In the Making...

Just got back from a fantastic day at A Good Yarn , Cleethorpes. Spent all day helping to stuff cushions for Woolsack.  Tables all set up ready for the little helpers. One of my cushions with all the swatches from the pattern booklet. If anyone wants the free patterns for the cushions, they are available here . All the cushions had to have the labels sewn in, then stuffed with pure wool fibre then sewn up. Most of the cushions have personal messages from the knitters attached. These are my contributions. They're not all here but at last count there were 31 cushions that we did today; with a few more expected this week. Everyone helped; thanks to all that turned up. I was thrilled with all the different cushions and designs. A few of them are my designs but there are lots made with the knitter's own inspiration. I found it really interesting with what everyone came up with. All the natural coloured cushions are made from Jarol British...

My latest project from the ceramics studio. I'm using the tiles to experiment with the pattern before I use it large scale on other things. The bottom one has more contrast in colour: the border is a lot darker and the inside lighter. Even though the tiles were meant to be a practice piece I really like them. Wondering on ideas of what to use them for? Latest FO: Little Child's Sock by Nancy Bush. Yarn used is The Uncommon Thread Super Sock in Brassica; and I am a little in love with this yarn. Works wonderfully with the textured pattern

Had a little trip to Leeds on Friday; and of course if in Leeds, then baa ram ewe is a must! I brought back a little haul with me. Not sure what I'm going to do with the Malabrigo but my Mum picked them for herself so  some sort of warm woollies for her. The white and dark grey spindrift are to make an Estonian Hand Puppet .  There was lots of lovely patterns by the talented Kate Davies in stock. I settled on a little project - Neep Heid . The green spindrift in stock wasn't the colour I wanted but they had it in Rowan Fine Tweed so I bought that instead. The yardage was different but there was plenty left. A few days later and voila one Turnip Hat! With all fair isle the inside is gorgeous too!

What a fabulous day! I spent yesterday at A Good Yarn , Cleethorpes; being taught by the wonderful  Heike Gittins . It was a Freeform Madness workshop and I spent it alongside my fellow knitters and crocheters, such as  Faded Reverie . Here are some photos of the creativity going on. (Apologies for the not so great photos; taken on my mobile). The bags at the top are Heike's creations and very inspiring indeed and the photos don't do them justice. I love all the lovely little details on it. Lots of buttons and ribbons.... I found it very creative and a fabulous idea to use up all my oddments. I need a new swimming bag so I'm going to try and build it up quite a bit and make a large bag. Below is what I have made so far: I got carried away with the crocheting. I love the contrast between the textures of the knitted and crochet fabrics.

I love the African Flower motif and suddenly just had the desire to make a bag for my knitting. Took a bit of playing around to figure out how to make the shape I wanted. I wanted a bucket shaped bag. I ended up breaking the shapes down - I made a tube from the hexagons and then a circle for the base. I used half hexagons to give the tube a straight edge. I used  Littleberry’s  half hexagon pattern - though I restarted the yarn on the right hand side every round. I used the  magic circle technique  for the centres and crocheted over the ends of the yarn and connected the hexagons as I went. I managed to find some fabric in my stash that matched the colours of the cotton and used this for the lining. I made twisted cord from the cotton for the drawstring. There was a bit of yarn leftover so I made a little drawstring pouch for my stitch markers. Bag Construction Make a tube with the hexagons, eight across and 4 high. Make 8 half hexagons for th...