Winter knitting and crochet

It is freezing in Joburg the last week. OK, freezing for us southern hemisphere inhabitants who are used to sunny days....The weather has inspired me to do some knitting and crocheting in front of a cosy fireplace.

I found these stunning patterns from Knit 1 on Ravelry. They are the Magnum Reversible Vest in knit and crochet and the Magnum Capelet. All made with Magnum yarn from Cascade Yarns, a super chunky 100% wool. Sadly not available in South Africa, so I had to use substitutes.

First I made the crochet Reversible Vest with Sirdar Indie shade # 0156, a lovely mix of brown, creme, green and purple. Using a size 12mm crochet hook it took me a few nights to finish it. This is such a simple pattern, although I did change the pattern quite a bit to make mine fit as I wanted it to.

The first picture on this post shows the finished vest, all in one piece. Next time I would make the armholes closer to the top to make a smaller collar, but I love the length.

My attempt at making the knitted version was not so successful. Actually the vest came out perfect, but as I followed the pattern exactly, it ended up way too small! The designer must be a very small lady. I am trying to work out a way to make it bigger...

Then I decided to make an even more easy vest. This is also in ONE piece . I knitted with size 12mm circular needles that are 80cm long as it was easier and lighter than using regular iknitting needles. The wool is Gedifra I found at Arthur Bales in Linden at a bargain price of R40 a skein, that is about $5 a skein! Sadly, this gorgeous wool is being discontinued. The story of my life...

I knitted the vest without any shaping for the arms and shoulders and looking at it on, I think it might be good to do that next time. Still lovely, cozy and warm....

Lastly, I started on the Magnum Capelet from Knit 1. This is where I am right now. Very difficult to try on as the needles just hold all the stitches. I am using Sirdar Indie in shade #0155, a beautiful mix of natural, blue and green. Cannot wait to use this warm capelet!

I also made 3 crocheted hats. This Winter's absolute must-have color - mustard-yellow -was a given, so I took 2 skeins from my most protected yarn stash ever - the last 8 skeins of the discontinued Elle Wool Boutique Merino Solids in Light Mustard. (I called EVERY wool shop in South Africa to find only 10 skeins!). I even lined the hat with mustard colored knit fabric. I also made a grey and dark pink hat, but will post pics as soon as they are also lined.

I have had enough of uploaded pictures disappearing for one day, thank you. I will post soon again. Hope you enjoy looking at all my projects.

Fabulous new stash!

I think you all know that this week is my LYS , Arthur Bales's, big July sale. Big surprize, I have been there twice this week already! I was a bit stumped when I said to one of the ladies working there that I won't be back again this week and she replied that she is sure I will! Ok, not really so shocking...Anyway, before we move on to my exciting new yarn (and fabric) loot, first some exciting post this week from my lovely, talented friend in Staphorst, The Netherlands.

Inside this lovely fabric parcel wrapped with gorgeous ribbon was a selection of fabulous original Staphorst cotton fabric. In lovely shades of purple, lilac and blue. I love the fabric, Gina! I have been keeping it close, staring and touching and I fear I won't use it for a while...but since lilac and purple is my current colours, I might just make that fabric bag I have been dying to make. A lovely postcard of Staphorst and an adorable keyring with Dutch wooden shoes. This is so going onto my car keys soon! Love the homemade strawberry too. Thanks so much Gina! Visit Gina here http://gingini.web-log.nl/gingini to see her lovely creations.

On to the new loot. Here are some of my new yarn, and yes, I did buy one piece of fabric. You can see my piece of lovely pink and wine red corduroy fabric in the photo below. It was rather expensive fabric, imported from Japan. I have been drooling over this for a while...I am going through my patterns looking for the right dress. I want to make a country type dress with a flair sewn on the sleeves and hem and since I do not have such a pattern, I will modify one I have.

This time I decided I am going to stock up on the more expensive yarns I hesitate to spend on, instead of stocking up on the cheaper acrylic yarns. So, first on my list was super bulky wool. Of course, Rowan Big Wool was a given. Not sure of the name of this colour, the package and label does not say, but I think it is called "Smitten Kitten". I have a bag pattern from the Rowan Big Easy booklet in mind for this. On the left is Sirdar Denim Ultra Mega Chunky, a mix of cotton and wool and really nice for a natural coloured bag or scarf.

The ultimate spoil for me was this - Rowan Pure Cashmere DK. Horrendously expensive, it arrived very recently and was on about a 20% discount, so I jumped on the last three in this lovely pink. I am thinking a summer scarf or wrap. What do you think?

I also stocked up on the last of the discontinued Elle Merino Solids felting wool (not pictured). My stash is looking good except for the yellow and black which I cannot find anywhere. So, here is the last of my new stash. I could not resist the lovely blue Elle Toy Time acrylic yarn. Not sure what to make yet, so will go in the stash for later. The Vinnis Colours organic cotton is to add to my growing stash to make a lovely colourful bag I have in mind and maybe also some washcloths and tray cloths.

Then I thought I will share what I am busy with right now. I have been working on both these projects during the evenings this week when I have a chance. This is a neckwarmer in moss stitch from a pattern called "Envy" on Ravelry. I already have the buttons picked out, but knitting is so sloooow.

Compared to crochet, that is, which is why I started another project this week. I just love these colours together! This is a wavy type pattern and i am using local yarns from Elle to make a unique bag. In fact, so unique, I do not even know myself yet what the end result will be! I saw a picture of a stunning bag online and sort of started making something similar, but as always, I digressed...

This Saturday I am shopping at the International Fashion Sale at the Coca-Cola Dome near my house. It's now hosted twice a year and an opportunity to buy expensive branded clothing, shoes, bags and perfume at up to 70% off. What woman can resist that?! My best friend, sister and niece will be joining me in a day of shopping and fun! Hope you are all having a fabulous week!

New stash

On the last day of the Arthur Bales Sale, I found this. Not on sale, sadly, but still at a great price. This is the most fabulous quality knit jersey fabric in black and purple polka dots. (The brown in the middle is from another shop at three times the price!) I purchased 2,5m of each as I am not sure what I want to make yet. (Of course, I have been a regular visitor on http://www.sewingpatterns.com recently too!)

I started knitting a scarf the other night. Love this thick yarn. I am using the huge knitting needles that came free with a copy of Let's Knit magazine from the UK. It's one HUGE skein. Since I am off to Chicago in just two weeks' time, I need a few warm things.

I have also been busy searching for nice new fabric handbag patterns and ended up buying a few patterns too. I just cannot decide on which one to make first! Hope you are all having a great week so far!

Circular Knitting Needle Storage

My collection of circular knitting needles is growing. All the time. Storing them neatly has become such a problem lately that I was forced to start thinking of a better way to store them. I do not like any of the products on the market, so started looking at ideas other crafters came up with.

The idea I liked most was using smaller ring-binder type pouches such as in the photo above. I started looking at CD pouches, but could not find what I was looking for. CD pouches have slots for CD's and I wanted the ring-binder type. So Friday I paid my one and only local Thrift Store a visit. And I found THREE pouches just perfect for it!

I also found tins that I wanted for my straight needles.

The shorter, round tin will be suitably "embellished" to show off pretty knitting needles on my desk and the long tin for all the other straight knitting needles. I am delighted to say that all these items cost me less than $10! And can you believe the pouches are all leather?!

Most crafters used zip-lock type of plastic bags to store their circular knitting needles and just added stickers with the needle size and length on top. This is very neat and a great storage idea. However, I wanted to SEW my storage bags, not buy them. So I planned, plotted and measured and cut out fabric. Basically, it is just a long, doubled rectangle of fabric sewn up, and folded over for the pocket. I ironed on a very thin, lightweight fusible interfacing on one side only to give it some strength but not make it bulky.

This is the first sewn "pocket". I am so pleased with how it came out. Next step was to make the holes and set the eyelets.

I used my old faithful Crop-A-Dile from my scrapbooking days to make the holes and set the eyelets. My favorite and most useful tool!

Here's a close-up of my finished pockets with the eyelets all set.

The first pouch almost completed with 5 pockets for now, but still need to make quite a few more. I still need to work on an idea to label each pocket with the size and length of each needle. This must be an idea that allows me to add to my collection all the time, so I need to be able to change the label often. I do not want the pouches to be too bulky, so will only make up to 8 pockets per pouch. I still have some small changes to make to the pockets to make them perfect, but overall I love my new Circular Knitting Needle storage pouch.

I am so in the mood to sew a few handbags again! I went through all my patterns the weekend and selected a few bags I have not made before. I even selected fabric for one of them. Now I just need to find the time! Hope you all have a great week!

Happy 2010!

A bit late to say Happy New Year, but I am back from holiday and already into work, if not so much craftiness. Despite great plans, and long lists, of things I planned to make during my holiday, not much of that happened...I did make a few items of clothing that I really like and felted a few bags, but instead of trying to catch up with posting on more than a month's projects, I will rather post more recent projects.

I found this very easy pattern in the digital Creative Knitting magazine that I subscribe to. Saturday I went Arthur Bales in Linden and purchased this lovely yarn that has a small percentage Mohair content, ideal for this pattern. The pattern is really easy, just a rectangular tube knitted on circular needles. It calls for you to make a twist in the needles before you join the first row together in the round. Can you believe how difficult it was to twist the stitches on purpose?! After a few problems when I started knitting with circular needles, I make a point to ensure the stitches are NOT twisted and for the life of me, I could not get it twisted! Eventually I did, but don't ask me how.

I am working on a gorgeous purple dress as well as a purple top at the moment and thought I will crochet a nice hat and scarf to go with it. I really liked the creme and purple yarn together, so mixed the two. I am still deciding on the scarf pattern, so will start this soon.

As always, when paying a visit to the LYS, in this case Arthur Bales in Linden, I end up buying more than the things on my list! I have been coveting this KnitPro set for a while and on Saturday, I bought it. The set has 3 different cables and 3 different size needles and the price was good. I have been buying some of the KnitPro circular needles seperately the last few months and now almost have a full set. I hate it when I want to start a project and I do not have the correct needles. Now I do!

I also bought these, on my list for a while now. With all the clothing sewing going on the last few weeks, and more to come, I have wanted these stretch twin needles badly. They were rather expensive, but I believe worth it. I cannot wait to test them!

I also want to share my favorite new "shop" with you. The last few months I have been buying clothing patterns online from www.sewingpatterns.com. I adore this site. You can purchase downloadable patterns from many companies such as Burda (my favorite), New Look, Butterick, McCalls and many others. This is instant satisfaction! Just my kind of thing. I will be in my sewing room and decide to make a top or dress, but have no pattern. On the Internet I go, select the pattern, pay via PayPal and within 15 minutes I can download my pattern. You actually print it directly from the site, celotape the pages together and cut out your pattern. The patterns cost a lot less too. Most patterns are between $2,99 and $3,99 each, a lot less than in the shops. I just bought two new patterns yesterday again, so look out for some finished projects this week.

Hope you all have a great week and I promise to post more often now!

More felted bags!

No matter what I do, I cannot stop making more knitted/crocheted felted bags! This bug has truly bitten me. I am itching to sew some more clothes for the Build Your Wardrobe challenge hosted by Kate, so I am trying to get as many bags finished this week as I can. This weekend is SEWING time! I just received my copies of the latest Burda Fashion magazine and Sew magazine from the UK, and there are some fabulous stuff in. I have even sorted through my dress fabric last night and plan to sew a few skirts this weekend. First the felted bags though.

I promised my sister I will make her a Puff Bag with pink and blue yarn. Tuesday night I dumped my pink bag I am busy knitting and started on her bag. This bag goes so quickly, I love it! I finished itr last night and dumped it in the washing machine at 9pm because I just could not wait to see the result. I regretted this as I was still waiting for the machine to finish at 11pm! It was however worth every minute. It is drying at the moment and I will share pics of the completed bag when I have sewed on the handles and done the lining.

My first bag with Cascade 220 yarn I bought in the UK. What a shock it was! This yarn is a lot thinner than the local Elle Merino Solids I am used to, so I will use double yarn next time. The most shocking part was the shrinkage! I used the entire hank on one bag and the bag shrunk about 50% in height! It is so small now. It felted nicely though but did crease a bit in the spin cycle. Love the colour and will for sure make more cerise pink bags!

My friend from work, Joyce, made me this fabulous black and cerise pink bag! It is big and roomy and my favorite colours! Joyce is really amazing as she has never been formally taught how to crochet and she makes the most amazing bags, mittens, hats and blankets without any patterns! I think it is a cultural thing. African ladies are just so talented! She will soon be teaching me how to make the traditional African beaded necklaces I love so much.

Now I am determined that some clothes and fabric bags will be sewn this weekend. My fabric is ready and I have selected patterns, mostly skirts and tops for work. Watch this space!

Weekend Projects

I am really excited about the Build Your Wardrobe challenge I am participating in! I made another top. Yes, it's the same pattern I used for the previous two tops, from my Burda magazine. I do own other patterns. But I like this one so much! The next top will be a different pattern, I promise!

This yellow stretch jersey fabric was on sale at a local Fabric store last week. It was the last 2 metres on the roll and marked down to R7 a meter! That's less than $1 a meter. Bargain! I decided to mix the yellow with some black around the waist and arms. Really nice, I think. A few things I learnt about yellow and this fabric - it gets dirty very quickly; shows marks very clearly; is unforgiving - it shows any figure flaws very clearly!

Yellow is not a colour I own. In fact, I found only ONE yellow item in my entire closet last week. What started my craze to make something in yellow is this bag below.

I saw the pattern for this bag, called a Seed Stitch bag, in the Interweave Store. Love at first sight! I immediately purchased the pattern but could not find chunky yellow yarn anywhere. So I made one with lovely orange and gold yarn I had. I changed the pattern (no surprize there!) and sadly it came out HUGE! So big, I am too embarrassed to post it! I am working on a plan to selvage this bag...

At the same Fabric shop I bought the above yellow jersey fabric, I found this lovely Elle Chunky wool in a bright yellow. Also for a great price! This time I stuck to the pattern. The above is the result. Love the bag! It's smaller than the bag in the pattern because they used a thicker yarn, but I love it. I even made a sturdy insert for the bottom of the bag, covered in lovely yellow fabric and re-inforced the handle so it does not stretch too much. The yellow looks lovely with jeans, doesn't it?

Torture sticks!

Have you seen these things before? They are called circular knitting needles but I am convinced they are torture sticks! I thought it was the coolest thing to use to knit a bag and most of the patterns I downloaded calls for it. It is not.

Every pattern mentions "be careful so the stitches don't twist...". How on earth can you see if the stitches are twisted if the thing won't stop twisting?! I had knitted for about an hour when I decided to check if the stitches are OK, and guess what? The stitches were twisted! This is after an hour of wrestling with these needles, stretching the knitting and lots of swearing. A whole 10 rows knitted. So, I am back to conventional knitting needles. So what if the bag has a few seams?

I prefer crochet anyway. It is so much quicker and easier. Yesterday was Youth Day in South Africa and I went shopping for books. Again. This is what I found.

This book has 20 fabulous crocheted, felted bag patterns inside! I will post some pics of some of my favorites as soon as I have taken them. I am already busy making one as you can see in the picture in a lovely mustard yellow and rusty brown colour. This is local felting wool from Elle that I found on sale at my local Bernina store on Monday.

Lots of sewing on my to-do list as well, but sewing is mostly restricted to weekends nowadays. Knitting and crochet is quicker and easier to do on weeknights, so I hope to have my two bags finished in time to felt them on the weekend.

Felting success - sort of...

Well, I went to the washing machine with mixed feelings last night when the cycle ended. My first attempt at felting bags was in there....

Success! The Sublime Angora Merino wool felted beautifully! Sadly, the bag is a long sausage shape and the top opening is rather small, but I am still so pleased that it worked! Here is a close up of the felted bag...

Love it! The little bow I knitted also felted beautifully, although a little uneven.

As for the black and orange round bag, not so good...

And this wool yarn is supposedly specifically for felting. Umph! I am also a bit miffed because I only read on a blog today that you must stitch the opening of the bag closed to avoid this gaping. Overall not too bad, but not as good as the first bag.

As for my samples, mixed feelings. The pink is a sample of the 100% wool yarn from Portugal which I had high hopes for, but it did not felt so well. The purple is the same Portuguese wool. It took me several days to knit this piece! The wool is very thick. Felted OK.

These babies are busy drying at the moment and I am planning the next felted bag projects! Hope you have a good week!

Weekend projects

I have spent the entire weekend sitting mostly in one spot and crocheted and knitted. Damn but this stuff takes so loooong! I am however determined to test my fabulous new wool yarn to see if it felts. This is what I made.This yarn is amazingly soft! At almost $8 a skein I expect it to be! It is Sublime angora merino yarn that consists of 80% extra fine merino wool and 20% angora and seems to be made in England. I found a free pattern here http://www.thepurseworkshop.com/felted-crochet-bag-pattern.html. I did not make mine exactly the same as the pattern called for several colours and this was just too much for me being a novice! I had my Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques handy all the time. The bow is from Nicky Epstein's - the Queen of felted bags - book, Fabulous Felted Bags and can be removed.

It came out very long and I worried that I will end up with a sausage shaped bag after felting. What would I carry around in that?! But then I read that felting shrinks more in the length than the width, so let's hope it is OK. It is in my washing machine for a second run as I post this. After the first short cycle it looked the same, so I put it in for a longer cycle.

I also crocheted this round bag. I found the idea here http://www.instructables.com/id/felted-bag/. I know this yarn will felt as I have used it before but not in my front-loader washing machine. I read however that you can felt in a front-loader so let's hope!

I also found this fabulous 100% wool yarn in a local shop. It is from Portugal. It also feels so soft but so difficult to knit with as it is double knit. I am trying to split the pink yarn but this seems very difficult as it breaks.

I will post again on the outcome of the felting process tomorrow. Let's hope my bags and pieces felt!

Knit, felt, knit, felt...

I am back on that crazy horse called FELTING! As if I did not have enough of it last year and I had the blisters to show. With the lack of Thrift stores selling wool and cashmere sweaters in South Africa, I consulted my lovely book, Easy Felted Accessories.

This book suggests knitting by hand or machine, felting the pieces and then cutting and sewing the fabulous projects featured. The projects range from hats to gloves, a blanket, needle book, slippers, scarves, corsages and other quick and easy projects.

Knitting goes fast, not so? I can quickly knit a large piece and make this fabulous bag by Saturday night!

Off to the Yarn shop I went Saturday morning and guess what? They had a SALE! I found the most gorgeous Portuguese 100% wool yarn, the purple yarn featured in the first pic of this post, and some lovely local felting wool yarn.

Enrhusiastic, I strarted knitting away. Knitting is NOT fast. It is NOT easy on my poor hands that are not used to this exercise either. By Saturday night, this is how far I got, as you can see in the first pic of this post. How do knitters DO it? Wish I had a knitting machine. Or better, can find some wool sweaters for cheap. Ah well, I'll get there, maybe by Xmas?

Just look at these fabulous felted rose corsages. Another quick project in this book. These will look so stunning on my knitted, felted bag!

And don't forget my knitted, felted Russian Hat! I want one!

With our sunny, warm weather in South Africa, we do not wear wool and cashmere sweaters, so the shops do not sell much of it. If you do find it at upmarket stores they can cost about $90 each. I do own a handful of cashmere sweaters, but at that price I will not be cutting them up!

I am on a mission to find some cheap wool sweaters and surfing the internet is high on the priority list. No luck so far, but I am determined. Knit, felt is clearly not the way!

Felted Bags

Did I make these? No way! I can knit but my sister Linda is the expert knitter in the family! This was however her first attempt at felting and I think it looks devine. I sent her a copy of Nicky Epstein's Fabulous Felted Bags and some 100% wool yarn and she started playing around.

She also made me some extra roses with some wool left. Not sure what I will do with this yet but I am sure it will come in handy sometime. I do plan to make a fabric lining for these bags and more sturdy handles. Another item for my "to do list" which grows all the time!