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Saturday 31 March 2012

Knit Relief Total


As I have been visiting my nan in hospital I haven't had much time to finish any of my projects so I'm going to use this post to let you know how the Knit Relief aution went.

The last half an hour of the auction was very exciting with items being bid on every few minutes. The tea cosy that I knitted went for £41 in the end which is AMAZING for a little knitted tea cosy. And my grandmas knitted baby vest went for £8.01.

The grand total of all the items sold (52 in total) was £2038 which is astonishing and will make such a huge difference to Sport Relief and the work that they carry out.

I posted off my parcels this morning to their new owners so they will arrive early next week hopefully.

I wrapped them in brown paper and string:


Wrote a little thank you card:



And they are ready to be posted:

Royal Wedding Sampler Update


Hi all

Sorry for my lateness in posting again. My nan had a fall the other day and has been in hospital. She was going to theatre to have a replacement hip put in but she had a scan this morning and it is not actually broken which is good.

Anyway this weeks work in progress is an update of an earlier post I did on my royal wedding sampler. I go through stages of working on it every night to not doing and for a week or two and recently I've been working on it quite a bit.

Below is what it is currently looking like with a nice ring where my frame has been!


Kate has one colour still to be done but for some reason I don't have it in my stash so will have to go out and buy it soon. I think I'm going to move onto Will before I get it though- at least he doesn't have as much hair as Kate to stitch!

But I have had to put it down for now and work on some stock for a craft fair at the beginning of May that my auntie has offered to run for me if I have the stock ready for her in a couple of weeks so it is all systems go at the moment trying to get new stock ready for her.

I really want to finish it soon though so I can't start a jubilee one!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Finished Fridays


I am catching up on my blog posts before I get too far behind so sorry this is late.

My Finished Friday for today is the blanket I had as a Work in Progress post a while ago here that I actually managed to finish. I put it on my list of things to do in my 2 weeks holiday from work so it had to be done otherwise the universe would end!

I stitched all the rows together and they actually looked really good- a few were a bit wonky here and there but on the whole it looked surprisingly good for a first attempt. In the pattern from Mollie Makes magazine they put bias binding around the edge and left the back as it was with all the seams from the squares. I didn't like that idea so on my trip to Ikea at the weekend I picked up a fleece for £1.59 in a pale blue perfect for the colours in my blanket.

When I got home I was very excited to get it finished and so pinned it all together straight away and got stuck into sewing around the edges. It was a bit tricky because the blanket was quite heavy and my sewing table isn't very long so it would slip off every now and again but the overall result is something I am very pleased with. Plus as it was a lovely sunny day I could take pictures of it in the garden!




I'm in love with it! I like the colours and the softness of the fleece on the back. Plus I like that I only had to pay £1.59 for it. They jumpers are old ones of mine and my mums that we found in the loft so cost me nothing. I am definitely going to try and upcycle some more. My brother has just thrown a load of old shirts my way so I can see a summer shirt material throw on the horizon! Plus lots of buttons for my button box!

Here is the blanket at home on the end of my bed. If I had a giant room with a reading chair in it would definitely be draped over that but until I'm a millionaire this will have to do!


I tried it out the other morning when I was a bit chilly doing some uni work. It is so soft and warm I didn't want to have to get dressed and put it down. I can't wait for winter again now so I can use it all the time.

See you next week

Xxx

Work In Progress Wednesday


Whoops I just realised that I didn't post a Work In Progress last wednesday! My excuse is that I had my first assignment to submit for a course I started in February with the Open University. It is the first one I've had to do since leaving university 3 and a half years ago so I was a bit nervous and rusty (plus I left it until the day before it was due in to write anything down!). I don't get the results back for a couple of weeks though so won't know if I did ok or not.

Anyway this weeks Work in Progress is a bit different. It is not a craft make as such more of a DIY exercise. I moved all the furniture in my room around about a year ago and have had a pile of picture frames, some of which used to be up on the wall others which have never made it up, under my chest of drawers ever since. Having had a few days off work now and the initial excitement of my holiday worn off I decided I'd better make use of it. I have always wanted to have a wall of pictures in my room and since moving everything around I've had a big empty space of wall which would be perfect but never actually done anything about it. So wanting to change that I took all my pictures downstairs to the lounge and lay them out on the rug which I measured to be roughly the size of the wall I wanted the pictures on. I enlisted the help of my dad as he used to be a graphic artist and generally has a very good eye for things like this, and we came up with a layout that worked.

Here is a picture of the layout on the lounge rug:


The big one in the middle was a present from my best friend for my 21st birthday and we thought it best and easiest to work around that to fit in the other pictures. After I had decided that this was going to be the layout for the picture wall I made up some templates of the pictures out of scrap paper and stuck them to the wall with blue tak so I could get an idea of how much it would fill the wall.

The next day we went to Milton Keynes to visit my brother which of course meant a visit to Ikea (it would be rude not to!) and obviously if your in Ikea you have to buy something and I brought some fabric (obviously) and a picture shelf. This is a genius idea- it is a narrow shelf that hold picture frames that you would have standing up and cluttering a surface. But with this shelf they all line up together and leave other surface free of clutter! I decided to buy the largest one and thought it could go along the bottom of my picture wall display and allow me to fit even more frames and pictures out.

I had to juggle around the original plan a bit to fit it in but I managed and think it looks great. I put some of the picture hooks in myself, dad did the top one as the nail kept bending but it turned out it was because it was going into brick instead of the breeze blocks further down, so not my fault! Dad showed me how to measure where the hooks should go so they would sit in the right place and how to mark where the holes needded drilling for the shelf. I was too scared of messing up to actually drill the holes with the scary drill but I put the raw plugs and screw in and here is my picture wall now:


The 3 green frames are going along the top but I'm having them as a birthday present so can't put them up yet. I just need to decide which pictures to have in them all now!

Hope you have a good rest of the week and the sunny weather we're having here continues!

Xxx

Monday 19 March 2012

Finished Fridays


I thought it best to wait until after Mothering Sunday to post up my finished project of the week. Firstly because I hadn't finished stitching the card until saturday and secondly I decided to make my mum a present so could put the two on here together.

First up is the card. I wrote about it on a previous Work in Progress post as a card I started last year but didn't get finished in time so was determined for it to be finished in time for me to give it to her this year. I almost didn't have it finished as I managed to loose my box with all my embroidery threads somewhere in the house so had no black to put the outlines in. And without the black it just looked like blobs of colour rather than actual objects!

Below is a close up of the stitched design. It is from a chart in CrossStitcher magazine from a year or so ago. I chose this one as it wasn't too soppy or too girly (both of which are things my mum doesn't like!) and I'm also a bit obsessed with bunting so I liked that it had that in.


And here it is mounted onto the finished card. I was going to stamp a border round and put some wording on the front but changed my mind as less is more!


Mum really like it and even suggested that she was going to cut it out with a yellow border and put it in a frame in her office (when she gets round to decorating it!) which is great and gives me another idea for a present for her!

I decided about lunchtime on saturday (nice and organised) after I had checked my bank balance, that I would make mum a present as I couldn't afford to buy her anything. I racked my brain to try and think of something that she wanted/needed that I could make for her. I though of a bag or a cushion cover but then had a brainwave...

A few years ago we had the kitchen redesigned to put in a disabled bathroom downstairs for my dad who has MS and with the redesign there were some shelves put in. Mum wasn't here when the shelves were put up and regrets it as neither of the shelves are big enough to hold A4 cookbooks standing up and they aren't even both the same height (it is a sore point that you NEVER mention!) So anyway as they are a random height no storage boxes will fit in so I thought I would just make her a box that was exactly the right size for the shelves and if she like it I could make her a whole set.

I read a couple of tutorials online about how to make them and then just chose my fabric and made it up as I went along. Below is the (almost) finished item:


The colour scheme of the kitchen is red and luckily I had this red fabric in my stash already from previous projects so didn't have to spend a penny. I used cardborad to make the box stiff enough to stand but haven't stitched the lining in yet incase I think of another way I can make the box sturdy instead of cardboard as I'm worried it will bend.

I really like the mix of gingham and stripes- definitely a combination I will do again.

The box fits perfectly on the shelf and mum is now busy deciding what to store in it, I may be making several more of these in the coming months!

I hope you all have a good week!

Xxx

Thursday 15 March 2012

Work in Progress Wednesday

After finishing my tea cosy last week for #twitknitclub I have become quite obsessed with them! So when my crafternoon friend moved to a new flat and requested this tea cosy as a house warming present I couldn't wait to get started.

She chose one from the pattern book called Strawberries and Cream.


I really like it and am looking forward to knitting it. Luckily I even had some leftover cream wool from a cardigan I knitted for her daughter so I don't even need to go out and buy supplies!


I think the strawberries might be quite tricky but hopefully my grandma can help me out again- although she has selfishly gone away for 3 weeks so I may have to muddle on by myself.

Below is my progress so far. This cosy is knitted in two parts so I am on the bobbly bottom section of one side at the moment. I think I'm knitting it right- you have to pearl and knit several times into the same stitch- my grandma said it was called blackberry stitch (she is a font of knitting knowledge!)


Hopefully it won't take me too long to knit up- my friend has already been moved into her new flat for about 3 weeks now! (and I've visited her there twice!)

As from 4pm today I have two whole weeks off work- wooo! So I am spending this evening planning my time off and the crafts I am going to do so it could be a bumper Work in Progress Wednesday next week!

Have a good week! Xxx

Friday 9 March 2012

Finished Fridays

I have finished the tea cosy for #knitrelief!

I'm very proud of myself as I'm a very slow knitter and it normally takes me ages to finish anything knitting related, which is often why I abandon knitting for sewing.

There was one slight mistake in the bobble size- it was nearly as big as the tea cosy itself so I made another very cute one about a quarter of the size of the original!

This is a picture with the insane sized bobble:

Looking at it now I can't believe I even considered that it was ok! I actually asked my parents for their opinion on the pom pom size- my dad said it was good so I am never trusting his opinion again!

And here is the actual finished tea cosy with normal sized pom pom:


I went with the 'I <3 T' motif on both sides in the end and I think the side in this photo is the one I attempted with no help from my grandma but I can't really tell the difference (which has got to be a good sign- they are either equally as good or equally as bad!)

I haven't decided whether or not to make a lining yet. I want it to be effective as a tea cosy but still fit on all tea pots- decisions decisions.

This is the current reverse side of the cosy- I don't know if this is particularly messy for the back of a motif though!


I am showing my grandma today- i think she will be suitably impressed with it. I am the only grandchild who can knit- in fairness there are only 4 of us but still! My Uncle seems to have elected me to be the one who carries on the art of knitting by learning from my grandma but I will never be as good as her- she knitted me a knee length cable jumper in a week- it took me about 6 months to knit a baby jumper and I was so bored if it after about 2 weeks! I prefer sewing- much quicker results!

I hope you like my tea cosy and I will post a link up nearer the time of where you can bid on it and other items in the #knitrelief auction.

Have a good weekend
Xxx

Thursday 8 March 2012

Work in Progress Wednesday


Good morning!

Todays Work in Progress Wednesday goes to something which has nearly been a year in the making (it is not even a big project so there is no excuse for its incompleteness!)

It is a mother's day card that I started stitching for my mum last year (I started stitching it on mothers day last year!) but ran out of time. So this year I am definitely going to finish it for her.

It is just a simple chart from CrossStitcher magazine last year and one I know mum will like.


This is how far I got last year!


So as you can see most of it still left to do! Mothering Sunday isn't for another week and a bit so I should be able to finish it off for her this year for the 18th March. You will know next week if it makes it onto my Finished Friadays post whether I was successful or not!

Enjoy the rest of your week- my weekend starts tomorrow for 4 days- yay!!

Monday 5 March 2012

Finished Fridays


Hello!

I missed Finished Friday too because I was ill so here it is for you (better late than never!)

This week I made a new cover for my sewing machine. My machine was kindly given to me by my great aunt a few years ago and it has a plastic material cover on it which has definitely seen better days so when it came back from a service with a massive rip in the cover I started looking for a pattern to make a new one.

I found a really easy pattern in '101 Great Ways to Sew a Metre' by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Haskins. A friend of mine has a copy of this book and I always look at it wanting to make everything from it so when I had some spare book vouchers I decided to splash out on getting my very own copy and the machine cover is the first thing I made from it!


The pattern was really easy to follow and it took me about 1-2 hours to complete from start to finish- my kind of project!!


I decided to use some Cath Kidston fabric I had in my stash that I haven't been able to decide what to make with. They are remnants that I got cheap about a year ago so I didn't want to waste them as I could never afford her fabric full price!

The cover has a very handy pocket which even when I was making it never though would fit A4 paper in but it does easily so this is where my 'to-do' list and list of things to make as presents now lives!


I think it goes really well on my sewing table (another donationg from my great aunt), much more jolly than the old white cover and I like the contrast between the pocket and the cover. I hope all the projects in the book are as easy as this!

Until next time Xxx

Work in Progress Wednesday


Hi all

Sorry this wasn't posted on Wednesday but I was too ill to face doing anything!

This weeks Work in Progress is another project for #twitknitclub but with the knitted items being auctioned off in aid of Sport Relief. You can read all about it on Teen Granny's blog here, and all the details are on there if you wish to donate something yourself or just to bid on the donated items- I've already got my eye on a few items myself!

I have decided to knit a tea cosy like the picture below


I have really wanted to knit this tea cosy ever since I got the pattern book and this was the perfect excuse to knit it. The pattern, however, involves knitting with a chart which I have never done before. And of course I choose an occasion where the result will be auctioned off to charity to try it out- it makes perfect sense!!!

Below is a picture of my progress so far and I'm really please with it. I went round to my grandma's for a lesson in how to knit to a chart and the trickiest bit, I found, was not following the chart itself but keeping tangle free with 4 balls of wool attached to your work insead of the usual 1!


I have already decided to change the pattern slightly from what is printed, (I always seem to do this!) I'm going to put the 'I love T' design on both sides and I'm going to put a bobble on the top in the cream, red and black instead of the knitted red one in the pattern. I'm also thinking about making a lining for it so it keeps the tea pot extra warm.

Hopefully you feel inspired to donate something yourself or to bid on items going into the auction in a couple of weeks. I will post more information about that nearer to the time with my finished tea cosy pictures!

Thanks for reading and have a good week!

Xxx