chickens

i saw these cute chickens in my aunts house, i want to make some!! they are very simple, i think, cotton, ribbon, rope and filling. love the photo, it's taken in the room my aunt keeps for her grandchildren, there's always been a huge assortment of playmobil in her house, and i'm glad to see it's still there! my granddad used to make willow baskets, i wonder did he make this one...

the crossover smock

Making the most of being surrounded by willing 'babysitters' i made a little smock for Emm, using this pattern. I shortened it a little, so it'll fit my little 8 months old, but kept the width as is.

This one is the first attempt with this pattern, so my mum gave me an old stripy shirt that my dad doesn't wear any more, it matched the turquoise-blue plain fabric I brought from Ireland really well.

I cut the pattern out of the stripy fabric, then pinned it, right sides together, onto the plain fabric. I sewed all around, leaving a gap to turn. Ironed, turned, ironed again and topstitched all around.

It didn't seem to fit very well when I was knotting the straps, so instead I attached snap buttons, and folded the pointy edge of the strap under. In this picture she's wearing it tied losely once, then buttoned. If that makes any sense, it's hard to describe in words... I will make another one, I'm sure, but I think I might make the straps longer, with a square edge instead of the pointy ones, so that it'll look a little bit like ribbons. Or I might attach actual ribbons?

better bib - success!

yes, it's definitely working! so tonight at stitch and bitch i'll be finishing the edges!

better bib project....

today emm decided to have some of my carrot soup and destroyed the sleeves of a lovely top, so i decided to try my hand at making a better bib. i made a raglan pattern using one of the tops that are still to big for her for reference. i got some lovely fluffy cupcake tea towels in penneys (aka primark), 2 for 3€, so if i can make 4 bibs out of them, that's not too bad! for the sleeves i'm using an old top of mine, the embroidery actually matches the colours of the tea towel!



the sleeves are deliverately long, so i can roll them up a little, the idea is that they will push up the sleeves underneath it and hence keep them clean! BLW safe!


as the little one is asleep, i just attached two fabric pieces as ties for now, and left the edges unfinished. we'll try it tomorrow morning for breakfast, and if it works well then i'll finish the edges and make ties using bias tape!


i could see these working with slightly puffier sleeves, with elastic in the cuff!

another sling

i made another one, using lightweight cotton that i've been saving and looking at for ages (and a cream coloured sheet from 'penneys' for lining), i thought i might like a lighter coloured sling for the summer. i'm not so sure now about the print, it's probably a bit too small for wearing? does it look dowdy? M likes it, she is fascinated by the tiny flowers and circles..

another sling picture

this is the pouch sling i made for my husband, i think it came out a little too short, and it's not even washed yet! although it's not on quite right, either, it's a little twisted. i think the westfalen fabric works really well for guys, this is a woven stripe coordinated with a matching check. m isn't quite used to being in a sling, yet, after 2 or 3 minutes she was trying to stand up to get out! if the weather's still nice when the rugby's over, maybe i can convince the daddy to go for a little walk with us, to try out the sling properly, maybe in the cradle hold.

the toy attached to the sling is a 'tigerente' (tiger duck), a janosch character.

i did make something!

 

ha, i have something to show after all, i just forgot (i forget a lot these days...) over christmas my mum made the tiny mittens to match the hat that i made before she was even born, and then i used the rest of the wool to make the little scarf/neckwarmer. a bit of mother daughter cooperation!

right now she's finishing my stripy crochet blanket (i started it, not anticipating the 3rd trimester tiredness. mama continued it while she was staying here to help me with m., after that i managed all of 3 rows, so i brought it home with me for christmas...)it's made with organic cotton, the pattern is random stripes

embroidered linen tablecloth

photographed in my mum's laundry room (it got covered in bits from the trees as she had it outside on the patio). my granny had it in her 'bottom drawer' so she most likely embroidered it herself, it would have been in the 30s or 40s as she got married in the late fourties

garden photos ...and little cotton socks

fig, it survived the winter


stock, sowed 2 years ago, i think it keeps resowing itself, it actually had a few blossoms even in winter!


gooseberries



tomato plants


sage


rosemary, in blossom, i wonder at what point i have to trim it, i think possibly after blossoming?


oregano, and a stray thyme sprig in the background, it seeded itself, so i'm leaving it be and when it's big enough it'll get its own pot, and maybe go to a friend. or to replace it's mother plant, which is getting very big and woody.


cress, radishes, peas (i think, i really should have labelled them...)


"mexican orange blossom", they have a lovely smell


little cotton socks for my friend's baby, made with LIDL cotton on 3.5mm needles

string bag 1.1 photos

excuse the bad quality, i had trouble using the flash as it completely overexposed the images (see saturday's) . I must invest in a proper camera. but i think a real SLR is out of the question. Anybody got any experience with the 'nearly SLRs'?

string bag 1.1

progress!
i think i figured out how to make this, it doesn't really look anything like the bag i linked to, but then i'm not actually doing that exact stitch. I am now doing round after round of *yo, k2tog* and am getting a tidy looking result. i have 1 thread separating the 'holes', (like on that one row that was a mistake on the previous version, so i now know what i'd done wrong there, i'd missed one knit row). the previous pattern would make for a sturdier bag, but this one is much easier to keep track of, and to see if there have been any mistakes. i think i may have an uneven number of stitches, which means i have no visible line where i go to the next round, i am always yo and then ktog having the yo of the previous row on the left, and the stitch on the right.
I took some photos showing what the pattern looks like and how i knit it but i must have left my camera cable at work :-( hopefully i will find it there tomorrow morning and i can then upload them, in case anybody is interested!

string bag 1.0

i started on a string bag and just ripped it back to the crochet base! i'm using this method where on the first round you wrap one and knit two together, then a knit round, then one round of wrap one - k2tog again, but shifted by one stitch, then again a knit row. but somehow, maybe i because i want to knit in the round, it's not as straight forward as it sounds. after about ten rows i noticed i'd accidentally increased a few times, causing messy bits, and also i had half a round of a weird looking stitch, where i didn't have two twisted strands separating the 'holes' but only one! anyhow, i ripped back and now i'm going to try 'Turkish Stitch', like in this bag i think it'll also be more 'netty'! the stitch i was doing was a bit bulky.

aprons

Isn't this the loveliest apron ever!?
It's so flattering and the colours are brilliant and it's reversible, too! I don't usually buy many patterns, especially not for practical things like aprons, but I am very very tempted! It's by Meg from Montessori By Hand, a very talented lady!

These are some photos of aprons i made over the last few years...

this one's made from habitat teatowels, for my friend





the first ovenglove was a bit too snug for its own good, it got donated to my other friend's kids' toybox... the second ovenglove was a little better and is actually still in use in hel's house!

this one is my own, again, habitat tea towels... i am planning to make matching oven gloves with the left over tea towel, using the pattern from lotta jansdotter's simple sewing book.



i made this little one for p's niece, she loves it!


and these two for p's granny. she's not been feeling well for the last two weeks and hasn't been baking. today she was brought into hospital! i hope she'll get her spirits up again, she's been a bit down about being weak and old and everybody around her is very worried.

the first sock in years...

i haven't made socks since 1st year in college! i got some lovely multicoloured cotton in LIDL and had to give it a go straight away! i called my mum for instructions and browsed the web for a quick refresher and it's surprising how it all comes back to you...

i cast on 32 stitches (long tail), knit 14 rounds k1p1, then one round k. the i did the heel with 16 stitches, in stocking stitch, 13 rows. on row 14 i k12, k2tog tbl, k1. turn. k4, k2tog tbl, k1. turn, and so on until i had 10 stitches on the needle and a perfectly turned little heel.



i picked up 8 stitches (maybe 7 would have done, it's a bit 'crowded' at the bottom corners) from the sides, knit 2 rounds and then started k2tog (through front loop)on either side of the top of the sock every second row, until i was back to 32 stitches. then i knit some more (this is just a trial, i need a reference sock or baby foot to see what length it should be) and started decreasing (k2tog through back loop). in this case i k2tog every 5th&6th stitch until i had 25 stitches. then every 4th&5th 5 times, then every 3rd and 4th 5 times, then every 2nd and 3rd 5 times, then the remaining 2tog 5 times, then bound off. this made for a lovely "star" pattern but also for a very sudden end to the sock, i will unravel and when i know how long the socks should be come up with a better decreasing. i like when they decrease round rather than flat. any suggestions?

baby gifts

some rather late presents for two friends who had baby girls!
i used some of these thrifted napkins(?) to appliquee babygrows and to make bibs (pattern from bend the rules sewing). I especially like the babygrows, the embroidery looks great, something elaborate looking that only took 10 minutes to make! i also like the way the white thin cotton weave looks on the cotton knit.

The bibs gave me some trouble with the snap buttons, they are from a set from LIDL and i destroyed twice as many as i finally attached to the bibs... i wonder if i can get matching better quality snap buttons for the pliers or if i should just go back to using the sew on ones... also, i only had cream flannel for the back so they look a bit darker

finally some photographs of projects

the superquick honeycoloured biggy print scarf, made from 3 balls of biggy print





the completed main part of the cropped leaf tie cardigan, i'm dreading all the seaming...


i also made a start on the leaf tie, i used 3.5mm for the leaf and 5.5 for the i cord.


here the extended ripple scarf, the seam isn't great but the way i wear it you don't see the seam at all, just a layer of pink peeping out underneath the gray.



and once more, a picture of the seat covers at the kitchen table! not entirely happy with them, they slip a bit. not sure yet how to fix that!