Monday 27 January 2014

Catching Up.......again

Hello all,

I am currently undertaking my spring cleaning in the form of finishing off my left over projects. 

I stepped away from knitting and put my quilting hat back on. I started a Christmas decoration about 2 years ago and I have only just had the courage to finish this. I had to make a lot of strips of material and sew it all together. I am at the point where I cannot go any further without any assistance. This means I will be making a lovely trip over the the Quilters Den in Warwick. If you ever want to take up quilting I would stringky recommend that you go there. Anita (the owner) has the patience of a saint. She is a great teacher and I do know how she manages to split her time equally between all of her students. She runs a sewing group on Wednesday evenings and this is where I will be taking my project. I also would like to complete the quilt I started. This was a monthly course that I attended but I missed one session. This will be another project that I would like to complete this year. 

I have also had a clear out of some items that I am not using. Please look on my Ebay shop 'Knit's Not Perfect' for my things I need to sell such as books and magazines. I am at the point where I think I have too much yarn......I did not think that I would ever reach this point. I feel I will be spending a few months on ebay just trying to clear, so I can save up more money for more yarn :p

I have finally typed up all of my written projects, which means I cannot loose them. Happy days :). With my new tablet I will ensure that I write projects as I go to avoid this mess again :s. I have been working on some designs which have been in my head for a while. Hopefully some of them will be printed in Inside Crochet :) Watch this space! 

I am learning new stuitches too. I am enjoying working with raised Treble stitches and tonight I will hopefully be looking at a double crochet rib. 

I will be heading to Reading at the weekend so I will be visiting some of their local yarn shops :)

I have to get back to the day job now!

Happy crafting

Sarah x

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Tuesday 14 January 2014

Catching up

Hello all,

I am going through a period of catching up on my UFO (unfinished objects). First of all I have completed the dinosaur blanket. I will post a picture soon but as it is a Christmas/ birthday present I need to keep it a secret for now. I am fairly happy with the outcome, some of the blocks have a tighter tension than others but it was made with love :) The blanket has however, inspired me with another project idea............. 

Completed Peter Rabbit

Last year I was given a project by my dad's colleague. They had found the work in their mother's loft and passed it on to me. It was all the knitted parts a Peter Rabbit to sew together. I finally had the opportunity to finish the work and it is a cute piece. The knitter was obviously very talented and I imagine they would have loved to have seen the finished product. I am glad I had the chance to work on this. 





I have ordered more yarn (eeekkk) as I had a lot of left over blue yarn. This is from my first order of yarn for my Christmas Jumper. I have had to order extra colours to compliment it so I can make something out of it. Just need to dream up what I will do.......

Sunflower appeal


As part of my craft group we have all been asked to decorate a canvas piece with the theme 'happy'. This is for a charity called Mary Anne Hospices. The emblem is a sunflower so I thought I would use this and crochet a flower onto it. The piece will be put together and presented to the charity. I think this is a great idea and lovely when to see the efforts of the whole group combined. 





I have began to plot my holiday. I am going to head to Scarborough for a few days. Within this trip I will be heading to York which of course means a visit to the shambles. I have been there before and loved the fact that there were five different craft shops to explore. This will be in February so if you have any other recommendations, please pass it on. 

Now you have caught up with my antics I hope you are all well.

Happy crafting

Sarah

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Wednesday 1 January 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Welcome to 2014 :-)
I have had a great Christmas and start to the year. I am now able to talk about my Knits prezzies :-) to start with I am glad that Ravelry exists. I alway find it difficult to think of what to make for my dad. Luckily I found a pattern for a Star Trek Enterprise ship. The pattern is from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starship-enterprise-amigurumi. The project was fairly straight forward and quick to do and was appreciated in the end. =

My sister has been taliking about Ragdoll cats for a while so I thought I would make her one. I have owned the book Best in Show Cats, by Joanna Osbourne and Sally Muir and though I would utilise it. I used larger needles and yarn for my project. The pattern can be at times challenging as I had to learn how to make loops when knitting and the wrap around technique. I was happy with the result and my sister is now a proud Ragdoll cat owner..........well sort of.
My brother requested an elephant teapot cosy for his girlfriend and I found a pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elephants-on-the-tea-cozy. I used drops yarn and decided to sew on the eyes as opposed to add buttons. I made a tension square to make sure that it fitted the teapot which I'm glad I did.

My husband was in desperate need of a new hat and I had chunky wool left over so used the following pattern- http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/that-favorite-winter-hat. I adapted it by adding a few 2 x 2 rib rows. This pattern was great as it knitted up quickly and looked good.
The final 2 makes were original designs. On holiday my brother won me some prizes by playing a game called Doodle Jump. To thank him I thought I would make him the character. As I could not find a pattern I created my own. I think it's OK as he knew what it was. For my sister's boyfriend I made a lion as I heard he liked them. I used the chain loop method to make the mane and this was effective. Pictures of all of my Knitmas makes can be seen on my Facebook page.

I'm currently working on my other sister's baby blanket. She liked the following design - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dinosaurs-blanket. I did begin to knit it but found the design a bit tricky as many colours were used in each line. For my sanity I have decided to adapt the pattern into a crochet design. I will post when completed :-)

I am proud to announce that I have a pattern printed in the latest  edition of Inside Crochet. It is a comforter which is enjoyable to make. I wanted to use a wavy chevron design for a long time and this seemed to be the perfect project. Claire selected some beautiful yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino) in colours that complemented the concept. I love how the magazine have photographed my project and the pattern layout is lovely too.I would like to thank Inside Crochet and Claire for giving me the opportunity and I hope we can work together again soon.
My new years resolution is to try out Tunisian crochet and use my loom



I hope you all have a great 2014

Happy crafting
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