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I was lucky enough recently to be involved in a swap with Martha of Naive Knitting. We traded one of my cats for this beautiful scarf of hers. The colours, detail and texture are all perfect, and it's so beautifully made. If you haven't been yet, I heartily encourage you to check out Martha's site, especially her shop of unique handcrafted items.
This is my recycled monster for April's Month of Softies: a dinosaur made from an old pillow case I picked up for $1 at a garage sale. I had fun planning and sewing this one - usually I sew with heavy wools and tweeds, and this fabric is so light and cheerful! I'm still on a steep curve learning lots about 3D pattern making with every new attempt, but she did turn out pretty much as I'd hoped, aside from her sagging tummy... maybe she's had kids, too!
I had a fair idea that it wasn't going to be possible for me to keep my desk clean for very long. Part of the fun of sewing (for me) is looking at beautiful fabrics - which unfortunately means I seem to end up with piles of my current favourites on my desk. But, lordy, what a mess! I think I need something like this! (via Craftapalooza).
The large-headed cat is one I'm working on for a lovely new (and big - 10 pounds 12 oz, eek!) baby boy, born Friday to some friends. He (kitty) is made from some beautiful wool blanketing that I recently discovered. It's sturdy and soft at the same time.
What a mish-mash of a post. Anyhow, my kitty auction finishes today. If it goes ok I might ebay some more until I get around to setting up an online shop.
I am so sorry, internet! I have been so slack with my posting. This week has been completely bonkers... Matt has finished up work at a place he's been for 12 years (!) and will start a new job on Tuesday, so there have been farewell dinners and the like. Also, we've been looking into selling up our little slice of near-city real estate and heading for the hills, which is a bit scary and exciting, plus work has kept me way too busy. I am really looking forward to a long weekend, with hopefully lots of opportunities to make some of those things that have been swimming around my head the past few days.
For a while now, I've been thinking about trying my hand at machine felting already knitted items to cut up and sew with. There are many folks out there who do this beautifully, and are very inspiring. So, last week I raided the shed for some old knits. I was going to take a photo of them before I felted them, but I just discovered that our cat slept on them last night, so they're looking a little furry and unattractive now - will photograph later after they've been thoroughly cleaned and felted). Anyhow, I did a little research about how to machine felt and thought I might share a few of the felty links that I discovered...
This great article from Knitty.
Another great Knitty article, more of a useful how-to this time (via Yarn Harlot's amusing yet cautionary tale about machine felting)
Plus this one, which is more of a history, but interesting none the less. (Apparently this process is technically called fulling, rather than felting, who would have guessed).
It's been a busy weekend. I had planned to write a nice long entry about it, but I've been muddling around with Paypal and Ebay all night and now I'm exhausted. This little lass is up on Ebay here now. More tomorrow!
I got a bit excited about that last cat and made another one. It's intended for sale, but Audrey wanted a little cuddle first. I've been madly sewing things that I've promised to people, but all I can think about is this kind of cat, and what fabric I'm going to use for the next one, and the one after that... it's a bit obsessive really. I need to be planning some gifts for a few new babies that are due to arrive over the next couple of months, and all I can think is... do you think it'd be OK if I made them one of these cats?? I'm not sure if anyone else gets like this with favourite projects or patterns, but I seem to do this a lot.
A few things I'm enjoying at the moment:
- The beautiful bags at One Good Bumblebee
- Buying up the last scraps of Ginger Bliss at Patchwork by Sea (and their beautiful wool blanketing fabric for, ahem, more cats)
- These fantasic Penguin Books mugs (via Tania)
Today is my Day of Craft. Because he's been busy and out of the house a fair bit lately, Matt has taken a day off work to spend with Audrey so I can have some time to myself. Even though I've known today was coming for weeks and have been planning all the fun things I was going to do, I woke up this morning feeling a bit bewildered... so much time, so much to do!
First up I finished this cat. I've been wanting to make a 3D version of my cats for a while, but have been putting it off, suspecting that 3D dolls would be more difficult to construct than the 'flat' ones I've been making... and I was right! I'm fairly happy with how she turned out, but lordy, I have much to learn (and there aren't even moving joints here!) There are lots of things I'd do differently next time, most of all to make the dress looser at the top so it will fit over her voluminous head without too much tension on my behalf!
I guess that's one thing down, so now I'm going fabric shopping!
No gardening so far this weekend as I'd hoped; it was a blisteringly hot 36 degrees yesterday, and now today it's raining. It's probably a good thing because I've been puttering around like an old woman all day, feeling very foggy and vague; I'd probably injure myself with the trowel or something. Earlier, I actually sewed over my finger (what was it doing under the sewing machine foot? I have no idea!)
I'm going to blame this woozy behaviour on lack of sleep. Audrey went for her second sleepover ever at Grandma's on Friday night, and Matt & I got to go out for dinner and enjoy a most welcome sleep through the night. I felt so alert and happy yesterday. Last night was back to usual - bub ends up in our bed and I end up fishing around for lost dummies and being head-butted all night. The contrast between how I felt yesterday and today couldn't be greater - I pretty much feel groggy most of the time nowdays and that's really no good for any of us, most of all Audrey to have lacklustre and sleep-deprived parents. Any suggesions from others about how they solved this problem?
Sorry about the rambling. Here are some of my recently completed dolls: cat, monkey and cat. We're off this afternoon to drop a bundle of them off to the shop where I sell them. My next plan is to sew a few for a sort of online hop skip jump shop (format still undetermined!) More craft next post, I promise.
