Loose ends

I've been flap, flap, flapping around the house this week trying to tick things off the craft to do list. I knew things were a bit out of control when I was sitting at work being stressed about coming home :) But now:

• Loose ends have been woven in:

• Glue has been applied (with a paintbrush of course):

• Things have been hung in their new homes (this is what you see when you walk in the front door. Well, this and cats.)

• And the last of the birthday brooches have been made and sent!

The universe obviously felt I deserved congratulating for all that ticking off (we won't mention the poms) because I got a little surprise in the mail:


Yarn pirate. Oh how I have coveted thee. Well the lovely Melissa must be my fairy-yarn-mother (or something) cause we're having a little sock yarn swap and this is what she sent me. I often drool over the yummy yarn on US knitblogs (koigu, socks that rock, yarntini, sundara yarn and yarn pirate are all on the shortlist) so I'm super psyched to have some of my own. Thanks so much Melissa, excellent choice. And I must have been extra good, because look what else I got - gorgeous little hand made coasters.

• Oh, and your parcel's in the mail Melissa.

Tick.

Ed: I know I said it in the last post, but the cross-stitch pattern is from Subversive cross stitch and there's instructions for the framed fabric at purl bee. Oh, and the brooch pattern is from mollychicken. Didn't want it looking like I was taking credit for other people's ideas!

Birthday giveaway!

So it's my birthday today (yay!)

Since I can't celebrate in real life with most of you, how about a blog giveaway?

The patterns for the brooches are from Mollychicken, tutorials here and here.

This is a special shout-out to any lurkers out there. I'd love to 'meet' you :)

1. Greens and reds


2. Or maybe Blue for you?


3. Pink and green


4. Pinks and brown


5. A bit of everything (I have two of these)


Please speak up if you want one of these, I'll post international no worries :) I'll be so embarrassed and depressed if no one wants a brooch, and we can't have that on my birthday!

I'm off to eat birthday dinner and open presents.

EDITED: Yay, all the brooches have been rehomed! Thanks so much for sharing the birthday love!
p.s. did I get spoilt!

The year of the paintbrush

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you're all well and had a great festive season. I spent the last week on a beech in Queensland bribing people to fetch me a Pimms. Lovely.

I don't know whether it was the start of a new year or maybe just the reflection that comes when you step out of your life for a little while, but it was really...(I think) refreshing (is the word)...to re-evaluate the little things and remember that there's a big picture.

And oh my there's nothing quite like bobbing up and down in the ocean. I always forget just how alive and fresh it makes me feel. I must remember to swim in the ocean more.

I must also remember not to be so lazy. Witness these:


Inspired by the fabulousness of these (but without reading the tutorial I just found when I went to get the link - Arhhhhhh!) I decided to make some hard-cover needle cases. I like the roll ones, but they're kind of flaccid. No matter where or how I put the flaps the contents always falls out all over the place. Always. These ones look solid, sturdy, practical. Things looks stable.

So I thought about how to put them together all was going well, the cutting, sewing, ironing, etc. until I had to glue the front. I sat in the backyard, squirted on the glue and tried to use the nosel to spread the glue out. This failed. So I grabbed a piece of cardboard and tried to use that to flatten it out. This failed. What I really needed was a paint brush. But did I go and get one? No. That would mean I had to stand up. Yes, that really was my excuse. I am an idiot. Unspuprisingly the glue was a failure, and now the cases have big splodge marks where the glue was. It's not pretty. You can kind of see them in this one:


But you live, you learn.
Hurrah for 2007! The year of the paintbrush.

Christmas Star Decorations!

Happy Festive Season everyone!

I made these little stars for the christmas decoration swap I was telling you about. They're really easy, even for those of us who are sewing-in-a-straight-line challenged. I posted the pattern up over in the side bar. If you want to print it out at the correct size for some reason you'll need to download it to your desktop and then print, rather than print from the link. My process went something like this:

1. Cut out shape (yes, I know, der.)
2. Pin shape to two pieces of fabric, with their right-sides facing (each other).
3. Cut fabric around edges of shape. You should now have two fabric stars. Keep their right sides facing.
4. Take a piece of ribbon (about 18cm) fold it in half and place it between the two pieces of fabric of the top point of the star. (like the cheese in a sandwich, unless you're vegan and then it can be lettuce). The two ends of the ribbon should be poking out between the fabric at the top of the point. Pin it.
5. Pin the fabric together to secure it
6. Sew closely around the edges of the star, leaving a gap on the 'inner leg' of one of the bottom points. This needs to be big enough to turn the fabric right side out through. Make sure you catch the end of your ribbon at the top point and not in the edges (the cheese will try and escape, lettuce not so much).
7. Snip about five little cuts into each of the corners of the star (not the points, the inside V bits). This helps stop puckering when you turn it.
8. Turn the star right side out through the unsewn part of the seam. It may help to pull gently on the ribbon to bring the top point through. I poke the rest of the points with a pencil to get them in to shape (it's a very serious business this).
9. When you're happy with the shape, iron it. Don't skip this part or your mum will pull faces and say things like 'I don't know what I did wrong that you missed the ironing gene.' (When the correct answer is: 'Oh my, what a splendidly clever daughter you are'.)
10. Stuff it. Stuff it good. Pillow or toy stuffing are best, although feel free to experiment!
11. Sew closed the open seam. I'm lazy and use the machine, but can see the sense in hand-sewing.
12. Hang it where you will get appropriate amounts of acclaim :)

I'm off on a little blogging break over Christmas and New Year, but I'll *see* you all again in early January. Have a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Hopefully the end of 2007 sill see the world a more peaceful and humane place than the end of 2006.

xxx

Who needs hallmark

There's been some serious craft ADD going on around here lately. The back step has been set up for knitting: morning coffee, most meals, phone calls and any trip between the front of the house and the back of the house taken via the 'scenic route' leads to a couple of rows on whatever knitting project's closest. The couch has been overtaken by crochet: a good song, the news and conversations with Mr BP have all lead to a bit of SC, HDC, DC and the odd TC. Mind the scissors. The dining room is the sewing room: time on the computer, retrieving a book or pattern, reading* or movement from the knitting to crochet zone has lead to a brief interlude with the sewing machine (I reckon sewing is definitely the messiest craft, the room looks like a quilt exploded.)

No pictures yet though, everything's top secret Christmas or Swap projects. But I can show you these:


I get cranky and the price of cards so I never buy them unless they're unusual or funny (like the ones with the pictures from old knitting patterns on them and a sarcastic statement inside. But they're the exception). These make a good use of old scraps of fabric.

I just sew a whole bunch of scraps together, iron it, pin it to a piece of cardboard I want to cover, sew it around the edge of the cardboard and then cut off the excess fabric. Voila! I reckon it makes a pretty cute bookmark too :)



*This is excellent. If you've read The Secret River I would recommend this. I was a little skeptical of the concept, but I really enjoyed it.

First-best sewing friend

Babies. They're coming at me from everywhere at the moment (not my own, of course). This usually isn't a problem, I went through a baby-knits frenzy about 6 months ago and i've still got a stash of hand-knits with no home, but it's getting hot here. Too hot for baby cardigans.

How thoughtful of Martha Stewart to solve this conundrum for me.

This is a great pattern. Although it took me about an hour to figure out how to read it the first time I made it. Is it just me and my lack of sewing ability or is this a confusing pattern? Only thing I do differently is sew the inside ties in the seams. Anything to avoid hand-sewing. Which leads me to this:

My binding foot is my first-best sewing friend (it and my quick unpick ;). Notice the bias-binding around the neck? Well stifle that groan and buy one of these. Binding and material go in the front, perfectly sewn bias binding comes out the back. No hand-sewing required. However I should clarify that the bias-binding isn't always perfect...occasionally for some inexplicable reason (like your needle sitting in the wrong place) it will not catch both sides. When this happens you can swear and throw the tape measure across the room. That is a perfectly reasonble, mature, adult response.

This little top went to one of my all time favourite babies, Frances (seen here in part of my great baby cardigan explosion.) She was christened yesterday and took it all with dignity and grace. That is she didn't scream her lungs out like I would have. Not a peep.

Crochet hook case

I covet one of these! Aren't they beautiful? There really are some very clever people out there in crafty blogland. It's good inspiration, I've been thinking for a while that I need to make myself a crochet hook roll. I particularly like how these ones fold in. I've made a couple of needle rolls that, well, 'roll', and I find them a bit awkward. This is possibly my own fault though as most of my knitting needles are big sizes, so it makes the rolls pretty chunky.

This was my first-born. In the tradition of giving first-borns to special people, this went to MrBrownPants' mum (I always wondered if that tradition was just because good friends won't tell you your first-born is crappy?) Outside: Inside: This one was a prototype. I wanted somewhere to put needle gauges, stitch counters etc. as well as my shorter needles. It's made with cheap IKEA fabric (so it wouldn't matter that I crapped it up!) but I never got around to making a 'proper' one. Inside (inside inside inside inside) Outside (that one's for The Grates fans. I'm thinking of you) I have a very very small amount of florence broadhurst fabric. I'm thinking it may be time to use it...

**NB: I've fixed the link now. It wasn't meant to go to Knit Purl...anlthough there's some cool stuff there too!