Saturday 31 December 2011

T-shirt bag tutorial

Right so you will need:

  • A sewing machine or needle and thread
  • scissors
  • Pins for tacking (if needed)
  • An old t-shirt
Step one: Cut off the sleeves of the t-shirt even if it is a short sleeved one. 

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Step two: It should look like this
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Step Three: Depending on the design on the t-shirt cut either a long 'V' or a 'V' with a bar at the bottom on both sides of the t- shirt
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Come back next time for the rest of the tutorial  x

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Crayon art


For those of you on pintrest (I'm not actually because I have stumble and tumblr and really don't feel the need) but any way here is my attempt at crayon art hope you enjoy!

This is how I arranged the crayons
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And this is what it looked like after 20 mins with the hair dryer!
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Thursday 8 December 2011

Crafty update

So I have been home for a couple of days now and look what I have achieved; the embroidery I did a bit whilst at uni but forgot about it for the most part but quickly finished it last night. I then got the crafty bug after I went to Hobby craft (Wolverhampton).





 I bought the kit for the Doll which was really easy to make but I had to learn Blanket stitch and I used this video on my phone to learn how to do it:
here is the finished product:

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Ch- ch -ch-check it out!


Here is the hat that I finished a couple of days ago its a really simple stitch and I think pretty effective, inspired by 1970's fair isle yokes x


Pattern:
CO in the round in an even number of stitches enough to fit your head
P1, K4 all the way round
repeat until desired length
*Stay in the P1, K4 pattern count* 10 stitches then Co2  repeat until end
P1,K4 to end
 Repeat from * to * and every other row count one less stitch until you Have about 10 left and then draw all your stitches together
Any clarification just ask I know those instructions are rubbish x

Friday 25 November 2011

Abakahn

I went to Abakahn a wool and fabric shop in Hanley the other day to get some fleece because it came to my attention that Pipin loves it so I have made her a little bag to play around in. Whilst I was in the shop I noticed that they sell bags of machine thread for £5 so I bought one here's what I got in it. Not bad hey?? Next to it is the fabric that I chose, I went to the market in Hanley first but they only had a red tartan fleece material and I didn't like the look of it tbh.
  Bobbins
Here is the finished product I was going to make a tutorial but I didn't measure or make it that neatly and I ended up going to A+E in the middle of making it up because I managed to sewing machine through my finger :/.  
For p

Saturday 19 November 2011

Painting the sky

So here it is my attempt at expresive painting I have tried to create a painting that expresses my time at university. its suposed to be a sunrise/ sunset like the begginig of a new era and the end of another.


Sunday 6 November 2011

Second ever commission:

I got asked by one of my uni mates to knit her a rose for a cardigan that she has she wanted a brooch so that she could pin it together because it didn't have any buttons here is the finished object:




Here is the back showing how I attached the pin and what pin I used:

Friday 28 October 2011

Cowl design

Here is the cowl that I recently knitted at uni, I got the yarn (some kind of faux mohair but it didn't have a tag on it) at a charity shop for £1.50!!!



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Please excuse the outfit I was painting (see future post lol)

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her it is wrapped around its very warm


Use big needles I used 8mm

Pattern:

CO 24
knit
BO


Its that simple!!

Sunday 23 October 2011

Top 10 for knitting designers

Just a few tips for the budding designer out there from the point of view of a knitter;
1. Keep small things to simple stitches- If its hat and below in size I don't want to be doing anything more complicated than k, p, k2tog, p2tog and m1.
2. Knit it up in a nice but neutral colour- like beige, earthy browns and greens, or blue (unless of course the point of it is, that it is a specific colour).
3. Photo any garments on either yourself or someone so people know what its like on people and not on the floor.
4. Provide good photos of any details that appear on the item.
5. Provide a step by step tutorial on your blog or just blog about how you came up with the idea and how you knitted up the item this all helps when people are looking for things to knit.
6. Have a blog/ Ravelry page/ Etsy site- get yourself known !
7. Think about your audience- is a 90 year old going to wear a caplet?
8. How are you going to make your pattern available blog, PDF?
9. Don't start off charging for patterns and give some away for free when you do start charging.
10. Don't just copy experiment x

This is just a compilation of my opinion and nothing else its not a guarantee that if you follow these rules you'll become the next Kaffe Fasset but its just a few things that I have observed from my own buying habits. x

Saturday 22 October 2011

Day 30 - Favourite knitted item that some else has knitted

I have the most amazing hat that I once bought when I was on holiday in Estonia (pictures soon)

Esty shop
I have added my Etsy shop on the the side of the page however I'm not at the moment selling anything all the items are what I have favourited but feel free to have a look there are some amazing items on there (even if I do say so myself). Hopefully I will be soon selling things that I have made from recycled/ upcycled materials so keep looking!

Thursday 20 October 2011

Day 29- Do you have any tips?

Yes I do here is my top 10 just for knitters I will also post a top 10 for designers at some point too;
1.Sign up to Ravelry
2. Start off buying needles from charity shops- or free off the front of magazines
3. Buy cheap acrylic yarn until you know what your doing- it comes in really bright colours too
4. Read as many blogs as possible (including this one of course ;) )
5. You can get thousands of patterns for free!!
6. Patience- Frog it baby!
7. Not every one has to knit socks|!
8. You are only as good as your knitting hero
9.Practice- continue to push your self
10.It can be as small and as big as you want to make it just make sure its going to come out the size you want it to be by doing a tension square especially on big projects like jumpers etc.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Vintage finds



So this is what I got at the vintage fair a couple of weeks ago, (I apologise for the lateness and quality of these photos) any who here is the cardigan that I got for £7. It isn't strictly vintage because it has those bits of ribbon that they put in to keep items of clothing on coat hangers which they obviously didn't put on clothes until the 90's.

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Below is a close of of the scalloping on the cuffs of the cardigan and you can just tell slightly that there is a little ribbing on the scalloping as well. If any one can tell me where it originally came from i would be grateful x

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Underneath is a picture of the vintage material that I found I intend to make bags out of it at my sewing class that I take on a Tuesday morning. Hope you like it x
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Tuesday 4 October 2011

Day 27- How do you acquire most of your yarn/ vintage show

Most of my yarn is from either charity shops in Cannock or Lichfield or from the market in Cannock if I have to make a special purchase I always look at Kemps wool shop on-line first:  Kemps I don't know how they manage it but they always seem to have what I want on offer !

Here are the pictures from the vintage fair that I went to at the Fat Cat Club in Hanley :
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A lovely woman who I saw in the line going in
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A stall holder who loves Hello Kitty just as much as I do
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Her nommy things a lot of which I wanted to buy but I had no money
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Tomorrow I shall show you what I bought x

Sunday 25 September 2011

Day 26- Where do you keep your knitting notes

 This is my current and still my first ever knitting notebook. I got it from WH Smiths about 4 years ago and it has served me very well, below is a typical page because I usually have to write out the pattern or quite a lot of it  because I cant just work it out in my head when a pattern does the * thing  or when it says reverse stitches that's just too complicated. When I knit I like to be able to watch TV and anything that doesn't allow  re- runs of Come Dine With Me isn't not going to get knit.

Monday 19 September 2011

Day 25- Have you ever made your own pattern or dyed your own yarn?

I always change the yarn in a pattern that I am doing or I make it easier lol, but I have never dyed my own yarn because I'm not advanced enough to warrant doing something like that but I suspect that in the future I will go into that x

Saturday 17 September 2011

Day 24- What project would you start today?

I would say that it would have to be  owls jumper by Kate Davies I have the yarn but am already knitting a jumper which I WILL finish this year.  Here is a picture of owls:
I just love that detailing!


Friday 16 September 2011

Day 23- Have you ever taken someone of your knit for list?

I almost took my cousin off it (before he was born ) because my aunt had promised them a hat before I offered to make one for him. However, once I saw him I just felt like he needed a Brain monster hat, like ye: Brain monster hat. Today I was a bit bored and I needed some where to store my coppers so I made a bottle bank (lol) x

Saturday 10 September 2011

Day 22- Do you knit for friends and family

I do a lot here are some examples x I knitted this for my mum her middle name is rose so I thought it appropriate: DSCF0369 I have knit two of these for my friends babies and am about to knit 2 more: IMG00272-20110611-2014 I knit this for my dad 2009_0718julyblog0005 And I knit this for my bezzie at uni :) panda

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Day 21- What are the reactions to you knitting in public?

I have a wide variety of responses to me knitting because I am considered to be a young woman and young women in England are perceived to be mostly pregnant criminals, I am neither of these things. Some people give me a confused almost dissaproving look, others come over and ask what I am doing (what project) and some tell me about their own knitting past. I love people to come over and talk to me I don't however like it when people come over and tell me to stop knitting because of my age. I was in a charity shop once and some woman started an argument with me because she wouldn't believe that I could knit and she said that I shouldn't even if I could! To prove I can look at the picture below! Any way here is the scarf that I knitted (the very first thing that I ever knitted) and I didn't like it as a scarf I hadn't fringed it or anything so I sewed it together as a mobius strip and I now use it as a snood x Here is a picture: snood

Monday 5 September 2011

Day20- What do like to knit to?

I usually knit in front of the TV very rarely whilst listening to music and even rarer in silence. I like the TV on mainly because it feel like there is someone else there its company. Today I spent about 20 mins trying to get the sticky things off the back of bottle caps until i gave up to look for ideas on the internet and found out that adding heat to them would have helped. If anyone wants the list of sites that I looked at feel free to mail me and I will email you them (there are 25).

Sunday 4 September 2011

Day 19- Have you ever had a project ruined that you loved?

I haven't to be honest if my projects haven't turned out right its because I haven't done them very well, like made a mistake or sewn them up wrong. I was witness to a terrible knitting accident. I was at my knit meeting with all my lovely ladies and Mrs G was crocheting something for another member of the group and we ordered some drinks I ordered a Hot Chocolate and the waiter spilt it all over the item that she was making and all our books on the table. Needless to say we didn't see that particular waiter for quite a while in fact he's only just started to come over again x

Saturday 3 September 2011

Day 18- Have you ever had any knitting related injuries?

I wouldn't say knitting, I usually prick myself when sewing things up cos its at the point at which I'm not concentrating. Today I did some organising as a usual knitter does I have accrued many knitting needles and sorted them out. I have a knitting app in which I can 'stash' all my needles, hooks, wool, projects, and it even works as a counter although I prefer hand tallys and pencil. Before the sort: DSCF0482 After the sort: DSCF0481

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Day 17-least favourite pattern and why?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/winter-warmer-3
I did look at this pattern but when just looking at something gives you shivers down your spine you want to run away and hide!

I added some more storage to my room at home (I had originally bought it for uni but then I moved rooms and didn't need it any more). On the top level there is a hello kitty but its mostly for DK yarn then fancy yarn and WIP's below that, other crafts that I do and then on the bottom all the knit notions that I have (lol)
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Here is the bottle tops and ring pulls that I have collected to make jewellery with its only taken me a couple of week's but that's because I make sure that I only upcyle (like picking them off the ground, or getting them from friends) rather than buying them.

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Wednesday 24 August 2011

Day 16- Worst yarn you have every used

Well I love the colour and texture of the yarn but its really difficult to judge any kind of gauge for it. I am talking about Sirdar pom pom its lovely but trying to work out how much of it is going to make a square big enough to cover a cushion is just annoying. x

Knitwear is really coming into fashion this autumn with loads of high street stores stocking up on weird and wonderful jumpers and cardigans i particularly like this one form top shop : href="http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag&catalogId=33057&storeId=12556&productId=2588089&langId=-1&sort_field=Relevance&categoryId=208525&parent_categoryId=203984&pageSize=20&refinements=Colour{1}~[green]&noOfRefinements=1">

Monday 22 August 2011

Day 14 - Yarn that you love but cant find a project for

I have lots of the fluffy stuff that hobby craft sold off (pictures coming soon) in pink, purple, blue and like a greeny grey which I just don't know what to use it for. I don't have enough for a jumper so i think perhaps something like a stole/cowl type thing. Well see I'm sure.


Here is a picture of the business cards that I have just had done for my group (www.vistaprint.com). I apologise for the quality of the photo it really doesn't do them justice but they will be handy to give to people as I tend to get talking to randomers in the street.
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Tuesday 16 August 2011

Day 13- Where do you keep your stash / Yarn Gathering

My stash is kept in my room (messily) here are some pictures: It looks a bit worse than it is promise!!


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I went to stone today to have a look in Yarn Gathering in Stone which is a lovely shop run by a lovely and very helpful woman you can find information on her on Ravelry. Also go and see her! She gave me the posters and I bought some Noro and hand dyed wool form her to make some cute flowers for my new bag which I have fallen in love with. (Its from Asda and is half price x)


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Sunday 14 August 2011

Day 12- do you have a knitting hero?

I don't really have any one person who I look to, to inspire me to knit. I suppose my group are the most inspirational mainly because they have much busier lives and still manage to knit and crochet 10 times more than I do. They have truly incorporated knitting and just crafting in general in to their lives along with children and stressful jobs and I hope that in the future I wont loose my ability to keep crafting because life over takes me.


Friday 12 August 2011

Day 11- Fave pattern or designer / other crafty stuff

I don't really have a favourite pattern I suppose the one that I have done the most is either the:brain monster hat http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/brainmonster or the official kittyville hat http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/official-kittyville-hat which is in the first stitch and bitch book.

MY favourite designer would probably have to be Susie Johns: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitted-Fruit-Twenty-Susie-Johns/dp/1844485404/ref=pd_ys_qtk_wl_img?ie=UTF8&coliid=I34VO5TIVN0FRR&colid=1Y3EZ96YNV754&pf_rd_p=217325491&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=home&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1BDZXQQBHY4G04FAHMJE . She contributes a lot to Lets Knit magazine and I just love her work and all the available pictures of her house look amazing!


Here is the canvas and paints that I will be using to paint a picture that I have been meaning to do for ages hopefully you can just see the outline but I haven't finished yet
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Wednesday 10 August 2011

Day 10- fave fiber or yarn

Well I tend to knit most things in acrylic yatns as its usually a toy or a small gift for one of my cousins. So Hayfeild bonus DK or anything like that is good, if im feeling more adventourous (spelling??) Then I really like the feel of the Sirdar Peru that I am using for my cardigan although I am lead to believe that it is now discontinued. (Links to come)

Ring Pulls

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So I went to take my sisters dog for a walk and on the way I took all the ring pulls off the cans that I saw. I got 21 ring pulls and a whole can of Carlsberg, that I ended up pouring away even though it was well in date, and so I had 22 ring pulls in the end. I hope to make these bracelets.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Day 9- most challenging project


The cardigan that I am attempting at the moment is probably the most challenging, because even though I can do all the different elements putting them all together and in such a large item (not saying I'm fat just that its bigger than a bag or a toy).
Here is the link on the Ravelry database: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/design-b---cabled-hoodie-with-zip-or-buttons



Day 8- least fave project


My least fave project is probably the one I named Egor he was supposed to be a Bagpuss that had been designed by Alan Dart. I knitted him perfectly but it should have taken ages to sew him up but I was so enthused with the fact that I had finished him and it had taken me about a year, that I sewed him up without a care in the world and well it ended badly.


Day 7-Favourite Project





This is probably my favourite project because its the first thing that I knitted that actually looked like what it was supposed to. It was also the first thing that I gave away I'm sure its in a landfill some where but at the time he was given he was appreciated I'm su

Day 6- Fave place to knit

The place that I most sit and knit is in my living room at home in front of the TV. (Picture later)
I would probably like to knit in my own studio room when I'm older x

Day 5- How long did it take from your time of learning to finishing your first project?


Well basically how I learnt like I said in the previous post was that I was following the instructions from the book "Yeah I made it myself!" to make the garter stitch scarf and here it is x

Day 4- How did you learn?

Well I saw a friend doing it at school and I got very jealous of her ability (she was making a fair isle plant pot holder for mothers day). Any way my Gran had tried and it was the usual throw it across the room scenario so I got a book called "Yeah I made it myself" and learnt slowly from that whilst making my scarf at the same time (its one of the projects in there).

Day 3- Why have you chosen these WIP's?

During term time I forget to take time to knit and so I tend to do nothing or very little so during the summer I get the knitting bug again and want to knit anything and everything the WIP's that I have chosen are to do with the wool that I already own and so I don't have to spend much more money x

Day 2- What is your WIP? (work in progeress)

I have a couple of things on at the moment I have a cable jumper being knit with Sirdar Peru.

Here is the link for that:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/design-b---cabled-hoodie-with-zip-or-buttons


Then I'm trying to do a cushion cover with can can yarn but I can't seem to understand with how to do Stocking Stitch with the can can, it really doesn't seem to work but here is the link here:


http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/can-can-cushion-cover


Finally I'm frogging another project that I tried to do with Sirdar YO YO (earlier in the blog) to do something else with it however the yarn really isn't supposed to be frogged to re-knit because of the fact that its a boucle yarn that and I was rubbish at knitting back then. Here is the link to the new project that I am going to do;

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/yogi-2


Today has been really good I went to school and got on with my day, found out that the teachers really like me and I asked for them to write a short reference. Miss A told me that she is happy to be a referee for me and I'm well happy about that. In my spare month and a half I think that I am going to research setting up a business or working for another. Keeping busy this summer has really helped me I feel finally like I am achieving :)

Day 1 - what was your first finished project

It was like most people who learn how to knit a garter stitch scarf it was purple and somewhere on my blog , towards the start. ( I shall edit if I remember and put a picture up). I still own it although I do have to say that I have never worn it although I will make concerted efforts to when I go back to uni in sep as in stoke it gets very cold.

Any way I'm going to my sisters this afternoon and I have no idea if I shall be able to use the Internet or not so starting another 30 day challenge may be a bad idea but never mind!