Sunny Sunshine Top

About this time last year, not long after baby D's amazing home birth and with all the energy I was saving by co-sleeping, I had a real rush of "I can do anything" juice (not to mention maternity allowance and being in the middle of the summer hols). One of the books I'd bought to keep up my spirits before she arrived was Cute Crochet for Tiny Tots, and of course I rashly bought all the yarn to make not one, but two pieces of clothing for K, oddly enough, not for D. I'd wanted and promised to make them for ages, got started on the first, and then baby D came out of that newborn phase where they sleep and feed all day and you can do all sorts without them grabbing at you. And after that K started school, so there were school runs to do, homework to supervise, and uniforms to be washed through the dreary winter. So everything went on hold, my creative mojo completely fizzled out and all of these projects got filed to the back of my mind, with a mild worry that K would grow so fast over the next year that she wouldn't fit into anything I'd promised.

Back view - delicious little buttons!

Still, over the last couple of years I've got pretty good at reading patterns, and I could see from the outset that this one at least would scale up for a larger child without too many problems - just some extra yarn would be all that was needed. As to that, it's worked in Rowan Glace and Rowan 4-ply cotton - I believe at least one of those has been discontinued now, which is a real shame. If you know of a good alternative please let me know in the comments!


K has nicknamed it her "Sunny Sunshine Top", which is about right - just look at those yummy ice cream soda buttons! They are Dress It Up buttons from Debbie Cripps. The straps are simply stitched-on ribbons with little crochet flowers on the front.


Things I learnt: Not a whole lot, actually, as this was a really simple project - but I probably should have put more ribbon length on, the bows are a little shorter than I would have liked. It did teach me a fair bit about scaling up patterns, though.

I have a ton of little finishes and the button swap still to write about - bear with me, I'm hoping to get a few more posts done this week, D's naptime permitting.

Newness

Well...sort of. I'm very short of time and hands at the moment - the vast majority of my sewing has been stitching in name labels to K's uniform as she starts school this time. And D has not been left out; I've made her two very quick stripy hats just in time for absolutely awful windy weather up at Grandma's over the bank holiday. That's nicely stashbusted my remaining Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK...now to find something to use up all that chunky Cashmerino on. But first, on with the Mr Sun commissions which have been quietly stacking up over Summer, oops.

I do love Autumn; much more than January it feels like a time for fresh starts. Which is, I suppose, all tangled up in the new school year and the old idea of Halloween being the start of the Celtic year. So here's my new workbox, which I "accidentally" picked up at Debbie Cripps when I went looking for cute buttons last week. It's SO nice to have everything in one place at last - although I have no more excuses to ignore the mending because I can easily find everything I need now! It's just about the right size for a couple of small crochet projects, some cross stitch, sewing or some combination thereof, although it's not big enough for a hoop. It's also safer, I think, I've had a bad habit of scattering my equipment left, right and centre.

A lovely box demands lovely accessories, so imagine my glee when I spotted Ali at Craft Matters was having a sale! A new pincushion and needlebook are mine, hurrah. Ali is also making me a new make-up bag. Mine is bursting at the seams and I can't see any way of getting to my sewing machine properly for the time being. I'm not sure what it's going to look like yet as I've chosen three gorgeous fabrics from Julia at Gone To Earth and asked Ali to surprise me. How exciting!

Speaking of Ali, she is moving - do catch up with her new blog at Very Berry Handmade and get in on the housewarming giveaway when it's up!

What We Made For The Cat Swap!

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.

Spring Loveliness

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.

First Make of 2010, and what I did in 2009

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

2 out of 3 hats...

I first taught myself to crochet after a blisteringly cold visit to a North-East beach at Christmas time two years ago. I had no hats at the time and decided that damnit, I couldn't be doing with knitting but surely crochet wasn't so hard? Since then I've made an enormous number of crocheted items - over 300 cakes at the last count, for example, umpteen kids' hats, cardigans, wraps, toys, over a dozen amigurumi and lots and lots of flowers. Very few of those things have been for me, everything's been sold or gifted. I did make a cloche hat early on, but I find it's quite heavy and only really suitable for snowy days.

Cloche hat from Crochet In No Time, plus matching scarf,
in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky

I also made a boy beanie from The Happy Hooker - this one lives in the car as I have a bad habit of misjudging the weather from my warm house. Which is exactly what happened on Monday when I turned out to take K to preschool. Somehow the frosted rooftops didn't register in my brain at that time of the morning and by the time I got back I was absolutely freezing. K, luckily, had got new hats and gloves for her birthday at the weekend so she was ok, but it was too much for me. So it was time to pull up my Ravelry queue, dig through the books and see what I could whip up for myself. I found I'd queued this lovely Pretty Puffs Slouch Hat ages ago, and after much agonising and searching Yarndex and doing calculations of yarn weights and lengths (I HATE trying to convert US yarn weights to what's available here), I settled on some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in Navy Blue. And promptly ran out that same night - my calculations went awry somewhere and I needed one and a half balls. After a quick trawl of eBay I ordered some more and disappointedly resigned myself to a cold head until it arrived.

On Wednesday though, after classes, the weather was too bad to drive over the moorland route home and I found myself passing by Hobbycraft (honest, I didn't go that way deliberately). They *finally* seem to have a knitter on staff and there was a much better choice of yarns available. I nearly cheered out loud and spent a full half-hour having a really good yarn-fondle. I settled on some Sirdar Hug in Murmur, and some amazing Rowan Colourscape Chunky Kaffe Fassett in Storm. You don't want to know how much that is per skein.

Rowan Colourscape Chunky Kaffe Fassett in Storm

I had a visitor that evening so I didn't get started on another hat until K's gymnastics session the next day. I'd wanted to try something from Contemporary Crochet for ages and this cap worked up very nicely. It's hooked just in the back loop so you get a nice ridged effect.

Cap from Contemporary Crochet, Sirdar Hug in Murmur

I wasn't so keen on the last few rounds so I just sort of made it up a bit. It's crazy-hard to get decent pictures of yourself in a hat so please excuse the weird angles. It's a bit pixie-like, this one, so I think it'll be reserved for snow days as I'm not cutesy enough to get away with it otherwise! I do think it's worked up a bit small so I may add some length to it at a later date by crocheting some kind of border.

Pointy top of cap.

My extra Cashmerino arrived very quickly and I managed to get that finished last night as well, so I was spoilt for choice this morning! I opted for the puffy slouch hat, decreed last night by A as "something you would wear"...which I'm chosing to translate from Man-ese as "it suits you". Actually I think it does; I was half-hoping it'd be a nice Bad Hair Day Hat but it's too pretty for that. What do you think?

Side view with my world-famous Cousin It impression as a bonus.

Back view. The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK was a joy to work with,
as always, and is very cosy.

I'm tempted to make several of these, although I don't have any other dark Cashmerino at the moment - I don't suit pale colours really. My mission for today is to find a pattern to suit the Storm yarn...but I may just use it for another one of these! If you have a favourite hat pattern please do feel free to link it in the comments, I'm always looking for ideas. Ditto for handwarmers/gloves - I have a ball and a half of the navy Cashmerino and a couple of balls of Hug so I think I need to make some to match. It has been really very nice to make something for myself for a change - I do have a lot of custom orders to work on, but I'm thinking I might make Thursday nights Just For Me nights. Then I can actually have something interesting to talk about in the Crafteroo Thursday Night Project threads!

K had a wonderful fourth birthday last weekend, and I will show you the last-minute dressing-up outfit she asked me to make for her in the next post!

Iraqi Bundles of Love

What are you doing this afternoon? This weekend? Stop whatever you're doing for half an hour and destash. That's all it takes to get involved with this absolutely brilliant project. Face it, if you're a crafter you've got too much stuff. It's true of us all, whether you live your crafting life out of ugly plastic boxes like me, or have a full-on studio and all points in between. You know you've a yard of cotton or a handful of fat quarters doing nowt, that never fit into any project you can think of. I'm plenty sure you've a boxful of buttons, maybe some beads or sequins, an extra pair of scissors or some knitting needles you'll never use. Oh, and those spare balls of yarn that don't match anything, and short ends of ribbon? Grab them too, because whilst you don't really need them, there are plenty of women who do.

Iraqi Bundles of Love (yes, I know it's a little cheesy but bear with it) was set up by a serving soldier with the US Army in Northern Iraq. I found the link via SouleMama. He's from a family of quilters and clearly his mum (and his wife, natch) brought him up right because he knows crafters are generous people. Aren't we just? And that when we hear of fellow crafters not even having enough material to make their own clothes and keep themselves warm, we can't help but spring into action.

Here's the story from the horse's mouth, but briefly:

Iraqi Bundles of Love is a short-duration project, set to last about six weeks, originally intended to surge fabric and sewing (and knitting!) materials into the area around which I live in Iraq. It is timed to coincide with both Ramadan, and the departure of my units from Iraq. If you’re reading this, well — it’s kind of grown. It’s going to help a little bit more of northern Iraq than just the area around where I live.

It is intended to be a simple project, requiring little effort and little expenditures from those wishing to participate. It is based upon my assessment that sewing fanatics and quilters and knitters tend to have stashes that far exceed their actual needs, and that sewing fanatics and quilters and knitters are passionate both about sewing / quilting / knitting, and about sharing with others.

The stated intent of this operation is to put sewing and quilting and knitting supplies into the hands of two types of recipients: locals who desperately need such things, and local sewing co-ops and other small businesses who have received grants or loans (typically to purchase sewing machines, rent space, etc).

Got it? So you're already thinking about what you don't need, aren't you? Start digging. Here's the sort of stash needed and here's how to put it together. Rope your kids in, if you've got 'em, your cat if not. Or both.

HypnoKitteh sez "DESTASH NOW!"

Enslave small child to sort buttons (her idea, actually)

Now, if you're in the US (hello!), the mailing methods are within the last link; you'll be sending by APO and it'll cost you about $12 or so. Easy peasy. Hop to it - leave a comment on the IBOL blog anywhere to get the address. You need to get your parcel in the post by Tuesday. If you're in the UK or indeed anywhere in the EU, just find yourself a box that's roughly 12x12x5.5ins - ours was a bit longer and flatter, but you're looking to get somewhere between 1-2kg of stuff in there, ideally. Wing it - no excuses. Then leave a comment on the IBOL blog, making sure you write where you live, and you'll be emailed back with an address in the Nederlands (sadly there's no UK address) who will forward it on to Iraq for you. Now off you go to the post office. I sent ours by airmail, it was 1.9kg and cost me just over £10; obviously it'll vary depending on what you put in it - I included some heavy upholstery fabric so that did push it up a bit.

Here's our box:

First some fabric...

...then some yarn...

...got any notions?
We added beads, buttons, sequins, fasteners, scissors, needles and knitting needles

Now tie a bow - bonus cute kid

Optional going to town on decorating the parcel

Why do it? Because we, collectively, have made a right bloody mess of Iraq for years and years, first of all. Because it SUCKS not to have enough to even make your own clothes or blankets for your kids. Because this is something we can do, right here, right now, which will make a difference. Because winter's coming. Because it's practical - this is not your salary falling into a bottomless pit of charity donations, when you're never sure if your hard-earned pennies are going on office pencils or school textbooks. Because it's EASY.

This is sharing love - human to human, crafter to crafter, woman to woman, mother to mother, child to child. This is human. So get on with it. You've got a day or two before the deadline and it only takes half an hour, if that.