Happy Thanksgiving!

We do not celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa, but Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends who do celebrate it! I think the closest we get to Thanksgiving is Family Day, the day after Xmas. Sadly, we normally are forced to spend time with family on that day as we are unable to move after over-eating on Xmas day!

I know I have not been blogging regularly lately, but things are rather crazy at work and I have been too tired to make anything the last two weeks. I tend to just lie around and read and rest on weekends. I hope that is over now as I have many projects waiting!

Like this dress I want to make. Not a great picture, but it is a plain, semi-fitted, jersey dress in a light grey. I have bought the jersey fabric, hunted down the perfect pattern, and now just have to DO it! I have fabulous grey shoes that will go perfectly with it. Then I need to make the perfect felted bag to match it.

There is a stunning light and dark grey felted bag pattern in this book that will go perfectly and I have all the yarn needed to make it. Of course, there are many other projects I am keen to do, such as more jersey tops, skirts, fabric bags and more felted bags. Let's hope my moyo remains around this weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Build Your Wardrobe sewing

I had another weekend of just pottering around doing this and that, but nothing creative really. On Sunday afternoon I realized the weekend is almost finished again and I NEED to make something. Now.

The question was: do I make a bag, or clothing? I decided to sew something from the pile I cut out the previous weekend. Love this jersey fabric and might still have enough left for a skirt. I now forget the pattern name. I will update this post soon with that detail.

What a lovely pattern! Recently, I made a similar cross-over dress from another pattern and at the first fitting, I was horrified! It was HUGE! This pattern is stunning. The top fits perfectly.

I bribed my son to take the picture, so it is obvious there was no interest really...I used a plain black jersey for the neck trim and normally I suck at the neck trim. It always come out too lose or puckered. This time it worked perfectly. I think you have guessed it! More of this style to come! If I find a nice pattern that fits me well, I make several!

I also received several parcels last Monday. All stuff I ordered a while back. It felt like Xmas will all three parcels arriving on the same day!

First up, two parcels with yummy new yarn, all for felting bags! I ordered some from http://www.littleknits.com/ and some from http://yarn.com/. Little knits had great prices on Cascade 220, although limited colours and also the book I have been wanting for ages! Yarn.com had a great price on the Shepherd wool in delicious colours.

This book. You might remember a few posts back this book was on my wishlist? The bags are all knitted, then felted, and all awesome. I cannot decide which one to make first. Littleknits also has Book 11 with more felted bags on sale now, so I might order that soon.

I also received the three books I ordered from http://www.kalahari.net, our local "Amazon". I'll share more on these books in my next post. Hope you all have a great Friday!

Sewing weekend...

I am rather mad at myself because my progress was so slow this weekend! Why do weekends go so fast? Saturday I went out to meet my friend for tea and then, totally unplanned and not wise, decided to visit Arthur Bales, my favorite local fabric and yarn store.

I found this lovely Rowan booklet with 17 felted accessory patterns in and a copy of Designer Knitting. The Rowan book has some amazing knitted, felted bags in it!

Like this one...

And this one. But the bag on the cover of the book remains my favorite. Of course, I spent hours poring over the new books..Back to my sewing weekend then...

Did I leave the LYS empty-handed? Of course not. What a silly question. I bought this lovely light grey jersey fabric for a dress I want to make. The pink polka-dot fabric (a great weakness of mine, I cannot walk away from pink polka-dot fabric!) is for some fabric bags I want to make. I also bought 2 balls of creme coloured Peruvian wool yarn (very expensive yarn!) as I want to make a felted bag in brown and creme to go with a new skirt I want to make.

So what did I accomplish this weekend? Not much! I never even opened my sewing machine! I spent HOURS poring over patterns, doing more tracing and cutting out of patterns, and finally did some cutting of fabric. On Sunday afternoon! Above is a picture that shows my (un)productive weekend! I have cut out 2 jersey tops (on the right) and two skirts. The one consolation is that I am ready to sew at any time. Should I have time this week, I can just whip the machine open and start sewing!

I did manage to finish my sister's Pinktulip Puff Bag last night! Just because I HAD to. The parcel is ready to go off today. I ran out of the lovely denim blue yarn and had to find yarn that sort of matched to sew on the handles. I decided not to add lining to the bag as it came out lovely and thick. Hope she likes it!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Getting ready for the weekend...

Last night I started getting things ready for my planned "sewing weekend". I selected fabrics, looked for suitable patterns and then traced off some of the patterns I plan to use from my Burda magazines. Tonight I will start cutting out and maybe even sew a bit. I might even finally use my serger!

The threading on my serger scares me spitless. Since I bought an older second-hand model, I do not have the user manual. Searching on the internet has not been successful either. Must get over this now.

I hope to show some nice creations on Monday. Maybe even a fabric bag or two as well. Lova's bag looks awesome...

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!

New Stash from England

This is my FIRST purchase of Manos yarn. Fabulous colours, very expensive, but so worth it! I had literally 2 hours to pop out for some shopping during my trip last week. Staying in Bracknell outside of London makes shopping limited, but I did find a lovely yarn store very close to the hotel http://thepincushion.co.uk/. The Pincushion is a lovely little store that stocks fabulous yarns and provides friendly, personal service. The question is - will I EVER be able to use this divine yarn?! So far I am touching it regularly and staring at it, no plans for using it...

I also found this yarn there - Rico Creative Poems Aran. Never heard of this yarn before. I still need to look it up. Maybe it is local. I never knew the UK produces so many different wool yarns! This is feltable, see the swatch I have already run through my washing machine in the pic?

Another FIRST. My first Cascade 220 yarn. Yummy colours and oh, so soft. I had the foresight to order some stuff via the internet before my trip and had it sent to a colleague in our London office as I knew my shopping time was limited. This I ordered from Loop. Would have loved to visit the shop, but maybe next time.

I found this lovely shop online - http://www.sheepfold.co.uk/. They have their own British wool and this is one of them, called Charcoal Donegal. A bit scratchy to the touch, but still lovely.

More Sheepfold wool yarn. This time in a light grey, 100g balls with 160m on. This shade is called Flint. Sheepfold recently launched their own book called "Felted Bags". Fabulous patterns inside and of course, I had to get a copy of that too. I will do a book review soon. I was so impressed with their fast, friendly service, even after my order was placed.

I'm back!

I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I blogged! Things have been really hectic at work and a trip to London also took up a lot of time. I am back and had a very productive crafty weekend with lots to share! First up, some lovely felted bags I have made. Introducing the Pinktulip Puff Purse, my very own design!

Just LOVE this purse! It is a super-easy, super-fast, crocheted and felted bag. I am still experimenting with it as i was not happy with the size of the opening at the top, but it is just gorgeous! I have drafted a free tutorial, which I will post on Ravelry sometime soon.

My second attempt following the Puff Purse pattern did not puff at all! I made the top opening far too big and no puff. I'll just have to try again. I do love this purse as well. I used a handle technique from a pattern I purchased on Ravelry and just love it. I still need to add a magnetic snap.

I also made this bag. There is a free pattern on Ravelry for this bag, I think it is called the Square bag, not sure. You are supposed to knit 22 squares, but my Italian yarn was too thick so I adapted it to another pattern called the Tapestry Crochet bag, It took two tries in the washing machine to felt it, and I am still not 100% happy. I will however use it as is now.

I will share more details on each bag on Ravelry if you are interested. I have lots more to share, but will save it for the next few blogs. I am happy to be back and will slowly do the rounds and visit all of you! Hope your week is great!