workload or the creativity. I feel very tapped-out at the moment, anyway - whilst discipline is good for the bank balance it doesn't do a lot for the creative mind. Still, I got the last of the biggest orders out of the way this week and will hopefully be able to rattle through the smaller ones by the end of February. Then I can go back to actually making stuff up! I've treated myself to a few new sewing books lately, and we took a trip to Hab-Fab last week (so much for trying to be Craft Neutral this year!) for some fabric scraps. K has a doll which needs dressing and we've been designing outfits for her in a sketchbook.

K and I have also been choosing the cross-stitches I'll be doing for Little Bump to match the ones I did for her: a birth sampler, a Bothy Threads "Row of..." and a name plate for the door when they eventually share a room. I'll be ordering those after our 20-wk scan next week. All very exciting!

I have sneakily managed to make a few more hairbands for the collection, but I'm struggling a little bit with the custom-fitting. I think it's mostly my carelessness/lack of concentration that's done it, but it does mean I have to rework two before I can write up the patterns for sale. Here's one I've completed and fits perfectly, though:

Striped, ribbon-threaded hairband on reluctant model

Top view of striped hairband - you can see the ribbon threading better in this shot

Now for the Owl In Flight. Here's last week's finishing point:

Week 3

And here's last night and this morning's work:

Week 4

That fence post looks really odd at the moment in this picture, but it does look better actually on the fabric, properly lit so that you can see the shading. My daylight bulb has gone so I'm not getting much good light, I'm afraid. I really didn't get as far as I'd hoped with it last night, so at some point if I'm not so knackered this week I might put in another evening or morning's work to catch me up so I can move to the next sheet next Thursday.

Owl In Flight Week 3

2010-01-22T15:25:00.002Z

Here's where I was up to last week:

Week 2 progress

And here's last night's efforts!

Week 3 progress

I have to admit to cheating a bit here. The tail part - no more than 1.5ins square, if that - has six colours and took me over 1.5hrs to do! So in order to finish off the sky parts that I wanted to do, I did a bit of extra stitching this morning. You can see in the image above that now all of the sky for this section is done; the missing parts are all part of the fence. I'm intending to do those next week and then move down to the next section the week after, which will be fairly boring, I think - it's mostly fence! Still, it's going quite well for just one night a week and overall I'm pleased with it. I've already decided where to hang it once it's done!

Not much other news this week - I've been slowly working on the commissions and have one more almost complete, just the tedious stitching together to do now. I also made K another new hairband; I'm considering making a set of patterns available for purchase if I can come up with a few more.

Anyway, we are playing host to Barnaby the Preschool Bear this weekend, so I'd better head off and entertain!

Bonus Bells

2010-01-16T16:09:00.003Z

A long explanation for a small thing, this one. I really wasn't supposed to be doing any random, spur-of the-moment crafting, but did you really think I'd even make it a week without doing some?

K got one of those pop-up toy-in-a-cone things, a jester, from her preschool Xmas party. The stick promptly snapped twice and unfortunately there was no way to save it, so it was ready for the bin. At the last minute I snipped the bells off the jester - may as well save something useful. K picked them up and looked at them thoughtfully for a while, then said "I wish I could wear bells in my hair, mum." What a good idea, thought I. I could stitch them onto clips...but she doesn't wear them much at the moment. Ah, but she does like hairbands, I'm sure I've got a crochet pattern somewhere. I looked and didn't like the one I had, but I remembered that these and some other bells I had in stash would thread onto Pattons 100% cotton yarn. Last Summer I made myself a skirt trim with over 100 bells on it (yes, I was mad, yes, I drove A insane with the jingling, and yes, I've only worn it once so far).

So this simple hairband pattern was born:

The happy girl

Close-up

And now, she shall have music wherever she goes. Apparently it was much admired at preschool! Since it's a custom-fit it does do the job rather well; I'm going to make some more in different colours but this time I think I'll make them a bit wider, and some stripy ones to go with her favourite tights. Watch this space, I'll probably write the patterns up for next week!

Owl in Flight Week 2

2010-01-15T09:12:00.005Z

Here's where I was up to last week:

And here's last night's progress:

Hopefully you can see that I've now completed the full length of the owl's wing and added in more of the sky to the right. That's as far as I can stitch on the right, I'm to the edge of that page now and it's a full 17cms wide. The large gap under that piece of sky there is for a fence post - I think I'm probably going to complete the rest of the sky next session and then add in the fence post and owl's tail the week after that. Then that'll be a one pattern piece completed (1 of 6!). I know it's not all that exciting at the moment but I think it'll be quite interesting to see the fence post coming in next time.

As for the rest of the week, I have been a diligent girl and worked hard on the commissions - I'm pacing myself and trying not to get too frustrated with it; no getting away from the fact that when you've made something 300+ times, it's going to get fairly dull to make it again! I even had a night off everything on Wednesday as I was shattered after three classes and having to dig the car out of the ice. It really has been awful here - this morning it's raining, making the ice even worse, and the streets are really frightening to walk along. If Little Bump and I get through this without injury I'll be very surprised.

Still, you know. Ice is not an earthquake. My lovely friend Laura posted the following link on Facebook this morning Pennies Per Hour Of Pleasure, which is a charity knitting site in aid of Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). They of course are doing a lot for Haiti right now and are a fantastic cause. Sadly there are no crochet patterns, but if you're a knitter (and this is the kind of thing that might drive me to be!), get along there, make a donation and get one of their lovely sock, hat or scarf patterns.

And no, I didn't manage a week with no random crafting. K has worn her latest request to preschool, but I'll try and get a piccy later.

Thursday Night Check-In

2010-01-08T09:42:00.004Z

Crafteroo are running special threads on a Thursday night at the moment - one for specific projects and one as a check-in for big works-in-progress. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to get my head around how I'm going to organise the amount of work I have to do vs the amount of stuff I want to do for myself, and I decided I could use these ideas to keep me on track. In an ass-backwards way, of course, cos that's the kinda gal I am.

So for most of the week I'll be concentrating on the big stack of commissions which need doing - I've got really behind with those because of Little Bump's making me so tired. Unfortunately until they're done I'll need to spend five or six nights a week on them, so I'm afraid there won't be as many random "I made this!" posts for a while.

To keep me sane, and to ward off crochet-induced RSI, I've decided to use Thursday nights as "project for me" nights. I've chosen a new cross-stitch from my rather ridiculous stash. This is the Heritage Crafts kit of John Clayton's Owl In Flight, which you can see here (2nd row down). I got this kit with the gift tokens I was given when I left work on maternity leave with K, over four years ago, so it's time it got done, really! I made a start over Christmas when all the gifts were done, and this is what I managed over the holidays:

Quite a few night's work in there, which doesn't look like much, but you should be able to make out the right side of the owl's head.

Last night's progress:

Just look at the detailing on those feathers! I filled in a lot of the lower wing and some of the sky. So far this measures 10x8cm - the whole image is 34x34cm so I have a looooooong way to go yet. But it's nice to get back in to cross-stitch after all this time; it's not as quick or easy as crochet (I find it takes a lot more concentration and I've had to do a lot of unpicking already!) but it's just as rewarding.

First Make of 2010, and what I did in 2009

2010-01-03T17:06:00.006Z

Yup - I'd finished my first make of 2010 by last night! I did technically start these on New Year's Eve, but realised I'd got the wrong sized hook so really they were properly done yesterday.

These super-cosy gauntlets/fingerless gloves are made from Patons Shadow Tweed, which was sent to me as part of my Secret Santa gift. This was from a lovely lady called Emma, who also sent me some buttons and sweeties, some Lush jelly soap and a cute snowman bauble for the tree! I am very lucky. I knew straight away what to make with it - I'd wanted to make something which would keep me warm whilst working as I've really been suffering from the cold lately, but didn't have the energy to come up with my own pattern. I stuck the yarn into Ravelry and searched for a pattern - and this one came up from The Tree Bridge on Etsy. It's a good pattern (though I did make a lot of mistakes and had to frog quite a bit - I suspect that may be more to do with my lack of attention and sheer tiredness than the pattern itself!) and one I'm sure I'll use many times over the years. I'm keen to use this yarn again too, so I'll be looking for a jumper or cardigan project in the future.

Better have a bit of a round-up of what I made in 2009!

Things I learned:

A little about watercolouring
Swaps are fun!
Bookbinding in various forms
Making Kanzashi
A bit about baking bread and making marmalade & jam
Breaking a needle on your sewing machine is scary but not the end of the world

Things I made:

18 Mr Suns
57 crochet cakes (large and small)
3 baby hats
1 pair baby shoes
19 Amigurumi
2 tie-dyed t-shirts
2 hand-drawn t-shirts
3 ballet cardigans
2 ruffle cravats
1 skirt
2 hairclips
6 granny square for swaps
Bag & pouch for roleplaying from 3 of the swapped granny squares
1 mini granny square blanket
6 books bound in various ways
14 brooches
1 choker
1 necklace
3 bracelets
Pirate costume for a toy cat
Crocheted cat-paw gloves
Felt star toy
Various Fimo buttons
cross-stitch Flash Gordon sampler
2 adult hats
1 child's scarf
origami cards & boxes
Crochet doily
6 beaded star tree ornaments
Chair cushion
Superhero cape
Child's apron
Enormous amounts of cake
Fudge
12 jars of jam & marmalade

What I didn't finish from 2008/9

Any cross stitch at all (though I did do bits here and there)
Sirdar YoYo blanket cardigan for me
Star afghan

So I still have a lot of big outstanding projects, and I also have a lot of orders to complete for Mr Suns and cakes. With Little Bump on the way I'm trying to have a serious think about how to organise myself - I need to hold off on spur-of-the-moment projects and last-minute makes, and try to plod on with the stuff that really needs finishing, at least for the next few months. I have, however, allowed myself to start a new cross-stitch kit which I've had since I finished work when K was born, so that I'm still doing something newish for me when I get fed up of everything else.

It doesn't really feel much like a new year at the moment - so many projects hanging around from last year and not a lot of scope to go in new creative directions. Other than mum of two, of course! :D

Secret Santa

2009-12-26T10:30:00.000Z

Since this is scheduled to go up on Boxing Day, I can be pretty sure I'm not spoiling anyone's surprises! Here are the last few family bits and pieces I made just before Christmas (with two whole days to spare, it's a miracle):

Futurama Brain Slug for A, Reindeer & Scarf for K

The brain slug is made from this pattern at hookandneedles.com - of course I've just realised that in my hurry I forgot to put the antennae on, and I've already wrapped it - oops. Will have to complete that bit later. It was super-easy to make; I just adapted the eye a bit as I'm not fond of felt on amigurumi so I crocheted a circle and used a safety eye instead. The reindeer is from the same Lion Brand pattern as before, and the scarf is just simple trebles in Sirdar Hug.

So those were quickies for the family, but I also took part in a Secret Santa on a parenting forum. The ladies there are great cooks and there are always lots of recipes flying about, so I decided to collate them into a proper book. Those of you on Crafteroo will have already seen this, of course, as I couldn't resist showing it off!

Covers closed - the print is Cath Kidston on oilcloth, so it's wipe-clean.
I picked up a FQ on eBay which is the right size to do 2x A5 books.
Two long strips of sticky-backed velcro hold it shut.

Close-up of the longstitch binding

Open to the front page. This is the only thing I'm unhappy with - I would have liked to have had a prettier inside cover but time was short and I couldn't figure out what I could use to glue oilcloth and paper together reliably to make the endpapers. The instructions I followed used scrap leather as the cover rather than fabric. Still, it has a nice wraparound feel to it.

Open to one of my recipes!

I'm pretty pleased, all told - it's sturdy and useful; and even though the typesetting was hell I now have a useful template to print any A5 book I like. I think I'll make myself a copy after Christmas. Fingers crossed my "Santee" likes it!

Cookie Tree

2009-12-24T10:00:00.000Z

We made a cookie tree! I bought the cutters last year, actually, but for some reason we never got round to it. K is an accomplished biscuit-cutter-outer now, though, so it was into the frigid kitchen and on with the dough. These are vanilla biscuits rather than gingerbread; I think I'd like to try it with lebkuechen next time just for the yum factor. And of course next year I plan to actually have some icing sugar in which isn't damp, and some proper sweeties to decorate it, rather than panicking at the last minute and only having chocolate chips in. Still, it kept us busy on a snow-bound afternoon, and it is rather tasty...!