A.W.O.L

Hi everyone.........remember me?

I am sorry that I have not posted anything since October last year. Only I have had other things to contend with, such as the impending birth of my little boy.

Because of this all of my creative stuff got put on hold, all my blogging, all my crochet, everything crafty and fun. Little one is two months old now and I have finally been able to think about being creative again, although now I am more focused on crafts that will benefit my son.

I will be crafting and blogging again soon but you may find there is more of a child related feel to some of my posts.

So on with some crafting..............now where did I put those scissors?

Owl Pin Cushion

Recently I was lucky enough to find a sewing group just around the corner from me which I joined and love. Don't get me wrong, I can sew a little, enough to fix things but my use and knowledge of my machine was limited as I lacked confidence using it. 

The first lesson really helped as I now know how to set it up properly and a few other useful tips were given. Once we had done all this we got on with the making. 

The first thing that we did was make this cute little owl pin cushion. He is kinda small but perfect for sticking in a bag to take to classes. However I wanted to have a go at making a bigger one.

The first thing that I did was size up the pattern that I had been given........easy peasy. The I dug out some material. I opted for a bit fleece and a yellow and black fabric that had once been part of a t-shirt.  

The next step was to iron my fabric so that it was nice and flat with no creases Tip: Don't iron fleece with a hot iron, it tends to stick and you end up feeling rather stupid. I ended up using my second piece of fabric over the top of the fleece so that I could iron it out. 

Then my cut out pattern pieces were pinned into place so that I could cut out my fabric. I still find pinning out a bit fiddly to do but this is just because I am not sued to doing it and I nearly always end up pricking myself with a pin.

The pieces are then carefully sewing together as given in my pattern and then turned in the right way round. 

 

I also needed some buttons to use as my owls eyes. There is nothing more satisfying then going through a button tin, This took longer than it should as I found myself distracted by all the button shapes and colours, but below are the small selection that I choose 

But which to choose for his eyes? In the end I opted for the larger blue ones that are in the bottom of this image. These were attached to the face to help secure the beak down to give the pin cushion its owl look. 

Once I had the eyes sewn into place, which helps to keep the beak down as well we had to stuff our little owl. He was stuffed quite firmly so that he stood up and there was plenty of padding to stick the pins into. 

His bottom was them gathered and secured and a patch of fabric was attached to keep everything in place. 

Finally he is finished!! He is a fair bit larger than his little cousin and had a bit of a penguin look about him, but he is perfect for using at home.

For obvious reasons I wont share the actual pattern that I was given as this belongs to the person who gave the lesson, but the following are links to very similar patterns that you might like to use.

• GATARIA  - Folded Owl
• Sew Style & Home - Aly Owl Pincushion
• Rhonda's Creative Life - Thrifty Thursday
• Efemera Ink - Wise?
• The Masquerade - How to make an Owl Pincushion

Stylecraft Carousel CAL ~ Week 1

This week saw the start of the Stylecraft Carousel CAL by Sue Pinner. This is the first CAL that I have ever actively followed and taken part in. Whist I have always wanted to do a CAL I have never got round to joining in. But with it's bright colours and pretty shape I though this one would be perfect for the room which will below to my baby boy who is due in January 2017.

The CAL uses the fabulous Stylecraft Special DK and uses just 16 colours. I have decided to use the exact colours given in pattern, but I have to say I am tempted to do a second. If you join the CAL group on Facebook, other group members have put together some beautiful colour ways. May I will work a few of these up and share them in another post?

All of the material requirements can be found here. As well as UK the details are also given in German, Dutch and US. I would also full recommend joining the Facebook group if you have an account as the sport on there is fabulous.

After digging through my yarn stash I found that I actually had most of the colours already. However I did need to buy a few more so purchased my extras from Deramores. They also sell colour packs for this CAL in both the Stylecraft Special DK and the Stylecraft Batik colourways.

The first part of the pattern was released on Tuesday and I was lucky enough to have a bit of time before work to make a start. 

Have a read through the pattern first just to familiarise yourself with the instructions. There is nothing scary in the instructions with regards to the stitches used, although the starting circle used a technique that I was not familiar with. But it was really easy to do and gives a nice "puffy" look to the center of the piece.

Round 2 I did in the required Mustard shade.

Round 3 was worked in Aster and requires doing a popcorn stitch. Luckily Sue used a very simple and effective cheat method. So nothing to be scared of here if you are still fairly new to crochet.

Round 4 was worked in Spice.

Round 5 was worked in Turquoise.

Round 6&7 are both worked in the shade Citron. Do not worry if round 6 curls up a little bit it will flatten out with round 7.

Round 8 is worked in Mustard again.

Round 9 was again worked in Spice.

Round 10 used Aster again.

The final round for this week, Round 11 was worked in Lipstick. Just remember to check your chain count for the "corners! on round 11 as you need 3 and not 2 and this has caught many of us out on the Facebook group.

Week one has been a blast and I really enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to complete this in a few hours. So far this really is easy enough for a beginner to crochet to do. If you fancy giving it a go please do and join the Facebook group as the support is wonderful.

Temperature Blanket 2016: Week 6

Week 6 is still seeing a lot of blue and a new delivery of Storm Blue and Turquoise has ensured that i do not run out of these shades any time soon. I have to say that I am starting to look forward to the start of Spring and hopefully a few warmer days that will start taking us up into the green tones.

So what did week two look like for my little corner of Kent in the UK:

• Day 36 (5th Feb): 10°C - Turquoise
• Day 37 (6th Feb): 11°C - Turquoise
• Day 38 (7th Feb): 10°C - Turquoise
• Day 39 (8th Feb): 10°C - Turquoise
• Day 40 (9th Feb): 6°C - Storm Blue
• Day 41 (10th Feb): 8°C - Storm Blue
• Day 42 (11th Feb): 8°C - Storm Blue

Despite all of the blue I am loving that each daily colour choice is totally out of my control. Each day at two my alarm goes off and I get to see the shade for the day. My office at work has even started to join me on my journey, if not only because they are forced to hear my phone bleep daily. If I am in meeting they have even been known to record the temperature for me so that I do not miss it 

On to week 7...................................