...A Little More Sewing.

I meant to do this ages ago but Life (in general) and Holiday plans got in the way and I figured that visiting Hubbie's parents and mine in our hometown while the commemoration of 100 years since the first fleet of soldiers to fight in the First World War sailed from our port and then spending a week with our daughter in Brisbane was probably more important than cobbling together a short spiel about another crafty do-dad of mine.

Needless to say, both weeks were wonderful. But now we're home.

Before we left I'd been experimenting with gifts to make for family instead of buying everything...unfortunately we have a lot of men in our family. It's relatively easy coming up with a gift I can make for the women in the family but I don't think there's a man in the world who wants a tatted lace doily or a knitted garment in the middle of the Australian summer!

So I just concentrated on our Mothers. Both knit a fair amount, both for personal pleasure and for charity and I thought a knitting roll to store their knitting needles and oddments in would be a good idea. So I looked around Pinterest and found a lovely tutorial by Made By Loulabelle for a simple but pretty roll. And I had all the material on hand so I drew up the template and started.

The first one was a bit rough but I got better as I tried to take time and not rush them as I tend to do with sewing projects. I made up 3 rolls, digging through my boxes of fabric. It's astonishing how you can have a lot of fabrics but never just the right colours to blend nicely together while offering a bit of contrast. I needed a solid or semi-solid, a small print and a large print. Was much harder to find than I ever thought it would be!

But the final result were well worth the effort.

The First Knitting Needle Roll

 I learnt with the first roll that the decorative ribbon I chose wasn't a great choice. It isn't double sided and the back of the ribbon doesn't look as good as the front. But everything else worked really well.

Second Knitting Needle Roll

So with the second all I changed was to make the ribbon from the bias binding I used around the edges and that worked fine.

Third Knitting Needle Roll

So my final one I used up all the pinkest stuff I could find and made up one overloaded with devastating cuteness. I love how cheerfully bright it is and although some of the stitching is a little dodgy I'm still quite happy with this.

Actually, I'm happy with all of them and I'm looking forward to being able to gift these to people I know will appreciate the time and effort I've put into them.  And it wasn't so difficult getting the sewing machine out even though I had to pack it up again when I was finished. Our house is too small at the moment to leave anything like that out. I feel like I've achieved something worthwhile and it might be the first Christmas I'm almost prepared for before December.

But let's not get too hasty! Now to recuperate from all the travel and try and get my bearings...

I'll have more later. Don;t know what. I'm at a bit of a puzzle at the moment with crochet, cross-stitch and knitting all cluttering around me.  I'll clear my head eventually!

See you all later!

Dx

Broadening My Horizons

I've been looking through all the beautiful crochet goodies on pinterest and slowly being eaten up with envy until I finally broke down and decided to give crochet another try.

I can crochet. I can even do it fairly competently...but I don't really enjoy it and I can't read the patterns, regardless of whether they're written or charted. And I don't like being made feel stupid by a short length of metal with a hook at the end! It's just rude!

So I decided I would use up a bunch of small acrylic balls of nice colours and make granny squares. I found some instructions I could understand on the bog Little Tin Bird and headed off!

It actually worked out pretty well. I loved the colour combinations. I even managed to figure out the end joins of each round to my satisfaction! I made 12. Now to join them up!

I was going to try and crochet them together but none of my attempts looked nice and they were lumpy. In the end I just whip-stitched them together. I sat back and admired my work...

I had a really small...REALLY small rug. Mmmm....?

Since I still had quite a bit of the yarn left over I thought I would crochet around the edge, tying everything together and make a (quite small admittedly) lap rug.

But the experience with the squares had taught me to be cautious.  I did NOT want to have to sew in hundreds of ends from knots tying each of the colours together.  So I Russian-joined them. Sort of splicing the yarns, cutting off half the yarn bulk and loop them together and passing the left over thread up through the working yarn. It really worked brilliantly! It meant I could just crochet around the squares and watch the colours appear!

I can crochet. And maybe with a bit of practice I might even enjoy it. For now, this was fun. But I think I'll pick up the knitting needles again...

We understand each other a bit better!

I'll tell you about some other forays into different crafts next time. Bet you can't guess what!

See you all later :)
Dx

Boxes, Little Boxes!

I love boxes!

Little, big or medium, the linear pleasure of being able to put things away and put lids on and then create neat little forts of organized tidiness makes some corner of my inner OCD self warm and happy!

So , of course, I had to try and make some out of felt!

Because of the limited size of the felt I have (as well as the limited ability to get any more once I use it up!) the boxes had to be small. The first one I tried was from How About Orange which is really good and uncomplicated. And this would probably have been where I stopped looking except I couldn't get my printer to copy out the template to scale! I tried working it out but it wasn't what I was looking for. Partial success but not quite close enough!

See? I couldn't get the lid tight enough. I struggled with the printer, trying to wrap my numerically illiterate brain around percentages (Failed!) and finally gave up and started looking again.

I found a template for a paper exploding box. I didn't even know that's what these things were called and after looking at it for a while, I was sure I could make something like it with my felt. So...off I went!

I cut out 2 layers of felt for the outer layer and the inner layer, that way I could hide any untidy stitches between the layers and cut out the bottom template and the lid template. Then I running stitched around the square centre at the bottom and the lid so everything wouldn't move any more. Next, because the inner folds would need to fold inwards I cut the centres of the triangles (where the dotted line denotes fold lines) and re-sewed the edges together so the were permanently pointing inwards. I thought I was really clever as I sewed all the pieces together. It looked so nice! And then I tried to put the lid on the folded box...

I didn't like it! 

When I tried to fold it, all the flaps were either piling up against each other or pointing the wrong way so I had to sit back and think again. There had to be a way to line up the inner folds so it looked like a box instead of a screwed up piece of felt with a square hat!

I finally came up with a solution. I pierced the 2 opposite faces of the box with a skewer and sewed a flower over the hole and edged it with button hole stitch. Then I sewed 2 loops (the sort you use when you put a hook and loop on the top of a skirt to help close it as you do up the zip.) on the 2 inward pointing folds and then thread some thin cord through the loops and out the hole in the side and tied a knot in the two ends.

Now with both sides done I found that by pulling them up, the box developed a nice firm form and I could tip the sides up, place the lid on, wrap the cord over the top and tie it down. Viola! A felt box!

Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?? I can think of so many things I could use this for! A sewing needle caddy immediately springs to mind since it's made of felt. A box to hold a special gift. Something to hold thread bobbins in when stitching. And it's so embellish-able!

I enjoyed the details in this and having to adapt the original pattern to make the end result still useful as well as beautiful! And it's so pretty! Never a bad thing. So I decided to make another one, just to see if I'd worked out all the bugs in the assembly.

I really liked the impact of the navy against the red and the little pop of green at the thread holes. I thought I might have done some sashiko design on the top but I didn't really have the patience to slow down and do it. I wanted to finish!

I really like it, especially the beaded ends to the ties. I love details! I love anything glittery and clink-y. I've really enjoyed exploring this box form and now I have one more string to my bow for handmade gifts! Huzzah!

I think I need to give the felt a rest for a little bit though. My fingertips are sore and I'm covered in shredded bits of felt. In a fortnight we'll be going on holidays so I need to figure out what craft I'm taking with me. Especially anything that I can do to distract me on a 5 hour flight! 

What do any other crazy crafty's do on flights? 

See you later :)

Dx

Coin Purses and Felt!

Because I don't have enough mess, right??

But since I had the felt out already I thought I'd try some coin purses...but I didn't have the necessary zips required so I wanted something that I could just shut through a loop or a button...something easy!

                  I knew I'd find it if I looked!

Also I received a lovely order of felt squares in heaps of colours. It's awful but I'd forgotten I'd ordered them and I'll have to look up the order to figure out what the company was I ordered them from but they're perfect for these little purses. The felt is just a bit stiffer than the stuff I have which works great!

I got it!! The felt came from Little Blue Box is located in Perth, WA. I bought it off ebay.

This is the first one I played with before I got the new felt. And while I do like it (it's so cute!!) there were aspects I was sure would improve it. Firstly the two short sides where too low. Coins could (and did!) escape out of the purse in the rough and tumble world of my handbag. Not what I was aiming for, obviously. 

And as a brief side note, the die-cut flower shapes are from bettyoctopus on Etsy . Absolutely scrumptious little things and so many different varieties of shapes attainable depending on how you layer them!

So, now with the new stiffer felt I made some modifications to the original design and tried again!

I was really happy with this one! Even though I had to refine the process as I went along! The pattern was too big to cut out the design in one piece with one piece of felt so I retraced the purse into pieces. The front flap, the bottom flap, the rectangular bottom and the two short sides. Then I had to trace each shape on the felt I chose, twice. For an outer cover and an inner insert. Which meant I had to assemble it a different way to how I'd done the first one. I ended up sandwiching the four pieces of felt (joining two sides which included the inner and outer felt) with a tight running stitch. It actually looks really nice. You can see the layers of colour peeking through.

I also found that while the sides were now high enough, folding the thing down flat was almost impossible because the extra fabric kept wanting to fold over under the top flap when I buttoned it up. Fortunately I hadn't started the blanket stitch around the top edge yet. I found it I scooped out the middle of the short sides, it folded up much better. As you can see from the pic though, not yet perfect...but close!

 And now to the lasted edition! On top of all the other adjustments I'd made up to this point, I also slightly scooped out the rim of the bottom flap. And as you can see above, it folded up pretty much the way it was supposed to! No bump where there's obviously an excess of fabric. And it looks so damn cute!! Lovely bright happy colours! 

I've really enjoyed making these and will definitely be making more. But I thought you'd be interested in the process. Felt is such a wonderful forgiving material and it lends itself to so many beautiful things!

What do you think I should try next?

See you all later!

Dx

Compulsive...

Sometimes I have doubts that it's really a strong enough word to describe how I tend to do things to death when the fit takes me. But I now have quite a few needle books to give away as gifts...if I can think of anyone I know who'd actually use them!

This was the first one that set me off. I was sure I could do this better!

The first one was using fabric for the outer face and various off-cuts of felt for the inside. I used scraps of fabric to cover the press stud but when it was all folded up I didn't like the bump the press stud made. I was sure there must be a neater way. Also edging the fabric and felt with bias binding worked but it wasn't something I wanted to have to do every time!

This was my second attempt using only felt.

I like this one with just the felt as material much better. I only needed the sewing machine for attaching the felt sheets in the middle and to attach the inner and outer parts of the needle case together. After that it was all hand sewing. I really liked the back stitch I used for the heart motive on the face but I used blanket stitch on the outer edges and it worked really well. You'll notice the first test using a button closure? Yeah, I ended up removing it because it wouldn't sit straight and I covered a large press stud in felt and sewed it on instead. Again, still don't like the lump the covered press stud makes!

And the cheery Orange Needle Case AND first experiment with button closure!

I felt I was getting closer to what I wanted, so with this one I went ahead and hand sewed a button hole in the top flap. Discovered that it's a good idea to cut the buttonhole first since the chances are pretty good if you cut it after you've sewn around it you will snip the threads...no matter how hard you try not to!

This Needle Case looks pretty good considering how it got chopped and changed about!

With the Star Needle Case I thought I'd see if I could make a button loop closure out of the top flap instead of cutting a buttonhole into it...the quick answer is...No! It pulled the whole thing out of skew and didn't hold the side flaps in as well so I ended up having to cut the flap off and re-sew a new one in, for both sides! The outer one looks much nicer than the inner one since after doing the inner one by hand I realized even I couldn't pull that off as a design element on the outside of the case! So I used the sewing machine. Much better!

Pretty little Busy Bee Needle Case!

So I now had the design I was most happy with. I'd also finally addressed my issues with the inner flaps by adding a hook and eye to latch them together. It bothered me that the flaps may fall open. I cut a long buttonhole in the top flap and blanket stitched closely around it. I made a pretty little bee motif with scraps of felt and plain back stitch and sewed it in the centre of the face and then blanket stitched around the outer edges.

Tatted Motif Needle Case

Now the creative juices were really flowing so I wanted to explore a few different faces. This was one that turned out really nicely. I used one of my medium sized tatted motifs, sewed it onto a pink circle and then back stitched that onto the face. Lovely bold impression without being fussy. Love it!

And finally...Leaf Needle Case!

I could feel the ideas running down though so I knew this one would be the last...for a little while at least! I drew a pattern on the back of the outer cover and cut it out (which turned out to be a MUCH harder job than I ever imagined!) and then back stitched around the design with a piece of black felt behind it. It makes quite a bold impact, doesn't it? I'd do more like it if I can come up with a method of cutting out the design that doesn't drive me crazy! and if I could sew a consistent line around the design that doesn't look like it was sewn by a giddy drunk!

But over all, I really liked these needle cases! Yes, I may be a bit compulsive but at least I now have some lovely gifts to pass on when ever I may need to...so there!

I think my hands have finally recovered from the charity knitting I did so I may pack up the threads again and get out the knitting needles! 

See you all later!

Dx

Okay, Let's Sew!

I've been really interested in making some needle cases lately, mainly because I'm beginning to get overwhelmed with pin cushions! So I've been scanning through Pinterest for ideas and this is what I've come up with so far.

Needle Case Buttoned Up...

I borrowed a bee image off Pinterest and then made it up the way I wanted it in felt and sewed it on a large circle of felt. I think it looks really good and I like the neat running stitches and backstitches I used to put it together instead of blanket stitch, which is more usual. It never seems as neat as I'd like it. I sewed together the body of the needle case (I had to get out my sewing machine which I hadn't wanted to do but there really wasn't any other choice!) attaching the elastic loop at the same time and then inserted the padding to give the strip some body.

...And Unbuttoned!

I used the machine to sew in the felt sheets inside and then sewed around the edges...badly to be honest. I've not used my sewing machine for a while and I couldn't get the tension right and I lost patience. Anyway, it's all together. I hand-sewed on the felt patch with the bee on it and sewed a nice vintage button I had on. 

Ribbon to attach Scissors and Fine Needles.

 After all that, I sat back and admired it (while dishes remained undone and clothes piled up unfolded!) and realized I needed a couple more features. I added a strip of ribbon on the inside of the front cover to tie a small pair of folding scissors...

Back Pocket for Needle Packets.

 I also added a felt pocket at the back to hold the few packets of needles I have as well as a knitting needle size gauge that I also always carry around. I felt it was a very complete little unit now. Just what I wanted.

Felt Inner Sheets for Needles

And of course, a sheet of felt to hold loose needles. 

I like this but I wanted to make something a bit smaller that I could give away as gifts. Something that allowed a bit of creativity but didn't take quite as long as the Bee patch on the first case.

This is what I came up with.

Little Needle Case Shut

 It's a little folded needle case. Really sweet and cute! The fabric part was cut out in one piece with interfacing ironed to it to stiffen it a little.

Little Needle Case Open

On the inside I used two pieces of felt because I wanted to match some of the colours of the outer fabric and I didn't have a piece big enough. I hand sewed everything with fine white crochet cotton so the felt and the fabric are kind of quilted to each other. I sewed two pieces of felt in the centre for needles. I also covered the press-studs with scraps of fabric to make them look neater.

Little Needle Case Face

I sewed the felt flower on the fabric before I sewed anything else to it so the stitching wouldn't show on the inside. And to join the two fabrics I sewed bias binding around the edges. It was really a very neat little design! If I did it again I think I'd copy out the main template on cardboard and use that to trace the pattern onto the fabric required. There are things I'd change and elements that need a bit of fine tuning but over all I really like it! I might even get out the sewing machine and try and work out the tension problem...bit of a task since I think I've lost the manual...of course!

Okay, I think that's it so far. See you all later :)

Dx

Blackwork Handwork

I have had a lot of fun keeping my hands busy with little hand sewing projects and Huzzah! my knitting mojo has returned.  I've cast on to knit a pattern I've done before but everything was wrong with the first incarnation of this garment. Wrong size, wrong needles and wrong yarn. This time around I think I have a much better chance of completing something I like.

But first to the projects I've finished!

I love making pincushions and scissor fobs because they are small, easy to carry around and relatively quick to execute. And since I'm always putting my scissors down and forgetting where I put them, these little attached pincushions make them easier to find amongst all the stuff I tend to surrounding myself with mid-craft. Here they are!

 This is a little Biscornu Pincushion I made with the last bit of pale blue aida cloth. I did the design in really dark brown that looks black. I like the clean crisp lines of the blackwork so I enjoyed doing this. The worst part is always whip stitching the two parts together and stuffing it! Even ironing thin interfacing on the back to stabilize the base material doesn't always help.

This one I like because of the nice effect with the sage green blackwork lines with the golden-yellow french knots in the centre of the flowers.  It's not that complex a design and I think that's one of it's appeal. It translated into a really nice scissor fob too.

 And this last one I decided to make a Pin-Keep. I never knew this sort of thing existed until recently and I kind of made up the design myself. Not the blackwork design. Just the actual Pin-Keep itself. No doubt I've done this wrong but it kind of works the way it's supposed to so I thought it worth the experiment.

I'll have to look up to see if I can find a pattern for these. It's a handy little thing and I'm already beginning to be overwhelmed with pincushions. Blackwork is a wonderful form of embroidery that builds a great design filled with clarity and clean lines.  It was also a nice interlude after intensive knitting. So as I take up my knitting again, I put aside my needles and threads, fine weave cloth and embroidery hoops until next time.

Whenever I pick it up again, it's guaranteed to be fun!

See you all later :)
Dx

I think I may have overdone it!

I have been knitting furiously (mainly trying to beat my own times, finishing hats/mitts in a day) and have suddenly hit a wall. It took me about 4 days to finish the last mitts I knit. So this is my collection so far for charity.

But now I'm all agitated. I don't want to knit but I want to do something!

I tried tatting and ruined a couple of pendant bases playing with those and then I remembered I had another scissor fob half completed. Ah! Something to keep my hands and the details side of my brain occupied!

So I finished the brown fob and started another. Let's see if my knitting mojo returns if I pretend to ignore it for a while.

See you all later!
Dx

I've been busy!

I have! Well, Hubbie had holidays in the last weeks of August and we decided we'd visit home (in Albany!) and then go back to Kellerberrin, pick up our little caravan and head off to Kalbarri where Hubbie's parents were staying with their caravan. Being a bit Asperger's like youngest son the idea of leaving home where all my things are makes me fairly anxious and apprehensive but, ah well....off we go!

See? Don't I look eager to go??

Anyway, I enjoyed the first part, mainly because I got to spend as much time as I liked with my Mum and Dad and I like that since Dad is a bit like me and Jordan, fairly daubed with the Aspergers brush! and my Mum's the friendliest, most outgoing person I know of except my eldest son! Genetics is such a tricky bugger!

While I was there though I'd started knitting these simple beanies for a knit4charity group in W.A. asking for teenage boys beanies and mitts. They're just a reverse garter stitch brim and simple stocking stitch body with a basic 4-corner decrease.  Really easy, mindless knitting and a great way to use up small amounts of stash yarn. Gives a great edge to the beanie. Anyway, I started knitting a few of these. I could complete 1 a day and was pretty stoked with that.

Anyway, returned home, hitched up caravan, packed up a bag of stash and two dog's and headed off to Kalbarri. Considering we didn't head off till 12 in the afternoon, we knew there was next to no chance of us making it the Kalbarri that day. So we didn't try and stayed in Carnamah! Which was really nice. I never thought I'd miss the place when I first moved there but it was really nice to return, even for just one night!

Always loved the mural on the only supermarket in town!

Hubbie and Dogs play in Carnamah Sports Oval

So next morning, up and off to Kalbarri! It really is a pretty place and the caravan park we stayed at was really nice but being the social cripple I am, I stayed in the caravan mostly. Not of course when the dogs were all there but fortunately they stayed mostly with Hubbie's parents in their much larger van and annex!

Not much room in the van!

Kalbarri Sunset!

So we had a lovely holiday. Hubbie thoroughly enjoyed his time with his parents and I didn't make a complete tit of myself by being overly reluctant to be in company because I didn't know what the social situation was supposed to be or have a huge hypo (because being slightly aspergers isn't enough, throw in Insulin-dependent Diabetic since 14 too!)  so I was pretty happy and I had knit so many of these cute beanies! While I was in Albany I'd bought a heap of DMC tapestry wool skein's Spotlight seemed to be getting rid of cheap and they were so many great different colours so I'd been doing some of the brims in them...and they were really great! Once we got home I was looking forward to finding out how many I'd managed to knit and give them a wash and final tidying up.

I had 12 beanies! I'd meant to knit 10 but clearly got ahead of myself. A couple of them had unavoidable knots and one had heaps because I used all the off-cuts of the tapestry wool knotted together to knit up the final beanie. I wanted to cover these up but first I washed them all, just to prove that none of them were delicate little flowers since I figured they'd need to stand up to fairly indifferent handling if they were going to teenage boys! They all passed!

Okay, I have...8 beanies?

No! I have...11?

Well, 11 not including scrap beanie :)

So once they were all dried I decided to sew little scraps of felt over the knots. I have HEAPS of different coloured felt so it made it really easy. Just little 1cm squares were fine for the one or two knots on some of the beanies but I went to town with the Stash Scrap beanie!

Front Side...

Join Side

Isn't it cute?? Hubbie calls it my Hippy Dippy Hat!. I reckon it works really well. There were lots of knots so this really was the only solution. I couldn't sew them all in without it showing really badly. But this way it's a great design feature!

I'm so pleased with this beanies and their many different colours and shades. But I wont be happy till I've knitted the same amount of mitts! 

This is why I say I knit compulsively! 

See you all later :)

Dx

My Experience with the Indigo and Lichen Beret

When we moved, as a kind of reward for having to go through the whole moving business again I rewarded myself with a big order of books and magazines from the Interweave store. One of them was All New Homespun Handknits and one of their prettiest patterns was the Indigo and Lichen Beret by Jeannine Bakrigs.

I really did enjoy this pattern, even after the puzzlement near the end. Even though it starts at the crown on DPN's it was easy, the increases were simple and the instructions very clear. The chart was easy to follow and everything was going well until I hit the final 3 rows of the stranded chart where there were a series of peculiar decreases to incorporate.

I was a bit bemused but, nothing daunted, proceeded to try and follow the instructions...

...it did not go well.

The stitch count which up to that moment had been proceeding along the lines set down now made no sense at all. I couldn't even understand how to do one of the decreases - Sl2, k2, p2sso . How's that?? I looked at the back in the glossary, nothing there. What the heck??

Anyway, I continued, assuming that this was a usual slip 2, knit 1, pass 2 slipped stitches over knit stitch and looked at the final row.

It looked like crap! The stranded design had become hopelessly garbled, wasn't following any of the previous colour set ups. But I knit on regardless because, you know, bloody minded-ness is an essential part of the knitter's arsenal in morbid denial!

I finished the chart section and went on with the 3 rows in the main colour decreasing for the brim but as I began to knit the 5 stitch I-cord bind off I finally really looked at what I had.

The pattern called for there being 133 sts in the final round before you started the bind off.

I had 92.

This was so not going to work. So I unravelled back to the initial problematic rows in the stranded pattern. I had a good hard look at the instructions, especially the stitch count at the end of the crown section of the beret before I started the chart and the stitch count at the beginning of the first decrease in the main colour for the brim.

And then I made an executive decision.

I continued knitting the remaining rows of the stranded chart and just ignored the decrease instructions. The design followed seamlessly and made sense. Then when I knit the 3 rows of main colour as before, they were the only decreases I did. I had the stitch count I should and the bind off went off with out a hitch.

And I had a beret that looked very much like the original picture!

I blocked it over the largest plate I have in the house. (Doesn't the design look lovely? All the different colours! Six of them besides the main colour!)

This was, like I said from the beginning, a really easy pattern, even excepting the weird blip with the stranded  chart and I doubt that's the original designers fault. It's probably just a mis-placed instruction on the wrong chart. But if someone can make the original instruction make sense and keep the stitch count accurate, I'd love to hear about it!

 But for me, I'm really happy with my finished beret.

It looks like the picture, the stranded border is nice and crisp in detail,

And it fits and I can wear it. And instead of just collecting pattern books as I'm prone to do, I actually knit something from one!  Extra points me!!

Bye now!

Dx