The doily is ready...

Morning ladies.  I hope you all had a nice weekend and are enjoying your Monday morning.  Or afternoon or whatever time it is where you are.  It's Monday morning for me so I'd like to think you're in the same miserable boat!

I had a craftastic weekend.  I would like to point out that I'm using the word "craftastic" ironically.  Let's just make that clear.  I did get a lot done though.  I sewed up a storm and even made some jewellery, but that's not what I've got to show you today. 

I finally finished a project I've been working on for AGES.  I made a doily and got hooked, I immediately started another but it gave me loads of trouble.  Or rather my lack of concentration gave me loads of trouble and I ended up crocheting a round, frogging it, crocheting it again, crocheting the new round, frogging it etc, so I've actually made this entire doily twice!

I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to share this picture of the doily being blocked.  But I clearly did as I took a picture so sharing it I am.  I starched it with loads of spray starch to help it keep its shape.  Before blocking it's a big clump of crochet.  I should have taken a picture of that, that would have been more interesting.

 

Anyway, ta-dah and all that.  The pattern can be found here.  It's a free one.

I think I used size 5 thread.  Did I?  Maybe.  I own size 5 and 10 and when I ran out of the first ball, I joined in another and after half a round noticed it was too thin, so I used the thinner of those two sizes.

It's quite large.  As you can't see from the photo above with the metre ruler in it!  Oh, a quick note on the photography.  Thanks for you tips ladies, I do think I need to go a bit more advanced though as I always use my macro setting, never use the flash and use a white background when I can be bothered!  In this photo I didn't use a white background as you'd have just been looking at a block of white!

See?  Proof of how large it is, 17"!  What am I going to do with it??  I do want to try making bowls from doilies, but I'm not sure this one is the ideal pattern... we'll see!

The ever-growing to-do list

I realise I didn't show you my glass class progress last week, I remembered this morning as I was putting my glass box in my car.  The thing is... I only have 3 little leaves to show you.  I had also made another fused piece, but the lady at the studio accidentally slumped it!  I'm hoping to get it back, unslumped, tonight and I can show you that piece, the leaves and the stem which I finished last week and left to be fired.

Thinking about this rather large work-in-progress (my glass window... I'm not sure if that train of thought carried out of my brain onto the keyboard or if you'd all be sitting there wondering what I'm waffling about now) led me to think about all the other work in progresses hanging around.  I really need to get some of them done as they're stressing me out a bit.  I don't even know why.  Why should a half-finished doily bother me so much?

Anyway.  I decided to share.  I know you've all been going crazy wondering exactly what is on my WIP list and so I thought it was about time I put you out of your misery.  I know.  I'm good like that.

1. 5 more babygrows for Jacob out of my brother's t-shirts.  Not technically a WIP as I haven't started... but I said I'd do it and I have the pattern cut out.

My very talented graphic designer brother actually designed this one himself:

I'd better not much that one up!
2. The granny square bathroom curtain.  I'm going for 3 blocks of each of the 4 colours.  That makes 12.  I think I only need 9.  I have plans for the others if they're not needed.

3. These tea wallets have been languishing in my craft room, almost finished, since the day before Mother's Day.  They were to be Mother's Day presents, but I messed up the binding on one of them trying to sew it on by machine both front and back.  It has to come off and both bindings have to be hand sewn.  I knew I wouldn't get it done in time so it got shunted.

4. 5. 6. 7. Not technically WIPs again as I haven't started them, but they're at the top of my to-do list (meaning I'll get another 85 projects done before I get to these!).  The Joel Dewberry herringbone is for a pattern in the bottom book, dungarees for Jacob.  There's something I want to make from Pretty Little Projects, can't remember what it is right now.. a potholder?  Then there's a lunchbag tutorial I've printed out and I can see two marked projects in Sew and Stow.  Wonder what they are?!

8. My project for my Something Old, Something New competition.

9. I last mentioned my giant granny way back in September when I was on round 36.  I hadn't touched it since then until the weekend when I had it as my in-car project.  I've now completed round 45!  It's no where near finished though, it's too small!

10. Another crochet project I haven't mentioned in a while is my giant doily rug.  I got quite far, then put it aside to work on something else and when I came back to it I had no idea what I was doing!  The pattern I used was only for 10 rounds but I'd carried it on.  I intend to do the same things again.  Yes, I did have to rip it back to the very first round!

11. So far I've frogged and recrocheted every single round of this doily.  I'm not sure why it's still languishing as I love crocheting it.  When I look back on my evenings of the last month or so, I don't seem to have done much crafting at all.  I hate being too busy!

12. The one thing I have been working on is this cross stitch.  I showed you this a couple of weeks ago and asked if you could guess what it was.  You couldn't.  Or perhaps didn't want to.  That's fine!  I hope you can tell what it is now though?

It's a pattern I'm testing for Beverly who sells her amazing cross stitch patterns, though I can't find a link to her shop on her blog - Beverly!  I'm hoping to get it finished soon.  It's been worked on a lot as I've been getting home so late and I'm so tired that cross stitch is the only thing I can do.

12 WIPs isn't bad at all, is it?  Well, it wouldn't be but I actually have a lot more than that... they just managed to escape the camera this time!

I'm hoping to get back into regular crafting again very soon, and I've also got a selection of craft courses to look forward to.  I'll tell you all about them later this week.



Don't forget to enter my Something Old, Something New competition. The deadline is 31st July and there is a prize!

doily gone wrong + fabric + cards

I meant to post yesterday and just completely forgot, and now today I'm having the most stressful day in living memory!  Work is a nightmare and I bought the wrong colour tile-paint. Perhaps not a nightmare on its own, but it does mean that Mr CA couldn't paint the bathroom tiles and is working this weekend so now I'M going to have to do it!

I'm taking 2 minutes out of my nightmare to whip up a quick post!  It's all over the place this post, a bit like my brain today.

Random topic number one - big fat fail
I don't know if you remember I told you I was working on a doily and it wasn't going well?  It turned out that I was using the wrong hook.  Oh, the number was correct, but a UK 6 and a US steel 6 are very different creatures...  why??? why do we need 2 systems??

Here's how it was looking:

I frogged it and started again.  It's going much better with a smaller hook, but each round is taking me twice as long as it should as I get to the next round and realise I made a mistake at the beginning of the last round!  I didn't get an in-progress shot but I will soon.

Random topic number 2 - my first FQ bundle

I mentioned to my brother that I'd love to make another quilt for my nephew, my brother was quite chuffed, so I got online and looked at fabric.  I already knew which line I wanted to use.  Over at Prints to Polka Dots I found a bargain FQ bundle and snapped it up.  Want to see?

Yum!  I laid it all out so you could see the different prints.  I just fancied bragging about it!  For any US readers that are amazed I've never bought an FQ bundle before - this cost me £50 (€75), and that was on sale.

Did you see in the corner of the top picture my sewing machine cover?  That's the back which faces the window and all the prints are so faded now!  I real lesson about what sunlight does to fabric.

Random topic number 3 - lovely gift from a friend

I think you may have noticed that I'm joining in the Zakka Style SAL?  One of my friends Fiona is in Latvia and couldn't get hold of the magnetic sheet for week 6.  I said I'd send her some and look what she sent me in exchange!

Luscious, luscious Latvian linen!  Love that green... and a wonderful card.  I can't believe I recognised the buildings in this, it was 9 years ago that I visited the beautiful city of Riga.  She also sent me some chocolate, but I scoffed that. 

Random topic number 4 - Beaded cards

I showed you my teeny-tiny beading a week or so ago.  I made them up into cards at the weekend and I'm pretty chuffed with them.  Somethign tells me everyone will be getting beaded cards this year...

I needed to make an acceptance card for a colleague's wedding reception and an engagement card for my brother and his lovely missus, so I decided to do them both the same and just change the wording.

Very simple, the beading is attached to card and layered on gold card.  The wording is embossed and layered up the same way.

Random topic number 5 - my competition

I have had 10 entries for my competition so far - 10!  I can't believe it, I really didn't think anyone would enter!  But you've still got plenty of time ladies, remember, there's a prize!  To read about it, go here.  You can enter as many times as you like, enter by adding your link to the comments of that post or email me directly.  I have other comments on that page too and as I'm taking email entries, what I'm going to do is write a "final" post with a picture of each project and a link, plus a number.  I'll use that to choose my winner.  The more entries you submit, the more chances to win and it doesn't have to be sewn!

Random topic number 6 - a giveaway

I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by telling you about other people's giveaways, but this one is too good to miss.  Shape Moth is running a giveaway to celebrate the launch of a new German sewing supplies on-line shop patchwork-oase.com.  There are loads of prizes to be won and it's open until the 7th July.

Random topic number 7 - my Friday evening

Mr CA is on site tonight.  I will be working til quite late I think, then I have to go to B&Q to buy tile paint.  Mr CA bought some in Brilliant White.  We then decided it wouldn't match the Antique White we were painting the walls so I took it back.  It was traumatic, I don't think the shop assistants had a brain between them and said I couldn't exchange it for a different colour as I didn't have my husband's credit card on me.  Make sense?  Erm no.  I "talked" them round.  I bought Ivory.  Hubby painted the tiles (thankfully only a few).  It's yellow.  I'm going back to buy Brilliant White.  Then I'm going to the tip.  Then I'm going to Asda. 

I know, I know, I have the most exciting life you've ever know.  Seriously, I could weep.

Déjà vu

I'm back! I survived!  I have no idea why the "I'm" at the beginning of the sentence looks like a link... try it, see where it goes.  Anyway, I could regale you with tales of snotgobbling taxi drivers and lack of coffee in hotels, but instead I'll start with a quick apology, and then move on to showing you things you've kind of seen before.  Wow, sounds, exciting doesn't it!

The apology: I'm weeks behind in my email replying.  You may have had a reply from an email sent the other day but not one weeks ago, that's because I've been randomly clicking and replying!  Secondly, I'm days behind on blog reading and my reader went mental at lunch and randomly started scrolling down and down and down, in the end I had to shut the computer down and I've lost a day or so of posts... and some of them looked really interesting as they were shooting past at the speed of light.  If there's anything I should have seen, let me know in the comments!  Let's see, May 23rd and 24th.

OK, on with the repeats!  A week or so ago I showed you my first attempt at a doily.  I've now blocked it and it looks... like a doily!  A real one!

I'm inordinately proud of it.  I've started the next and I'll show you soon as I've got to have it finished soon, I've been working on it for weeks.  I got back from Tunisia on Friday night and Mr CA went to site Saturday/Sunday.  To make up for him abandonning me and for leaving the house in a right state, I used his money to buy myself some flowers and put the doily underneath.

Excuse the backdrop of a pile of books.  They're to go on the higher shelves that I can't reach, even on the enormous ladder.  Being 5foot1 in a house with 13 feet ceilings can be a trial...

My second, third and fourth repeats are further versions of the coffee mat I made to go under my leaky coffee machine.  I used the same print fabric, one is backed with 2 face cloths sewn together, and for the other 2 I cut a tea towel in half.  I wanted to put a lace border on them.  This is the result.

When you try to be a smart-arse and mitre the corners of the lace, that's when you have to cut them open.  It doesn't work.  I know that's pretty obvious, but apparently not to me!

I tried a different method with the next one.  I rumpled the corners up and tacked them before sewing.  Yes, rumpling up is a technical term.

Hmm.  So that doesn't quite work either.  Never mind, they're to catch coffee drips, if the lace doesn't sit flat, it doesn't sit flat. 

The final one is lace free.  Even a disaster-merchant like me knows when to give in... sometimes.  I washed the original mat at the weekend and it came out the wash with the coffee stains still on.  So I washed it on 60 and put it in the tumble drier.  It's still in there.  I daren't look!

The green tea towel doesn't go perfectly with the mat, but who cares?  Below is a sideways picture of all three!

And finally, before I go away and do some work, a reminder about my competition.




Click here for the details.  You have until the end of June to make something out of something old along with something new.  There is a prize!  Please feel free to grab the button over on the right and help me spread the word.  I promise that if you do, I'll have loads of new disasters for you to laugh at... promise!

Not a beaded necklace

Morning ladies.  I did mean to post yesterday, but time got away with me.  I was planning on announcing my competition but due to technical issues, I wasn't able to sort out the button etc.  I'm planning on announcing the competition at the weekend.

Back in March I bought a beading kit from the NEC Hobbycrafts show.  I loved the necklace and decided I wanted to make it for myself.  I finally got round to it at the weekend and sat down to start.  I was watching Alcatraz at the same time and must have been riveted as I noticed I'd cut 4 of the headpins in the kit to the wrong size.  Never mind, I thought, I have head pins.  Except mine were too thick for the seed beads.  As it was the weekend I knew I could get some the next day so I thought I'd make something else.  I was in a beady mood so I got my books out and had a good leaf through, marking a few necklaces I'd like to make and a few little beaded objects. 

Then I crocheted a doily.

Attention deficit disorder?  Moi?  I used this pattern.  It's written in Portuguese.  I don't speak Portuguese but with a little googling and a little Word-Referencing, I got there. 

It's crocheted in crochet thread, Anchor Aida 6 ply thread to be exact, my first time using it.  It's currently blocking itself on a towel in my craft room, I just need to starch it and... well I have no idea what I'm going to do with it!

To see the scale, I've shown it in the photo above with my t-shirt yarn crochet rug (still incompleted), the tiny little 2mm hook I used and the massive 15mm hook I'm using for the rug.

I enjoyed making this doily so much, I started another almost straight away.  I'm up to round 6 on this pattern but I'm using the recommended hook - size 4.5mm with the crochet thread and I really don't like how big and loose my chains are, so I'm going to start again and use the 2mm hook again.  Are any of you experiences doily makers?  What would you suggest?

I'm so hooked that I've been rooting out more patterns to take with me on the plane to Tunisia next week.  I need something to crochet that's just one colour (as I can't take scissors) and not as big and heavy as the crochet rug so doilies it is.  I looked online for some crochet thread and found Anchor Perle Cotton in size 8.  Now I've used this for hand quilting, but I didn't know if it was the same things as crochet thread.  Incidentally, it's 65p a ball including postage if anyone is in the market for some.  Ebay shop.  I can't vouch for them as I've never used this particular company, but if anyone does, please let me know!  I've left it too later really to arrive before I leave on Monday, so I'll be doing a quick raid on Hobbycraft where a ball is £3.95 - hence my interest in whether I can substitute the size 8 Perle.  Any and all comments on this subject are welcome as I'm a doily novice!

I wonder what Mr CA will say when I get home with a suitcase full of doilies... and again, what am I going to do with them??

Edited to add: Well, I've just discovered one of the problems.  The lovely Teresa sent me a link to crochet hook conversion chart and I realised that I'd been using a UK size 7 hook!  There's a massive difference.  I'll be ripping it out soon!