It's been a while...

The last four weeks have just flown by - I've been so busy at work and at home that I've found it hard to find the time to sit quietly with my laptop and get a few words down. However, I have had time to keep crafting. (Phew!) Coraline is coming on steadily and I hope to hit the complicated yoke smocking in a couple of weeks time. It's slow-going, and repetitive, just now, but it is about to get interesting and when it's all blocked and I can wear it, I know it will all be worth it!

Aside from knitting, I've been spending a fair amount of time beavering away on my big quilting project. Over the last four weeks, I've cut out all of the pieces (all 252 of them!) and I've started to put them together together. It was great fun playing with the different coloured pieces, spreading them all out on the floor in my den to see what went well where and to check that nothing looked out of place. That there weren't too many repeats or blocks of similar colours too close to each other.

Following the instructions from Jane Brocket's Gentle Art of Quilting I labelled each square-to-be before machine-sewing the four strips of each square together, then patiently ironing every single seam flat. I swear, I did more ironing in the last four days than I've done in the last four years! I've now sewn the squares into rows, and once I have sewn those rows into one giant piece, I shall begin hand-quilting in earnest. I've just run out of cotton (and bank holidays) so I shall have to wait until next weekend before I can finish off the front. 

It's lovely to see something come from nothing; to create something so large from scraps of material. Although I'm a long way from finishing this particular project, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm already imagining what my next quilt will look like! Since my last post, I visited The American Museum in Claverton, near Bath, which has the most inspirational collections of handmade quilts. They had them all in one room in gigantic poster sleeves and I only wish that I could have had the place to myself so that I could really have studied them in detail. I did buy some beautiful fat quarters, none of which are actually in this quilt, but they will be in something lovely before too long, I'm sure!

I've also treated myself to a very exciting new camera. The Diana+ is a lomographic camera - and isn't she the most beautiful camera you've ever seen? I've only had one roll of film developed so far and I wouldn't say that I was particularly proud of any of the pictures (especially as I'd bought the wrong speed film!) but it's a start and I'm going to have lots of fun with analogue photos. I love the unpredictability of shooting with a film camera and I love the nostalgic warmth of the end results. Here's a link to the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography - whatever you take your photos with - these are all lessons well-learned!

This move to lo-fi has done absolutely nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for Instagram! I've made the bold move of having some of my snaps printed out on 5" x 5" matt paper by the lovely folk at Photo.com. Some of the images aren't quite hi-res enough to be blown up to that size, but somehow, when you're looking at them in the pages of a gorgeous album it doesn't matter in the slightest.

There are Cats in this Blog

There are Cats in this Blog
Originally uploaded by sparkleknits

Huge progress on the cats this week - four down, five to go! The wool has arrived to finish off all nine, so this week I'll be making cats on the train. (It does earn me some funny looks, but it's also earning me some spare change, so that's just fine by me!) In a way, I think I'll be quite sad to have finished the cats, as they've been quite good fun and I've struck up all sorts of conversations with my fellow passengers about Tiny, Andre and Moonpie!


I'm also delighted to say that I've finished the mystery beret. I'm not entirely sure that it suits me and I'd made it extra slouchy which turned out, looked just plain silly so I've put it through the washing machine on a hot wash in an attempt to make it look slightly less ludicrous... It's still blocking at the moment, so here it is looking slightly flat. If it ends up wearable, I'll post a picture of it being modelled next week!



On the button front, there's been a further sale from BelleButtons and I've got another couple of commissions to boot. And I've finally finished my latest freelance project. Hoorah!

Busy, Busy, Busy

SuperStar Button Ring
Originally uploaded by sparkleknits

Sorry that it's been a while. I've been completely absorbed by buttons while Jez and I have been setting up our Etsy page. I am delighted to say that it is now up and running, so do please stop by BelleButtons and take a look at our wares! So far we've sold five items to two different people, and as we've only been going for two weeks, I'm pretty chuffed with that! Our page isn't completely finished yet, as I've not managed to write our biography yet, but hopefully that'll be done in the next day or so, and then I'll start really yelling about it!
I've been trying uploading pictures directly from Flickr as I find it really frustrating that I have to load pictures up to (and from) different places for Blogger, Ravlery and Etsy. Hopefully, this will work okay - who knows! It seems okay so far, and I've managed to add some additional text to this post, so that's looking pretty good.

Now that I'm getting back on track a bit, I've decided to cast on a new projecct with the lovely Aran that my mum gave me before she left for India. The Mystery Beret (or Meret as it's also known) is a great pattern from Wormheads and it's really quick to knit up, which is particularly useful as it's so cold right now! Here's a picture of how it looks so far...

I am still working very hard on the cats and intend wto have the first unholy trinity completely finished by the end of this week! (So far I've got one Tiny, who has just one ear that needs stitching on and a Moonpie, with limbs but no face, who's only half-stuffed!)

I've also got yet more freelance work to do and a choker to make for the niece of one of my friends from work, so I'd really better get off this blog and go and do some work!

Keep on Truckin'

It feels that since the New Year has started, I've barely had time to stop and think! I'm still knitting for Corinne and the bundle of cats that I've been making is getting bigger and bigger! I need to buy some more blue and mustard wool, some stuffing and some tapestry wool to finish up, but I'm well on the way to getting them finished with six of the wee timorous beasties in the bag, as it were! I was lucky enough to meet the author of the book on the stairs as I was leaving the office on Friday night and she was as charming as her book!

I've also been making button bracelets as if they were going out of fashion. (Which I sincerely hope they won't!) I've had six requests in the last week, so it was very fortunate indeed that I had got a stash in just before Christmas. I'm thinking of investing in some more buttons and selling them through the fabulous Etsy site. In fact, I've just got back from a swim with a friend of mine and she's volunteered her very talented husband to help me set up a page. (Think that I might just take her up on that offer!)

I've also been doing some freelance work, which is quite time-consuming, but incredibly appreciated in financial terms. In fact, I really should be typing right now, rather than writing this.

On a lighter note, D and I have a new house guest in the form of a Cork Pixie called Pim! It would appear that he turned up while we were away over Christmas, when my dear friend Libby was around looking after the cat! We hadn't even noticed that he'd been living in a printer's block drawer on the stairs, until Libby asked if we'd noticed something hidden in plain sight! He was a roaring success at knitting club and Jenny J has even knitted him a little wife, who has been named Pam! Watch this space for news on any little corkettes...