Whimsy

I am loving embroidery.

I don't have time to be doing anything crafty... Lots of assessments and boring stuff coming up. But that makes the corners of my mouth point downwards... And that's just not fun! So this is what I did this evening! The patterns are from a book called A Rainbow Of Stitches and its marvelous! Please note! This book is nearly exactly the same as a book called Made In France which is equally as lovely just has a few less designs in. I didn't see this info anywhere on the Amazon page, so ended up buying both! Which was annoying but also now belongs to mother. The book is lovely though! It has a bit of everything in, and is soooo worth the money! 

That's Christmas embroidery hoop art number two done! And it didn't take up a lot of time I should have been spending on work so its all okay!

My two favourite things combined.

Having a hot water bottle makes the cosy blanket evenings EVEN more warm, and I actually find myself wishing it was cold enough to use one!

But they are so boring looking aren't they? Yeah, loads of them come with covers, some lovely, some...not so lovely. But I can't help myself from saying 'Well, I could make it myself.' And it's nice knowing that I actually could.

So I did.

I love the feeling of choosing materials and slowly seeing them turning into something else. Transformational.

So it only follows that I have often seen pictures of people spinning their own wool and yarn, and envying it. This is still somewhere I haven't ventured, but...

I'm pretty sure this is the next best thing. It's sort of a cheats way of making your very own yarn. All you need to do is choose two colours that look just lovely together... choose a slightly larger hook that you would usually use for just one strand... and off you go!

Just hold the two together and carry on how you normally would. Just make sure you have both colours on the hook at all times and you should be good to go!

See how pretty it can look?

I first tried this idea when I knitted my mum some slippers. Knitting this way does work, but every ten or so stitches, you have to unwind the balls as they twist around each other. This doesn't happen with crochet. Which is rather nice.

So once I had made the two sides to fit the bottle... I realised that I probably should have accounted for the sides... basically... it didn't fit. So I just did a round of trebles around the edge. And then it magically fitted. AND because I only did this in one colour, it framed it rather nicely...

Oh! And I wans't very happy with it being so plain... so I thought I would combine my two favorite crafts... so lets add some cross stitch to the front! This chart is from Cath Kidston's Stitch! But cross stitching on crochet was quute confusing... so it's best to choose something you'll be able to adapt quite easily. I made many mistakes.

But those mistakes have made it mine. Even more unique. Even more from my mind. Even more proud of it.

 What makes these even better is how quick they are to make! This one took me a day... and that was not non stop... I would say this one took me three hours. I need to change the heart a bit and round off the left side, and like everything I make, it is by no means perfect. But that makes it nicer. 

My bed is probably the happiest thing to look at on a dark evening.

Dala Horses

I love em. You may have seen I'm one of my recent posts about lino printing a dala horse design... Since then I got my copy of Cross Stitcher... And guess what?! A dala horse... And I wasted no time! (Actually I regularly waste time... Not the point!)

I really want to paint the frame white soon... But for now I think my little horsey looks pretty spiffing, sitting up high, keeping guard of the room.

Gathered

Now... We all know and love Mollie Makes, and have done for a while... 

So imagine my excitement when I heard that they were bringing out a new, weekly, iPad magazine!

Have you seen it yet? If not, then why not!? 

Since hearing about it, I looked regularly to see if the app was in the app store... then last Thursday it was there. 

The only thing I was worrying about was how much it was going to be! (I already have many magazine subscriptions) 

But at £2.99 a month - that's at least four issues, is a bit of a steal! 

AND it looks beautiful! 

 

It's nice to meet you too! 

And thanks for adding ANOTHER craft I need to do onto my list. I really want to make those needle felted acorns... 

Cross Stitching... not the angry kind...

Is there even an angry kind? Maybe it's like angry sex with the absence of sex... 

ANYWAY... I have long admired the graphic designs of modern cross stitching. And LONG love the designs of Emily Peacock... but that's pretty much where my knowledge of it ended... 

I recently went into a shop in Cambride called Ark... They had a wonderful retro style Cross Stitch sampler. And being of the crafty minded sort, I thought 'I like it, but I want to make it myself!' 

I couldn't even count the amount of times I have said that in my life.

Not many things scare me in the world of making things... but Cross Stitch always has...

Then some people told me how easy it was... I just happened to pick up the most recent copy of Cross Stitcher Magazine... 

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED!!!

  Yup! I single handedly, Cross Stitched a whole butterfly all by myself and I'm very proud! I have now worked out how to do waste knots properly, and it wasn't nearly as hard or scary as I thought it would be! 

And even though it took a whole, hand over day to make... I love it! 

I spent the next few days with nothing on my mind but Cross Stitch (Yeah, I'm cool!) so I was already planning my next one... and here it is (WHY oh why did I learn to do this just as I am going back to university!?) 

 I have a long list of things I want to Cross Stitch. 

Better get on with some research now! (boo!)