Soya Pineapples

Gosh, I am completely shamefaced by how long it has been since I have updated. I have lots of draft posts but none of them have made it here.
There's a couple of things that I've been working on.

This is a shawl I made from sirdar just soya dk. It's the Aphrodite Shawl pattern. It took me about two weeks to finish it.










It's the first time I've tried pineapples. I love the way they look but always thought they'd be really complicated. It was actually quite an easy pattern to follow.That's the beauty of crochet for me - it's all stitch by stitch, row by row so as long as the pattern is clearly written you can follow it and create something beautiful!




The other thing I've been making on and off for the last couple of months is two pairs of day gloves for my friend's bridesmaids.The original pattern was from The Art of Crochet (issue 23 I think.) I just happened to see it when I was thinking about patterns for the gloves and it turned out to be exactly what my friend was after. The pattern came up really small so I had to increase the number of stitches and use a larger hook than stated. I also increased the size of the fingers individually.

Basically the process was that I made one glove and sent it to my friend. I then worked on other things while she tried it on the bridesmaids and sent it back for editing. I was really pleased with how they turned out. And apparently they got a lot of compliments on the day, which is always nice! ;)

At the moment I am working on a new fingerless glove design. I've made several pairs and I think they are nearly ready... I am also looking at baby patterns on Ravelry because another friend just had a baby girl!

Makes

I know I’ve been quiet recently and have missed a couple of Monday and Friday postings... *hangs head in shame*

I thought I’d share some pictures of what I have been filling my time with…

But first – here’s the 2^nd attempt at purse making, which turned out a LOT better than the first. I made a glasses case for my Dad for his birthday out of tie silk.

Okay, here are some skirts that I made following an on-line tutorial. Well, I say ‘following’ – the first one proved that the tutorial wasn’t right for me so I hacked bits off it here and there and then used it to make a better pattern for the other two.

Originally I was going to make a dress with this fabric, but I think the pattern is a little much for that.

How gorgeous is this fabric? I’ve had it stashed for years but I always knew it wanted to be a skirt. It’s called “Erte revisited” I think.

This pink seersucker I’ve also had for years. I was going to make a bias cut wrap skirt from it, but didn’t have enough.

This is a cover for our patio table that I made with some cute Russian Doll print PVC. It came in the day before I went to the shop – fate!

I’ve got a bit left over – the long strip cut off the bottom to make it the right length so about 3 metres by 30cm – any suggestions? It’s fairly light-weight.

I just love this Ikea fabric. I bought it last year to make a throw-over for our footstool and made sure I got some extra as well. I know most people would say that purple and orange clash, but I don’t see that as a bad thing! I might have enough of this fabric left to make a couple of little cushions, too.

And also, in true make do and mend fashion, these cushion covers were made for a friend out of one of her favourite duvet covers. She’s having a garden party and wanted some cushions to be strewn around the lawn. She asked me to make 2 small and 2 large and anything else I could get out of it. I think I did a pretty good job of maximising the fabric – I used the snap closures already on the duvet for two of the cushions and then managed to squeeze another two large cushions out of the duvet. Each pillowcase made one small cushion. The remnants won’t go to waste either, as I’m going to stuff them with polyfill and make some little random shaped cushions, too.

Sewing was always my first love – in fact, I only took up crochet because I didn’t have the room for my sewing machine! – But although I have slowed down on the crochet front, I haven’t quite ground to a standstill. Look at these cutey booties I was practising this weekend – I do love tiny shoes!

...And before you ask, no I am not pregnant! I just know several ladies who are. :)

Folksy Friday - Holidays!

I know it's early this week but as I am now on holiday from work for 10 whole days I'm a bit excited. So I have been looking at holiday-themed items on Folksy and I decided to have that as my theme for this week.

First up is this groovy holiday themed bunting by Cottoncabin. I love the stamp print.


Next I've chosen these cute gift tags made from maps by Little Silverleaf. Whenever I'm going anywhere I love having the map and looking at it over and over! I can spend hours looking through an atlas.
Next I've chosen this linen fishing boat cushion cover by Jo Fulham because it reminds me of my holiday to Cornwall last year.


How cute is this suitcase necklace by She Draws?!


Whenever I go away I like to make lists of everything I'm taking and check things off as I pack it in my case. And what a lovely case this is! I love red and white together in the summer. It's made by MamaRuby.
So, I shall definitely be enjoying my holiday next week - even though I'm not going anywhere, I will have plenty of time to craft!

(Mis)adventures in Purse Making!

…or “what I have learned this weekend”

I have a bit of a thing about purses. (Also bags, shoes, hats, coats, make-up, Momiji, stationery… but now we are talking about purses!) On an average day I have 3 purses with me – money/general, excess cards and ‘savings’ (which is where I keep money saved to pay for my Spanish lessons and my dog classes). Before I switched to a smaller handbag I also had a coin purse too! On any given day this number can increase if I fancy carrying more make-up, money for a different purpose, or just another purse!

I had an idea for a line of coin purses and glasses cases but absolutely no idea how to go about making them. Good old Google to the rescue! I found this site U-Handbag, which sells everything you might want for making bags and also has a good selection of really useful and well put-together tutorials with pictures – and they’re FREE!!

So, I ordered some coin purse frames from a fellow folksy seller HollieLollie Supplies. I also got the Gutermann HT2 glue recommended by the tutorials. When the glue arrived last week I set aside this weekend to have a go.

The tutorial was so good that I figured it would be a doddle and was a teeny bit smug about it I think. Never a good way to be! It went pretty well at the beginning. I chose a groovy owl print cotton from my stash. I designed a pattern following the instructions, cut out all my pieces and stitched them together following the directions. So far; so good. At this stage it looked pretty impressive…

Then I came to the point to start gluing and I learned a few things.

1) When it says ‘be generous’ it probably doesn’t mean ‘use half a tube’

2) When squeezing the glue – it keeps coming out for a long time afterwards and is really gloopy!

3) Ventilate the room really well as the glue is really strong smelling and gave me a headache

4) Don’t cut corners – check the seam allowances or it might not fit in the frame properly

5) No really, don’t cut corners – even though you hate ironing, it really does help to press the seams properly.

6) Everyone makes mistakes – the trick is to laugh and learn.

After this I made a somewhat more successful attempt, which I’m afraid I can’t show here yet as it turned out well enough to be a gift, but I will post a picture once the recipient has received it!

I’ve ordered some more frames and I’m hoping that with a bit more practice I will improve! I’ve got next week off work, so I’m going to spend a couple of days sewing and see what occurs! I want to make myself a skirt as well, but I think I’ve caught up on all my trouser-shortening, button replacing chores now!

As it is Monday and I missed out on Momiji Monday last week (because I was so busy trouser-shortening and button-replacing) I am tagging a Momiji on to the end of this post to make up for it.

This one is Dreaming - I thought that was apt! Dreaming is from Generation 2. She likes quantum mechanics, Las Vegas and surprises!

Sundays are my favourite days for dreaming. a big stretch and then some tea!

Folksy Friday - Flowers

Well, today seems to have been the hottest day so far! My arms caught the sun at lunchtime and are now red and itchy - my legs remain as defiantly pasty as ever!

I've decided to use flowers for my Folksy Friday this week.

First up is this Flower Ring by Grace Designs - and it's on sale!











Next I've chosen this cool flower coaster from The Mosaic Garden.



















Next up is this flower button bracelet by Made by Kate D - how cute is this?!














Finally I've chosen this lovely hand felted Daisy Lollipop Flower by Petal Textiles.













I hope you have a lovely weekend enjoying the sun!

And the winner is ... Me!

Yay my prize gloves arrived yesterday from Tafferty Designs.
They are gorgeous, really light and comfortable.
It's really hard to take a picture of your own hand, but I tried!

They are a teeny bit stretched out of shape in this picture as I couldn't resist trying them on first. :)









They are so pretty. I *almost* wish it was a little cooler so I could wear them more. Almost!



So thank you very much, Judith. I am really pleased with them. I'll add one of the pictures to your fan page.
x

Tafferty Designs on Etsy.
Tafferty Designs on Folksy.

Momiji Monday - Lovely Day! Also Raffle Prizes and I've won a give away!

Today hasn't exactly been lovely - the weather is more like March than May for a start! But nevertheless for this week's Momiji Monday I have chosen Lovely Day.

She is from Generation 1 and she likes old black and white films and travelling to far off lands.

We lie on our backs watching the clouds Our Lovely Day.



In other news, today I posted off two pairs of gloves to the Caithness Rare Breeds Lovely sheep Raffle. I also made a pair of men's gloves just like these ones that I have in my shop. They are based on the ones that Mitchell wears in Being Human - which is pretty much my favourite show! I figured that there might be some men buying tickets, too and they're often under-represented in the craft department. (I know I struggle with finding patterns for men!)

Also, I have won a give-away! Some crochet gloves from Tafferty Designs' facebook fan site. I am really pleased and can't wait for them to arrive - Judith makes the kind of gorgeous crochet items I am still dreaming of creating. Just check out her Etsy shop!