Sashiko progress

If you take a look at this post you’ll see what a group of us are doing on a Tuesday morning with Neighbours and Needles.  We’re using a technique called Sashiko and you can find out all about it here.

This is my one side of the bag but I’m not sure if I’ve finished it or not!!!  

Gloves again!!

Progress is being made!!!   Each finger has its own label!!!  Another lesson I’ve learned with this pattern/idea is to knit half of the finger (roughly) then turn it inside out and darn in the starting tail.  This saves struggling to turn the whole glove inside out at the finish.

Actually this is a habit I have carried over from my tatting adventures.  I always sew in ends as I go along.  I cringe at the thought of sewing in ends when I see people who make HUGE doilies and then face the task of sewing in!!  Train the brain is my advice!!!!

Anyway here’s where I’m ‘at’ now!!!

Julie's next pill

Julie is back again with more help/advice.  I’m hoping you’re not going to suffer from a drug addiction, Julie!!!!   This is her last post about the pill.  

This is what Julie has to say this time and I must thank her for her advice and for taking the trouble to tell us all too. 

“Here's my second pill. Posing with a needle cover I used for stuffing this time.”

Tim’s take on the Happy Pill

Tim has definitely taken to making Happy Pills and has found another way to make them too.  I like the red lipstick, Tim!!!  Very apt that this should be posting on Valentine’s Day!!!!

Here’s his blog post last week on what he found works for him.

Another pair of gloves

A member of the family has lost a glove so I’m making her another pair.  This is the pattern I use and I really love it.   The only problem I found with this pattern is doing the i-cord fingers.  I just couldn’t get them to look as neat as I’d like so I used dpn’s and forgot about i’cord!!!

The gloves are worked from the fingers down to the cuff which means that if you’re using oddments of yarn you can work them in easily (and imaginatively!) when you get to the hand part.  I quite like the fingers to be the same colour (and the thumb) yarn but I’m not fussy about the palm/back etc.

The main thing to remember is to label each finger as you go along.  I ‘thought I’d know which finger was which on my first pair a few years ago but I was SOOOO wrong!!!  

Here’s the first finger.  It’s pretty hard to start with six stitches on dpn’s (double pointed needles) but using ‘non slippery’ needles is the answer - not metal ones like I’ve used here!!!!   They kept slipping out!!!  Joanie sent me home with a vast collection of bamboo knitting needles when I last visited her in America so I quickly found a set of dpn’s of the ‘right’ size and the rest of the fingers will be done with those.

Time to take a pill!!!

Julie has had a great idea for putting inside the pills - a pen top.  Why didn’t I think of that?!?!

I asked her for permission to share her pill and she said this

“Of course you can!  I was going to try a needle cap but I cut it off too short. I want to try a longer one next time. My co-workers are asking for  them .”

Thanks for showing and sharing, Julie but do you think that the doctors will be worried about losing their jobs if people start giving out tatted pills?!?!

Look, look, LOOK

How to make an old git happy!!! 

Tim sent in a Happy Pill very quickly yesterday.  I love to know that people manage the crazy patterns I do.   

The answer to yesterday’s moan

Well I hope this will cheer you up a bit.  The ‘Tatting Doctor’ has prescribed a Happy Pill to get us all through the winter doldrums.  

I thought this was a great idea and thanks to Sue (who planted the idea in BC3's head) and Stephanie (who test tatted it) it’s finally made its way onto the pattern site.  Believe me it’s not a hard pattern to tat (mainly split rings) but making it make sense proved very challenging!!!  

The pill can be stiffened or stuffed to retain its shape.  

During research on pills I learned a LOT.  I was trying to avoid making them in colours that people would find a bit upsetting but realised that no colour combinations of colours were attributed to any particular health problem.  

Anyway, here’s the Happy Pill.

Monday moan

Well there’s not a lot that can be done about today’s moan but I may have the answer tomorrow.  It’s post Christmas and up here in the northern hemisphere the days are short - no, that’s wrong as they’re always the same length!!!  I’ll try again.

It’s post Christmas and up here above the equator daylight is short and darkness goes on forever.  Here in the UK it’s cold and grey and this can last for days and days, weeks and weeks.  This can cause depression and a lack of stimulation to do anything except curl up in a cozy chair and read or make something. 

Well thanks to Sue showing something on a zoom meeting back in (probably) November/December BC3 came up with a ‘good idea’.  Well he thought it was but little did he know how much trouble that was going to cause ME!!!  

The solution to the winter blues could arrive tomorrow here on this blog/pattern site.  

The jumper is finished

Started last winter, abandoned because of shoulder problems, taken out of ‘storage’ again this winter and finally finished.  I’m pretty pleased with it too for once!!!.

The pattern is worked from the neck down and is quite ‘convoluted’.  The pattern can be found here in Ravelry.

Socks are finished

Actually they were finished well before Christmas but I got behind with posting on the blog!!!  

Remember these guys?  Well they were stuffed into the socks and were given as a Christmas present!!

After this week I’m all up to date with the crafty stuff and the blogging so I’d better get busy again!!!

A new project

This is the start of another project which will be given away - unless I fall in love with it first!!

It’s another free ball of yarn I got from Hobbycraft.  

The only stitch needed is knit stitch and the pattern came from here,  The reason the edges aren’t curling are because the pattern uses an i-cord edging.  You can find the instructions for i-cord in the pattern and its drop down easy.  Or you can look at the instructions here.

Amended reverse join

I’ve been working on a pattern to teach later this year and it uses a reverse join.  I realised that my page on how to do one wasn’t probably as clear as it could be so I’ve changed it slightly.  

Here’s the link should you want/need it.  Here is the link to a simple technique that is very useful.  Thanks to Elaine for bringing it to our attention.

Now for a picture to cheer the page up!!!

Monday moan

As a lot of you probably know there have been some changes in one of the tatting groups on Facebook.  I’ve always enjoyed that particular group because advertising patterns for sale was restricted to three days a month.  The new rules are now allowing people to show business posts every day - but they’re not allowing spamming.  I hope this works as it will serve the community well but we’ll have to ‘wait and see’.  I may even do a bit of self promoting myself each day!!!  IF BC3 remembers, of course!!!

I very rarely go onto Facebook as I get email notifications when ‘things happen’ and 99% of the time I just delete the email and don’t go to have a look.  But when people were posting up to three times a day trying to sell their patterns in the past and on ALL the groups I'm in - well that is a bit annoying.  The emails just kept coming!

Eventually I found the answer - I found I could block the constantly annoying people so that I never saw what they’re up to - or what patterns they have for sale.  Did I miss them?  Actually, not one bit and I didn’t get half as many emails either.  

If the new rules work (and I very much hope they do) I may even resort to unblocking those that used to constantly bombard them with selling posts.

Teddy bear

I got bored with myself and the long haul on the jumper so decided to make this little chap.  Here’s a link to him 

I was going to give him away but I haven’t been able to part with him - yet!!!  I will one day but meanwhile he’s sitting looking at me!!!  

A shawl scarf

This is made out of one ball of Hobbycraft yarn that I ‘bought’ with one of their free vouchers.  This is the pattern I used.

Because the yarn was free I will be donating this to a charity of some sort.  I love it but I don’t need it and somebody else might.  Simple pattern.which was trebles (English crochet terms) and little else.  I did add a shell edging and a couple of rows of doubles on the neck edge too but those came ‘out of my head’. 

I’ve been working on this at my crafty social groups as it’s a ‘no brainier’ and as I’ve only got 3 brain cells (BC3) it works well for me.  I’ve got another ball of ‘free’ yarn so will be making another ‘something or other’ to give away too.  I need simple things to work on when I’m gossiping or I have to undo and redo the same thing each time I get home!!!!  

A sleeve!

Now the first sleeve is finished I can admit to you that it gave me some grief!!  

Well, not the sleeve exactly but the shoulder I’d joined it to just didn’t ‘sit’ right.  My lovely pals at Friday Knitting advised that I should redo the shoulder.  YIKES.

This meant not only ripping out the sleeve I’d started (I’d done the short rows to get the sleeve ‘cap’ done) but also meant un-sewing the shoulder seam which had been done top down.  Think about it!!  That’s a NIGHTMARE.  I took many many hours sorting both shoulders out before starting the sleeve again.  

As you can see I still have another sleeve to do!!!

I’ve been round the Wrekin!!!

Bet you’re wondering what that means!!!  Well it’s a saying here in the UK and this is a link to an interesting story.   If you say to somebody ‘I went round the Wrekin to get here’ it means you took the long way round!!  I always think a heel is a long way round and feel I’ve been all the way round the Wrekin to get to the straight ‘bit’.  Lesson of the day finished!!!

A bracelet and earrings

Last Friday I was browsing the charity shops in Alcester when I noticed this little bracelet and earring set.  It looked sort of familiar.  When I looked closely I realised the person who’d made it had used my pattern .  They’d done a truly beautiful job on it too.  I took photographs and decided to contact the seller.  Thankfully they’d got a website.  

I had a lovely message back from Sally who said she hadn’t made it and couldn’t tat!!!  This is what she said 

“However, I don't do tatting and never have done. My husband and I only do fused and stained glass as you have seen on the web site.

How our label got attached to something else I have no idea. Although the labels usually peel off they do stick quite fast to the glass.

I can only assume that someone thought it may sell better with a label attached.

Many many years ago (about 50+) I did make a macrame plant hanger and i used to do a lot of crocheting but have not done either for many years.

Carry on with the good work and happy crafting.”

So if anybody knows who DID make this bracelet I would love them to pass on the message that I’m very flattered they used my pattern and that they did an amazing job on it too.  

Two white mice!!

Before the ‘silly season’ I decided to make Liz a mouse but you know what mice are like - they breed rapidly!!!  Liz has an affection for the mice I’ve got lurking around our house.  She often moves them secretly and hides them in different places in the house and I’ve even found them in the fridge - once hiding in my steel cut oats!!!  Fortunately that one hadn’t eaten much!!!

Here are the two I’ve made for her own amusement at her own house and they arrived on Christmas Day!!!