This is Sally Scarecrow and Rosie Ragdoll and they are Christmas presents for my “surrogate” nieces.  Mum made Sally (on the left) and I made Rosie. I finished her last night. She took me a few weekends but I got there without any hiccups and I was quite pleased with myself.  I am starting to feel a little more confident about sewing now… Just a little…

Sally Scarecrow and Rosie Ragdoll

I just had to show you this skein of yarn that I bought from Fyberspates.  The plum colour is very rich and the silver sparkly bits are real sterling silver!!

She only has this yarn as a special, every so often, and I was delighted to grab this skein last week when I saw her “tweet” that she had put some on the website.

It’s a sock weight yarn, but I wouldn’t make socks from it.  I think I might make a lacey shawl for Mum – not for Christmas, but maybe Mother’s Day?

Came across these fun knitting posters the other day on Laylock’s blog. She also does some beautiful knitting postcards. In fact her whole site is lovely.  Beautiful design with some neat tricks which appeal to me as a website developer myself.

Heard a great tip today for working with Kidsilk Haze. When you go wrong with this yarn, it’s a bit of a pig to unknit (tink) or frog it.

Apparently, if you stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes, it makes the fibres stiff, and it’s much easier to tink it!

Good to know

Last week I took a day off work (yay!), left my Dad in charge of sending out orders (fingers crossed!) and had a day shopping in Bristol.

It was to be a day of getting lost and making detours.  We were making good time and were almost at Cribbs Causeway, our first destination, when we got stuck in the wrong lane on the M5 and ended up heading towards the Severn Bridge.  And of course there was no exit off the motorway until the roundabout just before the bridge.  We went round the roundabout and headed back the way we came, only to find that there was no exit on to the M5 northbound – only south where we had come from.  Rather than driving back towards home, we pulled off and ended up in an industrial estate where we got the Sat Nav out and let it guide us through these little streets which we would never have tried ourselves, and back on to the motor in the right direction!

We had a good couple of hours in Cribbs and lunch at Nandos.  A small amount of yarn was purchased in John Lewis – two skeins of Mirasol Hacho.  Mum’s putting it away for Christmas for me .

Then we headed over to Ikea, where everything we wanted to buy was out of stock!

Then I suggested that we pop over to Get Knitted.  I’d never been before, but of course have heard many people say what a great shop it was.  And it was certainly big!

I was able to look and touch some brands of yarns I’d not seen before which was great and I was very tempted to buy some Blue Sky Alpaca Silk – but I resisted because I didn’t really have a project in mind for it.

It was good to see the shop and marvel at the huge premises. Everything is displayed very nicely.  However it doesn’t have the cosy factor that I think a good yarn shop should have.  I also think that Spin a Yarn (my usual LYS) has a nicer range of less commonly found brands, such as Touch Yarns.  I wouldn’t be bothered about going to Get Knitted again unless I happened to be passing by the door, but I was glad that I went.

Needless to say, we ended up doing a big detour getting home.  We let the Sat Nav take us back to the M5, and it led a very strange way back to the motorway!  We did laugh

My Mum is a very clever lady.  She’s been almost glued to her sewing machine these past few weeks, making toys for both display in my shop and for our friends’ children. But she’s also been coming up with lots of nice little things for Christmas.  These placemats are one of her ideas.

She used the gold stars fabric for the main part and then cut borders from a piece of the Novelty Borders Christmas Fabric.  She sewed them together and used some special heat resistance wadding. She backed them with a piece of the Classic Stripe Christmas Fabric.

Well I’ve been crafting away and not only am I knitting, I’ve been sewing again too!

Meet Phoebe…

Phoebe by Melly and Me

Phoebe is a Melly and Me pattern and I made her using some fabric in Mum’s stash.

She was pretty easy to do – must be if I managed to make her!

The sparkly bolero that I’m knitting is nearly done.  I’m just doing the cable trim, which is taking ages!

I also went to a craft evening at church last Friday and armed with a bundle of knitting needles and balls of yarn from the charity shop, I tried to teach people to knit.  I think people enjoyed themselves and I have at least one convert.  There are quite a few girls who knit at church now so a few of us might start meeting up to knit and crochet.  Should be fun!

I think I’m getting a bit of a reputation as a knitter who never finishes anything!

Yesterday balls of Rowan Shimmer and Rowan Kidsilk Aura arrived for the shop and not convinced that I’m going to like Ingenue or that it will actually fit, I decided to start knitting Sparkle Bolero from Studio 17.  It’ll be ideal for Christmas festivities.  So I cast on at Knit ‘n’ Natter last night.  After all, I do need to get on with it if I want to wear it soon.  You knit it by holding a strand of the Shimmer and a strand of the Aura together.

Sparkle Bolero from Rowan Studio 17

But a fellow knitter turned to me last night and said I’m always starting something she’s not seen anything I’ve finished for ages.  I suppose that’s true.  (She, incidentally, knitted an entire lace shawl from pure silk in a single week and it was stunning!)  I’ve not finished much this whole year really.  I think that I ought to make it my main objective to get everything finished by New Year’s Eve.  So that means sewing up ALL of the Scandinavian blanket squares, finishing Ingenue, finishing the possum hat I started last Christmas, knitting something for my brother for Christmas and of course finishing the bolero I started last night!

I’ve got 7 or 8 weeks I guess.  It CAN be done!

Knit ‘n’ Natter was great last night.  A real buzz was happening. I learnt a new technique too.  I’ve always avoided bead work because I can’t be doing with threading hundreds of beads on the yarn at the beginning and then shuffling them along.  However someone showed me how to thread the bead on using a fine crochet hook, at the point where you want to place it.  Dead easy and much easier. I’d really like to try something with beads now.  Perhaps a lacy scarf with occasional beads to give it a bit of sparkle.  I think there’s one in Little Luxury Knits which would be nice… Hmmm… Another project…

I’ve not been doing much knitting lately.  I’ve just not been enthusiastic about the jumper I’m knitting I suppose and don’t have much incentive to pick up the needles.

Anyway, here’s Bonzer…

Bonzer by Melly and Me

He’s a character designed by Melly and Me.  I sell Melly and Me patterns on my website and Mum made him up as sample for the craft stall that we were at recently.

A fine day was had a couple of weeks ago when Mum and I hopped on the train up to London to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally).

Ally Pally is in North London and it took us a while to get there from Devon, but it was worth it.  The view from Ally Pally is amazing!  You can see right down to the City and pick out the high-rise buildings like the Gherkin and the weather on Thursday was just perfect: warm and sunny with just a slight Autumnal feel to it.

The view from Ally Pally

There was a good variety of exhibitors there with various yarns, fabrics, and other crafty things.  The only place that had any real yarn bargains though was Black Sheep with their huge pile of discontinued Rowan and Sirdar yarns – all at extremely good prices.  I didn’t bother to get any though – I can get them myself through the shop if I wanted.

However I did I buy a Colinette throw kit.  It was quite expensive, but beautiful colours and unusual yarn.

Mum also bought some Fleece Artist yarn to put away for Christmas.  Again it was the stunning colours that drew me to it.  I’ve no idea what I’ll make with it, but it was just toooo nice

Mum got some fabric fat quarters for her stash too.