Wipocalypse July

WIPocalypse check in again! But before that, just a quick note. I had a little time for some blog reading last night before I went to bed and tonight, but for some reason, if you have embedded comments, I can't comment from Google Chrome, I have to go to Internet Explorer, but when it wants me to sign into my account, the page is all in arabic and I have no idea what it's asking me, so sorry, no comments from me!

First up, a recap of what I achieved January - June:

1. The Mackintoshesque window
2. giant granny square blanket
3. Cotton granny squares - originally intended to be a blanket, now a cushion
4. crochet rug
10. Small vintage embroidery
11. Necklace kit from Spellbound
12. Necklace kit mum bought me
13. Tea wallets
15. Bathroom curtain
16. Picnic napkins
17. Wiggly bags 
19. Sewing machine mat with thread catcher
20. Ungar #2 
21. Fleece baby hat 
24. punch needle
26. mosaic house number kit 
32. Lynette Anderson needle case 
33. Silhouttes cross stitch
34. Scraperboard rabbit
37. Clay + Pebeo paint

42. Extruding clay

46. Friendly plastic

48. Lavender sachets from hankies
49. Lunch bag
53. Red scarf with beaded fringe
57. Mega chunky cowl
59. Decopatch
61. Crochet hat for me in Hug
62. UTEE
63. Hat for Samantha

I have finished absolutely nothing, nada, nowt this month.  I'm failing miserably at this challenge.  Should we call it a half-way blip?  I did work on a couple of things.  Literally just a couple though...

My Wips

14. Alphabet chart - I have worked on this but haven't had a chance to blog it what with me being in Tunisia.

crafts /projects I have supplies for

54. Crochet cardi - all of 20 rows, burning up the crochet hook with that one!

So that's a measly, pathetic 0 WIPs from a total of 37 (projects left) done - 0%! 

Ah well, want to see the view from my hotel room instead?  

The items remaining list is not going down at all:
My WIPs
5. crochet Yoda
6. crewel Jacobean pattern
7. Crewel fire guard
8. Beaded embroidery dress
9. Dancers cross stitch
18. Chair covers
22. Applique tea cups

crafts I have kits for
23. Enamelling
25. Lace making
27. Mosaic tray kit
28. Beaded santa ornament
29. Silk painting
30. Origami
31. Hessian reindeer
35. Latch hook kit
36. Beaded lillies

crafts /projectsI have supplies for
38. Cathedral Windows
39. Tatting Course
40. Beaded Boxes
41. Sharp crochet hook
43. Hammering wire
44. Bead loom
45. Lino cutting
47. French knitting
50. Mum's chair covers

51. Jacob's quilt

52. Beaded bird panel
55. Crochet bag
56. Wedding memories box
58. Crochet fat friends (the other 7)
60. Lucet
64. Embroidered tablecloth
65. Kitchen curtains
66. Bunny jewellery - charm and ceramic beads
67. Paper beads

29th December 2012 = 67 projects.
26th January 2013 = 6 completed. 6 projects total. 61 to go
26th February 2013 = 5 completed, 11 completed total, 56 to go.
27th March 2013 = 6 completed, 17 completed total, 50 to go

25th April 2013 = 7 completed, 24 completed total, 43 to go
31st May 2013 = 2 completed, 26 completed total, 41 to go
30th June 2013 = 4 completed, 30 completed total, 37 to go
31st July 2013 = 0 completed, 30 completed total, 37 to go


And the projects added since Christmas?

a1 - Skill Builder sampler BOM
a2 - And Sew On... BOM
a3 - Daisy crewel alphabet sampler
a4 - Kumihimo braiding
a5 - Soft book animals
a6 - Hardanger SAL
a7 - CK Button kit (Christmas present from Mr CA)
a8 - fabric medium
a9 - Weekender bag

Next check in, end of August

Previous Wipocalypse posts:

June
May
April
March
February
January

Quick post - no post

Just a quick note to say there will be no post today and possibly not for the rest of the week.  I've got to go on an emergency work trip to Tunisia (before you all say it!  No, not fun...  I'll be working 16 hours days, it's 40 degrees but I'll be in a factory, not by a pool or on the beach and... it's Ramadam) so haven't had time to write any posts.  I do have some photos from the weekend so I'll write a post whilst I'm there, if I get a chance...

To put you out of your misery, the V-word I referred to in Saturday's post is a word which mean "something old" that you will find about 1 million times on every crafting website/blog and splattered all over Etsy, Folksy and Pinterest!  Nope, not going to write it here!

moooo

Good morning ladies.  I am so glad it's finally the weekend, it's been one hell of a week and a budding migraine at work yesterday didn't help much.  I killed it off with my tablets but they make me feel really strange and quite ill, so it still wasn't a pleasant, fun day.  Oh, hang on, I was at work, so it wouldn't have been anyway...

Look what I got in the post!  It came from Homecrafts who sent me the stag's head for free if I would agree to decorate it.  Apologies for the above photo, we have some serious lighting issues in our house!

The first step was to paint the head white so the brown wouldn't show through.  I took him out to sit on the bench and the bunnies were rather bemused.

A couple of sheets of decopatch paper and some decopatch glue later and he became a she!  I suppose he could be a rather camp stag, but to me he looks like a girl.  I have just realised that girls don't have antlers.  Oh dear.  Or rather oh deer.

It was really tricky getting a need line where the antlers and head meet.  I didn't get them level but then I remembered I was planning on sewing her/him/it a sunhat anyway!

It was a nightmare of construction, but take 3 worked OK!  I added a beaded daisy I made ages ago, it was the perfect match.

The head and antlers are decopatched, this is where you tear up strips of the special thin paper and glue them on randomly, but the ears are all one piece.  I cut the piece to size with the intention of decopatching over it, but using the shape to make a nice edge.  When it was in place, I liked how it looked so I left it.

I finished her off with a broderie anglais collar, perfect for the dreaded v-word look that she seems to be sporting.  I can't stand the v-word.  It's not really a style that's to my taste, but that wouldn't be a problem if the v-word wasn't so overused!  It seems anything can be v-word these days, even if you bought it yesterday.

It was at this point that I decided she looks like a cow.  I know, cows don't have antlers, but then neither do girl-deer.  She's special.  In all senses of the word.  Look how she's giving you the eye...

Thanks Homecrafts, I really enjoyed this slightly-daft project, you can't beat slightly-daft, can you?  You can see what the other bloggers did with their deer heads on the Homecrafts blog.

what I'm working on...

Not a lot...

The beginnings of a cardigan, started on the journey to Shropshire at the weekend...

As there's nothing much to see here, why not pop over to The Felting and Fiber Studio where Zed is having a giveaway for a copy of her Polymer Clay e-book, it looks like a fabulous book and I didn't get extra chances to win for writing this, just wanted you all to know!  The giveaway post is here but hurry, it closes on Sunday.

Ironbridge

I was telling you on Monday about the yarn bobbling I saw during our weekend away.  We left Bishop's Castle on Sunday but instead of going straight home, we stopped off at Ironbridge Gorge, where neither of us have been since we were kids.  It's a whole host of museums, about 10 I think, all close together.  The main event is a Victorian town.  Well worth a visit if you're in the area.  There are all kinds of shops, a school, foundry, blacksmiths, a pub and houses.  You can change your money for old money when you go in and everything is priced in both currencies.  

In one of the little cottages I spotted this:

A handpieced hexy quilt and a yo-yo doll's quilt.  There were three beds in the cottage, each with a hexy blanket.  Those hexies are about 1" by the way!  When I turned round, I saw one of the ladies who works there (in full Victorian dress) hexing away.  Of course, I stopped for a long chat.  Mr CA nearly dropped to the floor asleep...

One of the other cottages held a handcrank sewing machine and a lady had been doing patchwork.  Unfortunately she'd gone for her lunch as I wanted to ask her about the method she was using, I think it was quilt as you go onto a blanket, and the fact that I spotted several different recent lines of Moda squares amongst the old-clothes she was using!  Not so authentic there Ironbridge!

There is a dressmakers and haberdashery, so I spent 5d of Mr CA's Victorian money on this half yard of beautiful sage fabric.  You have to have a souvenir!

There were people making stuff all over.  These are made from plaster of Paris and I intend to paint them.

Some things you can have a go at.  I dipped this candle.  A really easy process, I had one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments.

Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could have a go at on that day.  A criticism of the place is that you aren't told the times of things when you enter - for example, we walked all the way down to the bottom and stopped for a coffee.  After that, we saw the school house which said there was a lesson in 1/2 hour's time.  If we'd known that in advance, we could have timed our visit around it.

Next we went to the China Museum.  I was really excited as it was billed as very hand-on.  I wanted to have a go at the pottery.  There wasn't even anyone demonstrating.  The place was almost deserted, except for the gift shops.  A couple of the exhibitions were even closed but they'd charged us full price!  I wasn't impressed.  I was particularly disappointed that I couldn't have a go at glass blowing, advertised as available for £5. I'd have loved to have tried that.

I did buy these porcelain flowers though.  And ate quite a lot of biscuits.  Then fell asleep in the car.  

Yarn bobbling

I haven't been at work today, me and Mr CA went away on Friday for a weekend and I decided to take an extra day.  Having said that, I haven't got much achieved... some mending, taking up trousers for a friend and a bit of work on the deer.  Oh and about 5 episodes of Hoarders...

My wonderful dad booked us a weekend at The Castle Hotel in Bishop's Castle in Shropshire.  It's a lovely quiet part of the world, close to the Welsh border (hi Samantha, did you see me waving?) and we may even have been in Wales at one point.  I did see a sign in a phone box written in Welsh.  Nearby are the historic towns of Ludlow and Shrewsbury, one of which had a needlework shop, a yarn shop and a quilt shop (not a great one unfortunately).  But that's not what I came him to waffle on about.

I saw yarnbombing!

This was all in the little town of Bishop's Castle which has a long uphill main street.  I walked past quite a few before I noticed this.

You would not believe how excited I was.  I came close to wetting my pants and it took a while for Mr CA to work out what the hell I was talking about. 

Even when he understood, he thought it was called yarn bobbling, and at one point even called it nobble bobbling....  Some of it was quite simple.

Others more complex.  Note the very old house these little critters are perching on.  (Jillayne, add this part of the world to your list!  I am in the process of writing you a list by the way...)

I was gutted at first as I didn't have my camera with me.  Mr CA suggested I use my phone (it's his old Smartphone, recently given to me when mine gave up the ghost and I have no idea how to use it, hence the very badly emails you'll all have received of late).  I actually asked if it had a camera on it.  Yes, I belong in the 1980s.

This one was my favourite, flanking the entrance to a book shop.

I love that little slug!

The other side had a nautical theme.

There were two of these candles, high up on a wall.  As it was also on a very steep slope, that must have been some ladder they used...

A mix of crochet and knit.  And pompoms.

And the piece de resistance?  Found right by the entrance to the hotel (but only after I'd seen everything else!).

How cool is that?  I've been daydreaming about yarnbombing my area too, but this little lot must have taken someone ages, or a group of people.  Anyone want to yarn bobble Sneinton with me?

fluffy bunnies

I have made nothing! Will some pictures of my uber-cute bunsters do?

"Quick, Ellis, this way, we'll get away from crazy mum with that camera"

"Oh no, there's a bag of sawdust in the way.  Now what?"

"Fine, I'll just lie down here.  I'm exhausted anyway, I got out of bed this morning and lay around outside.  So tiring."

"Come on Colin, stop lying around, let's dig a hole!  You know mum hates that"

"Colin!  Come and have a sniff at this.  It's a weed!"

"What?  What are you looking at?"

"Are you taking photos of me?  But I haven't done my hair..."

"Fine then, you take pictures, I'm off, come on Harry!"

"I can't Tiff, I've got to sniff this waterbutt.  I've only sniffed it a hundred times in the past, it might smell different now..."

No favoritism   Harry is impossible to take photos of as he just runs away.  Colin and Tiff are total camera hams.

Ooops!

Ooops, it looks like I completely forgot to post this week!  I blame that bright orange hot thing in the sky.  Anyone know what that is?  Not sure I've seen it round here before...

A long time ago I knitted a wire bracelet with beads.  It was in my shop and recently I was contacted by a lady who'd seen it and wanted one, but with navy beads.  As I started to search for navy seed beads (not easy to find!), I found out it was to wear on her wedding day!

Wow, what an honour.  And now I was terrified.  I had to get this right.  My first attempt was with silver wire (about 0.22mm) and Preciosa seed beads in a size 8 I think.  Preciosa make the most beautiful seed beads with a wonderful lustre and these photos do not do them justice.

My client has suggested adding in clear beads, so I tried that, alternating between navy and clear with one bead per stitch.  The bracelets are 7 stitches wide, but the first stitch on each row is slipped to neaten up the edge a little.

Attempt 3 was with navy wire (from Wires) and both types of seed bead, threaded on completely at random then knitted - 1 bead, 1 empty stitch, 2 beads, 1 empty stitch.  I like the randomness of it.  This is also the only one I got a decent close up shot of!  Having said that, the navy beads are actually more navy than that.

I'm going to put the rest of them in the shop, once I've taken some decent photos of course!  If anyone does want a custom cuff making (size to fit your wrist, whatever colour you like), you know where to find me.  Oh sorry, that was a bit of a sales pitch there, won't do it again.  I'll leave you with a pretty picture, I've got a deer's head to glue...

back pack

Good morning ladies, how was your weekend?  Today's post is about something I made a weekend ago, I had quite a few subjects for posts and knew that I'd have less time to make stuff in July, so held some things back.  I prefer just having one subject per post rather than mixing things up.  Is that boring?

Whilst feeling slightly panicky about the length of my WIP list, I decided to start making some bits for my holiday next month.  I used to have the best back pack ever.  It was very simple, a draw string bag with the drawstring doubling as the handles.  I bought it in a shop in Poland when I lived in Warsaw and so it said "Troll" on it.  That was the name of the shop, as far as I know, it's not a Polish word.  There were some shops with amusing names and one with a very rude name.  I won't repeat it here.  

Anyway, aforementioned bag accompanied me everywhere.  To the school to teach, to friend's houses and out clubbing containing smuggled bottles of vodka!  Yes, I was young once.  A long time ago.  This perfect bag was stolen in Barcelona during my second out of three muggings.  I mourned it for a long time.

I searched for years for a bag like that, but never found one I liked.  It was only a few weeks ago that I realised I could make one.  I thought it would be perfect for a beach holiday.  Just to be clear, my beach holiday will involve NO lying on the beach.  Apart from the fact it's to Devon, which is in England, which does NOT do beach weather, I have to wear factor 30+ sun cream and I still burn.  I've never had a tan in my life and I'm often mistaken for a milk bottle.  An accidental 10 minutes in the sun last week lead people to look at me in horror and ask what was wrong with my arms due to the odd purpley/red mottled effect the sun gives them.  The holiday will involve walks on the beach though, either whilst Mr CA and Junior CA are body boarding, or in the evenings, and a "normal" handbag is annoying.

Eagle eyed readers will notice it matches my Weekender Bag.  I am such a classy lady.  The lining is this lovely print that I bought from Abakhan at the NEC and I originally planned to make the bag in it, until I remembered my Coats & Clarke surplus.  It's home decor weight so it's more hard wearing, and I added some medium interfacing too.

I made the pattern up as I went along.  The handles are formed by threading some rope (from B&Q after a fruitless visit to Hobbycraft intending to buy their thickest piping cord.  Piping cord just doesn't come that thick.  This is 8mm rope) through tabs sewn into the side seams.  I didn't want to risk sewing the rope directly into the seams as it's very chunky.

I added 2 zip pockets, one in each size of the lining, one for my phone and the other for my huge variety of migraine/headache pills anything else small that I don't want to risk losing.

This style of bag is perfect if you are a tourist somewhere.  Not only does it free up your hands, it would be very hard for someone to slip a hand into your bag as it's tight at the top.  Opening the bag involves taking it off and pulling the top open, meaning the handles are too short for you to wear - there's no way anyone could attempt to open it to steal something.

I love it.  I'm going to show it to my mum to see if she wants one too, if she does would anyone be interested in a tutorial or is it just too basic for that?