Aura

I just did a quiz to see what colour my aura was. I don't think it's green, it doesn't feel green. I quite like the idea of being a talk show host though, so I thought I'd post it!

SOCK UPDATE: There are now 2!!!!!!! I'll take a photo soon, but it is remarkably similar to the other one (hahahaha) Now, what I would like to know is this...does making a pair of socks make me a sock knitter? Will you professional sock knitters out there be offended if I did call myself one, and if I can't, how many pairs do I have to knit to be able to call myself one? (just askin)

Rain rain and more rain here, and I have some old (not in age, well a bit) college friends coming over this weekend and the plan was to have a barbeque. Mainly as there are a few scarily small children coming and with a 15 year old, that's a dim and thankfully very distant memory for me now. All I know is that they should be kept in the garden and not be permitted to enter the interior of my house under any circumstances for fear of what they will wreck!! Only joking, (in a scared way)

Spare a thought for my in laws though who live in Hull, it's 6 feet under water up there and MORE TO THE POINT, my sister in law cannot find a loaf of bread for love nor money. And if you're a Yorkshire person that's serious stuff.

What colour is your aura?

Your Aura is Green

You're very driven, competitive, and even a bit jealous. However, you seek out balance in your life - and you usually achieve it! The purpose of your life: inspiring others to be better Famous greens include: Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart Careers for you to try: Guru, CEO, Talk Show Host

What Color Is Your Aura?

Another Amy Butler bag

I made this one for a friend's birthday, seen modelling it! She wears alot of green and yellow, so I made the lining of the bag in a yellow fabric with big polka dots on it.

Still knitting the second sock, hoping to finish it tonight. Knitting socks for people with big feet is a bit boring, I'm going to knit some for my smaller footed daughter next.

You'll never guess what I knitted......

Yes, I finally did it!!!!! Hooray, jumping about the room, screaming madly, very excited!!!!!
I can't believe I finally did it, and I'm not sure why I couldn't get it before.
I went to this shop at the weekend to get a Rowan pattern book I want. Well, it turns out that they don't sell Rowan, or Debbie Bliss (that's another story) but they do have an abundance of sock yarn and the lady who was in there showed me the pair she was knitting. It's a simple pattern that comes with the yarn and was written by the other lady who owns the shop (who wasn't there). Well, I don't know if it was my husband as he chose the yarn, the pattern, me touching her half finished sock, or Celia's markers (which came in very useful), BUT I started this sock on Saturday night whilst watching Apocalypto (now if you've seen that film, you'll know it's all subtitled..so knitting and knowing when to look up to read subtitles isn't easy, but I got the gist) and I finished it last night!!!

Here is a picture of it being modelled by it's intended recipient.

And again from another angle

Please do not think that that is my hairy leg.

Casting on for the second one today before I get the sickness I hear so much about......the dreaded SSS

A Green Parcel from Tenerife

You know I joined a yarn swap..well, this month's colour was green, and look what arrived this morning!!! It was such good timing as well as yesterday I had an awful day. I went to bed hoping I'd feel better this morning and this was the first thing that happened in my day. (By the bye, I do think 7.20 am is a little early on a Saturday morning for the postman to call, but I'm glad he did anyway). I was so excited. This is what was inside the box

And this is it all unwrapped

Each of the parcels was tied with ribbon and a beautiful stitch marker!

I love them, I have never owned such beautiful stitch markers before, only the boring plastic ones, so they really made me smile!

This is my favourite yarn of the parcel


Now, if I can't knit socks with that yarn and those gorgeous stitch markers, then no one can. This week, I WILL DO IT!!!!!

Thank you Celia for my beautiful gifts, you really made my day. ;)

Quilts in the Trees

I have been making quilts, one is a sample for a pram shop. I haven't made one in these neutral colours before, and I think I like it more than the pinks and florals. I have a stationery business which I run with a friend and these quilts are part of an extension of that. We normally make handcrafted cards and we are thinking of branching into gifts as well. You can see some of our designs on our web site here. It really needs updating as a lot of the stuff on there is outdated and we have a lot of new stuff, but our web designer wants to charge us just to type our web address into his computer it seems and we aren't sure how to do it ourselves, as he has created no way (that he's told us, anyway) to get into it and change it ourselves. So we're a bit stuck with it. We have our stuff in some shops and I think that may be the way forward for us.

Not much to report on the knitting front. I have tried socks again and again with no success. I may have to find a class or a sock knitter. I have done some crochet for my granny squares blanket, I have 28 now, which sounds impressive, I know, but when they are laid out, it's still disappointingly small. I'll keep plodding on with that. I have done a little knitting on the MD log cabin, but I'm not sure about the colours and it's hard to be enthusiastic about something you don't feel 100% about, don't you think?

I have been making more bags. I decided to modify the pattern of the uptown bag and make a few of my own designs. I'll post some pictures soon. I went to Maggie's Sunflower fabrics shop this morning to get some more fabric.

My back is sore this week, so sitting anywhere for too long is painful. I am irritable and frustrated for not being able to get as much as I want done, but it's on the mend, so I'll hopefully be back up to speed next week and back on my little one person production line!!!!

My daughter starts her summer holidays in a couple of weeks and she has said she will help me put a banner at the top of this blog. Yes I know I'm slow in doing this, but I'm very excited about it!

Amy Butler Bag

OMG I am turning into a bag production line! This is the Amy Butler Madison Uptown Bag. It was so quick and easy to make, it took as long to cut it out as it did to sew it up. Not long, all done in an afternoon. It's a nice size, an odd shape if you ask me. If I made it again I think I'd make it with a little more height and a bit narrower! I do like it thought and it's the sort of thing I am thinking of putting in my Etsy shop. Not sure how much to charge for something like this though. It didn't use a huge amount of fabric, probably only half a metre for the lining and then for the exterior.

On the bucket bag front, I took it to pick my daughter up from school today (yes I know it's Saturday) and to see how I felt with a bucket on my arm. I didn't mind it too much, so it may grow on me. I shan't waste any time yet lining it though. That may or may not happen at some point in the future.

Hope you all are having a good weekend. I'm off to cook tagliatelle!

The Felted Disaster/Bag

Where has all the white gone?? AND, how come my bag colours always merge into one colour (variations on a) and other people seem to be able to felt colours at hot temperatures and the colours stay seperate. I'd like to know please. Also, even though I spent ages knitting this one so that it was bigger than the green bag I felted, it has come out as the same size. BUT this one looks just like a BUCKET to me :(

Now I know I carry around a lot of rubbish, yes, mainly receipts I have to admit, and half eaten packets of polos, and not forgetting 14 lip glosses which to the untrained eye all look the same colour...but, I do NOT need to be carrying them around in a bucket.

The handles didn't come out as I thought, I mean, unless you're a very small person with a dislocated arm, that is not going to get over anyones elbow, never mind shoulder.

And, as if to add insult to injury, the white yarn that I thought was wool obviously was some kind of (sneer) acrylic. Because look what happened to that bit..

..nothing, except it turned blue.

Oh well, you live and learn!

Today I have been starting the Amy Butler uptown handbag.I decided I can't go wrong..I love the fabric, and the pattern...watch this space!

Today, also, I have set up an Etsy account. I thought I might be able to sell some bags and quilts on there, as the sellers are all over the world. I'd like to put the bar with my stuff on down the side of my blog, but thast may be a challenge too far for me. Especially the way today's going! Any helpful hints would be welcome! There's some gorgeous stuff on that site.

Basil in Blue

The excitement after the swing jacket has died down a bit now and I'm on to other things that had recently taken a back seat. One thing is this modified version of a Debbie Bliss bag. I originally knitted and felted this in green silk alpaca yarn and it came out really well. Have a look here .However, I use it a lot and I felt that the handles are a little spindley. Maybe it's the large amount of crap that I tend to carry around in my bag..Anyway, I decided to modify it slightly. I knitted it deeper, and made the handles wider so that it could fit over my shoulder, and then I added a kind of reinforcing strip by knitting the holes for the handles twice. I shall sew the top bit over so that the handle part is doubled and that should make it feel stronger. I'll be able to carry even more crap then and feel assured that the handles won't break at any moment!

This is it before even sewing up, and I am hoping to felt it tonight. Will post photos tomorrow of the finished article. Basil was quite happy to model it for this photo, and you can get some idea of the size of it. I have knitted it in the silk alpaca again, but the white stripe is some yarn I found in my stash which I think is a natural yarn,(I think wool), but I'm not certain. Let's hope so, or it could be an interesting effect if it doesn't felt.

On the swing jacket front, I have had so many nice comments, an offer of money to make one for someone, and I have been given too much change in a shop and at the cinema whilst wearing it. I'm taking that as a good sign!!!!!.

The swing jacket is finally finished!

I can't believe it..the buttons went on this morning and it's finally over-the ordeal that was the phildar swing jacket! I have loved and hated this knitting project, looked forward to it and dreaded picking it up and frogged it once half way through and started it over again. My dread is always with things like this-will I ever like it at the end, never mind wear it? I LOVE IT TO BITS!!!! I love the colour, the yarn, the size, the binding and everything about it. I think I will wear it til it goes to knitty heaven. I love it so much, I asked my husband to take loads of pictures of it and now I will bore you all stupid with them. Thank you for bearing with me throough the process! Next up, I am planning a baby pink short jackety cardigan. I haven't found a pattern yet, any suggestions gratefully received. Note to Kae, I sewed the front and collar binding on by machine and then handsewed the other side and then I completely handsewed the pockets, mainly as they were so small and fiddley to get in my machine. It was easy to get the rest of it through the machine and it came out quite evenly.
Ready??!!.........

S... L.... O.... W swing jacket progress

Well, today I made myself try and get this project finished. I always do this, I am great at the bulk of a project, it's the fiddly finishing off stuff that I am rubbish at.
The big buttons are definitley too big

so I think I'll go with the smaller mother of pearl ones. I have decided on this fabric for the binding

It's got a sheen to it, like a shot silk, but I think it's cotton. The pain is that I have to make it into binding :(
I'm pleased with the pockets though. Having sewn them shut together by mistake, they are now all neat and I have sewn the pocket to the jacket so it doesn't swing around.

Hopefully it will be finished soon! Watch this space!

PS Sorry about the higgeldy piggeldyness of the pictures in my last post. I was trying out a different browser and I don't think I will again. Update on the sock front..I have cast on and frogged 3 times now and resorted to the chewing gumness that is the Mason Dixon log cabin blanket and it is coming on well. (more than can be said for the socks, who are still a ball of wool.)

Socks

I have never knitted a pair of socks. Please don't think any less of me, it's just something I've never really wanted to do. However, since my entry into blogland, I have visited so many places where socks are a staple, and they are beautiful. I think I just never realised how lovely socks could be.

Weeks ago, with this in mind, I ordered a sock knitting book from Amazon. They kept emailing me with delays and delays and I was beginning to think it was a sign that I was just never to become a knitter of socks. In the meantime, I joined a yarn swap and oredered some yarn for my pal and also some socky yarn in case I ever DID become a sock knitter. Look what came this morning at the same time!!! It's surely a sign that I am to become a GREAT SOCK KNITTER!!

I can't show you what else came or Sherri won't have a surprise when her parcel arrives, but here is some of it..


All I can say is, handknittedsockpeople must have tiny feet, because I am almost the man's size in this book, and I haven't got extraordinarily large feet, size 41. Is that big? I'm trying not to get a complex about it, but my choice in this book is a bit limited and I have narrowed it down to 2,


These...



Or these...



I just can't decide.


I do love the yarn though, it's Koigu and I've always thought sock yarn quite scratchy, but this is beautifully soft. I love it!



Any advice on my dilemma gratefully received!

I'm back!

We had a great week in France, the weather wasn't that great, so I did manage quite a bit of crochet! I have now completed 20 squares. Only 28 I think, to go!! Getting there slowly but surely. This is where I was...



It's part of a chateau in the Dordogne and it's set in the middle of 12 acres, so you don't see anyone other that who you're there with. I did manage some shopping as well, and of course some swimming and laying in the sun...dodging the clouds and rain.

My friend loved her bag and we spent some time shopping for red accessories and clothes to coordinate with it! She is as major a sun worshipper as I am and so we were great company cloud watching and dashing out when there was something worth laying in!

In the meantime, I have joined a swap, my first ever and the links are on the right of my blog. I need to find some lovely green yarn to sen this month and I look forward to receiving some from Celia in Tenerife who is sending to me. It's soooo exciting, I can't wait to choose and send and to get a parcel. I am intending to get on with the swing jacket this week, in amongst all the washing and ironing from holiday of course!

Needless to say I didn't get anywhere with the ripple project. I stared and stared at quite a good tutorial I found on You Tube on single and double ripple crochet, but I just don't get it and it could drive me mad if I let it. If anyone out there knows of an easy way for me to learn, let me know please!!!