Plans
Aside from the mundane though needed plans i.e get a job, write more tutorials for the magazines while trying to find a job, complete the maths course I’m struggling through to help me get the said job… I’m talking about more interesting and fun plans.
This year I want to concentrate on creating some ‘vessels’ from crochet. I’m not going to worry about producing cost effective things for my shops – I want to get really creative and experimentive again. I can’t say much more as I don’t know, I just feel the need to experiment, so look out for hopefully interesting though possibly bizarre photos soon, I’ll document the process here.
I do like to have a few things on the go at once though and have been crocheting a scarf for myself over Christmas from lace weight wool. Its a sort of sampler and I’m making it up as I go along. It a lovely merino silk mix in my favourite teal colour and is so light and delicate. I got the wool from fyberspates, it is a dream to work with.
Next my mum bought me a lovely Japanese crochet book last year and I have been wanting to make this since then though am slightly intimidated by it.
I do like a challange and this is certainly that, but it would be so worth it. To cover myself immediatly I am not envisaging finishing this in 2011, I definately see this as an ongoing thing!
A couple of other things, a shawl I’ve secretly started, its a pattern I saw on ravelry and it is gorgeous and quick apparently and I can so see me wearing it in France this summer… pics in the next post. Then there is the lamp I’m covering in patchwork (for the past 3 years) that is nearly finished now and if I’m honest lots of other bits started all over the place. Oh yes, and I signed up for the valentines swap on crafteroo – don’t say anything!
Joel Dewberry home decor fabric
I made a skirt in the summer, it was my first one from a proper pattern, with a zip and darts (!) that I loved. So I thought I’d make one for winter too, but I wanted thicker/warmer fabric. So off to one of my favourite shops Gone to Earth and a little chat to Julia who helpfully sent me a couple of samples through as I was a little concerned being home furnishing fabric it would be too thick. But no, my only dilema turned out to be which one to choose…
I plumped for Joel Dewberry’s gingseng spade damask in mulberry in the end, so what do you think?
I love it! I got the zip in this time a bit lower than last time so it fits a lot better, with a hook and eye at the top its much neater. Though the facing is still too short by a good 5cm either side. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but fortunatly its just for me and I can sort of hand stitch the ends down so it doesn’t fray, but its not right. I added some bias binding to the bottom edge to, well, add a bit more really, but I really like it, I think it finishes it off nicely.
Also, because I had a bit of fabric left over I made a bag too! I joined in Septembers ATC swap the theme was ’space’ but have been a bit distracted so not only have I not blogged about it but also not photographed it – duh! However, Andrea of the wonderul Indigo Blue Designs sent me a lovely one and while reading her blog I saw she did quite a few recyled makes. One of them is this fantastic scarf to bag make, so I followed her tutorial here and ta-dar…
Fab isn’t it! I changed a couple of things, I wanted it bigger so doubled up on the sizes and I like bag to go over my shoulder so I sewed another piece of fabric to to make it a bit longer. There are some great bits on Andrea’s blog so if I was you I’d make a cup of tea and settle down for a good read (and thanks for the atc card too!). I sent mine to Victoria of giddy stuff who I also swapped with on the necklace roundrobin a few months ago. Check out her blog as she has put a picture of her atc and its fab, a tardis that opens!
crocheted cable
You know I said I took that little detour to Hobbycraft on holiday, well here is a pic of my cable, the wool (though rather pink in this pic?) is a lovely blend of wool, alpaca and silk
It did take a while to figure out, the instructions are not that clear and there was a mistake printed too but I will persever with it. I love the chunkyness of it and that fact it looks like knit. I’m think i’m going to make this into a bag, but this has definitely taken over the top of my list of new projects, especially with winter coming!
Update: I’ve finished my bag! I’m quite pleased with it, if I was to do more I need to tweek it a bit. The handles are off an old favourite bag that wore out last year, It was perfect in size and I wasn’t happy when I really couldn’t repair it any more, but it lives on! I’ve lined it with some thick denim left over from some curtains, which give it a bit more structure and I put a little pocket in side for my phone.
my new bag Ta-darrr!
A Light Box!
Look what my wonderful dad made me, after my incessant complaining about taking photographs in a dark Victorian house
Isn’t it magnificent! But this isn’t any light box, oh no, its a cardboard box with a large window cut out of the top and sides with white tissue paper stuck on and a sheet of white card proped up in the back! Fantastic and best of all, it does make a difference AND it only cost me 2 bars of chocolate, love you dad!
And if that wasn’t enough to make me into the next David Bailey, this brilliant tutorial was linked to the ukhandmade blog. It is so useful, simply written with great tips and there is a competition for the best photo which I may well enter now – so what do you think of the results of yesterdays photography session:
You may recognise the last one, It wasn’t quite right before, but I think its better now. So this is what I’ve been working on for the last few days. I’m really enjoying combining several techniques and working with patterns and bright colours. As always this has led to more ideas – I’m thinking sort of sculptural.
That requires more thought though, and I need to post these on my Folksy shop and get on with my Art Trading Card’s, more about that later!
4th November 09
If any of you do your own craft fairs and make jewellery, you must visit Boo’s blog. Not only does she have gorgeous jewellery, but also lots of free tutorials. I’ve just made the necklace stand from her template and it really is amazing! Now I can display my necklaces properly as opposed to lying flat on the table. I am so envious of people who can think laterally (?) or is the word just clearly (!), i’m not sure, but she is one clever lady.
I’ve also been really remise in not mentioning the Crafteroo Children in Need shop we have set up again on Foksy. We have all donated items, and all the money goes to the charity, last year we raised over £600 for Comic Relief! So if you fancy doing your bit, while having fun at the same time, check us out here.
Finally, i’m buzzing this week, i’ve been featured on two, yes two fabulous blogs, one of my bracelets on Found on Folksy and one of my bags on UKHandmade. Talk about glowing!
Patchwork a go-go!
Well i’ve kind of worked through last weeks to do list…
I’ve finished the bag, using those fab handles. I tried a few swatches of chunky and aran type crochet stitches, but none seemed quite right. So I got all my wools out (and let my mind luxuriate in all the colourful beauty of it) then, because I obviously have patchwork on my mind at the minute, I came up with this:
I am really pleased with it, the colours and textures go together well, and it was fun to do, almost like painting. This is definatly a direction I want to explore further.
I’ve lined the bag in brown cord, and vileane so that it is quite solid, with a magnetic snap closure. Unfortunatly the weather here is wet and grey, no good for photos, so I took a couple for here, but will take some better ones for the shop, hopefully soon!
I’ve also finished the squares for the granny square swap,
I’ll post some picures when Sam and Izabella have recived them, I really hope they like them!
Finally, I experimented with the Silver Egyptian square, but I need some silver wire, the colours I have don’t go, so I had a little play with what I intended to experiment with at another time, combining buttons, seams, crocheted edgings and fabrics.
The fabric is off a top I customised, and the buttons are made from bits in my fabric box. The edging is called a Double Shell Trim, and is really simple to do. I’m quite excited about the posibilities with this, i’ll keep you updated!
My ‘to do’ list!
The aim of this blog is to be a sort of online journal of my work, so people who are interested in what I do can see what i’m up to, and how I actually work, and it’ll be good for me to keep a record, rather than all the little slips of paper and several notebooks I have lying around…
So, what am i working on at the minute, well firstly, I bought some gorgeous wool the other day, that is highly varigated, so almost looks like farisle,
this is a detail of a scarf worked in it, it is beautifully soft and the colours a gorgeous range of icelandic blues, greens and greys. I want to try a patchwork scarf, blocks of colours, in a freeform style, and I think this would be the perfect base. The corner of a granny square peeking in the photo is from a swap i’m doing, over on spans-stitchin blog, which is my first one so am very excited! However, the colour also goes well with the scarf so I think i’ll incorporate some of it in the patchwork.
Next on the agenda is this find from a charity shop, the handles are lovely, so i’m looking for a dense pattern to work for a bag, almost aran style, as the handles lend themselves to something quite structured, I can’t decide between a traditional aran wool in a cream, or that gorgeous wool above, so its sample time first I think.
Finally, i’ve been doing a lot with my yarn jewellery ideas, but I think I need to do some more wire jewellery, I want to try some patterns with the wire, like traditional edgings, and see how that goes. I’ve also got this ‘find’ that I want to do something with – but i’m not sure yet what!
So that is a little of what I am supposed to be doing, as opposed to chatting on here, and now it’s down in print, I suppose I better get on!
