Sunday, July 27, 2008

New pencil case

I went to visit my parents last weekend and my mum found this piece of embroidery amongst her fabric stash. She said she loves doing embroidery but doesn't know what to do with it once she's finished it. I know what she means, there are lots of crafts I wouldn't mind doing but I don't know what I'd do with the results because I don't particularly want to decorate my house with them.

She said I could have it if I wanted it, so today I turned that lonely scrap into a lovely new pencil case for myself, I've needed one for ages, I keep losing or forgetting my pens when I need to take them somewhere. The back of it is a beautiful cream macro suede that was from a upholstery fabric sample (mum has hundreds of these, she was given them when a shop closed down).

I also went to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show but it's a bit late to blog about that now isn't it. I've had a nasty cold all week so haven't felt like posting about it. I'll just say that I had a great time looking at the lovely yarn and patting the animals, two of my favourite pastimes :) you can see some of my photos here.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Jaywalkers

Ta da! I've finished my second pair of socks and they're fabulous! They are the famous Jaywalker pattern (available for free on Ravelry). Raverly says 4480 people have made this pattern!

I'm trying to start a toe-up pair of socks but having trouble with the figure 8 cast on and with my guage and it's really shitting me actually. I love knitting but I always have trouble with starting a new project, it's so stressful choosing the exact right yarn, colour, size, etc etc. I'm tempted just to do the socks from the cuff down but I don't want to run out of yarn like I did with the Jaywalkers and have to buy a new ball which would be from a different dye lot. You can see the very different toe on one of the socks. It doesn't bother me too much but I'd rather it didn't happen regularly.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Crumpets - update

I had another go at making crumpets and these turned out much better, I put more yeast in so they were lovely and light. And heart shaped!

Handy pouch - update

Made another handy pouch and this time I took a picture of the seams inside, neat aren't they!

Mobile

I made this mobile a couple of weeks ago from some thickish black paper (120gsm?) and a wire clothes hanger. The wire was a real PITA to bend (notice I didn't bend the ends of the short piece) and it's a bit too heavy really, it's very hard to get it to hang straight. I have since bought some very thin dowel and will give that a go with my next one but ideally I'd use some very fine wire. Does anyone know where to get some? I tried Bunnings but they only sell wire in rolls and it needs to be straight.

Notice the little swing hanging from the tree? I think it's pretty cute, if I do say so myself :)