Craft & language bonanza

I couldn't think of another title. I realise today isn't the normal Friday post, since I skipped a few posts this week. Life got busy, as it does.

At the weekend I made this coconut cake for work.

It was demolished within 2 hours of putting it out. The reason it looks so broken....I'd put Green & Black's white chocolate on top, and sprinkled pieces of coconut. During transit in the car as I commuted to work, the silly cake decided to reach up high to the cake tin lid...so it stuck to it. A knife soon separated the two combatants. Although the cake looked a bit worse for wear, it still tasted yummy.

This week I have made these baby booties

And I continued on with the dark blue of this tapestry hanging/cushion (it can be either) for a friend at work (she doesn't know about it).

I worked on the straight lines (I'm working the top down, going through the colours from darkest to lightest).

I finished watching Season 1 of the Winx Club.

 Due to various things going on, to keep me sane until my treatment date, I managed to accidentally buy season 2....and season 3.....and season 4....and.....book 1 in the series (there are English versions, but since I'm watching it in French I'm opting to read it in French). The question is how many times can I watch all the series before May 26th?!

What else have I been watching....not a lot else. With a friend nudging me I'm going to be watching the Avatar series (I love Kytara or however you spell her name).

Tonight it will be....the Winx, with 1 episode of Avatar (see, I can compromise on what I watch). I'm going to try and knit another bootie, (first of a new pair), knit a little more of a hoodie I'm doing for a colleague's son, and that'll be it for today! More reading after a morning of writing tomorrow. I can promise that I'm reviewing some very cool books soon. Have a great night, whatever you're doing!

Thrilling Craft Adventure Thursday Meme #3

Hello! Sorry this is a bit late in the day, but I've only just taken the necessary photographs. The past two weeks have been fun ones. I finished this cross stitch picture for a fund raiser at work. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, which is why you've got one of the kit. Or not. I can't remember the name of the kit. Moving on....

I've been carrying on with the baby hoodie I'm currently knitting. Because it is a raglan hoodie (a style of knitting the sleeves (I think...)), the front and the back look the same.

Without looking at the pattern (which I haven't for 3-5 days...), I can't tell you whether this is the front or the back!

I've knitted one whole sleeve....

...and I'm part way through knitting the other.

On Monday I decided to give crochet another go. It's something I'd love to be able to do. I have since realised that I probably will use it to make cute things (especially amigurumi!) and blankets. I was working through a granny square for an afghan. I had to restart several times. I then got rather confused on the pattern (I'm a total novice). After several attempts, I decided to search online for help. I found a few granny square tutorials with photos! And videos too. I needed the video to understand one step, but after several attempts I made my first square! I was too scared to change colours, but I then realised I could make a spring shawl with some granny squares. Here's two of the colour combinations I've got so far. (I don't have photos for my earlier attempts).

Depending on the final product, the pattern of the squares could look like this

Then there's the blanket for my friend. Originally it was going to be a lace shawl. However, I'm already knitting a lace tablecloth for my parents as a present. It is an interesting progress. It turns out I can get quite frustrated with lace knitting. I think it'll get easier with practice. I'd rather not have two lace projects on the go at once, so, with the success of my granny squares I thought I'd attempt a granny square blanket. For those I'd just do one large square, continuing until I run out of yarn. I have 4 balls of yarn, and there are lots of metres in those balls because it is lace-weight yarn. I'd like to only use 2 balls, so I can knit one for myself. It doesn't look very big yet, but lace always gets bigger once you've blocked it (dampen it then stretch it to the appropriate size), so I'm not too worried at the moment. I spent 2 hours getting this right this afternoon - it took a couple of attempts to get it right because I hadn't used laceweight yarn for crochet before.

I know I've used a bit of artist license in a few parts - bascially I went wrong on a few places! I think you can all see that on the left side of the middle there's quite a big hole. I'm not sure what I did/didn't do. It won't matter though. It looks ok to me! My friend is a fellow knitter, so I know she won't mind if there are extra large holes in a few areas. I'll try and plot my progress in future blog posts.

I've also started a tapestry cross stitch cushion kit. I haven't got a photo yet - but it's great fun. It's a totally different medium to what I'm used to - it's bigger, thicker, and I'm still getting used to the different feel of sewing it. I hope to have photos of my progress later on.

Before I forget, the crochet spring shawl will only be worked on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are my days off, which I use to relax and have a total break. That's when I'll do craft for myself. All the other days are for working on presents.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's meme, and hopefully I'll be back in two weeks with more progress on my current projects (and the hoodie should be finished).

Thrilling Craft Adventure Meme #2

Today's meme consists mostly of photos of work I've done, with a little comment on it (feeling lazy & want to get chapter 14 written today). 

This is a bunny I made using spare yarn from a hoodie, for my Japanese teacher's baby. 

Below is a close up of her face.  

This is the hoodie! It has a simple cable pattern on both front sides, the same cable is repeated once down the centre of the arms. The back of the hoodie is plain, and the hood is plain too.

This is a close up of the cable pattern.  

And here's a closer look at the bunny buttons! Aren't they cute?! 

This was an orange cardigan for my teacher's baby. It was quicker to knit than the cable (cable takes time...I'm not that fast with it yet). This one was simple, I just had to knit (or purl) a group of stitches at a time. It was fun to whizz along.  

Here's a closer detailed view of the pattern on the arm.  

This is what it looks like from the back.  

This is the blanket I knitted for my teacher's baby. The central heart is in garter stitch, with little bobbles surrounding it.  

This is a close up view of the bobbles. I'd never created them before, and they were quite easy to make. The only problem was that the bobbles liked popping through the other side.  

This is the cross stitch picture I made for my sister. It's not all that easy to see, but surrounding the picture is a half cross stitch sea of blue (supposed to be the sky, I think). 

Here's a close up.... 

...and another one. It's easier to see the stitching. This is where I confess the mistake I made. At least 3 times I used the wrong colour thread. I did unpick most of it, but when I did the boots I couldn't be bothered. So they are mostly pink, rather than just being fawn.  

This is the cover of the cross stitch kit I'm working on at the moment for a friend who's just had a baby.  

This is my progress so far. Because it's quite little, it is growing quickly.  

This is a close up view. I love the kit because ribbon will go at the top, and I'll have to put sequins on the shoes! (That might be tricky....but this is a perfect gift for my friend who loves shoes).  

This is the Japanese lady cross stitch kit which I sewed several years ago for my mother. I've added the shoe picture just to give you some perspective of the size. Plus there's an extension lead next to it - I promise that is always switched off! 

Here's a close up view, as far as I can go without missing out most of the picture. It took me months to do this. I loved making progress as I worked with the sections.  

The backstitch took forever to do. However, it wasn't as frustrating as the metallic thread. I learned to loath metallic thread with this kit. A serious vendetta built up. It would break easily, it was hard to use. Grah! I try and avoid kits with it in. Over all, I love this kit, because it turned out quite good. Years on and I can't remember where the mistakes are, which is a good thing!  

Okay, these are two lots of yarn I have. This is the stash which is for fingerless gloves/socks for me. I love the yellow! I've got another skein, so I might see if I can knit a shawl with it.  

This pop-up cube is my stash of baby yarn. I have a wide variety. 

I would say the rest of my yarn stash, is definitely the same amount as the baby yarn stash above, possibly a little more. I've mostly got sock yarn, with a few others that are probably going to be for presents. 

That's it for this week's meme. I hope to show more often progress of my knitting & sewing (which means I might just stick up photos every week, even though I only planned to do this meme fortnightly.) 

Thrilling Craft Adventure Meme #1

On this dreary Thursday afternoon (it's been raining for hours), I'd like to welcome you to the first in a new series of memes.

This week's meme will focus on when I started various crafts


I figure that starting at the beginning might be a good place to start :) I started knitting when I was under 10 years old. My mother taught me to knit, and I was encouraged by my grandmother. I had a few creations which make me laugh now, but I got the hang of it quite quickly. I remember getting frustrated because if I wasn't sure of a pattern, I'd have to wait until my mother was around to help out. I knitted on and off up to secondary school, then for health reasons I had to stop knitting.

It was a good 8 years before I could knit again, and I loved being able to create baby clothes for people. I learnt how to knit socks (not as tricky as they look), lace (which is so pretty). I've met some passionate knitters, one of whom I'm firm friends with and meet once a month. I still haven't cracked fair isle (I think that's the one where you use lots of different coloured yarn. My current solution to it is just to use self-patterning yarn!).

I then had to stop knitting again, then started again. Then stopped last year until January this year. I'm so happy to be knitting again. I love keeping busy, especially when watching TV/dvds. When I don't do something I feel lazy. I'm mostly knitting for other people at the moment. Quite a few friends are having babies, so I'm knitting up a few gifts for them. Next week I'll  hopefully have photos of one knitting bundle for a friend.

As far as I know my family don't read this blog, so I can announce that I'll be giving people knitted presents this year. Predominantly scarves, table cloths, coasters and table mats. I'm on the hunt for nice patterns! I'm eager to get started on a shawl for one of my expecting friends, the colouring of blue and green is perfect for her.

Knitting is quite clever. I mean, you are creating something from nothing over than a few sticks (of various lengths/shapes) and yarn. Note it is yarn and not wool. Wool is a yarn. Acrylic is a yarn. There are so many materials that yarn can be made from. I love cotton and bamboo yarn, oh and alpaca yarn. I'd love an alpaca herd to guard ducks and chickens. I have neither of those now, but maybe one day. Alpacas are excellent guard creatures.

I also sew. Well, I'm a beginner seamstress & quilter, although those are both on hold now due to health reasons, I'm really enthusiastic about them and hope that I can improve my skills. I'd love to be able to make quilts for people.

Ever since I was little (possibly before knitting, but I can't remember which was first) I've been doing cross stitch.

I remember my very first sampler, which was a nice cream, and the fabric had little x's all over it, telling me where to stitch. I remember using different colours for the alphabet and for the numbers, and I think I used red for the border, and I'm sure there was something else on it, perhaps a picture or something. I haven't got it any more.

Cross stitch is mostly simpler than embroidery, but it is an art form that needs mastering. After all, most work needs outlining with backstitch. You learn which order to use light and dark threads (I can't quite remember which way round it is at the moment). You must secure your thread neatly on the back, learn not to trail your thread if there's a large section which doesn't use that particular colour.

I've used cross stitch for presents. I will take pictures soon (I'm not convinced my camera is charged up), but I've made a penguin picture and a lady in a kimono for my parents. The penguin was a relatively easy kit. The lady in the kimono was much trickier. I learned that I hate - yes I meant to underline and embolden that - gold thread. It became the bane of my life as I was finishing it off. It split so often, or got knotted easily. I now avoid gold thread like the plague.

My parents have a Country Companions picture with 6 creatures in the cloakroom, and there's a cute elephant girl in the dining room.

I've had to stop cross stitching for health reasons, but I'm currently waiting for the arrival of one which matches the girl at the top of this blog :). I don't think I'll be able to do much at a time, although I might try doing it with my left hand so I can do a bit more. It'll still be fun though, and it's lovely to watch the picture grow (I now use plain fabric, and count the pattern myself. It's not as difficult as it sounds, although I have made a few mistakes in every piece I've sewn).

Crochet - I can do it, I learnt a few years ago. I'm not very good, and I find it takes an age to do it, but I want to learn so will be trying it again over the next few months.

Writing is known as the craft. How could I not mention that? I began writing when I was about 13  years old. I wrote a story and thought it was wonderful. I even sent it to publishers. I then wrote another story (which is waiting in the wings for its fourth major plot overall). And another. And another.

The frequency of writing has been up and down, although this year it is very much on the up. I'm determined to enter query land this year. All information about my writing can be found on my writing blog, Nayu's Realm  (not as funky a template as this one, but it serves it's purpose).

It's been fun chatting about craft this week, hopefully next week I'll have a few photos for you to check out (and a bit more detail on those projects).

I'd love to hear if any of you enjoy making things!