Socks!

I have decided to try my hand at knitting something new - socks! I keep seeing photos and patterns of very funky and stylish socks and would love to be able to make some for myself. They also seem to be small enough projects that I could actually challenge myself to learning different techniques and patterns (like cables or lace work) without being too overwhelmed....and if they work, I can actually wear them, unlike all the little baby outfits I enjoy making. Last year I bought this book "Socks from the toe up" by Wendy D. Johnson, after reading a post on the Comfort Stitching blog. Then last night I was online looking to see if there were any places in Adelaide that might sell any cool hand dyed sock yarn and discovered "Stranded In Oz" - a South Australian online store and blog for beautiful yarns and knitting projects. Even better I discovered that the Stranded In Oz online store has a physical stall at the Port Adelaide Fisherman's Wharf Markets on Sundays. So guess where I went this morning? :-) The owner of the stall was apparently away in America attending some knitting workshops, but a very helpful friend of the owner (Eric) was manning the stall - and he gave me lots of advice about choosing the right yarn and knitting clubs to contact if I needed help with following patterns. He also recommended another book for knitting socks to keep an eye open for called "Socks a la carte" by Jonelle Raffino.

Although there were lots of beautiful skeins of hand dyed yarns, in the end I took Eric's advice and chose a plain solid colour for my first attempt at following a sock pattern, and will try some more fancy yarn once I've mastered my first pair of socks :-) The yarn I bought for the socks is a bright crimson colour, by TOFUtsies. One of the great things about knitting socks is that you often only need to buy a single skein of 'fingering' yarn per pair of socks. So for instance, the TOFUtsies yarn is 100g, 425m, which is very fine and long, and enough for an average pair of socks. I have never knitted with such fine yarn before.

Projects in progress...

I haven't had  a lot of time for craft lately (again), but have done a little bit this long weekend as it has just been too hot to do all the things I had planned to do outside (we are having another Adelaide heatwave in the high 30s...hopefully the last of the season). So I have made some progress on knitting the Purl Bee inspired blanket...also stitched together ~120 strips of fabric into pairs, then cut the resulting ~60 strips into four pieces of 2.5 inches each as the next stage of my queen-sized quilt. It's going to be a massive project...but feels good to have made this progress already :-) It's much easier sewing without worrying about the cats chewing on loose threads of cotton etc...but somehow not quite as fun without my little sewing helpers...

Lots of cutting...and a little bit of knitting.

I have decided that my new queen-sized bed quilt will be based on the Pandora's Box pattern. I spent several hours over the last couple of nights measuring and cutting up the jelly roll fabric strips into the right sized pieces while watching some of the "Merlin" TV series on DVD. I still have about one third to cut. Hopefully will finish this preparation step tomorrow night. I can't wait to start sewing the pieces together!

In the last week I have also found time in the evenings to pick up my knitting needles again and have made some progress on the Purl Bee inspired blanket that I started knitting last July using this tutorial: http://www.purlbee.com/hudson-bay-crib-blank/

Planning a Queen-sized Quilt!

Over the Christmas break I ordered some jelly roll fabric to start planning to make my first Queen-sized bed quilt. The three jelly rolls are all from the "Bunny Hill - Lily & Will" collection, I chose one in the brown & blue colour scheme, one in brown & green and one in brown & pink. The colours are all light pastel shades and I hope they will go well mixed up with the common brown fabric to pull it all together. It was actually quite hard to source all three of these jelly rolls, they appear to be discontinued. I looked in local quilt and sewing shops but no luck. Then I found two from a craft shop in America, and another from a craft shop in Tasmania! What would we do without internet shopping haha?

I'm unsure at this stage if I will need all 3 jelly rolls (perhaps only 2) to make a Queen-sized quilt, it depends on what pattern I end up following. At the moment I am considering either a quilt based on the traditional '9 patch block', or maybe another Pandora's box - same pattern as I used for Puss n Boots' quilt, but scaled up in size. Even if I use the Pandora's box pattern, I'm sure the end result will be quite different using pastel shades and browns rather than the bright colours used in Puss n Boots' quilt. Right now I'm having fun surfing the many inspiring craft blogs out in cyberspace looking for ideas - but I hope to make a decision and start cutting the pieces up for this quilt in the next week.

2013 - Year of New Directions

There's been quite a shift in the direction of my life in the last month or so, hence no blog posts or time for craft. My partner and I separated, although we remain great friends, and I moved to a new place to live. My partner is keeping our beautiful Puss n Boots, he will continue to love and care for them, and I will be able to visit and play with them from time to time. Although I miss them terribly, I know they are happy and being looked after by someone who loves them as much as I do, and that is far better than splitting them up or moving them to a strange new place...
As I settle into my new home and new lifestyle, I hope to be getting back into doing some crafting soon, and will post more regularly on my blog again. Below are a few photos from my new neighbourhood - I am lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world! :-)

2012 Finished Projects

As the year is drawing to a close, I thought it would be fun to go back through my photos and remind myself of all the various craft projects I completed during 2012. I didn't realise how many projects I actually finished in 12 months until I put the photos together - 2012 has been a pretty good year for craft! Lots of little knitted projects (mainly baby outfits and booties), and several sewing projects including my first two quilts! I think I'll be making a lot more quilts in the future now that I've been bitten by the quilting bug! In the next few days I'm planning to go through all my fabric and yarn stashes and start imagining what I could make with them in 2013, and finding some time to complete a couple of unfinished projects I started this year...lots of hours of fun ahead, reading other craft blogs and books and magazines for inspiration and of course the fun of actually making each project!

Finished Puss n Boots' quilt

I have now finished the quilt I have been making for Puss n Boots - just in time for Christmas! :-) They love the quilt, as soon as they see it they want to run over and lie on it or play under it. Spoilt little muppets - I'm not sure how many cats get handmade quilts made especially for them :-)

This will most likely be my last post before Christmas - so I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2013!! :-)