Wonderwool haul

I thoroughly enjoyed this years Wonderwool, could have been the wonderful weather (until the very end when it poured), the even more wonderful company or just to have a massive selection of yarns and other bits and bobs to choose from.

Introducing Monsieur Mouse

First things first my 'Learn to love short row shaping' class which started (when I booked anyway) as an 'Introduction to short row knitting.'  Either way it was fun, turns out I'm an average speed knitter I just needed more time to read the instructions correctly and I think I knit in a weird way; it would be lovely to have a beginners knitting class around these parts so I had some instruction rather than what I find on YouTube.  I learned how to wrap a stitch for invisible increasing, so no holes in the knitting and no lumpty bumpty bits.  

You can see where I have twisted the stitch

Turns out when I slip stitches I twist them, I don't know how but I do, so my finished creation didn't turn out as should (smooth no lumpty bumpties) and we didn't have enough time to finish them so later that night over a glass of wine I finished my mouse...henceforth known as Monsieur Mouse 'cause he looks French to me.

My friend Sarah kindly gave me a easy peasy (so she says) fingerless mitts pattern which is knit in the round (eek) and on Aran weight yarn so I had to buy some Aran weight yarn, I bought Laal Bear either called Thirft or Devon I can't tell from the label.  It feels gorgeous and will be nice as mitts.  I even managed to turn the skein into a ball with very little hassle this time, thank you Youtube!

I went a bit crazy with the old Super Chunky, but I do lovely super fast super chunky knits, purchasing Rico Design Creative Twist Super Chunky and Sesia Echos both in light grey colours.  I should talk about that.  As I have tried to purchase yarn in colours which remind me of a place I have visited (e.g. Bath I bought blue  for the spa and yellow for the buildings, New York orange as it was near Thanksgiving) I thought this years Wonderwool I should get the colours from the wedding (4 more sleeps by the way) pink and grey. I also bought Aragon Yarns Classic Romney which is an Aran/Chunky weight yarn (depending how its knit) in a lovely pink colour.

Zoom in to see the silver sparkle...gorgeous!

Saving the last for best though I think my absolute favourite purchase (aside from Love Patisseries' epic Lemon Tarts) has to be Silver Sparkle D K from Bluefaced.com or here as when I last checked the website was down.

So all round a good haul with more to add to the to do list...
1.  Learn how to slip stitches without twisting
2.  Learn to knit in the round and make those fingerless mitts
3.  Find out the weight of previous years purchases...this will involved a trip to the wool shop, ho hum
4.  Learn how to do thumbs before Sarah :)

Its WonderWool 2013

Thinking back I wish I had kept my blogs over the years rather than doing massive culls as I can still remember my first ever visit to the first ever Wonderwool.  In fact I may even still have yarn from then as being quite inexperienced I bought random things and either have no idea the gauge or what to do with them.

It is where I first learnt I had to turn a skein into a ball...

With varying degrees of success...

This year I have signed up for a course on short row knitting so that I can add to my knitting techniques.  I quite enjoyed making Sackboy a few years ago and do have in my head to make Amigurumi and other small toys so I thought this would be a good class to sign up for - also it had a cute picture of a knitted mouse on the signup page.

Sackboy...just chilling

So this year I'm looking forward to seeing my wonderful friends from all over Wales, eating my own weight in Lemon Tarts from La Patisserie, trying a scotch egg and hunting down any chunky yarn.  My friend and I might even try going along to the Ravelry Flock later in the evening.

I shall endeavour to take as many photographs as I can...and not delete this blog!

Anxious sewing

As some of you may or may not know I suffer from bouts of severe anxiety and depression. Have done all me natural but I am always exploring new ways to manage them (I call it my tool box...it's quite full) which is how I got into knitting.  

Recently I have discovered mindfulness as a way to manage anxiety and finding it really helps. That, Kalms and herbal teas! One of the mindfulness books I purchased on my Kindle was Journey Into Mindfulness: Gentle ways to let go of stress and live in the moment by Dr. Patrizia Collard and in it it says to keep a notebook of your journey. I have quite a few notebooks lying around but none of them felt particularly zen like so I decided to sew a cover for one out of the many fat quarters also lying around the place.

Using this website to give the notebook a base, (the original pattern was quite strong showing through most fabrics) and then this website to sew up a cover.

Glued on a white cotton base to try and hide the original pattern on notebook

I will be honest, try 1 failed miserably.  I'm not quite sure what I did wrong but I think it was a measuring and seam allowance issue. After finding some stuffing try 1 became a lumbar support cushion for my office chair.  Scraps from try 1 also became a small pin cushion, created from my own brain and filled with scraps of fabric.

Never has a failed attempt been so comfy

If in doubt - pin cushion!

Try 2 worked well but I missed out some steps by not measuring for the front pockets and not sewing two larger pieces together, the former 'cause I wanted to get creative and the latter 'cause I couldn't figure out how that would work.  I also gave the whole thing 1" seam allowance which was a ridiculous amount but hey it fitted and now the notebook feels a lot more zen....and pretty :)

Lessons learnt from my first sewing projects? 

• Be more patient, actually cut the material in a straight line and keep it neat rather than just cutting and thinking yeah it'll be fine nobody will see that bit.
• Press the material - I hate ironing but it really should be done, even for notebook covers and cushions
• Find a way of taking better photographs for the blog!

Paisley pretty

Front cover

Back cover

The best bit, shopping!

I am still working my way through the Craftsy course, "Know Your Wool" and I found the talk about different breeds and how they produce different yarns interesting but now we get to the good bit, shopping for yarns!  

As the course is delivered from North America I thought all the online stores would be from the US or Canada but the very first shop demonstrated was from the UK.  Blacker Yarns has been added to my favourites list as you can also search by sheep breed - Welsh Black anyone?

Also demonstrated, which are useful to me in the UK, was Etsy (do a search for yarn, wool etc) and also eBay.  Again try and keep the searches specific, especially if you know the breed you want. 

Although shopping online for specialist yarns can be fun there is nothing like giving a ball of wool the squidge test so I think I would save my pennies for the annual Wonderwool Festival held in mid Wales in April each year but if you can't make it to a wool festival I can see this being a great idea.

Getting Craftsy with wool

Hi folks,

Recently I've signed up to a tonne of craft courses on the video tutorial website Craftsy...darn them and their spring sale (pun not intended)...but they also have some free introductory courses which I thought could be pretty useful, like this one 'Know Your Wool.'

Being an avid knitter forever stuck in the realm of beginner knitter I thought getting to know the ins and outs of wool would be useful for when it comes to choosing the right wool for the job.  I also live in a very rural area in mid Wales and frankly not knowing more than one sheep breed is getting embarrassing!

I quite like the format and style of the Craftsy courses, especially as I can watch the classes on the iPad - with access to all the same features as the PC -and replay them as many times as I like.  The site itself is easy to use and nicely laid out and I like that in the classes you can post video notes and see questions from other learners.  I have also noticed that the video lessons start off from where I last viewed them, which is very useful so I don't need to keep notes of where I am.

So far I have completed the introduction looking at the differences between wools and some sheep breeds.  So far I'm thinking this section is particularly useful for hand spinners, although I am beginning to understand why certain wool is better for say a hat and a different type for socks.

I have quite a few videos still to get through but will let you know how I get on.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog.  I am using this site to keep track of all the new crafty things I'm learning.

I enjoy knitting, crochet, sewing, baking and well mostly anything crafty but very much a beginner in all of these areas so here I will blog what I do and what I have learnt along the way.

I hope you enjoy it and look forward to you comments :)

Sharon