Final Part of The Christmas Jumper

Hello Everyone, 

What a busy time it has been! I did my last two craft fairs of the year, which was great fun. I need to seriously replenish my stock in preparation for next year. However, before I do that I need to knit up my jumper and a baby blanket.



It took a lot of time but I am proud to announce that my jumper is completed and ready for Christmas. For my first ever jumper, I think it doesn't look too bad. The pattern was from Sue Stratford's Christmas jumper book and the pattern was easy to follow and really tested my skills. This is the first project where I did a tension square. I practiced my intarsia, which was fine until I managed to knot the wool repeatedly :s. I also practiced weaving the wool into my work so it was tidier on the back. I also finally learnt how to ptbl. I avoided it for years but I finally watched you tube and now get it :). I like the technique suggested for M1 which involves wrapping the yarn round. I found this much easier to work with and will use this method in the future. I also learnt the importance of reading instructions before jumping ahead. I had to do the bottom of my jumper twice as the first time I did a 1 x 1 rib instead of a 2 x 2 gggrrrr. I had to adapt the pattern as I found the arm lengths too short. I decided that each time I increased I would add an extra row to ensure it is long enough. I am happy with the project and I am sure it will bring much festive joy.

I attended the Knit Night held at TOFT. It was a good evening as we all gathered to try and completed Christmas Projects. At the time I was working on my jumper but I did learn two new stitches. As I had learnt how to ptbl, I was able to learn how to do a twisted rib stitch. This looks lovely and I can't wait to incorporate it into a project. I also learnt about crocheting into the front and back of the post to create a stitch equivalent to the knitted basket weave. It was a great evening and I would recommend attending a knit night if you get the chance. You also have to check out their huge mugs. They are great as they come with a knitting pattern on it :) 

My Christmas knits are completed and wrapped and I hope everyone enjoys them. I will be able to post what I made after the big day. One project that I can post is the one I made for my mum.....as she has already opened her present. This was the first time that I had used the yarn specifically for scarves. It looks complicated but once you get your head around it, it's quite easy to use. I liked the project as progress could be seen quickly. I hope my mum enjoys it as I was happy with the end product.

I also began the mission of tidying my yarn stash. I had been avoiding it so long as I had needles, mixed with wool and mixed with crochet hooks :s. After two hours, I was able to untangle it all. One of my New Years resolution is to keep the draw tidy. 

I have had 3 great knitting gifts. The first was a knitting mug from my school friend Becky (many thanks). I use this every morning for breakfast :). I also have a new knitting mug for work. This was given to me by Secret Santa, thank you by the way Frankie :) The final gift was a Knitting Loom. I have read a lot about these and wanted to get hold of one. A colleague at work gave it to me and I was really chuffed. Amy (my colleague) said that she had seen someone create a rug. This sounds great and If I can get large enough yarn, I like to give this a try. 

You have been updated with my adventures. I will shortly begin work on the blanket for my sister. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.....and if I  do not post between Christmas and New Year, have a safe and Happy New Year :)

Thanks all and happy holidays :)

Knit's Not Perfect 

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The Knitting Collection and Rabbit Thief Strikes Again

Hello all,

I am finding Christmas to be an extremely busy time for knitters. Over the last week, I have completed my Christmas knits for the family......well almost all of them apart from my sister's, which is a blanket. I have already said that this will not be completed by Christmas. 

I attended another great workshop at TOFT where I made a snowflake decoration. The teaching was good and the pattern was easy to follow. I successfully made a beautiful snowflake......and a second one for TOFT to keep. I also met a new knitting friend known as Yiknits on Raverly. He has a website (http://www.inopportunetimes.com/) which is  full of his lovely creations. Yi told me about Romanian Crochet (which I have never heard of) but I would like to look into more. 

I did my craft fair at Coleshill which was great. People seemed to like my designs and I sold a few items. There was a great range of crafts and also a choir which really got you into the festive mood. Due to selling well, I was left with no Christmas decorations for my next Christmas fair on Saturday. I have frantically been making some more so I have some stock once again.

On the 29th November The Knitting Collection was released with some of my patterns inside. It was a coaster, mug cosy and tea cosy set. The yarn was selected by the skillful eye of Claire Montgomerie and from there the designs was made. If you every have the opportunity to work with Claire I would recommend it as she is extremely supportive and always there if you need guidance. I think she has done a great job with the bookazine and I hope it does well. 

I went to the Harry Potter experience and I was pleased to see that there were some knitted items on display :) I have since decided that Mrs Weasley is my favorite character and has a talent for designing.

If you have the time to go to Warwick, Please do! they currently have a knitted/messy sheep trail where you look for sheep in the shop windows and record their names. It is great fun and there are over 95 sheep to find :) I only have 4 more to do when I return again. 

As I was preparing items for the craft fair on Saturday, the rabbit thief struck again! There I was innocently knitting, when I noticed that I had ran out of yarn. As I looked to the floor I saw the face of Caramel the rabbit aka rabbit thief. In her mouth I saw my beautiful yarn being chewed. As I tried to get her, she ran away with my yarn. I managed to get it back.....once I wrestled her down. Just to add insult to injury, I began to knit again and my cat (Kitty) came over and began to attack my knitting needles. So I urge you be aware of these menaces to the knitting society. 

 I have my final two craft fairs of the year over the weekend. On Saturday 11am-3pm I will be at the Coventry Frost Fair which is held in the Coventry Cathedral. Many local talents have gathered to sell our goods. The event on Sunday is at Ansley. This is 10am -3pm at ANSLEY VILLAGE CHURCH HALL Birmingham Road, Ansley, CV10 9PS. I am also looking forward to this event.. I will be at these events, finally continuing to work on my Christmas Jumper :) So hopefully my next blog will provide you with a progress update. Come on down of you're free. 

Just a reminder that there is no Knit's Not prefect knit night this month as it is the festive season....and I don't have a venue :s

Back to the day job

Happy Crafting

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Christmas Jumper Part 4 and Craft Fairs

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay between this and my last post. I have been plotting out my families Christmas knit projects (which I need to find time to do), working on new items for my craft stall (which I need to find time to do) and my Christmas jumper (which I need to find to do)

I am so happy to know that Raverly exists as a reference site. I have been able to locate all of the patterns I required for Christmas. I will take time out at the weekend to work on each project :)

I have three craft fairs coming up. I will be alone on the stall so I need to create new items for more of a range and to take up more space :s. At present, I have created a tablet cover which seems to work well. However, I may make up some minions. I think after these craft fairs, I will be able to focus more energy into my Christmas jumper. 

As present I have a completed sleeve and have begun work on the front of the jumper. I had a mini panic as I thought I would not have enough wool. So in order to ease my anxiety, I ordered more wool from the woolwarehouse website. On this occasion I thought I would pick it up from in store. However, I did not realise that you had to wait for them to email you to collect the items before you turned up :s. I have learnt my lesson and will not make this error again.

I had a good day at the Ashby St Ledgers craft fair. The organiser, Lucinda, managed to get a great range of crafts on the day. She also was able get many people through the door. This is an event that I would like to attend again if there is the opportunity as it was such a great atmosphere. 

I attended TOFT's knit night and this was great. There were some new people learning how to crochet and more experienced people doing a twisted rib stitch........I have no idea what this is. It was a nice relaxed evening and of course tea and cakes was provided. I would recommend anyone to go there, the next evening will be 19th December and we will hopefully be crocheting reindeer decorations. 

I have had a couple of orders for animals, which I cannot post yet as they are Christmas presents. I can say that they are completed and I will post pictures soon. 

I have found out that my mum would like a scarf with frills. I have just brought the special yarn and now looking at it.....I am quite confused :s.  Hopefully there is a good You Tube video to help me out. eeekkkk.  I am also plotting out a baby blanket for my sister :) That's right I will be an Auntie in April. How exciting, I will have a little baby to cover with my knitted goods :)

Next Sunday I will be at another craft fair. This is on Sunday 1st December at Whitacre Christmas Fair, Nether Whitacre Social Club, 64 station road, Whitacre Heath, near Coleshill, Birmingham, B46 2EH. The event runs from 1pm - 6.30pm and sounds like it will be a beautiful event as there will be Christmas singers and a Santa's Grotto. If you are free please pop down.

That is everything that I have been up to at present. I will keep you posted with anything new :)

Happy crafting

Hobbycraft show and Christmas Jumper part 3

Hello all,

It is again a busy week for the merry land of Knit's Not Perfect. I have spent the first part of the week creating more Christmas decorations in preparation for the craft fairs. I have now designed three different decorations. The first being mini stocking, the second was a snowman and the final was a snowflake. For these projects I used Patron 100% wool which just added a more festive feel. 

I then had the opportunity to begin my Christmas jumper :) The new batch of yarn arrived. It is Drops, which is a blend of alpaca and wool so is nice and thick. I did my tension square and found that I need to use a 5mm needle as opposed to a 4.5mm or my jumper would have been tiny. I decided to start with the sleeve as I have two of them to make and I can get bored if I do two one after the other. I found the pattern to be simple and it worked well. I have adapted it by adding an extra row after each increase row to ensure that it is long enough. I would recommend Sue Stratford's book to anyone looking to make their first jumper. 

I did a craft fair in Bedworth on Saturday and it went very well. I took along some of my older projects and books that I wanted to get rid of. I found that this town did appreciate the products made out of natural fibres. Key rings, phone cases and the Christmas decorations went down well so I will have to make more up to replenish my next fair (which is on Sunday 17th)

On Sunday I went to the Hobbycraft show at the NEC. This was the first time that I attended a show like this. I was prepared slightly as I remembered to pack a bag to put my goodies in. Just as a warning the car park was £10 (ouch). There was a great range of stalls on the day including many papercraft and beading ones. However, I had to make sure that I stayed focused or I could have spent all of my money, very quickly. All the usual magazine publishers were there so I picked up a great number of older Knitting and Crochet magazines and the current ones at a reduced cost. I had three favourite stalls there. The one begin good old TOFT, the second Bulldog Krafts and the final Hobzy

TOFT's stall was beautiful, they had all of the amigurumi animals suspended from the ceiling which made the stall stand out from other. There was a great range of products and I was able to check out their new wool. TOFT is a company that sells luxury yarns that are made from natural fibres and are not dyed. They firstly began with Alpaca yarn (As they are an Alpaca farm, well worth a visit if there is a tour). They have now broadened the range by selling yarn made with 100% blue face Leicester wool, which is very yummy. For more details look at their website www.toftalpacashop.co.uk

Bulldog Krafts was a company that I had not heard of until I went the show. They sell bamboo needles, hooks and Tunisian crochet hooks at a reasonable price. I was able to buy 9 Tunisian crochet hooks for only £10 which I thought was a bargain. they also sell lovely 100% cotton yarn in beautiful colours. The yarn is a good quality and you get a great length out of each skein. John was the man I spoke to there and he seemed very friendly and genuine. His partner (who is the keen knitter) is also lovely and approachable. You are able to buy nice kits from their website. I am tempted with the baby blanket kit as I have a family member who will be in need of it soon. Please check out their Facebook page and website www.bulldogkrafts.co.uk

The final find of the day is a website called Hobzy (www.hobzy.com) This is a website where you can sell your own products online. Unlike other sites, they do not charge you to upload your items but will only take payment once you sell it. I was informed on the day that this is 15%. It is a website intended to help smaller business sell their products so I may give it a go. 

I have three orders to work on this week. This Friday is Knit Night at Esquire's Coffee Shop in Coventry. Here is great as you can watch great acts such as comedians, singers and poets for free whilst knitting :) The group runs 7pm - 9pm and any skill level is welcome. Please remeber to bring your own yarn and needles as these are not provided on the day. On Sunday I will be at Ashby St Ledger's Village Hall for a craft fair. It runs from 2pm-5pm and it should be great. I will be there with my friend from Kazam jewellery so come on down if your free. check out my Facebook page for more details. 

That's all for now

Happy crafting

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Craft stalls and the Knitting Thief

Hello all,

I did my 2 craft stalls and it seemed to go OK. The first was in the town of Nuneaton. Here I found people seemed to like smaller items such as key rings. I was nervous when I first arrived as this was my first actual craft fair.  I managed to forget my table cloth (despair) As I looked sadly at my naked table all was not lost as I lucky had a friend there to help me out. I have learnt that Rule 1 of a craft stall never forget your table cloth or you will have a naked table of shame! Rule number 2, make sure your items clearly show what they are. I had some headbands but people seemed unsure what they were....I even had one person tell me that the necklaces I had made were lovely. I have since decided to order some mannequin heads to display them clearly on :). Rule 3 take your knitting. This was great as people came over to chat to me about my craft and also laugh as I managed to tangle myself in the wool again and again. 

The second craft fair I did was in Rugby. I came more prepared as I had my table cloth! However, to my surprise the tables were already beautifully dressed. Rule 4 do  not assume you will need to use the table cloth you bring. In this area I found that my mobile phone covers did well :) So I have come to realise that location can affect what you sell. I guess this means that rule 5 is that location is key. 

I tried to make my tension square for my Christmas jumper but alas it was an epic fail. I realised that I knit extremely tightly. So tight I have to use needles that are 1/2mm bigger than intended for the wool. This means if I continued with the current yarn...It would be holey and look odd. I have since consoled myself by yarn shopping on www.woolwarehouse.co.uk Of course I did not buy anything extra....that I will need to hide from the husband....:s 

I am up to date with my knitting orders :) I have made 2 minions, 2 cowls, 1 West Brom scarf and a Super Mario. I found a great pattern on http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mario-plushie by Linda Potts. The pattern is free and it is a great pattern. It is easy to follow and the end products look like what they are meant to.  I have since become a massive fan of Linda and follow her blog :) Please respect that the pattern or end product is not to be sold. 

I have realised that my knitting is no longer safe in my house. There is a creature that lives in my home that steals yarn and needles. I thought I was misplacing things until I caught the villain red handed, or pawed rather! To my horror, the criminal was none other than my pet rabbit Caramel. I was there, casually sewing my project together and she jumps on my table, steals my knitting needle, runs away with and and then gnawed it. I am in need of a new place to stash my work.....and a new 3.5mm bamboo needle.

I have brought the latest Inside Crochet magazine and again delighted with the projects. I particularly love the crochet Christmas Stocking and the Festive Wreath. This has been added to my long list of things I would love to make myself.

I have now got the festive spirit so currently working on Christmas decorations for future stall. I have finally got an original pattern that I am happy with for a mini stocking and I hope to made a mini snowman soon too (as red and white are the only colours I have :s)

I will be selling on a crafty stall again on Saturday. It is at Bedworth Methodist Church, Mill Street, CV12 8JZ. The event begins at 10 am and I will be there.......with a dressed table. 

Well I am going to return to my festive makes

Happy crafting :)

Deadlines and Christmas Jumper part 1

Hello all,

Hope you are well. I have had a busy week full of deadlines. You will hopefully see some more of my patterns soon (fingers crossed). I am also involved with a volunteer organisation in my area who are intending to yarn bomb a nursery to raise awareness of children's well being. This will be the first bit of yarn bombing that I have done. If there is a piccy, I will post it, My urgent deadlines have been achieved so I am now able to update my blog :)

I have had more orders for minions and I learnt about a new character called 'Totoro'. One of the crocheted minion has been mentioned on a blog (http://williamsandcole.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/one-in-a-minion/) How cool is that !!!!! I am also going to be working on two cowl and baby gifts. In the mists of all of this I have began work on my knitted Christmas jumper.

Phase 1 of selecting a jumper has been successful. Looking through 'Merry Christmas Jumpers to Knit' by Sue Stratford, I have decided that I would like a reindeer jumper :).I think, if I am to a make a Christmas jumper, I may as well go all out.

 The 2nd phase on this knitting adventure is to work out what size I am. I tried to use measuring tape on myself but worked out it is a two person job very quickly. This was after I tripped over it :s However, after speaking to my dad, he came up with the idea to measure a jumper I own and that fits. I have quickly realised my arms are a lot longer than the pattern was written for so i need to remember this when making the sleeves. After much confusion, I have decided to go with a large.

.Phase 3, to buy the yarn. I am a big supporter of natural fibres and like to use them where possible. I referred to a great yarn shopping website (www.woolwarehouse.co.uk) and decided to use Rico Cotton. I have ordered if (with some extra) and can't wait to get started soon :)

If you are at a loss on Friday and are near Coventry, feel free to come along to knit night. It is held in Esquires Coffee House in Coventry and you are able to enjoy free entertainment from a group called Down the Rabbit Hole (@catonthejam). The knit night runs from 7pm to 9pm and all skill levels are welcome. Please bring your own yarn and needles as it cannot be provided on the night.

That's all for now

Happy crafting :)

Sarah

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Busy Busy Busy

Hello all,

This has been a very busy week. I have had more minions to make, 4 orders for scarves and a craft table to think about :s

First of all a quick update on my Christmas Jumper, I have yarn :). I ordered it from www.woolwarehouse.co.uk. the prices on this website is great and my order arrived the next day. I would recommend this to anyone. There is the option to buy acrylic and natural yarns. I have worked out as well where I can add rows to make the sleeves fit me better. The next step is to knit a tension square, which will be on hold until next week.

I attended the Wool Party at TOFT on thursday. It was nice as we could see some of the new yarn which is made out of wool as opposed to alpaca fleece. It was a great evening as there was tea and cakes and a great group. We tried to catch up with our UFO's but tea and chatting took over. I would advise you to attend a knit night at TOFT so you can meet the gang and also look at the great range of yarn available.

Knit night at Esquires Coffee shop went well last Friday. I had a lovely group who were knitters and crocheters. I even had someone interested in learning basic Tunisian Crochet. My group is special as we have some Deaf Sign Language users. I am fortunate that I am a signer so communication is not an issue. 

I had two orders where I did not have the correct colours. I was fortunate that I went to Derby and came across a knitting shop called 'Wren's' The staff are friendly and there is a good variety of yarn colours. You can even buy neon colours if you like. However, I was most impressed that they held pretty much every colour available in the Style craft range. I was able to get the colour needed for my bespoke cowl and also I got some acrylic wool to make a scarf that is in the colours of West Brom football club. I would recommend a visit.

I have been working on the West Brom scarf first as I know it will take the longest. I decided that since I have brought DK wool, that I would double it up to make it chunkier. However, this is proving to be difficult as the yarn keeps knotting up. Meaning this project is taking longer that anticipated.aaarrrrggghhh

I have now added to my stall stock winter headbands. They are made out of Rowan Big Wool so are lovely and warm. Speaking of my stall, I have two events this weekend. The first is in Nuneaton and the second is in Rugby. For both of these events I am sharing a stall with my friend Kazam Jewellery (www.kazamjewellery.co.uk) who makes lovely pieces of work. check out her website for more.

The craft fair at Nuneaton is Saturday 10am-3.30pm at the Nuneaton URC Church, Chapel Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire CV11 5QH. there are about 15 different stalls and entry is free.

On Sunday come to The Rugby Hotel, Sheep Street,  CV21 3BX 11am-2pm. This is again a free event so come on down and support local crafts.

Hopefully I will see you at the weekend at the craft fairs but if not, happy crafting until next time :)

Sarah Coad
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