It's been a while since I posted here. It's hard keeping up with things when you're always ill and it doesn't help that I haven't been able to sort out a place to take decent photos in my new room yet. I set up a rather haphazard arrangement yesterday which involved the cables from my big lights stretching across the room at knee height and, miraculously, I managed not to fall over once! So, here are some of the things I've been working on lately, a little bit at a time most days.
First of all, I've been doing some English paper piecing with scraps from the two big baskets of scraps on the top landing (needless to say, both baskets are still full).
I'm using pre-cut squares and honeycomb paper pieces from Sew & Quilt and, so far, I've tacked enough shapes to make 50 blocks. I've been better pleased with my stitching since discovering this extra fine thread by Gutermann which really makes the stitches invisible. I shall arrange the blocks like this so will need to add extra squares between the blocks later.
One of the things that bothers me about doing so many crafts is that I never really make any progress with some of them. If I only practise them once or twice a year, there's always a lot of re-learning to do when I go back to them. This year I've decided to be more consistent so that I develop the muscle memory for some of my often neglected crafts.
This is working well with Dorset button making. I am steadily working through this wonderful book by Gina Barrett which has detailed instructions for over 70 traditional buttons.
As you can see, I've made eight so far so there's quite a way to go. Here's a close up of the first six.
I'm trying the same approach with tatting but this is a much steeper learning curve. I'm trying to tat this motif over and over and then use the finished shapes as gift tags. As you can see though, my second attempt is worse than the first! More practice needed I think.
The design is 'Christmas Rose' from the book New Tatting by Tomoko Morimoto which, I'm sorry to see, is now out of print. This was the book that re-sparked my interest in tatting although I would also recommend any of Mary Konior's wonderful books. Don't be put off by the black and white photos and the lack of diagrams, these are brilliant for beginners in particular. The prices that old copies of her books go for tells you something about how good they are but you can find them reasonably priced now and then. I recently found this one on World of Books for just over £6.
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The author helpfully marks patterns suitable for beginners with a dagger symbol so I obediently had a go at the first one in the book - an edging called 'Betsey's Downfall' (poor Betsey).
That was easy. It's so small because I was using up a length of thread on a bobbin, not because I got bored. Even I have more staying power than that.
I've been doing a bit of the next ongoing project every day since just before Christmas. Can you guess what's in this pretty tin?
Appropriately enough, it's full to bursting with ... snowflakes.
Every day I crochet another design from 100 Snowflakes to Crochet by Caitlin Sainio. Again, I fear this book might be out of print. When I first got the book several years ago, I started crocheting the snowflakes with thread as the author recommends but I didn't really like the result so, this time, I'm using Stylecraft Special DK and a 3.5 mm hook. They don't take long and I'm over half way through the book already and learning a lot about snowflakes on the way.
What am I going to do with 100 quite large snowflakes you may ask? Good question, I haven't decided that yet. I am considering sewing them together into big panels to hang at my windows next Christmas although I suspect that it would be a case of 'that way madness lies'. In the meantime, don't they look nice?
I have also been working on more Colour Pop knitting ideas. This is my technique for adding texture and colour to plain knitting which I have been exploring for a while now. You can see the Colour Pop patterns I've published so far here although I did experiment with the idea in a few early patterns too.
At the moment I'm knitting Colour Pop squares for a baby blanket using some very pretty colours ...
.. and I've also finished a collection of Roly-Poly purses using the same technique.
I'm particularly pleased with these as they're just one rectangular piece with the sides gathered into circles and a few buttons added - nice and simple. I'm hoping to get the pattern written up soon.
Have you ever considered using 92 different colours in a knitted scarf? Of course you haven't but this is what I'm doing here ...
This is my shade card scarf which will have a stripe in all 92 of the solid shades of Stylecraft Special DK. I'm knitting it in the round, mostly so that I can knot the ends together and hide them inside. I may be daft but not so daft they I relish the thought of sewing in 184 tails of yarn.
I'm not very good at doing 'random' when it comes to colour selection so I decided to knit the colours in alphabetic order (and why not?). What you see in the photo above is letters A - C. Adopting this approach throws up some very bizarre combinations but I think it will all turn out well in the end.
I use my trusty Stylecraft Colour Pegs a lot when planning designs and they're starting to look a bit fuzzy and tatty now so I'm also crocheting these little circles to act as an alternative to the pegs.
I was going to do just plain squares but they seemed a bit dull so decided on textured circles instead.
I am still making progress with sorting all my piles of craft stuff on to shelves in my new room although I'm finding it slow going. It doesn't help that I think I've slipped another disc so lifting things is tricky - also moving, sitting, sleeping ...
Anyway, this is the state of the big shelves so far.
I've done cross stitch, needlepoint, embroidery, tatting, beading, toy making and I don't know what else but there's still quite a lot to go. Meanwhile, there are a few new additions to my desk. One is this pretty clock from Dunelm Mill which I'm rather pleased with.
The other 'new' thing is actually 67 years old and I've had it for a while.
This is a Singer 99, made in Scotland in 1956 which I've finally got cleaned, oiled and working. This was advertised as a 'portable' machine, despite being made of cast iron (guess how I hurt my back?) but, with a new foot pedal from Couling Sewing Machines, it sews beautifully. I'm planning to have a sewing machine on every floor of the house. This one on the top floor will mostly be used for patchwork, as will my Featherweight which lives in the scullery downstairs and is nice for sewing by the open back door in then Summer. That leaves my modern machine - yes, I do have one of those too - for the middle floor. That machine comes into its own for dressmaking, bag making etc. Also, you don't do yourself an injury moving it around!
I have plans to keep the old Singer out all the time in my craft room but am hoping to move it off the desk, possibly to that little space to the left of the desk in this photo.
Today I had a lovely time cutting out rectangles to start a new quilt for my son who has just bought his first house so that will be the first thing I make with this machine. I'll show you pictures once I've done more than cut out pieces.
