His and hers hand knitted socks

I have got a bit of a thing about knitting socks. They are really handy little projects that you can carry around and they don't take too much room. I found a fantastic pattern in Socktopus by Alice Yu. I have had the book for sometime and could not decide which of the patterns to start with first. The patterns have really cool names as they are named after characters or concepts from programmes like true blood and supernatural, of which I am a great fan. The pattern I chose is called V junkie, inspired by the series true blood and the idea that the vampires in the series were addicted to this synthetic type of blood. Anyway I digress. The waffly pattern creates such a lovely squidgy texture and I used a really lovely yarn called Special merino lace in a gorgeous bright pink colour. I can't wait to try another of Alice's patterns. I knitted these socks for me, but I felt guilty as my fiance needed some new socks too so I knitted some plain socks from a really colourful yarn called Lanas stop iris sock yarn. I improvised the pattern, it included a slip stitch heal to make them a little more durable. I love the colours in this yarn, although they did seem to shed quite a lot of fluff on the first wear. Anyway enough chatting, here they are....

Texture adventures

I attended a really great class a few weeks ago by Mary Mcintosh. You can check out some of Mary's work on her website the copper queen. The class was organised by the Norfolk quilters and consisted of a whole day of playing with texture. It was very inspiring, I am looking forward to trying out more creative ideas in the future. This is my finished piece, an eight inch square. I am planning on framing it at some point, but I am looking for the right frame.

Bye for now! 

Confetti and organza needle case

A little while ago I went to a course lead by Margaret Currie about using fabric confetti and organza to make new fabric. I used this technique to make a little needle case. I wont go into too much detail as it would spoil your experience of going to one of Margaret's classes, she is a fabulous teacher! The needle pages are made from felt and simply sewn in along the spine and I added a satin ribbon as a closure. You can never have too many needle cases!

Waterfall ripple blanket

I was inspired by Tilly Trout from Ravelry to have a go at one of these blankets. I follow her video blog on you tube and she was really enjoying crocheting it. I am a big fan of blues and greens, as you may already have guessed! I picked up a few different shades in the stylecroft special double knit acrylic, great for blankets so it can be thrown in the washing machine! The pattern is called neat ripple by Lucy from Attic24, you can check out the pattern here. I used 6 balls of yarn and ended up with a good size lap blanket. I edged the blanket in a couple of rows of triple crochet to finish it off.  My fiance has already decided that it is his blanket as it is so warm! For more details see my ravelry page.

Bobbin Lace bookmark with a purple gimp

I am really getting into bobbin lace now. I fancied having a go at what they call a gimp. This is the thicker purple thread that is woven though the finer work (here in white). The pattern is from Torchon Lacemaking: A manual of techniques by Elizabeth Wade. It was a little tricky at the transition between the half stitch and the whole stitch shadow, but I think I got the hang of it in the end. I am still working on my bobbin lace lavender cushion. That should be my next bobbin lace project I post about. I am also starting to think about designing my own patterns, once I get the hang of it I will post some of my ideas.

Hearts and feathers table topper

I really fancied having a go at some free motion feathers. I found an interesting pattern on Leah Day's website called feathered hearts and decided to have a go. I had pieced together two log cabin blocks with a couple of plain green/blue blocks and needed to fill the plain areas with something interesting. Leah has some very good instructional video's for all her patterns and I found the video to this one particularly helpful, I drew two dividing lines with heat removable pen to split each of the plain blocks into 4 sections. In each section I repeated the feathered pattern. I quilted diagonal lines across the log cabin blocks and bound it with a blue/green fabric to complete the table topper. The free motion is not perfect, but I really enjoyed making it. I feel a little inspired to try out some more free motion patterns!

Cute little scissor keeper

I am a fan of Sue Hawkins patterns. I found this great little kit for a scissor keeper and thought it would be useful to mark my scissors at sewing classes. The kit is called a dressmakers scissor keeper and contained more than enough thread to complete the project. The instructions were very clear and are even suitable for a beginner. I quite fancy designing my own pattern next time, It is a very simple pattern but is so effective!

To find more of Sues patterns you can check out her website, click here.