Roll With It

A non-knitting FO this week (I know I could show you my sock, but as I have something else available, I thought I'd save the sock for when it has a mate!)

You may recognise the fabric as one I was sent in a swap some time ago. I hadn't found a use for it until I recently decided that it was about time I organised my knitting needles... So I made a needle roll *grins*

I'm still pretty rubbish with my sewing machine, and straight lines are apparently still beyond my capabilities *laughs* But having said that, I'm really pleased with it. My needles are now all neat and tidy, and I can find them without spending ages hunting through a drawer for the second of a pair ;)

Time Enough*

I haven't finished any knitting this week, but I do have a finished object to share *smiles*

I decided to try and make another project bag (my last one turned out far too small). I used the same tutorial, but this time made the fabrics a little bigger than before, to compensate. It turned out too big *laughs*

It was also quite a stressful experience, as my sewing machine decided to play up quite dramatically. It would stitch for an inch, break the thread, stitch again (after being rethreaded) then jam... And so on. The bag took over an hour! Not fun. But I made it through, and managed to insert the zip and line the bag, so that bit worked out ok.

Not sure about the dimensions though - it's shallower and wider than I had planned *frowns* And, as I say, bigger than planned. Looking on the bright side, this means that I can fit a project larger than a sock into it (or 2 small projects as I have in there at the moment), so it could be worse.

Just have to do a Goldilocks now and manage to make one just the right size *laughs*

The sides are pretty far from even, thanks to the sewing machine malfunctions. Frankly I just wanted to get the stitching done, so I wasn't quite as careful about getting everything exactly straight. It's got a very cute lining though ;)

As it's Friday, you know the drill... head over to Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more finished objects, fiber arts and general creativity :)

And come back here on Monday to see my excitable ramblings about Knit Nation and my (hopefully) amazing purchases ;)

* "The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough".  Rabindranath Tagore 

Dinner for Wolf*

I don't have a knitting FO for today (I'm really not that fast!) but I do have a finished object...

I followed this tutorial, and made a little bag *grins*

Seriously, how cute is that fabric?! I found it on ebay and just had to buy it ;) Little shepherds and sheep - perfect for any kind of knitting accessory. I have some left over, so I'm thinking of making a DPN case or something to match.

As you can see, the bag is a little wonky - my final stitching wasn't as straight or evenly matched as it could have been. But, this is the very first time I have ever managed to put a zip into anything, and that bit looks really neat, so I'm pretty dammed pleased with myself *proud smile*

Look, it even has a cool lining:

I'm really pleased with this little bag (can you tell?), and I love it very much. Having said that, as well as the wonkiness issue, there is also the factor that it is quite a bit smaller than I intended. Hmmm. It was supposed to be a sock project bag, but alas it will not fit a ball of sock yarn :( My seams may have been a little (ok, a lot) more generous than they needed to be!

No matter, it will make an excellent replacement to my current, boring, notions bag. In fact, it already contains some of the goodies from yesterday's post ;)




Friday is a pretty active day in blog land, so I encourage you to check out some of these links, for more lovely crafting:

Tami's Finished Object Friday
Andrea's Fiber Arts Friday



* "Careless shepherd make excellent dinner for wolf" - Earl Derr Biggers... Luckily the shepherds on this bag look pretty attentive to their flocks ;)

Secret Project Numero Uno

Aha, now that my mum has received her little present, I can blog about it ;)

It's the first thing I made during MegaCraftingSaturday as it shall now be known *laughs*

I wanted something relatively easy to start with, to get back into using my sewing machine. Searching for easy sewing projects kept bringing up tutorials for making "tea wallets".

Now, mum doesn't drink tea, but she does drink coffee. Decaff specifically. And, to make sure she can always have a cup when out and about, she keeps a stash of decaff sachets in her bag. A plan was formed...

Yep, I'm sure you can see where this is going *laughs* I modified the shapes in the pattern to make a "coffee sachet wallet". Ok, not as catchy a title, but I thought it would be nice to have something to keep those loose sachets neat and tidy (especially as mum has lovely posh handbags and lovely posh purses...)

So, here it is:

I had exactly the right size of cute fabric sample for the outside, with enough left to make a binding for the top of the inner pocket. And I had the right size and colour fabric scrap to make the pocket, which was left from a gift bag I made for a present. The lining is a nicely textured heavy cotton (I think!) that I also used to line the drawstring bag and had plenty left for other things.

Coordinating ribbon and the right coloured button too... Clearly this project was meant to be *smiles and ignores the fact that I didn't have quite the right coloured thread however*

Ok, so my stitching isn't fantastic, and I still can't seem to sew in a straight line *rolls eyes* But I was really pleased with how it came out, and mum seems pretty happy with it too. 

All in all, a good project *satisfied grin*

Alot of Crafts*

*disclaimer for anyone who hasn't read this blog post, I do know that "alot" is grammatically incorrect ;)

I had a very productive weekend, I was on a bit of a crafting mission.

There are a couple of cool projects that I can't yet share *tries to curb my inherent impatience* but they can be revealed later in the week. So that's something to look forward to ;)

First up, I decided to dust off my sewing machine. I hadn't used it for ages, so winding the bobbin took a few minutes of head-scratching, tongue-poking out concentration to remember what went where. But I figured it out and got going...

Initial project (very much a "breaking back in gently, don't want to ruin good fabric" kind of project) was this beach bag. It still needs handles, but I managed to line it and include a pocket *proud grin* The fabric was actually a set of tea towels from poundland! Should be good for my holiday next week - I think it's structurally sound enough to carry a book anyway *laughs*

Then I made some more progress on my knitting. I'm actually liking this marble yarn more than I expected to (although the colours look a bit muddy in this picture, they're actually much better in real life), despite some slightly strange sections where the yarn doesn't change colour for ages. I've cut a couple of sections out to try and keep the striping fairly consistent, but I haven't quite figured out which bit I need to join to do the next stage while keeping the stripes. Some calculation required I think!

In between this flurry of activity, I also did boring housework jobs, prepared tasty slow cooked food and, get this, even tidied up the mess I'd made within a mere hour after finishing! Boyfriend was amazed to get back after the weekend to find no mess, no piles of fabric scraps, bits of paper, etc ;)

Monkey Business

Ok, so there seems to be a bit of an animal theme emerging at the moment!

Knitting-wise, I'm currently making a jumper, so progress is slow but ongoing. I finished the back over the weekend but it's not much to take a picture of, being a large piece of brown knitting, so I thought I'd blog something a bit more colourful instead. As the front has cabling, that might make for a better post when it's done.

So, onto the monkeys...

After I bought my sewing machine, made my cushion covers and altered a couple of tops, I wanted to make something else. But my ambition far outweighed my ability, and a couple of disastrous attempts at bags and clothing later, I decided to scale down a bit *wry smile*

Which is where sock monkeys came in. I can't quite remember where the idea came from, but a bit of online research turned up a tutorial and off I went to the shops. One sock-buying-frenzy later I had my supplies.

I'm not posting a picture of the first one I made, it's utterly hideous. For some reason boyfriend likes it though (well, he says he likes it, he's amazingly supportive of my random obsessions!). I've made quite a few now, with a small amount of improvement... well, if you don't look too closely anyway ;)

This little one I have sat on my desk at work, and I made a similar one in purple zebra stripes for my best friend.

This one was for my brother, a mascot for his festival. I believe he has named it Phil. He took some great pics of it out and about, must get him to send me them again.

This one was for my cousin and his boyfriend. They imaginitively named it "Monkeybutt" *laughs* It's a whole lot bigger than the others I made, being crafted from giant man-socks, but I loved the pattern.

And this last one is my mum's (actually, I made her 2, one for home and one for her desk at work), which she kindly sent me a picture of sat on her bed. It's made of really fluffy socks, so it's gorgeously soft but it was evil to sew! I had to do most of it by hand as it kept gumming up my sewing machine. 

As is my way with any new craft, I went mad buying millions of pairs of socks. Then promptly stopped making sock monkeys *rolls eyes* I will make some more, I actually quite enjoy it, despite the hand sewing component of putting them together. I really don't need to make any more though, I've given away at least 7 and I still have an army of them taking over my house!

Animal Magic

Christmas Wrap-up

Well, now that Christmas is done, I can update with a few of the things I made *grins*

Firstly, I did manage to get my mitts done, and wore them on Christmas Eve! I have, however, only taken a picture of one of them, as I forgot to ask someone to take a pic of me wearing both *rolls eyes*

I love them :D

When I first showed mum she wasn't fantastically impressed (she hates mitts), until I told her that I'd made them myself. Then I got to bask in the glory and praise ;)



I also finished off the chocolates and fudge from a previous post:




On to the finished objects that I couldn't share previously, firstly my brother's scarf, beautifully modelled by the man himself. I'd like to point out that he was far more pleased with it than he appears below, but he chose the picture to be used!

I also got some money from my grandparents, with which I went yarn shopping yesterday, but that's a whole post in itself!