Something to do while

Am I creative?

2011-05-06T14:28:00.001+12:00

in threes: a baby cardigan size 6m, knit with Malabrigo Worsted in Applewood with Buttons for Benji buttons, Ravelry link
Knit with no creativity!

I've recentlty joined a creative Mum's group which I really enjoying attending. However I feel like a bit of a pretender as I don't really consider knitting to a pattern creative. The other Mums are painters, quilters and card makers. They choose what they are going to make, put the bits together in the colours that are pleasing and make it. In knitting I choose the yarn, choose the pattern and follow it. I do a bit of adapting but not in a creative way, just for practicality or to work around problems like gauge.

Whenever I have done psychometrics I end up testing analytical rather than creative. When I think about it something I love about knitting is doing the math for adapting gauge, where to place the decreases and how to use a completely different weight yarn than that intended for a pattern.

But surely doing a craft is creative? It just doesn't feel like it yet. If I was designing new patterns, colour work or stitch patterns I'd feel differently. I don't think I'm a pretender to do attend a creative Mum's group its just that I don't specifically have the creative urge in general. I love to knit but I'm not sure I'm creative in knitting or the other hand based hobbies I do. Analytical Mum, that's more me.

Monday Muffin: Pineapple, Orange & Ginger Muffins

2010-10-11T10:07:00.001+13:00

Pineapple, Orange and Ginger Muffins for morning tea with a cup of Twinings Christmas Tea with milk. The tea is in Paragon Bride's Choice china and the muffin is also on a Paragon saucer, pattern name unknown but mark indicates it’s from 1921 to 1933.

The Muffins

I made Pineapple, Orange & Ginger Muffin from Simon and Alison Holst's More Marvellous Muffins, avialable from their website for NZ $13.50 as I had 1/3 can of 425g crushed pineapple leftover after making pizzas on the weekend. I didn't have quite enough for the recipe and had drained the juice so increased the amount of orange juice and crystallised ginger.

I like the flavour, not too sweet and reasonably fruity. Next time I would up the crystallised ginger and put in some ground ginger too. Perhaps it would have tasted more fruity if I'd had the right amount of pineapple but at this amount I can't really taste it.

Experimenting

I wanted to try using the muffin liners which make transportation easier, here's a side shot of unlined (left) and lined (right).

One of the results of using the liners was that the muffins became soggy, as you can see the bottom four and half in the middle on the right had liquid come through while baking. I thought it would be orange juice but its actually butter as its now hardened up. I think this is a normal thing but I do think the unlined muffins taste better due to the crust.

Make again?

Yes I would but with the right amount of pineapple, more crystallised ginger and some ground ginger. Perhaps even some ground cloves would be nice with the orange.

Granny G Podcast

2010-06-30T14:48:00.001+12:00

One thing as a New Zealand crafter that I've always wanted was a New Zealand craft podcast. There are lots of great podcasts and blogs out there and I love many of them but just as I especially love reading blogs from New Zealanders I really wanted to listen to a podcast by a New Zealander.

I would have been happy with someone just having a 20min chat about their knitting but wow we got so much with than that thanks to the wonderful GrannyG's podcast: Crafternoon Tea with GrannyG.

Not only does GrannyG talk about her knittings she talks about her sewing, spinning, weaving, baking, crocheting (is that all of them, think so). She also does wonderful interviews of New Zealanders who are involved in the fibre arts, everyone from the very famous like Margaret Stove through to Gottland sheep farmer Hamish.

I salute GrannyG for her fantastic podcast and encourage you all to go listen.

Cast offs & WIPs & a UFO

2010-02-10T09:50:00.002+13:00

I've had a good week, two cast offs, hurrah! I don't think this has ever happened to me before.

First was my Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl which was a way of dealing with an odd pale green fingering yarn called Daphne I didn't want to make into socks. I'm really happy with it, quite big and soft. I think it looks quite fashionable, which is awesome. I very inexpertly blocked it, but it came out alot better than before blocking.

Second was Camo Gentleman - casual socks for hubby. Nanacindynz did a lovely job on this yarn for me, I'm really going to miss her yarn when I run out. I've still got 50g left of this yarn, 150g of Party dress and 100g of Aroha though. I like the simple pattern and that the yarn colour is a bit different on each sock, one has much paler green stripes than the other.

On to WIPs

I've got serious work to do on the finishing chart of Haruni to get it done. I do hope to get it done this month but its not knitting I can do in the car or anywhere I can get distracted.

My grey Los Monos Locos (Monkey) are now my car knitting, I'm zooming through the ankle of the second one at the moment. I'd like to get them done this month too.

The very stalled Vinnlands look great but the tricky pattern makes me tire of them after one row. I think I will try and finish them before I start another pair of sock, we'll see.

The baby twisty turnies's needles have been stolen for the Haruni so its stopped at the moment. I think it looks good but I wish I'd waited to get some soft merino, but I do like the colour. I'd like to get it done by mid-year.

The matchy-matchy cardi just needs sewing up, which I'm scared of. Like picking up for the ribbing around the front, I'm sure I'll do it inexpertly and make a mistake. Again I hope to get it done mid-year.

The horrible UFO of doom is my Mum's horizontal stripe scarf, I hate it and the horse it rode in on. I might finish it one day but if I make my Mum possum socks for her birthday I hope she'll forgive me if I don't.

Ten shawls in 2010

2010-01-29T17:13:00.000+13:00

In this first year of the ten-ties, I'm quite keen to try to knit ten shawls. This is definitely an aspirational goal and I'm happy to include the shawl I started last year. I'm really enjoying shawls at the moment, and they are perfect for all the fingering weight yarn I have collected for sock knitting.

Here's what I think I'd like to do:

Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl in VP Daphne

I'm 2/3s through this one having started in December last year
A bit stalled as its boring now and there's no finishing chart

Haruni in Wollmeise Ballerina

I've only been working on this for five days but I am going really well
Halfway through the second out of four repeats of Chart A
With Chart B being an exciting and beautiful biggie I'm feeling very motivated to get there
I love the almost single ply nature of the Wollmeise, beautiful stitch definition and no splits

Northern Lights

I love how this looks but it maybe a bit boring and I'm not sure if the yarn I have has a long enough repeat
Yarn options

NF Fruit Salad
NC Aroha

Swallowtail Shawl
Adamas
Percy Shawl
Something else?
Entomology
Ishbel?
Gail?

I may come back and re-post this list with editing later on, but good motivation to do it now.

2ply manly socks?

2009-11-30T20:12:00.000+13:00

I'd love to make some manly socks in Touch Yarn 2ply in 190 It'd be brave to make 2ply man socks but the socks would be so dense and lovely I'm sure I could do it. I'd probably do a basic rib.

Freeform

2009-11-30T20:05:00.000+13:00

I'd love to try freeform knitting one day, if I did I'd love to try a kit to get me inspired, I like this Freeform Knitting Yarn Packs from Fab fibres:

I've never tried freeform but I have this work on my wall at work to remind me of my knittyness in the middle of the crazy

Blendy's NZ Yarn Sampler

2009-11-13T20:00:00.003+13:00

I've never bought a knitting sampler but I'm keen to try this one: Blendy's NZ Yarn Sampler. The box will have 15 samples of yarn and embellishments. It has some of my faves in it Needlefood and Vintage Purls. Other ones I haven't heard of sound fun, like the Nut & Bee illustrations.

Grrrl Shaped Yarns

2009-11-11T11:43:00.000+13:00

My friend Brooklynne has been working away at her online yarn shop for a while now. Creating her own yarn line, thinking about different options for selling other yarns and knitting items like needles. She's launched the shop today as Grrrl Shaped Yarns (GSY) with three fingering weight yarns and eight different Knit Picks fixed needles in sock sizes

In the top left we have Fire Island - 50/50 Merino Silk for NZ $25, top right Life On Mars - Superwash Merino $20 and Theresa - 50/50 Merino Silk $20 of which 50% of all proceed will be donated to UC Davis Cancer Research.

I love these yarns, they are well priced for hand dyed quality yarns which would look great in socks or shawls. I think Theresa would look gorgeous as soft colour changes in silk, lovely.

I wish Brooklynne good luck with her business and look forward to seeing the new yarns she dyes.

Needlefood Sock club shipment 1 [Spoiler]

2009-10-18T15:33:00.000+13:00

Here's the first shipment of Needlefood's second sock club:

I really love the thematic colours of this sock club pack, very clever. Items included are a 100g skein in the club colour 'For the Girls', a semi-solid pink, chocolate fudge, floral Soak, a 2.5mm crochet hook for picking up dropped sts, a floral brooch and four st markers.

Here's the yarn 'For the Girls', 100g of 80% merino, 20% nylon fingering weight yarn with 352m per skein. It's a semi sold with quite a strong contrast between the dark pink and the light pink.

I couldn't decide what to make with this yarn, I considered Monkey, Pomatomus, Love Struck Hearts and Oblique Openwork before deciding on Nanners.

I think Love Struck Hearts looked really nice but I decided I wanted a repeating pattern with distorting angling sts like Monkey.

So here's the Nanners:

I really like the fish scale like look of these, one day I'm hoping to do Pomatomus which is sort of an advanced version of this.

I'm glad to be doing a Wendy Johnson pattern, her blog is great and I'd love to buy her book Socks from the Toe Up. I love toe ups so Wendy patterns are perfect for me.

Rationally knitting socks for the toe up

2009-10-09T11:48:00.000+13:00

I've learnt a painful lesson, cutting a 100g skein of yarn in half does not equal two balls of the same yardage. I knitted on yarn over cable sock doing 39 repeats of the 4rw pattern from the heel and cast off. I knit the second to 36 repeats of the 4rw pattern and didn't have enough to cast off. I attempted to spit splice with the small amount of yarn left from the other sock but it didn't work, perhaps because the yarn is superwash. So then I tried a knot and kept knitting and it looked ugly. So I gave up and undid both, ended up with 33 repeats of the 4rw pattern which are still lovely long socks and actually fit better too.

& So I am left with a nub of yarn. Now I used to think that avoiding this was the whole point of knitting from the toe up. However the stress of trying to get equally long right to the last tiny bit of yarn socks is just too much. Next time I should just pick a length, know I'll end up with two nubs of yarn. Pick something from 653 patterns to knit with 1-285 yards and have fun. Long live the nubs.

No hole Monkey or No Yarn Over Monkey

2009-08-27T17:17:00.001+12:00

I love the Los Monos Locos version of the classic and much loved Monkey pattern by Cookie A. I have done one pair in a beautiful 'Odd Ball' (limited edition) variegated yarn called Martinborough Vines by New Zealand dyer Needle Food. I did a twisted rib cuff for only a few rounds and should probably do more next time as they fall done a bit.

I would love to try the pattern without yarn overs, to make a moving rib but not lacey sock. The options I've seen are:

Cayenne's MonkeyToes

She removed holes by replacing YOs with M1L/M1R (as appropriate) increases in the following round, for similar reasons

MyYarn's Toe Up Monkey Mods

She eliminated the lacy holes by knitting the yarn overs through the back loop

Jauping's Sedate Monkeys

She used a “lifted increase”…for each pattern repeat, using a right lifted increase (knitting the right leg of the stitch, then the stitch) in place of the first yarn over and a left lifted increase in place of the second yarn over (knitting the stitch, then the left leg of that original stitch). [Thanks to Jauping for messaging me this detail]

I know that M1L and M1R would drive me crazy, I'm using M1 for Vinnland and I don't love it. I quite like the idea of knitting through the back loops of yarn overs and using the right and left lifted increases. From the description it sounds like Jauping used LLinc LRinc which I use for toe increases, I think I'll try both out.

Socks: Needlefood Martinborough Vines in Crazy Monkeys

2009-06-29T15:33:00.000+12:00

Here's my beautiful Needlefood Martinborough Vines yarn balled up using my new wool winder (looks a bit grubby here but I gave it a clean). I'm so glad I bought the winder, saves me the main thing that frustrates me about knitting from hand dyed yarn, balling it up by hand.

I got the idea to knit Monkey socks using this yarn from KiwiRaven's wonderful Plumberry Ambrosia No Purl Monkeys. I don't like to purl and always knit tow up so I was really pleased to find the Los Monos Locos pattern. Here's how my Crazy Berry Socks are knitting up:

I think they look great, and so did kitty, after this cute photo was taken (below) she un-wound and messed up all the yarn which resulted in a very frustrating two hours getting all the knots out.

I've since turned the heel and here's where I deviated from the pattern. I had tried with the toe to reinforce it using the Eye of Patridge stitch which didn't work so I was not going to try it on the heel. I absolutely adore the short row no wraps heel from the Lifestyle Toe Up Socks so that's what I did, holding 12 sts on each side with 8 active sts left in the middle. I turned after row 1 so started again using row 2 from the back and front. It's going to look really cool with the triangles lining up the side of the ankle.

The yarn itself is wonderful. It doesn't split and wasn't damaged by the numerous test knitting of the toe and the hammering that the cat gave it. The resulting fabric has lovely stitch definition and quite a stiff hard wearing feeling that I'm sure will soften beautifully with wear. It feels so soft on my feet when I try them on with a nice feeling of elasticity. I love how the colours are playing around in the sock pattern, especially the yellow against purple.

The next Needlefood yarn I'd love to have is Black Forest:

I love the new pictures: skeined on the left (how it comes) and re-skeined on the right (how it knits up).

Update: Hats

2009-06-29T12:02:00.003+12:00

I've been very remiss in blogging about crafting lately, not because I haven't done any but mostly because I've been using Ravelry instead. But here I am with an update on hats. I've knitted two spiral hats which was really fun with cheap but nice Warehouse single ply variegated wool. Here's the first one (with my cat & without).

For some weird reason the pattern didn't result in the spiral working evenly but I fixed that in the second hat which was blue & grey. Amazingly my second one was a commission! I was paid $20 for it with yarn coming to about $6 and labour of about five hours it certainly wasn't living wage but I really enjoyed making it and gives me confidence with hats that I didn't have before.

I've almost made two hats hisotrically with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky. I completely mal-sized the first one for a baby so frogged it, it was also ugly because I didn't know how to knit in the round (left). I then reknit the yarn as a ribbed beanie once I learnt how to knit in the round and I gave it to my dad (right).

Needlefood review: First impressions

2009-04-19T17:53:00.002+12:00

With much kindness Michelle of Needlefood sent me a skein of her lovely yarn to review, I requested an Oddball called 'Martinborough Vines'.

I really love the packing of the yarn, the cellophane seems like that used to wrap flowers, so its like a yarn bouquet. The cellophane is tied with a ribbon which also carriers a seller label for needlefood as well as five split ring stitch markers and a seller label for the markers.

The yarn itself is in skein form and is surrounded by a yarn band which notes composition, weight in grams and 'type'-fingering, needle size and washing instructions. The yarn is 80% merino and 20% nylon, 100g, ≈353m, fingering weight for 2-2.75 needles and machine washable. In other words the yarn is perfect for socks. The yarn feels slightly thicker than Vintage Purls however I'll have to see whether that is reflected in the gauge when I knit it up. The yarn smells slightly of vinegar, testament to its hand dyed nature and which I must admit I quite like.

A note on the colour, what I had imagined was a deep blue purple but as you can see from my picture above and that in the middle here, it is in fact a maroon. If you compare the website picture on the left from one I took on the left with a flash you'll see they are very similar. I don't mind hugely and maroon is far more grapish than blue-purple however its something to note that colours do not exactly match photos.

In terms of the labels, I have a few comments. I really like the label with yarn on it, gives a great idea of the other colors and is in a sturdy card. The yarn band and stitch markers label are however just on paper, I think they would be better on a light card. When I opened up the skein to look at the colour changes and made it into a skein again, it was impossible to put the ball band back on. A ball band that is slightly looser and stiffer would allow for reusability of the band.

It's lovely that Michelle includes a single use amount of delicate wool wash called Soak and five stitch markers from Memarcierenee. Overall a wonderful first impression, I can't wait to start knitting myself a lovely pair of socks.

Needlefood

2009-04-02T15:21:00.000+13:00

I've been watching yarns by Michelle on TradeMe but today she has announced her online shop opening called Needlefood and I love it! In the pic I've got, clockwise from top left, Martinborough Vines, Rosehips in Autumn, Lavendar Infusion and Plumberry Ambrosia. These are all NZD $26, pretty good price compared to USD $20 from international competitors.

I also really love the Scotty Sunflower which has a beautiful-tragic back story.

I also like the free shipping for orders over $75 and the free sock yarn draw. I hope that Michelle and Mike do well in their business and I hope to order from them soon.

Judy's Magic Cast On

2009-03-18T08:41:00.001+13:00

The only toe-up cast on I can do is Judy's Magic Cast On. The best description with pictures I have found is on Persistent Illusion however Cat Bordhi's Knitty article and videos are also useful.

Family + Knitting = Happiness and a sock

2009-03-15T20:55:00.001+13:00

Often muggles (non-knitters) think that knitting is something that old ladies do while waiting for their grandkids to come round. [For a great explanation of the phenomena see Episode 96 of Sticks & String 'I'm busy'] My in-laws joke about this, claiming that Ravelry is one of the few places where people would pretend to be older than they are. They do however happily let me knit while I talk to them. To keep a flow of conversation going I'm still needing to just do stockinette socks, and more than appropriate seeing I am doing a gorgeous pair of man socks for their son in marine yarn. You can easily have a lovely time with your family while knitting and then you end up with an item as well as a lovely time.

Equally I spent a great afternoon with my father knitting my first pair of socks in a friendly cafe which let us spend hours over our coffee post lunch so much that we ordered another pair of coffees. It's wonderful to wear knitted items you remember making with while talking to your loved one. I'd love to get a headset and use Skype to talk to my mum so I can knit while talking to her.

Sock club love!

2009-03-03T10:11:00.000+13:00

I'm part of the Vintage Purls Summer Sock Club 2009 and I'm loving it! I received the second package yesterday and the first last month. The first come with a wonderful bag, pattern and yarn, the second with a gift you knit for yourself, pattern and yarn. They both came with some yummy lollies which is such fun. The cost was $95 so with each skein of yarn being usually $23 for Limited Edition and patterns usually being about $5 and the with gifts I think its very good value. Its also the fun of our own ravelry group and the joy of having unique yarn and patterns. I also love communicating with the purveyor Morag who taught me to Magic Loop. She is also the only online yarn shop in New Zealand to stock Knit Pro so I love being able to order more neeldes that Morag pops in my sock club packages for free shipping.

Here's Vintage Purl's picture of the first yarn and pattern called Bluesky Baby which I haven't started - I'm scared of lace but I hope to do it one day, or failing that I'll make lots of blue booties.

Knitting marine man socks

2009-03-02T10:54:00.000+13:00

Wow, stockinette socks are still really really fun but going so much faster. I'm speeding along with a lovely hand dyed 100% wool sock yarn that was a gift from maude & me's miss tracee.

This photo was taken two days ago and I'm already 4" into the leg. Still got heaps of yarn to go, these will be quite long. I'm glad I put in the negative ease as its created an almost ribbed look around the instep which looks really cool without all the tedious work of rib knitting. I really love the slight scratchiness of the yarn, feels really appropriate for man socks. I might have to do some calf shaping to fit as they could be quite long from what yarn I have left. I really love the no wrap short row heel, still a few holes as it joins the instep but none along the heel.

No wrap short rows

2009-01-14T15:46:00.001+13:00

Can you say hurrah! I love the look of the short row but I don't like the wrap and turn business. So we have these brilliant instructions as part of the Charisa Martin Cairn's Lifestyle toe up socks.

Arohaina Socks

2009-01-06T10:41:00.002+13:00

Here's the second sock I've made, started in late October last year. I've only got a few inches beyond the heel so I've probably got about 3 or 4 to go. I'm using a Seaweed Sock pattern but I'm finding it really tedious. The beautiful Arohaina sock yarn by NanacindyNZ is quite thin, about 9 sts per inch so with all the changing between K and P means it takes ages.

These socks are toe up, it took me a whole night to find a cast on I could do but ended up with the Double Knitting Cast On from Let's Knit2gether, Thanx Cat! I agree it's cool and easy.

I've taken the sock off my needles to start a completely different simple pair using a different yarn. I think at this stage being new to knitting socks mean I just enjoy stockinette in the round from the top down. I hope to get back to knitting these later but I'm not into it right now.

Finished socks - Balrog Socks

2009-01-06T09:39:00.001+13:00

I've been meaning to post this for yonks but for some reason I haven't, here are my first pair of knitted socks - First Socks.

The yarn for these was supplied by unionmaid a lady I meet through Ravelry who taught me how to knit socks by giving me yarn, needles, a pattern and lessons!

These socks taught me a lot about knitting with four dpns, turning a heel and Kitchener. I really enjoyed them because they were quick to knit, 18 days and the alpaca in the wool is so cuddly. I followed the pattern exactly so I've got a golf ball of yarn left over and I wish they were a bit longer. I've thought about cutting the cast on and knitting up to make them longer but I enjoy wearing them too much.

Knitting baby socks/booties

2008-11-18T14:20:00.000+13:00

Lil Leila Provenzano

Baby measurements are a bit of a mystery to me, I know they are small and grow fast but when and how?

Sock sizes and measurements

Shoe size chart by age

Basic sock calculator

Estimate sock yardage

These all fit very well into Sock-u-lators

SockItToMe Please please!

2008-11-12T13:33:00.001+13:00

EY Handpaints Original Yarn SockItToMe

I've been listening to Lime & Violet and they mentioned this lovely yarn store which has great international shipping rate and a beautiful 'House yarn' EY Handpaints Original Yarn

I've featured the sock yarn as that it what I'm into at the moment, its NZ $31 for the first skien including shipping and $27 per extra skein.

Knittery is pretty

2008-10-31T13:41:00.001+13:00

I heart Knittery it's Australian and you can get hand dyed beautiful sock yarn for NZD $28 including shipping, so yummy. Here's my favs, some are merino, some merino cashmere, thin and thick.

3ply: Merino Slim Sock

4ply: Merino Cashmere Sock

5ply: Merino Chubby Sock

If I knitted man socks

2008-10-17T16:42:00.002+13:00

2008JuneKnittingBlog202, originally uploaded by chelseaD.

These are completely perfect, I found them by searching for camo socks and found a post on this site by The Running Biology of a Knitter. The yarn is by Sophie's Toes in the Man in Uniform colourway made into a sock using the Nancy Bush pattern Gentleman's Fancy Socks. Now you can buy hand dyed sock yarn in NZD the same as USD, ie $25 New Zealand dollars for similar yarn as $25 US dollars. When you consider that the exchange rate is now around US 60c per NZD I would rather buy from New Zealand and also save on shipping. I am trying to get the lovely misstracee to make me some but the's MIA at the moment. I could either get some handspun handyed for NZD$35 or wait for her to resource some yarn to dye, not sure what I should do.

Gimme this - Grapeful Dead Yarn

2008-10-17T16:07:00.000+13:00

Grapeful Dead Colourway on Helios 100g for AUD $21.25

What could be more cool than yarn named after a 60's rock band of awesomeness. Knit On!

MIA due to sock knitting

2008-10-16T12:37:00.004+13:00

So I finally found a way to learn how to knit socks, find a local teacher through ravelry, the lovely unionmaid. She got me a wonderfully easy sock pattern which I have created a pattern link for at ravelry, its called Easy Sock Pattern It's top down with a flap and everything I have messed up I have easily fixed, hurrah! I am currently in the knitting the foot length section, I may have to ask her assistance for the toe joining but we'll see.

She amazingly not only gave me 2.5 mm bamboo DPNS but also a ball of Middlearth Yarn in Balrog, 330 yds, 50/50 Merino Alpaca, it is squishy and lovely. Unfortunately the creator Lothlorian who's in her 20's like me has a husband in hospital, so she is far more MIA than me.

I'm loving the sock knitting and am almost finished my first sock after a week and a bit which is great. There still looks like heaps of yarn so I'll definitly have enough left for darning if I need to. I don't have any pics right now sadly, but imagine a orange sock with stripes of park purple and nearly black.

Cute polymer hijab pins

2008-09-12T11:55:00.003+12:00

I saw these on etsy yifatiii's Sweet Sewing Pin Toppers and thought they could make good hijab pins. However on discussion and thought, they are sewing pins which are generally weak and short. I thought they would be too difficult to make myself however after watching these videos I thought it would be worth having a go:

I'm not sure where I could get straight pins in NZ, maybe a bead store but there are also these:

Many Horses' Hijab Pins

Or I could cut the plate off these or use it as the base for things like muffins or buscuits:

Brooch Stick Pin

Islamic embroidery

2008-08-27T10:13:00.006+12:00

As a Muslima I prefer not to stitch animals or people in my cross stitch, as artistically creating an animate object is seen as attempting to imitate the creator and is therefore sinful. Toys however are ok so I do make knitted toys for when I have a child.

I have nearly completed and Indian cross stitch carpet based on a Mughal tent hanging, which is great as it has a Mihrab - point to mark direction to Makkah that Muslims pray towards and the Tree of Life. I really like it and I'm very excited to have it on my wall. So I'm thinking what to make next.

Traditionally Muslims have decorated their homes with geometric designs or curved designs called Arabesque. I really like these designs also, especially in architecture.

I would really like to make another cross stich pattern based on a carpet but was not able to find one. I messaged a French flickr member Barbarasyl who made this beauiful cross stitch carpet

Cross Stitch Carpet Originally uploaded by Barbarasyl

She was very helpful and opened by eyes to the beautiful patterns of Annie Cicatelli. She makes carpet inspired designs, Tapis in French, using North African carpets as inspiration. She has also done some designs from Morrocan arts like jewelry and lettering. Theres are the ones I like:

Morrocan Jewelry for €15

A collection of illuminated manuscripts for €10

A collection of Afghan carpets for €15

I've also found this wonderful carpet by sister Banu Demirel, a Turkish cross stitch and blackwork designer -

Blackwork Prayer Rug for USD$9

If I knitted socks

2008-07-22T11:03:00.001+12:00

Drawstring Bag for small knitting projects with Japanese flowers for USD$18

This would fit needles up to 20cm but I love my 30cm Swallows at the moment so I'm not planning to buy this bag althourhg it is gorgeous. I really wish I could knit socks but I'm still learning and doing scarves.

Art yarns

2008-07-18T16:59:00.003+12:00

Listening to Lime & Violet's episode 62 and laughing outloud as usual I was very much impressed by the homespun goodness they talked about from StudioLoo. I never thought about the fact that you could spin things into your yarn although I have read descriptions of how to knit in beads to projects. I thought I would profile some of this delightful art yarn and I am now wondering if there is a name for yarn that has decoration added to it.

If I was to buy some of this arty handspun I would probably cut it in half and use it for each end of a scarf. Or perhaps you could match similar shapes of art yarn to create a very special scarf. Granted this yarn is expensive but when you think that it is hand carded, handspun, artfullly dyed, quality ingredients and loveling cared for its a bargain.

Studio Loo's Patria 176yds for USD$55

Snowberrylime's Pink pearls 72yds for USD$34

Enchanted Yarn's Clara Bows 82yds for USD$26

AuthenticFiction's Raspberries 'n' Cream 125 yds for USD$33

Snowberrylime's Blue princess 59yds for USD$30

How to torture baby in knitting

2008-07-09T12:46:00.003+12:00

Knitted Dancing Star Baby Bunting

"Knit this attention-grabber in stockinette with Jiffy. It has separated legs, so it fits easily into a car seat. It's soft and washable. Closes with Velcro. Fits infant to three months."

In my mind I think of an irritated baby rolling about in this thing trying to grap something, its like a star shaped baby staight-jacket. I mean its sort of cute, but practical only for one day at Christmas time if your baby decides to sleep all day as the fairy on top of the Christmas tree. Also the insantiy of having seperated legs for use in car seats, if you are going to give your child no hand openings why would you be so practical as to make them strapable into a car seat, I guess to give your child extra restrictive torture.

The Genius!

2008-07-04T08:09:00.003+12:00

While knitting my Creamy Feather's Scarf I found a knot in the brushed mohair yarn I am using. I had really hoped this wouldn't happen as I have struggled to tidyily weave in or knit in ends. As I am knitting the two halfs of the scarf independently and then kitchenering in the middle to ensure I get a pretty cast on ruffle and the right feather and fan pattern, I hoped to not have to join yarn together. I did a search for join techniques and found the felted join!

Knitting Help's Felted join video

Essentially you split the ply, wet the ends and felt the ends together by rubbing between the hands. Crazy Aunt Purl has a great blog post here.

Cha-cha-changes

2008-06-19T15:23:00.006+12:00

Apologies for the title, my husband has never watched The Labyright (I know! Like how!) so I'm in a bit of a Bowie phase after watching the movie.

My husband hates using the bus, I don't but I love him happy, so he wanted to buy a scooter. We went and inspected it, liked what we saw and they agreed to deliver it that day. Unfortunately it was also WWKIPD which my husband had forgot. When I told him at 1pm he apologised and said we could go to our local event at 2pm but I said that was fine so we instead waited for the scooter to be delivered. So I knitted at home but no KIP for me :( I will forever see the scooter as the anti-KIP vehicle as not only did it mean I missed out on WWKIPD but I also no longer KIP on the bus. But the scooter gets us home in half the time and my husband is so nice as he lets me knit all the time. In the end, as much as KIPping is fun, I'd rather be at home snuggling with my husband than KIPping to fill in time while sitting in a traffic jam on the bus.

Two weeks ago we got two kittens, one is almost full size at six months and the other is a little one of two months. We went to the pet shop and took home the ones that jumped on us and were smoochy. They are very well toilet trained, they have an almost 100% toileting in the litter tray percentage except for when they got locked in the bedroom and both went on some paper on the floor so was easy to throw away and when they kicked sand out of the tray and went in that. Touching and hugging them has brought me back to love the feel of natural fibres and so I am in love with mohair. We'll hear more about that in the next post.

Knitting for my Mere Male!

2008-06-09T10:26:00.010+12:00

I wanted to use up my Patons Inca 7001 Beige bulky wool on a scarf for my husband and I thought AntiCraft's Mere Indecision would be great. I still haven't made it the right width for him, I have frogged it four times. I think I'll try casting on 26 sts next!

I'm using my 7mm needles and the Patons is a 14sts/4" vs the pattern using 9mm needles and Lambs Pride which is a 11sts/4".

Aqiqa Hat

2008-05-27T12:36:00.002+12:00

I went to an aqiqa last night and I didn't have time between hearing about it and going to get a present for the baby. I think a sweater would take too long to make, especially since I'm making one for myself so I thought I would go for a hat. I haven't yet learnt how to knit in the round so I thought a hat knitted flat would be great.

I did lots of searching and I think this looks the easiest and thus the quickist the Liong Brand Baby Hat - Oh Natural! The other bits in the set would be fun to do too but I'm not sure I'd have time.

Here's atesmom's take on the project which I really like as it has no tassle:

Check out her cute matching sweater on her blog

We don't have Lion Brand in New Zeland so I plan to use:

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in Teal for $12.95

As the pattern needs 101m, I'll need to buy two of the 65m Cashmerino, I really have to get used to the fact that nice yarn costs $26 just for enough to make one hat, sigh!

In other news my Knit Picks Options are going well on my one-piece sweater Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater with the arms about 4 inches wide. Unfortunately the wire has got a bit twisted, I'm not sure why this has happened but when I finish the arms and the piece has a lot less stitches I'll get it onto my Swallow Timbergrain Needles and try to untwist it.

I forgot my needle!

2008-05-22T11:28:00.002+12:00

Can you believe it, I'm sitting on the bus going to a day at work that is centred around an event at 2pm (i.e. lots of time for knitting before then), I pull out my knitting and I only have one needle! So I've got the hefty ball, the 20" or so of knitted back for my sweater where I'm just beginning to cast on the sleeves and no second needle to work with. Oh the disappointment! I blamed my ever patient and indulgent husband for rushing me, I must remember to apologise when I see him.

However now that I'm knitting 58sts = 18" with one 70sts = 21" each sleeves, I'm finding my knitting feeling really a little tight on the needles and I'm not sure I'd be able to get another 70sts onto their 30cm length. These are the needles I have:

Swallow Timbergrain Needles they are 7mm needles and I paid NZ$12.45 for them although they are available alot cheaper online but it was great to have them straight away rather than wait.

But now I think I need a new pair of needles and circular seems to be the way to go. I can't knit in the round yet but I'm sure I can learn from these advanced knitting technique videos on Knitting Help. I've read that knitting flat can be easier on circular needles because its harder to slip sts off the end however you need to do a bit of pulling to get the sts from the filament cord to the needles.

Lots of people are selling Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle Kits on New Zealand's local eBay equivalent TradeMe but I don't think I need ten sets of needles yet. My LYS sells Knit Picks Options which received a really good review on Knitter's Review which is a really useful site as there is so much forum discussion on ravelry its really difficult to pick out who to trust. I know that Addi Turbos have countless fans but they are not available from shop in New Zealand and Double-Pointed Needles are also an option but I'm not ready for them and nor would they be useful for my sweater project. So I think I'll walk the 2km return journey to my LYS to buy some Knit Picks Options probably in size 7mm for my sweater with a reasonably long cable, I'll have to ask to find out what the recommend. I love how pointy they look, yum!

The Knit Illiterate

2008-05-19T17:20:00.004+12:00

I really can't do knitting math, but but its not my fault I should have found a pattern from cheap wool like Lion Brand in New Zealand so that I wouldn't have to substitute yarn. The local equivalent is Sean Sheep Yarn (which for the record is 90% acrylic [acrylic sheep?]) and if you visit the Sean Sheep yarn website you'll see why I don't use their patterns. So after finding the Sean Sheep yarn I decided on buying 3x Darwin Yarn in Mulberry for NZ $12.95 each which is a mauve, pale blue-purple, royal purple variegated acrylic bulky yarn.

As this is for the Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater I'm substituting a much thinner yarn compared to the Wool-Ease which swatches at 8 sts by12 rws as the Sean Sheep Darwin is 13 sts 18rws I got a bit confused about which size from the pattern to use. I initially cast on 52 for the medium size, then made a mistake and frogged it, then recalculated so cast on with 40 and realised it was too short and frogged it. Using the calculator Convert a Sweater Pattern I've found I need to cast on 58 stitches so that's what I've done. It's very difficult when starting a sweater, even after you've swatched to be sure that it will be the right size and especially with a slightly stretching acrylic with a loose

In another news I got:

Knit Aid: A Learn It, Fix It, Finish It Guid for Knitters on the Go for NZD $13.17 in the mail and I've been picking it up every ten seconds while I've been knitting since. Mostly its a skills book, listing the stitches that will be used most regularly along with things I haven't dared try yet, like stitching in the round, Kitchener stitch and short rows. There is also some details of knitting skills, using multiple colors, a photocopyable pattern sheet, a gauge measure and needle size identifier. I usually knit in front of dvds (which we watch on the computer) or on the bus so I don't have access to the net to look up instructions so the book is very useful.

I've also got to the top of the waiting list for Ravelry but as I have no batteries in my camera my notebook is not that interesting yet, although I will upload some photos soon. Here's a great version of the sweater I'm working from Ravelry Cutema's Extra Easy Extra Fabulous Sweater. It's great fun to see how other people have used the yarn you have and how other people have knitted up your pattern.

I've finished listening to Cast On, wah! I'm so used to being able to listen to a new one when I want. I've had a listen to two episodes of Yarn Craft which is quite interesting but because there's no Lion Brand here some of the information is quite irrelevant.

My First Sweater

2008-05-12T10:51:00.002+12:00

So I've decided I will make the Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater from Lion Brand Yarn Free Pattern Database but as Lion Brand Wool is not available in New Zealand, I've had to be creative with yarn substitution.

The yarn the sweater is designed around is the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Oatmeal which has a gauge of 9 stitches for 12 rows to 4"/10cm on a ginormous 9mm needles. Here's a swatch of the colour:

I went to my local yarn store Knitting World and talked to the clerk about a substitution. There is not equivalent in thickness to the Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in New Zealand, so she suggested I could either use two strands of a thinner yarn on the 9mm needles or a yarn that is slightly thinner than the super thick Lion Brand and use the stitch count in the pattern for the larger size so it will end up being smaller by using a thinner yarn and needle. I thought using two strands of yarn would lead to disaster so I decided on this:

Patons Inca in Shade 7001 50g/58m using 7mm needles and a gauge of 13 stitches by 18 rows to 4"/10cm

I used this guide to substituting yarns to work out what to use instead of the Lion Brand. I did two swatches of Patons Inca one using the gauge on the ball at 13 stitches by 18 rows which accurately came out at 10cm and another according to the pattern of 8 stitches by 12 rows which came out at 7cm. So taking my measurements I would be a Small if I knitted in Lion Brand so what I need to do was stitch in a bigger size which would give the equivalent of a 36" bust. I've cast on according to the 2X size with the Patons Inca which at a 52" bust x 0.7 = 36" bust, well hopefully. I've knitted my first ball which has got me from the eight rows of garter stitch and an inch and a half up the stockinette stitch which will form the lower back. Looking at my piece spread accross two needles it looks to be about 18" which is right on gauge, hurrah! I only bought one ball as the clerk suggested I knit up one ball and see if I liked it.

Now however I'm happy with the yarn and the gauge so I need some new balls. I used this guide to work out how many yarns I will need to buy. In the original project working in size 2X then 8 balls would be required with each Lion Brand ball being 97m, so 776m in total. EAch Patons Inca ball is 58m as its 50% wool, 30% acrylic and 20% alpaca vs. the Lion Brand being 86% acrylic, 10% wool, 4% rayon so the Inca ball will be heaver per metre so is shorter for the 50g ball. So I need 776m of yarn using 58m balls, equalling a whopping 13.379 balls of yarn which will need to be rounded up as you can't purchase 0.379 balls. Yikes, even at the cheap NZ$6.50 a ball that is NZ$91 but I guess that is pretty similar to the cost of a new sweater if you bought it new. I'm not sure it will be the most attractive sweater but it will be warm, be able to be chucked over everything and with the rising cost of heating, wearing a thick jersey is a good idea. Also using thick yarn makes it easy to pick up mistakes and this is my first sweater so I'm sure I'll love it no matter what it ends up looking like. I'll take the bus down to the yarn shop at lunch time and will try to barter a discount due to the number of balls being purchased.

Sweater Idea

2008-05-08T11:45:00.005+12:00

Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater from Lion Brand Yarn Free Pattern Database

You know I really think I could make this, the pattern makes sense, I know how to do Stockinette stitch, when doing the monkey I had to cast off some stitches, hold working stitches on a spare needle and work on others so I think I have all the skills. I would lengthen the sleeves, 3/4s drive me nuts and I'm not so sure about the buttons but they could look cool. I think that color looks cool but would probably go for a black or brown as I am always terrified about staining white and off-white clothes and it would be soo depressing to stain my first sweater. I like how it looks and I'm sure it would be warm so I think I would be prepared to put in the heaps of time required.

The pattern is by Lion Brand Yarn and I'm not sure if they sell it in New Zealand but I'll see. The yarn used in this pattern is Wool-Ease Thick & Quick which is a super bulky roving yarn. From listening to Cast-On I have heard of various types of yarn - fingering, roving, aran but I had no idea what they meant till I found this:

STANDARDS & GUIDELINES FOR CROCHET AND KNITTING

Standard Yarn Weight System

Categories of yarn, gauge ranges,
and recommended needle and hook sizes

Yarn Weight Symbol & Category Names
Type of Yarns in Category	Fingering 10-count crochet thread	Sock, Fingering, Baby	Sport, Baby	DK, Light Worsted	Worsted, Afghan, Aran	Chunky, Craft, Rug	Bulky, Roving
Knit Gauge Range* in Stockinette Stitch to 4 inches	33–40** sts	27–32 sts	23–26 sts	21–24 st	16–20 sts	12–15 sts	6–11 sts
Recommended Needle in Metric Size Range	1.5–2.25 mm	2.25— 3.25 mm	3.25— 3.75 mm	3.75— 4.5 mm	4.5— 5.5 mm	5.5— 8 mm	8 mm and larger
Recommended Needle U.S. Size Range	000–1	1 to 3	3 to 5	5 to 7	7 to 9	9 to 11	11 and larger

And Yarn Forward - Tension and Wool Works FAQ which explained that roving has no ply (that's how yarn is categorised in NZ & Australia). The yarn used in this pattern is equivalent to 14 ply so now I will know what to look for to substitute for the Lion Brand when I visit a yarn shop to buy yarn for my first sweater.

At the moment however I have given in to making a new monkey in stockinette using my Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 330014 Royal Purple and I love it because the yarn is so soft and the colour is gorgeous. The yarn falls so much easier off my Art Vivas and I'm knitting a lot faster than last time.

So like, where next?

2008-05-07T16:17:00.002+12:00

So I finished the monkey and he's awesome and cute. He looks a lot better than the one on the box, I think the way I embroidered the face worked really well. I did the hat and one pompom but they are both horrid. The hat makes him look really strange so although I tried to knit stripes, I don't think I carried the yarn properly.

But now I don't know what to do next. I can't do socks or a hat yet as I don't know how to knit-in-the-round, I definitly couldn't do a sweater yet, they are huge and complicated and argh, scary. So what do I do? I feel lost without the needles in my hand on the bus, cross stitch is really tricky on the bus. I need a sort of second knitting project, I really can't be bothered doing a scarf, they take forever and they are difficult to make look nice enought to wear unless you can make fancy ones like clapotis. So I'm not sure what to do, I might make another monkey in a different yarn using stockinette instead of garter stitch but I'm not sure. Easy Stockinette Wash Cloths would help me practice my stockinette stitch and learn the seed stitch but I have a dishwasher and use a sponge to wipe the bench but I suppose they could be used to pot holders. Hmmm. But I'm not rushing out to make them, maybe I should find a pattern for a new easy toy.

So I decided to buy a knitting book and after reading about it on Craftzine and watching the video I decided to get this one:

Knit Aid: A Learn It, Fix It, Finish It Guid for Knitters on the Go for NZD $13.17

& the deal was to get free shipping when you spend NZD $20 so I also got:

Ondori Full Colour Illustrated Basic Knit for NZD $10.20

The Knit Aid book would probably be more helpful over time in that its designed to be toted around in your knitting bag to pull out if you have a problem, or need to look up a term. I also think the knitting needle size and gauge ruler will be really useful like my:

Cross Stitcher Magazine 4-in-1 Tape measure which has a fabric and needle gauge along with an inch and centimetre measruing tape which is really useful as NZ is a metric country so all my rulers and things are centimetres.

It will be interesting to compare it to the Ondori book which is a 80's Japanese book and according to review I've read has knitting symbols chart which are often not in normal knitting book.

Knitting a mental looking monkey

2008-04-28T11:44:00.006+12:00

I've been away from home so I haven't posted in a while, but I'm back now. While at the mall on holiday I found this kit for half price NZD $20. The pictured monkey looked like a pretty weird toy but since its for children, it will be easy, so I thought it would be fun to try as my first complete knitted project. The picture shows him sitting on a chair you can make out of the packaging.

This is what is included in the kit, the yarn I think is wool and the needles are horrible. Can you imagine knitting with thick skewers, you know the ones which shead splinters, they are just dreadful and when combined with a wool that easily fuzzes off they are definitly not usable. However I am happy to use the cheap wool for my first project but it definitly doesn't compare to my Debbie Bliss. I feel a bit sad to make a toy, that will hopefully be cuddled against a child's face one day out of scratchy wool but I think I may make another one, one day.

I'm halfway through knitting the body, learning how to do increases and decreases. The decrease made a hole, I'm not sure if it was supposed to, but that's what I got when I did the knit two together decrease they recommended. I'm sure it won't show.

This is the cutest looking picture of the monkey and I think what makes the difference is stitching the eyes in black, I think I'll do that when I get to them.

Unusual source of fabric

2008-04-18T09:47:00.009+12:00

I bought this linen stole from TradeMe for NZ$7.20 including postage, its far too starchy, long and 'natural' coloured to be worn so now its being cut up for cross stitch! It's 283cm by 36cm so I'm sure it will take a long time to use. It's got a very natural colour and the usual irregularity of threads with linen fabric. It's got approximately 28 threads per inch, so is a equivalent to 14 count aida when stitching over two.

It was a bit scary to start chopping up something that looks like a garment but I soldiered on and hopefully I will one day have the guts to harvest a sweater for yarn.

It's my sister's birthday soon and she likes the animal- beavers so I wanted to make a beaver cross stitch card for her. I did a big search and I didn't find any patterns so I went to another thing that she's associated with, the banana.

I wanted something I could do quickly so this pattern from Shona's Place was just perfect:

I did this with a brown outline on Anchor 382 and bright yellow that came in a kit but wasn't used by the pattern, I think its DMC 742. I hope she likes it.

Noodling

2008-04-16T12:37:00.002+12:00

If you did this wearing gloves and a longer noodles you could cast off, creating a pixel and use it as a cool garnish for your next diner party (preferably of knitters, they'll think its less weird).

Dem rib bones

2008-04-16T01:24:00.004+12:00

There are lots of how to knit videos out there but all the other ones I tried confused me. After watching this one and cutting my number of stitches to rib from 20 to 6 I managed to get a ribbed piece. I'm going to try to make it into a T for my name so I'm looking for a video on adding stitches both at the start and end of my current stitches.

I'm a new knitter!

2008-04-14T20:45:00.011+12:00

When I was young our neighbour taught me to knit. I was truly truly awful, I just couldn't get my hands to do it. I'd drop stitches, make tangles and create a lopsided piece. I couldn't get the tension in my hands right so it would always turn out uneven both in the sense that I got a parallelogram that was lumpy! I only learnt 'knit' knitting rather than 'pearl' knitting so I thought that knitting was ugly as it always had those tell-tale horizontal lines. I ended up with a 10 stitch wide long scarf which I sewed up into a sleeping bag with arm holes for my owl toy and a 30 stitch wide scarf with 20 stitch long sections of mutant wool. So frankly I thought I would never knit again.

But now that I've got into cross stitch and other needle crafts it makes sense to make something with my hands that is useful, not just decorative. So I decided to knit again! I went to a Beginners Knit class at Nancy's Embroidery Shop and learnt how to cast-on, knit, pearl, pick up dropped stitches and cast-off in the two hours. I managed everything except picking up the dropped stitches which would have been really useful because I still drop stitches all the time! Amusingly I bought the same wool colour and feel as what I made my little owl sleeping bag out of.

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 330014 Royal Purple

It's a Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran Yarn that felt the nicest of the yarn I fondled in Nancy's with the little time I had after the class before they shut the shop. I got it in shade 14, grape. I love purple, I loved it as a child and then it wasn't cool so I didn't wear it. A couple of winters ago it became cool again and now I wear it all the time. I have 3 purple scarves so why not make one more (if I ever get that good at knitting)! I didn't realise that aran is a heavy yarn but it gets so cold here so I don't mind.

I wanted some pretty needles and these just said have me! They are wooden needles made from Tasmanian Oak made by a Tasmanian company called Art Viva . The timber is sourced from environmentally sustainable forest practices and are topped with hand painted spotty beads. Unfortunately I got size 20cm long, 4mm needles when my yarn is for 5mm but I don't think that's too much of a problem. They are slightly uneven which might annoy someone used to straight needles but I love the unevenness as I can think "slightly bending one knit, really bendy one pearl". They are not really bendy its just a comparison, they sort of fit into my hand. They are my friendly needles.

Nuu Zuland Book marks

2008-04-14T02:20:00.001+12:00

When I was packing up to get on the bus today I thought about taking my UFO from the Heritage Collection of Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. However I realised it was too fiddly for the bus as I have to do zig-zagging part quarter stitches using one strand of floss in a pale beige and I'd have to take a bunch of different color floss if I wanted to work on it in the lunch hour. What was so great about the Rose Medallion Sachet is that I only had to take one chunk of cotton and not worry about the color.

So I ended up taking my Christchurch bookmark which I've just started. I'm doing the cathedral at the moment and its great to be back to the loop start, railroading and the Danish Method.

I've already finished the Wellington bookmark that I'm going to give to my husband. But he hates the backstitch alphabet used to write "Wellington, NZ" so I'm going to have to find one he likes before I do the finishing. Ohh I can try this backstitch alphabet generator!

Snappy Q

2008-04-13T22:21:00.010+12:00

I found a Q Snap in a shop that was small enough to use for cross stitch! It's a 8" square one and I snapped it up. I've used it to finish the cross stitch bit of Rose Medallion Sachet and it's wonderful (just finishing to go now). I've got the fabric snapped in on only two sides as its long but not wide enough. It works great nevertheless, the linen is taught and I get a look at the full piece without having too much space to work the thread around. I'm looking forward to putting my larger UFOs (unfinished objects) in it and feeling more motivated by using a new toy. The Q Snap has a very substantial feel, you get a real feel of the physicality of the stitching which I like!

What I want now is to have it held for me by something like the Stitch EZ so I can make full use of my John James Twin pointed Quick Stitch Needles that I am already enjoying using one-handed. As you can see the twin stab method (shown on the left) would speed up stitching.

Varie-Whated?

2008-04-12T13:13:00.006+12:00

I've never worked with variegated fibre before and so I'm learning a lot in my rose medallion sachet. I usually do cross stitch using the Danish Method and the loop start neither of these methods work with variegated stranded cotton.

Firstly I had to learn how to do single stitching cross stitch the English Method on linen. As the kit pattern politely instructed me:

When working with multicoloured threads always complete each cross stitch as you go or the colour of the top and bottom stitches may vary, and make the work look "muddy".

They also included a wee picture of how to do the English Method but it was on aida! So I had to find a site showing you how to do it on linen, the article Building a Better Cross Stitch is great.

Another thing with variegated thread is that you have to work out where to lay the sections of colour. I have tried to lay the sections of colour symmetrically when they need to be but they will never be perfect.

You also have to think about where you cut the thread and start the stitches again. When you cut the thread its best to do in the middle of a colour section like the black line in the picture to the right. So when you finish the length you make sure you start the stitches from where you cut from the main lot of thread and rather than put the thread in the needle as this will be the last bit of thread you use.

Cats 'n Kiwis - Tentative steps towards embroidery

2008-04-12T02:32:00.002+12:00

I'm scared of embroidery, its just so free and unplanned. Compared to cross stitch there are just far more options, so so many more chances to mess up. Aida and line have holes in them, desperately calling "needle me" so you know exactly where to place your stitch and you've only got the options of a full or part cross stitch, back stitch or sometimes a french knot. Also with embroidery you have to work out how to get your pattern onto the fabric, what stitches to use and what colours to make the stitches.

Take for example the Sushi Bar pattern I bought from Sublime Stitching. I'd love to do most of the pieces but I'm scared. I don't know what colours to use, I'm worried I'll get the transfer wrong and ruin the fabric, I don't know what to put them on etc. I know I should just bite the bullet and say that cotton looks like nori, that one like salmon and teach myself how to do French knots properly to make the rice, but I don't.

I did however have the brain wave to do a basic embroider over a cloth shopping bag I have. New Zealanders are often called Kiwis and this is used in an anti-littering phrase 'Be tidy Kiwis'. It comes as no surprise then that my favourite cloth shopping bag (just like the plastic ones but cloth) has a kiwi on it.

Using the instructions for the split stitch on the Sublime Stitching website and extra visual aids from the episode when Jenny Heart was on Thread Banger, I outlined the kiwi in split stitch. I then freehand cross stitched on the inside which gave a surprisingly even effect and looked really different from my normal cross stitching in that I followed Jenny Hart's suggestion to use the full six strands to embroider with. It was also fun to make a knot to start rather than messing around with 'making a nice back', it felt sort of rebellious to follow Jenny's advice (and to rebel against the comment that

"You are not supposed to knot your thread! You broke one of the major rules of needlecrafts!" - It's not like she's asking you to chop your thumb off.

So what's this tacking bizo?

2008-04-11T15:52:00.000+12:00

I started my rose sachet kit yesterday and go a bit confused by the instructions. I was asked to tack halfway along the vertical length of the linen, then halfway of the horizontal to create a T and that when stitching any lines to always use backstitch. As I know very little about sewing (the only things I made were in 'fabric technology' and a few tube style hijabs) I didn't realise what tacking stitch was. I thought backstitching would be a bit odd in a T on the back of the sachet but I thought a line on the bottom would look fine so I did that. It took a while and it was a bit tricky as you have to try to start and end the back stitching around a raw edge which I haven't done before.

When I came to the I part of the T, I thought that I shouldn't do it. So I looked up tacking on the interweb and (of course) found an entry on Wikipedia that showed me what it is. Tacking is the process of making a temporary stitch to give an indicator line and then remove it (I'm sure everyone knows that but me). I also called the store that made the kit to check I had the right idea, and I did. They were really friendly, it was nice to have confirmation that I'm on the right track. So I tacked up the I for the T in grey and I decided that the backstitch will look great on the bottom to add some interest so I didn't feel bad about my error. I also realised that the tack is there as the middle line to place the cross stitched bit in the right place and is actually on the side that the rose medallion cross stitch is.

This is what I've got so far, I would take a pic but it probably wouldn't turn out great but anyway I don't have the cam to comp cord to connect my photo to my blogo :(

However I have also descovered that the pattern produces a sachet with a plain back! Can you say yucky! I mean I'm not going to do my first finished piece of cross stitch and leave the back plain. With the recent reading of the Snippets and Stash Blog I see that the essence of finishing is the back so why would I want a plain linen back. I could use some purple paint using a plastic stencil I have from a DMC pillow kit to decorate the back. This might not be the best idea however as I've already started stitching that might get messy and stuff up my sachet. Or I could just do my initials at the back. That's what I'm thinking right now. If I wanted to be really crazy I could do the cross stitch again using a different variegated thread, which would look good but would double the project time and make me less likely to make another sachet.

Hoop-Lah!

2008-04-11T15:19:00.000+12:00

I bought some Flexihoops from The Looking Glass, which I prefer over plastic or wood spring hoops. The first cross stitch kits I bought included these and I gave the pieces away neatly arranged in the hoop with the hook attached (I usually take it out while working on the piece). I was seriously considering buying some more of those kits just to get the hoop so when I saw them in The Looking Glass I bought 4. I find they make the piece drum tight and don't move about and loosen like the other styles.

Flexihoops

I would love to buy some Q-Snaps but they aren't available here in small needlecraft size, only the really big size for quilting.

Q-Snap

If I could have my dream I would get a handsfree frame, I think this one looks good:

Stitch EZ for US $69

Rosy Medal

2008-04-11T13:05:00.000+12:00

I bought this kit from TradeMe for only NZ$10 which I had seeen at The Looking Glass in Picton just before I got on the ferry to Wellington.

The kit contains Zweigart Lugana Fabric 25 count, Treasured Threads, Needle, Instructions and Pattern. The thread is variegated and from the photo on the kit looked to be turquoise and purple but the one I got has pink as well. I'm not overjoyed about the pink but I could always make a new one with new thread if I'd like the pattern. The ribbon for the top of the sachet is white and I think I'd prefer to find one to match the thread rather than the fabric so there is some contrast.

I like the cross stitch image, its a very simplified flower, almost an arabesque so fits with my affection for Islamic art. This is designed to have lavender potpourri or soap put in it, I'll think about that, not sure which one to use. The thing that I find strange is that its a rose pattern but they don't suggest putting rose petals in it!

My dad has a lavendar sachet I made when I was 11 in "fabric technology" which has lost its smell as he pinned it on his pin-up board rather than with his clothes (but most men don't want lavendar smelling undies do they). I should make him something new, hmm, I'll have to think about that.

Something To Do While Watching TV

2008-04-10T22:54:00.001+12:00

I first started cross stitching while watching cricket which I then thought was a bit boring and didn't understand. I've since grown to love cricket, although I don't understand everything, I now know that its a very tactical game of mental trickery (in a good way). However I've grown to love handicrafts more and I now do them while watching tv, movies, youtube, during my lunch break at work, on the bus, on the ferry, in bed, about the only place I don't do it is in the bathroom, that would just be silly! I find myself trying to get home as soon as I can pick up a piece of handicraft and not wanting to cook so I can do it straight away.

I initially picked up a few cheap cross stich kits at 'The Warehouse' little ones of a bouquet and sunflower and a large one of flowers in a basket. These have been given away so I can't show them here unfortunately but here's a picture of one of the patterns:

In this blog I'll detail my adventures in self-taught handicrafts (well mostly self taught) and feature links to crafty blogs, websites and podcasts. I'm a Muslim so some of my crafting relates to that so I may sometimes touch on Muslim issues but this is definitly not a religous blog. I live in New Zealand so when I talk about places or cross stitch shops I visit they are in New Zealand and when I talk about dollars they are New Zealand dollars. I hope you enjoy my blog!