A nice lining (in honour of Chrissnow)

Along with attempting to finish all the other things in my UFO bag, I have used MILs old curtains to contain some of my needles, hooks, spare balls of wool and other assorted crafting paraphenalia. Now as I may have mentioned, I do love a nice lining and this lovely granny print is no exception, am not mad about dusky rose velour but the lining just makes me feel all warm and happy and it is (dons halo) recycled (the bag that is, not strictly speaking, the lining). And while I am not absolutely in love with the outside, I think if I decorated it with some crochet flowers made out of cream coloured crochet thread, I could rather like it.




Onto one of my neglected UFOs, I have a vintage pattern fetish, which I may have mentioned before and which is indulged quite frequently, yes I am that annoying woman taking up all the counter space with the pattern book in your local age concern! This early 70s Patons pattern is one of a huge book of 60s and 70s patterns that my mum gave me when I first started to knit and crochet and I started it an age ago, in a fit of boredom, I picked it up the other night and started on the increase rows, heaven knows when it will actually be finished, probably in time for my dd's 21st I should think but, I am rather pleased with the way it's going.

Mind you, looking at these photos it looks like I am going through a deeply pink phase, must root out that teal wool to counteract the overwhelming girliness.

Today I turned a corner....and a heel.

Well the lurgy finally caught up with me, so to while away the hours, I've done some more work on my WIPs for GM and Miaou and finally picked up the socks that I chucked onto the UFO pile sometime ago in disgust. I have made some very simple socks before but I have never turned a heel, so when heel turning time came on these I cocked it up royally, so fed up was I with the whole process that I hid the offending item at the bottom of my knitting bag with visions of ripping the whole lot out 'at some point'.
Because I needed to unearth the bottom of said bag today to look for a knitters needle, I happened upon them and decided to sit down and try and work out how to actually turn the flaming heel for once and all, and you know what, once I actually stopped to look at it properly I could see clearly how it was done. And voila.... I did it, I turned the heel and the switch in my head that insisted it couldn't be done.
I've knitted this in cotton for a purpose, so that I can swathe my manky old feet in half a jar of foot butter at night, slap above mentioned socks on and wake up with delicate, smooth as a babys bottom tootsies. Am enjoying it so much now that I have plans to knit socks for just about everyone I know, yes beware, if you have the misfortune to know me then you too could be the recipient of a pair of cotton bed socks and if you're really lucky a jar of foot butter for satisfying slathering!

dizzyday's vintage swap from vInTaGeVioLeT

here's what i made for dizzyday - i loved making this - vintage buttons and vintage postcards , my favourites! - these swaps are really helping my creativity !

Mee Craftys first blog swap

Okey dokey folkeys
Here is my first swap and its all about dolls.

All the details you need to know are on there and the cut off for signing up is on Saturday 19th April, so a week from tomorrow.

I'm going to create a little picture to go on my blog to slightly advertise it and do spread the news so we can get lots of people taking part.

My vintage swap for Gingermonkey (the woman with good fabric taste.)

Drum roll please.... I have at last finished my vintage swap for Gingermonkey. In truth I doubt I could actually claim that the amiguiri owl is vintage but it was crocheted with charity shop wool (courtesy of The Garden House Hospice in Hitchin, which incidentally is an absolute treasure trove for wool and needles). I am much more pleased with this amiguiri owl than the last one, mainly because I stuffed him with a lot of stuffing (he's very firm but, as a result rather large!) and I popped a couple of curtain weights in the bottom so that he stands up better, he still topples over a bit after a while but I didn't want him to be so heavy that he caused injury if thrown at someone!

The sachets (one for GM and one as a thank you for nbg) I feel are much more in keeping with the vintage theme, you don't really see them about much in these supersonic high tech days and they are basically my MILs old curtains cut up and used as an inner lining with a couple of filet crochet panels sewn on top. Filet crochet is also one of those old worldy things that you don't seem to see much of these days and I love doing filet crochet, it feels really calming and I really enjoyed making them. And although I have done filet crochet in the past, it's a long time since I picked up a small steel crochet hook (always small steel hooks for fine crochet) and a bit of cream coloured thread and actually done some, I even enjoyed sewing the lining and I am not a lady who enjoys hand sewing much usually. Although I popped a couple of rosewood balls in with the stuffing so hope the recipients like rose, still I'm sure if not they can find someone to gift them to.

Enjoy!!

Vintage Swap - Whizzz & Nbg

I thought I'd post the photos of what myself & Nbg swapped in the Vintage inspired swap.

Nbg sent me this wonderfully sparkly crystal (Swarovski if I'm not mistaken) necklace in my favourite colours of the moment - purple and green. Thankyou so much Nbg!

The word 'Vintage' said pearls to me, so I made a necklace and earrings using white freshwater pearls and crystals in a 'dusty vintage' pinky colour for Nbg.

My vintage treat from Gm.

I'm obviously a lucky, lucky girl this week, I got paired with Gingermonkey again for our MN vintage swap and this gorgeous bag with two lavender mice is my reward. Of course darling daughter has snaffled one of the mice to stash in her vest drawer, she abides by the mantra 'what is yours is also mine', I will get my revenge by spending her inheritance on fancy fabric! The gorgeous bag is now living in my handbag and keeps together my tissues, lippy and compact because I love the idea of nonchantly pulling out a bag made of gorgeous vintage fabric to retrieve my 'nose blowers' (copyright dd), plus it means I can easily find those bits and bobs that would otherwise entail a 15 minute hunt throught the warzone that is my handbag.

Last week I finished my first attempt at amiguiri, this owl was featured in Crochet Today last year, I'm fairly pleased with it but my next attempt will involve more stuffing, I think. That aside I was rather chuffed with her obvious delight at receiving it and it hasn't left her bed since.

Another kind mner, this time Nbg, offered up some leftover fabric on our craft board and kindly said I could have it. It's perfect for lining bags, I do love a nice lining in a bag. Of course dd has her eye on it to make flowers with, so I might save her a square!
This week I've mainly been finishing my swap(s) for Gm, which are nearly done, of course I need to go to the habby stall at Hitchin market (it's my new addiction) for a couple of things and then, I'm done. Will blog results at the weekend, hopefully, along with a few photos of our growing button collection (courtesy of every charity shop within a 20 mile radius of us).