Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies

Says it all really

Rocking Snowman

My mate Lisa is a Crafty Queen.  She makes Christmas decorations as Christmas cards each year.  I always look forward to them.  This year's arrived today - he's first to go on the 'Christmas tree'.  Check out his knitted nose

I've updated my Coriandr shop :-)

I like a nice rug

How cool are these carpets?

Mother in law's cardi

This is my mother-in-law in her birthday cardi. It's only 6 months late but then the cardi and I have fallen out quite badly on a couple of occasions during the design and make process.

As you can see Jehanne's very pleased with it but not half as pleased as I am to have finally finished it!




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Location:London,United Kingdom

City & Guilds - module 3 nearly finished

I've been working on this module since March, which seems like eternity. Finally very close to the end. Mounted everything up - just 3 more bits to finish and mount and then I'm done!

Busy bee

If I thought I was busy with knitting before, I've somehow found a higher gear.
I've been working my arse off to get my 3rd Knitty & Guilds module finished (finally I can see the light at the end of the tunnel).

Yesterday I did a course at iKnit with the lovely Miriam Tegels to learn her simplified continental style. She's a really great teacher and her technique is dead easy to pick up and super fast. Hopefully this'll help me get my C&G samples done much quicker!

Today I'm off up to Loop for a Habu trunk sale and an hour's course on how to read a japanese knitting pattern with Takako from Habu. Superb.

Oh, and I managed to knit 80% of this Whisper Cardi in our week's holiday to Mallorca at the end of August:

Labels

Like a div I completely forgot to take a pic of the socks I made at the Two At A Time sock workshop :-( they came out ok though and the technique is waaaaayyyy easier than I had imagined.

There are good tutorials here and here if you're interested but it's a bit of a head &*$% at first and so much easier if you can find someone who knows the technique to show you....

These arrived in the post yesterday. Made by priyacreations on Etsy. Can't wait to sew them into my next finished object!

I'M VERY EXCITED

Tomorrow I'll be at a Knit Nation workshop learning to knit 2 socks at once. It's a technique I've (unsuccessfully) been trying to teach myself for the last year so I'm very very excited indeed.

I'll be a 7th dan ninja sock knitter before you know it!

Share your work on the V&A website

I got very excited when I spotted that you can post work to the V&A website. There's some really cool stuff up there and I shamelessly posted my cheeky monkey blanket up there too :-)

Isla Scarlett McCay Williams

I'm so chuffed I'm going to post this blanket twice.

Huge congratulations to my best mates whose daughter arrived yesterday. She'll be getting her blanket in the next day or so when she's ready for visitors.




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Smart Crochet

This is the latest glorious crafty thing to catch my eye - created by Magda Sayeg of KnittaPlease and spotted in Make Online. If you haven't checked out Make and Craft website, they're treasure troves of geeky crafty goodness.

Steeking part deux

Sewing's finished (the train tracks down the middle of the pic)
























Deep breath. And.....cut!!
























Ta dah!!



















FINISHED :-D Just 1.5 hours before my best mate's waters broke. The baby must've known...

I am steeking...

This is the terrifying Scandinavian process of cutting (yes, you heard right!) circular knitting to create a flat piece of work.

"Why bother?!" I hear you cry.

My thoughts exactly at this point. What the hell was I thinking?

At the time I started this endeavour I was wooed by the news that knitting complex intarsia patterns in the round gives much better tension than flat knitting (which I've discovered is true and has been a turning point in my hate hate relationship with intarsia thus far). Plus you're always starting your pattern from the right hand side of the chart.

For steeking:
1. take your lovingly knitted tube of complex patterning
2. Sew vertical lines either side of two columns of stitches with tiny sewing machine stitches (leaving a 2 stitch gap between).
3. Take sharp scissors, a deep breath and a swig of Rescue Remedy then CUT in-between the 2 stitches you left as a gap between your sewn columns
4. Cross your fingers and hope the whole thing doesn't unravel
5. Laugh hysterically with relief and punch the air when it doesn't

I'm at point 2. I'll let you know when the air punching commences...



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Cosy tea

My two favourite things combined in one cosy little package. Lovely idea. Pictures and blurb from Design Week.

Pigeons back in Trafalgar Square

How cute are these little guys? Stitch London made and displayed them in Trafalgar Square. Click here for more pics and info

Off the needles - Sardinia

Finished this at the beginning of June but haven't had a chance to post for a bit. Would have had it finished sooner but had to start the front 6 times due to user error on my part. Doh!

Really chuffed with it, despite the corners curling a little bit (I probably made the base chain a bit tight).

Knitty & Guilds Module 3

Samples are coming along nicely for my module 3 assignments. I'm studying for a Book-keeping exam end of June as well as working full time so the knitting's a welcome relief from the chaos of a slightly crazy life and VERY full brain...

Decorative borders, decreases and bias knitting

mitred squares and frills/ ruching

Woolshops of the World - iKnit Cafe Farnham

A treasure trove of sumptuous yarns. Absolute heaven...

Knitty & Guilds Arty workshop

This is what I got up to this weekend. Great fun! It's for the printing and mark-making element of my City & Guilds Module 3.