Coming to WordPress to write this, I found no fewer than 3 draft posts with varying amounts of content and grumpiness. Apparently I need to remember to hit ‘post’ after I finish typing! Although I suspect the reason they languished in my drafts folder is that in the middle of last week, I lost both my phone charger and the camera battery charger, and I hate posting without pictures. That and the fact that I was finding it hard to stay awake for more than about an hour at a time.

Somehow, posts without pictures just aren’t the same

So this week all is restored (I hope!) and we return you to your regularly scheduled link parties. Today is Making Monday, but since I mostly made a mess over the weekend, I thought it would be a good chance to link up to the grand giveaway over at Very Berry Handmade and make some sewing resolutions.

In case you haven’t seen it (and where have you been?!), Ali has put together a fabulicious collection of prizes from some of the best fabric shops out there. Don’t believe me? Click here and check them out.

All you have to do to enter is post about your sewing resolutions for 2012, either in your blog or in a comment on the post. I did make some resolutions at the beginning of the year, but they were very general, and mostly relating to yarn-crafts. Having spent some time recently updating my Ravelry stash and re-assessing what I want to make, it’s probably time for me to do that with my fabric stash as well.

1. Be more confident with my stash

I have a lovely stash. I have some wonderful fabrics. But I’m constantly scared to cut into half of them in case I mess something up. What if I cut the pieces the wrong size? What if I don’t like the finished object? What if, what if, what if? I’m far more confident with yarn that can be unravelled and turned into something else if you don’t like it. So this year, I’d like to get my lovely fabrics down and use them. Yes, they look pretty on the shelf, but they’d look even prettier sewn together!

2. Keep a proper track of what I make.

One of my general resolutions for 2012 was to take better photographs, and this year I’d really like to photograph everything I make, before, during and after production. It’s hard to look back and be happy if I haven’t got anything to look back at!

3. Learn to sew a straight 1/4″ seam.

Even with my 1/4″ foot, I find it remarkably difficult to get my seams straight, which causes all kinds of problems when sewing together small pieces of fabric! I’d love to make a scrap quilt of some kind, but until I’m sure I can get my seams reasonably straight, I’m not sure it’s a good plan. Any tips would be gratefully received.

4. Learn Paper Piecing.

Picture by Cafe Mama on Flickr

I LOVE pictorial quilts and really, really want to make some of my own. But the above problem combined with natural impatience means that I’ve never really taken the time to sit down and learn. This is going to be my year for it!

5. Make time to sew.

Sewing Machine Clock by Craftygear. How much do I want one of these?!

I love sewing, but unlike with crochet, I’m a product person rather than a process one. By which I mean that I can quite happily just sit and crochet, without really caring whether or not I get things finished. With sewing, I start with a very clear idea of what I want out at the end, and the process is almost secondary. Which means I never allow enough time, I get frustrated with the planning, and I end up leaving things barely started rather than half-finished. By the end of the year, I want to be making myself things to wear, but unless I learn to sit down, take my time and think through everything I’m doing, that’s never going to happen.

So they’re my resolutions! What about yours? You don’t need to blog if you don’t want to, just leave a comment on the post. I’m hoping for the Kate Spain bundle – I love all her fabric designs, and Terrain is particularly lovely.

Happy Monday, folks. Only 4 days to the weekend…

On the other hand, I definitely feel the need to do a bit of a round-up of where I am on things at the moment. As usual, there are a couple of secret projects that I can’t show you just yet, but the other things I’m working on, I can definitely talk about.

First up is my new knitting project:

I can’t find this listed on Ravelry anywhere, but it’s from a Rowan pattern book. The yarn is an Amy Butler colour of Sweet Harmony, and the pattern is by Erica Knight. It’s fairly simple, although I did something stitch-droppy somewhere and it’s got a funny spot just as it widens out again. I’ve decided not to care, since no one but me will ever spot it, and I’m just chuffed that I’m actually knitting!

Next up is my new favourite thing in all the world. Honest:

It might not look like much, but getting it to this point was trouble and a half. I think my Handmaiden silk lace is lighter than the yarn originally used, and I’ve gone down to a 3.5mm hook to get my stitches usable. With a bigger hook, they were so…floofy…that I couldn’t work out what was the top and what was the side. Despite my being a tight crocheter, the 3.5 seems just right. Mostly, you’re told to go up a hook size to make fine yarn easier to work. Wouldn’t you just know I have to be contrary.

I’m also doing some sewing.

Oh, alright, at the moment I’m organising and selecting, but I’ll be sewing these soon. They’re just going to be a simple little lap quilt for me for work. My desk is over a cold air vent, so while the rest of the office is sweltering, I slowly freeze to death. Clearly a quilt is the only possible answer.

These are the projects I really, really, REALLY want to get done this month, along with my 2 secret makes, which I won’t be able to tell you about for a while. I also want to pick up a new skill, which I’ve decided will be short rows in Tunisian crochet.

For those of you who think I’ve suddenly started speaking double Dutch, it’s the same principle as short rows in knitting – adding extra fabric for shaping – but done in Tunisian crochet. All will be revealed soon!

Mostly because I don’t think I can leave this scrummy yarn alone much longer.

Weirdly, although it looks rather chaotic, I actually feel rather organised about my projects at the moment. I have my ‘bag of the month’ with all the supplies in it, and if I get restless, I just raid the bag for something new. The list is extensive, but defined, and I’m feeling pretty productive at the moment. How long that will last, I have no idea, so I’m just enjoying it while I can.

To see if others are having equally good weeks, head over to Tami’s Amis by clicking here or on the picture below.

I rarely blog at the weekends, but sadly that is rarely because I’m spending all my time at my craft table, planning and stitching. Most weekends for the foreseeable future are going to be taken up with the continuing renovations of our flat. Or if they’re anything like the weekend just gone, walking around endless DIY shops wondering what we want to buy. It doesn’t make for an inspired creative brain, I have to say.

Nevertheless, I’m going to have a few things to show you on Wednesday, I hope. And there’s plenty of inspiration to be found elsewhere at the moment. Quite apart from the hundreds of the “Pictures of the [insert time period here]” challenges that are around and about, there are some great sewing series going on. There’s a Liberty Scrap Bundle Challenge at A Cuppa and a Catch Up, a swoon quilt-along at Katy’s, and two great beginner’s sewing series at Tilly’s and Fairy Face Designs. And that’s before you even venture onto Ravelry and find all the [number] in 12 groups! Should be enough to keep you going.

For myself, I’m still trying to keep up with my own challenges for 2012. Yes, the year hasn’t yet reached double figured days and I’m already having to work at it. I don’t think that’s unusual though! I’m behind with photography but probably won’t be able to catch up until tomorrow as most of the light has already gone today.

Which is my excuse for the pictures below. Believe it or not, this was the best light I could get!

I’m going to finish this shawl this month if it kills me. I decided I had enough hexagons, so blocked them all and am now left with the ‘how do I fit these together?’ dilemma that you get when you don’t follow the pattern exactly. Not all of the layouts use all of the hexagons, but I’m fine with that, since I made such a random number! I’ll think of something to do with the others. Also, I was using a really narrow bench for my pictures, so the first layout isn’t as clear as it might be. But hopefully you get the idea.

The three schemes I’m favouring at the moment are:

a) Triangle

b) Scarf

c) V-shaped.

They’re going to be edged and joined with the bright pink, which will hopefully compensate for the completely different sizes of the hexagons.

So do I have any votes? What do people think? I’m open to other suggestions as well!

Craft: Crochet
Pattern: Plumeria Frill (Free Ravelry download here)
Yarn: Old Maiden Aunt Merino Superwash 4ply
Notions: 4mm hook.

This was a really nice, easy crochet. After the set-up rows, there’s a good 10 rows of working in the pattern, back and forth, back and forth. Even better than that, the pattern doesn’t really take any memorising, since you just repeat the row below. If you’ve just learned post stitches, it’s great practice! If you already know how to do them, I have to be honest and say that it’s not the most engrossing stitch ever. Especially since each row increases, giving you that lovely curve.

It was perfect TV or conversational crochet, but on the occasions I just sat down to work on it on my own, it did feel like a bit of a slog. Put the TV on, grab a cuppa and settle down with it and it’ll be the perfect winter stitch.

As far as I remember, this was a reduced yarn that hadn’t quite dyed properly, but I absolutely love it.

There’s wonderful variegations in the colour, taking something that could have been rather flat and making it much more interesting. What the picture can’t possibly convey is the squidginess of the yarn. I’m more of a BFL girl myself, but this merino? AMAZING. It has bounce, softness and is a joy to work with. Even as the rows got longer (and longer!), the yarn was never dull, and I loved watching it form under my hook.

The other thing I love about this pattern is that it’s reversible.

Often with post stitches, the resulting fabric has a very clear right and wrong side, so you have to be careful which way up you wear your scarf! This pattern is so clever, and the stitches make it stretchy and textured. I also like patterns which are easy to adapt to your yarn – for this, I just kept going until I ran out! I haven’t blocked it, since I didn’t want to risk losing the bounce, and even though I’ve worn it just about every other day since I finished, it’s still looking pretty good. Really, really highly recommended.

Incidentally, these pictures are my first attempt at keeping a goal for 2012. We were given a gorilla tripod for Christmas, so I hooked it onto the tree, used the camera’s timer and hoped for the best. And yes, I cut my head off, but I always pull silly faces in photos anyway. You can see the scarf and that’s what matters.

Ooh, secondentally, this is my picture for today, on the theme ‘makes you smile’.

The sun was glorious during my lunch hour, so for once, I managed to get pretty good pictures of the colour. Purple rarely shows up well, but the bright, bright sun seems to have done the trick.

To see what other people have finished lately, head over to Tami’s Amis here or click on the picture below.

Speaking of comments, I’ve decided to try replying by email for a while to see how that goes. I love talking to people, but since WordPress doesn’t let you know when I’ve replied to you, you have to come back here to see if I did. I’m not entirely convinced about the email thing, but I’d like to give it a go. Any opinions on the best method?

After being so careful about my resolutions this year, and after deciding that I wasn’t allowed to join any craft-alongs, because I just end up falling behind and feeling guilty, I’ve found myself drawn to a meme that I think might help with my first goal of the year.

Image from Fat Mum Slim

I really, really want to learn to take better pictures. We bought a fairly decent compact last year, but I’ve only ever used it on auto! I also struggle for inspiration, or to know how to take shots of my makes that aren’t just another “shawl on carpet” picture. So I’m going to try this inspiration list, and see what happens.

I’m not putting myself under pressure for this one. Yes, it’s already the 5th, and I’ve just about caught up, but that’s not a problem. As long as it stays something I *want* to do, I’ll do it. As soon as it becomes something I *have* to do, I’ll stop.

Each year, I tend to have a few texts that underpin how I think about the year. Words, phrases, quotes that ping my brain in the right way. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally picked “Healthy” as my word, and Psalm 51 as my text, especially verse 12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Last year was a a bit of a struggle to get through. I’m definitely praying for more joy in 2012, both in the things I blog about and those I don’t.

To track my photo progress, I’ve set up a Picasa album here. These are my snaps so far – 5 down, 26 to go!

L-R: #1 You, #2 Breakfast, #3 Something you adore (sleeeeeeeep), #4 Letterbox, #5 Something you wore (all things I made!)

These were all taken in the flat when I got home tonight, since I left the camera cable here! Hopefully both my organisational and my photographic skills will improve as the year progresses

I’m joining 2 link parties today, to give me an extra creative boost just when I need it. The first day back at work is always a bit of a shock to the system, but I think the second is even harder. Having got up the energy to get through the first day, you wake up on the second and realise you have to do it all again!

Picture by Beccafrog on Flickr

So I need a bit of a helping hand to get myself into gear today. I’m starting with my usual party over at Tami’s Amis. My WIP of the week is my Carnival shawl, which is progressing, but is still in pieces at the moment.

I’ll be so glad to get this stitched together and finished. I bought the yarn and pattern two Christmases ago when I’d only been crocheting for a few months. I worked on it consistently for a while, then it became my ‘travelling’ project, as well as a way to use up scraps of Cashsoft yarn. Except that meant that the hexagons are all slightly different sizes, partly because my tension was all over the place, and partly because I kept forgetting what size hook I was supposed to be using!

I’m using a 3mm now, and it’s hard to believe how quickly I can make these motifs 2 years on. Just yesterday, I got through 2 of them, and I’m hoping to finish the last of my yarn by the end of the day. I don’t think it’ll quite make it to FO Friday this week, but hopefully next!

The other link-up today is to Creative Collective‘s Creative Resolutions for 2012. This is a new blog to me, but I’m love rootling through the archives and gathering inspiration.

I did a lot of thinking over Christmas about what I want to achieve this year, both personally and creatively. After some mulling, crossing out, walking around and more mulling, these are my 5 priorities for the year:

1. Take better photographs. I mostly use my phone and take snaps when I can. This year, I want to use the camera much more (as soon as I find it – I think it’s hiding with my phone charger :S) and think harder about composition. It was really looking at everyone’s 2011 mosaics that made me realise how disorganised and inconsistent my own photography is!

2. Learn 1 new skill every month. The list of things I want to learn runs to way more than 12, but 12 is much more realistic target.

3. Finish 1 new pattern every month. I already have 2 almost ready to go, so I’m ahead of myself right at the beginning!

4. Submit a pattern to be published. This one scares me more than a little, but it’s something I really want to do.

5. Complete a knitted garment. I had a good Christmas knitting away, and I don’t want to just stop! It’d be too easy to get caught up in everything else and let it hibernate away, so I’m hoping that by setting a specific target, it’ll keep me going!

If you fancy linking up your own resolutions, head over to the Creative Collective post here or by clicking the picture below.

And as usual, to see others’ Works in Progress, click here or on the picture.

It won’t be this way for long, it’s just nice while it lasts.

Did everyone have a good break? We had a lovely time with family, and mostly a lovely time trying to buy furniture for the flat. We’re currently eating, sitting and sleeping on begged and borrowed furniture (nothing stolen, I promise!), so it’ll be nice to have new stuff all of our own. But I have to admit to suffering from more than a little Furniture Overload – there’s just so much choice! But they all look the same!

Along with my funiture-hunting woes, I managed to get a fair bit of crating done, that I’ll show you over the next week or so, as well as some of the Christmas presents I made. In my own stocking I got a blocking kit, some beautiful books, alpaca yarn (undyed, so I have the name of the Alpaca in case I want more!) and a Clothkits dress. I didn’t go too made in the sales, but I did buy my first pair of DPNs. They’re 10mm, as I decided I’d only puncture my fingers with something smaller!

I really like this time of year, as it’s a chance to throw out some of the old and try something new. I’ve got lists of things, to the point where I almost need to make a list of lists! There’s so much in my head right now that I hardly know where to start – does anyone else get that feeling in January? I think I’m just going to write everything down, just to empty my brain so I can choose something to do!

One thing I definitely know I want to do is stick with my A-Z stashbusting. Here’s my collage for January:

The challenge started in October/November, so January’s letter is C. Clockwise from the top left-hand corner, my projects are:

Crowing blanket (more on that below), Carnival Shawl, Critron, Cravat (no link), Charm squares quilt (my own pattern), Chloe’s Tumblers from Fat Quarterly, Coduroy hat from Clothkits and a Mystery Project that I won’t be able to show you for a while.

The Crowing blanket is something I’ve been wanting to make for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages. It’s a fairly simple combination of sewing and crochet that I saw here and immediately knew that I wanted to use my Kate Spain charm pack to make. The yarns are cottons that match exactly, so it was obviously meant to be! There’ll be a certain amount of improvising, since I’m not sure exactly how I’ll work the stitching yet. I also know that I need to be really careful about my sewing on this one. None of my usual eyeballing the seam allowance and hoping for the best. If they’re not all the same, the quilt won’t work! Time for my quilting ruler and iron-out pen, I think.

So that’s my month sorted out! How are the rest of you doing? Geared up and ready to go for 2012?

This is also going to be my last blog post of the year, so I hope you all have a lovely break, with lots of time for everything you want to get done. Crafters never have a lazy Christmas, it’s just a chance to work on more projects!

Anyway, as you can imagine, most of the things I’ve been working on lately have been Christmas presents, but last night I decided that what I really needed to make was a bag as a present for our trainee at work. I have no idea why either, except that hers was damaged last week, and she’s generally lovely.

The pattern is from a quilting magazine, and although it’s not hugely simple, it’s also not as hard as it looks. The tricky bit was cutting the pieces to the right size, which is something I always struggle with. Being a radio-addict, I usually have that on in the background when I’m crafting, and it doesn’t always end well! This time, I turned the radio off and really concentrated on getting everything the right size. It did the trick because once I started sewing, everything came together nicely.

I’ll admit to cheating though. There are 2 ways to make a flat-bottomed back. One is to cut little squares out of the bottom corners and sew them up afterwards. The other is to make the bag flat, then sew seams across the bottom corners and cut the excess fabric off (I can link you to tutorials if you’d like!) personally I favour the latter, since it doesn’t require me to cut perfect squares out of the front and the back and it’s a few fewer seams to match up. I also decided to skip the interfacing, since I want this to be a ‘scrunch it up and put it in your rucksack’ type of bag. It’s floppier than it would be otherwise, but the lining fabric is pretty thick so that will give it considerable sturdiness. I used the same fabric to line one of my favourite bags, so I know it can take some serious weight!

You’ll note, however, that I haven’t actually shown you any pictures of the lining. That’s because I was still sewing at 10pm last night, which is well past my bedtime at the moment. I happily sewed the two lining pieces together, only to turn it over and find that I’d put a right side next to a wrong side and the whole thing needs unpicking. *sigh*

I’m hoping to finish it off as soon as I get home so that I don’t make the same sleepy-sewing mistake again tonight!

To see if other people are having more success this week, head over to Tami’s Amis here or by clicking on the picture below.

We moved back into our living room about 6 weeks ago, and last week when we put the Christmas decorations up, it really felt like Ours, properly. The thing is, the furniture we fell in love with is white gloss. Utterly beautiful but definitely in need of some protection. Long term, I want to make some plain white mats for them, but since it’s Christmas…

What do you think? I mean, it’s not subtle, and not all of the points match, but overall, I’m pretty chuffed with it.

The fabric was bought last year from Darn it and Stitch, I think with the intention of wrapping presents with it. Since that never happened, I was left with a large pile of Christmas fabric, and at that point, I hadn’t discovered quilting. Fast forward one year, and my love of patchwork is only increasing, and it seemed to be the moment to have a go at something like this.

It was dead simple to make, as the instructions will show. Apologies for their slightly scrappy nature – I hope to make some shinier tutorials next year, but rough and ready is all I have time for at the moment.

There are no specific dimensions that this needs to be made to. Mine was sized to fit the sideboard, but it could be smaller or larger, or square or rectangular in the other direction. The world is the mollusc of your choice!

The instructions are for the top of the runner. I used a plain piece of red for the backing, and some more of the cream fabric for the binding, using Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial here. For quilting, I just outlined each square, as I wanted it to be a runner rather than a quilt, if you see what I mean.

We only have this and the Christmas tree up in the living room, but I think it looks suitably festive. Hopefully at the weekend, we’ll also be able to put some presents under there!

Download the PDF here: Oh Christmas Tree

To see what other people have finished this week, head over to Tami’s Amis by clicking here, or the picture below.

After much wrestling with my memory and organisational system (shush, I have one, it’s just…unique), I finally managed to get myself, my projects and the camera all in the same place and the same time.

I know, nobody faint.

So this is more of a picture post than usual, as I make the most of the modicum of light and an actual camera – my phone does okay, but the real thing is so much better.

Craft: Crochet
Pattern: Sweet Eleanor Scarf
Yarn: Drachenwolle (4-fach-sockenwollen in NebelPetrol)
Notions: 4.5mm hook

I started this scarf on the plane to Portugal, and I reckon I’ve got through about 2/3 of it. At this point, it’s actually more a case of carrying on until you get bored or run out of yarn, so it could actually go on for a while longer! The pattern warns you that each row adds to the length as well as the width, but since I like my scarves long and wrappy, that’s not a problem. It’s the perfect ‘talking’ project. Not too big to cart around, not too complicated for making while chatting, not too boring for doing on the bus. And I love the yarn! It’s a bit hard, but it gets softer the more I work it, and after blocking, I think it’s going to be a great spring staple in my wardrobe.

Hmmmm. Looks like it’s going to be a wordy post after all As you can tell, I really like the things I’m working on at the moment.

This is my ‘B’ project for my stash-busting group.

Craft: Tunisian Crochet
Pattern: Basketweave from Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afgans, although the original is knitted.
Yarn: Cygnet DK Merino
Notions: 6mm Tunisian hook with cable (Thanks, G!). And lots of patience.

Oh yeah, baby. This one’s a monster. I couldn’t get a good picture to give you an idea of scale. Winding it didn’t work:

and I had to put one hand on it to stop it from curling for close-ups:

Hopefully the sofa picture at the top gives you a decent sense of it. This thing is longer than I am tall, and I haven’t decided yet how wide it’s going to be. The original alternates blocks of garter and stocking stitch, with garter stitch rows in between. Because I couldn’t face that much purling (the best Tunisian imitation of garter stitch), I’m alternating Simple and Knit stitch, with a Purled row in between.

I really like the effect, although I’m thinking I should have maybe started with a shorter chain row! I just chained the number of stitches that the pattern said to cast on. All 270 of them. You can imagine how thrilled I was on finishing row 4 to find that I’d made a serious mistake at the beginning of row 3. Especially since Tunisian rows are made up of 2 passes and therefore take twice as long.

Yeah. That’s what I said as well.

But it’s been worth the effort. Two rows are about 1.5 balls of my Cygnet yarn, of which I have LOTS. It was the yarn I first started buying when I first started crocheting, and since I kept losing track of what I had. It’s great for amigurumi and beginners, but now I tend to buy nicer yarn, most of it has been languishing at the bottom of my stash. No longer! The colours are lovely, and it’s going to be a great project to lug around over Christmas. The joy of making blankets is that they keep you warm as they go!

And finally at the moment, I’m working on a sekkrit Christmas project, that I can let you have a tiny glimpse of:

No guessing! But isn’t that a lovely colour?

To see what everyone else is working on this week, head over to Tami’s Amis here or click the picture below.