Oak

I normally share something to do with what I've been doing, but for a change I'm going to show you some of Mr's work. His current crafty obsession (and has been for awhile now) is woodturning with the odd foray into carpentry.

His latest piece is just stunning. He found a gorgeous plank of naturally edged oak. He has routed and shaped it into two racks and turned some identical oak pegs to make two amazing coat racks. With some polish and elbow grease, we now have two very useful coat racks. One has 4 pegs and the other 5. The 5 peg rack has the pegs put in at an angle for coats and the other we'll use for hats and scarves.

Incidentally, I've found it makes a nice prop for photos.

With my well worn colour affection.

Incidental lepidoptery

At a quick glance, it's looks like I'm practising lepidoptery, but I'm not pinning out butterflies but lots of swatches. 

I've had that many, that I've had to do them in batches and each time I've started to run out of blocking pins and have been relegated to using dressmaker's pins.

I still have more to go. Wish me luck....

Puerperium and spots

I've done plenty of knitting lately but for one reason or another they are secret projects, so I've not been able to share them.

I have completed one little project which is a Puerperium Cardigan by Kelly Brooker. I bought some gorgeous Adriafil Duo Plus yarn in the "End of Season Sale" at A Good Yarn - plus lots of other yarn too, which I'm not going to talk about because I think I have a stash addiction and I'm going to ignore the problem and hope no-one will notice.

The yarn in question is absolutely gorgeous, stunningly soft and in beautiful muted colours. So even though there are lots of other projects I should be doing, I had to make a little Puerperium ( which is a welcome to the world gift for a friend's grandchild due in a few weeks ).

I decided on making all the buttons different and trying to match the colours in the yarn, not a perfect match but I quite like the effect.

The other project that I can share is currently languishing on my needles, normally I'm pretty good at starting and finishing but I got a little frustrated. The pattern is Pop Spots and is a relatively simple project (most of it is either stocking stitch or garter stitch).

I originally used the orange hand dyed yarn below for the lace edge, originally thinking it would work well with the brighter spots. I'd done half of the lace edge before eventually deciding it was far too zingy to work with the other colours. 

So I went and bought another ball of the lace that I'd used for the body. The body is done in a strand of Rialto Lace and a strand of Kidsilk Haze. So for the edge I'm using 2 strands of the Rialto Lace and it's working so far but it just seems to be sitting on my needles at the moment. As you can see I've hardly done any at all, maybe putting it on here will push me into finishing it

Pile o' knits

I've been knitting lots recently and have this big pile o' knits. There's lots of different bits in that pile; baby cardigan, baby vest, fingerless mitts, socks, bandana, shawl and a moebius cowl.

A pair of vanilla socks (my pattern)...

And this is what is currently on my needles...

It's a baby vest. It's a sort of a made up pattern, with the inspiration being from a photo of something similar. I do like a bit of stranded knitting! The yarn is Rowan Milk Cotton and is just lovely to knit with but unfortunately has been discontinued by Rowan. The only thing is now I love this so much I want a grown up one for me.

Painted Rocks

I've always had a fascination with painted rocks. My aunt used to paint for Royal Crown Derby and she painted the most beautiful things, including a large stone, which we use as a doorstop. 

With all the trending on Pinterest about painted rocks I had to have a go. This pin in particular inspired me.

A long search of the garden later...

This is what I did:

1. Clean the rocks well with a toothbrush. Remove any sand or dirt
2. I freehanded the pictures but you could draw them on in pencil first
3. I used a fine rigger brush and acrylic paint to paint the design.
4. Finally, I coated them in a thin layer of glossy Mod Podge.

Here's the finished result in the lovely Tulipwood bowl that Mr made for me.

Creative Filofax

I'm not entirely sure why but I dug my Filofax out of the cupboard and have started using it again. I thought I'd try and add a bit of creativity to it and make it more personal.

I bought some washi tape and stickers from Riky and Nina.

Washi tape and stickers

The packs of stickers are great if you just want a little bit for journalling or scrapbooking etc. Each page has four thicker strips, two thin ones and four circles. I bought a pack of plain and some with cool details ( e.g. the sticker has ticket stubs, barcodes, music on them ).

I used the stickers to redo the dividers to something more suitable for my needs. I'll use the rest as I continue to use it.

Remade Filofax dividers

Then I had a little fun with the washi tape. I bought a cute panda one and some pretty yellow flower tape.

Washi tape

 I wanted some sticky notes in my filofax but the official one wasn't quite what I wanted plus I had some nice geometric ones already. So I made my own. I used a page from the Filofax as a template and cut out some thick paper to the correct size and punched in the holes. I don't have a 6 hole punch so I just marked the holes and did each one singularly. Using double sided tape, I added some of my sticky notes.

Of course, I then had to decorate it with washi tape!

Handmade filofax sticky notes

For about the last 15 years, I've kept a list written out on the computer of all the books I've read. The list is in the 1000s at the moment. I can remember a lot but can't always remember if I've read a particular novel in a series so I like to have the list with me. So I don't accidentally buy the same book twice - it has happened!

With that many books, it would take forever to write by hand and probably fill up the Filofax. So I cut out different colours of Filofax sized paper out and with a little trial and error managed to print the list out back to back in a teeny tiny font. I managed to get it down to 10 pages.

Filofax book list

FO: Vitamin D

I have a finished object to show you. My Vitamin D cardigan. The pattern is by Heidi Kirramaier and it was very easy to follow. 

Turned hem - right side

I did make one or two little alterations. The main one is the sleeve hems, which I changed from garter stitch to turned hems. I thought it would give it some weight and stop them from flipping up. I worked the sleeve until the length I wanted then purled one row. I switched to smaller needles and worked 6 rows and cast off. Finally, I sewed them down. I was really thrilled with how neat the sewing on the inside is. I lined up the cast off stitches with the ones  directly above it and used a whip stitch. I made sure the stitch was identical each time and I'm glad I put in that little extra effort.

Turned hem - wrong side

I was really worried when it came off the needles as the garter hem was flipping and wonky. I normally don’t worry but the yarn has a very high proportion of acrylic and I wasn’t sure how well it would block. I'll be brave and show you pictures of me in my Vitamin D.

Before blocking

Before blocking

After blocking

After blocking

I didn't need to worry though as it blocked beautifully. 

The yarn is very unusual. It's Bergere de France Cabourg. The mix of acrylic and hemp makes a different texture - hard to describe but silky and prickly at the same time. I really liked it, it has a subtle sheen to it. 

Pity it’s a little too warm here at the moment to wear.

Zentangling ceramics

I promised to show you my finished teaspoon stand from when we went mug painting. It was awhile ago but it had to be refired and then I started a mug with a similar design so thought I'd show you them together.

Here's before firing: 

And after. The colours become really vivid.

I'm not as pleased with the mug, the shading wasn't dark enough so it doesn't have that 3D effect. If I do it again it will definitely have 3 coats of the grey.

The mug is a Christmas present for a friend and the handle says "Hot and Dark", which is what he calls bad coffee.

Cathedral Windows Yet again

I seem to have a thing for Cathedral Windows. I've made lots of different projects with them. 

My favourite is this wall hanging (the photography is dire and you can't see the detail, the entire hanging is quilted and the windows are metallic fabrics and look amazing). 

Then there is this cushion

 and my little needle case. 

There's been lots more too that I haven't blogged about like one year when everyone got a cathedral window pincushion and the next when it was Christmas decorations.

I had a weekend recently when the sewing machine came out and there was lots of industry.

Secret Garden block during sewing. The block starts in a similar way to Cathedral Window but the "windows" are put in a different place.

Finished needle case

I've had a project sat for awhile, and I finally had some down time so I got cracking with it. It'll be a cushion when I'm finished similar to the one above. Here's my progress so far:

Cathedral blocks sewn together before ironing.

All the blocks ironed flat.

I've used what I had leftover from the wall hanging for the windows. With better photography you can see the fabric is really stunning. 

It took awhile to figure out the arrangement for the fabric as I didn't have enough to do many squares in just one colour. I just have to sew them all in now, which is the time consuming part. 

Woolfest Haul 2013

Another year at Woolfest and it was just as fantastic. Here are links to previous years 2011 and 2012. It seemed busier this year.

 I went with the intention of buying no spinning fibre at all, as I had a lot bought me at Christmas, but.... Well, hilltopcloud fibre is so gorgeous, it just "had" to be bought. There was a beautiful blue and orange batt and some Southdown dyed in a gradient. Southdown is meant to be a fantastic fibre for socks and I've been wanting to try it for awhile. I love how the fibre was presented it looked like a fluffy octopus!

Eden Cottage Yarns and a mini skein set from Natural Dye Studio

Cute little sheep from Hestascene. Need to think of an appropriate name for her.

Gorgeous buttons from Textile Garden

Embroidery silks from Natalie Fergie aka Yarn Yard. The orange 4ply in the top picture is from her too.

This is what I got most excited about. It's a Lilly Brush which before the show I thought was only available from the US at super high postage rates, so I didn't think I'd be able to get one easily. Tall Yarns have them in stock at the moment. Basically it's a de-piller and lint remover and it's fab.