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!

Thrifted boxy shirt made fitted

It's been a long time since I've felt like sewing, after a couple of epic disasters just before Christmas.  I haven't even had much time to knit in these past couple of months but, with Spring just around the corner, I feel ready to get back on the crafting wagon.



This was a vintage Marks and Spencer St Michael's brand cotton shirt that I picked up on a thrifting trip to Glasgow, years ago.  It was 99p, a bargain.  The print is a cutesy blue floral pattern, perfect for Spring, but the cut was boxy and unflattering.  It's been waiting in my fabric trunk for years, all it needed was some bust darts and an inch or so taken in around the waist.



My first attempt at self-drafted and sewn bust darts and if I'm honest, I'm pretty pleased with them!  I could have taken more out in retrospect, it's still a bit blousey round mah lady parts but for a beginner's attempt, I'm happy.  There were some awkward moments standing in front of the mirror poking pins at my nipples, but no harm came to any boobies, you'll be pleased to know.



Overall, it's much more flattering and I've already worn it out for a cinema date.  It only took an hour as well, I'm sure in the future it'll be faster now I know roughly what I'm doing.  There was a lot of faffing on with pins and ironing, adjusting and readjusting.





All in, a success. Much nicer from the back too.  Now I just need a picnic in a meadow to wear it!

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.

Stash busting crochet cushion cover

Embarassingly, this is the last of the Christmas presents from 2013.  I finished this about a week ago and only just posted it to my cousin, who always buys me the loveliest and most thoughtful presents.  I'm a terrible person to be related to.



To make things even worse, I'm super skint right now.  After Christmas presents, my car breaking down and the general festivities associated with December, I was limping along to January payday.  Which, just to add insult to injury, was an extra week away this year.  So, I turned to my stash in a panic and whipped up this little beauty, even if I do say so myself.  Sometimes necessity is the mother of craftiness...or something along those lines.



This is a simple granny square combo, using the Blooming Granny sqaure by Melinda Miller.  I crocheted up the front panels using stash yarn (so satisfying!), then backed them with some black cord I had in my fabric stash (double whammy satisfying!).  I then backed the whole thing with more of the black cord.  My aim was for something pretty but hard wearing as my cousin has a dog and 2 cats so this baby is going to get worn.



The little 'Second Fiddle' label adds a professional element I always think.  Though I really must get some new ones made, I've just got so many left from my old Etsy shop and it seems a shame to waste them!



I just sewed these together as I would any other cushion, though I used zigzag stitch to make sure I caught enough of the crocheted stitches that it would hold together.  It was my first time using single chain crochet to stitch granny squares together and I like how it looks, I chose to go with the ridge on the outside but the inside has really neat, flat joins between the squares, it looks very smart.



I chose not to make it into a cushion cover, in that you can't remove the cover using buttons or a zip.  I figured it would be difficult to properly wash this since it's a mix of fabric and crochet, so you'd have to handwash either way.  Not ideal with animals really, oops.  Instead I just sewed up all 4 sides, leaving an opening to turn inside out, stuffed, then slip stitched shut.  I like how nice and plump it is, I often struggle to get cushion covers with pre-made innards to stuff as nicely as this one.  Got to make one for me now!

Giant t-shirt to sleeveless top

I've been hoarding a few massive t-shirts for a while now.  They're all sentimental in some way, shirts I wore when I had my first boyfriend, or friends left behind when they moved away.  They're all baggy and old and in need of a revamp to turn them from something languishing in my fabric box to something I would actually wear out and about, but they all remind me fondly of a certain time in my life.  Ah, nostalgia.



This was a large boxy t-shirt I inherited when a friend emigrated at the end of vet school.  She's originally from Washington State so I pulled this one out of the charity bags she gave me to rifle through because it reminded me of her and the fun times we had together at uni. I should have taken a before picture, but imagine large boxy t-shirt.  You can do it.



I'm still practising sewing with jersey and I'm still struggling with the basics.  My seams never seem to be straight and quite often go weirdly ripply.  Although I pinned around So Zo's t-shirt to vest pattern to get the basic body right on this remake, the armhole openings still came out too big, despite the fact that they fit fine on my other makes with this pattern.  I guess it's because I made proper wide straps rather than using elastic, clearly I got the sizing wrong because they give me a slightly baggy-trucker look I think.  Also, looking at this photos I feel like I should have ironed this top, but then who seriously irons t-shirts?!





All in, not perfect but definitely wearable.  I've been wearing this a lot as a vest under my scrub top at work, for the warmth.  I can imagine in the summer it will be nice for beach walks with the dog, the kind of outdoor activity where I invariably end up in the sea so it's good to wear something you're not too attached to.  Definitely room for improvement, B- must try harder.

Finished Owls sweater

January has so far been the long and depressing month it normally is.  My rota at work has changed, meaning I've worked the past 2 weekends in a row, leaving little time for crafts and blogging.  I'm thoroughly enjoying my first day off in 19 days - walking the dog, slow cooker stew, knitting in front of Dexter with hot chocolate...it's been a good day so far.  And I finally found time during daylight hours to take some photos for the blog!



This is the much anticipated (by myself mostly) Kate Davies Owls sweater.  This is the third one I've made, the first being for Victoria and the second for Mum.  I knitted it in some lovely New Lanark Chunky yarn I thrifted via Victoria, it's a gorgeous deep green colour and suits me perfectly, even if I do say so myself.  I love green, it brings out the touch of red in my hair.  I used to be a ginger kid and it's faded to a dull brown as I've got older but the sun and green clothes sometimes bring it out again.  My hair icon would definitely Scully.



The buttons were all in my stash, I used 'pearly white' as a theme as I didn't have enough for them to all be matching.  I love their mismatched look though, not all owls have exactly the same eyes, right?  And it suits my 2014 craft resolution to stash bust!



Front action



Back action - check out those severe increases and decreases



This sweater is super warm and cosy, I've worn it so much since finishing it a few weeks back.  Between the awful weather and my nocturnal time-off, it's taken me this long to get some photos taken of this little number.











































Boob action 

Overall I'm really pleased with the result.  For some reason the knit seems looser than the two I've made previously, meaning when I bend my elbows or stretch forwards, the knit opens right up, making it look like I've got holes in my jumper.  I don't know if this is my knitting (I'm not aware of my gauge becoming looser WINK) or the wool?  Also, I need to learn stretchy bind-on and cast-off - the bottom hem is a little tight because my cast-on row is tighter than the ribbing, meaning it rides up a bit as I walk.  I'm sure it'll stretch the more I wear it and the ribbing rows themselves fit fine, it's the cast-on row that's holding everything tighter than it should.  New skill to learn for next time!

Work in progress

Happy New Year everybuddy!  Hope everyone had a lovely festive season.  I'm back to work now but secretly quite enjoying being back to a normal routine after all the festive over-indulgence.  I've got lots of exciting crafting plans for 2014 as well so keen to get cracking!

I finished my Owls sweater by Kate Davies over the holidays.  Although the owls part is interesting, knitting the sleeves and body are pretty boring (especially the third time round!) so it was nice to be able to plough through dozens of rows of stocking stitch whilst chatting with my Mum over a gin.  I tried to photograph it today but it was too dark and gloomy to get good photos so I had to abandon that plan and go with works in progress instead!



I'm in the middle of making a belated Christmas present for my cousin out of some stash yarn.  It's going to be a cushion, using Blooming Granny crochet square pattern.  I'm going to back the roses on green felt I think and chose some contrasting fabric for the back, before stuffing it and sewing it up.  She's got a dog and 2 cats so it needs to be hard wearing!



I was given this amazing little bundle of craft by Victoria for Christmas.  The wool is a gorgeous Studio Donegal yarn and the magazine is Pompom quarterly (love that name!).  I'm knitting a hat for myself with cables from Pompom, it suggests a Toft alpaca bobble for the top which I just may splash out on because it would be the most adorable thing EVER.  Though may look sad once it got wet in the rain...hmm...

Other craft plans for this year:

• Finally finish the box I rescued from the bin.  The base is still grubby pink and needs painting white to match the lid
• Finally finish the New House Blanket.  The one I was making 2 years ago when we were planning on moving house.  Never did move, never finished the blanket.  Figures :/
• Attempt to start from scratch with sewing clothes.  I'm still in a sewing funk after my pre-Christmas failures so I'm leaving this one for a while.  But I do plan to come back to it soon!  You can read more about my clothes sewing plans over here but they include more Sorbettos, more refashions and I'd like to attempt some Clover trousers.  And a Hollyburn.  So many projects, so little time...
• Stash bust!  I was pretty good with this in 2013, making several things from stash fabric but I need to carry on this trend before my stash implodes under it's own weight.  

Can't wait to read all about your 2014 craft plans!