Long time no post...

I really did mean to write an 'anniversary' post at the beginning of the month, but things got busy and I haven't done it. It seems a bit silly to do it now, so I won't.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures for today's post - because I'm rubbish and keep forgetting to take photos! I honestly will have a picture of the Lemming blanket soon, and possibly the swap gift I sent for the Sprite Stitch swap. It went a bit late, but it's gone, and I'm just waiting to hear that the swapee has received it, which whould be in the next few days!

I've also started a new knitting project, and will have pictures of that next time - I've started a Princess Leia hat. So far the hat part is done, and I'm now working on the hair swirls. Sounds odd, but hopefully it will turn out ok.

This week is looking busy, work wise, with a course to go on, as well as the usual college work. I'm also off to watch the snooker (UK Championships) this weekend, which should be good! I've never watched it live, but do enjoy watching it on tv. It'll be a new experience and it's even better because I won the tickets in a Twitter competition!

Enough rambling, I have things that need doing (when do I ever not?!) and I should try to get at least some of them done.

CC Box 16

As promised, here's my post on CC Box 16

The theme this month? The Circus.

I really loved this month's art card, which is by Luke Spooner. I just wish I could get it the right way up on here, grrr!

There were lots of bits and pieces in the box, including some beautiful purple beads, wome red and white stripey buttons, a set of circus stamps (again, the picture wo't go the right way up for some reason - I really must start taking pics on a proper camera instead of my phone) some paper tickets, 3 lovely mask charms, a couple of double sided craft papers plus some temporary tattoos. I love the black and purple circus card, but have no idea what to do with it at the moment. I may just frame it, along with a couple of the art cards from the Crafty Creatives boxes.

 

 

The stamps look like they could be fun, but I'll have to go out and get an ink pad to use them with I think. I'm going to attempt to make a pair of earrings from the beads in the near future, nice and simple ones. What I'll do with the rest of them, I'm not quite sure yet!

 

As well as all of these lovely goodies, there was the kit for this month, which was to make a kitsch animal necklace. My kit contained a lovely black panther, although I'm not sure I'll turn it into a necklace.

 

 

There was also a second suggested 'kit' which was to make some circus themed coasters. The box had some card circles, some black and white circus prints and PVA glue to do this with, and they suggested using the temporary tattoos on these as well. While I may not make the coasters, I'm tempted to decorate a ccouple of plain cardboard boxes with the tattoos, possibly after decopatching them.

 



 

There were some really lovely items in the box this month and my brain is whirring with suggestions of things to do with them.

 

A quick update on the crocheted blanket - only 8 squares left to sew together, then it will be complete! Pictures to follow once it's complete, I promise. I'm hoping to get it finished before Tuesday so I can take it to the local knitting/crochet group. I'm also still working on the Sprite Stitch swap gift, and hope to have it complete this weekend. Lots of crafting to do, too little time to do it in!

 

 

Finished item and some WIPs

It's been a while since I posted, life has been busy! I've been looking at houses, and found a nice one, which has led to lots of learning about mortgages. Exciting stuff! I've also been busy with work for the accounting course I started in September, and we've had a new starter at work.

Even with everything else, I've still managed to find some time to craft! I completed my cowl in Sirdar Giselle. I really love how this turned out - Purse stitch was quite simple to pick up, and resulting in some fairly mindless knitting in front of the TV. Sewing it up was quite easy as well, especially compared to other recent projects! The copper flecks look great next to the blues, I just wish I could get a better photo of it.

And I've done some more work on the Wingspan shawl in King Cole Galaxy since this picture-I'm now on the 4th 'triangle'. I'm really liking how the colours are coming out on this, such a lovely subtle shade change. I'll try to post another pic soon showing the colours a bit better.

But the main thing I've been working on this week is the crocheted blanket. 120 squares. So far I've managed to get 30 squares sewn together (but forgot to take a photo, as I'm silly) and realised that I have a lot of ends to sew in once they're sewn together. If I ever decide to make another blanket like this again, remind me not to use black wool - it's driving me crazy!
Here's a poor picture of most of the squares... there's a lot more black than any other colour, and it makes me want to cry.

 

I'm aiming to get at least 6 squares sewn on each day, so it should hopefully be finished in a couple of weeks. But, you know what they say about good intentions and all that...

 

This weekend I really need to finish off my Sprite Stitch swap gift, which means getting the sewing machine out. I've got most of the weekend to myself, so may indulge in lots of craftyness (and square sewing)

 

The latest Crafty Creative Box arrived this week as well - I'll do a post on that next week hopefully, once everyone else has received theirs so that I don't accidently spoil the contents for anybody.

 

Final (slightly scary) thought for this post - I've been blogging for almost a year (My first post was 2nd Nov). It doesn't seem that long ago I started this nonsense!

 

CC Box 15

I'm pretty late posting this...

 

CC Box 15. I was pretty excited to receive my 3rd Crafty Creatives Box. What would it contain? What would this months theme be?

Here are the contents:

The theme was monochrome, in case it wasn't obvious!

The contents: FQ of monocrome fabric, a CC blank page notebook, art card, chalkboard clip, black and white headed pins, a graphite pencil, Stabilo Sensor pen, domino beads, polymer clay rose, teabag folding squares, some prints from Aubrey Beardsley and the CC kit - needle felting with black and white wool.

I must say, I really like the fabric, although I've not decided what I'll do with it, and the polymer rose and domino charms are pretty too. The pins will most likely come in handy when I decide what I'm doing with the fabric. The art card wasn't my cup of tea, and I'm not fussed about needle felting (although I have a friend who has wanted to have a go for ages, so she'll be having a play with the kit. I might give the tea bag folding a try, but doubt I'll make much use of the pen/pencil/doodle book as I'm not very artistic (I can draw Garfield eating a burger and that's about it!)

If I'm honest, this month's box didn't appeal to me greatly, which is a shame. My friend is happy though, as it means she can try needle felting out! You can't please everybody sadly, and I'm hoping next month's box will be a little bit more suited to me! Hopefully I'll be able to blog about it a bit sooner next time.

Wooooo!

I said I'd sort some photos out, and promise I will soon! But just wanted to say I've finished all of my granny squares! 120 granny squares in black, blue, green and 'flesh'. Now I just need to start fixing them all together...I do still have to tie in the ends of the 9 squares I did yesterday, but the actual squares are done, which is a great feeling :)

I also haven't said anything about the September Crafty Creatives box, hopefully that will be my next post.

Visit to the Black Sheep Wools

I feel like I haven't had much time to craft lately. I was away last weekend - 12 of us spent the weekend in 2 cabins at Sherwood Forest. It was brilliant! We did axe throwing, archery... and did quite a lot of relaxing in the outdoor hot tubs. Absolute bliss.

Before I went away, I went to an event at the Black Sheep Wools in Warrington. This is perhaps my favourite wool shop - they are always really friendly and helpful, and the yarn choice is amazing! Plus they have cross stitch supplies. The event was called "Behind the Scenes with the Sirdar Design team" and was fantastic. Upon arrival I was given a raffle ticket, glass of water (there was some lovely looking fizz but thought I'd better not as I was driving, and there was also orange juice - which I'm allergic to, so water it was!) and a goody bag. The goody bag was a lovely tote bag with the Sirdar brands on it, and inside was a new pattern book for the Giselle yarn, along with a pen and a retrostyled notebook.

They let everyone wander around the shop for a while, waiting for everyone to arrive, and then took us into a separate room in groups to learn more about the design team processes. It was really interesting to learn how the garments are designed and produced from start to finish and then photographed. There were some fantastic garments, and I fell in love with a jumper knitted in Giselle yarn. When other groups were in the room people were free to browse the shop and food was bought around by the staff (lovely sandwiches and nibbles). To end the evening, a raffle was drawn, and there were 2 lots of new Sirdar wool to be won. The whole evening was fantastic, and I'm hoping they do more events like this that I can make it to!

And yes, I did end up buying more yarn. Only 3 balls of Giselle in a beautiful blue/green colour though-and it has brown/copper sparkles in it, I couldn't resist! And some cross stitch supplies... And a new posh crochet hook... The Giselle is already on the needles, and I'm making the cowl from the pattern book using Purse Stitch, which is a new one for me. It's knitting up quickly and I'm excited to wear it already!

Poor photo, but you can see the copper sparkles! (I will start taking photos with a proper camera soon I promise - until then, I'll keep using the camera on my phone)

 

I will try to add some pics next week... but if you want to see the Black Sheep Wools, check out their website http://www.blacksheepwools.com/craft-barn

Lean, mean, crafting machine

I've been crafting. And not just crafting, but actually getting somewhere with things! I have started and completed projects. A fantastic feeling!

I'm going to start with a quick project I did the other weekend while the boyfriend was in Tenerife enjoying the sun

Knitted wristwarmers. With scales. A lovely pattern, which I bought from Craftymutt. Nice, easy knit and they feel lovely (I used Wendy Fusion yarn as it was cheap in my local yarn shop) I'm just waiting for the colder weather so I can get some use out of them! In case you're wondering, the right hand wristwarmer wasn't sewn up when I took the picture.

I also had a go at 'repurposing' some old jeans. These belonged to the bf, but they're too short for him.
I tried to make a bag, and think it turned out quite well for a first attempt!

I even managed to line it with my beautiful camper van fabric! If you saw my last post about the CratyCreatives box14, the 'belt' trim and studs on the right might look familiar.

The thing on the left is a beaded button I had lying around and I thought it would look nice on the bag.
The bag is a good size, nice and deep, and I'm planning to use the jeans pockets as bag pockets, rather than trying to add my own. The strap was made using one of the jean legs, and there's still plenty of denim left over for me to use in the future. Everything was sewn by hand, as I didn't dare use the sewing machine on denim.

I also managed to sew up the bolero I knitted up in April (I really don't know why I waited so long to sew it up - it was pretty easy!) and hopefully I'll have pictures of that to put up soon.

The granny squares are coming along nicely as well - I've done 103 so far, and need another 17 for the Lemming blanket (at least) Hopefully I'll get all the squares done this month, and then I'll have to put them all together somehow!

DWSAL - all the embroidered squares are finished! Now I just need to put them together into some quilt-like form... I have the materials, and now just need the time.

I'm glad I've had lots of crafting time recently - the next few weeks are looking hectic, and I've just started an accounting course for work so will have homework to do on top of everything else.

And it's the Sprite Stitch swap again, Sept - Oct! I've got the details for my swappee, and now need to come up with something cunning. I have a couple of ideas in mind so we'll see what happens!

Oh, and did I mention I've started my latest knitting project? Pics to come next time hopefully!