The longies really did get finished eventually, as did my xmas presents!

Since I'm back blogging again, I might as well update on what I have actually gotten done over the last few months.

The longies, of which I'd only done the waistband last time I posted eventually got finished in January.  I really love how they colours pooled differently in the different sections.  These longies were my first attempt at Kitchener stitch and everything I've read about it was true, you really have to concentrate or you'll mess up, at the start at least.  I ended up making one small mistake, but over all I think it was a success.

An action shot of the longies, expertly modeled by The Boy.

In addition to this I also had a few Xmas presents that I finished in December, in addition to the Pig t-shirt and the ITNG t-shirt, I did another appliqued t-shirt, this one for my nephew.
He's recently started playing football and I thought a personalised shirt might be nice for him.

Front, with his initial on a badge

Back, the panel at the top had his surname, and then the number 10 below.

Again, it's felt appliqué, this was my first go at machine appliqué.  The different layers of the badge and the name panel were sewn by hand and then the front badge, and the number 10 were sewn onto the shirt by machine, and the name panel was attached by hand.  I really enjoyed making this, although it was A LOT of work and I ended up still working on it at about 2am on Xmas morning!  I remember my mam doing similar when I was little, I'm getting so like her LOL!

Oh dear, I'm a bad, bad blogger

I've been a very naughty blogger for the last while.  No posts in 4 months, I'm sorry.

I haven't been doing a great deal of crafty stuff in those four months.  Real life took over a bit LOL.  The Boy has started playschool and is loving it.  I've gone on a bit of a fitness drive.  I got myself a little bike with a basket on the front and a child seat on the back (will have to get a picture of the set up), so I've been cycling a lot with The Boy, I've also joined The National Aquatic Centre, so me and The Boy have been going there a couple of times a week, and finally I've started The Couch to 5k Running Plan.  Still on week 1, but it's a really excellent way to get started if you're interested in jogging at all, it starts out slow and builds up.  I really surprised myself, I've never ran before in my life and on my first day there I was out jogging!


The Blokey has also started up his own little blog recently, Beer 'n' Victuals, a food and homebrewing blog.  Have a look ;)

That's about all for now with my little update.  I will be a better blogger from now on LOL.....Promise.

First longies and some baking

I've eventually started knitting my first ever pair of longies.  I'm following Joeli's tutorial on Cloth Nappy Tree.  I have to say, it's great, Joeli's written it out for complete beginners and experienced knitters, it's really easy to follow.  I'm using my lovely hand-dyed wool and I love how the colours are turning out.

(I really must apologise for the terrible quality of my photos, I need to get the hang of this photography (as opposed to snapshots) thing.  You'd never believe that many moons ago I did a photography course, would you?)

I've also discovered the most delicious beer bread.  The recipe is from Recipe Zaar.  The Blokey asked me to try the recipe after seeing it recommended on the Homebrew Talk forum.  It's absolutely scrummy!  I've cut down the sagar by half in my version though and used salted butter rather than unsalted to make it a bit more savoury.  My most recent incarnation of it also included about a cup of grated red cheddar.  Delicious!!

 

Mmmmmmm, don't you just want some?!

Another appliqué

One more xmas present down, lots more to go.  I everntually got The Boy's INTG tshirt done.

Pics aren't great :(

 

I stared at him for ages when I thought he was done, for some reason he just didn't look like Iggle Piggle.  It was only when The Blokey pointed out that I'd forgotten his hair.  How on earth can I forget that when I see it every day LOL, and The Blokey, who hardly ever sees it, could realise.  I obviously don't pay attention to cbeebies, can you blame me?

Pig. Done!

I eventually got Peppa finished.  I backed the entire area of the t-shirt with interfacing, to stiffen it up and stop it stretching, and then used an embroidery hoop to keep everything nice and taut.  It worked a treat.  I'm so chuffed with how she turned out!

She's survived a 30 degree wash in my machine, just to make sure the colours don't run.  She's currently back in the machine on a 40 degree wash (eek), I hope she makes it.

Oink

I've spent pretty much the whole day handstitching a 'Peppa Pig' from felt to sew onto the front of a t-shirt.  She's pretty much finished, and I must say I'm really pleased with how she turned out.

I started stitching her to the shirt, but I've discovered it's really difficult without an embroidery hoop, so I need to source one of them (probably from my mam LOL) before I can continue.  Once she's stitched on I just need to add her arms and legs and she's done!

Felt the felt

I decided to do some felt applique t-shirts for xmas, so I ordered some felt from ebay, 70% synthetic, 30% wool.  My postie brought it yesterday and I couldn't wait to get started, but the felt seemed very thin and I was worried about it shrinking once I'd sewn the designs onto the clothing and ending up as a big mess rather than a lovely picture.  I decided that to be on the safe side I should give it some abuse to see if it shrinks, as I'd rather have it shrink in a controlled fashion by me than shrink later when the gift recipients wash their t-shirts.  What a good job I did!  The felt shrank massively!  And at all different rates.

The black felt and the ones behind it haven't yet been felted, the orange, red and purple have.  There's a huge difference.  Hopefully they should be safe enough to use on clothing now though.
I also have some beigey coloured sheets that I'll be using to make some felt pasta for The Boy, for xmas, not bothering to felt those though.


I've also started a secret project this week, for the DIY Secret Santa over on Cloth Nappy Tree.  I tried 3 different patterns but each one was wrong, so in the end I just decided to make it up as I went along.  Hope it turns out ok, I think it should though.

Finally, I managed to unravel the tail of The Boy's toy snake that I made, to add a rattle.  I couldn't find ANYWHERE online to buy rattle beads that supplies Europe, so I had to improvise, I used the plastic egg from a Kinder Egg and popped some rice inside.  It sounds perfect!  Exactly like a rattlesnake :D Very impressed.

Yay, the postman's been

My lovely postman just brought me a fab parcel!  All of my gorgeous knit fabric from the co-op on CNT.

Now I just need to think of lots of things to do with it all!

Sssssssssssssss

Another of this week's projects:

He's a stash-busting xmas present for The Boy.  Made to this pattern.  He was really easy.  I'm contemplating unpicking his tail though, I want to make him into a rattlesnake by adding a rattle bead, if I can find one that is, they don't seem to be easy to find :( .

Pretty, pretty...

I had a go at kool-aid dyeing some wool for the first time this week.  I had the wool and kool-aid sitting there for about 3 days before I finally built up the courage to actually go for it, I kept thinking "Eek, what if it looks horrible?", but in the end I just bit the bullet and did it.  I am absolutely delighted with the results.

I started out with 3 of these beauties:

Supposedly 90g hanks of undyed merino from www.yarnundyed.com, but actually they're practically 100g (I love free stuff, even if it is just 10g of yarn :D )

I chose the hob method of setting the dye, rather than microwave, as I wanted self-striping yarn and wasn't sure how to do that on in the microwave (I know better now).  I went with the most boyish colourway I could with the kool-aid supplies at hand (I don't know what possessed me when I was putting in my order as I didn't exactly go for the most manly of colours/flavours), which was Lemon-lime/Berry Blue/Grape.  I can't believe the colour of this stuff!! Seriously!  Anything that makes water the colour that this stuff did can't POSSIBLY be intended for human consumption.  I did give it a quick taste, and have to say it was rather vile, I'll certainly not be rushing out to buy any kool-aid to drink in a hurry.

Here's my lovely yarn soaking in all it's fruity smelling chemical yuckiness on the hob:

I can't remember how long exactly it stayed on the heat, but it was probably about 80 degrees C by the time I turned everything off, I had read somewhere to let it get to almost boiling, but I was too scared of ruining my yarn LOL).  Then I left it to cool in the pans over night and rinsed in the sink in the morning.  Unfortunately when I took it out of the pans it became apparent that all had not gone exactly to plan, my lovely lime green had white blotches in it, lots of them, obviously the pot wasn't big enough for the liquid to get a good coverage.  I redid the green bit and then left it to cool for a few hours and then rinsed and hung it up to dry.  It took 2 days of impatiently waiting (although it did give a chance to finish up one of The Boy's xmas presents whilst I was waiting) for it to dry.

Once it was dry, I balled it up.  I'm not good at this part, I've read all the instructions on making pretty skeins and centre-pull balls and everything looks like it should just be nice and simple.  But no, it just doesn't work for me.  So I ended up with plain and simple balls of wool.  But WOW, what balls of wool they are.  I adore them, I'm so excited to start actually knitting them up :D !

All ready and waiting for me to join in the longies knit-along on CNT.  I can't wait!!

Hi!

Well, I suppose I should do the whole introduction thing.

I'm a SAHM to a lovely little 2 year old boy.  I've always loved crafty things, and started making handmade greetings cards ages ago.  I decided to re-learn (after learning at school) to knit and crochet when The Boy was a few months old and really enjoyed it.

I like to knit, crochet, sew, cook, bake, make cards (when I get the time these days) and have recently discovered the joys of kool-aid yarn dyeing, of which I'll be posting my first experiment soon :D