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!!

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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).

woops, spring sprung!

So the camera hasn't come out in the craft room again yet, because I am struggling to get in there. the sunshine came out, and so did I. Into the garden, that is.
After only one afternoon of timing the children in the garden(making them stay out in the "fresh air". what a tyrant!), we have managed to fall back into a nice pattern of spending a couple of hours out there every afternoon, while they play in the chicken house, digging patch, or with the big ball, whilst I dream vegetables. I can tell when the soil is right for planting because the neighbourhood cat starts doing its business in the beds again.
Dug over last years beds and covered them with black plastic just before those really strong winds came....luckily I have a lot of bricks in the garden, so it only took one midnight garden visit to stop the plastic going halfway down the street. Now I just have to be patient and let the soil warm up so I can put in my beans and onion sets. horray!