Knit a Squid

I was looking around for things to do on my day off next week and came across stitch a squid at the Natural History Museum
Not that its any use for next week, because its tomorrow, but I think I'll grab the chance to go along while I'm on holiday and can actually get there early enough to get to.

Its part of the Relax, Unwind and Enjoy after hours programme at the Museum.
Sadly the last of the year I think.

I signed up for the Stitch London while I was at it.
I normally have some knitting stashed away in my bag, and have often wondered about joining a stitch and bitch group, but most meet on the same evening every week and start way too early for me to get to under normal circumstances.
This one changes its venue and day each time though, so hopefully I can get to go on the random evenings when I'm wandering around London.

Edited Friday 27th august

Knit a Squid was fun!
There were loads of people there.
Possibly because of its being advertised on the museum website as well as being a normal Stitch London meet.
It was really friendly though :D
I didnt knit a squid myself, although lessons and patterns were available.
I carried on making the scarf that has been my project since February when my aunt sent me part of her stash.
She had found some beautiful silk wool in a shop, but there was only about 100grammes of it, and she couldn't decide what to make, so when she saw the hat I'd knitted for my daughter she thought it would be perfect.
When i got it, I decided it was far too gorgeous a yarn to use for a hat, so i found a suitable lace pattern and started the scarf.
Being a somewhat intermittent knitter, its still not finished, though I'm hoping that by Xmas it will be winging its way back as a thank you.
Pictures of finished item will no doubt surface in a later blog, so give a cheer if you see them and know i will have sighed with relief and satisfaction as i cast off the last stitch.

Pieke Bergman

I fell in love with these vases when i was flicking from site to site a couple of days ago, then went back today to look more closely at her site http://www.piekebergmans.com/ and found so much more lovely stuff.
Each section I looked at had me more excited.
I love ALL of her designs.
So take this as a poke with a sharp stick to make you go and look too.
And if by any chance you can afford to buy any of the lovely lovely things...*flutters eyelashes*...
;D

more on the quilting front

The quilting is progressing slowly and um, slowly.
Nothing sure about this baby.
I suppose that its only to be expected that I'll make mistakes, but as I'm the kind of person who really doesn't believe that, I get frustrated when I do.

So, here is a pictorial diary of my efforts.


The cutting out of these lining squares of flannel took me about 2 hours.


This is one of the layouts I considered using with a simple chequerboard pattern set in diagonals.


And a similar one but in lines.


Pinned ready for stitching


Change of mind re the pattern, and again pinned before stitching.


First strip completed.


First panel completed.

Not much to look at really, but this has so far taken me more hours than I can remember.
It should have taken far less, but I've ripped it back 3 times.
Once a whole panel had to go [ uneven stitching and the wrong direction for the pattern ]
I could have worked around it, but the more i looked at the mis-match on the seams, the more irritated i got, so it had to get taken apart.
Then I stitched a smaller panel with the stripes reversed.
It didn't show if you didn't know i had planned a patern to the stripes, but I DO know, so again, it had to go.
And finally i stitched the last 4 square to the wrong strip.
At that point i gave up, grabbed some coffee and did some housework.
[ and anyone who knows me realises reading that that I must have been REALLY in need of a break...housework+me=only when I have to ]

Hmmm, that makes me sound like a slob, but I really cant find it in myself to enjoy doing it.
Housework i mean.
Its a chore.
One to me made a simple and short as possible.
Its why I end up getting so annoyed at my family who seem incapable of taking stuff off and putting it in the right place.
Hell, i don't care if the place is messy, but it means that someone has to move whatever it is to the right place.
See...it has to be dealt with TWICE.
Not good.
Put it in the right place first time and it only has to be dealt with ONCE.
Ipso facto, less work, more time to have fun, less stress for me.

Anyway, i'm getting off the track.

So I had the coffee, sorted the laundry etc etc, and returned to the quilting.

And it went right.

Yay, go me!

4/15ths down, 11/15ths to go.
Unless i decide to give it a single colour edging ......

Quilting

I've been thinking about making a quilt for a while now.
Mainly as a way to use up some of the fabric that I've accumulated over the years admittedly, but I really like snuggling up under something soft and warm late at night, or having something a little more substantial than a blanket to sit /lie on in the garden or when I picnic.
So I thought that making a quilt would probably be the best way.
Especially since, while i still like many of the colours and patterns of my fabrics, they are not really what I'd use in my house anymore in their unadulterated form.

The thing that has put me off in the past has been the exact nature of the stitching...making sure that the seam allowance is spot on so that everything lines up.
I CAN sew like that, but I admit to finding it tedious, and the likely hood of me getting fed up with it and giving up with a partially made quilt seemed pretty high to me.

So when I found the rag quilt pattern a few weeks ago it seemed like the perfect solution.

i think i mentioned it in a past blog, but i lose track, so here is the example that got me thinking.



Pretty isn't it?

You can get the full details here:- http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpatternsprojects/ss/rag_quilt.htm

I don't think mine is going to have the large squares in, as i couldn't find a co-ordinating fabric that i liked , so its going to be a straightforwards checkerboard effect.

These are the fabrics I'm going to use.



One is buttermilk cream plain cotton, one is a striped blue/green/lilac and the third is a random leaf/floral motif in green and light blue.
Its not exactly what I would have chosen if i was shopping for fabric, but I think its not bad, and since this is really a trial quilt I didn't want to go spending extra cash if i didn't have to.

I still have to cut the flannel fabric that goes in between the other layers, but since i'm covered in fluff already, and I really need to iron the flannel before i cut it , I'm going to do that tomorrow.

If it works ok I'm going to get some of my other fabrics and sort them into colours and weights so i can make some more.

Of course, that may just be wishful thinking, but I'm feeling positive.
:D

Do they breed or what??????

I'm clearing out my bedroom so that i can see what I actually have, and so that i can finally get it decorated.
Only 7 years after we moved in.....
But hey, thats not bad going for me ;)

And all i keep finding are coathangers.
Lots and lots of them.
Tucked into places that a coathanger shouldn't be.

The ones on that rail aren't even half of them!!!!

Ah well, I'll bag 'em up and put them out and hope someone takes them.
If not our binnies are nice and they wont leave them behind when they take the rest of our rubbish on wednesday.

I've been cutting stuff up too.
Cards and fabric mainly.
Cards, so that i can recycle them into my own.
Fabric because I intend to start patchworking this year.
I'm a terrible hoarder of fabric you see.
I get all ooohey and aaaaahey over fabric that feels or looks good, and i can't bear to throw it out.
And since the recycling banks will just mash it all up, I though that it was time for me to use it up.
Especially since over Xmas i saw some throws and bedspreads in patchworked simple designs that were retailing at nearly £200!!!!!!!!
And hell, i had nicer fabrics than that in my box at home, so 2007 is going to be a crafty year for me I think.

And it'll give me something else to do on my day off if I don't want to trek up to London.

Yeah yeah...I know the good weather is coming and that I love wandering around Soho and the Galleries in the sun.
Well, not that the galleries are in the open, but stop nit picking..you know what i mean.

But its about time i actually DID the stuff that i enjoy as much as that.

Wish me luck.

Acheing fingers

I've just finished knitting a scarf for Jo and my fingers ache like mad.
Its been a while since I knitted anything and I was using the biggest kneedles I've ever used.
They were 20mm!!!!!!!!!
But even so, i was suprised by how hard it was to make myself continue.
It didn't take long to knit, only about 90 minutes, because I used some really thick wool called Bigga from Sirdar, and I suppose it was not being able to hold the needles between my fingers easily given how thick they were [ imagine a couple of bits of dowelling with sharp points, sort of vampire slaying size ] and you've more or less got it.
Jo had seen it when we went to Hobbycraft, and had asked it I would make her one, so rather than getting the etna colour I got Horizon blue for her.
I might go back later this week and get some more wool, but this time for Emma.
Or at least I will once my fingers feel more normal.

I've been having a busy day really, which is a bit of a suprise because I was up late till 3am watching silent witness, and then had to get up at 10.30 to get ready to go shopping and take Dave to work.

Would you like to know what I've been up to?
Do I really care if you do or you don't?
;D
Am I going to tell you whether you want me to or not?
?
?
?
?
Yup, you guessed right.
I surely am.
Give a lolly to that lady on the left.
Heh.

So, today I have mostly been :-
Shopping for food.
Searching for beige or black jeans for Dave.
Buying wool, and subsequently knitting a long scarf.
Buying card and twinkly sparkly things for christmas cards.
Making 4 of said christmas cards.
Searching for silver pen to write on sparkly Christmas cards.
Stomping about when am unable to find said silver pen.
Finished reading Grave Peril by Jim Butcher.
Cooked spaghetti for the girls, and stir fry veggies with udon noodles for me.
Watched Emma drool over my noodles [ for a girl who normally won't eat veggies she did an amazing job of looking like I was eating her most favoutite food ever]
Watched the Nightmare Before Christmas with Jo.
Had to watch half of it again on the +1channel because Emma came down in the middle and moaned that we hadn't called her.
Freaked when Emma suddenly told me that she needed a pair of curtains by tomorrow morning.
Sent her off to be nice to her sister and see if she would loan her one of her dressing up cloaks, when it turned out that said curtains were actually to be used as a cloak in the Girls Brigade Christmas show that she is in tommorrow night.
Put the kettle on for the 4th time without actually ending up making a coffee.

Hmmmmmm

I really could do with that coffee now.
I've just realised that apart from the one that Dave brough up to me this morning when he was getting me up, I haven't had one all day.
*eek*
No wonder I feel a little shaky.
Beter go make it then, I hear you thinking to your selves.
And you're completely right.
So I will.
Ta ta.
:D