Bubbles

Funky garments for boys can be a hard thing to get right. This pattern has a visually simple but engaging twisted stitch panel, and a very ”useful” seamless shape, knit in the round. Match this with a washable yarn in the “right” colour, and it is bound to be a hit, both to wear and create.

Bring it, Winter!

Knit on 4mm circular needles using James Brett Marble, this pattern is written in 3 sizes from 3-10 yrs.

£3.00

MTG

About 12 years ago I entered the world of high fantasy, with Dungeons and Dragons, Tolkien, Tad Williams, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Magic the Gathering. I enjoyed the flexibility of "Magic", a 2 player game in it's simplest form, multi-player options, or when a bored teenager, play-test your decks against yourself. I played for several years, before my contempories where spending too much money and too much time on it and totally outstripped me in there playing ability. Or maybe I got Laid. Anyway, my younger brothers where not very literate when we entered this realm, and it always confused me how something so complex as a rulebook, or deck of cards managed to teach someone to read. Thankfully, with the move out of toddlerhood comes the joys of educational concerns.

My siblings and I where/are home-educated autonomously, as was/is the Man. I put it like that because I don't feel education stops when a government has decided so, but continues throughout life, if you let it. I am certainly still learning in the same manner I was 15 years ago.

So this is where I come from in terms of parenting, but I still ponder on how the process works!

The Boy is now school-age. He plays Role-playing games, builds crazy Lego structures, and sews pullovers for his bears. But a strange thing is happening. He is Learning To Read. Because he wants to?! I surmise because he wants to do things he needs to read for. Like playing Magic. He has figured he is at a disadvantage playing open-handed with me telling him what his cards do. I am putting many cards with the same artwork in his deck, that aren't too complicated. So he is coming across the terms "Haste", "Shadow", and "Flying" fairly frequently. He started the writing of garbled letters in huge long lines, then getting literate people to read them for him(does everyone do that?). My heart melted.

If I then suggest we do something to advance his progress, he sees the connection to an interest he has and the activity I am offering, and he takes it.

So thankyou, Richard Garfield, for creating something that makes learning to read fun for parents, and is bringing my son closer into my life.

designing for magazines

Designing a pattern is an interesting process to me, and I have honed it a lot in the past year I have been concentrating on it. Not far off my goal of 1 a month for a year, it now takes me half the time from inspiration to publication.
I think some of this is due to my rigorous note taking and formula writing, but also my process has been helped by my attempt to get my patterns into some magazines, both in-the-flesh ones and online.(which, by the way, I have done, here)

Working in a template, seeing the common factors for pattern submissions, and the more abstract concept submissions some go for, they all give some insight as to how to put across your own creative idea to another individual. This has then been useful for working on many projects of my own, skipping from one to another, and shifting my inspiration, without making them all become the same, as I record, photograph and sketch and summarize along the way.

So, the money isn't great. 70 quid for one or two full weeks work when I have young children is a little irksome. And giving someone else rights to my work is a little concerning too, I can't quite put my finger on it. But if at the end my process and therefore patterns are better off and more polished, and I get more airtime, that has got to be worth the hassle, at least for now.



Image courtesy of Kate Heppell, Practical Publishing

beading workshops nov-jan

I have been running beading workshops for about 9 months, from my home in Thurmaston, on a monthly basis. So far I have mostly been facilitating the participants own inspiration, helping with and suggesting new techniques, and sorting things out when they have gone wrong! I am now getting the feeling that some more formal instruction would be beneficial to these sessions, in terms of being exposed to new techniques and project ideas.

These sessions are now evolving, and need booking in advance, so I can plan the topic, and invest in the materials. The timing has changed too, to eliminate the lunch break that was always rushed, and took away precious beading time!

The main reason I have set an age limit on this group is due to the level of input younger students need. I teach in a hands-on way, moving round the group and seeing how each student is doing, and helping them move on. I notice that I invariably spend more time with the younger ones, even with this age cap, so I wouldn't want to extend the range of this group.

Thursday, 10-1.

Each session costs £7.00

17/11-Baubles

15/12-Tassels

12/1-Brick stitch chains

Please email me for a booking form.

Additionally, I am looking to run another regular session in the south of the city, so if anyone wants to host it I would love to talk to you!

You can also book me to run any session I have done before, for the cost of £10/hour, plus materials and travelling costs.

TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS

Baubles

jazz up an ordinary-looking bauble into something astonishing using seed beads and bugles. Some good examples can be seen in Julie Ashfords book .

Tassels

using seed beads, sieves and donut beads, create tassels with festive charm, or just plain fun! Take a look in the book above, or just search Google for examples.

Brick stitch chains

A versatile and technique, Brick stitch is a rather different way of building up a beaded fabric, and can be put to many uses. We shall be making thin hoops, and linking them together, rather like a paper chain...

Showcase Slouch Sox

Showcase Slouch Sox

A sock designed to show off your best handspun or luxury yarn, whilst providing a long-lasting garment. Written for 2 weights of sock, and in 3 sizes, Small(Medium, Large).

£3.00

Eresor

Eresor



The need to come up with a pattern to mark a relative graduating as an Osteopath gave birth to this spine-inspired shawl.

The gauge of yarn makes Eresor quick and snuggly, good to have around the study for chilly evenings hunched over a laptop..

Blocked measurements:

Depth 85cm, Width 124cm.

Knit in Colinette Art from 2 skeins.

£3.00

september? when was that?!

So there was another month been and gone, and a horribly hot october has struck. I am an autumn person. I like the smell of falling leaves, and a breeze on my face, and the need to put a hat on sometimes, and maybe a cardie. I like snuggling up to watch a movie,closing the windows at night, and eating apple crumble. So october was looking good for all that. Thought I had got away with a cloudy summer, and that the cold weather would have had a head-start. Instead we get this blazing hot THING. I can't work out how many pints of water I am drinking a day to stave off headaches, and have had to put aside special "chicken" clothes to protect me from there red mite, whos numbers have exploded in the heat.

Culverkeys

Inspired by the flowers my daughter is named after, this pattern is perfect for windy spring days. Or knit it in a wool yarn to make a snuggly winter hat!
Knit from the bottom up on circular needles, Culverkeys is designed to be a versatile pattern, with 4 sizes ranging from baby to medium adult, and adjustable hat depth.
fully charted, with written instructions too.
Shown here in Patons Smoothie Dk.
£3.00

Summer of eggs

So shoe making did not really get anywhere. I decided really, I don't have the correct tools. A draw knife would make it more managable, looking at that piece of wood and thinking about carving it up with a swiss army knife, or a spoke shave made me go put the kettle on and get a sock to knit on!! Also, a couple of weeks later, I noticed a cracked paving slab where they had all been fine. It dawned on me that it was just about in the area I had been smashing logs attached to axes on the ground....

So having decided it probably wouldn't matter if they got burned this winter, I promptly went out and bought the pair of clogs that helped inspire me in the first place, but had decided where rediculous.

never mind, I have them now.

The other factor was the addition of 6 new members of the family. Well, as I keep them behind a wire fence in the garden, they are more like prisoners of war, as I don't really do that with my children, or siblings. I have chickens!!

Allosaurus, Babs, Cloudy, Diplodicus,Edwina, and Milly are Ex-battery Lohman browns, recovered through BHWT. I have heard of other organisations that recover hens too, and in future I will find a less commercial scheme.

After estimating we needed 6 hens to give us 18 eggs a week, I have been inundated with eggs. They are providing on adverage 5 a day since we moved them over to an Organic pellet feed instead of the Ex-batt crumb recommended. Their digestion is rather sensitive, and it is taking a while for their plumage to come back fully. But as someone who is unclear where she stands on the ethics of keeping animals primarily for human benefit, Ex-battery hens are a safe option. I have figured they will have paid for themselves after 1 year, though if they keep popping so many eggs it will be much sooner!

So with the vegetable garden in full swing and EGGsellent hens, it is all feeling very bountiful here in my house, even without home-made clogs.

first trip out for the boldest hen.

Nobble-top cocktales

First pattern to be released in my CIHC bootie collection.
£3.00

Fun and wearable, these Booties will be worn until they are lost! Knit in a superwash wool for washing, with no seams for comfort, and a tall ankle to stay on better. Includes advanced techniques so you don't get bored too.

Shown here in CIHC Wow, super aran!, in Over the rainbow and Teal colourways. the pattern is written for newborn, 0-6 months, and 6-12 months.


Or alternatively, buy a pair from my etsy store, for £15

super aran!!!

Summer solstice colourways: Beulah, Teal and Fuschia.

Wow, super aran!

100% British superwash wool

100g-165m

20-23sts/10cm, 4.5-5.5mm needles

this is retailing at £10 plus postage from my etsy store

shoemaking!!

I have had this yen to make some shoes.
It all happened after I went shoe shopping in my lunch break last week. Got some shoes that would not wear away the heels of my beautiful handknit sox I have made out of inappropriate yarns. very comfy Alegrias, from PG Lite. But boring! There where some outragious Rocket Dog clogs, with crochet uppers and wooden soles, but they didn't fit me, as I have rather wide feet. I came home with my boring comfy clogs and thought "I must be able to make these myself". Unfortunatly the Interwob had other plans. I could not find any decent info out there on clog making. Lots of demo videos on youtube, but nothing concise. Unless I wanted to either take a week course in London for £££££ or an undergrad course at Demontfort Uni. No thanks!!

So last week me and the Girl started on a pair, and here is the first episode in our journey.


First, we found our wood. Oh, how convenient! the trees we got off the building site behind our house are sycamore, a good wood for clog making, as it splits less as it dries out. Alder could have been a good choice too.

Next, I sawed a longer-than-foot-sized piece off it. It had been there a while, and I figured the end might be a bit less nice. I was right! I like to use my legs to brace wood when I am rough sawing, and this time I just used the woodworking(is it a crosscut?) saw in the cupboard. I was impressed at the way it handled the green wood. I would have gone for a Bow saw, if we had one. Then for splitting. taking the saw again, I made a cut across the top of the log, following the largest radial split. That was to try and eliminate my work splitting further down the line.

When the cut was deep enough to hold it in place, I took the splitting axe and centered it in that cut.
The next bit could have been easier with another pair of hands(by this time the Girl had started her own project).
balancing a piece of wood on the back of the axe, I took a lump hammer and had a smack at it. repeat as necessary.

When the axe "bit", I did away with the wood and hammer. turned the whole affair upside down and dropped it on said wood several times, using the weight of the log to drive the axe in, and split it!!

The split was quite clean, with only minimal twist. Dunno if that is to do with the wood. Who cares, I'm happy!
So, figured our how wide I wanted it by putting the "master" clog on end of the wood and snapped a line across the ball. Took an axe and trimmed the edges of the half-log down to size.

Above you can see the two different axes I was using. On the left was the splitting axe, which has a wedge-shaped profile, therefore driving the wood apart. The one on the right has a Kent axe head, and that has a thinner blade, so more useful for trimming and shaping the wood.

To be continued....

Queens Road Craft Fair-19/6

I will be attending Queens Road Craft Fair on 19th of June, with my patterns, baby booties, yarn and felted soaps. looks to be a fine craft fair, full of actual CRAFT stalls. see you there!

Fancy spats

An innovative accessory for jazzing up boring shoes, or wear as frilly wrist warmers. In 4 sizes from toddler to large adult, techniques needed include jogless joins, picking up stitches and knitting in the round. shown here in debbie bliss cashmerino aran.                                         




FREE!!

  .

Jester blanket

A fun and usable centre out reversible baby blanket with a knitted on edging. £3.00

knit on circular needles, this knit is shown in Cat.inna.hat creation's Wow, super aran!, in colourway Over the rainbow and Teal, and measures 43x33.5”/110x85cm

the wheel turns

My spinning wheel is an Ashford Traditional, an extended sub-loan from a home-ed contact, the second Traditional I have had the pleasure of borrowing.

Some "modifications" of the system have been made(nothing permanent, don't worry wheel owner!). I prefer to have a cotton thread on the scotch tension, rather than the plastic one. It wears out, but bees wax helps. The drive band is also now just cotton "thrums". These 2 system mods are really down to laziness, as I can't be bothered to find real replacements, I guess. Or on a more positive note, maybe it is "lateral thinking when faced with a problem". I am sure that is what my parents would have written on the LEA report, had this been 10 years ago!

Below are pictures of the parts The Man has produced for me.

I checked out some of the flyers available for Ashfords, and was, er, unimpressed at the price asked for them. A bit of math to work out the ratios I was after and only a small amount of begging, and He made me the above flyer. The drive cog is interchangable, and the arms of the flyer at a better angle than the one the Ashford comes with, so now there will be no "rubbing" before my yarn falls off the ends of the bobbin, from lack of space!

The last pic is the lazy kate that belongs with the Ashford, plus my hefty stash of new bobbins He created for me.

The ashford is a really easy wheel to learn on. I did get to try a couple of others before I was lent one, and it was the Ashford that really made it all "click". Now though I prefer an upright, as it helps me position myself more centrally to my work. When you spin for hours at a time you can get very lop-sided!

I am hoping that one day I will get a wheel made to all my specifications and style choices, but until the kitchen, conservatory, porch, attic conversion and brick shed are complete, I think I won't push it.

next craft room post will feature the sewing machine!

Cosy forever

download now

cosy forever

A small project that will last from Toddler-hood to Adolescence. Starting as leg warmers worn with the thumb flap buttoned as an interesting design feature, as you grow too big they then become warm warmers, or fingerless gloves when the the flap is unbuttoned! Great excuse to use some really good quality yarn that will last through childhood.
Alternatively just make for yourself as a versatile arm-thingy!

a free pattern!
shown above knit in Debbie bliss cashmerino aran

Snake wrist cardi

my first design, yippee!
pdf file costing £3.00, two sizes, 2-4, 4-6 years.












shown knit in babylonglegs radiance aran(purple one), and sublime yarns cashmere merino silk aran(green one).