woven wonder

During my big tidy up, I found a few little things that sparked joy that I put up on our wall and they are starting to look really nice. In our sitting room corner my crochet wall hanging hangs alone still, but I was not feeling very inspired to do any crochet and I decided this was the time to have a go at some weaving! I have seen so many of these amazing hangings, and love them so much but it felt like a bit of a leap to have a go myself.

When I was little I used to make little cardboard looms to make little weavings – so decided to go down this tried and tested route again! I found a really nice stiff piece of cardboard and cut out a rectangle. Then I added some notches to each end. My box very handily had a dot design on it so I didn’t have to do any measuring but usually you would need to put mark along the edge so that your top notches and bottom notches match up.



Then I wrapped my wool around into the notches to give me all of my warp threads. Lovely!



Next I started my weaving. My first plan was to keep it simple and do coloured stripes, but after doing a few rows of plain weaving I decided that I really wanted to try some of the techniques I have seen on the amazing weavings I have seen, making patterns with colours, and some textured parts. I really like the tassels! I found a wonderful online resource called the weaving loom which I recommend if you are a beginner like me - it has lots of interesting things to learn there. I had a little play around and settled into a bit of colour work. I think next time I will try some loops though.



It was quite hard to take some work in progress pictures because it looked very messy until then end when I sewed in my ends. But then it looked really really great!



I really enjoyed this little project, something new for me.

knitting friends and knitted friends

Today I had a grand afternoon, going on the bus and doing some cafe knitting with the greatest company, Snowy and Debbie. You can see some of Debbie's knitting in the background - a grand project she has in progress! Snowy has a pet cloud called jungle - a knitted cloud! Here is a picture of him sitting on a rock in canada:



I had the best seat on the bus on the way - front row. When I got on the bus was empty too which was strange but nice. I had a funny encounter with some people on another bus who we kept overtaking and being overtaken by. They kept waving to me - I think they thought I was much younger than I am (it might have been the doll that did it). That was quite friendly, but I felt a bit awkward. The scene was so lovely on the coast road though, the sun was shining and the sea was so calm.



On the way home it was the opposite of empty (full) but I carried on my knitting for a while and ignored the hustle and bustle around me. I managed to do such a lot of my knitting I was so happy. I am knitting a red cardigan - it has been a work in progress for about 2 years now, but I have a June deadline to meet. It is easy for me to get distracted these days but I think I am going to try to do a row a day from now on.

There is no romance in this post, but I did manage a little valentines themed craft this weekend which I will share once it's dry! Also this weekend I have been doing a lot of clothes folding - phew!

Happy valentines day if you have celebrated this day of love. x

a little crochet wall hanging

One of my new years resolutions was to do a few more crafts to help brighten up our home.  I moved around a lot in my twenties and I developed a bit of a phobia of owning unnecessary things. And for me purely decorative items were definitely in the category of unnecessary. But now we are settled in our home and able to hammer nails into the wall, I am feeling much more like I want to cosy up  our home a little and there is good reason to have decorative and unnecessary bits and bops.

Recently I have seen some wonderful ideas using textiles to brighten up walls. Not just tapestry and embroidery, but also weavings and applique banners, and crochet hangings.



This week I had a little go myself at a crochet wall hanging. I found a lovely free pattern online for this square motif - the flower power granny square. I thought this was a pretty design and a good one to introduce different colour combinations to. I'd like to use this pattern again changing the number of colours used to see how it effects the way the pattern is picked out.

To turn my square into a hanging for the wall, I just added some pom poms to give it a bit of weight to hang (and I like pom poms. Although I have not spaced them very well so might need to revisit those!) and a little chain stitch handle to the top. I've got it taped up at the moment until I have made it a partner.

Lovely stuff!

arm knitting

A couple of weeks back I took the bus to Brighton and purchased myself some amazing super chunky wool from Tiger. I couldn't resist it - I've never seen any wool so massive and fluffy and soft (and a good price too)

I bought just a couple of balls thinking a warm winter woollen would be a good project for me. The wool suggested using 20mm needles which I managed to find, but I was not very pleased with this suggestion. I tried a scarf in stocking stitch and then tried another in garter stitch, but the fabrics produced were so tight and dense and stiff, it would have been a bit of a heavy scarf really.



Then a little inspiration hit me. I had seen a video a little while back from Wool and the Gang (I really like this) about Arm knitting (click here and see for yourself). Yes, this is exactly as it sounds - your arms are the needles! At first I was a little put off as found it quite tricky to tune my eyes into what was going on in the video as the casting on was slightly tricky (but not tricky once you've worked it out) But I watched a few times and soon worked it out and managed to cast on 8 stitches like this.



And I was so pleased I did get past the cast on row, because the actual knitting rows are so super super simple. Super super super simple. If you have never tried knitting before, or have tried but found it tricky, I really recommend setting yourself a little arm knitting project - it was so easy peasy, and grew so fast it was a really satisfying one evening pastime.


And the arm knitting was just the thing for my super soft and fluffy and chunky massive wool as the fabric is really loose and soft and not rigid and dense anymore, and because it was loose, my scarf was quite a good length too, much longer than my needle knitting versions.


My pattern was - cast on 8 stitches and arm knit until you run out of wool. (or until you nearly run out of wool so you have enough for your cast off row) Then weave in your ends and voila! You could perhaps use 6 stitches for a slightly thinner and longer scarf - I might yet unpick again and try that. The beauty of this is it's so super fast that you don't mind trying again.



So if you have bought some of Tiger's magnificent wool with no clue what to do - do this. And tell me about it if you do. Or tell me more about Wool and the Gang.

wicker and wool

Last week I was mainly making pom poms - I love them so much, and their bright woolly fluffiness. I saw Lucy's lovely baskets and after that couldn't look at our wicker washing basket in the same way again.



Poor plain basket (poor dirty mirror) (poor mum lots of laundry!)

I loved the look of Lucy's Pom poms, a sort of salt and pepper effect, so made my Pom poms with a coloured wool and a cream wool together to achieve that grand look. I used four different colours, a hot pink, sky blue, pistachio green and golden yellow.

I counted the upright sticks on the basket to work out my spacing and how many pom poms to make. I had 39 sticks so that divided nicely by 3 so decided to space them at every third stick - (I like logical). This meant 13 pom poms, which didn't divide so well between my colour scheme so I currently have a bit of a gap in my pom poms. Rich helpfully pointed out that this side could just face the wall so that's my current solution!



(Much better! Clean mirror too. And laundry done. A happy day!)

My pom poms are a bit more spaced out than Lucy's which wasn't intentional, and I need to go back to trim them a little more evenly I think, but really I am very pleased with my little pom pom basket now. That wasn't such a hard job but look at the transformation my little fluffy puffs made. It has really brightened up this corner of our bedroom too. Although I am not sure how long Rose will resist trying to pull them off... so far she doesn't seem to have noticed (dare I say it?)

Lucy also made tassel baskets, you really should have a look.

Baubles of wool

I came across this really nice pattern and couldn't resist a little more festive crocheting. Our tree is going to look so grand (when we get round to putting it up!)



Free pattern can be found here (i am making the most of it!)



There are a lot of projects in progress around here at the moment, but i am feeling confident that everything will come together in the (st.) nick of time (ho ho). It's nice to be so busy with making at this time of year.

Happy festive crocheting!

all the colours

When Rose was a baby i didn't do as much knitting for her as i imagined i would as a mother (in fact i knitted her nothing after she was born, and really only this little one while i was pregnant) I did however get a rather magnificent collection of hand knits for her from charity shops, and i am in denial a little bit because some of them were so great, but am beginning to accept that mostly they are all too small now. So i felt that it really was time to fulfill my knitter mummy duty and make her a new cardigan.



I had in mind this lovely diary scarf (an idea i really like) my friend Debbie made a little while back, although i didn't use the diary idea, i really like the design of it and thought something like this would be a perfect use for all my odd balls of wool. I found a basic raglan cardigan pattern (i like a raglan with stripes, i think it works so well) in my extensive library (handed down from nanny) and started with the back to set the pattern.  Although i wasn't doing a colour a day like Debbie did,  i really enjoyed the  process of deciding how much of each colour and how to order them.

I finished this project just in time for Rose's birthday and she was very pleased to wear it at last. I was just relieved it fitted her! And just in time for this cold spell too.



perfect scamp-wear!

Crocheting Beads

I found a nice little project this week - crocheting beads (not to be confused with bead crocheting which is something completely different - but something I might have to give a go...)

I really love the trend for painted wooden beaded necklaces - they are so bright and cheery, and just so cool! I found the idea for crocheting beads from a baby teething toy, which is probably not really so cool, but I really wanted to have a go at it.



I bought a few wooden beads in different sizes, but the ones which worked best for me were the big 25mm ones.

Here is how I crocheted my beads:

I used:

4 x 25mm wooden beads

a 3mm crochet hook

DK yarns in off white, bright orange, mustard and turquoise


My abbreviations:

SC = single crochet (in American terminology. This is a double crochet in UK terminology)

2SC = working 2 single crochet stitches into the same space

SC2TOG = single crochet decrease - single crocheting the next two stitches together.

(you might need to experiment to get the right tension - I found some of my DK yarn was slightly thinner and this made quite a big difference so if your yarn is thin you might need a slightly bigger hook)



Row 0:  6 single crochets into a magic ring.
Row 1 - 2sc into every previous row sc. (12sts)
Row 2 - working into the previous row, **1 sc into the next space, 2sc into the following space**
repeat ** to ** to end of row (18sts)

Work 5 rows straight.
If you want to make a half and half coloured bead, change colour after the third row. I have found a neat way of changing colour is to do the final yarn over and pull through of the last single crochet stitch with the new colour, rather than changing colour in a new stitch (hope that makes sense) 

Row 8 -  **sc2tog, sc1 into the next space** .Repeat ** to ** to the end of the row (12 stitches)
Row 9, sc2tog the entire way around the row (6 stitches).
Finish by breaking your thread and threading through the final row to draw it in and neaten it up.

and ta-dah!

I really enjoyed this project also because it was so quick. My necklace just took me an evening. And it's just to bright and lovely. One of my winter wardrobe staples are black thermal vest style tops, and this little accessory is just the ticket to brighten that up a bit on a gloomy day.
I would love to see if you have a go.

you can stretch right up and touch the sky

Hello dears,

I am not doing very well at keeping my in touch am I? I had good intentions of making a dress a month (a good aim for me) and being here much more than I was - but I got somewhat sidetracked over the summer...

I was having a very lovely time though. I am so lucky to live in a very beautiful spot. We have been here nearly a year now (one year next week) and I love this home we have found. We have a ferry crossing to France very locally, but I wasn't organised enough to sort out our passports, but as it was our first Seaford summer it felt like a holiday for sure.

My favourite memories of the summer are of one very hot weekend of impromptu sea swimming with Rose the little fish. I did some sun bathing on the beach which felt like it had been a long time since i last did that, and it just felt wonderful. Rose was very tentative towards the sea at first, but as soon as the first little wave hit her feet and she realised there was nothing to fear she couldn't stay away - she just wanted to be immersed in it as totally as she could, little teeth chattering from the cold and bare bottom shining in the sun!

Another lovely day that stands out for me is a lovely one i spent alone with Rich while Rose hung out with Nanny Jo and Grandpop. We walked over Seaford head to the seven sisters (quick refresh at the pub along the river, including a free portion of chips from our table neighbours who had over ordered) and back again in time for tea.

It is starting to feel very chilly around here now.

I hope you had a nice summer too. And enjoying cosying up for autumn.

Love from Emily. x

What year is this?

It's 2015 now! Where has the time gone?! I hadn't realised my last posting on my blog had been over a year ago - that is a long time ago.

But i am really pleased to let you know that I am back (hopefully) and I have made a dress! This is a happy time for me - it's been such a long while since I made one of these - in fact the last dresses i made were maternity dresses - many big tents for my big baby tummy.

But now I have something like a waist again i thought maybe it was time to make some less tentish dresses (although i do still like to wear those ones)

I have been thinking i need to start making some clothes again for a while now - it struck me that i really did used to make a large proportion of my clothes, and i had been struggling to find the sort of things i really like to wear. It's so nice now that i have a bit more time in the evenings and during naptimes (when i am not doing some hoovering) to start to make some things to revive my wardrobe.

So we were out in Brighton this week (because now we live in Seaford - but i am sure i will speak more about this at a relevant time) and we wanted to have a tea so we went to the C&aH fabrics cafe which is good when you have a pram, and also good when you really like wool and fabric. I had earned enough stamps on my loyalty card to get a free £5 gift voucher so it was a sign that it was time.

I found a couple of lovely pieces i really liked. This pink delight, i couldn't resist it even though i don't really have anything pink, and never wear this colour, but it looked so pretty and summery, and i had in mind that dress of Holly Golightly's and decided to be bold.

Unfortunately my fabric doesn't have tassels but i think it's still very festive.

Rose enjoyed wearing the fabric like a little Russian doll toddling about. Yes, that is her there - she is eighteen months old now.

The pattern i used was this one, my wedding dress pattern - which has a very similar bodice to Holly's. I altered the skirt slightly to give it a bit more of a fuller shape. I was a bit nervous about it still fitting me, so I just used 1cm at the seam allowances rather than the 1.5, and the result was a perfect fit!

Rose is normally much better dressed than me these days, but today we were a good match

It was a lovely feeling to have made something new and i am really really pleased with how it came out, and that i hadn't forgotten all of my dressmaking skills. I am going to try very very hard to make time for this pastime. i have a small pile of lovely fabrics now so will be back soon.

yours, one year older, none the wiser,

Emilia x

Happy Christmas Sock

So, back in november i had a baby. and with christmas coming up i was very excited when i found i could knit whilst holding the sleepy bundle of joy. So I decided to make a pair of socks for lovely Richard. I had a month and i didn't have to go to work any more, so i thought that was a reasonable task. Easy right!

... but at this time i was not experienced in living with the baby so my expectations of achievable goals were not very accurate at all!

Unfortunately, as that little one started to wake up and grow and move about, knitting whilst holding the baby became a bit of an accident waiting to happen and so by christmas i had only managed to knit 1 sock (mostly while Rich pushed her in the pram in the treacherous wind and rain) I did wrap it up for him to open on christmas morning. He was confused.

But look... now that spring is here, the socks are finished!



I am so pleased about it. What a triumph! And Rich learnt the lesson of good things come to those who wait.

His quote is "they are very comfortable"

Little Rose Riding Hood

Very much time has passed since i knitted this little snug cardigan, and since then i haven't really made many things (there were a lot more maternity dresses, but they were all very similar in the end!) but I did make this little thing to fill that cardigan...

Her name is Rose and she is the reason I take a long time to do everything now! But she is the best.

xx