Good morning sunshine

Today the weather is beautiful, the sun is shining and it´s my husbands birthday! Happy Birthday !!!!

Sewing fewer

In the last post you´ve seen the box with my fabric stash. I´ve still some of the IKEA fabrics in blues and some trims and labels. And the plan to learn how to sew bags.

 The boys don´t want to take the shopping basket when they have to go to the supermarket to buy some bread and milk, so a shopping bag in manly colours it should be.

 The bag is modeled by my (nearly) 11 year old son to get an idea of the size. It is large enough for quite some shopping.


There is a little pocket outside - with the "handmade" label I love so much - and the lining is in the same fabric as the pocket. The handles are also out of the inner and the outer fabric.

 I´ve made a little pouch for the money that matches the bag, but turned out a bit too girly because I´ve sewed on that little cute lace trim.







The shopping bag with lining is the most complicated thing I´ve sewed so far and although it is not perfect, I´m happy :) The pouch turned out very nice too. This time the zipper sewing in worked much better and the sewing was faster.

I´ve already plans for further bags, but I have to think this plans over a bit and wait until I´ve enough time again to start.

I wish you a wonderful and happy day!

Pillow talk

 Yesterday the weather was cold, grey and snowy and so I´ve started to sew some easy pillows to cuddle up.

These are for our large 65x65cm pillows on the parents bed, used while watching tv or reading a book in bed.

I call them "natural collection" because these are the patches I sewed on the fronts.

They are already in heavy use as you can see :)

 These two I call the "For you" pillows (label again) and they are for David for his birthday. Glad he never visits this blog :)

They are for his 50x50cm pillows on his bed.

 And last but not least sewed from old childroom curtains and an old yellow tablecloth a cover for Felix pillow he uses to sit or to rest on when playing in his room.








As you can see on the pictures the pillows are all very simple made. I don´t like my pillows to tense and hard so I add 5 cm to the measure of the pillow.
So for a 50 cm pillow I cut a piece that is 55 cm. For the "closure" at the back I add about 20 cm. The larger ones have a 22 cm closure (+ 2 cm for the seam).


All fabrics are from IKEA.

 

Here still have some leftovers. Maybe next time I have the urge to sew, I´ll make some bags....

Project progress instead of FO Friday

Today I´d like to show you some progress on my long time crochet projects. They are both different and in the same time have a lot in common. Obviously both are blankets. Both are crochet and both use a very simple pattern. Here the things end that they have in common.

This one is made of little colourful discs and then joined in the end and I use only dk yarn from my stash. I have no colour plan or anything. Just crocheting discs and then joining them from time to time. Now I have a blanket that is 7 x 8 discs large which is about 1 x 1.10 m (unblocked).




This one is my beloved Noro blanket! It is a large granny square out of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn in green shades. In the beginning I´ve added a half skein of Fabel Delight what I regret now, but...I´ll live with it. For this blanket I buy new yarn when I need one. Now it is about 1 x 1 m with 3 skeins Noro Sock yarn and the bit of Fabel yarn. Today the ordered 2 skeins came so I can carry on.



I love both althought they are very different....

Crochet a Rainbow

Sarah London  founded the project "Crochet a Rainbow" where people from all over the world can donate granny squares for the flood victims in Australia.

I´ve joined and I think it is a nice and easy way to help. I´m sure there will be a lot of people crocheting little granny squares and giving the people who lost everything a bit of hope and warm back.

Come on and join too :)))



http://sarahlondon.wordpress.com/crochet-a-rainbow/

New yarn

 Today my fresh ordered yarn already arrived. Beautiful, shiny and soft Garnstudio Alpaca Baby Silk (sport weight) in ligh-greyinsh-puple and soft and heavy Garnstudio Drops Lima  (Alpaca/Wool, dk weight) in a pretty purple. Both yarns are new for me and I can´t wait to try them out.

Second pair of socks

...from the new sock book are finished.

Again knitted with a bit heavier yarn, so warm hiking or crocs socks, or just for hanging around in the house. The yarn was a gift from a dear friend and the first time I´ve knitted with Cascade 220 Heathers. I think it is much nicer than the (itchy) normal Cascade 220 and I´m sure I´ll use this yarn again.

 Pattern: INRO from Knitted Socks East and West
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Heathers (col. 9448)
Needles: 3.75mm DPN


Only 2 pattern repeats at the leg, otherwise I followed the pattern. I´ve use exactly 1 skein.
Ok, I have about 3m yarn left ;)

 Philipp, my 12 year old son is sick at home from school and hanging around with fever and headache and I´ve gifted the socks to him. He likes them :)

First Pouches

Today I felt the sudden urge to sew something and to learn how to sew in a zipper. I´ve always wanted to try to sew in a zipper and I like that little pouches. I need them for so many things. Mostly to keep my handbag organized and to carry around notions for crafting or little cosmetics and stuff like that which gets easily lost in larger bags.

Last year I´ve bought a book which teaches how to sew bags and today I finally found the courage to try it out. The book is called "Sew what! BAGS" by Lexie Barnes. The pattern I used for these pouches is called "Zipped Wristlet". I don´t wanted a wristlet so just left that strap off.

"This pouch is great practise for adventurous beginnes because the results are so rewarding. Plus, you can get over your fear of zippers!"...says the book and the author is totally right. Thank you!

I found two zippers (one I ripped out from an old yeans of Felix) and some little leftover fabric. It took a bit until I finally understood how to place the fabric to get those nice seams and clean lining but finally I´ve managed it. And beleave me, I´m so proud today: My first pouches and my first zippers!

The larger one (my cell phone for size reference) is from leftover IKEA fabric and the lining is from an old bedcover. I´ve sewn in a "handmade" trip I´ve once bought.

The little one is from leftover fabric from the crochet-bag-lining and lined with some old pj fabric. This one is a small coin purse.

 

 

 

It was great fun sewing these puches and I love them. I don´t have any zippers but as soon as I get ones again I´ll make more. Oh, I have so many new ideas in my mind!

I think I have lost a lot of my sewing fear and already have some ideas what I could sew next.
A nice Sunday to you my friends :)



xxx

Japanese inspired

It seems to me I´m a bit into Japanese inspired crafty things these days.

"Square Doily-pattern"

 Some crochet samples from the new book. I´m using yarn I have in my stash and it is always much heavier than the one used in the book. I don´t even have cotton treat and a 1.75mm needle. I think I might get blind crocheting with so small stuff.

The pattern look a bit complicated on the first few but after looking at them a bit longer and "studying" them, they are quite easy and logical. The book has nice diagramms and explanations.

"Hook Case pattern"

"Inro"

Inro Socks from the new Sock Book. Japanese inspired stitch pattern again :) I´m not sure if I should have made the wrapping a bit looser. I´ll see when they are finished.

I wish you a nice and relaxing Saturday like Lucky´s.

Lucky

...no need to decide now....

Some minutes ago the owner of the yarn shop called me on my cell phone and apologized that the yarn I´ve ordered is not available in this amount! Uhhhh...

I could get the same yarn in an other colour but I don´t think I will take it. Maybe it is better I´ll knit my warm dream cardigan later this year so I´ll have more motivation to finish it until next fall/winter. I´ll have this weekend to think it over.

Which cardigan to knit?

One of my favourite online yarn stores - Drops Garnstudio - has a supersale of -30% on their new yarn qualities Andes and BabyAlpaca Silk. So although I´m on a yarn diet, I had to order yarn immediatly. I want to knit myself a warm cardigan in a heavy weight yarn, because I want to finish it in this life. My attention span is not very large and I get bored very fast, but I think with needles about 7-9 mm it will be finished before summer.

Now I´m thinking about which cardigan to knit. Sedum by Jane Richmond is nice, so is Friida by Eveli Kaur or this cardigan by Suvi Simola (villapeikko on Ravelry). Maybe I´m making the pattern up as I knit and make something between Sedum and Friida.

Andes mittelgraumix colour nr. 9015
ordered here: www.wollbar.at
12 skeins

New inspirations and things to finish...

 Yesterday this book arrived. It has some cute Japanese crochet pattern translated in English! I love the Japanese Zakka style and the cute things made in it, but unfortunatly nearly all pattern books and magazines I found online are in Japanese.

So this one is really something special and it was a bit cheaper now.

 It is lovely made and even inside the cover there are some diagramms of crochet flowers. Just cute.

I´ve found some sport weight cotton yarn I once bought at a discounter and never really liked and my 3mm Clover crochet hook and can´t wait to start crocheting something out of it.

 Here is the knitting basket waiting for me to knit on......

I´m test knitting a vest and have a pair of basic stash-busting-stripy socks on the needles but can´t bring myselft to carry on.... I´d prefer to crochet.


We will see. In the end it is still a hobby and should bring joy and happyness and not pressure and guilty.
In this sense, I wish you all a wonderful day full of joy and happyness!

The bag/part 2

Crochet flowers are added. The pattern for the flowers comes from www.garnstudio.com and is free as all their pattern. I was to lazy to wind some pom poms until now so I call it finished for now.

The size of the bag is really nice. To add a bit of form for the photoshot i filled it with four 100g skeins of yarn and it still has room for more :)

Fat and tweedy

On Ravelry i stumbeled over this bag and I really liked it. I don´t understand  Portuguese but while browsing some projects from fellow Ravelers I found this link. Thank you!

So I searched the yarn I want to use up and which is totally not "next-to-skin" yarn for me and started to crochet.

This bulky tweed wool yarn is very forgiving in little mistakes. Very nice I think.

Last year I´ve bought this fabric online because I wanted to start sewing (I didn´t really start) and because I liked it. The russian inspired motives together with the warm Tweed yarn make a nice match for a winter bag, don´t you think so?

The lining of the bag was the hardest part for me (still no relevant sewing skills here) but I even managed to make a little bag! I´m really proud of myself. Seaming and a bag on the bag....that´s a lot of sewing.

I´ve changed the straps a bit, because I prefer this lengh. I´m think about adding some crochet flowers or pom-poms in mustard yellow..... to be continued.

Konnichiwa

....is a japanese greeting which means "good day" and the first pattern in "Knitted Socks East and West" by Judy Sumner.

Once I understood the TSL/TSR stitches which are used to make the cables it went very fast. The pattern is very intuitive and the instructions are clear. I´ve used aran weight yarn and 4mm needles and now have toasty warm couch socks for watching my favourite DVDs.

Yarn: Drops Garnstudio Nepal
Needles: 4mm DPN

Love this song....

Swap News, Shawl Pin, Sock start

This year I´m going to participate in some SWAPs on Ravelry again. One is the Swap for all Seasons Group 2011 were one gets a swap partner with whom one is exachanging 3 small and one larger (Christmas) swap parcel through the year. Last year was my first swap year and it was great fun and always such an exitement if she liked the stuffs I´ve sent and to receive my parcel in the post, the surprise, the unwrapping,... I like it very much. And today I got the name of my partner for this year! Can´t wait to get to know her!



As I´m often knitting shawls I was long time looking for a shawl pin that suits my taste is practical. On etsy I found one this weekend. I´ve ordered it on 1st January and today I´ve already got it! It is beautiful hand made, light and perfect. my photograph skills need improvement, but here you get an idea how it looks.

www.novasteel.fr is the seller on etsy.com

New Year and a fresh start

As I was not blogging for such a long time, it´s time for a new start now. As you can see the design of the blog has changed and I´ve the plan to post more frequently now.

I´ve improved with knitting and crocheting a bit and started a wee little of sewing.

So let´s start the journey into this new year with some fresh new projects and the will to finish up some old ones.



This is a quite amitious project for me and at the moment I´m loving it. I´ve the plan to crochet a blanchet with my leftover DK weight yarns that are living in my stash and have no direct purpose. I think I´ll have to crochet about 120 - 200 such discs and then join them (or start joining when I have a nice amount). I´m often very happy and full of energy for a project at the beginning but loose interest very fast. My goal is to finish this blanchet in 2011. The start was on 2nd January 2011.
Pattern: Flowers in the snow from Solveig Grimstad

This is my second long time project which I´ve started late November 2010. It is basically a large Granny square with Noro Sock yarn. It doesn´t go very fast, but I love the colours and it is a totally no brainer. The plan for this one is to make a nice blanchet for one person. As the other family members think the colourschanges are terrible I think it will stay mine :) I would like to finish it within 2011 too.



Some time ago I´ve ordered this book (Knitted Socks East and West) online and today I finally got it and I love it. I´ve not jet studied all pattern but looked at the pics and read a bit. It has a lot of pretty pattern and I like the style of most of it. As soon as I find some time, I´ll start with the first pair in aran weight yarn.



And finally my sewing project. But only an esy one. I´ve bought some fabric at IKEA yesterday and want to sew a tablecloth for our family table which is quite large.
Basically it is only to sew in the sides where the fabric was cut, but for an absolute beginner like me it is more than enough to get straight and to get the machine running.




I wish you all a great time and a wonderful first week in the New Year 2011!