Green Knitted Tunic Progress

On 11th Apr 2022 By woollymakerIn knittingLeave a comment

I’ve actually done some knitting on my top!

I know, I know, you were worrying about it only being cast on and no stitches done for quite a while now, but rest assured, you can breathe easy now! I’ve actually done some more on it!

I finished the moss stitch border at the bottom and am now on the main pattern part, which aside from the moss stitch sides is all stocking stitch on 4mm needles so is going a lot faster.

I wasn’t in the mood for much knitting or anything at all last week, all things considered (I spent the time recuperating after surgery) but this week I feel awake and much more mobile so I’ve been working away at the green top and even started a new crochet project!

But I’ll show that in another post. For now, here is what I have so far and a pic of what it is supposed to look like when finished…

Yes, it’s not a huge amount done, but it’s something! And there is absolutely no rush for it to get finished.

I’m finding that after a good six months of hardly any projects on the go at the same time, I’m really liking casting on a lot of things at once!

I could never be a truly monogamous knitter. I guess it’s shiny new object syndrome!

Knitting Updates

On 4th Dec 20213rd Dec 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, knittingLeave a comment

Last week I sent another box of knitted goodies to charity. It’s great for me as I have more room to make more stuff now!

Do you remember some of these below from previous posts this year? All gone now as well as more blankets that I forgot to take pictures of!

I loved the Christmas blankie so much…but there comes a point when you have to say to yourself “Actually, I have ENOUGH knitted blankets now!”.

I have a few projects on the go which are:

Knitted baby cardigan
Knitted sock yarn shawl
Knitted socks
Orange granny square blanket using up scraps from a jumper I made earlier in the year

That’s enough to be getting on with now. I have a few ideas for future projects which is basically, a top down sweater and more socks! Also a tank top and a neon fair isle cowl.

Since I got rid of a lot of scrap fabric the other day, I don’t have a lot of sewing projects planned. Although I did buy a couple of cute Christmas fat quarters from a local sewing shop a couple of days ago…I couldn’t help myself!

Just look at the traditional Christmas colours on the fat quarter on the right!

I never go for weird Christmas colours…I remember as a teenager in the early 2000’s when they bought out black Christmas trees for the first time, as well as purple and silver as a festive colour combo…I hated them! What was wrong with golds, red and greens?

Anyway…I have NO IDEA what I’m going to make with them…probably zipper bags as they are my absolute favourite sewing make!

Handmade Christmas Wreath

On 3rd Dec 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies1 Comment

Mother and me went on a Christmas Wreath making workshop yesterday and our wreathes looked pretty good!

It’s a day later and they haven’t fallen apart so that’s a success in my book!

I chose to decorate mine with whole oranges, pine cones and slices of dried limes, thinking I would go for the all natural theme. I was going to put some cinnamon sticks in there too…but less is more when it comes to wreathes.

I put some straggly bits around the edges, which if I did it again, I probably would skip. But it’s the first ones we’ve ever made and I think they look OK for total beginners! 🙂

The whole process was really easy too.

Buy a metal wreath ring from your local craft shop/ florist
Wrap it with metal
Stuff moss around the ring and wrap that with wire for your base
Add your leaves and foliage…make sure to wrap it all tightly
Add decorations such as ribbons, pine cones, baubles, oranges etc.
Add a wire hook to hang it up with
That’s it! You’re done!

Crochet Baby Blanket

On 31st Oct 2021 By woollymakerIn crochet4 Comments

Another WIP bites the dust!

This was a really simple Corner To Corner crochet baby blanket for a friend who is expecting soon. It’s so fluffy and soft!

It’s been nice doing a bit of crochet again as lately it’s all been about the knitting!

I used 4 balls of James C. Brett Fluttery Chunky, you can get it here from The Knitting Network (affiliate link). I like it, it’s easy to crochet with (I used a 5mm hook). The only thing I would say is to get the balls with the same dye lot. I didn’t think it would matter with a chinky fluffy yarn like this one, but it does!

I bought 3 balls one day and went back another day for the fourth…you can tell close up the different dye lots. It’s not super obvious to someone who hasn’t made it…but I can still see the difference!

Here’s a couple of pictures of it below:

You can’t really see the pattern clearly with the fluffy wool, but the gaps aren’t as big in real life as they look in the pics!

Now I just need to finish the knitted cardiganI started a few days ago and another few other baby bits and bobs and then I’m finished with baby makes for a little bit.

[This post contains affiliate links which means if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission of that purchase at no extra cost to you!]

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Star Wars Fabric Gift Bag

On 22nd Oct 2021 By woollymakerIn sewing6 Comments

It’s my brother’s birthday today and I spent 20 minutes this morning making him a fabric zipper gift bag.

I was aiming for ‘eco-friendly’ as I didn’t want to use wrapping paper which would just get thrown away. At least he can reuse the bag.

And I haven’t sewn anything for a few months…I’m just chuffed I didn’t have to look up which way to place the fabric, I figured it out all by my little self!

My friend Lizzie bought me the fabric a few weeks ago (thank you!) and there is enough left to do something else with it.

The nerd in me loves the fact that Halloween Darth Vader is a skeleton…in Return of the Jedi you see him briefly as a skeleton when he gets electrocuted. That fabric was designed by a true believer…

I just did a basic bag and inside there is his card, a couple of books, a pack of posh cookies and some loose chocolates. He doesn’t read this blog so don’t panic!

It was good to get the sewing machine out again.

That was basically my only finished make of the week. I’ve also cast on a new knitted baby cardigan and made a pom pom for a baby hat I finished a few days ago. But it’s all been writing still…no time to craft anymore!

See you soon 🙂

Current Knitting WIPs

On 5th Oct 20214th Oct 2021 By woollymakerIn crochet, knitting6 Comments

After finishing my orange knitted jumper last week, I now have more time to concentrate on knitting other items. Here’s a list of what’s on my needles at the moment.

Sock Yarn Shawl

I’m doing a simple garter stitch shawl in 4ply sock yarn. I started this at the end of last year, and I’ve only just picked it up again, but honestly, there’s no rush for this, so it’s my ‘do a few rows here and there’ kind of project. I love the colours and I’ve only done about 30 rows. Slow going but fun going!

The yarn is by West Yorkshire Spinners (Passionfruit Cooler colour)and you can get it here from The Knitting Network:

https://tidd.ly/3F8P23Y

Socks

I cast on the first sock yesterday and I’ve just done a rows of ribbing so far. I hate using DPNs but I’m determined to get the hang of socks. I have so much sock yarn to use up!

I’m doing a basic vanilla sock yarn pattern by Winwick Mum and it’s going well so far.

I’ve done a lone, single sock before many years ago. That took me 3 weeks to do and put me off doing the other one! So, I’m starting all over again, with a different pattern and yarn and we’ll try and make it to 2 socks this time, shall we?!

Baby Cardigan Test Knit

A friend is having a baby in December and I wanted to try a raglan cardigan pattern. I really hate raglan patterns, but I like the look of the finished object! I tried to knit myself a raglan jumper a few years ago and struggled with sewing it together as I found the sleeves really awkward!

This is just a quick knit in a newborn size and so far I’ve done the fronts and back pieces and 1 sleeve, with the 2nd sleeve rib done and now I’m working on the main part of it. Then I just need to sew it all together and do the button bands and neck edgings.

If I like the look of it and think it wasn’t too bad to sew up, then I’ll cast on another one in a different colour yarn! With matching hat, mitts and bootees of course!

Baby Blanket

I think quite a few posts ago I said I wanted to knit the same friend an entrelac blanket. Well, that’s been changed slightly as I think that would take me AGES to make and 2 months isn’t enough time! So, I’m doing a different lace pattern blanket and that’s going to be quite small, so ideal for a pram. And I’m also making a squishy crochet blanket (see below) which will be bigger and have more uses.

I chose a dark pink and purple held double as I’m sure she’ll be getting a lot of baby pink items (for a girl) and I thought this was a different option to stand out. We’ll see what it looks like finished.

I tried to hold it up against the light so you could see the pattern, not sure if you can but it looks good so far.

Crochet Baby Blanket

A simple corner to corner crochet blanket. I have 3 balls of chunky yarn, I might see if I can do 2 for the increases and 2 for the decreases (obviously I need to get another ball of yarn).

So, that’s it for now.

Christmas is coming up and I wanted to knit a few small baubles and things, but honestly, I knitted so much Christmas stuff last year, that it isn’t even a priority right now. The baby things first and then I might see if I can cast on a tank top (sweater vest) for my Dad…I might get it started before Christmas, but I probably won’t get it finished!

And Christmas socks for me with Christmas sock yarn…and I have lots of spare DK yarn, so something to do with that…and neon yarn…

So many things I want to start, but I have 5 things on the go for definite now!

I think that’s enough to be getting on with…

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Knitted Orange Jumper Finally Finished!

On 4th Oct 20212nd Feb 2022 By woollymakerIn knitting8 Comments

It is the post you’ve all been desperately waiting on tenterhooks for! Don’t panic for it is here!

The Knitted Orange Jumper…is DONE!

Several years, 2 summers and mentioned in almost every blog post as that orange knitted jumper. I can’t believe it’s finally getting crossed off the list!

I still need to block it, which I’ll do this week sometime, but it looks like it is supposed to…which if you’ve ever seen some of my other attempts at following patterns, then you’ll know that’s not always a foregone conclusion.

And although I made a couple of silly mistakes on the back piece, the front is perfect and overall, there isn’t much actually wrong with the finished piece. I’ve actually sewn it together quite well too.

Can you tell how happy I am to have this finally finished?!

It fits, it’s snug and tight for a few reasons. Mainly I chose my size from the options instead of measuring myself. I think in future I’ll knit up a size or two as I prefer baggy/ slouchy sweaters to tighter fitting ones. It’s also a little shorter than I thought it would be when finished but again, I know for next time. But overall, it’s a success!

The pictures below show the neckline, the sleeve edging and the side seam, which I did using mattress stitch. I’ve always struggled with seaming and sewing items up neatly, but I’m chuffed with this! And the neckline I picked up in the right way so it all looks neat! 🙂

The pattern was from a magazine compendium and it was by Pat Menchini. Possibly called Cinnamon Spice, but I’m not sure.

I used 4 1/2 balls of wool. I bought 7, even though it suggested 5 or 6 balls. So, I have 2 1/2 leftover for another project later.

And the wool was really cheap from my local yarn shop. I used a different yarn to the pattern (in a similar shade) as my local yarn shop didn’t stock the one from the pattern and I was impatient!

I used King Cole Big Value Tweed DK in shade Rust (3029).

You can buy it here from The Knitting Network if you like the look of it (they might not have the exact shade but the other shades are pretty good too!). 🙂

So…yeah, I’m pleased it’s finally ticked off my list! That makes 2 jumpers completed this year (my first 2 ever!). I’m moving onto other things now, but next year a knitting goal is to try a top down sweater. I’m knitting baby clothes and blankets now, as well as a sock yarn shawl for me and I just cast on a pair of socks yesterday.

I’ll make a post with all my current WIPs together as I actually just took some photos today in the right light!

Hope you’re all having a happy and productive Monday! 🙂

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Argh…Orange Jumper Is In One Piece Now!

On 29th Sep 2021 By woollymakerIn knitting, Uncategorized2 Comments

After almost a year of writing variations of “...and still on the list is the Knitted Orange Jumper” I can now say that the front AND back are done and…wait for it…no, still wait for it…

THEY’RE IN ONE PIECE NOW!

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!

Progress has finally been made, I’ve made a bit of a mega push lately to try and get it done and yesterday I FINALLY managed to finish the front.

Today I’ve sewn up the left shoulder and done the ribbing for the neckband, hopefully I’ll be able to sew up the right shoulder tonight (it’s almost 9pm now) and then do the sleeve edges and finish sewing up the sides tomorrow, and then it’s done.

The sleeve bits might take a day or two longer, but I’m so pleased to be able to say that the end is most definitely in sight.

I’ve had a bad cold over the weekend, I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting at a computer and writing, but sitting in bed and knitting? That I could do!

I started this on 2018!!! Did a few rows of ribbing and put it down until summer last year when I picked it up and did the back. I picked it up in August this year and have basically spent 2 months on and off working on the front.

I took the picture below yesterday before I finished the front. I’ll wait until tomorrow for more pics but yay! It’s almost done!

Hand Salve

On 6th Sep 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, handmade1 Comment

I had a few ingredients to use up so I thought I’d make a new hand salve/ cuticle balm.

A lotion bar type thing…except I pour it into tiny plastic pots which saves on a lot of the mess and you can wash out and reuse when they’re empty.

I’m not an expert at this kind of thing, but I do like to have a play around and it’s really easy to do.

Basically I used equal parts of beeswax, runny oil and a hard oil or butter. If you want it softer, add more runny oil or take out some of the beeswax. If you like it really hard, make sure you have more beeswax or use harder butters.

I have a huge tub of shea butter that I wanted to use up and I had exactly 1 1/2 cups of beeswax left, so that’s why everything is this amount! That makes a lot of mixture, but at least I got rid of a few bottles of oil!

The only ingredients I have left now apart from essential oils are shea butter and a bottle of sweet almond oil so I’ll have to find a recipe to use those up in the future.

The shea butter and beeswax I bought from an Etsy shop called Classikool (in the UK). They do food and body related ingredients with minimal packaging and I’ve bought from them several times in the past. They’ve always had fast shipping and their products have always been great. I’ve bought cocoa butter and other oils like Carrot Tissue, St John’s Wort and more.

Here’s the affiliate link to their shop below if you want to have a look:

https://tidd.ly/3n8aJLc

Here’s what I did:

First of all I melted the beeswax and shea butter in a double boiler (if you don’t have a double boiler you can do what I did, which is to use a jug for your ingredients in a pan of hot water).

Once they are all melted I added the runny oils, in this case Sweet Almond Oil and Jojoba Oil and mixed it all together until it’s all melted and clear.

I took it off the heat for a few minutes to cool down slightly before I added the Lemon, Rosemary and Bergamot essential oils.

You need to be careful with some essential oils as to the ratio/amount you put in, but I’ve done this before quite a few times, so I had a good idea when to stop!

Stir it all together and if you want to add any colouring to it, do it now. I like mine to look natural so I didn’t add any colouring.

I then poured the mixture into little plastic pots and left them to solidify at room temperature for the rest of the afternoon and got on with other stuff!

All done!

To use, just scrape/ scoop a bit out of the pot with your finger, and it should melt a bit on your fingers or your palm, just rub it into your hands.

I wouldn’t use this on my face, but it’s good for cuticles, hands and areas of rough skin. It’s really good for elbows and cracked heels…just put it on at night when you’re sitting down to give it a chance to sink in a bit!

These make really sweet and useful Christmas or Birthday gifts for people and they are SO easy to make! And they’re handmade in re-usable packaging!

I thought I’d try a stocking mould I’ve had for a while and never used…it came out quite good if I say so myself! But I didn’t have a tin big enough for it, so it’s in a plastic bag for now.

It goes without saying that you need to double check your ingredients and recipes for this kind of thing. This isn’t really an in depth tutorial kind of post.

For essential oils there are guidelines for use with children (basically use less!) and about how much you use in each recipe. Some essential oils can only be used in small amounts as they can react with the sun on your skin…so be careful!

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3 Favourite Yarn Shops

On 6th Aug 20213rd Aug 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, crochet, knitting2 Comments

I love to look at yarn. And squish it if possible!

Since there are a lot of creative people following this blog (and I know a lot of you either knit, crochet or sew) I thought I’d share a few yarn shops that I like and maybe you will too!

I love seeing what independent small businesses can come up with, with their hand-dyed yarn colour combinations. I wish I had the space to create my own hand-dyed yarn…alas I do not!

I don’t think the shops I’ve followed for a while hand spin their yarns (please correct me if I’m wrong!) but they do hand dye them.

The Camels Yarn (Find them on Etsy and Instagram @thecamelsyarn)

This shop makes the most amazing seaside inspired yarn combinations. Sand and sea colours, natural colours and inspiration, gradients, speckles. I love their dark green hank, I think it’s called Evergreen.

https://tidd.ly/3BAJCwU

2. Woolly Mama Yarns (Find them on Etsy and Instagram @woollymamayarns)

NEON! Need I say more?! The brightest and most vibrant hand-dyed yarns I’ve seen. They remind me of 80’s inspired colour combinations. Carnival, Disco Inferno and Samba colour ways are ones to look out for! I would love to make some neon, bright cowls or wrist warmers with these hanks…or just put them on my wall and gaze longingly at the NEON!

https://tidd.ly/3iNcREf

3. The Lonely Knitter (Find them on Instagram @thelonelyknitter or Ravelry @TheLonelyKnitter2 or their website Crafter’s Balm)

I followed this Instagram account for the self striping sock yarn club, but if you look on the website there are other hand-dyed yarns too. It’s difficult to describe the colours of the yarns from this account, but I’d say lots of self striping yarns named after TV shows and Books – The Fellowship of the Ring/ The Walking Dead inspired colour ways. Brights, pastels, natural colours. I love the purple colours and greens.

https://craftersbalm.co.uk

When I win the lottery, I will empty these yarn shops!

Also, I’ll have a room just for yarn which you’ll enter through a secret bookcase via my craft room. It’ll be like the library from Beauty and the Beast except instead of ceiling to floor books, there will be ceiling to floor WOOL on every wall, with a ladder to reach the top! But that’s a story for another day..

[This post contains affiliate links which means if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission of that purchase at no extra cost to you!]

Cross-Stitch Progress

On 2nd Aug 20211st Aug 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, sewing3 Comments

I’m doing a random off the top of my head project to use up leftover embroidery threads (and Aida fabric).

It’s just a black outline which I’m filling with random colours. I’m trying to do lines rather than dots as it’s quicker.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’m thinking a trivet or a placemat with some wadding underneath and another piece of backing fabric on the back.

I like the fact that I had all the materials already for this project…I didn’t have to buy anything and I’m using up what would have been thrown away otherwise!

I’m about a third of the way done so far.

*I don’t know why the light is so bad in these pics, but they look much better in real life!!*

cross stitch — *I don’t know why the light is so bad in these pics, but they look much better in real life!!*

I did think about doing a shape in the middle, like an ‘S’ for Sarah…but in the end, I thought it would be easier to just do random lines! I would say if I do a bit every week, then it’ll be finished at the end of August/ early September.

But there really is no rush and it’s so nice not to be looking at a pattern all the time!

The coolest handmade buttons on the internet!

On 25th Jul 202122nd Jul 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies1 Comment

For a long time I have followed an Instagram account called The Magpie’s Eye. This account has an Etsy shop called TheMagpiesEyeCo and they make the most sparkly and amazing resin buttons as well as the odd tray or spoon rest I believe.

I ordered some tiny buttons a couple of weeks ago, some neon rainbow sparkly ones and some blue sparkly ones.

I had a go myself at making some resin items last year in the summer. I had some resin I bought the year before that and wanted to make some jewellery mostly. I was pleasantly surprised that the dish I made and the few earrings I made actually worked – they set perfectly and everything!. Except for the fact that the glitter sank a bit on the dish when I made mine. (Maybe I need to do it in layers but I’m so impatient lol).

Anyway, the amount of glitter in these buttons appeals to me a lot!

Here they are…I don’t have a specific project in mind for them yet.

I can’t get the light right to get them to sparkle…but they are a LOT sparklier in real life!

Link to the shop below:

https://tidd.ly/3hPOLbf

[This post contains affiliate links which means if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission of that purchase at no extra cost to you!]

Canva Gal

On 7th May 20215th May 2021 By woollymakerIn Graphic DesignLeave a comment

I finally got the Canva Pro account a week or two ago and I’m loving it!

Who knew being able to export a PNG with a transparent background could lead to the possibility of creating this little fella here?

Isn’t he a cutie?! All made with their free stock media too…

And I like the fact that you can choose which page to export too. Oh and the curved text feature.

Which allows me to create this lil lady here…

And there’s even a way to share copies of files without changing the ‘Master’ copy. That part is genius.

If you’re not great with the technical elements to design then Canva is a great place to start- they have free option too, just less flexibility with the free option.

I’ve been playing with fonts too and uploading them into Canva. I wish there was some way of categorising or sorting them once you’ve uploaded them, that would be helpful. Like, having different branding sections of the upload page, but oh well. You can’t have everything!

Not quite at the sell your font level yet…but this is a vast improvement from my first one a few posts ago, right?!

The kerning is a little off. Kerning. I love that word, it means the spacing between the letters (I think!).

2021 First Quarter Crafting

On 19th Mar 202118th Mar 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, crochet, knittingLeave a comment

I thought since we’re almost a quarter of the way through the year I would take a moment to remind myself of what I have made so far:

Knitting

-Christmas Jumper finished

-Twisted Turban Headband

-Loom knit hat

-Mustard Yellow Hat

Current WIPS: Orange jumper, Sock Yarn Shawl

Cast on: Neon Fair Isle bag, toy dog magazine freebie, loom knit scarf or cowl – I haven’t decided which it is yet!

Crochet

-Christmas leftovers Granny Square blanket [done all I can with the yarn I have, it’s been put away for awhile]

Cast on: Granny Square Shawl with yarn from unravelled jumper [about halfway finished]

Sewing

-First Dress [practice to understand construction]

-A couple of zipper bags [belated Christmas gifts for people]

-Zipper bag glasses case for my Dad

-First ever skirt

I haven’t really done any sewing since Christmas – but I have a top mostly cut out and ready to sew!

Miscellaneous

-Candle made to use up wax block

-Hand salves made to use up oils and butters

-Cross-Stitch picture…motivation through stitching!!

Mostly this year so far has been using up leftovers of previous projects and trying to finish current projects. Since my projects from last year are quite big projects, it’s been nice to have a few smaller projects to break up the monotony a little bit.

Randomly I gave myself a lockdown haircut…quite difficult to cut the back of your own hair straight, but I didn’t do too bad a job!!

I’ve also read a few books, mostly sci-fi, but I DID manage to read War and Peace, which I am chuffed about.

And of course…I started this blog 🙂

DAY #1 Last Project I Worked On

On 1st Feb 202131st Jan 2021 By woollymakerIn knitting, Uncategorized2 Comments

CRAFTY 30 DAY BLOGGING CHALLENGE DAY #1

The last project I worked on

That would have to be my Christmas jumper which I started in September 2020. I tried my damnedest to get it finished by Christmas Day 2020, but after lots of knitting and crochet throughout the year and suddenly a massive sewing inspiration, I felt a bit knitted out and slowed down.

I started with the sleeves to shake things up a bit, then did the front and am now working on the back. I am about a third of the way done, just need to get to 39cm in length and then start shaping the armholes. It is a fairly simple stocking stitch so I don’t have to think about it, but it seems to be taking FOREVER.

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming…

The yarn is by King Cole, I think it’s called Glitz and is a DK weight acrylic yarn.

(I know it’s a dark photo…it’s always dark when I want to take pics!)

I did another 3 rows today…if I aim to get the part before the armhole shaping finished this week, then in theory the rest of it should go quicker as the rows get shorter.

It’s dragging though!!

End of Feb done and dusted for definite! 🙂