Saturday 17 August 2013

Snail Mail

So, in the last post I mentioned having joined The League of Extraordinary Pen Pals.  I am also a member of International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club, Postal Society and the Letter Writers Alliance.  I've rekindled my love of letters and sending and receiving snail mail!

I wanted to share a few pictures of some of the mail I have sent and received over the past few months.


This is three letters that I sent out in July and this was the first time I had really used washi tape to decorate envelopes, so I kept it pretty simple.


This was all the mail I received in the last week of June - a lot of postcards from LEP members and a few letters.  I used a map of Braavos from the Lands of Ice and Fire collection of maps as the background because I thought it looked really good. (If you're a map geek and love A Song of Ice and Fire you should check it out!)





 These are some postcards I sent out at the start of July.  The patterned ones are from Alice Apple on Etsy and are exactly the kind of patterns I love.  The owl card is Paperchase and the two Art postcards are from Willowing.  I absolutely adore them - I even put three of them in a frame and ordered another set a couple of weeks later.   I'm planning on buying a bigger print as well.









These are all envelopes that I made.  The top set are made from scans of the Leonard Cohen 2013 tour book, which is amazing (much like the show was.)  The others are made from different sizes of craft paper.  In all the cases I made templates from cardboard and drew round them.  It's a fairly addictive pastime.



This is one of the Leonard Cohen envelopes ready to send.


And this is one of the other envelopes ready to post.

I don't always remember to photograph my incoming and outgoing mail, but I'm going to try and be better at it. :)


Tuesday 13 August 2013

Belle Wrap - free pattern

Hello again!

I've decided, inspired by some of the amazing mail blogs that some of my new friends in the League of Extraordinary Pen Pals have, to try and be a little better at blogging. :)

I'm planning on including some mail-related posts in the future, but for now I'm going to stick to a few of the posts that I've had on the back-burner for a long time.

First up is a free pattern that I've been meaning to post since around ... January... Yeah, I know.

I made this wrap for my friend for Christmas so it's named after her. It has not been tested yet, so if you find any errors then please let me know. It's based on a stitch pattern I found in a vintage lace book.




Belle Wrap

Worked in a webbed lace stitch either side of a base chain, this can be as wide as you want it - this is shawl width but working fewer repeats will leave you with more of a scarf width.

After the set-up row, it's just a single row repeat, so really good for when you've got one eye on the TV.

200g of DK weight yarn.
5mm hook.

Centre chain - CH 228. (Increase or decrease in multiples of 7)

R1 1dc into 5th chain, *2ch, skip 5, 4dc in next ch, ch2, dc in next ch. Repeat this across the row ending with 4dc into the last ch.

R2. Ch4 dc in same stitch, ch2, skip ch2space and dc, (4dc, 2ch, 1dc) in next ch2 space. Ch2, skip next 4dc, ch2 space and dc, (4dc, 2ch, 1dc) in next ch2 space. Continue across ending with 4dc in top of beginning 4ch.

R3-12 - repeat row 2. (Repeat R2 until the wrap is around half the width you want it to be. The one I made is 12 rows either side of the chain.)


Second side. Rejoin yarn with a slip stitch to the other side of the starting chain, beginning at the end of the first row - so underneath the last 4dc.

Repeat the pattern again, making sure to finish on the same number of rows as the first side.


Edging.
At the end of the last row, ch1 and work down the short edge of the wrap. 3sc in the edge of each dc and 3sc in each of the turning chains for each row.
At the end of the short edge, ch1 and continue along the length of the wrap with 1sc in each dc and 2sc in each ch2 space.
At the end of the long side, ch1 and continue around the short side as before.
At the end of the short side, ch1 and work along the last long side, ending with a slip stitch in the ch1.
Finish off. Weave in all the ends.
Block to open up the lace

So, that's it. Enjoy.  If you make this, please link to it on Ravelry - I love seeing pictures! :D