Jubilympics Summer Fashion
Posted in Fashion
You know how one new thing can pull your entire wardrobe together for a new season? I have my one thing. Summer 2012 BRING IT ON!
Track Stencil
Posted in Other Stuff
I was quite intreagued by this Hornby track stencil and charts that hubbie found with his old toy train set. The stencil helps model railway fans plan the layout of their railway. In my head it looks like a stencil for making minature quilts!
Monster High Cowls
Posted in Dolls, Knitting
Just designed and knitted a couple of little cowl patterns for Monster High dolls. The patterns are free on Ravelry.
Pottery Cafe Scribble Sheeps
Posted in Other Stuff
Just been to the local pottery cafe to pick up the sheep containers I painted last week. I’ve been worrying all week about the final results, but unwrapping these was a total treat. They were very different before glazing but look perfect now. Baa!
Sheep Scribbles
Posted in Other Stuff
This week I went to a pottery cafe for the first time to paint colourful decorative sheep on containers for my kitchen. As it was my first visit, I wasn’t sure how detailed I could be with the paints or how easy it would be to come up with some designs so I made some really simple preparatory scribbles at home first to get an idea of what I might want to paint.
I didn’t use any of these as the final design, but hope what I did do looks ok when I go and collect it because the paints didn’t look anything like how they will finally look after glazing so it was all guesswork. Although it was really good fun, I’m getting quite nervous about what I’ll get back!
Nice new cardigan
Posted in Knitting
I finished knitting this in August 2010 and it’s been waiting and waiting and waiting for buttons and poppers ever since. Finally sorted it all out and it’s the perfect warm cardigan for this crazy chilly May.
The threaded ribbon is a really cute detail, although the ribbon I’ve used isn’t stretchy so it pulled slightly uncomfortably and needs to be replaced with something with a little more give.
Black knitting doesn’t photograph very well so the cute pockets in the front don’t show up.
The pattern is Salem Hooded Jacket from New England Knits. This is the second successful cardigan I’ve knitted from the book and I would heartily recommend it.
Plastic Canvas WIP
Posted in Sewing
This is a WIP for a DPN storage facility. Currently all my little double pointed needles and crochet hooks live in a big tin and it takes ages to search for a set of the right size. These little squares will become boxes to hold differrent sizes and will sit on the rack on the back of my craft room door.
TM Lewin’s Window Display – Shirt Fabric Hot Air Balloons
Posted in Shopping
Spotted these sculptural cotton hot air balloons in the window of TM Lewin in Regent Street last week and had to stop and have a closer look. The balloons have little people in baskets made from shirt cuffs!
The window display is part of an annual project where architects design for shop window displays.
There’s a video about the Regent Street Windows Project on Youtube (the bit about the shirt balloons starts about 2:47)
Little Bear
Posted in Knitting
Just knitted up this little fellow for a friend’s new baby. The pattern is Bubby from Knitty. He’s a very happy little bear.
JiYO Residency at the Royal Festival Hall
Posted in Exhibitions
Today I was pottering about on the Southbank and discovered an exhibition of gorgeous Indian fabric in the Royal Festival Hall. The work is from JiYO, an organisation developing skilled artisans and innovative design in rural communities in India.
The exhibition includes beautiful, colourful sweeping lengths of ikat and batik fabric, as well as woven art and demonstrations of craft skills. One artisan was demonstrating her spinning skills on this wheel.
There’s an interesting video about JiYO on youtube if you want to know more.
Cross Stitch Your Favourite Places
Posted in Sewing
Google Street Map has gone 8bit for April Fool’s Day. Brilliant! Instant cross stitch charts for your favourite buildings! Screengrab and stitch.
Knitting with Mrs Weasley
Posted in Knitting
If you go and see the Harry Potter sets at the new attraction at Leavesden studios, the set for the Weasley house includes interactive knitting where you wiggle the leaver and the knitting knits. Nice.
Llama Bites
Posted in Food & Cooking
Move over sheep, this week it’s all about llamas – edible sweet chilli flavoured llamas. Hubbie found them in the supermarket and cheerfully presented me with a packet. They’re not to hot, just tangy and they are shaped like tiny llamas. Joy!
They appear to be made by actual llamas which is exciting, mad angry llamas in a kitchen creating snacks. I need to try the other flavours, although I suspect sweet chilli will continue to be the best.
Biting bits off llamas is even more comedy than biting bits off gingerbread peeps. Best snack ever.
Slim Fit Stripe Mitt
Posted in Knitting
Slim Fit Stripe Mits are knitted in the round and designed for slender hands.
All the shaping is worked at the beginning and ends of the rounds so it’s very easy to add or subtract some stitches when you cast on for a better fit, if your gauge swatch indicates you need them.
I haven’t had this pattern tested so please let me know if you have any problems with it and I’ll try and help.
Fit
13-17cm wrist circumference
16-20cm round the knuckles at the base of the fingers
Gauge
18 St x 30 rows in 10cm square of stockingette stitch
Ingredients
2 balls of Sirdar Snuggly Smiley Stripes 50g/95m
Set of 3mm dpns
Stitch markers
Safety pin or stitch holder
Recipe
Cast on 38 stitches and divide over 3 needles.
Work 12 rounds: k1, p1 rib
Knit 8 rounds
Next round: ktog, k to last 2 st, ssk (36st)
Work 25 rounds in stocking stitch
Thumb Gusset
Round 1: k2, m1, pm, knit to last 2 st, pm, m1, knit to end. (38 st)
Round 2 and 3: knit
Round 4: knit to marker, m1, slip marker, knit to second marker, slip marker, m1, k to end. (40 st)
Round 5 and 6: knit
Repeat round 4 (42st)
Knit 5 rounds
Knit 5st, slip those 5 stitches and the last 5 stitches (the 10 stitches between the markers) onto a stitch holder. Continue working in the round on the remaining 32 stitches.
Hand
Knit 15 rounds
Next round: k2tog, k to last 2 st, ssk.
Knit 2 rounds
Work 4 rounds: k1, p1 rib
Cast off.
Thumb
Arrange the 10 thumb stitches on three dpns. Rejoin yarn and knit across all stitches, picking up 2 stitches along the base of the hand. (12st).
Working in the round, knit 5 rounds.
Work 4 rounds: k1, p1 rib
Cast off.
Jonna Bobble Scarf
Posted in Knitting
This weekend I organised my big pile of UFO’s*, frogged lots and decided which ones I actually wanted to finish knitting. There’s quite a lot as I can’t resist the temptation to cast on new projects. First off the pile and off the needles is Jonna, a scarf with stuffed bobbles designed by Norah Gaughan. I was going to make it longer but I ran out of yarn and was worried the bobbles would dangle between my knees and make me walk funny.
*Unfinished objects
Ribbon Hooks for Towels
Posted in Sewing
So this isn’t the most thrilling bit of crafting ever, but every towel in the house now has a little ribbon hook so that it will hang on a hook on the back of the door, rather than in a big wet heap on the floor.
The ribbons were little random bits reclaimed from presents and the ends of Christmas crackers that were too small to do anything else useful with. If you’re using a dark ribbon on white towels, wash ribbon first to check the colour doesn’t run.
All I need now is hooks on the back of the door…
Sheep Lampshade
Posted in Sewing
Do ewe like my new lampshade? Made it this morning from a kit and some sheep print cotton. It’s going to be part of a mismatched pair of bedside lamps.
We are so blessed to be living in a time when brightly coloured sheep have come from space to give us more colourful yarn than people used to have in the olden days.
Et Voila Voiles
Posted in SewingToday has mostly been about putting up new bedroom curtains and joyfully getting rid of the horrible ones which our predecessors left behind.
Making curtains is easy because it’s just sewing in straight lines. For the curtains, I literally just folded the selvege over once at the sides and sewed, then folded over the top and sewed the header tape on it.
The last job wil be to hem the bottoms, but the curtains need to be hanging on the pole before I decide how long each one should be as the ceiling, window frames are not quite level. The poles had to be positioned to look fairly even but are not. If I’d hemmed the curtains to identical lengths before hanging, they might not look even, so better to do it afterwards.
The new voiles were even easier. These were pre-made (from Rectella which is an amusing company name) and because they were too long they also needed hemming. As they had lovely professional hems at the bottom, it made much more sense to preserve the hem. I chopped the tops off and just folded them over and sewed a narrow channel for the curtain wire.
Lampshade Tool vs Bronze Age Flint Arrowheads
Posted in Museums
A while ago on a trip to the British Museum, I spotted these flint arrowheads which (despite the fuzzy photo) look just like the little tool we used to make lampshades at a class I took at the Make Lounge. Friend E who knows what she’s talking about informed me that Bronze age folk were probably not using them to make lampshades as they have been found inside people, so were more likely to be weapons.
Lampshade making is a little bit fiddly though, so perhaps the frustration of making a whole set of shades for every home in the settlement might cause one to just give up, go crazy and eat the tools. We’ve all been there.
Chloe Owens at Spitalfields Market
Posted in Exhibitions
Spotted this mini exhibitionette by embroiderer Chloe Owens in the window of Jigsaw in Spitalfields Market. The embroidered portraits are particularly stunning and well worth popping along to see if you’re in the area.
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