Knit & Sew & Finish

I've finally finished a couple of projects! 

First up is this pair of wrist warmers.Looking at my Ravelry notebook, it's taken me 12mths to finish them! The yarn is Rowan Pure Wool Aran, which was very thick, but with no ease, so working on DPN's I tried to be a bit looser than normal.

I'd quite like a cowl to match but I don't think I'd like this yarn next to my neck, it's not soft enough for me.

Next up on the finishing pile was this pair of cord trousers for the littlest. It's a free pattern from MADE

in a 2-3 size, which fit my just turned 3 year old perfectly but they probably won't last long, so I may have to have a go at up-sizing the pattern.

They fit really nicely and were really easy to put together, I especially like the flat front, as it makes them look much less homemade.  If I had a serger, the seams would be even neater!

I did slim down the legs at the bottom a bit, by about an inch so they'd look a bit more girl skinny!

Apologies for the rubbish pics!

Next up is a Prima tunic dress I've been trying to adjust for months.....shall I accept bets on how long that takes?!

More making!

Being back at work three days a week is seriously affecting my crafty mojo,

evenings are currently spent in a vegetative state after putting the kids to bed!

But I did make things a while ago......

Here is Rowan's mobile, not finished until she was about 6mths old, but hey!

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/HoldMyHand/bunny-mobile

This little mouse from Mollie Makes was very fiddly but my Mum liked it!

I jazzed up some cheap Ikea towels (20p each) with free ribbon from Mollie Makes!

and Rowan's nearly growing out of these but they're super comfy, the colours aren't great but they were made out of a red t-shirt and a blue sweatshirt both from the charity shop.  The pattern is Bubble Pants by Meg McElwee's Growing up Sew Liberated and is fantastic for cloth nappy big butt babies!

I'm trying to plan some Christmas crafting and some ideas for the kids to do, come and see on Pinterest!

I'd love to see what other people are up to....

Oh and it's The Vintage & Handmade Fair on Saturday, Chipping Sodbury.

I have a few pennies to spend and am really looking forward to some child free hours!

Sewing Mojo

The mornings may be colder but you can't beat a sunny winter's morning.

I think I must be solar-powered, as it really get's me moving!

 You may have caught a peek at my Christmas present (to myself!) in the Dolly Sling post..I'm sooo happy to finally have a fully working sewing machine!

I've got a Janome DC3050, from eBay for £180 and she's lovely!

I've got feet and stitches I don't know what to do with but it's the basic's I love, the ability to feed material through with no pushing or pulling and having adjustable speed control - it's effortless.

So after feeling nervous about actually using her instead of gazing wistfully at her, I jumped straight in, not worried about technique or looks, just getting down to some simple sewing. You know that feeling where you don't care how it turns out as it's the actual process of doing it that's the fun bit?

Which is fortunate as with the project below, I forgot to leave the opening for turning out and had to unpick and (hurrah!) do More sewing!!

So firstly I've finished Rowan's Christmas present!

The rectangle of knitting has now been backed with this gorgeous giraffe safari print and I added in a few ribbon taggies around the edges.

I've had a go at making a dribble bib, using a hungry caterpillar fat quarter and an old terry towelling cot sheet. Used one of the machines fancy stretch stitches for it as it didn't feed properly with a straight stitch.

 

A last minute project is a Kirtle! My daughter is having a Tudor day which requires a costume, so I found on the Hampton Court Palace website an actual pattern for a girls tudor style bodice dress.

I'm only loosely following the instructions as it doesn't need to be accurate. I got the green fabric from the charity shop for £3 and also bought a child's dress for the net underskirt for £3.

Lastly is my largest project, still in progress, the Hungry Caterpillar quilt, I got this from the Festival of Quilts in August and have just started it, hopefully it will be a play mat for Rowan.

It's really simple, the hardest part for me is cutting straight lines with my rotary cutter and too-small cutting mat (bigger is definitely better!) and then sewing a straight line! It's harder then it looks, would love a 1/4" foot for the machine!

Still I'm enjoying it and I think it'll look great when finished.

Knitting Round-Up

I've been on a knitting high recently, must be the winter weather, it's so lovely getting comfy on the sofa and immersing yourself in a pattern (until it goes wrong!).

All details are on Ravelry - My name is: HoldMyHand,do add me as a friend so I can see what you're up to too. If you haven't signed up to Ravelry you really should, it's such a fabulous resource and I love seeing how many projects I've finished since I first started knitting a couple of years back, I think I'm slowly improving!

Getting things done

Thanks to maternity leave I've been able to straighten out our home, I'm afraid I'm not naturally tidy and I usually let things build up until I'm overwhelmed by the mess!  Well, our house was at that stage again, so I've been having a blitz, not just a put things away and hoover type clean, but a real sort through things and chuck away.  A deep clean, a finding places for things type of clean!  I've started room by room, the kids first!  Trying to designate areas/boxes for different types of toys etc and *whisper* even thrown old/broken/rubbish toys away! They haven't noticed, which means they weren't loved and that we have too many anyway!

Storage is our real problem and at the moment we don't have money to invest in any, so I've been making do with what we have and clearing out what we don't need, which means lots of books gone, old clothes & shoes gone and even a sort out of my fabric stash!  I managed to only keep really lovely fabric, most of the sheets/duvets I've bought from charity shops thinking they'll be useful, have had to go back to the charity shop (where they'll at least generate more money for them) as I can't justify keeping everything when I'm trying to make room for a third baby in our two-bed shoebox of a house!

I've actually moved furniture to hoover rather than going round it!  Which hasn't done much for my painful pelvis though :(

I've had some fabulous help from my family with painting the hall and our feature wall in our lounge - which is now a more darker teal colour and looks fab. 

I've sorted out all the pictures I wanted to put up on our stair wall rather than waiting in a pile and mounted and hung them.

The Ercol shelf is finally up and looks fab, I got this from the charity warehouse months ago for about a fiver and it was quite a dark colour. I'm quite proud of it, after a good sanding and waxing it looks really lovely.

 I shall have to remember to rotate the display!

And I've been experimenting, more Annie Sloan!  I've got two of these chairs and I did start sanding them down to wax but haven't finished them, so I thought I might paint one for an instant make-over.  I did the legs to test but I'm not sure now, the red is so matt it's not very bright, not sure whether I can varnish over to get it glossy?  Or whether it would look cheap if it was shiny?  Any thoughts?

The other bonus of maternity leave and the kids finally being back at school is the time for knitting!

I've finally finished the Debbie Bliss cardigan - the seaming's not very professional but I doubt the baby will mind!

and I'm almost done on the bunny mobile..

All pattern info can be found on my Ravelry page, where you can find me as HoldMyHand.
I've already got the yarn for the next project, another Debbie Bliss pattern!

Quiet week

I have a bit of a quiet week, feeling under the weather and I haven't even wanted to knit much, so I can tell my energy levels have had a battering.

I did manage to finish the cashmerino baby hat, but I got a bit carried away and knit too much so had to rip back at one point!  So now I can see a small imperfection in it I'm wondering whether to send it to the intended recipient or make another one?!  I think my mattress stitch is improving though, but again it gives me cold feet about gifting something I've made to someone else who may not realise what work went into it and just see a boring knitted gift.  We talk about knitting having a revival but has it really in the general masses?  There is still an adversion to hand-knitted gifts out there I feel by people who are not 'in the know'.

Speaking of handmade gifts, I finally got a picture of the tree decoration I made for my Mum at Christmas, I think she's liked it, as it hasn't gone away with all the other Christmas decorations!

I got the free pattern from the lovely Lupin over at: http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.com/.  I got the felt from her shop too and it's lovely stuff, the range of colours are fabulous.

Have a good week!

Still Knitting...

        
 I've got a new addiction, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn!  It's so lovely to work with, all soft and silky and I'm loving the smallness of baby patterns!  I've finished two pairs of the simple baby booties, very simple and quick, the only thing I wonder about is how they'll fit and if they're comfortable, I need a baby to try them on!

 Next up is a hat to match, again in the neutral cream, again another simple pattern, all stocking stitch.

 The pattern is from the Baby Cashmerino 2 pattern book, which I got from eBay last week, it has some great small simple projects, I'd like to try a cardigan at some point.

I have started the moss stitch rabbit but I have say I've got a bit in a pickle with 'pkp' !  Need a bit more practice with that one!

I've also completed the cotton DK hat from Claire Montgomerie's book 'Easy Baby Knits', the pattern was really easy but I'm not sold on the yarn, it was like knitting with string!  I'm going to give it a wash to see if it softens up as it seems quite heavy and rigid for a baby item.

Now all I need is for the recipients to actually arrive!  Fingers crossed for the mums.

Monday

New Year, so a new moodboard selection is up!  It's hopefully a bit spring-like, clean and fresh, which is what I'm craving at the moment!  Both in my house and outside in the weather!

I've been rolling on with the Redhook, the rib is going well, I noticed a few ladders where I had the large plastic stitch markers, so thanks to a tip from Lion Brand Yarn (I get their weekly emails) I replaced them with small elastic bands, these are super small hair bands from Claire's Accessories and they're fab, they come in different colours too which could be handy!

As with any large project I find you need a smaller on the go project to satisfy that achievement urge, so as I know of two people who are expecting littles soon, I saw this quick and easy project in this months 'Knit Today' (issue 55) for simple booties.

Sadly I didn't have any Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, so I just had to go out and get some!!  Any excuse, and it's lovely stuff, really soft and should wash ok.  I went for the deep red and also got some cream - I'm testing out the red, but will do a pair in cream too and will probably send those off as they're a bit more neutral?

There is a bit of a mistake in the pattern though, the decrease rows are labelled wrongly, after knitting the first 18 rows it then reads ' Row 13'....  Just ignore the numbering and follow the rows one after the other, so it should read' Row 19 - 21'.  If that doesn't make sense, I found the answer on Knit Today's Facebook page and then also on Ravelry in the Knit Today group.
I should have one finished tonight?! *slow knitter*!

New Year, New Knitting

Hurray for January, no more crafting to deadlines (although it can be useful & productive!), it's a time of having a think and deciding what YOU want to make!
So after looking at what I had in my yarn stash, rather than buying new wool, I decided to find a better use for the Rowan Felted Tweed I've had for about a year now.  I originally bought 4 balls of this as I'd seen a pattern on Ravelry that I liked, no matter that the suggested yarn was alpaca and a bit thicker, I thought with a bit of maths to amend the pattern and some swatching I'd be sorted.....yes...well...I am a novice knitter I forgot, the maths I eventually mananged, what I couldn't get was the stitch tension looking nice on the larger needles I'd chosen.  So to cut a long story short, the project wasn't getting done because I wasn't happy with it, so with my January 'can do' attitude I had the brain-wave to search Ravelry for a pattern based upon the yarn I had *ding* - *lightbulb moment*!
Now it also had to be fairy easy as this was to be my first garment! I think I've done well, I've found 'Redhook' by Brooklyn Tweed, which is a lovely long waistcoat/vest type garment with small cap sleeves and is just rib and stocking stitch.  Head over to Ravelry and find me, I'm HoldMyHand, where you can see more!

I had an awful time starting off though, casting on and counting 244 sttiches was difficult for my little brain but then trying to get the rib pattern (k2p2) started proved to be beyond my novice skills!
I think I ripped back and re-started about 5 times, getting into a rhythm and having the right amount of stitches at the end of  every row was a nightmare, but I perservered, I broke down the three parts onto a piece of paper and wrote down what the pattern would be for each RS & WS row and what type of stitch I would be on at the end of each part so that if I did go wrong I'd know quickly and not at the end of 244 stitches!!
I've done about 1.5" of the 5" rib section now and once I got into the rhythm it was so much easier, that and remembering to purl the bumpy stitches!  The yarn is looking really nice too, the flecky colour is working up very attractively

While all the bad juju was going on with the above project I needed a soothing project to complete, ie. something easy!  So with the Sirdar Big Softie I got before Christmas I decided  to do some quick wristlets..

Very easy, I cast on 19 stitches (measured around knuckle width) and did a long rectangle in stocking stitch until I got a length from fore-arm to knuckles.  I then sewed up the side seam, leaving a gap for the thumb, nice and quick!  The bulky wool is really soft and warm, one ball was just enough for two, but I have a second ball left, so might think about a scarf to match, something short with a bit of character, more like a neck-warmer than a traditional scarf, I think I will have to peruse Ravelry again!

Christmas Crafts unveiled

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a lovely peaceful time with friends or family, the girls have had a present-tastic time and on the crafty side, I was very pleased to finish all the projects I started!

The above dolly was for my youngest, it's taken from the book 'Made by Me' by Jane Bull, which I have now bought as it's got lots of easy crafts for young girls (and their mums!) to try. It's a simple sleepy/awake dolly with knitted hat and simple dresses. I then made a simple cover, pillow and mattress from Ikea fabric and wadding to fill an old dolly bed/basket we picked up at a jumble sale.
The verdict? Was good, thankfully! I made a small drawstring bag and added in some extra dresses so she had fun dressing/undressing her. I made the neckline with elastic instead ribbon for easier changing and used pinking shears to cut as there were no hems in the pattern.

For my eldest I made the Lily doll and Pickle the panda from the Emma Thomson series of books, the were a bit fiddly, the patterns are available in two of the story books and worked up quite quickly.
The monkeys are from the Patons Colour Works Aran pattern book, I made one and my Mum made the other and it's really interesting to see the differences between our styles!  The sizes are different and the features make them really unique!
The last bunnies were not homemade, but came from the lovely stall at Vintage & Handmade by Donna Flower and have been loved and taken to bed already.

I also completed gifts for my family, but stupidly forgot to photograph them!  I'll see if I can a photo at the weekend.

So I was very happy to be able to stick to my pledge of homemade gifts and second-hand presents for the girls, as the majority were, eBay supplied a lot of the presents, marble run and more lego were a hit.
The new items were making kits like Hama beads...

Both the girls like these and they're a nice quiet activity!  This one is a mobile making kit, the youngest needs a bit of a hand but it should look good when it's finished.

Well, it takes ages to get ready for but quick as a flash Christmas is over!

Better start thinking about New Year resolutions now, the first will be more regular blogging I hope, I think I'll try to set a day of the week for a regular posting, perhaps I should take part in a challenge to keep me motivated?!

An early purse warning & a WIP round-up

An early notification for this week folks, this upcoming weekend is officially 'Spending Weekend'!

Not only is the very fabulous original 'Vintage & Handmade Christmas Fair' on Sunday in Chipping Sodbury, but also on Saturday at the Oxford Town Hall is the 'Handmade & Gorgeous Fair'.  This is a newly run fair this year as sadly the original 'Handm@de Oxford Fair' could not take place, so it's a bit of an unknown as to what sellers will be there (there doesn't seem to be a listing on the web), but I shall pop along and show support and report back!

The good news of the week is that I finally found my camera, for reasons unclear to me now it was in the tea & coffee cupboard in the kitchen!  Goodness knows what I was thinking, though I did try and put the corn flakes box into the fridge yesterday too!

So I can show you where I am on my WIP's...

First wristlet finished, hurrah as it was VERY boring to knit!  Now I've just got to get the motivation to do another one!!
But I've got a different knitting project on the go first, yes it's the start of the Christmas crafting!  After the success of the knitted mice last year, I am attempting yet more woolly gifts for the girls.
First on the list is the Patons monkey as seen at Ally Pally,



It's going quite well, very easy pattern but each piece is individual so there will be lots of seaming later!  My mum is going to do the rabbit pattern for the second daughter so I don't have to do two!

The yarn is Paton's Colour Works Aran, I've gone for the purple and blue shade (00083) and it's actually very soft, it's 65% acrylic, 25% new wool and 10% polyamide.  I'm using 4mm needles as suggested but I
did try a small swatch on smaller needles as on Periwinkle's lovely blog she made the rabbit pattern and found the tension too holey, so that may be something to be aware of.
I shall try and get a quick pic of my progress tomorrow as although I'm knitting in front of the girls they haven't asked what it is yet and I don't want to arouse their  curiosity!

The other lingering WIP is a very simple seat pad cushion for my daughter's dining table chair, I got this old wool blanket from the charity warehouse ages ago waiting for a project to do with it.
I've made a paper template of the seat and just cut round it adding an approx. seam allowance.  As it's bound to get filthy and need washing I've just made the bottom layer in two pieces for a basic envelope opening and then I'm going to add some ties at the back.  I would have finished it today but I'm umming & ahhing over the ties, think I'll pop into the local sewing shop tomorrow to see if I can find something I like better than the bias binding in the picture...