This week has been filled with lots of clearing out. I started with my son's toys, lots of them are broken or have pieces missing and with his 3rd birthday coming up in 2 weeks I knew we needed to clear out the old to make way for the new. He would never let me throw things away though, not if he could see me doing it so Matt took them out for the morning while I sorted through everything. I did all his puzzles to make sure all the pieces were there, I threw out anything broken and I freed up so much space in there it looks lovely!! He hasn't missed anything either, so I know I did the right thing!
After clearing all his stuff Matt went up in to the loft. We knew there was a 'Woody' toy up there that we bought for Charlotte when she was a toddler and seeing as Alfie is in to Toy Story in a big way right now we thought we'd hunt it out and give it to him. We sorted through the entire loft, filled the boot of the car with rubbish and sorted out 2 bin bags for ebay. It was a productive afternoon. But then of course the rest of the house started to look messy, so room by room I 'spring' (summer) cleaned. It looks so neat and tidy, its a nice feeling sitting down and knowing there's nothing that needs doing for a day or two!!
I have been knitting a monkey this week, he's still naked because the recipient hasn't made a clothing choice yet but he's full of character already!! I find it fascinating how quickly they come to life when you embroider their features!
We'll wait and see what he ends up wearing, although I know he's for a boy so its unlikely to be pink and sparkly!
An update on the snowflakes. I was aiming to make one a day, but I've fallen behind schedule already. I think I'm about 10 down, not too bad though!!
I have always enjoyed making my own cards, Christmas cards especially. The past year or so I haven't been able to, I think having a (then) baby gave me a good enough excuse to slack off. He is almost 3 now, and its time to get back on the wagon!
Last time I made my Christmas cards I wasn't such an avid knitter and I couldn't crochet at all, but this time round I'm going all out! My cards wont be over the top, infact they'll look very simple with a crocheted snowflake across the front, hooked on to the card. This snowflake will be removable and can be used as a tree decoration.
The first few snowflakes took a good couple of hours, it's all very intricate and detailed and they use a very small hook (1.75mm to be precise) but after I got the pattern in my head I managed to speed the process up. I can crochet, block and stiffen a snowflake in an hour and considering I have to make in excess of 50 of these snowflakes the speed can only be a good thing! I guess now you realise why I am thinking about Christmas cards in August!!
The snowflakes look very odd before they're blocked and stiffened, all floppy and with no real shape, but they completely transform once they're pinned. I created my own makeshift pinning board using sponges intended for car cleaning and covering them in a small amount of fabric. I couldn't find crochet thread stiffener in my local Hobbycraft so I researched online about other methods you could use to stiffen them and hairspray was an option I read that was perfect for snowflakes, so that is what I've been using and it seems to be working well enough. I have left a snowflake hanging in my living room to see if it loses its crispness over the next few months but 3 weeks down the line its still going strong so I think it'll be ok!
In other news, Molly Mouse has been out with us to feed the ducks and has spent the day with Charlotte at her friends house. She is also being snuggled LOTS at night time so I think she's going to like it here.
The weather here in the South East has been a bit of a washout over the past few weeks. We seem to have had our beautiful summer in June, and as lovely as it was, it didn't coincide with the school holidays, therefore Charlotte has spent quite a bit of her time off school cooped up inside. There's nothing like a DVD and a snuggle under a blanket, but we prefer to leave these activities til the winter.The time inside has provided some excellent knitting time though, and I have made Charlotte a little mouse to add to her (ever increasing) collection of stuffed animals. Molly has come with the idea that Charlotte write stories about the adventures they can get up to together, let's stretch her imagination shall we? There's nothing my darling girl likes more than to write a good story so hopefully she'll come up with something good.
Welcome to the family Molly, I'm looking forward to seeing what mischief you can get up to over the next few weeks.I'm 33 rows in to Charlotte's granny stripe blanket, that's a third of the way there. Hopefully I'll get that finished off this week. Then some further projects need to be brought forward. I've been asked to knit a monkey for one of Charlotte's friends to give her cousin as a birthday present and my beautiful God Daughter turns 1 at the beginning of September so something soft and squishy should be going her way too. Watch this space ....
When I made Alfie his cozy ripple blanket (here) Charlotte asked if I would make her one. Now, baring in mind she's 10 I knew it would have to be slightly larger than Alfie's toddler sized one so I started but kept putting it down. Then, a month or two ago I decided to make myself a blanket ( .... I know, how dare I right?) and her little green face got even greener.
Having finished my huuuuge double bed sized ripple blanket (to the left) I decided she needed hers so I embarked upon finding a pattern that she wanted. She fell in love with Attic24's Granny Stripe Blanket so I have started hers. It will be the size of a single bed and I'm just under 1/4 of the way through.
I have had this blog running for a while now and have posted occasionally and never in any uniform fashion. But that is going to change. I am going to put some real effort in to this blog, mainly in order to record all the projects I'm working on and interesting things I'm coming across.
Last Thursday I borrowed my Mum's sewing machine, I've used it before for very simple projects and I borrowed in initially to sew together an envelope cushion cover I'd said I'd make for my friend. I decided to have a read through the manual and look at all the different things you can do with it and on Sunday I started practising various techniques. Freehand writing was my first challenge, it certainly takes some getting used to.
Attempt one left a lot to be desired, but I could see potential
Attempt two went slightly better, I managed to stay in a reasonably straight line and write 'Charlotte'. I then made this in to a bag for my daughter, who is always very grateful for my little gifts.
After finishing the bag for Charlotte I was inspired to make my own. I had bought a dress back in May which didn't sit right on me, it puffed out in ALL the wrong places. It had been sitting in my wardrobe never worn so I decided the kindest thing to do was to chop it up and make it in to something I will use! Tuesday evening saw me perched at the table, sewing frantically. I have some sort of disorder which physically stops me going to bed until I have finished what I'm doing, with knitting and crochet this isn't possible .... there's no way I could go without sleep for weeks on end, but with sewing the end is always in sight and so at 2am I finally finished stitching the lining to the outer bag. I am VERY pleased with my first handbag, and I'm obviously certain that I will now make millions selling my handmade handbags (ha!). The lining has since come unstitched in places, I obviously wasn't quite tight enough with it so tomorrow I will be re-stitching and maybe doubling the thread to prevent further disasters!
Not bad eh? Even if I do say so myself!!
After clearing all his stuff Matt went up in to the loft. We knew there was a 'Woody' toy up there that we bought for Charlotte when she was a toddler and seeing as Alfie is in to Toy Story in a big way right now we thought we'd hunt it out and give it to him. We sorted through the entire loft, filled the boot of the car with rubbish and sorted out 2 bin bags for ebay. It was a productive afternoon. But then of course the rest of the house started to look messy, so room by room I 'spring' (summer) cleaned. It looks so neat and tidy, its a nice feeling sitting down and knowing there's nothing that needs doing for a day or two!! 
We'll wait and see what he ends up wearing, although I know he's for a boy so its unlikely to be pink and sparkly! 
