Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Chrismas Jumpers


So Dougie is in bed and I am busy making menu cards for my cockail party which I am hosting for my work buddies this Friday. I have started using the free version of Serif DrawPlus and love it. I can't quite justfy buying the full version though. Anyway I'm digressing.

Having finished my menu cards I was having a little play on Pintrest and uploading some of my makes onto a board. God I love Pinterest...more than Faceache I'd say!
I came across some projects on my ipad which are pre Dougie and thought I would share them.

I found a great website called The Vintage Knitting Lady and loved the fair isle Christmas jumpers. At £1.50 for a downloaded pattern, I thought it was an absolute bargain! My lucky husband would be the first (not-so-proud) owner of one of my knitted jumpers!
I bought some ridiculously cheap yarn from Shaws for the project as I felt it was a waste to use good wool on a jumper that would be worn one day a year. BIG MISTAKE. Not only was it disgusting to knit with but its 'squeekiness' made it horrid to wear. My obliging husband wore his new jumper on Chrismas day in 2011. That Christmas I looked on slightly envious that I didn't have a Christmas jumper so over the festive season I  cracked on with one for myself ready for the following year.

Christmas Jumpers!
Because I hadn't planned to make one of my own I just used some yarn that was left over from the first attempt (I had bought loads!). Poor Tony; I had learnt from my many mistakes and mine came out better than the original. Most noticeable is the neckline and the way in which the fair isle joins.

This picture was taken on Christmas day 2012 with the love 18 day old reindeer. I think we look pretty good for a couple with such a little baby (even if I do say so myself).
This year Tony has asked for a replacement jumper and as he has humoured me by wearing this one for the last two years, I am being obliging. He's selected a patten from the Vintage Knitting Lady's website and I have ordered some slightly better (less squeaky) yarn. I will let you know how it goes.



 
 


Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Quilting-my first attempt

A little bit of background....
The are two parts (or maybe three) to this.  My mum started quilting at the beginning of the year and has produced some lovely patchwork pieces already. Most impressive is the free motion quilting she's been doing but to do that you obviously need to be able to make the quilt first. I love fabric and have been watching and admiring her new skilll for some time. 
My mum and dad recently moved back to Wales. This move has been on the cards for a long time and we were all really excited when they finally made it back to the homeland at the end of August. Due to my excitement I had to visit right away. The only problem with this is that they didn't have time to get Sky installed or an aerial up so we had lots of evenings, with no TV, to fill. We spent the first evening chatting and singing old songs accompanied by my dad on the guitar. By 'we' I mean Mum, Dad and I. My husband looked on bemused! 
I decided to take advantage on the quiet evenings and craft. I had taken my current knitting project but wasn't in a knitting mood. This is where the third background story comes in. A couple of weeks ago a friend mentioned wanting to make quilt for her friend. I was completely unable to offer any advice having not made one before but this got me thinking that it's something I would like to be able to do. So a desire to learn, a talented mummy and a week's worth of quiet evenings and voila, I'm quilting!!!



And here it is! 
I had asked Mum to help me make a basic quilt by simply joining squares. This was the sort of thing my friend had wanted to make but mum had grander ideas and I am glad she did. I absolutely love my new quilt. I could list the things I would do better next time but I am not going to because I am chuffed to bits that I was able to make this on my first attempt at quilting!
I have now asked mum for some of the kit as a birthday present and will then be ready to get practicing ready to pass on my new 'skill'. 
Thanks mum xx

At Long Last...

Funny how it feels like just yesterday that I last posted on here but looking at the date on my last blog, I can see its coming up to a year! How time flies...
When I first started blogging I imagined using it record the milestones of our little family but I guess we were too busy reaching them and enjoying them to think about recording them. That's the way it should be though. 
It was only recently, when a friend mentioned coming across my blog that I thought about revisiting it and only when I saw all my little projects recorded that I decided to get back on it. 
But where to start? It feels like a long time since I knitted that little grey cardigan featured in my last blog. Dougie (our little boy) wore it loads and looked adorable in it. I have, more recently, got back on with my crafting and so have a few things to log but where to start? 
I think I will just have to start with some of my recent projects and then catch up with some of my other  bits and bobs I've been up to as and when...