Booties for Jenni

From Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings.  I think these booties are great, a very easy pattern to follow, if quite fiddly.  I'm not sure the amount of effort (about four hours) actually translates into a useful gift, but Jenni loved them.  A sweet decoration at the very least I suppose. I'm trying to work my macro function a bit better.  I don'y know why these are blurry.  User error no doubt!

Instant Cushion

I made this on a whim, having been inspired by an Amy Butler Soul Blossoms charm pack, bought at the Cotton Patch.  Opening the pack, I adored this fabric, Peacock Feathers (bright pear) so went out to John Lewis for half a metre.  The edging is Laurel Dots (Cilantro) from the same range.  I like them together but might have chosen a more contrasting edge in hindsight.  The back is Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in cactus (?), my first go with this fabric.

I quilted the top, for a bit more weight.  My latest fascinsation with freemotion quilting coming out... The edge didn't stand up without it.

Happy Monday :)

Lions and Polo Ponies

I go through spiral bound notebooks like there is no tomorrow.  At work, I have to have something to scribble on, otherwise I completely lose focus.  A fresh list every day.  I think my colleague who holds the stationary cupboard key is sick of the sight of me.  So, I designed a slip cover, that makes these notebooks a little prettier, but also is a good way of enjoying a pretty fabric. This is Amy Butler Lotus Wallflower in sky on the cover and Chez Moi Hunky Dory Mosaic in sparrow for the pocket. 

I really like the Hunky Dory fabrics.  Not as a collection, which I think is too wishy-washy for me, but every time I'm in the quilt shop, I just happen to pull out bolts of the individual fabrics. 

This particular one is not for work use, and is storing little snippets of stuff.  Like the business cards I pick up in restauraunts, and pages pulled out of the Sunday supplements.  And on page one is a reminder of the waiter who told me, after he asked me what I did (I'm an animal nutritionist), that his South-African family is mad keen on polo and breeds lions for a living.  I kid you not.  Lions. 

Spring Quilt. The Less Good

When starting a new craft, I find people are often advised to start with an easy project.  Take knitting, it's always garter stitch scarves and woolly hats.  And then they end up with a drawer full of projects that they don't really need or want, from yarn that they wouldn't choose with more experience (admitedly, I'm sure many early projects are much loved items...).  But anyway, I'm so impatient, I just chose a project I love the look of, regardless of difficulty rating and plough on.  This is probably terribly foolish.  And it leads, often, to half finished projects.  But, it is also a process that lends itself to learning very quickly through making mistakes. 

Take the Spring Quilt.  Michelle's pattern is lovely, but I would have done a better job of it had I known what I was doing.  These are some of the things I tripped up on learnt, by just doing.

Cutting:

Using a tape measure, school ruler, pencil and a pair of scissors (albeit proper fabric scissors) to cut 2.5" strips isn't fun, quick or accurate.  Will be buying a roller cutter and proper patchwork ruler before the next time.

Choice of sashing fabric:

I blithely went  into John Lewis and chose white cotton.  I choose what was super wide and therefore excellent value.  It also turned out to be sheeting (don't laugh).  It doesn't hold up well to being pinned and seems stretchier than the quilting cotton (looser weave?) so when I pulled it taught to baste the quilt sandwich (get me with the lingo) the sashing was then left 'baggy'.  It is also see through.  Which leads me onto my next point.  I should have pressed my seams to the dark fabric.  So don't look too close, OK?  I am dying to try Kona Solids, after seeing how much they are loved in the Blogosphere

Basting:

I tried REALLY hard.  With thanks to Sarah, who suggested (via her blog post) to stick it to the floor! Although this worked better than I thought on carpet, I think a nice non-carpetted floor would have been better and stuck firmer.

Look, I even bought special pins.  Did I do it the right way?  Should I have put the pins in the 'ditches'? 

Quilting and choice of batting:

On the first attempt I chose the only batting they had in John Lewis (some, lofty, fluffy, platisticy stuff) and off I went with my standard machine foot.  Yep.  So that didn't work at all.  I stitched two lines and went straight back to Google Blog Search.  With help from the blogosphere I chose a more appropriate cotton batting and invested in a walking foot.  And off I went agian.  Much better!

But, the main problem I had with this quilt is that I still had a lot of movement in the layers and hence this problem.

I think, in an ideal world, I would have further quilted the whole thing.  But, I stopped where I did as I was worried that it would be a whole squooshed up mess if I went any further.  Anyone have any ideas?  Did I not baste firmly enough?  Rush with the machine?  Have tension issues?  Any ideas greatly received.  Can I still call it a quilt, since large sections aren't quilted?  Will the batting disintegrate over time for this reason?

The biggest lesson:

That the world of crafty bloggers is amazing.  I haven't picked up a book, or attended a real-life quilt group (which I should do!).  All the advice I have gotten, for fixing problems and answering questions has been from you all.  So thank you.  You're amazing. 

Anyway, these are my lessons.  But, I still love it, and enjoy the colours every time I look at.  And, when I fell asleep under it whilst watching Miss Marple (I didn't rate Angela Lansbury in that role, she should stick to Murder She Wrote) on Sunday afternoon, it was bliss.

Spring Quilt - The Good

Pattern:

Hugely inspired by Dogwood by Michelle Engel Bencsko of Cicada Daydream

White sashing added following great admiration for the quilting style of Rita (of Red Pepper Quilts).  Rita was a great help too, with her excellent binding tutorial here.

I was also inspired by a trip to Hobbycraft (I know, how did that happen!), where I chose the fabrics on a whim one day.

Fabric for the top and back

Acres of white cotton (more about THAT to follow at a later stage!)

I used half a metre of each of the following

Amy Butler Love Tumble Roses Pink

Tanya Whelan Darla Ditty Blue

Tanya Whelan Darla Picnic Rose Sky

Amy Butler Lotus Wallflower Green

And the fifth pattern I can't remember..........

For the binding:

Amy Butler Love Sunspots Wine

Batting:

Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton 80% cotton and 20% polyester

Why no in focus, full quilt shot (see post below for it lying on the bed)....?  Because then you would see the, err, beginner quilter issues.  Which I will tell you about later.  I can see the problems, but you know what?  I. Still. Love. It.

Blog resurrection

Well, I'm not sure if it is a resurrection, since it was always there.  But, since I have got back into reading blogs, I thought I'd re-start mine.  So here we go. 

The main reason I'm re-starting?  I have just finished my first quilt (of sorts...):

But more about that later......

A quick re-cap about me.  You can find more if you read back through the archives, but beware, the pictures really weren't that great!

By training and profession, I'm a scientist:

I live in glorious Nottingham.....

with these guys.....

....and these take up a large portion of my time....

and I REALLY like shoes.....

Happy Saturday :)

I have no idea what is going on with these pictures...... will try to fix it!

Wrappings

So here is the trial run of my christmas wrapping plan - mum's Kew birthday scarf. It went down well!

Also last weekend, we went to see Johs Hartnett in rain Man in the West End. The man is stunning, as on screen. Did a great job of Charlie Babbitt too. It took a lot of will not to stand by the stage door......

Winter windowboxes

Shopping bags and birthday presents

Firstly a lesson is jazzing up the most cheap-assed birthday present in the world! I love you girls :)

And now some more of Amy Butler...

I was interested to see a local community project that was delivering cotton shopping bags to households for free; they had 500,00! I try and re-use my bags-for-life, and take various cotton bags top the supermarket; I have a favourite that was free with Marie Clare. Anyway, so I have decided to make a load myself and use them as 'wrapping paper' this Christmas. A slightly ambitious idea, but hey-ho! Also, John Lewis have started selling Amy Butler (for Rowan) fabric. Obviously, I couldn't help myself. Here is the first attempt, a gift/wrap for James' mother's birthday next week. Then, more fabric for my own mother's version.



Not quite sure why these are so blurry, clearly not as bright as I thought ( but look, new carpet!).

I'm not going to promise I'm back...... but I'm really going to try. I'm back living in Nottingham having got a Research Fellowship at the University (Phd done and finished!); a job which is a lot less stressfull and frantic. So maybe (hopefully) I'll have more time for this! I'v etaken lots of photos this weekend so lots to post this week. I've missed everyone (but I have been keeping up with your blogs, sporadically), so will look forward to catching up with you. I am also getting to grips with ravelry, so see you there?

I'm Knitting! Albeit 'Small Things'

Hi All!

I'm still here! Working so hard I never have time to turn around, and as a result being a bad friend, bad girlfriend, bad horse/cat owner and a non-knitter! Would you believe it I have only been to GetKnitted TWICE since September...... Although in the midst of all this mania I did get a promotion, so in some ways it's all good.

Anyway, here is the most recent, and quite lonely FO. The Eyelet Dress from Baby Knits for Beginners (the BEST baby book in the world). It is for Sarah's new niece, Dorothy Jean. I am so proud with how it has turned out, knitting baby clothes is definately a favourite-near instant gratification and great finishing practise. I converted it to in the round, which, I think made it a little quicker. And clever James even picked the button and the ribbon with just a shopping list from me.

Yarn: Rowan Classic Cash Soft DK

Pattern: Eyelet Baby Dress from baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss

Size: 3-6 months, 3 and a bit balls

Needles: Various 3.25mm standard circs

I'm not convinced of the practicality/safety of a ribbon for a small baby, but I guess Annie and Tim can take it out if they feel it's not safe. I hope they like it!

I had a dream........

Now this is wierd. I felt thoroughly freaked out when I woke up yesterday and thought of my dream. Although at the time, it was quite a nice dream.

I dreamt of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley! And not in that kind of way. I dreamt that they were on Holiday in the UK (I think they actually live here IRL) and James' mum had won a competition to meet Kaffe. Anyway, for some reason they came and had tea at our house. How random is that?! And Kaffe gave me a copy of one of his quilting books and wrote a long message inside. I got chatting to Brandon, but I think my brain had made him up since I have no idea what he looks like.

Bearing in mind that I also dreamt about our office photocopier that night! It is incredibly temperamental and we have been desperately overworking it recently since it's the beginning of term. It frequently goes on strike. Anyway in my dream there was water pouring out of the copier and flowing down the stairs and out of the door. Odd.

I hope you don't think I've abandoned you. Where I'm living at the moment I don't have any t'interweb access and at work my internet settings mean that most of your blog posts don't show up. So bare with me, I check your blogs all in one go at the weekends! And I've added more links to my sidebar. Over there on he right. See? Go check them out!

I haven't disappeared!!

Thank you for all your sweet comments and emails. I'm settling in well at my new job. Everyone is lovely, it's a great team. It's just so busy! The students haven't started yet and already there's mountains of paperwork! It's all very alien to me, and I'm making it up as I go along. I am getting homesick being away from James, the kitties, Monty, home and my friends (in no particular order!). But everyone keeps emailing with updates and pictures so I don't feel left out!

I expected to have oodles of time to knit, since I'm living with my aunty (an incredibly hardworking consultant at a Bristol hospital) who's quite often out in the evenings. Although, I don't get home until much later than I would do in Nottingham. And then I have to cook, which I'm not used to, it's usually James who cooks. So, my evenings seem to fly by. Especially since I'm still tying up bits of my thesis, and I have that to do in the evenings. So. Not much knitting has been done! Despite several bags of WIPs on the bedroom floor!

BUT. I have visited GetKnitted! In the first week I was here, naturally. Luckily, they're open late on a Thursday. And I was not disappointed! Its huge! So. Much. Beautiful. Stuff. I bought some secret items, and spent an age perusing.... Lots of Lorna's Shepherd Sock. Drool. My favourite! And, I was looking for a Sirdar pattern, that I swear I saw somewhere. I described it to them and they had no idea what I was talking about. But, they went and got out their computer so I could search the internet and try to find it. So, so kind and friendly. Needles to say I shall be going back. Incidently, first rule of shopping, when you see something you want to buy just buy it, don't wait until another day. Especially if it's a paper pattern at £2.50.

I'm also deciding whether to join Secret of the Stole. After reading about the Mystery Stole 3 I realy like the idea. However, I can;t find any pic of her previous patterns. I'd like to see some before I start ona complex secret patterns. Although 500+ people have joined the group already! Ummm, I don't know..

I shall be back on the radar from now on I promise!

Mirasol - A Fair Trade Project

Has anyone else seen this in their local John Lewis? Apparently its an exclusive. I just love it! Poor Julia in Nottingham's yarn department didn't know what to say as I gushed at her yesterday! The books and yarns are destributed by Designer Yarns, those behind Noro, DB and Louisa Harding.

I bought the accompanying book, which is full of Jane Ellison's patterns. She does a lot of work with Noro, and I've never really been interested in her designs. Maybe it's that I'm not a big Noro fan. This book is gorgeous. It was £10, but if crammed full of all sorts of stuff. Cardies, jumpers, tanks, hats, some interesting sideways knit gloves, scarves. Lots of patterns. I want to show you some, but the scanner is packed away. I have my heart set on a cotton blend (following your advice Pat!) fairisle cardy. Really simple, shown in blues and pinks. The yarns include 'Miski' an aran baby llama; 'Sulka', a merino, silk and alpaca blend and 'Cotanani', a cotton and merino blend DK. There is also this beautiul variagated dk merino, called Hacho. In gorgeous shades. I bought some!

The idea is to support the children looking after alpacas in peru. A percentage (although no-where seems to say exactly what that is...) of each sale goes to building a school, amongst other things.

I think this book is great. This kind of project has a tendancy to be a bit 'earthy' in terms of design, for my taste. But this is great. Some real classic designs with a bit of interesting fair isle thrown in. And good for JL for scoring something new and interesting...

SP Goodness

Well, today I feel totally spoilt, again! Thank you so much Chocolate Gerbera. Once again you are spot on with your choices. This is a great package, full of really interesting textures. This really cheered me up after I spent yesterday at work saying goodbye to all my colleagues. Strangly it was my supervisor saying 'I'll just say bye for now, I know you'll be back' that got me started!! I walked out of his office and burst into tears. His secretary Sheila just handed me chocolate. Good girl!

A little package of desk-y items, a stapler (my colleague and I have a joke about me needing to buy one of these - perfect), paper clips, sellotape and a rubber. Awesome. Already packed in my box of desk items to take tomorrow..

A great shoe shaped keyring. Perfect. I love me some shoes. Somehow this got missed of the pic.

A box of great fruity teas, one of my faves. That too is packed for my new office already..

DB Alpaca silk in choclate - this is truely one of my favourite yarns, but I've not tried the DK yet. It seems even softer then the aran.

Sirdar bamboo in a creamy colour. My first go with Bamboo! I have lots friends about to have babies, so this will come in very useful. I feel a hat or booties coming on. It's so soft!

A great selection of brown ribbons. Velvet and satin. Just gorgeous. I love interesting trims.

Thanks so much CG, you really have my colours worked out! And I think I may have worked you out.......

My Knit-Friends!

Tuesday Night, Monica kindly hosted a knit meeting at her house. Well, more of a party really with lots of delicious food. Including the best pineapple and coconut cake any of us have ever tasted!! Lots of gossip, witha little bit of knitting for good measure. I'm going to miss you all terribly.....

Left to right, Pat, Bev and Linda.... I've said it before, but Pat has really helped James and I feel at home here. When we bought the house, she put us in the car and drove us round pointing out all the ins and outs of Sneinton. And she was poorly at the time. Thank you Pat! She has also provided much knitting and sewing support, helping with heming two dresses so far....


Baldeesh, going some actual, bone fide knitting! Baldeesh came to the knitting and Stitching show with Sarah and I last year. Lucky she did, she kept feeding us sandwiches and Pringles all the way there!

And Sarah (who to be fair, is knitting too....) and Monica. Isn't her conservatory beautiful? I was Sarah' bridesmaid (see my pic, top right?), we met at Uni. I was thrilled when she came to me saying she'd bought wool and could I teach her. Look at her now, a cardy in 4 ply!! Monica, I originally know from work. I was shocked when I joined a knitting group and there was a colleague!!

I really will miss these people. One of the topics of conversation on Tuesday was the lovely people you meet through knitting. So true..

Malabrigo Shawl

Thanks you all for your thoughtful and helpful comments on my last post. No new news but I'll keep you posted. (PS Annie, if we make it to the States, you bet we'll come to Boston!!)



Todays been a bit of a down day, I left the house very slowly this morning! Yesterday I went for a meeting with my new employer and colleagues. It was great, I'll tell you about it soon. So I got home, feeling very excited and I think, today, it's dawned on me that I still have lots to do before I can give my new job my full attention. To cheer myself up I made some new cards - you can see them there on the right. I think they came out well.. Off to see John Travolta making a fool of himself in Hairspray tonight with the girls. Should cheer me up no end!



As requested, here are some pics of the shawl. It's not growing quickly (lots wider than I planned), but I like it. It is such a soft, drapey fabric, just yummy.

And, just so you know, cats love gym bags.......

Bianca

So really, I DO knit. I've got back to Bianca, and I just love her so much. The fabric is just great. However. She seems to be enormous. I knitted up the medium, since those were the correct measurements. And anyway, I always knit stuff to small. I've got the correct gauge. But for some reason she just seems big. The arm holes are too long, but I think that's my fault.

Last night, I grafted the shoulder seams and pinned the side seams to check how it was before I knit the sleeves. And well, it's too big, but wearable too big, I think. I'm thinking maybe when i wash it it'll shrink a teeny bit. At the moment, for the fabric to look really good it needs to be blocked out a tiny bit more. But if I do that, it really will be too big. So maybe if I wash it a teeny bit too warm (a swatch first, of course)maybe it will all contract a bit. You know like when you wash soemthing wool and it is just that bit smaller when you next put it on. A fudge I know. But as we all know: Nell. Does. Not. Rip.

Nottingham, PA

I haven't been doing much crafy stuff this week, a bit of knitting in the evenings, picture of the growing shawl soon. I made this on Tuesday, for my friend Karen, the daughter of a Devon dairy farmer! It's her birthday today. I've also listed one on Etsy.

Randomly today, I came across a map of Delaware and Pennsylvania. I was searching for something totally different. And guess what was on it? The town of Nottingham, in Pennsylvania. James and I are half planning a trip to the States next year. A fly-drive-go-where-the-mood-takes-us kinda trip. Maybe we should go to Nottingham, PA. It sounds very different from the original (which as I'm sure you've heard me say is the world's best city!). I suppose there is no reason for them to be at all alike, my Notts is, of course, a big city, not a small town. Nottingham, PA, has less than 5000 people, 99% of which are white (there was also a category for 'Hawaiian', which I don't really get!) unlike the hugely ethnically diverse Nottingham, UK. Only 5% of Nottingham, PA residents are between 18 and 24, whereas in Nottingham UK it's about 25%, thanks to the world's best university! And, look what I could buy in Nottingham PA for the same money as our house?? This beautiful, Victorian farmhouse. Gorgeous.

Funny, it's got me thinking about the world, and how I really want to see more of it. Not just tropical, holiday destinations, but other people's home towns.....