Makes and Creates

I finally plucked up enough courage to open a shop on Folksy :)  I’ll blog more about it soon but for now here’s the link:  http://www.folksy.com/shops/makesandcreates

Hello world,

I am still alive, just been too busy lately to have any time to be making things so haven’t had anything to post!  I have however been taking lot’s of photo’s though on our various adventures and days out so haven’t been totally non creative.

I’ve started to knit a baby blanket for my friends baby who is due in November, better get working on that or it won’t be finished on time.

Hopefully after next weekend we should have some time to ourselves, time to relax and time to start making things again (we are already planning a trip to Hobbycraft) so keep on checking back and normal (well more normal) service will be resumed as soon as possible

I’d read about stenciling on to t-shirts and the like on the net a while ago and was very impressed with what I saw so ordered some freezer paper on e-bay. It had been sitting in our “to-do” pile of crafty things for a month or two until last weekend we finally had some free time (and bad weather) to give it a try. It was so easy to use and the results turned out even better than I expected.

Chris had a go and made a PacMan t-shirt (which I’m sure he’ll post on his blog once he’s put the finishing touches to it) and I made a bib and a couple of newborn onesies. I need to add some finshing touches myself to the dinosaur ones but thought I’d post my progress so far anyway! It’s something I will definitely be experimenting more in.

Also, Chris bought me a really good craft magazine a couple of weeks ago and I discovered a thing called Art Clay Silver. After an hour or so researching on the net I am now booked in to an Art Clay Silver beginners course in a couple of weeks which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve always wanted to try Silversmithing but couldn’t find any courses nearby so this will be a good alternative that will be easier for me to carry on with at home (if I get on ok on the course that is!)

More about Art Clay Silver

I’ve still been (slowly) working on my first sock, I’m actually really pleased with how it’s coming along and how it’s looking.  Having not been able to make it along to my usual Stitch N’ Bitch group for the past couple of months I’d just left the sock sitting there as I was too scared to move on the next step (the gusset & gusset shaping) on my own, without any help and guidance.

However a couple of weeks ago I came over all brave, took the plunge picked the sock up and had a go.  I have now successfully (I think!) completed the gusset and gusset shaping and am now onto the foot so should be finishing my first sock very soon (then onto the next one to make a pair!)

I’m still thinking it would have been wiser for me to make a pair of baby socks first, at least they’d be finished by now!

We had a lovely bank holiday weekend in Leicester, spent the weekend eating and drinking (LOTS), spending time with my family and on Saturday we went to the National Space Centre.  The Space Centre was fun, the globe shaped cinema in there is amazing!  We watched a short film about the life of an astronaut, the seats are tilted back as you have to look in front you, above you, either side of you and behind you.  The actual film felt so 3D and you feel like you’re being sucked in at times, it wasn’t shocking to hear that some people start to feel ill in there and have to be taken out of the cinema!  Luckily it didn’t affect me in that way (tho there was one point where it span round and round, I did have to shut my eyes for a minute!) though I wouldn’t like to go and watch a film in there after a night on the cocktails!  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photo’s inside the cinema, but the rest of the photo’s from the day are on my flickr.

We had a nice (suprisingly) problem free journey home, the trains weren’t very busy and even though Liverpool Street was shut we managed to fluke stepping straight off a tube and on to the train home (and I mean literally stepping off one and on to another).

And to round off the lovely weekend I came home to find that the labels I’d ordered for my knitting/sewing/making/creating had arrived :D  I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out as you couldn’t see a preview on the website so I wasn’t really expecting them to be that good (especially as they were bargainous!) but I’m very pleased with them, see for yourselves..

• National Space Centre
• My Flickr

I spotted these Russian Dolls in Next during a bit of retail therapy during my lunch hour and had to have them.  I don’t know why I was so drawn to them as Russian Dolls never really fussed me before but this time it was different!  I think maybe it’s the colours of them and that they have prettier faces than usual.  They are now living on our bookshelf

I fancied having a go at using bamboo yarn and decided a washcloth would be a good first project as it’s easy, small, quick and useful!

I used garter stitch as a border round the whole thing then moss stitch for the rest of it and I even crocheted (yes you heard (or should that be read) right) a little loop to hang it up! Though it seems I can crochet chains only, which is ok if all I want to make is loops.. or chains.. :p  The yarn used was Sirdar Just Bamboo in a nice shade of pink on 5.5mm needles.

I made him for Chris yesterday afternoon (I’m off work ill with a throat infection at the mo). I totally made him up as I went along and I think he turned out well and Chris seemed to like him

Here he is….

Ages ago I bought 5 balls of Sirdar Blur in a lovely kinda inky purple colour (they say Indigo), they were bought after seeing a pattern in a knitting mag for a lovely jumper. I’ve never got round to starting the jumper so I thought rather than the yarn just sitting there I’d try and make something, but what? Then I read on someones blog that on Ravelry you can type in a type of yarn and it will find all the patterns and projects related to it - genius! So I had a search and found a lovely looking scarf (Invisible Stripe Scarf), checked out the pattern thinking it would be difficult and y’know what it’s SO easy So I cast on for that this afternoon and it’s coming along nicely.

Our trip to Hobbycraft last week was very successful, I bought lots including cheap yarn to play about with, crochet hooks, a thing to put press-studs on to fabric (better than having to sew them on as this makes it stronger), Hama beads inc glow in the dark ones, some cool Sculpey that turns into an eraser when you bake it and some aida and embroidery thread. I set to work with the aida and thread straight away to create some cool geeky cross stitch of computer games characters, they turned out really well (I’ve only posted the pic of the Robot from Bubble Bobble tho).

So last night we went to La Tasca for Chris’ birthday. The meal was lovely and I shocked myself and Chris (I don’t know which of us was more shocked) by eating squid, mussels and cucumber (I had a bad incident with cucumber many years ago and have never touched the stuff since), the wine must’ve made me feel brave! Here are some pics from our meal:

Today we’ve had a lazy(ish) day, we’ve stayed in (as it’s been so wet and windy outside) and made a Sunday roast. Chris has been working on a new design for my site, we did have one sorted ages ago but have decided to change it again now (so new look coming soon!) This afternoon we’ve been playing around being crafty with Hama beads and Fimo, my first go at Fimo so I didn’t really know what to expect. It was fun tho and the results were good (see below, and see Chris’ blog for his crafty makings). Our day has been accompanied by the soundtrack of the daffodils I bought yesterday starting to pop open from their buds, yes! you can actually hear them!