Using up

When I started knitting I used to find yarn at the charity shops (op-shops)and on sales and almost anything looked good enough. With a bit more experience I became pickier and also more aware of the gorgeous yarns available nowadays. Oh the temptation! I can almost hear them whispering: "Look at my amazing colour changes", "Feel how soft and light I am", "Imagine how warm I'll keep you in winter".

Alas we somehow managed to accumulate the ridiculous amount of stuff in the last five years and I feel that a lot of time is taken up by sorting, re-sorting, tiding away and shifting items from one place to another. Even my book collection and craft stash are starting to be the source of stress instead of pleasure.

Pretty twisted cuff - pattern by Cat Wong, button from Dottery Pottery

Therefore, as part of greater decluttering undertaking, I'm on the mission to use up whatever craft supplies I have. All of these items were made from Noro Silk Garden Sock and Noro Kureyon Sock yarn left-over from the Chameleon blanket. I still have about 60 grams of Noro Kureyon Sock left over and I plan to turn it into sev[en]circle necklace by Kirsten Johnstone.

Mobile for son

I had some plain felted balls left-over from the winter experiments in felting, so my daughter and I decided to turn them into fish by wet-felting some colour onto them and adding organza tails.

I also had few shells from the bag of broken jewelery I bought years ago at a charity shop. Quick trip to the hardware shop to get the last ingredient that we needed (wooden dowel rod) and the fish mobile was created to hang above the changing mat.

Now I need to make a bird mobile for my daughter - the room she is moving into doesn't have much space, therefore I'll have to come up with something small, yet interesting.

Mouse for daughter

I made a mouse for my daughter, exactly the same as I made for my sister, because Katya adores her aunt and wants to be like her in everything.

Still can crochet

I discovered that I am able to crochet while breastfeeding and holding my sleeping son, which allowed me to finish the border around Chameleon Blanket.

This is probably the most time consuming crochet project I ever attempted. Details are on Ravelry

Spring & Summer Wardrobe

Sewed items were made by me; knitted ones by my mum; socks are the newborn size ones, which were intended for the baby - he may loose few more to the doll before he is even born.

Finishing

Two weeks left until the due date, so I'm trying to finish few things before all the free time is eaten up by taking care of a newborn.

Last night I finished knitting my first item with the armholes and look it fits!

Pattern: Milo by Georgie Hallam
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton DK
Details on Ravelry

And today I attached the final layer of hair to my first Waldorf limbed doll. Now I just need to make some cloths (preferably of the cute variety) for her as my daughter strictly highlighted that she wants a doll with LOTS of cloths.

While attaching the hair I kept on thinking that it was very similar in colour to my sister's and when my husband saw the finished doll his first words were "Now we can pretend that you sister is still here". How I wish that she was here instead of on the other side of the planet.

It's like a holiday, but better

My mum arrived on Tuesday the previous week, the renovations finished on Friday and this week felt like a very chilled out holiday. Last few days I felt more relaxed than during most of the holidays I had since I became a mother – it is so nice to know that I have an option of sitting on the couch all day doing nothing. I suspect if I choose that option I would be bored in the space of 10 minutes, so with all the extra free time available to me I’m trying to finish few crochet and knitting projects and make a Waldorf-style doll for my daughter for the birth of the baby. To me having time to make things is even more precious and more energizing than having time to laze about.

I don’t seem to be able to resist the urge of making toys despite knowing that I’ll get frustrated by fiddly sewing bits. At the moment my daughter doesn’t even play with the dolls, but maybe it will change when there is a baby in the house, otherwise I'll have to play with that doll myself.

To practice making heads I finally got around to replacing a head for the doll I made two years ago. The original head had two newbie mistakes: the neck wasn’t thick enough resulting in ugly folds on the face and the head was also too long. This one has a proper neck, but is still slightly too long.

I did few more practice heads before making the big one for the 16 inch doll and now I have to make the decision on which body pattern to use from the ones in the Maricristin Sealey's book "Making Waldorf Dolls".

These are the two of the best heads together with the big one.

P.S. The photos of the new new bathrooms can be found on Flickr, but I think only the people, who saw the original bathrooms in the last few weeks, will appreciate the improvements to their full extent. I regret not taking the pre-renovation photos, though at the time it felt embarrassing to photograph something so ugly and falling apart.

Bathrooms

The bathroom renovations are going to start tomorrow. Not the best timing, but we can’t put it off any longer as we can only use the sink in the main bathroom – everything else is leaking/broken/about to disintegrate. The builder thinks that both bathrooms will be done by mid March. Fingers-crossed that there aren’t going to be any unexpected delays.

On Thursday it dawned on me that planning to wash baby cloths during the bathroom renovations is probably not such a brilliant idea and not wanting to leave it until the last minute I did silly number of laundry loads during the weekend. On the upside we all have plenty of clean cloths, bedding, etc and now I know that we don’t need to buy any baby cloths for at least first three months. Now I just need to figure out what we do need to buy. We aren’t exactly in denial that there are only seven weeks left until the due date, but somehow too busy with everything else to spend a lot of time thinking and preparing ourselves for labour/newborn. Maybe it is just how it is with the second (and subsequent) kids.

My mum is coming in two weeks time and before we put up the inflatable bed for her I decided to use the only big enough available floor space to block the shawl I finished knitting on the 1st of September (!). While blocking it I remembered why I procrastinated for so long – it is huge and there was hardly enough space and not enough pins to do the blocking properly. However, it is so soft and warm and the colours of Rowan Kidsilk Spray are lovely. I didn’t get around to taking any photos of it after blocking (weekend was gloomy and grey), but today I couldn’t resist snapping a quick shot of my own little matchstick girl or maybe babushka in training – love her miserable facial expression specially put on for the photo.

Jazzing up the window

A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach, so that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door.
Hundertwasser Window Dictatorship and Window Right

One day I'll build my own little house or a studio and it will have grass roof, plenty of plants, odd shaped windows, curved benches and mosaic inserts, but for now I'm just changing the decorations attached to the kitchen window. Few weeks ago we took down the snowflakes and to add some colour to our greyish view my daughter and I made three stars from the kite paper.

Katya choose her favourite colours (red, yellow & orange) to make a star with some help from me and this detail tutorial. I made the other two and there are still three more variations that we can try making.

Taking the lid off

If you study is going to be fruitful, let it be because you use the information as a set of tools to take the lid off your own creativity.
James Walters "Crochet Workshop"

Sewing

I thought I’ll do a sewing post, since I occasionally brave my trepidation of trying something new and actually use my sewing machine.

One Saturday afternoon, way back in November, I managed to sew two little items. I’m still marveling at that achievement, since it usually takes me at least 30 minutes to get the tension on my machine right and mostly the correct tension is achieved by weird magical combination of the frustration and turning the dials at random to the settings, which I’m sure I tried before without any success.

This pillowcase for my daughter was made from the fabric sent to me by barmyowlscoo following very detailed directions of the Sewing 101: zippered throw pillow tutorial. My daughter loves it to the point where the first day she took the pillow everywhere with her.

I also made myself a new wallet to replace the one stolen back in May. I followed the Noodlehead's Gathered Clutch Tutorial, but reduced the size.

In December I finally got around to making a long promised bean bag for my daughter from the fabric she choose (trust me, I wouldn't choose fake fur, specially in pink, bright orange or red colours). Afterwards all my clothes and the craft room were covered in bright fluff, but the excitement on my daughter’s face on opening her Christmas present made it all worth it. The instructions, I found online, were for both child & adult sized bean bag chairs and I was tempted to make an adult size one, but am glad that I didn’t as the bedrooms in our house are so small that even a child-sized one will be taking a big chunk of the floor space (at the moment it is getting in a way being put to a good use downstairs in the living room)

I also made a matching lion pillowcase – the initial plan was to knit both the front & the back, but I didn’t have enough fluffy yarn for the back and therefore the knitted back panel is now used as lining for the birds’ nest. My husband thought that a square lion is hilarious and went into a fit of laughing on seeing the finished item for the first time. My daughter thought it odd and not very likable - I guess one can't always be successful.

Making pillowcases is super easy even for a total sewing beginner like myself. So one evening in the midst of being sick, instead of sleeping, I made another one to give to a friend, who was staying with us at Christmas. This is the worst wobbliest sewing I’ve done in a very long time, but I thought that (a) it is better to give a wobbly present than no presents at all and (b) he loves fish and is sentimental enough about my daughter to appreciate her drawing of our three goldfish (She told me that the fourth orange blob, in the top left corner, is a penguin).

And finally this year I made two knot dolls – one for our baby & one for the friend’s. She is due in four weeks and I was (and am and will be) shamelessly using her to explain/demonstrate to Katya what will be happening to my body and later to our lives.

BTW I didn’t get around to making the Christmas stockings, so we did the same thing as last year – used airplane socks instead. Luckily I have many of these – various traveling friends give them to me thinking I’ll find a good use for them. Anyone knows if they are suitable for making sock monkeys?

Knitting socks will have to wait

Did I say I'm going to attempt to knit a pair of socks for myself? I think they'll have to wait until after Christmas as my plan to make only one handmade present snowballed and now I'm making two time-consuming ones for Katya and few tiny ones for various people. Oh, I also promised to make FIVE Christmas stockings.

Before the snowballing effect took place, I made another crochet flower brooch out of leftover Noro Kureyon Sock (here the ones I made back in summer)

Ironically as soon as I managed to use up most of it I found a gorgeous blanket pattern and ordered more Kureyon Sock yarn in different colourways, so there could be many more flower brooches in the future.

I managed to crochet two snowflakes before loosing interest and finding the paper ones we made last year to decorate the kitchen window.

And to keep my child's legs warm I knitted a pair of legwarmers from the yarn I bought online for my husband's hat. He is happy with blue one, but wants an yellower orange - I have a pretty good idea of the colour he'll like, but can't find it anywhere.

Katya, who sometimes refuses to wear COTTON knitted-looking dresses, because they are scratchy!!!, actually loves the legwarmers and wears them inside and outside everyday. However, she requested a green and yellow pair, because now it is her favourite colour combination. So maybe I'll never get around to knitting my pair of socks.

I wonder how other multi-crafters choose their next project and if they ever end up making anything for themselves or just keep on producing items for their family and friends.

Finished knitted hat

Unlike people in some other parts of England, we don’t yet have snow on the ground, but everything was covered in frost in the morning. I love frost – it looks beautiful and magic, but doesn’t disrupt things like snow and ice do.

Same as previous two years we aren’t exactly prepared for the cold winter. However I recently finished knitting a hat for myself, which should keep my ears warm. I finished it despite making silly mistakes (extremely silly ones, which made me shake my head in disbelief when I discovered them), having to frog and restart, knowing that I can crochet a reasonable hat much faster and wanting to give up. It fits. It looks good. My husband, who usually looks slightly amused and at the same time worried about my sanity whenever I display my latest crafting project to him, likes it and wants me to knit him a hat!

It felt extremely uplifting to make something. The success proved to me that there is some progress in my acquisition of the knitting skills and hopefully it will push me into tackling other harder projects. I may attempt knitting a pair of socks for myself. I have to say that getting rid of the TV was a great help. It appears that I’m unable to concentrate enough on knitting while watching crime shows, but listening to CraftLit is perfect – my knitting progresses at reasonable pace without mistakes and I get to listen to good books.

Knitting in the round

I was looking after my friend’s son on Saturday, so spent most of the Sunday feeling that it was the first day of the weekend, which may explain why I totally forgot to write the usual post with a quote. Ironically enough on Monday my husband stayed home due to a bad cold and I managed to complete a number of the boring household tasks only to end up with a splitting headache by the end of the day. The only cure for which was to go to bed early preventing me again from blogging or crafting.

Anyhow on Saturday I was very glad to discover that I can now knit (albeit very simple things) and look after two toddlers. I too clearly remember the time just two years ago when I needed extremely quiet and peaceful environment to manage knitting few stitches without getting horribly confused or knitting them a wrong way, which meant that knitting was reserved for evenings and progressed dreadfully slowly.

The two balls knitted from leftover Noro Kureyon Sock following the pattern from Itty-Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson are my small addition to a hat requested by a very good friend.

The hat (pattern by Ginny) was so easy to knit and will hopefully help me break my fear of attempting to knit wearable items. I’m so much dreaming of knitting socks for myself as my feet keep on getting too cold every time I go outside this winter.

Unlucky for my sock-knitting plans upon seeing the little hat my daughter requested I’ll knit her one (multi-coloured, orange and red and yellow) and when we looked on Ravelry to find the perfect pattern, she also requested another hat, a toy and a vest. And wait, she also wants four knitted balls, not three as requested previously. Hopefully I have enough Noro Kureyon Sock yarn left, as most of it was used up in knitting a long rainbow snake.

I'm glad my daughter likes it despite the fishy face, which is result of me improvising instead of following a pattern, .

My husband also wants a beanie hat – light brown with orange and blue stripes, but thankfully is happy to wait. So maybe, just maybe, by next winter we’ll all have hand-knitted hats and socks to keep us extra warm.

Crafting in 2009 and now

I finished more items in 2009, than I did in 2008, but only because I added some of my drawings to the final count.

1. Necklace for Stagasaurus (c365/134), 2. Necklace for Sister-in-Law (c365/135), 3. Finished (c365/145), 4. Matreshka border, 5. Jellyfish (c365/147), 6. Small stamps (c365/149), 7. Pan Chang Knot necklace, 8. Drying handdyed fabric (c365/154), 9. Apple pin cushion (c365/155), 10. (c365/156), 11. Doily (c365/158), 12. Square pincushion (c365/159), 13. New bag (c365/162), 14. New flower stamps (c365/163), 15. Yellow & purple (c365/164), 16. Head scarf (c365/167), 17. Another head scarf, 18. Finished Picnic Blanket (c365/171), 19. Strawberry skirt, 20. One more doily done (c365/175)


1. And aother one (c365/177), 2. Dyeing (c365/178), 3. It's starting to click (c365/179), 4. I am here (c365/180), 5. Day-dreaming (c365/183), 6. Dream book (c365/184), 7. Hexagons (c365/185), 8. Almost finished (c365/186), 9. Added a handle (c365/196), 10. Basket (c365/202), 11. Ready to gift (c365/204), 12. No more veg! (c365/208), 13. Autumn heart (c365/209), 14. Tiny mouse (c365/214), 15. Flower brooches (c365/217), 16. Quickly finished (c365/223), 17. Jingle Bells (c365/231), 18. Grey & Yellow (c365/232), 19. Airplane Octopus (c365/234), 20. Last item made in 2009 (c365/235)

I wonder how productive I'll be this year as so far I only have three completed items. Having a larger final number of projects completed isn’t the goal in itself, but in a small way it is a good enough indication of how well I avoided getting into the negative and self-critical attitude, which prevents me from finding time to do what I enjoy. So far this year I was having lots of fun partially by breaking my resolutions. I can’t really say that I made a New Year’s resolution not to learn any new forms of craft, but I thought it would be a good idea to concentrate on improving my existing skills. I haven’t lasted long. I found a book on papier-mache at the charity shop and took it as a sign to try making something simple. Luckily my husband can get newspapers for free from his office at the end of each day, so I didn’t have to break my second resolution to avoid buying new supplies unless I use up something I already have.


I also finally tried needle-felting, which I was yearning to do for the last couple of years. Amusingly enough when I just discovered online crafting community, I felt like everyone was trying out some sort of felting, while now every second crafter seems to be re-discovering or trying for the first time spinning. I’m glad that spinning sparks no interest in me whatsoever. I may be tempted to dye some yarn though.

I thought this was a crafty blog?

I guess I was wrong, as the last entry that has something handmade in it was at the end of July. Wasn’t July like yesterday? No? Give me a second while I’ll try to figure out what months it is now. Ah, yes – November. I guess I should be happy that it isn’t yet December, but probably should start stressing about all the Christmas presents that need to be made. Though maybe need is the wrong word to use. “You don’t need X, you just want it” my husband keeps on telling our daughter, who screams about needing the tiniest things in the tone of voice that implies that her life depends on them.

Anyway, here are most of the items made since the end of July (there are more details on Ravelry):


The set of fruit & veg I made for a friend's daughter's first birthday present.


The only vegetable & fruit I managed to crochet for my daughter before I got extremely bored with making fruit & veg.


An autumn heart for my husband. (pattern: MyGurumi Pop-Heart)


A mouse for my "mad scientist" sister from this pattern.

Looks like crochet is my comfort craft – when everything else fails I can still crochet.

I wish

Here’s the truth: if you want something, you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you’re willing to risk failure.
from Clockwork or All Wound Up by Philip Pullman

Some wishes are carelessly uttered and are as easily forgotten. Some dreams are harboured deep inside for a long time and become part of our being. I had few of these hidden dreams for a very long time. They grew and shrank as my life followed its unique course; sometimes they hid away even from myself; occasionally I would re-examine them only to put them away again for later. And now I have the chance to turn them into reality. But remember that old saying “Be careful what you wish for”? So I need to think carefully about the implications of finally living my dreams and how they will affect the rest of my family. And to help myself focus and to find some time for contemplating my future I created a little dream book by altering an old kids board book.

The stamping of the flowers didn’t work, especially after the little hands grabbed the book before the stamped images had time to dry. I didn’t want to repaint the cover, so used some of Katya’s glitter and shiny shapes to fix (or at least somewhat hide) the problem. The butterfly was crocheted from one of My Picot’s patterns and hand-dyed together with some fabric using Procion MX dyes.

I know it sounds silly to spend time on altering a board book in order to carve the time required for the self-reflection, but doing something with my hands helps me to relax and switch off from daily tasks and worries.

If you want to try your hand at modifying an existing book for your own purposes Art Junk Girl has a post with Chunky Book Tips on her blog.

Lucky me

I learned to crochet as a child and crocheted on and off for most of my life, so it is one craft area in which I feel reasonably comfortable. It is also one of the things I can do while Katya is awake. So when talented Barmyowlscoo mentioned having idea for the quilt with crocheted doilies I offered to make some for her.


In return she sent me all these goodness: tinny owl, kiddie fabric (I should write down all ideas I have for it, so I can choose one and get it done), potholders created by herself and a painting set for Katya (not included in this photo as the Little One wanted to try it out straight away). Here is a close up of the potholders - aren't they gorgeous?

Why do I always feel that I got a much better package than the one I sent?

Summer week

This week I was grateful for the shade these trees provide.

After two damp grey summers I'm glad to have a lot of sunny days to enjoy, but at the same time I'm realistic about my ability to deal with heat, which is pretty low. So we mostly stayed at home playing in the new sandpit, splashing in the tiny paddling pool and enjoying picnics on the newly made picnic rug (Tutorial is over here).

All week I was planning to make a skirt for Katya and maybe one for myself, but at the end of each day I didn't want to be anywhere near a hot iron. Eventually over the weekend with the help of the intended recipient and following very clear, detailed and illustrated tutorial from Erin of House on Hill Road I made the Strawberry skirt.
Actually the Picnic Blanket tutorial is also Erin's - she writes great ones, specially good for beginners like me, who have to be told all the steps. Maybe I should make her Sunny Day Dress or Top? Or maybe I should start thinking about autumn and knit Them Apples cardigan? I'm still a horribly slow knitter due to the lack of practice. I was thinking a lot lately about my inability to concentrate on one craft, yet with every new skill learned the more I notice the relationships between various things; the easier it becomes to pick up a new skill; the more appreciation and understanding I have for the work of others and the more I want to learn. Maybe one day something will capture my interest and hold it for the rest of my life, but even exploring the depths of one area I'll always keep in mind words attributed to Socrates:

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.