Tidy not Tangled: Hillarys Blinds Competiton

Posted on 30 March, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Happy Mothers’ Day for this weekend! I am late linking up to Handmade Monday as I was enjoying myself too much on Sunday to do the link up!

Do untidy baskets and bags of yarn get you down as much as they do me? I have been so fed up of having to sort out and untangle my balls of yarn everytime I start to crochet I have been trying to design a storage method which would allow me to have several colours on the go at once but keep them all separate, tidy, NOT TANGLED! Soooo much time spent untangling instead of creating does not make for a stress free enjoyable hobby!

So when I read about the Hillary’s Blinds Country Crafts Competition for bloggers to design something using some of their fabric I had an idea! The fabric I chose (from a choice of 4) was Calluna Amethyst, a beautiful upholstery weight fabric with a cream background with splodges of amethyst, emerald, gold and ruby, very pretty and so much my type of colours! The free sample was 39×39 inches and the design was up to the blogger! Exciting!

In my craft room I have a purple open weave plastic basket for keeping fabric bits in. If I put my yarn in this I could feed the ends of each ball through a hole and tie them to the side to keep each one tidy! Only one disadvantage – not very pretty for the living room – but this is where the Hillary’s fabric came in! A pretty cover for a yarn storage basket!

So how do you make it?

First you need to measure the height and circumference of your basket or box, or whatever you are covering and cut a rectangle accordingly – ie the size in height and length plus a couple of inches for hemming and seaming.

Now turn down one of the long edges half an inch and iron it flat, then turn this down again half an inch and pin in place. Sew this to make a neat hemmed top edge. You can see in the picture I have aligned my 1/4 inch foot with the left side of the hem instead of the usual right side, this is to ensure I capture the turned under fabric as I sew!

Now fold your rectangle right sides together and check if the piece needs trimming to neaten it up and if so do this now before sewing up the side seams.

Now you have a circular tube of fabric which you put your basket into – this bit is quite fiddly but keep going till you have the cover round the basket up to the top row of holes. If you find the fabric is too small just unpick the side seam and add in a contrasting panel – no-one will know it wasn’t part of your original design!

Now you make some ties to keep the cover in place! Take your cover off again. I used some grosgrain ribbon from my stash but bias binding would be good, or you could make some ties from the remaining fabric. Anyway, cut 4 lengths of your ties, each 12 inches long. Fold each in half and pin to the top edge of the cover with the folded end about half an inch down and the two ends pointing straight upwards. The four should be equally space round the top.

Start by putting the first one over the side seam and then place the others accordingly. Sew over each a couple of times to secure in place. At this point you can also hem the bottom edge or you could simply fold it under the basket and pin it in place or glue it in place – depends how quickly you want your basket to use!

Now you can replace your cover and secure the ties to the top row of holes.

So far so good! I decided to make a loose cover for the top of my basket, so if you do too you, go ahead! Put your chosen fabric right sides together and draw on it a circle the same size as the circumference of the basket. Cut this out and then cut out one of fusible interfacing or ordinary interlining as well. Either iron on the interfacing or pin the interlining to one of the wrong sides of your circles.

You should now have the fabric still right sides together but one has interfacing on the back making a third top circle. Sew the round the circumference of the three circles using a 1/4 inch machine foot aligned to the right hand edge of the top circle. Leave a gap of 4 inches for turning to the right side. Snip into the seam allowance round the circle being careful not to cut the stitch line.

Turn right sides out and turn under the fabric in the gap and pin it so the the circle is now complete.

You can now just hand sew the gap together and have the top as it is or you could quilt it. You can get quite a nice effect even with an ordinary machine foot. Although I have a walking foot and a free motion foot I have finished my top cover off with the normal foot to show you how it can be done. Put the needle into the centre of your top circle and start to sew forward and round, guiding the fabric with both hands so that it turns as you sew to make concentric circles, spreading out from the middle to the very edge where you take in the pinned gap area and so close it up.

All that remains now is to choose your yarn balls and put them into your basket with the end of each going through a different hole in the side and tied to the top. Do not tie up the colour you are working with, just poke this through a hole and up to your work area. Every time you need to change colour just tie up the one you are working with and untie one of the others! You now have a pretty and very practical basket and no more tangled yarn!!

Craft Fair Anticipation!

Posted on 16 March, 2014 by patchworkfairy

This week I have been making lots of little things for when I attend another craft fair in the summer! Yes I am once again going to risk it in the hope that it may be successful! I love the anticipation of craft fairs; the excitement of setting up, the hopeful feeling when the first customers come through the door, the lovely glow from receiving admiring comments about the items, the satisfying exchange of money and item, the travelling home with an empty car and a big bag of money…….. oh wait, actually I dreamed that last one! 🙂 It all goes according to the above but it tends to peter out after a few spasmodic sales and turns into the sinking feeling of ‘how long have I spent here all day and have I even covered my table fee and petrol costs!’

And yet here I am again thinking of repeating the experience as I really do enjoy meeting other crafters and chatting to them as well as the customers. Well, we’ll see how it goes – I am sure it will form the subject matter for a future post!

I did do some crocheting with the grundl flower yarn again this week. This time I made a headband – good for keeping the ears warm when you don’t want to wear a whole hat! It is now for sale in my Patchwork Fairy in the Enchanted Wood Folksy shop

Flower Yarn Headband

The other thing I have completed this week is the tutorial about crocheting with the Kidsilk Creation Stripe Yarn. It’s easy to do once you understand what you’re doing so hopefully this might help a bit if anyone is stuck.

So here we are again – Sunday night Linkyness at Handmade Harbour! Now Dancing on Ice and Call the Midwife have both finished I might get round to commenting on the blogs a little earlier in the evening than recently!!

I always love to read comments. Please don’t be put off by the comment boxes for the name and site appearing to not let you type – it is actually recording your text and will show up once you publish your comment!

Wool, Coffee and Cake, a dream day out!

Posted on 9 March, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Ooh I had a lovely outing this last week! Mum and I went for a drive in the countryside (well down the M53 amd M6, then the countryside!). We went to Black Sheep Wools Craft Barn in Culcheth! My dream day out! – it included wool, coffee and cake!! (and my mum 😉 )

Entrance to Black Sheep Craft Barn

The craft barn is set back off the road in a lovely countryside setting, but it’s even more lovely inside! As you step through the door you can see shelves of pretty, delicate spring coloured wools and cottons on one side, shelves of beautiful variegated purply pink yarns on the other and a central stand with crafty items and gifts!

craft items and gifts

coloured yarns

Noro Yarns. I love the variegated colours of these Japanese yarns!

view down shop

I was hard pressed to actually move through the shop as I kept getting distracted by yet another shelf of lovely yarns! They sell a wide variety: wool, mohair, cotton, silk, viscose, acrylic, bamboo and various mixes of these in plain and varigated colours. There is also a large section of Cross Stitch kits and threads, a wide selection of craft books and patterns and various notions to purchase.

Mum and I always suss out a coffee stop wherever we go and so thoroughly enjoyed the onsite cosy café serving light lunches and cakes. We had a very nice panini and a slice of Victoria Sandwich cake with fabulously strong coffee, just how I prefer it! I’m quite happy to travel to visit new craft places but I do like it when there is a café so I can stop and reflect on all the things I’ve been browsing through before I make my purchases, especially when I’ve driven a while to get there! It’s the sort of place you could enjoy visiting with friends or a knitting/crochet group.

I was very taken with a crochet designs book by Nikki Trench called, ‘Hooked on Noro’, Now although I like the look of Noro yarns some can feel a bit harsh and are quite pricey so this time I bought the book but chose an alternative yarn – Fusion Cotton – a soft, cotton and viscose mix yarn by Patons, very reasonably priced for the quality, with which to make the fingerless gloves from the book. Mum wanted to know why I would want to have fingerless gloves?! When I said they would be handy for texting, she just raised her eyes to the ceiling and said, “you could just pull off a normal glove!” – Eh? I don’t think so! I love the pair I’ve just made and actually so did Mum once she saw them finished!

Fingerless Gloves!

They are very comfy and soft to wear and the pattern in the book is easy to follow.

The final thing I bought was one skein of Rowan’s Kidsilk Creation Stripe. Now this is pricey, but absolutely gorgeous! It looks and feels like a high quality product. It’s actually mohair and silk mix and it already partly knitted into a long mesh, which can be stretched out widthways if desired. I noticed there was a pattern on the label to crochet a scarf with it but I couldn’t understand how you would do it! Luckily there are plenty of nice friendly staff to ask for help and one of the ladies explained I needed to crochet it up the long edge. However, I was completely flummoxed at first when I got home, but once I understood what to do it was very easy to make up in about three quarters of an hour! It ends up as a twirly, twisty floaty pretty scarf! I’ve taken some pics and will post a tutorial about how to work with this yarn as it’s certainly worth it! I chose a pinky purply mix and the finished item has now been posted to my very stylish Aunty for her 70th birthday!

the kidsilk creation stripe yarn before crocheting

Purple and pink mohair and silk crochetd scarf.

Scarf in Kidsilk Creation Stripe

So all in all we were there just over two hours – it was long enough for Mum who by now was trying to nudge me to the exit! It’s the sort of place where you could keep going round and round oohing and aaahing and patting large balls of pink and purple wool!

Well I’m off for another visit now – over to Handmade Monday to visit some lovely blogs! If anyone lives near Black Sheep Wools Craft Barn and fancies meeting for a coffee n’ cake I’m always up for another trip!! 🙂

Spring Feelings, Tea and Well-Being!

Posted on 2 March, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Ok well it’s now March and we can definitely say we’re entering Spring season! (not today though as it’s very cold and rainy and very disappointing!). This last week however, has been noticeably warmer, and I was able to have the first mid morning cuppa in the garden! Woo hoo! Ok, I did have my warm jacket and boots on, but it was very pleasant when the sun was shining! I love this time of year when I can get outside for a quiet cup of tea or coffee as it evokes the wonderful happy feeling I had when I first went part time at work at the beginning of April a few years back. I remember sitting outside on a Wednesday morning and feeling so weird to be there on a work day, but with this creeping sense of peace and well-being. Even though I am now full time at home and no longer going out to work I haven’t lost the excitement of the first few warm weekdays at this time of year.

Of course I wish my health was better and I hadn’t had to give up in the way I did, or have the three lots of surgery, and still be in pain almost every day. But – there is no point in dwelling on ‘what ifs’ – the only way forward is ‘what may be’ – to relish the good things about being at home and to recognise that in the eyes of other people, especially creative crafters, it must seem to be a dream come true to have weekdays in which to sew, knit, crochet, etc and never have that sinking feeling on a Sunday evening knowing it’s going to days before you can get back to your hobby. Obviously it would be even better to make a living out of crafting, but that’s not so easy and so not going out to work also means not bringing in the associated salary!!

However I am ever hopeful that one day I will make something so fabulous that everyone will just have to have one – likely? who knows, but it’s so much fun trying! And with that I will show you my latest creations, because as well as doing a bit more on the twine bag I have been making spring themed crochet items for a garland!

Flower Baskets and Snails!

Twine basket with two rows of Star stitch completed

It’s really hard to make Star stitch in twine so it’s taking a long time to make!

Over to Handmade Monday now for a catch up on the crafty adventures of others! Hope you are all enjoying some pleasant weather wherever you live.

The comment box is still faulty in the ‘name’ and ‘website’ lines but even if you can’t see what you type it will still print when you publish. The box for the actual comment is working fine. 🙂

Flowery hat making!

Posted on 23 February, 2014 by patchworkfairy

It’s been half term this week so my OH has been home. I don’t seem to get as much crafting done when we’re both here as we have been out doing things. One day we had a lovely trip to Llyn Brenig. It’s a reservoir with a very peaceful stillness about it and a beautiful place for a walk across the reservoir or in the surrounding forests. Until this occasion it was also the place where I had my second best ever piece of Victoria Sandwich cake, however they have redone the café and I think they might be trying to recoup the expense through the catering. Suffice to say this is no longer somewhere I have fond memories of afternoon tea, although the atmosphere for walking is still wonderful!

I have managed this week to do just a little bit of the ripple blanket and more of the same mitred squares – neither is worth posting a picture about – but I have managed to complete a new flowery hat! I bought some amazing new wool online last month and it arrived this week – it’s called’ Flower Colour Wool’ by Grundl and is very pretty. Here is what it looks like crocheted into the base circle for a hat.

right side of crocheted hat base

and here is the reverse side which is also very pretty as you can see the colours more:

reverse side of treble crochet

It’s a mixture of treble crochet and back post stitch and easy to do once you get the hang of working round the little curly bits which form the ‘flowers’.

Here is the finished hat – I love it but it’s quite an eccentric hat my daughter said so I haven’t been out in public in it yet!

Flower Wool Crochet Hat

And here is the reverse side:

back of hat showing the flower effect

So what do you think?

Linking up with Handmade Monday again! And with Lily’s Quilts Thank you for all the comments – please do leave them – the name and site box do record your text even though it doesn’t appear. Also if you uncheck a box called ‘authenticate’ on some browsers it makes it work. Thank you – I hate missing out on all the conversation.

Warm Walks – it’s nearly Spring!

Posted on 16 February, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Burton Mere 1st pic

I love this time of year when a hint of Spring is in the air! After the torrential rain of the last few days it was so uplifting to see sunshine this morning. We are lucky though, that we don’t live in a flooded area and I feel very sorry for all the families who do, it must be very miserable.

As it was so bright we went for a walk today to enjoy the air. The two photos here were taken about 40 minutes apart and show how quickly the light deteriorates in February, and with it the warmth as it went from comfy to chilly as well! It was beautiful at Burton Mere though, it has a very quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Burton Mere 2nd pic

I haven’t done as much of my ripple blanket (Attic 24) as I hoped as I have also started another blanket which is a pattern of mitred squares based on the pattern (here) – which I will then make up into my own pattern for the blanket.

Mitred Squares

I can’t seem to stop the beginning corners curling up so I will have to steam block them before I join them all up I think. I must make the foundation chains too tight, but I can’t seem to not do it!

Lastly here is the Ripple! I bought some more wool as I felt I needed more pinky, raspberry shades!

ripple blanket in multi coloured acrylic yarn

ripple-blanket-week-7

I do like colourful blanket-making when it’s cold and rainy but don’t think it will be as much fun when it’s warm when you are a menopausal hot flush machine!! – so I need to get cracking while it’s still only Spring!!

As usual I am linking up with Handmade Monday!

My comment box is still not fixed – it does work even though where you type your name and site appears not to let you – the text will be there when you publish your comment! So please don’t let it put you off as I love reading the comments!

Yarn, Wool and Twine Week

Posted on 9 February, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Another week of enforced ‘resting’ waiting to have stitches out has been quite pleasant really! No housework and no driving has meant a lot of yarn, wool and twine crochet and watching TV! Of course I can’t just do one project, oh no, I have to have a couple on the go to switch between every so often!

I’ve kept on with the ripple blanket and the woolly Beanie but not as fast as if I hadn’t started 2 other projects at the same time I suppose! I love choosing the colours as I work but it was taking too long because I really didn’t have enough choice. One late night perusal of Wool Warehouse website led to a fat chunky parcel on the doormat 2 days later!! They are brilliant, not only are they cheaper than other online shops but they send the goods very quickly too!

Stylecraft premium Acrylic in pinky purple colours

new colours of Stylecraft Special DK

I just didn’t have enough pinky, purply colours!!

Multi-coloured riple blanket from a pattern by Attic 24

Ripple Blanket Week 6

I couldn’t just do my blanket as each row is very long and I need more of a quick results experience so I started on little hearts and flowers to make a spring garland! Most of these are Attic 24 patterns and some are my own random crochet! Here are some of the first ones I completed in the Stylecraft acrylic yarn again.

hearts and flowers!

I’m planning on completing this for Oestara, the Spring Equinox.

Anyway, despite being quite content with my crochet I was reading my Facebook newsfeed and fell instantly in love with a picture of a tote bag crocheted using twine. It was posted by The Chunky Hooker as they sell the twine. Oh, wow! I couldn’t help myself when I saw the green twine! Such a lovely colour! I bought a ball of the natural twine and the green and decided to make a bag in each using the suggested pattern

As soon as I started to work with the natural twine I realised I wouldn’t be making it very quickly and probably wouldn’t make 2 bags as it’s quite hard work and is also ‘raspy’ on my skin. I did wear a thin gardening glove on one had most of the time and this does help (it was suggested by someone commenting on the bag post, not my bright idea!). It was hard to see all the stitches clearly and I think I interpreted some of the pattern wrongly as I didn’t end up with the correct number of stitches for the bag base and it was wonky! It’s far too much effort doing it to face unpicking so I decided to carry on anyway and just accept it will probably be a little lop sided in the end!

base of tote bag in natural twine

The pattern is much easier to follow for making the sides – I love the star stitch which forms the pattern. In the next picture I have just completed on row of stars, there are 5 to do and I will alternate with the green twine I think.

Tote bag crocheted in natural twine and green twine

Tote bag sides with star Stitch

I really do enjoy making this but I have to do it in stages, letting my hands rest for a day as it is really quite hard to manipulate. The green twine feels much softer and I think it will hook much more smoothly. The Chunky Hooker is another great online shop – the parcel arrived in a couple of days with a note asking to see a picture when I’ve finished the bag!

So that was my yarny, woolly twiny week! I really am neglecting my sewing though and need to get back in the craft room before I become addicted to slumping on the settee with my crochet watching This Morning and old DVD box sets. My knee stitches ‘unpicked’ easily and I have my post-op clinic visit next Tuesday so no excuses after that. I am ‘hooking’ up with Handmade Monday as usual and looking forward to reading about everyone’s crafty lives. 🙂

My comment box is still not working for everyone – Free spirit unchecked a box to enable it to work or if you type your name etc in the boxes even though it doesn’t show when you type it does actually record it. I am missing all the lovely comments!!

London Journey = Crochet Time!

Posted on 26 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Four hours in the car to London and then back again – great opportunity for some cosy crochet time! Shame I had to offer to share the driving but good that OH likes driving so does the main bulk of our journeys!! I started a new beanie which hopefully will be completed tomorrow! I took my wool and hooks away in a lovely little project bag I made to sell but decided I couldn’t part with as it’s so useful! It has 3 compartments so I can keep 2 different coloured wool balls separated and keep the hooks/scissors in the other pocket.

The fabric has old fashioned sewing machines on it so is perfect for sewing related projects. I saw it for sale at Minerva Crafts this week and so have now uploaded a picture of the bag to their Look what I’ve Made project sharing site. It’s a really interesting site and easy to use – you join and upload your projects and can have fun looking at other people’s too!

3 pocket sewing project bag

and here is latest ripply-progress!

Week 4!

Well I am very tired after trip to London so signing off now to go for a stroll round the blogs at Handmade Monday!

Ripple Blanket and Duvet Cover

Posted on 19 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Not much to show this week except for my ripple blanket progress and the start of a duvet cover for our bed! Must start DD’s cushion covers soon though as it’s her birthday next weekend!

I have found that as long as I don’t switch back and forth from acrylic to wool I can manage the acrylic ok as I get used to the feel and rhythm of working. This also has the added advantage of keeping down my WIP pile! It’s quite a wide blanket so each row takes quite a while and every now and then I get carried away and forget to make the increases on the ‘hill tops’ and decreases in the ‘valleys’ and so have to undo a few trebles! Once you’ve got going past row 3 it’s a really easy and relaxing project as there is no need to refer to the pattern (from Attic 24) – each row is the same. It is a good seasonal make too as it keeps me warm whilst I’m working on it – in summer this might be too uncomfortable.

ripple blanket in Stylecraft Premium Acrylic yarn

Ripple Blanket Week 3

My daytime project this week is a duvet cover for our bed. I decided I wanted to finally use up my 200 x 2 inch squares of Liberty Tana Lawn which I bought online last year and was dismayed at the thought of sewing together such small fine fabric pieces. Luckily I came across a good method of working with such small squares in the Very Berry blog but it is actually Elizabeth Hartman’s method found on her Oh Fransson blog I have bought quite a bit of liberty fabric from Ali at Very Berry and all her tutorials are very helpful. Basically I ironed each square onto Vilene first, making a large patchwork square and then sewed the rows together in the normal way, ie right sides together. This way it gives the fine Tana lawn some body and stops it getting chewed up in the machine plate at the start of sewing!

I now have the middle of the duvet completed and am now sewing a surrounding border of triangle -within- a -square using my tri-recs templates. This is a bit fiddly and I am making up my own pattern so will take a while!

patchwork quilt top using Liberty Tana Lawn

Quilt top of 2″ Tana Lawn pieces sewn into 7 inch blocks

So that’s my work this week! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else been up! Linking up with Handmade Monday!

Making Beanies (and too many other things!)

Posted on 10 November, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Like so many of you, I suffer from TMPOTG! (Too Many Projects On The Go!!) Trouble is, the more blogs I find and tutorials I read, the more I want to do! Now I’m investigating cross stitch as well as too many other things!

I am making lots of things for the O2 Handmade Market I really am, and this should be enough – what with sorting out labelling, pricing, and the display as well. But no, I’ve only got to go and get some Aida and embroidery threads and plan out a nice little xmas crosstitch as well! Oh and then that led to thinking about machine embroidery which I used on the advent calendar I showed last week – where else could I use this new found stitch?? And so on it goes – mind a whirl with possibilities, dreaming of new things to learn about and make.

At least I have managed to finish two Beanies this week – one with Sirdar Crofter which is Acrylic/Cotton/Wool mix and one with Knitcol 100% pure wool. The Sirdar is quite lightweight to use and ideal for a lightweight hat. I love the Knitcol wool – it feels nice to work with and the variegated colours go very well together once it’s knitted up.

beanie using Crofter doubleknit varigated wool

Beanie with Crofter Wool

Crochet Beanie with fluted edge

I bought this knitcol wool whilst on a visit to Wells but somehow lost the label after taking the wool out to feel/stroke/admire long before I planned to use it. Once it was knitted up I really wanted some more but had no idea what it was and how to get it. However I hit upon the idea of a virtual travel and shopping trip round Wells using google maps. It actually worked! I went up and down roads I remembered us walking along till I found the little well stocked vintage style shop in a courtyard. Amazingly I was able to enter the shop – something you can’t do in lots of other places – and I ‘walked’ up to the counter and spotted the same wool! It’s a fantastic and weird experience going into the shop again but sitting in my chair 100s miles away!

So the end result is I found the name of the wool and researched it online to get the best price 🙂 and am now stocked up again! Tonight I will be comfortably curled up on the couch with a glass of wine, the next Beanie on the hook and a little virtual stroll round the blogs of the friendly peeps at the Handmade Harbour! Cheers! 🙂