CrafTea Me

I'm here!

Ok, it's been way too long!

It's been a hectic summer - split up with boyfriend and moved out... and now I'm back at work!

I haven't spent much time crafting at all over the summer, however I was encouraged to buy a pattern and yarn to make a very nice vest (as if I don't have enough projects on the go!). It's from Debbie Bliss's 'Rialto' book and it's the vest that's on the cover. I have started it, not sure how long it will take me, but I really do want to wear it. So hopefully that will be enough to motivate me... it's just that it's not something that I can just sit and knit - lots of concentration needed!

I would also like to pick up my ripple blanket again... I had forgotten how much I really love it - the yarn, the colours... will need to search for my book (lots of stuff in storage!) and remind myself of the pattern!

Summer in New York...

I am very excited! I have just signed up for a class at Purl Patchwork in August.

Quilt Making by Hand with Cassandra

Learn all the skills, from cutting to piecing to quilting, to make a small quilt entirely by hand. No sewing experience is necessary .

- Wednesdays August 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd. 7:15- 9:15pm

I can't wait!

Tie One On - Apron No.2

Pattern  from Denyse Schmidt Quilts

Cream cotton fabric from John Lewis

Quilted pocket fabric from Liberty and Amy Butler   

I've been animating... again!

I went on another great course for school today - ICT in Art, just my kind of course!

Here is something that I created (it has sound):

Download arwen_longer_2.AVI (windows media player)

Download arwen_longer_2.MOV (Quick Time Movie)

Countdown to the holidays!

Summer in New York!

Four weeks tomorrow we will be going away... we will spend the first 5 days of our holiday in Panama before flying to New York - we will be there for 4 whole weeks. I am soooooo excited :)

There are lots of places that I visit when I go to New York, but I have just discovered 'disdressed' and her 'New York crafters' resources', a list of crafty shops to visit in New York. I am even more excited now. Thank you Liesl!

                                                

                             

Two of my favourite stores in New York - Purl and Purl Patchwork 

Mmmmmmmmm...

Thank you 'yarnstorm' for the delicious Butterscotchy Lemon Curd Cake recipe. I have never made lemon curd before, but it was really quite simple and very, very nice!

I need to get some sandwich tins...

                      

                                                   

                      

                                                   

Mine doesn't look quite as pretty as 'yarnstorm's', but guess who got to lick the bowl!

New Patterns...

Haven't had much time for crafting here lately, apart from working on my beloved ripple blanket, which is steadily growing!

I have however made some purchases...

1. A crochet pattern for making a Wallaby Joey. This came from crochetroo at her Etsy shop. I can't wait to start making one.

2. A pattern for making my next apron for Tie One On (I don't have much time left to make one, but I will try to get it done by the end of the month - as long as I don't have to wait too long for the pattern to arrive!) I ordered it last night from FABRIC.COM. I love the shape of these, not sure what fabric to use yet though.

Portmeirion

Last week I took my grandmother away for a short break to North Wales. We spent our first night in Aberystwyth and then travelled up to Portmeirion, where we stayed two nights in this amazing hotel -Castell Deudraeth.

                                             

                                              

                                              

                                             Now you see it...

                                             

                                             Now you don't!

                                             

                                             

This was the best hotel that I have stayed in, everything was just right; the views, the decoration, the food, the service - just superb!

More photos of my adventures to come!

Still going!

I have just returned from a very busy week away... and some of that time was spent crocheting. Here are some of the photos that I took of my blanket. These were taken in our hotel room at Castell Deudraeth, Portmeirion, North Wales - more details to come later!

                                           

                                           

WIP

I've been rippling!

    

I'm really loving the yarn that I'm using... it's working beautifully and it is just so soft.

I wasn't entirely happy with the first colour I started with, so I decided to add a different colour at the begining to see how it would look, and I'm really happy with the result... so happy in fact that I've added more!

    

All done!

I finished it! As I predicted, the bias binding took rather a long time, however I think it was well worth it.

                                              

                                              

                                              

                                              

My favourite part of the whole apron are the pockets - they're HUGE and red and spotty!

                                              

The pattern wasn't great, it turned out way too big. I had to take the sides in all the way to the pockets and even now I don't think that it's a very flattering fit!

The next tie one on theme is 'The Pocket' - what a great theme! I think I'll keep the apron shape simple this time and spend more time on the pocket. Watch this space...

Rippling along...

I haven't had much time for crafting recenty, but picked up my blanket today and got quite a bit done!

One of the reasons it's taken me soooo long to add more stripes is that I wasn't sure about the choice and order of the colours... I was desperately trying to go the random route, but have found it really difficult - I usually need to design things with more order and repeating... I was considering frogging it back down to the third stripe, but have decided not to, and to just go with it - I hope I don't regret that decision!

Here it is...

    

   

The colours have come out a little different in the photos - they're not quite as dark as they look here.

What colour next?!

My Ripple

Ready, steady... go!

    

Well, it's started... 4 colours/8 rows done, many, many more rows to come!

I love the yarn and can't wait until it's finished so that I can use it.

Rippling

This is the swatch for  my ripple blanket.

Yarn - Rowan Classic Yarn - Bamboo Soft

The bottom couple of rows were crocheted using a 4mm hook, the next couple were created using a 5mm hook and decided that neither was quite right so went and bought a 4.5mm and thought that this one worked better!

Rooster Toggle Bag - Pattern amendment

This is what I did...

I followed the pattern in the book up to row 50, then I did this:

Row 51: K2tog, K to the last 2 sts, K2tog.

Row 52: K

Row 53: K2tog, K to the last 2 sts, K2tog.

Row 54: K

Row 55: (Change to 7mm needles) K2 into each st

Rows 56-60: st st

Row 61: (Change to 5mm needles) K2tog along the whole row.

Row 62: K

Row 63: K2tog, K to the last 2 sts, K2tog.

Row 64: K

Row 65: K2tog, K to the last 2 sts, K2tog..

Row 66: K

Row 67: K2tog, K to the last 2 sts, K2tog.

Row 68: K

Rows 69-78: As pattern.

Rows 79 - 86: As pattern

Row 87: Cast off (If you don't cast off until Row 89 like the pattern says, one of the sides will be longer than the other!

I hope this is right!

WIP

I started this a couple of weeks ago, it's the Rooster Toggle Bag. It's a really simple knit, or at least it would have been if the pattern was correct!

Knitting the main part of the body was just fine... then came the shaping, where it all went 'pear shaped' - literally!

   

When I got home I looked on the Rooster website to see if they had any amendments to the pattern - they did. I followed the amended pattern and it worked, until I got to the next wrong part in the pattern (row 61-64) grrrr.

This time though, their alternative was wrong! So I had to work it out myself, which I did!

And here is the first side all done...

Just have to finish knitting the other side and then the handles and it will be ready to make up into a bag and use!

New Yarn and fabric...

Look what I've got!

I decided to call into Get Knitted on my way back from Swansea yesterday (I have shopped online from Get Knitted several times - they are excellent!). Their store is very big, they have lots to choose from including a new fabric section.

I bought some yarn for my Ripple Blanket...

Rowan Classic Yarn - Bamboo Soft

I was going to use all of the colours that I bought, but I think this selection works better...

...or maybe these?

Soy yarn - not sure what I'll knit with this yet. 

...and some Amy Butler fabric - yummy!

      

      

Balcony in bloom!

Last weekend we took a trip to Homebase to get some plants for the balcony. Way back in Autumn I planted some daffodil bulbs. I eagerly awaited... watching them grow, only to find that many months later only one flowered! I planted about 15 and only one flowered... how did that happen?

Anyway, here's the special one...

We decided to get some flowers that were already in bloom.

         

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...and I planted some seeds (a couple of weeks ago): 

Rocket

Sunflowers

I know that plants need water to survive, but I go through phases of forgetting to water them and hence have succeeded in killing several of my plants including some strawberry plants :(

I WILL MUST REMEMBER TO WATER MY PLANTS

Purl Rabbit is moving...

I am going to Swansea today to visit my family and to give something special to someone special...

She's going to live with my grandmother. I know that she will be very happy in her new home. However, I will be sad to see her go... time to make another Purl Rabbit perhaps!

Love school holidays!

Oh joy, time to think and craft... I love school holidays!

I have started working on my apron for Tie One On, it's taking way more time than I thought it would and it is HUGE! Need to make it smaller somehow...

The straps cross over at the back - forgot to take a photo of that!

Here is a close-up of one of the pockets - my favourite part! I used the linen fabric and the polka-dot fabric, so they're 'double thickness' and then I machine stitched a zig-zag onto them (to go with the rick-rack theme!) This is the first time for me to use rick-rack and I really like the effect - it finishes the pockets off nicely.

    

All to do now is to somehow make it smaller - I think I need to sew along the sides to give it more shape, which will hopefully make it fit better... we'll see. And then make the bias binding and sew it on, which will probably take me ages... and add some more rick-rack!

I can't wait to finish it now. I was planning on making this my school apron, for when I teach art... not sure whether the colour choice was the best, it won't stay this colour for long will it?!

Main fabric - Linen/Cotton mix from John Lewis

Polka-dot fabric from Purl

Need to start rippling...

I have decided to jump on the band wagon and get rippling too!

I have been looking for the right crochet project for a while now and have been inspired by Lynn and amandasan and many more, to get rippling. While I was in Liberty at the weekend I found some bamboo yarn - I have been desperate to make something out of bamboo yarn for ages. I swatched it on Saturday (I used a pattern from 200 crochet blocks to get an idea of how it would feel and look) and think it would be perfect to use for the blanket.

      

I ordered a copy of 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns from Amazon on Saturday and it has just arrived - yippeeee, and hooray for amazon!

Now I just need to decide on a colourway... maybe a combination of these:

Tuberose

Cambria

Pompadour

Gypsum

Hemp

Bamboo

Beaver

Sea Foam

She's here!

She's here at last!

 

 

The most difficult part was turning the arms and legs out after sewing them (I got quite frustrated at this point!) It was well worth it though. I think if I make another Purl Rabbit I will put less stuffing in her, which would produce a more 'squishy' one - this one's quite firm.

I'm also not all that happy with her nose - too pointy. I might do that again...

I would really like to make the Raglan Sweater for her now - not sure when that will get done though!

Thank you purl bee for a lovely pattern.

Second package has arrived!

When I got back from Swansea on Monday this was waiting for me...

      

My second package from Flibbertygibbet's fabric swap.

Thank you Annabelle, the fabric is lovely. I can't wait to make something out of it now!