Craft Geek

Having had a whale of a time, I've just got in after enjoying a few drinks in 'skinny jeans country', A.K.A. Shoreditch, east London. This neighbourhood is still very much trend centrale however, tonight I was there for the company, my gaggle of jovial ex colleagues.

Now slumped over my dining table, I've at last had a chance to swot up on the topics for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week (next week). As I have the attention span of a gnat, I am delighted the topics are pretty general so hope to tackle at least two or three of them. Colour, photography, talk about your craft skills... all easy peasy topics to blog around. I look forward to planning some knitting and crochet projects and getting stuck in.

Crochet Heaven

Well happy Easter!

As you can see, I've been a busy bee. It was lovely to visit Greenwich and see all the quirky buildings and the independent shops on the high street. Greenwich is of course steeped in history, what with the Royal Observatory, Planetarium and Cutty Sark all within spitting distance of each other. 'Cutty Sark' was once a Scottish term meaning short dress apparently, hence the scantily clad lady poised at the front of the boat. Bijou and with a village feel, I couldn't help wondering how we have allowed the rest of the UK to be blighted by chain store fever with the same coffee shops, clothes shops, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets in most of our towns and cities. Ok, so I do shop in many of these stores but I am always cheered by the sight of an indie store.

Here's my stack of crochet squares and a quick snap of the lovely colours I've chosen for the blanket I'm making. Next week I will be popping over to meet fellow blogger Anna from Anna's Creative Corner over on the other side of London. I very much look forward to catching up with her and marvelling at some of her latest luscious knitting projects.

I Heart Amazon

Yes, it's time I declared my feelings for online shopping Mecca, Amazon.

Amazon. I love you!

Until today I have been content with frivolously purchasing wool from my local department store at £4 or £5 a ball. I'm relatively new to knitting so it suited me to buy from a well known shop, benefit from their instore expertise and of course, be able to touch and see what I was about to buy. However, the cost quickly adds up so I thought to myself, as I just need some generic White DK wool, perhaps I should try to save a few bob and buy them online for a change.

It goes without saying that I will also consider increasing my stash by buying yarn from the blogosphere but I thought it was worth building up a small list of reasonably priced and reliable yarn Amazon sellers. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I know I should consider using EBay to source yarns but I'm still psychologically scarred from my first EBay experience. What happened? I was sold some fake Anchor embroidery floss, I consequently posted a bad review and was then hassled by the seller who tried to log a complaint against ME - the cheek! I took down my social media picture for fear of being stalked and breathed a sigh of relief that i chose to blog under my alias, Micro G.

I just don't want to go down that road again.

Anyway my new purchase will almost certainly be used to join my crocheted afghan blocks once they're completed. Let me know what Amazon sellers you favour and I'll pop your comments up on the blog.

Finished Object: Knitted iPhone Cover

As my marathon effort to make a crochet blanket continues in the background, I thought I'd reveal how my iphone cover ended up. And here it is! My iphone and earphones fit snugly inside and I've wrapped the knitted square around one side again to form a separate pocket for the earphones, preventing the handset from getting scratched.

It's my first finished object completed using an acrylic mix yarn - Patons Beehive soft blend four ply, colour 02 (jade green). I originally intended to button it closed but, not wishing to 'guild the lilly', I think I like it as it is. As you can see, I chose to stitch it with the wrong side facing out to give it a less predictable look. Ad-libbing, this is my own design, not even a design really; I just adapted a practise square I knitted last year, et voila, an iphone cosy!

Nest in Crouch End, Glasto... and my New Camera

Purely by accident I just came across Amy from Nest's responses to my recent crafty Q&A and here they are! I'm with you on Glasto Amy, but it's not returning until 2013 so that's plenty of time to buy some new wellies and a tent in preparation!

Still in my final year of school, I first made my way across the country to the legendary Glastonbury music festival 21 years ago. In January, I decided I was due another visit so have decided to try for tickets again for next year. I sincerely hope the magic's still there, as a young teenager, visiting Glastonbury was the highlight of my summer and I was in my element there, enjoying my favourite bands performing live on an outside stage and meandering through the fields gazing at the exotic food and second-hand clothing stalls and watching the circus of colourful characters who passed before me.  I am definitely regressing to my teenhood these days, I don't want to get any older than I am now, just gradually younger instead!

Tonight, with tape measure in hand, I will be sizing up my reclaimed black footstool to establish just how much fabric I'll need to re-cover it. As Amy reliably informs me, the Nest team will shortly be ordering a bijou collection of lovely fabrics for their Crouch End knitting shop. I'm sure that they will not disappoint! I'll also be playing around with my new Nikon Coolpix camera. Thanks to Anna and Josephine who kindly suggested some other quality point and shoots but I decided to stick with the Coolpix. So far I've been impressed with the visual quality of the video feature but haven't established whether I can adjust the volume on it or whether it's fixed at one level. The picture quality is ok, I'm not bowled over, but as I've only taken about 10 snaps, the jury is still out on that one. Will keep you posted!

The day I saw the Queen

We all slog away at work, minding our own business. We keep our head down, smile, show willing and try not to complain too much when things aren't so great.

Well you wouldn't believe my surprise when I was taken into a room at work last week and was informed that 'the Palace' had been in touch and had asked: could we organise some transport for the Queen, Prince Phillip and Kate so that they could get to the next destination on their UK Jubilee Tour?

The mood in the room instantly brightened and after exchanging a few animated exchanges with my colleague, we got to work, planning the brief but momentous occasion.

Fast forward to 10.10 this morning. I'm standing by a customer information desk, waiting pensively. The sky is clear and bright but my feet are very cold from standing outside for an hour.

I glance over, I see the Queen emerging on an escalator. She is quite dinky and is wearing a vibrant fuchsia skirt suit and a tall, wide hat. Small but mighty is our Majesty, I think to myself. I am ecstatic. I start gasping, this is brilliant!

I scurry off to signal to my colleagues that she's coming. They're all beaming.

Flanked by two plain clothes policemen, she approaches, with Prince Phillip, Kate and a small entourage in tow. I'm just standing out of the way, grinning.

Kate is even taller than I imagined and is as striking as any top model. Today she is impeccably dressed in a slim fitting teal two piece (L.K. Bennett), black heels and a hat. Must wear hats more often me thinks. She's very slim and as you'd expect, well groomed. It would be impossible to ignore this lady in any room or setting.

And Prince Phillip? He just looks like he's really enjoying himself. They all go inside and sit down ready to depart and so sadly for me it's all over.

How do I feel now? Well I'm completely hooked on them! As I live in London I've met quite a few celebrities but the Royal Family are on another level entirely. I'd love to have spoken to them today but everything happened in the space of five minutes and also I had to behave professionally.

We know very little about the Queen's interests and personality. Does the Queen ever knit I wonder? What does she like on the telly?

Today's encounter has renewed my love of crown motifs and my fondness of the English sense of humour, our eccentricity and individuality. For this reason I will forge on with my knitting and crochet ramblings. It's a bit mad, but somehow, I think I've found my calling.

The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge pictured later on today.

A Very Simple Exercise - Questions & Answers

I have been tagged into this ‘very simple exercise’ by Whispers in the Night Sky blogger Berni Kellett. Here are my answers to her questions...


1. If you could change just one thing about your life what would it be?

Buy a home by the sea


2. What is your favourite season?

Summer. I. LOVE. SUMMER!

3.Who is your favourite author?

I don't have one


4. Which is your favourite style of shoe?

Glam flip flops


5. What is your favourite precious metal?

Can I say silver and gold together?!


6. What was your best subject at school?

Drama (I was always showing off: dancing, making jokes and singing)


7. Did you have any hobbies as a child?

Yes, designing outfits, playing with My Little Ponies and modern ballet


8. What is your favourite beauty treatment?

Clarins Beauty Flash Balm


9. Are you a jeans or leggings person?

Meh! It's a tie between them both


10. What genre of films do you like?

Horror, foreign, anything thought provoking


11. Do you prefer long hair or short?

Long, but not creepy long


12. What would be your ideal job?

Being commissioned to make my own knitwear designs



For the next part of the challenge I  have to dream up 12 questions to ask a further 12 other bloggers. The bloggers I've chosen include: Alice of Crochet with Raymond, Allison of Crafty is Cool, Amy from Nest, Anna of Anna's Creative Corner, Beki of Being Beki, Brie of Roman Sock, Julie of Knitted Bliss, Frances of Spontaneous Joy, MemeRose, Anna of Mochimochiland, Momtaz of Cos I Like Making Stuff and Penny of Planet Penny.  My questions to them are as follows:

1. How old were you when you first started knitting/crocheting?

2. What is the best thing you've ever made?

3. Choose: Cats or dogs?

4. What's your dream holiday destination and why?

5. What's your #1 tip for beginner bloggers?

6. In life, who is your biggest inspiration? 

7. Are you going to any music festivals this year, if so which ones?

8. What inspires you most when knitting or crocheting?

9. Choose: City or country?

10. Choose: Shoes or handbags?

11. What's your favourite dessert?

12. What's your best tried and tested recipe?

How to Knit an iPhone Cover

Hello one and all! I have something in the pipeline to show you; it's a knitted iPhone pouch. I just need to reassemble my sewing machine to put a label on it and it's all complete!

As I've been up since 6am with only four hours sleep, I decided to forego my gym class this evening and have melted into the sofa instead.

I don't know whether I told you but I live in a flat. We are having a few problems with the property management company which is a source of huge frustration. It's got to the point where I'm so irritated by them, I can't even bare to look at them. Oh dear.

I guess I'll just have to knit my way back to serenity. Just a few rows and I'll be at peace again!

London Fashion Week 17-22 February

I couldn't let London Fashion Week pass me by without so much as a mention! Why? Well, because whether we want to admit it or not, what's on the catwalk will filter down to the high street and influence what we wear and make to a greater or lesser extent. Having just excitedly scoured coverage on the collections, I am able to bring you my snapshot of Autumn/Winter 2012 knitwear highlights. Visions in wool, these garments are by established fashion houses and headline grabbing newcomers alike. A guaranteed mood lifter, there was quite a lot of fiery burnt orange around, particularly from Matthew Williamson.

Here's my quick and dirty...

Acne

Holly Fulton

Pringle of Scotland

If you followed the London Fashion Week coverage yourself and spotted something worthy of a mention, leave a comment including a link to the picture and I'll publish it.

How to Knit a Coffee Cosy...

...and a lesson in knitting pattern design.

I could present you with near perfect pieces every week without giving you an insight into my learning curve, but that just wouldn’t be an honest account of my experience. I’ve also always believed it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them!

Finally I have completed my cafetière cosy. Et voila!

However, I have mixed feelings about it. Delighted with the bobble texture of the main body, I love the navy Rowan and white Debbie Bliss yarns and pretty crocheted bows with mother of pearl effect buttons. What I'm disappointed with is the fit.

The first proper object I've made without a pattern, this knitted coffee cosy has taught me an important lesson in pattern making. Even though I carefully measured the coffee press, somehow the knitting increased slightly when I pressed it and the finished object is now slightly too deep for the cafetière. It seems a shame to unpick it, so other than finding a larger coffee press, my options are to i) leave it as it is ii) add extra ties at the side to pull in the slack iii) somehow sew down the slack as a pleat. Any suggestions?

My view is that adding an extra tie to the sides would be too much and the item is too bulky to sew horizontally across the middle. I will keep this project at the back of my mind and troubleshoot it. However, even though it didn't turn out exactly as I expected, it's really helped me think about structure and planning. If I was to make another coffee cosy I would reduce it by an inch in depth to allow the yarn to spread when it’s pressed. I would also look again at where the ties go and ensure the cosy sits more neatly under the spout.

Best of the Rest
If you’re a coffee lover and fancy making your cafetière its own little jacket, check out these highly covetable creations from Frankie Brown.

Seaside Escape

I've just enjoyed a blissful weekend in Bournemouth, staying at the sumptuous Green House Hotel which I thoroughly recommend. As an eco hotel, many of its furnishings are locally sourced, as well as the food and beverages in the restaurant and bar.
The weather has been 'fresh' to say the least but the bright mornings, delicious hotel breakfasts and  exhilarating walks along the beach have certainly added warmth and colour.

I've hardly had a moment to knit. However, because I wasn't happy with where I'd placed them and because their edges weren't very even, I unpicked the ties on the coffee cosy on Friday. I've since knitted them in white and will finish the cosy off next week and do a 'big reveal' of the finished object.

Full of Beans

Did I tell you coffee is my only real vice? I love the stuff! A work in progress, here's a snap of the cafetière cosy I'm fashioning. As I mentioned previously, there is no pattern for this, I'm simply using the Isamo Crochet bows as decoration and adding them to a bobbly blanket square I made when I first started knitting. I'm hoping once I've applied crocheted shell edging to the two wide sides, the uneven one will appear less so. The yarn I'm using is a navy blue Rowan double knitting wool.

Night at the Museum

Yesterday I was scouring London's famous Victoria & Albert (V & A) museum looking for 'knitspiration' with my old school friend Catherine. Probably my favourite museum in London, the V & A is jam-packed with art, ceramics and jewellery from around the world and also occasionally hosts must-see fashion exhibitions.

The jewellery-through-the-ages space capsule room and neon Japanese kimonos provided some interest but, alas, there was not a stitch of knitwear in sight! Unfortunately our visit didn't coincide with a touring fashion exhibition so sadly the only crafty curiosities to catch my eye were some jumbo crochet hooks and spools of shredded T-shirt yarn for crocheting in the gift shop. These reels of candy coloured cotton loveliness presented me with pleasing visions of a chunky handmade textured top in pastel colours for the spring...

In summary, the V & A is great museum if you're an art and craft enthusiast, but to get the best out of your trip you'd be well advised to plan your visit around the programme of touring exhibitions.

Bouquet Tea Cosy

And here she is at last, my finished tea cosy. As you can see, I covered her in daffodils, a lily, roses, poppies and leaves. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out and will definitely make another tea cosy from a different pattern in the future. Tea cosies rock!

To make it a bit more interesting I broke the rules by using different sized needles so all the flowers were different sizes, and I knitted the leaves in three shades of green.

When I get near the end of a project I always underestimate how long it will take to darn in the ends. This project was no exception, it actually took ages to sew all the foliage on and tidy up the inside but I am quite pleased with my handiwork. You just can't really buy these, only in the every-one-identical, mass produced sense anyway!

Thanks to everyone whose free patterns I used, now everything's neatly stitched down it's ready for a tea party...!

In the News: How to Knit the Knitlympics

As we're now in 2012, I'd thought I'd issue an Olympic post and mention 'Knitlympics', a quirky new book of knitting patterns about how to knit former Olympic stars. Check it out! After looking up author Carol Meldrum's website http://www.beatknit.com, I have to say, it's fab and more than worthy of a listing on my blog roll. I am full of regret that I didn’t apply for Olympic tickets, however, whipping up something from the aforementioned book is surely the most painless way to limber up and get into the spirit of the big event?!

Although I’m personally more amigurumi than mochimochi myself, all this Olympic fever is making me want to fashion something Olympic myself. When the London 2012 logo was first launched it was unpopular, critics claimed the digits looked as if Lisa from The Simpsons was doing something unmentionable. However, I found its graffiti retro feel really appealing!

Disappointingly, a quick scan on Ravelry revealed zero London 2012 knitting and crochet projects in progress. If you are making something crafty in preparation for London 2012 do let me know, I’d love to ‘have a butcher’s’, as we say in cockney London town. Perhaps we could even display them online in the style of Tony Hart's gallery from the children's art TV show, Hart Beat. Oh, that takes me back...

H6PCK8YHGGSS

Eureka!

It's been a crisp but sunny day in London today. I've noticed we've had almost an extra 30 minutes of light in the late afternoon and can't wait until spring. Speaking of which, my Spring Explosion tea cosy is progressing really well. Today I made three more flowers: two daffodils – which I am delighted with –and an elegant lily.

Apart from making an i-cord (see third party YouTube clip in previous post for a tutorial on these), I haven't quite mastered using double ended needles yet so worked all the flowers flat. Where possible, I also prefer using regular needles to circular needles. Fingers crossed, I'll have the tea cosy finished by next weekend!

I firmly believe we have our best ideas when we are relaxed and our minds are free. At the crack of dawn this morning I had a brain wave: I still had the little blanket squares I made when I first experimented with knitting a year ago and realised that one in particular would make a fabulous coffee cosy. Wasting no time at all, I frogged an inch or so of it to make it fit our six cup cafetière, and to remove the uneven pattern at the start. When I first knitted the square I hadn't even decided where I was going with it so it was a bit freestyle until a few rows in, where a raised spotty pattern starts to emerge. It took ages to frog as I unpicked the cast-on end (where the pattern was uneven). I've never done this before and it was hard to find and pick up the stitches again to cast off. It's not as neat as the other end, but, in a light bulb moment, I decided I could add two sets of ties, the Isamo Crochet bows I made before and some shell edging and it could look really pretty. My first original design!

Remember the pouffe I made? Well, a lady got in touch on Friday to express her total joy at seeing mine; she is going to have a go at making one herself. All credit goes to the Pickles for supplying such an inspiring pattern, thanks girls!

Back in the Game

Earlier in the week I was offered a new contract starting next month: "That should keep the wolves from the door!" she cried. I have a really good feeling about this year, I just know it's going to be fabulous.

Being a lady of leisure today I have been pondering about what to make new arrival, my friend's little girl, Ella Maggie. I'm having a break from making toys at the mo so perhaps in a couple of months I'll make her some clothes or a baby mobile, we shall see!

I'm really looking forward to adding some more flowers to my tea cosy tomorrow, here's what I've made so far...

Take a Leaf Out of My Book

Flower power reigns today as I construct the knitted and crocheted foliage for the Spring Explosion Tea Cosy.

Do you remember all that *premature* political speak about 'green shoots' at the beginning of the recession? Well, I've created some knitted ones of my own!

So far, we have four leaves in two shades of green and two magenta roses, all courtesy of naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com (where the Rambling Rose pattern stems from). Pictures to follow.

Anyway, that's all from me. Have a great week!

Domestic Goddess

Another "ta-da!" moment. I finally got around to filling the knitted pouffe and here it is. Not bad, huh? I'd originally decided to use it as a pet bed for when I get some animals in the future, but actually it's too firm for pets to sleep on, so I'll just use it as a funky foot stool instead.

I think I'll make another one in a brighter colour in the future and neaten it up a bit more. The size came up exactly right as well; it's just the perfect size for sitting on or for resting tired feet on at the end of a long day... Domestic bliss indeed. Here's the pattern again if you fancy having a go yourself, it's very easy, garter stitch throughout. Do let me know how you get on!

Stealing a march on next winter, I squirreled away two remaining scraps of this chunky yarn and worked it into a two-tone rectangle. The creamy stripe shows what the yarn looked like before I dyed it. Hubby took a shine to the wool when I was knitting the foot stool so I plan to make him a snowboarder hat or scarf for next winter. Here it is so far...

Happy New Year!

Happy belated new year to you.

I feel very positive about starting the new year and had a blissful day yesterday (officially the last day of the UK holiday season). I've always admired homemade tea cosies for their uniqueness and eccentricity - the wackier the better I say! Pure 'granny chic'. So, over the break I decided it was about time I created one of these mini marvels for myself. In virtually no time at all I knitted up the base of my new Spring Explosion Tea Cosy as featured on Ravelry and blogspot Crochet with Raymond. It fits really snugly and I can't believe how quick it took me to knit it.

The next stage will be knitting and crocheting the leaves and flowers and stitching them on to this little piece of heaven. I've never made flowers or leaves before so it will be a learning curve, but worth it I'm sure.

...More tea vicar?