Freeform workshop tonight

Its my first workshop tonight!!

I am running a session on freeform knitting & crochet, a subject I love as I have had great fun with this in the past. You can really let your imagination run wild and try out new techniques. I'll probably start with crochet rounds and domes, then add some knitting, experimenting with different yarns, needles and techniques. Once the group have got the idea they we'll try a round robin where each of us adds to a project.

Can't wait.....here is an example of freeforming and I will explain it all in more detail after the workshop.

This is the bag that I submitted to the Broad Weavers competition run by the Coventry Guild of Spinners Weaver and Dyers. It is entitled Undergrowth and inculdes samples of all the yarns that I have spun since I have started spinning, inculding:- Herdiwck, Jacobs, 2 types of Shetland, Soya bean, tencil, Tuscan Silt, Timba fluff (my doggie), cotton and Alpaca [I think thats them all]

Presents and baby Lotion

Wow - what a stash - my parcel from SP arrived this morning! - thank-you!!!!

Pictures to come as I'm still cramped in Oliver's bedroom

So I had fab purple wool and a pattern to make a felted scarf - I have done felting from fleece and needle fetlting before, but have not been brave enough to put a knitted item in the washing machine until now. There really is no excuse now is there?

Fab autumn coloured fluffy stuff - I don't know whether to knit it or just stroke it - It would make a great bag now I think of it.....

Mesh bags which I had to prize of Oliver & Lily cos they could think of lots of toys that might fit in them. They would be great for my ever increasing stitch marker collection, thats if I can find a good hiding place.

Ooh and wonderful sticky notes - best shown by a piccie, so I'll add one to this entry soon

You got me to a T and now I have some clues tofinding you - thanks SP the bundle arrived safe & sound and go creative cogs spinning, which i need as I'm doing my first freeform workshop this Wednesday @ Coventry Knit-Wits!

Baby lotion - so whats that all about you may ask?

Lily has worked out how to get out of her cot! This time comes to all parents when you can no longer corrall your little darling and have to 'trust' them enough to sleep in a little bed. Aaron took the bars off the cot to make a cute little bed and we made a big deal about how she was no longer a baby and now a proper little girl......

Proper little devil more like!

She went down for the usual afternoon nap. After about an hour I heard her calling me, so I went upstairs to be greeted by Lily head to toe in bright pink baby lotion! She had massaged it into her hair, put blobs on her face, it was somehow got into her nappy, smothered on the wall and the door, not to mention the bedclothes.

It was a perfect picture moment, but the camera was not at hand.

Needless to say all access to baby lotion, talc and baby oil have been removed incase she feel the need to repeat this little adventure.

one tired mother signing out in desperate need to escape into knitting

Godiva Festival - Coventry

Two hot and sweaty days, but great fun.

The Coventry Godiva Festival was The Coventry Knit-Wit's first official outing!

On Saturday we were quite cramped, but that did not matter as there were only a couple of us. On Sunday there were plenty more knitters, including some from the Coventry RSVP. We got lots of interest, so we will have to see how many come on Wednesday. Being next to the Spinners Guild was good too, so I could do a bit of both. I even talked to some Coventry 15th Century Re-enactors!!!!

Photos will follow as the computer is currently cramped in Oliver's room and it does not have a USB connection for the camera as yet.

Need to get it sorted as I have proof of a male knitter!!!!!

Secret Pal Questionnaire update

Here is the updated SP8 Questionnaire answers

1 - What is your favourite season of the year?
Definitely autumn – I love the colours and the crisp mornings…oh and the beautiful autumn sunsets

2 - Where is your favourite vacation spot?
Well this has to be the New Forest – the fact that you can camp in the middle of the woods and still be near the seaside too. The wild ponies visiting the camps are great for the kids to see.

3 - If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be?
I’d just love to go to New Zealand – all the different types of scenery and after watching the Lord of the Rings movies I want to go there all the more.

4 - If you could pick any job, and be paid well, what would it be?
Domestic Goddess – to look after the kids, knit & sew to my hearts content. Now I have the kids I realise how important spending time with them is. Before they came along it was career career career. Funny how priorities change

5 - If you were going on vacation for 1 week, and had to take ONLY one project with you, what would it be?
A pretty cardigan/bolero/shrug for Lily – I have been trying to start one for her for ages and not got very far.

6 - If you won a shopping spree to your favourite Yarn shop, what would you get??
A full set of wooden knitting needles and crochet hooks

I hate technology!!!!

Well the kind that does not want to work......

Here I am internetting away nicely, then about 6 week or so ago we had a power cut. Since then the internet has been irratic, going down several times...etc....etc.... you have seen the moans below. Well the diagnostic for our wireless router was saying that it had a signal, so we deducted that it must be a ISP (NTL) issue.....no.

Aaron finally took the machine upstairs to where the modem is..poor Oliver its in his bedroom!! Now its working properly and 125 emails (mostly junk) later I am back up and running. Not the best situation as I'm crapped up on a small set of draws and Oliver is trying to get to sleep as I type, but better than nothing.

Anyhow back on and guess what.................. I have a new SP!!!!! My old one quit and so a new one is on board and sent me a lovely interactive card .... thank you. Fingers crossed the tech holds out so I can keep you posted on whats going on.

This weekend its the Godiva Festival in Coventry and the Knit-Wits have been invited!! Ace its our first really public engagement, so its poster and flyer time. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

Adventures in Needle Felting

I have been fascinated by felt for some time now.

Wet felt is great fun, but messy and hard on the hands. Last year I almost rubbed the palms of my hands away while making Oliver's felt boots for re-enactment. It is good for constructing seamless garments, like waistcoats as well as bags and boots.

Needle felting adds a whole new dimension - quite literally. I knew the principle but had never seen it in practice. Being a very hands-on and visual person, what I needed was a demonstration. So when I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate last October I was pleased to find two stands dedicated to needle felting. The demo showed it to be even easier than I first thought.



I was so captivated that once I was back from the show I made my first teddy out of scraps of fleece. An instant hit and a good present for mum even though he was quite crude he was my first and I had great fun making him.




Since then I have made a Sky-gazing Hare, a unicorn horn and my latest a bearded man.




He has a loop on the back so that he can be hung. He would look quite good hanging on a tree, making a tree spirit or Green Man - actually he looks quite scary in this picture



This is a sample swatch I made to try out a raised dedisgn. The spiral is built up in several thin layers to create a ridge on top of which I stabbed red fibres to define the spiral - this could look good on a bag or pocket

Next I'd like to make a faerie, a sneaky twisted one like Froud draws or Spiderwick

Update on progress

Baby Jumper - photo - the cheveron pattern worked really well and the whole thing only took a few evenings, but it is a small one. Its baby blue btw - photo is not very clear




Lorna's laces from SP7 - Rachel from SP7 sent me two beautiful skeins of Lorna's laces, so I balled on and tried it out - the colours are just amazing. I have not had this much fun in a tension square for ages. However..... I am just not getting this circular knitting lark. I canb cast on. but keep haveing trouble in the first row. After 4 attempts on this one and 3 on Aaron's Autumn socks, I have offically put circular knitting on the back burner.... not turned my back on it completely, just giving it a rest for a while and maybe when I go back to it I will have re-newed enthusiasm.

However the thought occured about lacy gloves for Yolanda, my Gypsy character in Whispered Tales (who sparked this blog in the first place) and came up with this.....











The cuffs do not stretch like rib in knitting, so I put glass bead on to act like buttons. Thedelecate colour changing work great on the lace of the palm. Originally I was not going to do fingers, but it really needed them to 'pull' on the lace to see the effect of fishnet stockings.

Now I just have to do the next one..... I really do suffer from first sock/glove/sleeve syndrone. Once I have proved to myself that I can do it, I want to march on into the next project, but Yolanda will get her matching gloves before the next game.

Lacy pouch - I used to crochet lots of pretty doilies when I was @ Uni - they made excellent presents for mum and did not cost me much in money, just time. Well I found a ball of crochet cotton and came up with this - must get round to putting the pattern down on paper. I find with crochet I can make it up as I go a lot easier than knitting. Very pleased with the results.

SP8 Stash

Look at what turned up on my doorstep this week....

In the package there was

CHOCOLATE - not your normal chocolate though, the GOD of chocolate - Green & Blacks Organic chocolate

CANDLE - fab lavender candle, my favourite scent. My lavender in the back garden has gone mental this year, so I'm expecting a good harvest.

FLEECE - well gorgeuos roving in deep mulberry colours. This is actually quite a good picture to show the colours. I'm thinking bag, apparently bags are the new scarves for this autumn. I discovered circular handles in my local knitting shop along with about 6 other varieties. I have been looking all over for them and now they are on my doorstep!!

(CARD - not smarites, just a picture of them)

Thankyou Secret Pal & I will keep you up-to-date on the spinning - I can see an evening infront of the telly, me & the spinning wheel one night while Aaron is on shifts - can't wait.

Fingers crossed for this post as I lost connection twice and had to reboot

Blogging back online

Great - that last blog worked.

My PC has been playing up - I tried several times on night to blog, but kept loosing connection to the internet. I'm not sure if its the router or my ISP, so apologies for an interupted service - it seems ok atm, so I'll do a blog-blast.

Sock...Sock I have a sock

Wow, finally after several months on the back burner, I have finally finished my first sock!! The colours are fab if I say so myself.

I'm not sure what it was that made me put it to one side because I really got into it and loved the way the colours were gong. I had conquored the heel and was heading straight to the toe and then... stopped.

Well I 've picked it up again, got confused by the stitchmarkers, but I think the end result is ok. The Kitchener stitch took a bit of getting used to but got the hang of it by the end.

So the burning question is when does the next sock get started? To be turthful - I've tried 3 times and keep mucking up on the first row. It has not helped that i have been distracted while doing this, so it needs a dedicated evening to get it started. I have promised Aaron the socks before Christmas, so I still have some time left....