Pincushions for Pin Money

I've been working on these little pincushions the past few evenings, 

 most of these are made from my stash of vintage fabrics. 

I can't help but keep my eyes peeled for old fabric on my thrifting journeys and

 squeal inside when I spot a find.

 I have sentimental memories of my childhood summer days seeing some of these. 

I'm building my stash, hoping to get into a craft fair that's coming up, keeping my fingers crossed. If not, I plan on doing some spring and summer farmers markets. A little extra pin money?

Little Bags

I'm so happy to show you the little bags that I've made this week.

Some lovely linen I got at a yard sale.

This is fabric I got from at a yard sale as well, years ago.

Hmm, I always thought that it was going to be a pillow.

They're from a great book called Making Vintage Bags by Emma Brennan. 

There are patterns for about 20 bags or variations there of.  

They're on the small side, the instructions call for the patterns to be increased

 by 165% but I think I'll make the next ones a little larger.

I'm fairly new to sewing anything other than simple quilts or pillows. This is the first time I've used interfacing and magnetic snaps and such. Wonderful stuff! 

Looks like this little gal should have some eyes and nose to go with that tail.

Little Books

Have a look at the results of my new hobby, not that I need one! 

It's been great fun picking beautiful papers and playing with colour combinations. Kind of like quilting.

I've been using old needlework magazines and adding the patterns if possible to go with the accompanying pictures.

I've also been adding some little extras, like a tab to hold yarn samples. 

I know I'm a very sporadic blogger but I've got to tell you that I got a new camera and laptop and the learning curve has been severely steep!

So what do you think of the little books? I'm hoping to get it together to go on Etsy one day, so I'm playing around with ideas. The real deal for me is to actually make the things that are floating around in my head!

My Peaceful Nest

I've been seriously working on fixing up my teeny, tiny bedroom...de-cluttering and all that.

I covered my little desk top in red polka dot oil cloth and since I had scraps left over, I taped a couple pieces up in my little bookshelf. Hmm, not sure yet. But look, at least the two top shelves are tidy, unlike the third one at the bottom there. There's a fourth one down too, that's worse.

Oh, I apologize for not giving credit to the first person to post their brilliant idea of making a bouquet out of their vintage knitting needles. If anyone knows who that was, please tell me so I can thank them and give them credit.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to snag that idea.

You can't see the photo very well, but it's of myself and my two older sisters, with all of our dolls. The middle sister remembers the names of every one of the dolls.

Look, I even had room to put a rocking chair in the room! I think I want to make a circular, braided chair cushion for it.

That's Edna by the way. Her full name is Edna Odelia Marie Cecilia and she used to be a burlesque dancer. She's old now, and is a little depressed about her pot belly.

What I really wanted you to notice though was the little wool vest beside her. It was a little shrunken so I felted it further. Hmm, maybe a purse or pillow?

And look, I'm still working my granny square afgan and loving it. I figure I'm about half way there. I could find no directions on how to weave in the ends, so I was fudging it until I decided to look on youtube. Jeepers, every thing is on there!


There's the new oil cloth, ta da!

I got the cup and saucer just a few days ago. I'm not really into that style of tea cup anymore but polka dots! and green!

And the apple, well, I was at a clients home and I commented on how much I loved ours when my children were little. They make such a sweet sound. Well, she wouldn't let me leave without it. Arn't people nice!

Wool Peddlar's Shawl

Here's my Koigu, Wool Peddlars Shawl from the book, Folk Shawls. I started and finished it last spring, but just never got around to the photos till now. The details are on Ravelry. I definitely want to use the Koigu again, I find it just such springy, pleasurable yarn to knit with.

I learned a lot doing this shawl, it being my most ambitious project to date. The most important piece of advice I could give? Use a couple of life lines if you're a beginner at lace like myself!

Next time I would like to go for a semi solid colour, and a rectangular shawl.

Noro Socks

These socks are the first thing off the needles in a long, long time. Fall is such a great time to knit, but look, here it is December already!

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This is the Noro sock yarn. I knit from the same ball, from the inside and the outside, five rows each. I don't know about you, but as soon as a project is finished I loose interest in the item somewhat. Maybe it's from looking at it for so long.

I've worn the socks a few times and I'm not sure yet how sturdy they're going to be. I'm a little nervous. Maybe darning will be my next crafty adventure.

I had plenty of left over yarn. Here's a little Noro mitten. I really want to make mittens next, and thought I ought to make a little practice one, to see were I'm going. Not bad!

Norman, you're OK

Apparently I've had an endless supply of spinning fiber under my nose, all this time with out realizing it. This cat sheds his coat constanly. I don't know how it's possible that he can grow so much fur!

First off, wash the cat, then take a sample from the dry area on his back. I don't usually wash my cats, but he was pretty grubby. For some reason he thought he had to lick himself for an hour after his bath. Dude, I just did that for you!

Go ahead then. While you're so busy, I'll just spin up a little on the drop spindle. This is my first attempt at Navajo plying. I think I did it right.

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Progress

I've been making OK progress on the Granny's. I crochet at the coffee shop in the morning and on the bus too. I don't think about my bus ride by distance or time anymore, but by the number of squares completed.

Speaking of coffee, this apparently says, Coffee is the best of all drinks in the world. I found this one a month or so ago. It's such a thrill to still be able to find a treasure like this with a really, really good price!

Happy Spring everyone!

Colour on the Brain

Sometimes I think about colours and colour combinations so much, it almost gets irritating. I read about a quilter the other day, and she said that sometimes while playing with colour combinations, she may lay out 30 different shades of pink (for example) before picking the right one. Then I realized that my yarn and fabric stashes need enhancing big time! By the way, this is my current project, the granny square afghan. I'm going to make the ripple afghan, but decided to go granny as a tester for the colours first. I want more soft and dark neutrals to balance the brights. Wow, there are so many beautiful crochet afghans on Ravelry and flickr right now, I'm amazed!

Here is a little thrifted doll dress. I left the doll at the store because it was really not my taste.

I got this tin this week, at a thrift store in Vancouver.

This is one of my favorite thrift stores, not because I have particularly good luck there but because it has character. The floors are wonkey. I want to live there! Oh, the prices are really good too, what thrift store prices should be! It's in Steveston. (for you Vancouverites)

I also got two of these nesting tins this weekend at another thrift store in Steveston. It was a tin can week! Love these roses.

Peacock

This is Fleece Artist hand dyed Blue Face Leicester, called Peacock. Yesterday a client cancelled, so instead of rustling something else up I spun. Well, wouldn't you have?




So anyway, the above became this.


I discovered a few things spinning this batch. I only had one sliver (the guy you see curled up in the first picture) so I broke it in two and spun two bobbins. When I plied them, my blues came out together and the darks came out together, not what I was wanting. I could have planned that a little better. Also I had quiet a bit left on one of the bobbins. If I had weighed both half slivers before I began, I would know if it was my spinning that differed so much.

I can't tell you how exciting it is to play with colour in this way. It really is magical. Today I got a vegetable steamer at Value Village, to make my own painted rovings!!!

Fibrefest Expo 2008

Fibre filled, that's how I spent my weekend. What a thrill!

This is a spool and sliver of Blue Face Leicester hand dyed by Fleece Artist. I couldn't resist the colours and it was my intention to buy one dyed sliver anyway. The rest of my purchases (Fine Shetland, Merino top and more Blue Faced Leicester) were all white, so I can do some hand dyeing myself. I also bought a beautiful chocolate Alpaca. The fibre, not the live animal! The next day was rainy, so we didn't get to go kite flying as planned, so poor me, had to stay in and spin....

I came up with this!

Go on, take a closer look!

Another afternoon of knitting and I came up with this! I did it! My first project with my first hand spun! I can't tell you how luxurious this scarf feels. It's smooth, elastic and has a lot of weight to it, something like alpaca.

More on Fibrefest in the next post. See you soon!