Maybe just one more…?

Despite having many MANY projects on the go, I couldn’t quite resist picking up just one more.

I can’t recall how I first discovered Awesome Pattern Studio. I think a friend may have done one of the cityscape designs, or the local yarn shop posted about their stock of different designs, or maybe I came across them when perusing various online craft shops. However it may be, I have always liked the designs and found myself tempted despite never having done cross stitch before (except perhaps a small kit when I was a child). I’ve always told myself I really don’t need to start another craft, and just enjoyed looking at the designs online.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about things to keep the boys occupied at home and the local yarn shop posted about kids craft kits. We’d all just enjoyed watching the Sewing Bee, and Pumpkin was doing a little sewing project as part of his schoolwork, so I thought they might enjoy a little cross stitch kit each. I enquired with the shop, but sadly the designs the boys had chosen were no longer available, so I abandoned the idea. Only, I found myself coming back to it again and the boys were still keen, so we looked on Etsy for something similar. They ended up choosing the Drama Llama and the Snuggle Monster cat designs from Ellbie co.

So since they were getting lovely cross stitch kits, I figured it was only right that I have a project to work alongside them so I could learn too and be on hand to help them should they need it.

Helllooooo Awesome Pattern Studio!

The kits arrived and I spent a few hours quizzing my cross-stitching friend for tips, and perusing ‘FlossTube’ (apparently that’s a thing for cross stitchers on YouTube!) to learn how to get started and then together we jumped right in.

The boys kits are quite advanced for them – I didn’t realise til we unpacked them that they’re suggested for 14+ – but both of them seem to have got the hang of reading the pattern and making the stitches, so I think they’ll be fine as long as they keep working on them.

And mine? I absolutely love it. It’s easy to pick up and put down, but kind of addictive too. I can just do a few stitches, or sit for hours! It’s got a pull to it because I’m enjoying seeing the shapes emerge and the way the colours play together, and it’s weirdly soothing and meditative, which is exactly the kind of project I need right now.

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Knitting a baby blanket at the start of lockdown was great as it really gave me something to focus on and keep me emotionally and mentally level. Since then, my creativity has been all over the place as I’ve struggled to focus on any one thing for very long. That’s not to say I haven’t been creative, it’s just that it’s been channelled in so many different directions that I don’t have much in the way of anything finished to show for it.

We’ve made some progress with our study, which we’ve been working on for about 3 years now! Mr Jack is using it full time for work now, but at least he has a good desk to use. We’ve also put up a bookcase in there which is intended to house as much of my crafty stuff as possible, sewing machines, fabric, notions, yarn, knitting and anything else you can think of.

Speaking of sewing, the boys and I enjoyed watching the Sewing Bee together this year, and as a result I’ve started following more sewists on Instagram, and discovered The Fold line website and its related Facebook group which is such a helpful resource.

I have lots of fabric lined up for various projects which have never quite made it to the cutting board. I’m hoping I might work my way through a few of them, but it’s hard to find the space to lay everything out when everyone needs the table for school work and activities and family meal times.

I have managed to produce a pair of Hudson pants which, while far from perfect (they may yet make their way back to the sewing machine for some alterations) have been a welcome addition to my lockdown wardrobe. Next up will be an Ogden cami using a black and green rayon challis.

I have of course also made a few face masks, but need to churn out a few more now that they’ve been made compulsory in shops here from next week.

I’ve enjoyed watching a few gentle TV programmes, including The Repair Shop where professional craftspeople lovingly restore precious family heirlooms and items of sentimental value to their owners. And I’ve taken inspiration from Your Home Made Perfect, where two architects use virtual reality to showcase their designs for the remodelling of people’s homes.

I’ve been learning how to use SketchUp, a computer aided design programme, which will be useful to me for my job, but has proved brilliant for helping me redesign my living room, for which I’ve had ideas rumbling round my head for a couple of years now, but have previously been unable to pin down to a coherent overall plan. It’ll be another long term project to get it all done, but we’ve already started working on it.

Then there’s the kitchen. We’re not making any drastic changes, just adding in one new drawer unit and moving an under-counter shelf unit around, but it’s been anything but straightforward to do. Why is it that the jobs you think will be easy almost never are!?

There’s been homeschooling and school related projects, growing veggies, planning woodworking projects, (I miss work and power tools!) and Pumpkin is desperate to build a go kart.

Amongst all of these, and other projects I have still been knitting, very slowly, a pair of socks for Pumpkin, the pattern for which had been in my Ravelry queue for several years. This week I finally cast them off, completed the detailing and sewed all the ends in. It does feel good to finish something!

 

 

Overwhelmed

I’ve been thinking about writing here recently. Right now, I could write this exact post all over again – Knit therapy

Life is all just a bit overwhelming right now. Mostly it’s good, very good, but very full and busy.

Last week we were on holiday in Cornwall, which was honestly the best holiday I’ve had in a long while and the most relaxed I’ve been for ages. We enjoyed seeing a different part of the country, and Cornwall is truly beautiful.

The boys being that little bit older now, we were able to get out and do some slightly more adventurous things together – long walks, a 20 mile bike ride and even a spot of parkrun tourism. We spent lazy afternoons crabbing in the harbours and eating fish and chips and fudge at the beach.

We nosed around craft shops and art galleries. I even found a yarn shop, though it was closed when we got there. The cottage we stayed in was lovely, spacious yet cosy, in a beautiful location. I really felt like I had space and time to breathe and relax. I read a whole book while we were there – Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.

Coming home, with a return to clutter and chaos and a busy week of work and activities felt overwhelming and oppressive. I forget how therapeutic crafting can be, yet somehow it’s also part of the heavy weight of physical and mental clutter. I have so many projects half done, half abandoned, half intended, waiting in the wings for the right time or the right tools or the right space. I end up in a brain fog where I can’t get motivated to do anything at all, but just waste any free moments scrolling idly, uselessly through my phone instead, finding inspiration without motivation, ideas but no decisions. But yesterday I picked up some knitting that I hadn’t touched in months. I only added a few rows, but it felt good.

Good times!

I do enjoy Christmas. The run up is always a little crazy with school nativities and activities, parties, planning and shopping, decorating, preparing and wrapping. I’ve had rehearsals for two different shows as well as taking part in my church carol service – learning the harmonies for various carols has been a particular highlight!

I also ended up with various creative projects on the go too. Along with the apron for my nephew which I showed you last time…

There was a fair isle hearts hat for my niece. I used the TinCanKnits Clayoquot Toque pattern as the starting point, but changed it up with a folded brim and my own design for the hearts.

And a wheat bag for my sister in law, which I made from a little corduroy skirt I found in a charity shop. I used my mum’s sewing machine to sew it – she’s got an all singing, all dancing Janome machine that took a little getting used to, but sewing machine aspirations right there! – and filled it with wheat and homegrown lavender.

There’s also been a fair amount of baking. Vanilla shortbread and slightly experimental apple and cinnamon cupcakes with caramel buttercream (I’ll be making those again!). My first ever meringue kisses made in a hurry to use up some egg whites before we went away for a few days, and my first ever Christmas pudding which fed the family on Christmas Day.

Fortunately, Christmas itself is a time to chill out and spend time relaxing with family and generally not doing too much except eat and wash up and eat some more and keep the kids entertained!

When we travel up to spend time with my family, Mr Jack and I like to spend time on the journey reflecting on the year past. It’s been a good one, with lots of things falling into place following the last couple of years of upheaval with house hunting, moving, school uncertainties etc. The boys are well settled at their new school, and we feel better rooted in our new house and town. I’ve surprisingly become a runner over the last year. I’m loving parkrun, and though I didn’t quite officially meet my target of a sub-30 minute 5k parkrun by Christmas, I have done sub-30 training runs and I’m not far off that at parkrun. I’ve also shed nearly 2 and a half stone thanks to Slimming World. I aimed to be at target by Christmas and was just a couple of pounds away. Technically that’s within the target range anyway, so I’ll call it a win! I feel very boring going on about food and pounds but ultimately I feel so much better for having done it and just for me!

I’ve been involved in some great theatre this year too and am so excited for what’s lined up for next year already. My first turn in  Shakespeare in February followed by a fun musical in March and then I’m booked to see both Harry Potter and Hamilton in London during April.

Then of course there’s also Unravel in Feb and the Knitting and Stitching show in March too. Plenty to be looking forward to.

For now though, I’m going to enjoy a few more days of food and family and a chance to not do much. Maybe I’ll manage to get this second crazy sleeve done before the year is out. Now that would be an achievement!

 

Collective crafting

Tonight I had an impromptu craft evening with my best friend and fellow craft enthusiast.

We had a lovely chilled out evening, listening to music and chatting over her dining  table; me with my knitting, and her on the sewing machine. Check out the cute cupcake pouch she made for me!

I took my cardigan and we looked at the sleeve length and decided it needs a couple more rows before the cuff. I should be able to get that done in the next couple of days as long as I don’t get distracted, (I may have cast on another colourwork hat…) and then on to the second sleeve. The end is surely in sight now!

I’ve even done quite well out of the evening. She’s tried knitting and crochet, but sewing is definitely her forte, so she handed me a bag of the most gorgeous alpaca fluff to finish off a scarf she’d been working on, and to knit her a matching hat! Lucky me!

Treasure Trove

A random comment I noticed on a Facebook group last night sent me off on a treasure hunt this morning. It mentioned a fabric shop I’d never heard of, just a short drive from where I live. I’ve been on the lookout for some cheap knit fabric so I can practise the Renfrew top pattern I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show, before I let myself loose on the spensive fabric I bought with it.

The fabric shop itself was much smaller than I’d hoped and didn’t carry a vast amount of stock. Most of it was printed cottons suitable for quilting, but I did find an end-of-roll offcut of a pink floral-printed jersey. I didn’t measure it, but it was only three quid, so I bought it anyway and hope it might be enough for a first crack at a Renfrew.

The treasure was to be found in the adjacent barn. It hosts a selection of small businesses, almost like a small indoor market – vintage clothes, art and papercraft supplies, a small haberdashery, a petfood stall, fruit and veg, even a yarn shop, but the crown was the most amazing Aladdins Cave of a cake decorating supplier. They stocked just about everything you could possibly want for cake decorating – tools, toppers, food colourings, fondant icing, edible glitter, boxes, cake boards, stands, and a huge selection of cake tins for hire. I know where I’ll be heading next time I need some serious cake supplies, and it’s much nearer than the place I used to go to!

I think I’ll have to keep looking for a good local fabric shop. I discovered a great one a few weeks ago when I visited a friend and her yarn shop in Essex, but sadly that can hardly be considered local! Still, if you’re in the vicinity of Braintree in Essex, Blake House Craft Centre is definitely worth a mooch. They have a whole range of shops there though I’ve only been in two of them myself. And Sew On stocks a wide variety of fabrics and haberdashery supplies. I could have lost hours in there and left with a considerably lighter purse had I been in the mood for indulging. Just next door is my friend’s shop Sconch, which is just yarn heaven. It carries probably the biggest range of yarn types I’ve ever found in a single yarn shop. They have a great space for running Craft and Cake sessions several days a week. The staff were friendly and helpful. They also run an online shop which I’ve ordered from in the past and they have excellent customer service. I’d definitely recommend stopping by if you can.

I’m resisting buying any yarn at the moment as I have several projects lined up already, but I couldn’t come away completely empty handed, so I bought these cute stitch markers.

What’s your local yarn or fabric shop like? Have you ever come across a crafty treasure trove?

Spring Knitting and Stitching Show

I had something else in the pipeline to post about, but I fell off my shoes at a rehearsal the other day and injured my wrist, which has put both crafting and typing about it slightly out of the picture for a few days. It’s nearly better now, so I’m just popping in to say I’m off to the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at London Olympia this weekend, and having just perused the website, I’m now rather excited about it. I hope I’ll remember to take a few photos while I’m there this time. Is anyone else going? Do say hi.

In the meantime I’ll just drop this little teaser of what I’ve been up to recently. The stripes have been temporarily abandoned!

ALL the crafts.

Why is it that when there is stuff you really *should* be doing, like, y’know, packing and cleaning your entire house, sorting, sifting and culling vast amounts of junk and generally getting ready to move house, THAT’s when you most want to just do ALL the crafting?

I’m slowly working on my Stripes Gone Crazy. I’m almost down to the first colour change, which is exciting stuff. I’m not 100% convinced my sizing is quite right – it seems like it might come out a little narrow at the shoulders, but I’m not quite sure, so of course I’m just ploughing on regardless. I haven’t quite figured out the problem of not having quite enough yarn yet either, but I think I can contact the seller I bought it from at some point when I’m more sure what I need.

I had a great conversation over lunch with a friend the other day, who is just getting started on crochet. I think she’s already a perfectly competent knitter, but she wanted a bit of advice on a new project which I was only too happy to help her with. I ended up coming home and immediately casting on (would you say casting on for crochet? Looping on?) a hat for her little man. She actually wanted booties for him, but they can be part of a set, right!?

I’m also hankering after a sewing project or two now. I cracked my sewing machine out briefly in the summer to do a couple of mending jobs. Firstly I searched high and low to find a new backpack for a trip I was taking and couldn’t find anything that was quite what I was looking for, so I fixed up the tear in the top of my old one. Good as new!  Then I repaired a couple of worn patches in some jeans. I used iron on patches for one area, but got a little more creative on a hole in the pocket.

I placed a small patch behind the fabric and did some long stitches in zigzags to hold it together. It’s not the neatest thing ever, but I quite like the look of it.

I’m not sure how much longer this pair of jeans will hold up for though, and honestly, trying to find some new trousers or jeans that I like and actually fit me well is proving to be a tough and tedious job. I’m pretty sure I’ve tried on around 20 pairs of trousers in various shops in the last week. Which has got me keen on the idea of attempting to sew myself a pair.

I’ve ordered some fabric online (I’m never quite sure how wise it is ordering something like that online when you can’t accurately judge either colour or texture) and am scouting out patterns. I think the Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers pattern is top of the picks at the moment. I’ve never sewn a garment before, so it’ll be a whole new voyage of discovery for me, but I’m up for the challenge. Well, I will be, once I’ve moved house and unpacked and done all the things that need doing to get the new place shipshape…

And then there’s cake. Pumpkins birthday approaches, so he’ll no doubt request some crazy cake creation once again. I’m definitely not doing Toothless again!

 

Woolly Welsh wonders

We have just returned from our mega family gathering over in west Wales. It’s usually an every-other-year holiday, but we all enjoyed it so much last year that we decided to do it again sooner this time. There were nearly forty of us this year, and we just had a fabulous week. The boys absolutely loved it! We have a great site that we use, with several houses grouped together, as well as grounds to explore. Pumpkin, being a little older, was granted freedom to roam the site with other cousins his age and older. There was a playhouse in the woods, a climbing frame and swings, woodland dens and trees to climb. Pickle mostly stayed within the courtyard garden, playing with younger cousins and a variety of bikes, balls, frisbees and pushalong toys. Every so often, he would sidle slowly towards the gate, wanting nothing more than someone to accompany him simply to throw stones in the small stream.

Day trips were had, to beaches and gardens, houses and museums. We went off for coastal walks and train rides, picnics, ice cream, and of course Fish and Chips for tea on the best little beach on the last day. Bliss!

Our first day trip of the week was to Llanerchaeron, a National Trust property, which had a sheep shearing demonstration on, as part of their May Half Term activities. The man demonstrating was very interesting to listen to – before beginning the shearing, he showed various tools and items traditionally used in sheep farming and shearing. He had great knowledge and a witty style – I could have listened to him for hours.

Sheepses awaiting shearing

Trussing the sheep up ready to be shorn.

Mid-shear

The full fleece

As well as the shearing, there were also members of the Ceredigion Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers on hand, demonstrating just about everything involved in taking the fleece from sheep to yarn to finished object.

I quite fancied having a go on a spinning wheel, but the closest I got was a drop spindle. Pumpkin wanted to try it, so I helped him. He found the drop spindle a bit tricky, but loved vigorously twirling a different, sort of helicopter style one, while the lady drew out the fibre. He was very pleased with his little bag of wool straight from the sheep, and ball of hand-spun yarn, and excited to take it to school with him to show his teacher.

I also got a little bag of freshly-shorn wool, and was given a beautiful handful of fluff by one of the ladies.

Natural, and indigo-dyed Wensleydale wool

This is apparently from a Wensleydale sheep, and the blue was hand dyed using home grown indigo from the lady’s own garden. The picture doesn’t really do it justice – it’s pretty and shiny and wiggly! I want to know what to do with it!
I’ve just weighed it, and there are just over 25 grams there. Not much, but useable. I’m going to have to go off and investigate exactly what I need to do with it so I can knit it into something small but nice. Unless any of you lovely readers have any clue or suggestions?

FO: The little desk that refused to give up hope

Once upon a time, there was a sad little desk tucked away in a junk furniture shop.

The little desk was desperate to be pretty and loved, so it was overjoyed to be offered the chance of a new home.

The little desk was sanded down in the summer sunshine in the garden, and enjoyed the feel of its first fresh coat of paint.

But the weather changed, and the garden was no longer a safe place for the little desk, and neither was the garage. It took up its place in the hallway, but felt sad at being only half finished and poorly used. It looked on forlornly as its screws and fittings were misplaced, its wax overcoat was stashed in the coat cupboard and its beautiful paper dress was left in a roll on a bedroom floor.

But, eventually, time was found and the little desk was coaxed out for its final makeover. The fittings were found and screws were replaced. The paper dress was made bespoke, and the wax overcoat completed the look.

Just as the little desk was almost ready for its photoshoot, a small ogre came and pushed the little desk right over! The poor little desk feared that all was lost, but it was soon picked up and its wounds tended to, before being invited to take its rightful place.

It was still feeling a little grey…

…but it soon realised that this was home, and gradually it bloomed…

…into a beautiful thing.

Baskets were found to fill its shelves and give it purpose once more.

And the little desk lived happily ever after.

The end.

Paint: Autentico Vintage Chalk Paint, Pigeon Grey and Antique Turquoise

Wax: Autentico Furniture Wax, Clear

Paper: Opera Wallpaper, Retro Leaf Teal/Green (glued with Mod Podge Matte)

Handles and Fittings: Original

Baskets: IKEA