Enid Collins inspired owl brooch

I've been wanting to make a felt brooch for a while. I always see flower ones which I like but I wanted to make something a little different. Lately, I’ve been on a real Enid kick. I’ve got another one of her bags coming to me in the mail.

Finding wool felt is not the simplest thing here. We have no Michael’s or any other type of craft superstore. I guess the closest thing is John Lewis on Oxford Street but, anyone who has been to Oxford Street knows that it’s a pretty maddening place to get to. This is mainly, because of the throngs of crowds that you must navigate through to get to the shop. In the end, the thought of John Lewis makes me just want to buy stuff online.

All that aside, there is a little craft shop up on Blackstock road near-ish to Finsbury Park. They have all kinds of yarn, buttons, knitting needles, findings and wool felt. I went there to get my felt. Then, after a few days of contemplation I decided that I would make an owl brooch based on one of Enid’s insanely cute designs. Whalla!:
I think a few more of these are in order. I’d really like a chicken one for myself!

Foxy.

Scary in a different way.

I’m not really sure that my jack-o-latern tea cozy should be seen. He’s a little wonky but, sometimes that is what makes craft projects. At the moment I’m undecided. I’ve got loads of this lovely orange wool left over. I had gotten it for Get Together Craftily but, we didn’t end up having enough time to start on the tea cozys on Sunday. Maybe I’ll try again?

Foxy.

Halloween is too much fun.

We did some Halloween card making this weekend at Get Together Craftily. It was truely wonderous.

P and F.

We've been framed!

I've gone deep into the world of frame bag making. I found some frames that don’t have a nice little metal loop attached to them for your handle. So, now I’m trying to come up with ways to put a handle on and for it to be attractive.

So far I have executed one solution. This would be on the red bag. I’ve used loops, which are also stuck into the frame. I think this works quite well. The handle also feels really nice because it’s wide and has good padding in it.
I’m going to try a few other ideas out like surface mounting the handles and attaching loops into the frame at a point nearer to the hinges.

So stay tuned.

Also, Get Together Craftily is this Sunday at 3pm. 13 Bodney Road, E8. We’ll have stuff together for making Halloween cards, Carving Pumpkins and making Halloween themes tea pot covers.

Foxy.

Leftovers.

I have loads of left over yarn from past knitting projects. They all sit in one bag. There isn’t really enough to make any one thing with any one color so, I decided I’d combine them to make a neck warmer.

The color combination is somewhat insane but, I think it sort of works. The mixture of yarns is actually quite beautiful.

I also added on some random vintage button from my button stash. They don’t match either!

This thing does however do an awesome job of keeping ones neck warmed.

Foxy.

Scarfitty Scarfage.

After years of having this yarn and that pesky pattern, I've finally finished this scarf! And look it matches my new hat!
The yarn is so nice a soft. It's also a mixture of some really great fall colors. I'd like to make some gloves out of it to match but I think it's a little too chunky. I had these lovely gold colored gloves a few winters ago that I'd love to replace. I lost one on the way to work and was devastated. They would have been great with this. Err. Anyway, there are some nice glove patterns over on www.knitty.com. This one in particular caught my eye: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTurbanrustic.html

I posted the link to this scarf pattern in an earlier post too but, if you want to make one and don't feel like scrolling down here it is again: http://douma.net/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm

Big Glove.

Foxy.

That'll flat do it!

Recently I bought some bag making supplies from www.u-handbag.com. Lisa also has a blog which has ace instructions on how to make bags. I really love frame bags and have been wanting one for a while, so I bought a silver frame.

It arrived so quickly that I didn’t really have much time to think about what fabric I was going to use and really plot it all out. That didn’t really hold me back though, I was just too excited. So, after rummaging through my fabric I found this nice vintage silver lamee (I’d been saving) and turquoise and white stripe cotton for the inside. (Like a day evening bag.)

I think the bag took about an hour to make.

Amazing!!!!

Anyway, I took it out and the darn strap came off. Err. It's big and I am not the kind of girl to just carry a few small bits in her bag. So, I decided to buy some stronger jump rings to attach the handle to the bag. While I was at it, I also decided to do a little adjusting on the shape of the bag. I gave it a flat bottom.

Then I took it out again. It was doing fine until I started jumping around dancing with it on my shoulder. The strap came off again! Err. So, finally I decided I’d use some fabric to close up the slight gap in the jump ring. I used the littlest bit of fabric and some fabric glue, wrapped it around the gap and it’s been staying together. Yay! And I learned my lesson about dancing with it on.

When Jim came home from his tour and saw it he said “Oh wow, where did that come from?” I said “I made it.” He said, “No way! Really? I can’t believe women have not been running down the street after you asking you where you got your bag from.” Isn’t that super sweet? The haberdasher liked it too and was impressed with my tidy construction. I’m so proud.

Foxy.

Places are set!

I finished up the last one in my set of four crazy quilt placemats last night. I'm so pleased with them that I took loads of photos!

The boys in the house like this one best:This is the back of one. The quilting is done in the shape of lightning bolts!

Foxy.

Boot Making Part 1

So, I enrolled in a boot making course at Cordwainers and last night was our 4th class. I love it. In fact, I think I am way too enthusiastic about it. Last night I found myself doing a little dance while I was cutting my pattern out. Last week, I had an inner dialogue going about how much I love the course which I thought I might share with the teacher until I realized that I was being kind of over the top. Though maybe teachers do want to hear, “OH MY GOD, I love this! This totally made my day, no wait, my week. I cannot wait for our next class, I mean I really love this…..really”? Maybe not?

In our first class we got our lasts. Mine is a pointy toe one that I can put a heel on to. Some other people choose flats. Those came with a rounded toe. I would have rather had a rounded toe but, there wasn’t much choice. Not that I really mind. The lasts are all so different I’m not sure the rounded one would have been rounded the way I like, anyway! After getting our lasts we spent the rest of that class putting masking tape all around our lasts.

In the second week we put some guidelines on the tape and then cut it off our last. The tape then helped us to make our main pattern or standard.

This is the making of my standard:

This stuff was all quite technical. I enjoyed it but, picking out leather is much more fun. (Class number 3)

I actually, thought I was going to make really simple black boots until all the leathers came out and I fell in love with this golden brown suede. Now, my design has changed a bit and I’ll hopefully be making something that looks like this:

In class 4, last night, we cut the leather. That was a very good feeling. I’m starting to see my boots come together.

The teacher does think that my design is a bit much. Though saying that, I was thinking about piping and also about having stars punched in the leather. Maybe he thinks I want to make some crazy 70’s glam platform bad boys.

I actually wouldn’t be opposed to that but, I’ve already got a pair of 6 inch silver platform boots!

Foxy.

ps. The Kiss coffeehouse is genius, don't you think?

He's long gone.

My Bub (boyfriend) has decided to up and leave me, for a week of touring with his rockin' band. He is now bathing in beer and eating sausages in Deutschland. (Darling, Please stay away from the currywurst. They'll only make you sorry.)

As a send off and a forget me not, I made him this bag:It's got this very cool green dice patterned fabric on the outside and black fabric with white skulls and crossbones on the inside. Both of which he bought! (I'm plaining a halloween dress out of the latter.) The bag actually is made from the same pattern that I drew up for my tote bag (see the leopard thing a few posts below) but, he's got longer skinnier handles as per his request. Long strapped bag are more manly, don't you know.

I hope it serves him well.

Keep on rockin'.

Foxy.

AFTER LONG LAST!

The skull and crossbones quilt is done. I am ever so pleased with it. I mean, this thing has been knocking about for a while. Mocking me and calling me lazy. But, I showed it that I've got the fortitude to 'getter done'.

Yeehaw!

Foxy.

My oh my mushroom!

I've been meaning to knit one of these for a while. According to the pattern, it's supposed to be felted but the wool I was using wasn't doing it. Oh well, I'm proud!

You can knit one too, the pattern is here:

http://kathrynivy.com/patterns/free/myriad-mushrooms/

Foxy.

Darn it.

Feeling inspired by the darning that's been going on at Prick Your Finger I decide to join in and mend my old black cardi!It sort of looks like my cardi has scars now.

Foxy.

Quit it. Err. Quilt it.

I've been working on tying up my patchwork quilt. I'm half way through it. Check it out: Foxy.

Tote it on over.

I drew out the pattern for this simple tote bag the other day. The bag is big enough to hold a notebook. Not that I still carry notebooks around. I’ll probably use it for shoes or knitting. Then I rummaged through my fabrics and found this old leopard print fabric that I had wanted to make curtains out of. (Then though, leopard flannel maybe a little too much for curtains.) This anchor and wheel lining was also in amongst my ‘fab’rics!

Foxy.

Come Together

We're starting our monthly craft get togethers at the end of the this month. See, we made a flyer:

Foxy & Pony.

Swishy Sweater.

I recently bought a navy blue merino cardigan. It was darn cheap and fit really really well. BUT, it was a little plain. No pizzazz. Sure, you should have staple (plain) items in your wardrobe but still there is room for a little something special about them.

After buying the plainest jane of navy blue jumpers, I headed over to Kleins just off Wardour Street. They are a rather ace haberdasher. In the backroom on the ground floor they have all their buttons. There I spotted exactly what I had been looking for! A whole box of rhinestone buttons! Gasp. I grabbed the ones I wanted and paid £11 for 6. Ouch.

I got the sweater and the buttons home and sewed them on. Then I didn’t care about the price of the button anymore. They made my sweater be all it can be. Yes!

Check it out: The picture is a little blurry! oops.

Foxy.

I'm goin' Crazy Quilts.

Oh no let's go....CRAZY!!!

My Great Aunt Pearl used to make crazy quilts. Even when she was 90 years young. (I guess you could say I come from a family of die hard crafters!) I've always loved the one that Mom has which Aunt Pearl made. It's got some really amazingly awful fabric in it but, it works! AND to top it all off it's backed in brown. Yum. Still it it a thing of beauty.

Recently, I've become aware that I've got a lot of scraps of fabric laying around that are good for nothing but, a crazy quilt. However, I still haven't finished my skull and cross bones quilt that I started ages ago. (I will be finishing it quite soon though because pondering the great quilt work of Aunt Pearl has helped me solve the final problem of that quilt. Anyway...) So, instead of making a razy quilt for the bed, I've decided to make crazy quilt placemats!

Here's the beginings of them:

Foxy.

Abuse, Reuse & Recycle. The story of a scarf.

I think everyone has shrunken something wool by putting it in the laundry. The most memorable one for me was this amazing pea coat my mom bought me for Christmas when I was 15. I had been a pretty bad girl that year so it was kind of amazing that I got anything at all but, that’s not what I’m on about here. About two months after I got the coat I decided that it ready for a wash. I don’t think I had ever washed a coat before so maybe something was on it? I’ve never really questioned why I washed it. But I did! If that wasn’t enough I decided it needed drying too. Well, that was the end of that coat. (The lining so fine, which sort of made it all the more hideous.)

Last year, the washing machine struck again. A certain someone that is not myself but does live in the same house as me and might do my laundry from time to time happened to unknowingly slip one of my favourite black sweaters into the ‘felter’. It emerged child sized. I was a bit distraught. But I dried it and decided to put it in with my other materials in the hopes that I would be able to cut it up one day and give it a new life.

The sweater came out the other evening after I had enough time to morn and it was cut! I used the bottom bit, from below the arms down. That was cut into 4 equal pieces and then I used the sweating machine (zig zag stitch) to put them back together in the form of a scarf.

I was pretty happy with it but, it definitely needed some adornment. I recently bought some spray style fabric paint. So I figured this was a good opportunity to try it out. I rifled through my stencils and found the skull and crossbones. I laid out the stencil on the scarf, sprayed it, let it dry a little and sprayed it again.

The end results were pretty darn good. Maybe too go. So, I decided it needed a little more personal. I then got out some grey wool and embroidered around the outside and inside of the skull and bones. That did it.

Check it out:
Now, I know you shouldn’t go and reward such hideous behaviour as sweater or ‘jumper’ shrinking but, it is getting cold out and that certain someone did need a scarf.

Foxy.

Diagonal Knitting!

A few years ago my Grandma gave me some really lovely Ultramerino yarn for Xmas. It was made by these people: http://www.artyarns.com/newsite/yarn_main.htm. It also came with a mutildirectional scarf pattern that she picked. (The story does go beyond this, someone told me that after finding the pattern in a book in the yarn store my Grandma told the clerk there she wouldn't buy the yarn unless they would make her a copy to the pattern. Reluctantly the clerk did it.) Well, I tried the pattern but there were a few key areas on it that made no sense to me. In fact, I'd say that that pattern beat me.

So a partial knit bit of this...

has been sitting on one of my knitting needles for a long time.

The other day I decided to have a look at it again. Years mature you and I thought maybe I was ready to tackle the 'demon' err diamond scarf pattern. No. It beat me again. So, I instead went and looked for a similar simpler pattern.

I found one here: http://www.burningbright.com/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm.

It's a good pattern and is very well explained. After a few days I have half the scarf done! (Though it does have a few little mistakes. I can't bring myself to take it apart and start all over again. It's therefore a scarf full of character.)

This is what it looks like knit:

Foxy.