My Week

After the many and various shenanigans of the last two weeks, this week has been one for time at home. There has been the mass-pompom-production that comes with this particular time of year - I spent time sat in the garden with my family whilst making them, and binge-watching tv shows whilst making them, and dreaming about making them. We are edging ever closer to our target of five thousand tiny hats, we are just shy of three thousand at the moment with almost two months still to go, I am pretty proud of how we're doing, and hope it makes a difference to lots of people. 

The quiet-time at home has given me an opportunity to see all of the little creatures enjoying our garden, we've had beautiful butterflies and busy little bees. I hope they like the flowers we've chosen for them. Inspired by the summery florals, (and because the weather is disappointingly wintry) I have been making little tiny cross-stitch samples, using the lovely Cath Kidston "Stitch" book as my starting point. I made a tiny frame brooch that I'm sure I will thoroughly enjoy wearing. There are big changes happening in my little world at the moment, and the hope for the future has given me some inspiration to get making. I am trying to grab it with both hands. 

My Month in Makes... March

March has been a busy little month of making, here are my finished bits and bobs, as well as the "still in progress" things...

Row four and five of my 2015 blanket are finished and attached, my granny square blanket is at the edging stage, and I have two pairs of socks on the go, as well as a second sock that needs casting on... I finished the knitting bit of a Miss Marple bow scarf but it needs fancifying, and I knitted a Ravenclaw scarf for my special adventure to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I also had a go at the Mollie Makes cross stitch jewellery free-gift, although I adapted the patterns a bit and played with the colours. I also made myself a bunch of laser-cut brooches, ready for something special I have planned (I will share more about that soon!), so all in all I've been a busy bee. 

Have you made anything nice lately? Please share some links, I'd love to see!

In My Tool Bag...

Every so often, in my many and varied wanderings around the internet, I come across blog posts and photos and facebook bits talking about "tools of the trade", or "have a look in my handbag" and I always rather enjoy them, so I thought I might take a moment to share what is in my essential carry-around crafty kit.

This is my little zippy bag, made some time ago in a "learning to put in zips" adventure. The fabric is from a Laura Ashley sample book, and it never fails to makes me smile.

On first look, it's rather a messy, bursting at the seams sort of affair. I must confess that I hadn't realised how much was crammed in until I emptied it out. 

I have a bit of a bad habit - hoarding crochet hooks. These are just my carry around ones, there are many many more at home... Anyway, my essentials are all here, and it would seem that four (!) 2.5mm hooks are essential. I might need to thin them out a bit...

I have a little selection of Bamboo and plastic hooks in there, although I'm not a regular user of either. I also have some of the tiniest hooks in existence, so small that they are hard to see, and I use them mostly for crocheting sewing cotton.

I have some knitting bits and bobs too, my most favourite being my Yummy stitch markers, they're supposed to be for zippers, but they're perfect for knitting.

These are my random carry-arounds - two pairs of scissors, tweezers, sewing needles, tape measure and pompom maker. I would be lost on a day to day basis without these things!

I have a little tiny zippy bag inside my main zippy bag, also made as part of the big zip adventure. I keep bodkin needles in there, and lots of stitch markers that I made with vintage buttons. 

So there we go, the contents of my crafty bag. 

Makings...

As the Summer is drawing to a close and the Autumnal chill in the air seems to be a more regular visitor, I feel the need to spend as much time as possible cosy at home and crafting. Knitting socks is my comfort-craft of choice (along with making granny squares of course) and no matter how many other crafty projects are happening there is always at least one pair of socks on the needles. 

These ones are lovely Drops Fabel "Pink Dream" yarn, and I think they're pretty splendid if I do say so myself. The moment they were finished I immediately cast on a new pair, these ones are super-thrifty "Frankensocks". They are made from leftover bits of yarn from other pairs of socks, and since I have rather teeny feet there is always quite an abundance of leftover yarn. So these ones are going to be a fancy-pants pair with pinky/greeny stripes. 

 My other thrifty project is to make use of a big bag of vintage quilty hexagons that came to me as an appreciator of vintage floral goodness. I am having a delightful time picking out and putting together patterns and colours and making squishy little puffs. Progress will no doubt be slow on this project, I think it might be a labour of love but eventually it might become a quilt.