New skill - New year aims

I haven't even finished the RBTL yet but I'm making plans to make the crochet version (CBTL). The first step in those plans is to learn how to crochet (luckily that was already one of my aims for the year). In actuality, the first step has been choosing which colour combination to use for another shawl, which I think I've nearly done.

It's not likely that I'll be finishing the RBTL any time soon but I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get good enough at crochet to want to own a shawl I've crocheted so I've started learning now.

With a combination of a nice, clear DK crochet book, YouTube videos and hints from my sister I managed a crochet chain.

It was then suggested, before I tried anything more complex, that starting with sock wool may not be my best move. So some acrylic yarn and larger hooks were purchased and I've continued practising...

...and continued practising...

The increases are intentional

I think I now understand all the stitches I need to make the shawl I just need to continue practising and try using finer yarn.  So far so good and it's quite enjoyable (until the fiddly final stitch), fingers crossed it's still enjoyable when I start a large shawl!

Read Between the Lines - Week 3

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Progress is happening but slowly due to reduced knitting time this week. The pattern is easy and enjoyable and it's fun waiting for the colour to change (which is happening strand by strand).

Weekend in London

I wasn't able to partake in this month's FNSI as we were in London for the weekend, we usually go for a few days but there was an unmissable hotel deal for the weekend so...

On the Friday, after a little traffic delay, we visited Hampton Court Palace

We didn't have time to look round the whole of the grounds and palace but what we saw was fantastic. Unusually there was very little textiles in evidence except for the tapestries purchased by Henry VIII and a door with a little Embroiderers' Guild sign.

We had dinner in a very pleasant German restaurant and the next day had our traditional London breakfast from Pret...

The next tourist attraction on our list was the Imperial War Museum.

We visited here last year and got two years through the World War 1 exhibition, so the plan was to finish it off and see a few more exhibits. Two and a half hours later we finally finished World War 1! It was a fantastic exhibition, lots of interactive displays and a broad range of topics. Then it was shops, dinner and pubs.

All round a good trip.

Read Between the Lines - Week 2

There is a craft I can do with all the kitchen work going on - knitting ( and EPP but I haven't started that project yet) (and cross stitch but that's well and truly relegated to the UFO pile)(and crochet I suppose but it doesn't seem the time to learn a new craft). Anyway...

I have managed to get quite a lot done on my RBTL shawl due to dedicating my Friday sewing time to knitting (and binge watching Scandal) and some time off work.

From this

To this

The yarn colour gradually changes strand by strand, the point at which a new coloured strand is added is known as a #Fuzzbuzz in the make-a-long (MAL) I'm part of for this shawl.

So far only one #fuzzbuzz per yarn whirl for me, but plenty of yarn to go!

Work In Progress stops Work In Progress

We're having our kitchen re-done, it's looking great but in the mean time we've had to set up a temporary kitchen. That's working well for us but maybe not so well for my sewing projects...

Our temporary kitchen was previously known (and will be again in the future) as my sewing space.

Think I'll have to dig out one of my other craft projects for a while!

Read between the lines

I'm sure I had something planned to do next on my list of knitting projects but as I've already said I fell for the persuasive powers of Facebook and decided to knit a Read Between the Lines shawl using the previously posted and totally gorgeous Scheepjes Whirls - 2000m of yarn in all.

First thing first I actually followed the instructions and did two test swatches to decide on the correct needles. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't use my beautiful metallic green circulars, but luckily the correct size is a set of rainbow wooden knitpicks.

This is about 30 rows in. I chose to go with the inside of the purple and the outside of the strawberry.

And this is after about 150 rows, taken from two angles to show the illusion effect. At least another 200 rows to go!

Monthly Round-up - January

Definitely a month of trying to finish things off.

I've finished binding both my fruit and veg table runners, now I just need to decide who they're for! I've also finished my first Xmas things, if I can keep going at a rate of one a month there might be some hand crafted Xmas gifts this year.

I have started, well at least done a gauge swatch (first time ever), the Read Between the Lines shawl; the yarn seems very fine to me and I'm used to knitting with sock wool.

I have also made what feels like good progress with the Sparkle Punch Quilt. With a sneaky bit of sewing after work yesterday I'm now at the point that every white square now has at least one coloured triangle attached. Still need to do something about the pile of mis-sewn blocks.

And to add to the list of things achieved I've finished all the squares for my mystery blanket and hemmed a pair of work trousers.

It feels like January has been pretty productive, roll on February!

Finally

I have completed the final square in my 2012 Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket.

In the time it has taken me to knit these squares I have bought and sold two homes, two of my siblings have got married and one has gone to university. This has definitely been a long term project.

Unfortunately finishing the squares does not mean I've finished the blanket - I still have to block, sew up and knit a border. I reckon a full finish by 2020.

There is a slight issue in that I'm not sure if I still like the blanket! But I am going to sew together the strips and see how I feel then. Plenty of mattress stitch in my future; I also have to sew up the first Xmas things.

Another project!

Being somewhat persuaded by the power of the internet I have decided to join in with the Scheepjes 'Read Between the Lines' make along starting 31st January. It's a make along (MAL) rather than a knit or crochet along (KAL/CAL) because the shawl pattern is available for both knitting and crochet.

I'm going to knit mine, but if it goes well I might also make a crochet one.

The yarn we're using is Scheepjes Whirl and it's gorgeous colours definitely strengthened my decision to do the MAL.

I've chosen Strawberries and Scream and Lavenderlicious. I was surprised by how big they are, but I guess they would be with a 1000m of yarn in each one.

First decision is whether to start from the insides or outsides and which colour I want most prominent. Decisions, decisions!

Oops!

I'd been doing so well avoiding the January sales, several times I have deleted the carefully constructed cart of sale bargains destined for a future project.

Then I decided I needed a thickish backing fabric for some cushions I have planned and it all went slightly wrong!

The top left cream fabric is velvet for cushion backing, all good so far. The green and cream are for an EPP  project which I am collecting bits for...fairly acceptable. And the bottom three fabrics are Lewis and Irene fabrics which I thought would fussy cut well or make cute somethings!

Ah well, the fabrics are gorgeous, and I have a half formed plan for their use...I just need some coordinating fabric!!

FNSI - Results for January

I really enjoyed sewing along with everyone yesterday and I feel like I had a very productive FNSI. 

Friday night is the ideal time to use my sewing machine as there is no one around to disturb. That being the case I continued working on the Sparkle Punch Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.

This is how my evening started...

And this is how it ended...

You have to sew two HSTs onto each white square, trimming down and pressing the seams in between.  The big pile is a mixture of blocks in the various stages (not focused enough to work logically through the block stages). On the left are the blocks which just need final squaring up and towards the back is my too impatient pile where I sewed all the triangles on without trimming and pressing in between, these need some unpicking.

I'm really enjoying making up these blocks although I'm not too sure about the final stage of sewing together the 500+ squares!

I also managed to binge watch several episodes of Scandal while sewing, I'd forgotten how much I like that show.

If you want to see what everyone else got up to during FNSI pop over to our wonderful host Wendy's blog.

Friday Night Sew In - Sign Up

Sitting on the train on my way to work this morning, I realised it's the third Friday of the month which means only one thing...

Friday Night Sew In!

This virtual get together of quilters round the world is hosted by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs.  We all sit and see (or similar) on Friday Night and then our work the next day via blogs.

If you want to join in this month's sign up is HERE

What have I achieved this week?

Quite a lot is the answer, which is surprising considering we were away until Tuesday and I didn't take any crafty stuff with me, and then this week has been busy with post Xmas return to normality.

Anyway, I've finished my first Xmas thing (although not sewn it up) and cast on the next ... don't worry I'm not going to post any more blurry photos!

I've finished the binding on my first table runner

which is lucky as I'd like to give it to my mum this weekend.

I've also completed another square of the blanket (47/49 probably).

And I've put a bit more of a dent in the blocks for my sister's quilt.

From this

to this

with another good few just needing squaring up.

The not so good news is the sizeable pile (just visible at the top of the photo above) I sewed together without reminding myself of the method (this became obvious when I found a pile of "in progress at various stages" blocks).
I need to have a good look at them but I'm hoping I'll only have to undo part of a seam, worse case is one whole seam but they shouldn't take too long to put back together.