Hello gang

Oh I'm so sorry; I haven't posted anything in ages

So I guess I'll just show you one of my cartoons

Here are photos of my last visit to the Zoo - Do you think I'm obsessed with handicrafts?

Creative challenge 52 in 52 - May 2010

Wow, this was a mega-busy month. I even made some special items which I will tell you about in another post.



So the goodies I finished in May are as follows:-

• Flappy flambe. he is a crocheted hand puppet who will be having adventures on another blog. Check him out on http://handmade-in-europe.blogspot.com/ He's lots of fun.
• Two Snuggle bunnies; one pink one purple off to live in Greece. yeay for people who order things off me (easy to do, just email me, tell me what you want and I'll make it - you will see it before you buy and are not obligated to buy unless you love it.
• A footballer handpuppet. He already is in a post of his own before this one.
• A very strange and magical house elf.
• A knitted lace scarf in gray silk yarn -mmm.
• A skull bag. Yup, the head opens up and the mouth also has a zip for keeping little items in.
• A green leaf scarf. made for "knit something green grass or leafy trees related Swap" It really does look like leaves. I'm going to make one for myself too I think,

So totals again?

January = 9 items
February = 7 items
March = 9 items
April = 7 items
May = 8 items

So we have 40 items in 21 weeks - yippee I'm still ahead of 52 items in 52 weeks. I may do it in half the time (but don't hold me to it LOL)

World Cup 2010 - go Germany!

OK so Wales did not make it through to the World cup this year - ahh sad.

But never mind; I'm backing Germany this year

Why?

Well, my favorite player is there Michael Ballack.

He is a Chelsea boy you know. Ok he was born in Germany but he plays for Chelsea football club all year but now he is to be the Captain of Germany.

Why do I like him so?

He is more like a rugby player than a football player. You won't see him on the floor pretending his leg hurts like most players. In fact, last year they had to drag him off the pitch as his nose was bleeding and he was still playing! Tough guy.

In fact, I've even made my own puppet version of him to play along (in his German team colours of course) He can kick, score and do a victory slide - yeay.

Here is a rear view. (albeit fuzzy) you cannot see this (because his shorts are black) but they wrap around the glove too. He is knitted as part of the glove not just attatched to it. I made him as a right-handed glove for me. I can make left-handed gloves too and any team that you can think of (but no badges; my embroidery skills are not up to that lol)

Now I just need to make another for him to play against - maybe Brazil - that'd be fun

Creative challenge 52 in 52 - April 2010

Okay Kokay so here is April in all it's glory.

These are the items I have completed this month. I have a few more on the needles, but we can't count those - only finished items.

• first you will find 2 more Zodiac crabs; these are the rest of the "5 crab order" from Germany last month.
• Tabbee cat. I was privileged enough to be allowed to test on of Bobbi Padget's patterns for her before she puts it up for sale on Etsy. It's a great pattern
• Troll doll for a swap - this was for "a wind- related" swap - how is it wind-related? Well, it is called "the wind in my hair" fun eh?
• Next is Sgt Froggee - another Bobbi pattern test. I'm getting addicted to her way of knitting. It's so fun to knit with NO sewing up afterwards
• Tea time monkey. He was much harder work - lots and lots of sewing up involved. But he is kinda cute.
• Finally an alien in a UFO. Yes I know the alien looks a little like a baby giraffe -that's because the pattern was for a baby giraffe. The UFO is all my own design. I think that the little boy who gets it will use his imagination and it will double as a boat, or a paddling pool - that's fine - I love kids who use their imagination.
• I also made 2 cross stitch pictures - but I'm not including them - only knit and crochet.

So totals so far this year?

January = 9 items

February = 7 items

March = 9 items

April = 7 items

So we have 32 items in 17 weeks - yippee I'm still ahead of 52 items in 52 weeks.

Swaps are such fun

I'm getting quite addicted to this swapping lark. They are great fun when it all works out properly.

I'm in a group on Ravelry.com ( a site for knitters and crocheters) We decided to make and send a whole scarf to another member picked at random for us from our group - that way we would all receive one each but not necessarily from the person we sent to - make sense? good.

Once I was given the name of the person I would be making for, I started to look at her profiles and blogs to see what she liked. She had lots of black accessories but wanted to put some colour into her life this year. So I chose this lovely Chunky yarn from James C Brett. It is so soft to the touch and great to work with. She received it a few days ago and yeay, she liked it. here's what she said about it,

"I have the most perfect scarf, its long long long and soft and squashy and gorgeous. Its definitely not black but lovely shades of pink and purple and covered from end to end in wonderful cabled Celtic knots which my swap partner realised I had a thing about from checking out the blogs - oops - forgot to add, my lovely partner was EddyG

Isn't that wonderful. I feel fuzzy all over to know I got it right. Actually, as I was working on it, I kinda fell in love with it and wanted to keep it - so I was going to make one like this for myself.

But now I think that all my other scarves can go to the back of the wardrobe as I received, from the swap (and yes a different person) this amazing scarf...

It's in one of my most favorite colours in the world; Navy blue and is knitted to look like a piece of Swiss Cheese - how fabulous is that? It's also over six foot long. You all know how I love anything unusual.

My wonderful partner even sent me some extra yarn so I could make a matching hat if I want to. It's made from lambswool so very soft and warm. And some lovely extras that I wasn't expecting; A postcard for my collection, french chocolate, red fruits tea, Yum.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Creative challenge 52 in 52 January 2010

OK so last year I tried this creative challenge to

Make 52 items (knitted or crocheted) in 52 weeks.

I got a little bogged down with other things and found that keeping count got really hard - especially since I started partway through the year.

So this year I'm going to try it again.

Each month I will show you what I made, and with my new chart system, keeping count should be easy

Some of these items are for sale in my Artfire shop, others are for swaps or challenges or even myself.
So here we go with the counting;

1. 12" tall Pink sparkly pony
2. Purple knitted piggy bank
3. 9" tall Pink dragon
4. orange knitted piggy bank
5. sheep teacosy
6. little knitted firebird
7. snowflake hat
8. snow princess doll
9. baby security blanket - polar bear.

Yeay 9 items in the first 4 weeks we are off to a great start - I really hope I can keep this up.

I'm stuffed - but the toys are NOT!

Now that Christmas is over, and I'm all stuffed full of turkey and everything else, it's time to get back to toy making; I've got a lovely sparkly pink pony all knitted and ready to go but I've run out of toy stuffing!

Yes, no more toy stuffing; I only have a little left and that's not enough to stuff pony's leg!

My local yarn store has recently changed owners and has run out of lots of things (yes, stuffing is one of them) and due to the holidays and snowy weather, I haven't been able to get out to a different town to buy any. What am I to do? I can't make stuffed, knitted toys without stuffing - or can I?

That sounds like a challenge - and I love a challenge.

What can I think of that I can knit but is hollow and will stand stiff without polyfibre filling?

Well, yes, I pondered for a while until I got to experimenting.

A PIGGY BANK.

But not just a stuffed pig made to look like a piggy bank but an actual hollow bank with a slot for the coins and a plug in the bottom to take the coins out of. The knitted plug has a little button on it so you can get hold of it easier.

At first, I thought I would just cover a cardboard tube to get the stiffness. But cardboard does not stand up well to washing (and everything needs washing occasionally) Then I found this stuff called, EVA foam. It's sold in sheets and is usually used by card-makers to cut little shapes out of. But then I could see the brightly coloured foam inside and I didn't like that, so I knitted a lining too.
Hallooo in there! Yes as you can see, Once the plug has been removed, he really is hollow in there (you can see the slot on the other side) and it is quite a big space - Space for lots of savings. Now we are all starting to think about saving whether it be for next Summer Holiday or even Next Christmas.

A cowl just for me.

I recently bought some yarns off my plurk friend. Yes that's social networking like Twitter only easier to follow. Her name is Selana and she has a wonderful shop on artfire where she sells knitting patterns, stitch markers and this fab yarn.

She will happily make up any colours you ask for; for this project I asked for a blue/green mix. The yarn is 100% wool and very pretty.

Here is a better picture of how the colours turned out after knitting and blocking. Very nice don't you think?

and this is me trying to look all innocent in my new cowl. I made it a big longer than the actual pattern (by 14 rows) for snuggliness. The pattern itself is available free on ravelry (which is a free site for knitters and crocheters to socialise and get patterns and advice) We now have over 500 000 members worldwide so you're bound to find something you like or discover something you did not know.

"Ugly hat"

My daughter has been hounding me to death about getting her one of those peruvian style hats that they sell in gap and places like that. I don't even like these hats; they look ugly to me with their big earflaps and dangly ties (that the local kids don't even tie - drives me nuts - I wanna go tie it for them!!!)

So eventually I gave in, partially because I'd got a new yarn in and wanted to see how it knitted up. It is called Rainbow Multi by"Creative Yarns uk"

It took much botching to ensure that the two earflaps looked the same, using this self-patterning yarn. But after that it didn't much matter what the yarn did.

I even had enough yarn left at the end to make a short scarf too. This was only a 100 gram ball so quite a big surprise to me.

Well, my daughter likes her hat - and even I think it didn't turn out TOO ugly. Quite proud of it in fact.

Working on that list

Yesterday, I went to my new "Let's Knit" knitting club; we meet once a fortnight in Starbucks, Bridgend. This was our second meeting (I did say new) The lovely thing was that we had two new members - this brings our total membership up to 6. I think that's a wonderful start.

After coffee all round we showed some of our projects that we are working on and got a decent amount of knitting done while chatting. It's just so nice to get out sometimes and meet up with like minded people. Our Emma, also known as Atomic Knitting brought patterns and yarn samples for us all to drool over - oh yes alpaca and silk - amazing.

She also sells her own hand-made stitch markers, knitting needles and other fab stuff - go check out her site.




Despite having a busy evening planned, i was able to make a bit of a dent in that list I showed you in my last post. This is Maisey the sweetest corn you'll ever meet. I made him specifically for Thanksgiving but he would look just as great on display to celebrate Halloween or Christmas or would make some budding chef a very handsome sidekick for their kitchen.

You can find him in my Artfire shop

Time to slow down...and speed up!

SLOW DOWN?
Well yes, I'm absoloutely terrible for seeing a new pattern or having an idea and going "Wow, I want to make one of those."
The problem is that I now have so many projects "on the needles" that I'm running out of places to put them and NOTHING is getting finished.

So speed up?
Yes, I must try my best not to start anything new for a while (but it is sooo hard)
I MUST finish more of my projects
I tried a "WIP Wednesday" which means every Wednesday I must try to finish as many WIPs (Works In Progress) as possible. But it doesn't seem to be working. I think I need to have more days in the week dedicated to finishing items.
How many projects did I finish yesterday (Wednesday)? One. Only one.
I crocheted this dragon from this to this....

Not bad, but not really making a dent in my list. What does my list look like?

Ooh, er, don't ask, Ok here goes...

1. A blanket for christmas for my daughter - OK so that was a BIG project and was a knit along so I couldn't go faster than 2 squares a week - but I am way behind if it is to be finished by Christmas.
2. A crochet scarf - another crochet along but not really putting the effort in that it needs.
3. Psyduck - yes, the Pokemon. He has alot in common with my son and will be holding his copy of "Pokemon Platinum Version" on Christmas morning.
4. Sean's Alien- This is an incredibly cute illustration drawn by his mother that I am trying to make into a toy. I've knit his feet and hands just fine but I've made his body about 3 times and ripped it out again - can't seem to get it right. Next try will be the last - however it turns out.
5. Corn cob critter - Yes he is a little man made from a corn cob. I started knitting him for Thanksgiving but he was bigger and had more parts than I thought so he is still in bits with no boots yet.
6. Scarf in Merino - I got some lovely soft Merino wool in a swap - It's just begging to be made into a scarf; so I'm doing about 4 rows a day on that one - fun pattern though - it looks like waves.
7. Bright Scarf - In a different swap I got some fun fur yarn with lots of colours in it. I would have loved a scarf in that fur but not enough was there, so I've trawled the yarn shops and found regular yarn in the same colours. I will have a scarf after all. A block of fun fur on each end and then blocks of each colour between until it is done. I've done about 20" so far - so it's going well.

So as you see, I need to concentrate a bit - one at a time huh?

I'll post pictures as I finish each one. That's a promise to you and to me.

Knitting Challenge - Week 24

Ok so I bet you all thought I'd forgotten about this didn't you? Well here's a recap first;

In January I decided that I would knit one item for each week of the year; making 52 items in 52 weeks.

Last time I blogged about this it was 22nd April - week 16 and I'd done 23 items.
(I know, it's been a while) but I've still been working on it.


The next thing that happened was that I got sent this lovely illustration by my very good friend and very clever illustrator Trisha Rennea. she asked if I could make them a reality. She designs lots of adverts, avatars, logos, free downloads and planner sheets on her blog

I think the answer to that one is yes! so there you have five happy owl cushion pals to add to my tally. My maths is shoddy, but I make that...28


And then, just because sometimes you have GOT to be silly; I made this shark hat designed by the knitting ninja - Allison Mac Alister.

I entered it into an "item made for father's day" contest on the Artfire Cafemom Team's blog - and won! yeay, Now my Artfire rapidcart (a selection of items in my Artfire shop) will be shown on their blog for a whole week. Yippee

OK so that makes the total ...29.

Not bad for week 24.

KIP - Knit In Public Day 13th June.

Does everyone know about this?
There is a chance to meet up with other knitters and crocheters for a chance to conspicuously create in public.
These events are going on all around the world.
See this page for more details World Wide Knit in Public Day or the facebook page of the same name.
and of course you will find me at our local one....

There is a contingency plan in case of rain. The poster says it all.
Come and join us.

week 16 - knitting challenge

'Aint she sweet? hee hee. She's a prototype or a test piece, if you like. I was asked to make a set of little cheerleaders for one of the students at the University of Maryland. Their team is called the terrapins and so the cheerleaders are the "Terps"

I made this little one to test if I could reproduce their contest uniform well enough. The actual ones to be sent will have longer legs, slightly longer skirt and better hair/lettering

I do love a challenge; and this little beauty brings my total of completed goods for this year (since January) to 23

23? Have I missed something out? lets see

20 was the sailor top -which has it's own post

21 was Billy and his crochet bag and goodies - the post before this one

22 is the Terps cheerleader

and 23? Oh yes, I did another test knit. this time for Befriendmantic. It was an Easter bunny all crocheted. He was sweet.

The only thing is, I made a mistake when making him up and so you will see a series of decreases across his chest. They should not be there, they should be under his arm!

Well no one is perfect. He is a twisted bunny but I love him anyway. I'll make another when the corrections come through.

23 for week 16 is pretty good going I think. I'll soon have those 52 items in 52 weeks.

Knitting Challenge - Week 9 - Monkeys and Daleks

OK so I've always loved those little dollies that old ladies tend to have in the bathroom hiding the spare toilet roll. So dainty and pretty and wonderfully "old fashioned" but I always thought of myself as being "too cool" to actually own one!



Well now I do! I knitted this great dalek out of sparkly lustre yarn (the label says it's beige but in real life I think it looks a great copper.) the pattern is for a fully stuffed dalek toy but I never made the bottom so he sits in the bathroom on his spare roll. pattern? well, it was a free one but it's become unavailable at the moment.





Oh I do hope the BBC (who make Dr Who) have not got to her! They've been having a clamp down lately on people selling homemade Dr Who merchandise. They've been doing this by targeting the pattern makers and asking them t0 remove the patterns from the internet. There really is no need to do this. We all know that licenced characters like Daleks and the Antropose mustn't be sold without permission. But this stops us from making them as presents and homewares too! How unfair.





Anyway, I also made this cute monkey. He's a cowboy yee-haa! I made
little yellow boots for him and a vest. This one was made as part of a
challenge on Cafemom. My linky to my Cafemom page is in the margin on the left.

The knitting and crochet group made him as part of a "Knit and crochet along" challenge. Not many of us did it but hopefully more will join in next time.

My monkey is named Monk Mick and he is sheriff of the toy box. I put pipecleaners into his arms legs and tail to make him super-posable. He is going to a teenager so I know they won't poke their eyes out with it! It's also very well stuffed and padded; those wires are not coming out of there no matter how hard he's played with.

Oh yes, patterns, I nearly forgot. The knitted monkey I have here is a clever adaptation of a crochet pattern that is also available for free
Knitted: http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.com/2008/04/monkey-moo.html
crochet: http://quesera.ojaru.jp/ don't be scared off by this crochet pattern; it is not all in Japanese you just click on the size of monkey you want to make and the instructions are all pretty self-explanitary. Clever Chimmu Chimmu made this pattern and keeps all the copyright rights to it - even in it's translated and knitted forms.

I think it is super that we can exchange patterns from different countries without having to learn a new language - it's a real internet world web family.

Knitting challenge - week 6 - some for the charity box.

This week I got out those dredded DPNs again. The double pointed needles. This is only the second project that I have completed using them I think it turned out pretty well.

It was a free pattern from a cafemom challenge (so two challenges in one!) Free pattern for the Chevron Bag

This little sheep was knitted from an Alan Dart pattern. (sorry you'll have to buy your own pattern for this one) called "Simply Sheep." for the Simply Knitting magazine; Feb, 2009.

She is completed but has no clothes yet. The one in the pattern has a stripey dress and a pair of knitting needles. But I think mine, like any self-respecting Welsh sheep will get to wear a rugby jersey which I will make next week.

I also knitted half a dozen of these little guys. Wee knitted chicks in chemo hats.

They are for the Velindre Cancer hospital appeal. The chicks will be filled with chocolate eggs and sold in the hospital shop. Good use for all that leftover yellow yarn.

The pattern for this is free from the hospital too, and was designed by one of the volunteers that works there; Mrs. Joyce Davies. I'll put a copy onto my scibt files so you can get that too. Probably tomorrow.

Knitting Challenge: Week 4: O.E.S I did!

Rosco the Old English sheepdog cushion / pillow/ toy



















Ok so this week was a double whammy.

Not only did I design and make a cute Old English Sheepdog Cushion /pillow/toy,

but I wrote out the pattern for it too!


If you love him and want to make one the link to my pattern is here.

Rosco the sheepdog

You can download it for free as a PDF or a word document. I put in loads of photos to help you put him together. There is only some simple increase and decreasing so it makes a great "first big project" for someone quite new to knitting.


If you haven't the patience or time to make him, he is for sale in my Artfire shop at Eddy's Pressies


I'm feeling very proud of myself so...tickle my belly!

A free knitting pattern for you

I'm not counting this in the challenge as I made it last year...

I used to have a hat-scarf (hooded scarf) like this when I was a kid (showing my age now).

So I made one last Autumn for my daughter Rhiannon to wear to school. The only problem was that I ended up having to make about 8 of them for all her friends in different colours.

I've been searching the web for a pattern like this but the only ones I can find are for those who can use the dreaded double pointed needles! Ooh scary.

So just for those of us who are only really comfortable with two needles and not four I've written out the pattern just for you.

You can get the pattern free here http://www.scribd.com/doc/9684141/Rhiannons-Hat-Scarf

Knitting Challenge: Week 3: DPNs mastered!

OK so I told you last week that I was having a go at the long procrastinated DPNs. Wicked needles that are pointed at both ends and are used four at a time to produce a tube shape thereby making hats without seams.

Well, i did it! It took an awfully long time as I found all those needles very cumbersome. I'm rather proud of the resulting hat.

Here I show my hat on one of my daughter's dolls; her head is a bit smaller than a real baby so it is a good fit even though it might not look it.

I also made a few of these this week. I gave one as a present to my local

Chinese Takeaway as a new years gift and so I have been making more of them for all her relatives.

I can't complain, she's giving me £3.50 each for them.

I even made an extra one for my dear friend Tricia. She's an artist friend of mine from Nevada, USA. She's awfully clever. she has her own blog full of printables and sweet piccys at http://triciarennea.blogspot.com/

But she's not getting it for free. Oh no! She has to work for him.

I've told her when I sent him off. Monday, 19th at 11am my time.

She then has to tell me when he gets there and in what condition, so I can work out whether I need to upgrade my packaging or postal rate on my artfire site

Next week I'm hoping to make a doggy cushion/pillow. We'll see how that turns out! or not as the case may be!

Happy knitting

knitting Challenge; week two; oh no!

Week Two; Ladybug Mittens.

What a disaster this week's knitting has been.

I made a doll, but she was too small so I unravelled her and started again. The second doll I made, well, the head looks too small to me; so I will be re-making her again!

I got a lovely free pattern for a fluffy heart-shaped cushion with wings. Perfect for Valentines. I have got a ball of fun fur yarn in my stash so I thought I'd give it a go. Guess what? I ran out of yarn so very near the end! Do you think I can find a local shop that still sells that kind of yarn? No. They sold it last Summer but it has gone out of fashion now. Eek!

The one kind of knitting that I've never tried (because I was afraid of failing) is knitting on four double pointed needles. It looks great when it's made because there is no seam; the item is knitted as a tube. So I decided to give it a go. I picked a really simple pattern and got into alsorts of knots! As with anything new, it's slow going, but it is coming. I might have a baby hat knitted by next week. I know, I know, most people can knit up one of those in an evening but remember this is a new skill I'm learning; It's like learning to knit all over again!

Well, I did get something knitted this week, so I'm still in the challenge - hurrah! A pair of child's mittens. Even they did not go to plan, however, they are big enough for me! So much for kid's mittens.

Oh well next week will hopefully be more productive. It was just one of those weeks when you can't get the time to sit and knit. (and when I did, it went wrong)

But on a positive note, my son started a new school this week. It's a school for children with special needs (he has high-functioning Asberger's Syndrome) We have always kept him in mainstream education because he has no problems with the work, in fact, he is further along the curicullum than most as he loves to research for himself History, maths, and science. But his behaviour issues and his lack of self-control when it comes to his feelings have finally become too much for regular school. He is LOVING IT at his new school. And as I result I love it too. He hasn't been this happy in school for years. This new school has it's own swimming pool and lots of support staff so now he can do all the things he couldn't before. Like gym and playing with others at recess. (his last school kept him indoors at recess as they "couldn't guarentee his safety out with the other children" in other words, he got bullied alot and got into trouble whenever he hit back.) I can't wait to see him come home every day with a big grin on his face. He doesn't stop talking when he is happy, so I have a bit of a headache when he comes in but I'm happy to have it.