A new blanket project

For a long time I was admiring all those pretty Ripple Blankets out there in Blogland and on Ravelry.

Finally I´ve started one too, following  Lucys of Attic24s pattern of Neat Ripple Pattern. Andrea also made a very nice one.

I´m using acrylic mix yarn from stash and some cheap one I´ve bought at a local store. Most yarns are worsted or aran weight and I use a 5mm hook for the ripple pattern. I´ve started with a 227 sts long chain which turned out much longer than expected (no, I didn´t swatch first). So maybe this will be the long side and I crochet the wide now. We will see.

There is no deadline for this blanket. I´m doing it just for fun and when I´m in the mood for a bit of mindless happy colourful crochet :)


Have a nice and happy Monday!

A bit of green...

...at least inside. I´ve started to grow some vegtables and herbs inside to be prepaired when it finally will be warm enough to start planting outside. The last years we only had tomatos, herbs, cocumber and paprika in planted in pots. This year I´d like to plant outside in the garden too.

The last part my needle organisation

The last one of my needle rolls is finished now. Now I have one for the long needles, one for DPN, one for the hooks and now finally one to put all the circulars in. This one is really fat and has a hairband as closure (for now). It might not be perfect but it has place for all my circulars.

And here all 4 together :)

Little gifts

For David a Baktus Scarf to brighten up his outfits (he has lots of dark jackets). The yarn is very soft, bright and shine as he likes it.

Yarn: ONLINE Supersocke 100 Emotion II-Color(Bamboo/Merino/Nylon)
 Needles: 3.5mm

Pattern: Baktus by Strikkelise

What I did:


CO 4

slip forst st of every row
row 1: sl1, M1, knit to end
row 2: sl1, knit to end
row 3: sl1, knit to end
row 4: sl1, knit to end

until 70 sts on needle

row 1: sl 1, k2 tog, knit to end
row 2: sl 1, k to end
row 3: sl 1, k to end
row 4: sl 1, k to end

until 4 sts left
knit next row and then BO
sew in ends/wash/dry/wear!

And for Felix a little bag to carry around his stuff. In this size everything is cute, isn´t it.

Wonderful surprises

Yesterday I got my first customer! Yes you hear right. My dearest sister asked me, if I could sew a bag and a pouch for her friends birthday and she would pay for it. She decided to buy from me instead from a shop to surprise her good friend with a handmade gift. Isn´t she the best sister in the world? And now my mother asked me if I could make a bag for her friends birthday too! Oh I´m so happy. I´ve already started sewing the bags. The pouches are missing because I´ll have to drive in the next town first to get some zippers. But I have some time, they´ll need the gifts in mid march.

Can´t get this song out of my head...

A little trip to the land of cross-stitching

This morning I wrote that I received some books today. One is the emboiderie book called 
"rot - Kleine Stickideen" . It´s a nice little book, mostly with pictures and nearly no text or explanations but a lot of cross stitch and free embroidery pattern. It comes with a little piece of fabric, a needle and some thread so one can start immediatly.

First I´ve tried to stitch a squirrel with backstitching but it turned out terrible.

Than I remembered that in my youth I had a period when I loved to do cross stitching. I searched a nice motive and now I´m trying to make the russian doll. I´m using 2 strands of the thread and so far it is ok. I´m not sure if I will ever finish it but it seems to work much better than the back stitch and french knots and things like that.

Monday morning

Winter came back over night and it started to snow again. Good for the people who want to go skiing and good for the tourismn. But still I´m looking forward to spring.

today no mountains are visible

After one week of  holidays the older kids are back to school and I´m also back working.

But look what the postman brought today. Something to brighten up my day and a reward after a busy day.

The hook case

Yesterday I´ve sewed the hook case. It turned out exactly how I´ve wanted it. For this roll I used some cotton fabric for patchwork. It is much lighter than the other fabric and this way it was much easier to sew.

For batting I used again leftovers from the patchwork blanket and this time I´ve sewed it direct onto the front piece (the orange one) so not so much fussing around like with the other two cases. The hairgum closure also worked better this time as I found a smaller hairband and didn´t had to cut it. Every hook has her own slot and the roll is soft and pretty.

I love it :)

A (stylish) home for my sock needles

Finally a needle roll ONLY for my DPN. I prefer to knit with DPN whenever possible  and therefor have quite some. Now they have a pretty and safe place to rest and wait until they will get back to work.

Fabric is the same as from the black/natural coloured bag and from IKEA. It is not perfect for the needle roll as it is a bit to stiff. As batting I´ve used leftover fleece from the patchwork blanket. Not perfect either but it worked (somehow).

The closure I´ve tried to copy from Mary-Catherine it just didn´t work properly. Maybe next time I´ll get it right.

The size is fine and all found a place. So only a needle roll for the circulars and one for the hooks are missing.

And a little pouch for notions or just because I had some leftover fabric in the right size for the zipper I had left. One can never have enough pouches, don´t you think so?

Some crochet blankets

 The large granny square blanket out of Noro Kureyon sock yarn in greens. I´m not sure if I´m going to add an other skein or call it done. It has already a nice size. Until now I´ve used 6 skeins of Noro.

This is Davids birthday blanket. Out of Noro Furin for the green/blue squares and crochet together and the border I´ve crochet with Mirasol Qina in natural white. The size is for one (smaller) person. Maybe I´ll get some modelled pics once he received his present.

My first sewn bag without a pattern

 

 The bag is just free hand cut, sewn and "measured" and turned out exactly how I wanted it to be.

a little pocket inside

 

 

 

 

 

This was a happy and successful sewing experiance. I love my new bag and the fabric. The natural white and black goes with everything in my wardrobe and matches my style.

Endless possibilities

It started with this neck roll. I needed a cover for it but was to lazy to sew a properly one. So I´ve cut some linen fabric and wound it around the pillow 2 times. At the ends I´ve closed the roll with some trims from the stash. All in natural white, very clean and fresh looking.

Clear and fresh but maybe a bit boring to make more of it. Suddenly the wooden antic stamps I´ve once got from my aunt came in mind. I´ve taken them from the book shelve and added some red acrylic fabric paint.

On a spare piece of fabric I´ve tried it out...and it turned out quite ok. Not perfect. No. The paint is too thick and the print didn´t turn out so clean as I wanted it. But it is a start.


Later I´m going to fix the paint with ironing and am going to wash it to test out it´s durability. Together with some cute bands I´ve bought on ebay lately I see a lot of cute and interesting projects in the near future.

each roll has 3m "East of India" trim on it

If someone has helpful tips for stamping and what paint or ink to use I´m glad to hear them :)

I wish you a all a wonderful, creative and inspiring day.

For sunny moments

...in spring and the rare sunny hours now when it is warm enough to sit outside with a cup of coffee.

Our old cushions were so bleached and worn out so I´ve bought this fabric at IKEA (which is now on sale on our local IKEA store) and started to sew new cushion covers. It looks clean and fresh now again! Today I´ve bought again some meters of the same fabric for the other sun deck and the balcony.

Small things

Most of the time small things are cute just because they are small. Don´t you think so?

Finally I´ve finished Felix socks. I just forgot them and when found in my knitting/crochet basket under the crochet blankets I but them back finished them in one evening. I don´t know why it always takes such impulses for me to finish something and I nearly never stick to one project from beginning to end. I´ve always have so many things going on at the same time and get distracted very fast. But most things get done (somewhen) so it is not a great problem anyway.



Gummistiefelsocken (socks to wear under his rubber boots)

Pattern: free sock pattern from www.garnstudio.com

Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 twin in "Indisch Rot"...I used about 30g

Needles: 2.5mm DPN


This is a very basic sock pattern but as the ribbing goes from cuff to toe at the front it is really stretchy and good fitting on the childs foot.

Valentine day inspired I´ve sewed a little pin cushion because my old one is always too full. Sewed out of scraps, tryed a little applique with zig-zag stitch and stuffed with scraps of wool. The whole project took about 10 minutes from start to finish and is already in use.

Improvisation

and still learning how to sew things.

While browsing the net I found this page and  the tutorial to make this bag. I don´t have such pretty fabric at home, but I wanted to try it out. So I´ve searched for some fabric that is large and dense enough and cut out after my own measuments ( ..I didn´t measure at all, I´ve laid out the fabric and started cutting with the rottary cutter.)

Because I didn´t get it right the first time, I had to rip the seams open and sew all a second time but than I finally understood when to turn the bag and WHERE to sew. Sometimes I need a bit until I totally understand a pattern ;)

 tataaa...my first sling bag!


tutorial for this bag

Theoretically it is totally reversable but I´ve made the pockets only on the white side (which is the lining for me).
So the intention is to use the bag with the yellow flower side outside and the white inside.


Next time I make the sling a bit more narrow because it is a tiny bit to wide for me. But for the first time it is fine and I´m sure it will get a lot of use in summer.



Because I always wanted a roll for my knitting needles to carry them around safe I searched for some inspiration to sew a needle roll case. I´ve found some, but nothing really exactly how I wanted mine to be. On google I´ve searched for "needle case, knitting needle organizer, sewing pattern". 


I want a roll to but the most used needles and some notions I might need into, so when I go on vacation or drive somewhere I have the essentials with me. The most needles are still in the rolls and storage systems I have for them, but I like to be prepared if going away.

So after Felix was in bed I´ve started to cut and sew and came up with my own needle home for "away-from-home".

all fabrics are leftovers or little scraps I had at home

stitch markers are on a safety pin and the little sissors have a place one their own

all rolled up and ready to go

I´ve started with measuring out the hight I would need by laying a long knitting needle on the fabric. Then I´ve cutted 2 pieces of the large fabric. The hight of the pockets I measured the same way, just by laying out the needles and using the fabric double to get a bit more strenght. The ribbons and trims are just because I like them. The back ribbon that holds the roll together is double the wide of the roll plus about 20 cm (that is the lengh the ribbon had, so I could use it up). It is a good lenght because I can wind it 2 times around the packed roll.
Adding the batting was a bit tricky as I did it the first time but it worked somehow and now I have my very own needle roll.

A sunny weekend full of sewing

This weekend was wonderful warm and sunny and we got a taste of spring here.

We enjoyed the warm hours in the afternoon outside and found the first flowers of the year.








The late afternoons and evenings when the kids were playing or sleeping I´ve started to sew a little. I had the idea of a special bag in mind and until I couldn´t try it out, there was no peace for me ....

A "bag-set" for me. The large one is lined with the same fabric the little pouches are made of. One is for coins and one for make-up and small stuff to prevent from getting lost in the large bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She loves that owl print and the bag is fully reversable, so she can use it depending on her mood.

Crazy patchwork .....

or how to sew a first blanket in one afternoon.



Yesterday I had a really crazy patchwork afternoon. Some time ago I´ve bought some fabric pieces on ebay and 2 days ago the finally arrived. You remember I want to try out all that patchwork quilting stuff? So I´ve washed and dryed the fabric pieces, ironed and measured them. I´ve decided to cut them 22 x 22 cm. On my sewing machine I´ve measured 1 cm and made a line with the pencil, so that my seams would (should) be all 1 cm and the final squares 20 cm each.

the pieces layed out flat on the floor as a plan for the finished blanket

 

 

The plan was fine and I´ve started sewing 5 pieces long stripes....than sewed the stripes together (forgot to print out the above pic and was too much in my sewing fewer to look at the laptop)....

that´s how it lookes when all pieces were joined :)

Unfortunatly I had not batting. Driving to the next town was no option and waiting some days was nothing I´d like to. I wanted to make it NOW. So I´ve decided to sew a patchwork blanket instead of a quilted blanket. I had one of the cheap and thin IKEA fleece blankets here and layed the patchwork on it and the size was fine.

patchwork layed out on the fleece blanket

with small needles I´ve pinned them together

and sewed along the seams to join the two layers

I´ve cut the fleece blanke  about 4 cm from the edge and pinned it down to get a 2 cm border

Looks nice and clean

tata....the finished blanket!

It might not be the best sewed or perfect seamed patchwork blanket around but I´m so proud I´ve made it all by myself :)

A wonderful Friday to you and don´t let your creativity limit by your skills!!!