Giveaway winners announced!

It's time to announce the winners to my little giveaway!  All in there were 11 entries via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and the following random numbers generated were entry numbers...

7 - Bonnie

4 - anne miklos sarvida

6 - rosewendy

8 - Kimberly Tiu

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, I'm looking forward to sending my crafting paraphernalia off to their new international homes!  I may even host another little giveaway in the New Year, I've found a few more books that could do with being passed on.  If the ladies who won could drop me an email to 3rdlawofmotion at gmail dot com with their address, I'll sort out getting your items to you.  First come, first served, so the faster you let me know which prize you want, the more likely you are to get it!

There's actually another little announcement I need to make just now, I'm putting this blog into hibernation for the moment.  I've been offered an amazing job opportunity that I can't afford to turn down, but is going to take all of my time and energy for a while.  I don't want to do a half hearted job of this blog, I've enjoyed it too much to let it wither away to nothing, so I'd rather let it lie dormant for now.  I may come back to it at some point in the future and in the meantime will still be showing off my crafting and thrifting on Instagram (Craftandthrift) and Twitter (@craftandthrift).  I hope to see you all over there and will be reading your blogs and interacting with you all via other mediums but for now, adieu little blog, sleep well.

Fabric and sewing/knitting books giveaway!

In the spirit of #secondhandfirst, I had a little clear out and reorganisation at the weekend.  I sent a few bags of things to charity, moved some old clothes into the refashion pile and found a few bits I thought you lovely people might enjoy.  Christmas is a time for giving and it would give me great pleasure to pass these items on to someone who might get more enjoyment out of them than I have.

To that end, it's giveaway time!  Check out the following lovely things to be passed on to my fellow crafters, sewists and knitters and see the rules for entry at the end of the post.  Good luck my lovely readers!

1. Large piece of light jersey fabric.  This piece measures roughly 330cm x 75cm so it's a bit of an odd size but there's certainly plenty of fabric there.  It is technically two pieces of fabric sewn end to end, so there is a seam down the centre.  Lovely floral pattern of red, white and grey flowers on a black background.



2. Generation T: 108 ways to transform a t-shirt by Megan Nicolay.  This is in very good condition, other than one slight dent on the top edge and my darling brother has written a merry Christmas message on the inside cover.





3. 99 ways to cut, sew, trim and tie your t-shirt by Faith and Justina Blakeney.  This is in pretty much perfect condition.  Nice ringbound layout so it lies flat as you're using it.





4.  Knitting Vintage by Claire Montgomerie.  In perfect condition.





The Rules!

Super simple, just Facebook/Tweet/Instagram a link to this blog post AND follow me on either Twitter (@Craftandthrift) or Instagram (Craftandthrift) - check out the links on the right hand side.

Leave a comment here to let me know when you're done and I'll enter you into a prize draw for your choice of prize.  First to reply to my email saying they've won will get first pick of the prizes.  If you link back to me in multiple formats e.g. Twitter and Instgram, then leave 2 comments and get 2 entries!

The giveaway is open to international folks too!  I'll be drawing names out of a hat 2 weeks from now, so Wednesday December 17th, a nice little surprise for you just before Christmas :-)

Sewing room tour!

I'm back!  The wedding was amazing, honestly the best day, I really couldn't have wished for anything better.  The honeymoon, on the other hand, ended up being cancelled due to Andrew and I both contracting a horrible vomiting bug, which landed poor Andrew up in hospital briefly.  We spent 3 nights in Premier Inn Gatwick then limped our way back up to Edinburgh to recuperate.  Not quite the start to married life I had envisioned but in sickness and in health and all that!  We're claiming on insurance so fingers crossed will be able to rebook some other time but in the meantime have spent my remaining time off spending our wedding money on new furniture!



We've been planning on reorganising the spare room for years now, but never had the funds available to see it through.  Thanks to our very generous friends and family we spent a fun day in Ikea, picking out storage solutions and sofa beds.  It's really given the room a new lease of life, it's much more open and spacious now, with more storage for my sewing and knitting supplies and more room for me to spread out if necessary.

The sofa bed is a Vilasund from Ikea.  It was surprisingly easy to put together and we slept on it the first night (don't tell anyone, you're supposed to leave the mattresses to 'plump up' for at least 72hrs before using them...).  It's lovely to have the fire on, snuggled in the sofa bed, looking at my stash and planning all my autumn sewing projects.  You may have seen a view from the sofa bed on my Instagram feed (Craftandthrift).  I'm planning some bright, tweed wool cushion covers for the sofa!



We're using a vintage metal trunk donated by Andrew's folks years ago as a coffee table/storage solution.  I love the brass coloured clips and nails and the black corners, not so keen on the person who wrote all over it in sharpie though.  I'm thinking maybe some white spirit or nail varnish remover might bring that off but I'm worried about damaging it, or ended up with odd looking lighter patches.



This beautiful silver tea set was a wedding gift from Frances.  It's from the 1920's and I love it.  It goes perfectly with my silver tea strainer (see original post here).





Aren't these prints adorable?  'Adopt a buddy' was a gift from Victoria and 'A Tiny Visitor' is Laura George.  I love her stuff, I could seriously buy almost everything in her shop.







The storage unit is the classic Ikea Expedit, renamed as 'Kallax'.  We built two of these this weekend (the other is in the kitchen) so this second one went up in about 20 minutes.  I love that I can see most of my stash now (the rest of it is in the trunk - shame on me for having ALL THE FABRICS...).  It's super handy to have somewhere to store my sewing machine and overlocker as well, rather than them gathering dust under my desk.  The wicker basket on top was £5 from a charity shop, I bought the red leather straps off Ebay and used it to hold cards at our wedding.  Now it's being used to store craft supplies!  The knitting needle holder next to it is a recycled champagne bottle, rose Moet no less!



My antique sewing box, inherited from Andrew's gran.  I love it, I love the design and all the little corners to store things in.



Even the puppy approves of the new craft nook.  I love sheepskin rugs, I only ever buy them second hand but I love that it uses the whole of the animal, rather than just the meat.  This one was from an auction room and I hand washed and blew it dry with my hairdryer, it took 2 days but came up super soft and fluffy so was totally worth it.  I want to buy more for the lounge, this one and it's pair get moved around the house all the time because we love them so much.

All in all, I love my new craft corner.  So much more organised and relaxing, I'm looking forward to some autumn/winter sewing, with the fire on!

Autumn/fall knitting plans

Apologies for another filler post whilst I'm on my honeymoon, normal service will resume next week, with a hand sewn skirt and crocheted cowl to share with you all!  In the meantime, I'm loving all the fall inspired crafts popping up in the blogosphere, this is definitely my favourite time of year.  With the chilly morning dog walks, nights closing in and fireside evenings to look forward to, it's the perfect time to plan some knitting projects.  Here are a few I've got queued up (feel free to add me on Ravelry - CraftandThrift!), what's on your needles this season?



I've been dying to make Strokkur by Ysolda Teague for ages now.  Andrew and I are planning a trip to Iceland hopefully next year and it would be amazing to have an Icelandic inspired sweater to take with me!  There are a few Ysolda patterns I'd love to knit, I should really just get on and buy one of her books to be honest.  Support a fellow Edinburger!



4 years ago I made Andrew a blanket out of recycled wool sweaters, backed with fake fur.  Although it's possibly the ugliest thing I've ever made that didn't end up in the fabric recycle bin, it is super useful and we snuggle under it daily, either on the sofa watching TV or in bed.  It seriously offends my eyeballs now though, especially because some of the thinner sweaters have bobbled and ripped quite dramatically, so I'm planning on knitting a more attractive top layer and cutting off the sweater layer.  So basically replacing the sweater layer with a knitted top.  The pattern I was going to use for the top was Twining Trees by Sarah Bradberry, it looks simple enough to do whilst watching TV but complicated enough to keep my interest, since I do have a double bed sized amount of squares to make.



After the success of my British Herdwick sweater, which I wear a lot despite being so itchy and rough I feel like it's giving my skin a gentle exfoliation as I move, I want to make another similar jumper.  This time in less brambly yarn.  Oatmeal Pullover by Jane Richmond looks just the ticket, easy to sling on over anything for walking the dog or running errands.



As mentioned in my previous post, Kate Davies' Owlet is on my Christmas knitting list, this time for my god child (of Dala horse sweater fame).

So much knitting, so little time!  Feel free to share your knitting or crochet plans below...

Trawl through 'Saved for Later'

By the time you're reading this, I will be on my honeymoon!  I've queued up two posts to cover the two weeks I'll be away, I've got lots of craft and thrift related reading and projects planned for my holidays so I'll be back with a vengeance!



I know it's ridiculously early but I'm starting to think about Christmas.  Specifically, what presents am I going to attempt to make and what baking projects I'm going to trial.  I've done pretty well in the past year for not taking on more than I can manage but there are definitely a few things I want to make before the festive season, either for me or as presents.

1. I've just bought an overlocker (more on that when I'm back!) so some simple projects to master the machine would be super useful.  This piece from Veronica Darling inspired me to make some placemats and what better reason than for the holidays.  Create-Enjoy made some tie-dyed napkins that were pretty cool, I'd probably just use stash fabric but would be a great little project to practice the art of overlocking!


2. A Beautiful Mess had a round up of 20 favourite holiday recipes in December last year, some of which would be perfect to practice in autumn, before serving to family at Christmas.  The truffles especially caught my eye...


3. For our American brethren, this adorable card from Laura Berger would be perfect for Thanksgiving.  We have one of her prints (A Tiny Visitor) and it is adorable.  I would buy up most of her shop in a heartbeat.


4. I'm not planning on crafting too many presents, since I always take on too much and it stresses me out in the run up to Christmas.  Last year was a nice balance of handmade and bought gifts and I plan to repeat that again this year.  I want to knit an Owlet from Kate Davies for my god child, partly because it's adorable and easy, partly because I made one for myself and we could be MATCHING!  So much cute.


5. These aren't specifically for Christmas but are definitely autumnal, Whisky Cinnamon Rolls from A Beautiful Mess.  I love cinnamon rolls so much and the addition of whisky would be amazing, especially after a chilly dog walk.  I'm imagining the fire on, hot chocolate on the stove and warm, boozy rolls straight from the oven.  Perfect for Christmas Day morning.

So many plans!  I love this time of year, autumn and the run up to the holidays are definitely my favourite times.

You can see my previous trawl over here.

Work in progress - Featherweight cardigan by Hannah Fettig

What's on your needles this week?  I'm slowly working my way through Hannah Fettig's Featherweight cardigan.  I actually started this a few months back, using this lovely bright blue acrylic yarn my father in law thrifted from a car boot sale for me (£2 for the cone, bargain!).  I've stalled a little, the middle section is just row after row of stocking stitch and although I wanted something relaxing and easy, I wasn't quite looking for something quite so...dull for want of a better word.



I'm excited to see and wear the final item, it's going to be the perfect late summer/early autumn weight and the colour will go with lots of my vest tops.  Just got to plough on through this middle section, 6709 people on Ravelry can't be wrong!

P.S. Follow me on Ravelry at Craftandthrift!

Hand knit hat from Studio Donegal wool yarn

You may remember this project from way back in January, it was a gift for Christmas from the lovely Victoria and I finally finished it a few months back.  Foolishly thinking it was summer and it would be several months until I got to make use of it, the weather then started with some serious rain and fog.  In August.  Welcome to Scotland you guys!





The pattern is from the amazing Pom Pom Quarterly, which is a lovely, gentle, knitting-themed read.  Perfect for autumnal nights in the bath.  I see on their website they have a podcast as well, if anyone has listened to it, let me know, I'm planning on stocking up on podcasts for the honeymoon and would love some recommendations.



Andrew helped me take these on the Meadows, which are literally opposite our flat and constitute about 90% of our regular dog walks.  In fact, I had to edit the dog pooping in the background out of one of these photos.  Thanks buddy.  Photos taken outside are so much better, aren't they?  Way less editing involved.  Thanks to Franca of Oranges and Apples for encouraging me to take the embarrassing plunge.  Next step, remote control camera and a tripod, then there'll be no stopping me!



Despite it being August, it was foggy and chilly, so the trusty Barbour was out in force.  I seriously haven't taken this off (except maybe to shower) since buying it in December, totally worth every expensive penny.  I love that it can be rewaxed and the hardware replaced, like the zip and poppers.  Although it was a large outlay at the time, from a thrift point of view it will more than pay for itself since I plan to wear it for the next 30 years at least.  Big pockets for dog treats and keys, little handwarmer pockets for me pinkies, all finished off with a tweed edging - just beautiful.  The only criticism I have of this jacket is the hood is a little on the short side, it finishes midway up my head, leaving my fringe and forehead exposed to the elements.  I was swithering over whether or not to add a pompom to this hat (Pom Pom suggests a Toft alpaca fur pompom, which would be decadence itself and completely amazing) but to be honest, the awesome geek fashion statement is outweighed by my desire to have my already-too-small hood cover as much of my head as possible.  Hat stays pom pom-less...for now...





The yarn is a gorgeous Studio Donegal 100% merino in this lovely mossy green that I think compliments my hair perfectly.  I've got a second skein left over so may contemplate a snood or maybe some gloves to match.  I do feel sad when summer passes by, but I do so love autumn knitting plans!

Fairisle baby jumper

Another successful baby sweater using the amazing Scrap Sweater for the Small Ones pattern by Yarn Madness.  This pattern is designed to knit a lovely, simple raglan-sleeved sweater using scrap yarn leftovers.  It's perfect for that, you can alter the design as necessary, depending on the colours and amounts of yarn you've got to work with and you can fiddle with the length of the sleeves to accomodate your stash yarn rapidly disappearing before your eyes! 



This one knit up even faster than my Dala horse sweater, mainly because I didn't have to frog the colourwork section 5 times before getting it right.  There are still a few little (or not so little!) mistakes though, which is annoying but takes me closer to the perfect sweater every time.





For example - see the top picture?  (Almost) perfect colourwork, right?  Ha.  Now look at the picture below it.  There's an obvious step where the start and ends of the round joined.  I'm not entirely sure what I did here, since it wasn't obvious to me at the time that I was making a mistake, it looked like the pattern just seamlessly continued.  One to look out for next time.



Also, see here in the yoke?  The first section is knit on straight needles, then the increases done in the round.  There's an obvious difference in tension, despite using the same width of needles both times.  Weird.
On top of that, the collar will not lie flat, despite ample blocking.  I don't know if this is the yarn, my knitting, or my blocking, but either way, it's ANNOYING!



I used a little train button from my stash to finish off the collar, which is supposed to be the front of the sweater but may have to be the back to hide the awkward stepped fairisle.  Sigh, practice makes perfect right?  And I'm sure the baby won't care! I'll definitely be making this one again, such a nice, quick, easy make and knitted up in about 3 days.  Perfect summer project!

Finally finished handknit gloves...just in time for summer

I've been working on these gloves on and off since Christmas.  I find that somehow projects for me get bumped, in favour of projects for other people.  Despite making a New Year's Resolution last year to craft more for me, I still find myself easily distracted by making gifts.  Somehow it's easier to justify time spent in front of the TV knitting when it's a present for a friend's baby, as opposed to a sweater for me.  It feels like if I'm just knitting for me, I should really be spending that time more productively by doing the washing up or cleaning the bathroom.  You know though, even as I write that, it sounds so silly.  Of course I should make time to craft for myself, no one ever looked back on their deathbed and thought, "I wish I'd done more washing up".  Whereas I might regret not knitting myself a Jenny at the Fair or a Featherweight cardi.



I finally finished these though and I am delighted with them!  It's Sirdar 5840 and I've made it so many times now I could almost do it in my sleep - Gamer Gauntlets x 5, Stripy gloves, Nautical gloves.  Sadly it's too warm now to wear them but at least I'm getting ahead on my autumn knitting!





I went with fingerless to make it easier to use my mobile and walk the dog whilst wearing gloves.  I like the little mitten bit though so I can keep my fingers warm.  Win all round, right?





I liked the stripes I've made in the past, but I fancied something a bit different for mine so I went with the dots instead.  They're all made from stash wool as well, 100% wool and the grey is left over from my sweater made from British Herdwick.  Also, check out those tidy innards!



Nice simple cream buttons from my stash, I didn't want anything too fussy since the dots are already quite busy.  Very much looking forward to wearing these this autumn!

Swedish Dala horse baby sweater

It's been a busy old year so far, with this internship sucking up a lot of my free time.  I've slightly abandoned the old blog, I just haven't had the time to craft, let alone blog about crafting!  I've finally finished a project though, it's ridiculous that it's taken me this long, given that it's a super simple baby sweater, but I designed the Dala horse section and boy, was that tricky.



I had to frog this no less than 5 times before I was reasonably happy with it.  FIVE.  That's a lot of times.  My problem was trying to work the red, white, blue and green strands for the horses' tack, the colours would pull the white too tight and leave gaping holes in some places, but tight areas in others.  I know this is more my technique than anything else, I guess when I think about it I haven't done a huge amount of colourwork that involves more than 2 colours, but I managed Mini Maciver cardi fine so I don't know what's wrong with me just now.  Chronic lack of sleep most likely.



Horrible holes and tight areas



Slightly better attempt but I wasn't happy with all the red showing through so I cut the red at the back with a view to tying in the loose ends...instead the whole thing unwraveled and I had to start again.  Facepalm.

Anyway, after 4 failed attempts, I decided to ditch the colourwork tack and just go for the basic horses.  I embroidered the central horse's tack on last, just for a focal point in the middle of the sweater.  The horse button is one I've been hoarding for years so it's nice to see it used finally.  I don't really like the look of the horses without tack though, the saddle and bridle gives them better definition but by that point I was about to give up on knitting altogether and just wanted to see it finished.





I'm not hugely happy with the end result, I'm clearly not competent enough yet to be designing my own patterns!  I'm also not happy with the proportions, it looks too short to me and the sleeves look too long.  The intended recepient is only 3 weeks old currently, so it'll be a while before it fits her.  Even with blocking and using larger needles for the colourwork section, it still sucks in slightly around the waist, so that's annoying.  And the bottom hem curls up, grrr.



Overall, not my best work.  I partly picked this pattern because it looked easy and I thought it would be a nice base to have a go at designing my own colourwork section but honestly, I think I bit off more than I could chew at the moment.  I just don't have the time or energy in the evenings to do anything more complicated than follow someone else's pattern so I think I'll give up on pattern design and leave it to the professionals.  At least for the moment...!

Thanks for sticking by me loyal readers, with my increasingly erratic posting schedule.  I have a job lined up for after my internship that is only 3.5 days a week though, so watch this space for more crafting and blogging come August!

Crafting slump

February has flown by in a haze of night shifts, long work days and very little time to relax and craft.  All in all, I won't be sorry to see the back of this month.  It's been cold, dark, wet and miserable.  Made worse by what little time I've had to craft being spoiled by CONSTANT MISTAKES.  I honestly didn't think it was possible to make this many mistakes all in one go.  I guess it's probably a reflection of how tired and stressed I've been when I've had a moment to knit.  I haven't even attempted to make up with my sewing machine yet, there's really no point in this frustrated head space.



I'm knitting a pair of Gamer Gauntlets for a friend of Andrew (who is very kindly paying me for my time), except this is currently the state of affairs, after the third time of frogging.  I know they say you can't make money by hand knitting but that it most definitely true when you have to rip everything out multiple times.  Very frustrating.



I'm also attempting to knit a Swedish themed baby jumper for a friend having a baby in May.  You see it here in it's fourth incarnation - I cannot get these damn Dala horses right.  The first two sweaters had mishapen horses, some with fatter heads or thinner legs than others.  The third I carried the red thread all the way through the back whilst knitting the horses, leading to the colourwork section being overly tight and little bits of red yarn poking through the white.  This is the fourth version and as you can see, the white is too loose where it meets each horse.  I've tried ( in the left hand horse) to fix this by darning the holes closed from the back but it just distorts the colours and looks very unprofessional.  I don't really know what to do now, the hopeful side of me thinks with some clever sewing of loose ends I can close the holes and blocking will help bring out the shape of the horses, whilst the despondent side of me just want to throw the bloody thing in the bin and start afresh with a more simple colourwork pattern.  I thought I was up to this challenge but maybe I'm not.  I might move onto a simpler project for a while and come back to this one in the future, I've got until May to finish it after all. 

For the moment, I might just give up and go back to bed.  I hate crafting sometimes.