Spring Moss unveiling

It's done! I have finished the Spring Moss Jacket at last.

It had sat in a bag whispering mournfully at me for a while, and last night I finally got around to putting on the fastenings to finish it off.

I have to say I'm not keen on seaming moss stitch. If I did another moss stitch project (which I might) then I would try to make it completely seam-free.

I ended up using popper fasteners with buttons on top for show - the main reason being that I forgot to do the buttonholes while knitting the front!

I'm really pleased with it - and also that it was made entirely from my (almost vintage) stash of 500g of Rowan All Seasons Cotton.

Perfect for the spring.

Monochrome crochet

I recently finished a very long crochet beaded wrap necklace, and have just listed it in my Etsy shop.

When I say long, I mean l o n g! If I stand up and hold with my arm outstretched it trails on the floor..

I've used Rowan Shimmer yarn in shade "Jet", with a selection of clear and black beads threaded on before I crocheted the long loop. In the middle is a gorgeous starfish pendant.

It seems that most things I do now are inspired by the sea - I wonder why?!

You can also see my star buy of this week - a lovely dressmakers dummy in great condition on a pine stand for just £25. There's always something interesting to be found by browsing through the classified ads in your local newspaper!

Easter treats

I hope everyone has enjoyed the Easter break! We're still making the most of our week off work with our daughters.

This year has shown us how much our girls are growing up; the focus hasn't been so much on chocolate eggs!

They were sent some money to choose their own Easter gift from their nan, and they invested in some (more) RubyRuth dolls which they spotted at the craft fair in Truro.

These are handmade individual dolls, very unique and strangely wonderful!

I bought a treat to share with my husband - Trenance chocolate - yum.

Apparently you can walk around the factory to see the chocolate products being made - I feel a visit coming on soon! 

There are some great chocolate dinosaurs, butterflies, and teddies, and the taste is fabulous.

Right, it's time to soak my aching limbs in the bath - we walked the bridleways to Perranporth and back today, stopping at the Filling Station to enjoy their super-tasty paninis for lunch. Of course we wandered down to the sea to watch the surfers - too cold for me to go in yet though! 

It was a fabulous walk with amazing countryside and sea views - over 5 miles altogether. We're so grateful to be living here.

Shortlisted

 

Recently I posted about entering the makers-online photo contest with a picture of my lovely hand-dyed Groover superwash wool/silk/bamboo blend 4ply/sock yarn.

Well I didn't win, but I was included in the shortlist of 27 of their favourite photos! I'm really pleased as my photography skills are only just improving thanks to taking produce pictures for my Etsy shop. Check out the winning and other shortlisted photos - they're great!

EtsyHookers Team Challenge

The polls are open for the EtsyHookers Team Challenge! Place your vote before 8th April for the best Irish themed crochet item: http://etsyhookers.blogspot.com/

Sew pleased!

We were fortunate enough to be given a car booster seat for my youngest DD several years back. 

It was very tatty but useable, so I just cut a piece of fabric and glued it to the top of the cushion to make do. That's what you see here.

When the glue finally gave up last week, we decided it was time to mend it properly!

DD chose some lovely bright cotton fabric from my stash and I bought matching purple bias binding from my local fabric shop for 25p. 

The lovely lady there very kindly gave me an offcut of thick interlining to cover up the worst of the torn cushion underneath, and give it a plusher feel.

I've worked on this every time I had a few minutes spare this week, and today dusted off (literally!) my trusty sewing machine for the final part.

Tada! Here it is - beautiful.

Youngest DD loves it and now eldest DD wishes she still needed to use one!

I like my postie!

He brought me a package sent all the way from Canada today.

These are supplies I bought from YukiDesigns which stock some fantastic buttons, beads, and other goodies.

These beads are all resin - they have a lovely chunky feel with beautiful colour depth.

I love the metal flower and molecule bubble connectors, and have vague ideas floating around in my head for incorporating them in some crochet necklace designs..

Stash Enhancement - but not yarn

I'm trying not to purchase any more yarn for "a while" - that's vague enough to keep me from having withdrawal symptoms. In the meantiume though, I have been buying other craft supplies.

I supported my local flea market recently when I discovered a lady there selling beads. Of course I couldn't resist.

This little haul of medium to large glass beads cost me £3. Well who can resist a bargain?

I love turquoise!

We're waiting for some bits and pieces to arive to start crafting with the gorgeous bright felts and buttons. In the meantime, I've been crocheting with some vibrant turquoise blue cotton.

I've made some short summer fingerless gloves in a clean and crisp design. These can be dressed up with beads, buttons and bows - or worn plain and simple. They're available in my Etsy shop now!

A pair of black ones will be flying off the hook next - and I'm hoping to put the pattern up for sale too.

It must be Spring!

The postie brought a lovely package today from Titchables - amazingly fast as I only bought these yesterday!

I would recommend you take a look at the listings in Titchables shop - there are some lovely supplies and cute badges, all at very reasonable prices.

I indulged in some impulse buying and gave in to these gorgeous bright felt squares and buttons. 

They are inspiring me to do some litte fun projects with my daughters for spring - hairband decorations, badges, charms, and such.

I can't wait to show these to my girls when they get back from school - I know they'll be as excited by those colours as I am!

Bahama Blue

I've been feeling the need to crochet some more jewellery recently. Finally I got some time with enough daylight to pick out the beads and yarn that I wanted to use.

This necklace is crocheted with some gorgeous hand-dyed crochet cotton that I bought from fellow Etsy seller Snappish - her shop is Brea-Aly Threads. 

The colour graduations from blues to purples are really lovely, and the cotton is fine enough to make a delicate but strong item.

I added several lots of beads in co-ordinating colours and I love the finished look. 

You'll have to take a look at the listing to see the two fabulous big beads by the fastener close-up!

Makers online photo contest

The makers-online.co.uk website is currently running a photo contest with a top prize of £200 up for grabs!

I sent my entry in and was thrilled to find that it's been included in their blog feature too. Go take a look and get your entry in - closing date is 26th March.

Mothers Day treats

I hope all mums celebrating Mother's Day yesterday were made to feel well and truly appreciated - I certainly was.

We had a lovely day, some of which was spent at the beach in wonderful warm sunshine. My daughters both worked hard on making me some wonderful cards, and I was treated to two fabulous gifts.

This arrangement is just one third of the gorgeous bouquet of flowers I was given, and I can now book myself to a pampering aroma back massage at my local top2toe beauty salon via my gift voucher!

Nearly there!

My spring moss cardi is nearly done! The back and fronts worked all in one piece are now finished, and I did a 3-needle cast-off to seam the shoulders.

I am going to have to seam the sleeves and sew them onto the body, but that'll be the only sewing in the whole piece.

Eldest DD wants one of these now; if I did do another I may change the shoulder to a modified dropped shoulder with grafted sleeves. After all this is an aran weight yarn worked in moss stitch so I think seams will be pretty bulky.

Anyway, on with the final sleeve!

EtsyHookers Creative Challenge No. 9

I recently joined the EtsyHookers group - crocheters of course!

They run regular challenges and I decided to take part in this one for St Patrick's Day. The challenge is to crochet any item with an Irish theme.

I've crocheted a simple little shamrock bookmark from some leftover Cherry Tree Hill variegated emerald green sock yarn and a dark green glass bead. I made up my own shamrock pattern based on some others that I found. Mine suits the yarn weight better.

Voting opens over at the EtsyHookers blog from 31st March.

Mmmm - cupcakes!

I've just bought my first silicon bakeware after many months of wondering about it - cupcake cases of course!

We gave them a test today with the first batch of cakes - vanilla, coconut and chocolate chip cakes with all manner of toppings! I made the cakes and the girls had great fun decorating them.

The cases are great - no cake left in them when we peel them off. The cakes are scrummy too - had to get a quick shot of these before they disappear.

Housewarming gift

My brother and his family are moving house next week, so I decided to buy a housewarming gift for them - from Etsy of course!

I chose this lovely printed teatowel from Taylors Type and an equally cute "New Home" card from amybird art.

Perfect!

Chugging along

The moss stitch cardi is coming along - s l o w l y.

There are around 170 stitches per row at the moment as I'm doing the back and fronts all in one. Pro - no seaming. Con - only time for about 8 rows per knitting session!

I've also been taking photos of my jewellery at every possible moment when there aren't too many clouds around. That's not today then!

I made lots of items a few months back and didn't get around to photographing them.

Here is my latest Etsy listing - a cute pair of Little Princess earrings!

Mothers Day gift ideas

I finally managed to grab a Treasury spot!

With Mother's Day coming up on 14th March here in the UK I decided to dedicate it to gift ideas for our lovely mums.

Take a look and see if it inspires you!

All mine

I don't know how long it's been, but I suddenley got the urge for a new knitting project - for myself.

I saw this Elissa shrug in the Truro Fat Face store recently. I liked it a lot but wanted longer sleeves and a cotton blend yarn. Time to dig out the trusty Knitware Sweaters software!

I've included three-quarter sleeves in my version and the yarn is 500g of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the lovely raspberry pink - from stash. (Note the halo.)

I've printed out the front chart and modified it for the curved shaping, and I'm planning on knitting the fronts and back in one piece on a circular needle, bottom-up. The first sleeve is done in two evenings..

Vote of Confidence

Yesterday was officially A Good Day.

First I had a wonderful email praising my efforts circulated at work yesterday afternoon - a rare thing indeed!

Then last night I was voted in as Secretary for our village show committee. Best start being efficient there too. :)

We're looking forward to this weekend - we're going out with friends for a gorgeous Valentine's meal at our fantastic local Italian restaurant - Del Mar. Yum!

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

Double Up with the Pinks

I was very happy to find out via the Etsy Treasury Hunt that I am featured in a beautiful treasury at the moment called "So Very Raspberry".

Do take a look if you can - there are some gorgeous items in those fab colours!

I was also pleasantly surprised to receive a message from funky diva designs to say that she has included my raspberry mohair scarflette in her "Pretty In Pink" blog feature this week.

Funky diva designs shop has some lovely handmade bags and accessories - my favourite is this Gemma Bag in some fantastic bright Amy Butler fabric.

I could see that in my life!

Accepted!

Craftgawker was brought to my attention by AMIDesign's post about her submission - thanks Alison!

Since then, Craftgawker must have got really popular as they're now only accepting one submission at a time.

After waiting a few days I've had my submission accepted - yay! 

More exposure for my Etsy shop can only be a good thing.

Commission knitting

A week or so ago a work colleague asked me to knit him a woollen hat for when he's out walking. Great! My DH doesn't go for much knitwear so it was lovely to have a different type of project.

I picked out some pattern and yarn selections, and he made his choice. He opted for the Jacques Cousteau hat which is a free pattern, thankfully with an English translation. 

The chosen yarn was Rowan Felted Tweed DK in shade Ancient (172) - a lovely machine-washable merino, alpaca and viscose blend.

It was a quick and easy knit, but not too boring either. I used a 100cm long 3.5mm Addi Turbo circular needle for the lot with magic loop. A doddle!

Wool in the news

I noticed a brief slideshow on the BBC website yesterday - How wool went out of fashion. Glad to see it's being proclaimed as coming back again!


Also there's this one - Woman's Hour - talking to Julia Hopson from the Cornish Organic Wool Company.


Very appropriate now that we live here in beautiful Cornwall!

Valentine Feature

I just noticed that the UK Handmade Valentine Gift Guide is up, so I browsed through. 

Guess what? My Red Heart Handwarmers are in there! Woohoo!

Just what I needed to brighten the day. :)

Spread a little sunshine

I was thrilled to find out that this week my shop is the topic of the Wilde Designs Manic Monday Blog Feature! Check it out!

I was also very pleased to receive the Sunshine Award from AMIDesigns - thanks Alison!

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.

The rules for accepting this award are:-

• Put the logo on your blog or within your post
• Pass the award onto 12 bloggers
• Link the nominees within your post
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

I don't actually follow too many blogs that are up to date, So here are the 10 blogs I have chosen:

• Skein  
• Yarn in my Pocket 
• Boo's Jewellery 
• The Keyboard Biologist Knits 
• Crafty Peach 
• The Champagne Bohemian 
• Poppy Cottage 
• purplecats corner
• Janie Crow 
• The Pursuit of Etsyness

Enjoy!

Decorative tools

I love using decorative tools, especially in my hobbies, such as beaded stitch markers.

I sold a set of my own handmade stitch markers on Etsy this morning, and have a quick search to see what kinds other talented Etsyknitters were selling. I found a fantastic selection! Here are some of my favourites.

I adore these alpaca stitch markers from DesignsbyTami.

Incredibly cute!

Next is a rainbow of colours in these beautiful millefiori stitch markers from jeanettejedd.

The opening loops mean they can be used for both knitting and crochet - bonus!

I love dragonfly designs - so this set really stood out to me.

They are from glitterbug. Beautiful.

This Crazy Cousin Lucy set from MDKnits would make me smile each time I used them.

Unique!

Finally, as we live just 2 miles from the coast, I couldn't resist these By The Sea stitch markers from mrae123.

Just fun!

Etsy Treasury Hunt

DH and I spent some time last night creating an advertising jpeg for my Etsy shop to go onto the Etsy Treasury Hunt site. I really pleased with it! 

My photography and Photoshop skills are slowly improving - but it's a long process. There's so much to learn - and my MSc in Advanced Software Technology doesn't help one bit!

The Treasury Hunt is a gem if you like making Etsy treasuries.  It'll tell you when the Treasury (and Treasury West) is due to open - brilliant.

Now I'm just hoping to actually be able to get to the computer when I check it sometime...

Christmas card re-uses

I do like Christmas cards - probably more so after Christmas than before!

I find it very satisfying to re-use them by making them into gift tags.

This time I've done them in a Mini-Moo-inspired style. The back is left blank to write on.

Love 'em!

Chilled out

TWO whole days off school because of snow? Unheard of here in Cornwall! But when fingers and toes need to warm up, out come the face paints..

New Year, New Sale section

As part of my New Year etsy shop update, I've created a brand new SALE section!

It includes various different handcrafted items from my older stock at bargain prices - take a peek!

The old and the new

So... 2010! Another year whizzed past again. A quick round up..

I did manage to grow my nails this year - and after 33 years of biting them I'm rather pleased with my achievement. Heaven only knows why it took me this long to get around to it.

We did get the extension started - and continued much further than anticipated, despite several major problems unearthed (literally!) and rectified along the way. Our daughters moved into their new bedrooms in August, and we are really happy with it all. The main lesson learned - expect the unexpected!

My etsy shop had the best year of sales so far - mainly because I dedicated much of my crafting time to it. It has a long way to go, but at least it's heading in the right direction.

I seem to have knitted quite a few pairs of socks last year-  mainly for my daughters. 2009 also saw the rebranding of my hand-dyed yarns to Perran Yarns, and the start of my knitting and crocheting necklaces.

On the family front, I gained a new niece - Sophie May, and we have another male family member due this March - my husband's cousin's baby.

I also managed to go down the death slide - a major achievement for somebody so scared of falling as me!

This blog was fairly consistently neglected throughout 2009! I really should try to do better this year. Really.

So what am I expecting from 2010?

Well I really do want to change the shape of my midriff. I don't really care what the numbers on the scales say. I just want to be more happy with my shape. That means one thing - exercise!

I would also like to cope with our hectic daily life with a little more ease and less stress. This may in turn improve the dyshidrotic eczema on my fingers - hopefully.

And this year, definately, we are going to spend more time on the beach - after all it's only 2 miles away!

AWOL

Oops, I seem to have gone missing for a while. Been busy dealing with winter bugs, celebrating eldest DD's 11th birthday and preparing for a lovely family Christmas. Should quieten down a little just before New Year - maybe.. Merry Christmas everyone!

This week made me say...

Pardon? Our local chemist now delivers prescriptions to our village pub for us to collect if we want! Very useful - the pub is less than 2 minutes walk from us.

Eeek! The high winds this week were scary - they whipped up our gas barbecue which broke two of our roof ridge tiles! Thankfully the tiles were spares, on the floor - and the barbecue and gas bottle weren't damaged.

Mmm... I bought some mini fizzing bath melts from Etsy seller
mmmmhandmadesoap - so cute - a fab and affordable gift!

A day at the Fair

Last Saturday I had a stall at a local Craft Fair, and we had a great day!

It's a well-established event - well organised and attended, with over 100 stalls.

My eldest DD came along to help, and was very keen to run the stall by herself whilst I went off to browse the other stalls. She did very well too! We made quite a few sales, which is really encouraging.

The necklace display stands from Boo's Jewellery templates worked really well. I learned a few more lessons too:

• My items need more labels - a pull-on cowl is obvious to me as I made it but I had lots of people asking what it was
• I need to get a better-looking piece of fabric to cover the table with - I may invest in a length of black velvet for the next fair
• My own invention of the hand display stands for my fingerless gloves worked well
• Using our bathroom cabinet without the drawers worked well to add height
• Some kind of backdrop would help to focus attention on the items on the table rather than whatever is behind it.

More thinking to do for the next one then...

Winter weddings

Tada! Here's my latest addition to my Etsy shop - and it made me very happy to make them!

Not that I'm going to a winter wedding or even know any winter brides to give them to. I just really enjoyed making them.

The Sublime Angora Merino yarn is just that - sublime to touch. I adore this stitch pattern and they are a quick knit.

I spent quite a while handsewing on the 130 glass seed beads but, strangely enough for me, I enjoyed doing that too!

I even liked staging the photographs as I had remembered that I still have my own wedding outfit pieces. I found them out, fondly looked through them, and decided to use my veil as the background. Quite romantic I think!

Alison from AMIDesigns must have been thinking along the same lines as she has just listed this beautiful bracelet too.

Gorgeous!

A November Sunset

I was very happy to receive a message on Etsy from Caitlin tonight saying that she has included me in her treasury - A November Sunset - yay!

It is a beautiful selection; those colours are gorgeous and perfect for this time of year. Dark, rich, warm, and comforting.

Caitlin has very kindly included my Regal Bounty hand-dyed laceweight merino yarn.

You may want to take a look at Caitlin's shop too - she has some absolutely gorgeous crochet snowflakes for sale.

Thanks Caitlin!

The high..

The last few days have been quite a rollercoaster, starting with a high on Saturday - literally, terrifyingly high!

We went out to a huge local indoor play area as the weather wasn't very good and the kids needed to burn off some energy. Whilst there I was being nagged by our daughters (as usual) to try out the death drop slide (a vertical drop to start with, then a curve to slow you down at the bottom) which they go on regularly. I decided I would give it a go - despite being absolutely terrified of falling from heights all my life.

I went to the top of the lowest slide - about 36 feet up with a bump in the middle so it's not so bad - with my two DDs. That may not seem much for most people but I get electric shocks through my hands and feet even thinking of going up high or looking at high-up scenes on the TV!

I sat at the top and could barely get my legs over as I was so terrified. Youngest DD went down the slide and waited at the bottom with DH, and eldest DD sat with me at the top. My whole body was shaking with fear and according to DH I was hyperventilating - visible to him on the ground!

Eventually I forced my body to work, started babbling to myself about it being safe etc, and lurched forward.

I have no recollection of going down as it was so fast, but when I got to the bottom I lay there and started to cry! I had done it! I never in my life thought I would be able to do that.

My family were so happy for me, hugging, laughing etc, whilst I wiped away my tears. I had to wait for a few minutes to calm down - I was still shaking so much I couldn't hold my coffee without spilling it!

The other adults in the place must have thought I was insane, but I don't care. I did it!

Sock disaster

Warning sock knitters....

If you are of a nervous disposition, avert your eyes now - graphic scenes of sock disaster coming up...

There - I told you it was nasty didn't I?

The most enormous hole in my beloved Tidal Wave cashmere socks in place of where the heel was when I put them on - and the same in the other one too!

This calls for some serious investigation into repairs.. watch this space..

Wedgewood Blue

I love wedgewood blue plates. They remind me of being at my grandmother's house when I was a child. The colours of my latest Etsy listing remind me of that plate!

I handknitted this scarf from 3 balls of variegated blue cotton yarn. That's all I had of it in my stash and I wanted to make something special with it.

I chose a lovely eyelet ripple pattern which highlighted the colour changes without giving solid stripes.

The eyelets meant I could thread ribbons through easily too. I took the scarf with me to my local haberdashery and got the perfect matching shades.

It took me ages to get around to threading the ribbons! I never quite felt like doing it, but once I did it hardly took any time at all.

I love the finished look. What do you think?

Oh yes.. knitting!

Yes, that is what I used to blog about isn't it - knitting and crochet projects?!

Well I think it's about time I showed some more progress..

A few days ago I sold the gorgeous cranberry  hand/wristwarmers which were one of my absolute favourite knits.

The yarn is Sublime Angora Merino DK - so very luxurious, like melted butter on the skin!

I love the Sublime yarns and therefore I happen to have more of this yarn - in a very pale cream shade (linen) and a rich deep purple (berry).

Of course I had to make more fabulous wristies with it.

They are a quick knit, with enough interest in the lace hand-covering part to keep them interesting. I'm modifying the edging slightly on this pair - the last one was good but a little longer than I wanted.

A current crochet project (note "a" not "the" - I like to have choices!) is a set of coasters for a family member for Christmas.

They are in her favourite colours of Rowan Linen Drape - lilac and purple.

The yarn is giving a lovely crisp stitch texture but should have the absorbancy I like of these coasters.

I seem to be almost following a colour scheme through my projects for now!

Halloween happenings

The first of the Falmouth Craft Fairs is now done, and unfortunately only resulted in one small sale so the day ended as a financial loss.

However it wasn't all well as I did learn something - the necklace stands from Boo Jewellery certainly created interest, so I'd like to come up with display stands for my cowls and gloves too. I have a few ideas to play with - more soon!

I also bought my first Christmas present for this year! It's a really lovely felt flower mobile made by the fair's organiser Amanda from her stand Lemon Sherbet. I love it and intend to give it to my adorable newest for Christmas.

After the fair we went to a Halloween Party at my in-laws' house - great fun!

We played mummy wrapping and marshamallow bobbing, and had lots of great food.

I think the preparation for Halloween parties is as good as the evening itself - pumpkin carving and baking. Now I really must use a pumpkin for soup!