English Paper Piecing experiment

Almost a year ago, I took part in a swap on Ravelry (as part of the UK Swaps group). As the parcel arrived just as we were packing up to move house, I didn't really get much of a chance to play with the contents of the parcel, or spend much time wondering what I was going to do with it. I took a quick snap to share with the group, then put everything away in the box that was carrying my stash to the new house.

The lovely handmade project bag is the perfect size for carrying around my Innocent smoothie hat knitting kit, which lives in the bottom of my work bag for quick knitting fixes in the office. The yarn, four wonderfully soft and squishy balls of Rowan Baby Alpaca DK in three different shades of pinky purples, has been sitting in my stash ever since, and is destined to play a part in the fourth Year of Projects.

However, the part I want to talk about today is that little bag of fabric hexagons, and the Homemade with love magazine. One of the stipulations of the swap was that the parcel had to contain "a new item to pamper/play with". As the lovely person who put my parcel together knew that I was open to trying new crafts, she thought I might want to have a go at English Paper Piecing. The magazine included a pattern/instructions for making a brooch using the technique.

A few days ago, I decided I would give it a go. I'd been doing some sewing at the weekend (nothing too hefty, just replacing buttons on a shirt!) and realised I don't actually own a proper pincushion. The more I thought about it, the more determined I became to make one. That's when I remembered the swap package I'd received, and thought that perhaps a pincushion would be a good small project to try out EPP for the first time.

I spent a good while trying to figure out how to measure the paper hexagons to ensure a neat fit, but in the end I abandoned maths (not my strong point!) and traced around one of the fabric hexies. I then trimmed 1/4 inch off each side, and used that paper hex as a template for all the others. It's might fiddly, attaching the fabric to the paper, but sewing them together afterwards is very quick indeed. I have just a few more seams to do on the second piece, then I'll be ready to join them together.

I have plenty of little fabric hexagons left, so if this is a success, there's scope to do another project before I find myself rushing off to buy a load of fat quarters!

Christmas comes early.

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah over at Crafts from the Cwtch started a series of posts about Christmas gifts. In her first post in the series, she talks about two craft books inspired by two of my favourite literary classics: The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

As soon as I read her post, I knew I had to own these books. So I hopped over to Amazon and added them to my wish list. Imagine my surprise, when a few days later, one of them dropped through the letterbox! I'd entered my wishlist in a Christmas RAK last week, so wasn't totally surprised to see an Amazon parcel on the doormat when I hadn't ordered anything!

Everything Alice: the Wonderland Book of Makes

I've had a quick flick through, and have already found lots of things I now desperately want to make.

This rabbit would make a great gift for our niece

Lavender doormice - but I want to make them with catnip!

Wonderland themed decorations for the Christmas tree?

I've wanted to make teacup candles for ages

Love the queen of hearts apron in the middle.

I can't wait to get stuck in. I'm also finding myself now desperate to host a Wonderland themed tea party, just to give me an excuse to do more of the projects in the book!

Springing into Summer

A couple of months ago, I signed up to a swap on Ravelry in the UK Swap group. Moving house and events sort of got in the way of things, so the posting deadline of next Wednesday really crept up on me unawares! Unlike previous swaps I have done, this one was organised in such a way that we were paired up, and each sent a parcel to the person we were receiving from. So we knew right from the start who was putting our parcel together, and were able to chat fairly openly about it with each other to get an idea of what to put in the box.

I posted my parcel off to my partner today, and also picked up my parcel from her from the sorting office, as it had been posted early and arrived on Wednesday.

My swap partner was Sotoyoshi, and it was her first ever swap. She sent me a wonderful parcel!

The requirements for the swap were yarn, a pattern, a food item, something to pamper or play with and a local item. My local item is the purple table runner, which is Japanese (my swap partner's husband is Japanese, and she lived there for a time herself).

The yarn is gorgeous! It's The Natural Dye Studio Sheherazade in the colourway Wisteria. It's a silk/camel blend, which is beautifully soft. I love the colour; it's the perfect shade for the pattern I was sent on Ravelry, the Cwtch Shawl.

I haven't tried out the bath in our new house yet, so I might treat myself to a relaxing soak over the Jubilee weekend using one of these bath foams.

I was intrigued as to what was inside this pretty little notebook, and pleasantly surprised to discover it contains a reference guide for knitters.

Each card details a different technique or stitch, and will come in really handy as it's small enough to slip inside my knitting bag and carry with me.

I also received this beautiful tatted mat, which will look great on the round antique coffee table I have.

What a great parcel for a first time swapper! I hope she likes what I've sent her as much as I like what I have received.

Blog Hub Swap Day Seven

I'm quite sad that my week of opening presents is over. I've had so much fun doing this swap, from shopping for Natalie, eagerly awaiting her parcel to arrive in the post, watching her week of present opening unfold and seeing all the lovely comments everyone made on the gifts I had bought, through to the long wait for my own box of surprises to arrive, and the last week of opening a new present each day and knowing Paula has put as much love and effort into my parcel as I did for Natalie.

So what did day seven bring? Another flat, paper/booklet shaped parcel:

I asked Jamie what he thought might be in it and he jokingly suggested there was another pattern inside! I figured Paula was more inventive than that, so it would be something a little bit different, and probably not even yarn/knitting related at all. I guessed correctly!

It's a set of decorated sticky notes! Turns out we're all a teensy bit obsessed with stationery. I guess it appeals to the same part of our brain that loves yarn and crafts. These notes are going to come in very useful, especially over the next few months as we are moving house and will need to write ourselves lots of to do lists and reminders.

A massive THANK YOU to Paula for putting together such a fantastic, generous and thoughtful package for me. I have really enjoyed opening everything, nibbling on my posh American "candies", using my new soap and wash cloths and look forward to working with the patterns and yarn you have sent me. Mr Fidget also says thanks for his mousie (he loves it!) and the treats (almost all gone!).

And of course, a second massive thanks to Vivianne over at Kismet's Companion for organising the swap, and the rest of the guys over in the Blog Hub group for taking part. I've really enjoyed reading all the posts as the parcels have arrived, it looks like everyone's had a great time. Roll on the next swap! Actually, roll on Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, because that's the next big Blog Hub thing in the calendar!

Blog Hub Swap Day Six

I really did try to leave the yarn till last, but I couldn't help myself...

I had a feeling Paula had sent me more than the minimum 100g requirement, because the parcel was so big. As my parcel came from America, I was sure the yarn would be something new and exciting, as a lot of the staple yarns you Americans use are not available in this country without extortionate shipping fees.

150g of Knit Picks Capretta, a new merino/cashmere/nylon blend in fingering weight. Paula has clearly done her homework here, because everything about this yarn is perfect for me! I have used Knit Picks before, as we can get hold of some of them from Great British Yarns. It took her a while to get her hands on Chroma for her shop, so I suspect it will be months before she is even able to consider stocking Capretta.

As has been recently admitted, I have a bit of a love affair with merino/cashmere blends, so this is again perfect. It is so beautifully soft, it will be an absolute joy to knit. The colour is wonderful, a deep pink which isn't actually too far off how it looks in the photo.

And even better than that, as you can see from Paula's note above, the name of the colourway is "Fairy Tale". 

I suspect this will become a shawl of some kind. The two I've got nearest the top of my "want" list at the moment are Ishbel (gifted to me recently by a fellow Raveller) and Semele (which was in my parcel yesterday!) and I think either would look wonderful in this yarn. Unless you have any other suggestions..?

Year of Projects Update 4th March

I'm really starting to feel like I'm going to actually do everything on my list by the end of June! With 198yds of heaven and the leafy fingerless gloves finished last week, I wanted a quick crochet fix before I embarked on my next big knit from the list. I posted some early shots of it on Wednesday but it was such a quick project I actually finished it on Wednesday evening!

It's my Fern Cowl, not yet blocked so a little scrunchy in places. I will try and get it blocked this week, and take some better photos for next Sunday.

Meanwhile, today is day five of my seven day Blog Hub swap parcel! I let Jamie choose the next present to open, and he selected this flat, A4 sized one:

I wasn't sure if the inclusion of the pattern book meant the requirement for sending a pattern was fulfilled, so it was fantastic to see that not only had Paula stalked my Amazon wishlist to find the book, she'd stalked my Ravelry wishlist and picked out a beautiful shawl pattern for me.

The pattern is Semele by Asa Tricosa, and Paula has very kindly printed out both the written and charted instructions for me. There are so many beautiful versions of this shawl on Ravelry, I can't wait to knit it myself.

Blog Hub Swap Day Four

As I was out on Thursday night, I didn't get to open another parcel from my package until yesterday. Unfortunately, Jamie needed to borrow the laptop last night before we went out, and for some reason you can't access the Picasa web albums when writing a post on the iPad, so I've had to wait till this morning to show you what was in parcel number four!

I was quite in need of a sugary pick-me-up, so I decided to open the present that most screamed "I contain chocolate" at me.

I was quite curious to see what manner of local food delicacy I would get sent, since my parcel had come all the way from America. I've not had much opportunity to try much in the way of American sweets, having never visited the country myself, or really known anyone who has (or if they have, no-one who has been recently and brought me back chocolates!), so I was really excited when I opened the box to find this:

Jamie laughed at the box, and said it was "so American" and he's right. Paula's note said these were her favourite chocolates in the world, and they come from her home state of California. She did her homework well, because the box contains all dark chocolate and no nuts :)

I was surprised to find there was no little card inside to tell you what each chocolate is, and the See's website wasn't particularly helpful in that regard, as I was only able to identify the ones with the sprinkles on (Dark Bordeaux, I believe). That was the first one I tried, and I guessed at some kind of fudge filling. The description on the website is "brown sugar cream center" which again made us laugh for being so American.

The chocolate however was very tasty, and I look forward to snacking on the rest over the weekend.

Blog Hub Swap Day Three

Of the five parcels I have left to open, one is quite suspiciously yarn shaped and one is quite suspiciously "local food delicacy" shaped. The other three are all booky, papery shapes, flat and square. The rules of the swap said we had to include a pattern, so clearly one of these was going to be that. But what about the other two?

There was nothing else for it, I'd just have to open one of them and find out.

This one was particularly weighty and had a definite Bookish feel to it... and I was right!

Paula had been checking out my Amazon wishlist and spotted this book of Jane Austen inspired crochet patterns in amongst the craft books. What an amazing, thoughtful gift! Thank you Paula! You can see the patterns in the book on the book's Ravelry page here.

I can't wait to get my hooks out and get working on these!

Blog Hub Swap Day 2

I was so busy in work today that I forgot all about the box of presents waiting for me at home. It was very hard for me to concentrate on doing all the useful things, like the washing up, before being able to choose a present and open it.

This one had both soft squishy parts, and a strange square bit.

Another gorgeous ribbon bow, although I failed to slide this one off without untying it. When I opened the parcel, I realised straight away it was my hand knit gift today, as I recognised the yarn colours from a post of Paula's a couple of weeks ago.

Exfoliate! dishcloth.

Summer in Ashville dishcloth

Two gorgeous dishcloths, both in Knit Picks Dishie cotton. The colours aren't great in my photos, the dark red is far more red than that, and the Dalek cloth is a lovely pale pink. I can't really get Dishie in this country (Great British Yarns stock it, but it's twice the price of the Rico cotton I can get on eBay) so I'm really pleased that Paula has sent me these.

As for the strange square shape inside the package... nestled underneath the dishcloths was a bar of locally made soap, in a pomegranate 'flavour'.

It smells amazing, and I can't wait to try it out.

Blog Hub Swap Day One

It's all happening this week! First I got excited about finishing my fingerless gloves. Then I got excited about going to Unravel. Today, I've come home from work to discover my Blog Hub Swap parcel has finally arrived! After a few weeks of seeing everyone else opening their presents, I think it's about time I got to have a turn :)

The customs label on the box got me very excited - it's come all the way from America! No wonder I had to wait for it. The label also gave away my swap partner - Paula over at Knit and Seek. It's weird, but I had a feeling last week that Paula was going to be responsible for my box. Spooky.

I thought I would just open up the box and have a look inside, before waiting for Jamie to come home and help me choose a parcel to open. But it looked so fantastic I couldn't help myself, and soon had them all out of the box.

Don't they look wonderful? I knew as soon as I opened the card that the presents contained within were going to be awesome.

I managed to hold off opening anything until Jamie came home, as I wanted him to share my excitement and see everything as it was straight out of the box. We had a quick squish of everything, then chose a parcel to open (as Paula has very kindly left the order of opening up to me).

What a lovely first gift! This one is for Fidget! It's a little Mousie (by Ysolda Teague), complete with catnip stuffing, and a packet of treats, chosen for the awesome flavour name "chicka chicka boom boom". Paula's note says she won't be disappointed if I keep the mouse for myself instead of giving him to the cat, because he's so cute.

She's right, he's adorable, and I would have kept him to myself, except that by the time I'd lined them up for the photograph, Fidget had already caught the scent of fresh catnip and was on the prowl!

The mouse is most defnintely his now.

I wonder which present I will open tomorrow. I can't wait! Thanks for a great first gift, Paula!

Sneaky peek

I haven't really been working on any of my projects this week. Mainly because I've been focusing on knitting and crocheting for my Blog Hub swap partner. I wanted to get the parcel in the post this weekend, so had to have everything finished by this evening.

Instagram can only do so much to crap iPhone snaps!

I have, only moments ago, woven in the ends on the last piece. Now all that is left is to print off some patterns, write the notes to accompany each of the seven separate gifts in the box and find a box or envelope to put it all in. I'm pretty sure I've got a huge padded envelope I can use, because I always keep them when I receive them on the grounds that they'll come in handy.

Because I rather like the effect, here's a close up of the basket weave crochet

Things are slowly getting back to normal now, following the burglary. I have my new kindle and Xbox, and tomorrow I will be getting the first of my two replacement cameras. I'm using the theft of my camera as in incentive to upgrade, so when the insurance money comes I will be getting a shiny Canon DSLR camera, which I will then have to learn how to use. In the mean time, I am picking up a much cheaper and far more cheerful Sony Cybershot which I will use to take far better photos for the blog than my phone is managing.

I can't wait any longer, I am getting really frustrated with the lack of decent photos! I got so used to having my camera with me all the time last year, forcing myself to take photos of everything just so I'd have a choice for my photo of the week. It feels really strange now, to be out and about seeing things I want to photograph, only to realise the best I can manage is this:

You may not have noticed, but it snowed in the UK this week,

There are far more exciting finished projects on display over at Tami's. You should go check them out.

For it is in giving that we receive*

Christmas is a time for giving. One of my favourite ways of spreading the love at this time of year is getting stuck in to a Secret Santa or two, and this year was no exception. I had organised one in the office, but then I got a new job, so had to pull out. In its place, I signed up to a Secret Santa swap organised by the UK Random Acts of Kindness group on Ravelry. It's a great group full of extremely kind hearted and generous people; if I'm honest, I was far more excited about the prospect of buying lovely things for a complete stranger who shares my interests, than for someone I saw every day but shared nothing with apart from a place of work!

There were no real rules to the swap, spend as much or as little as you could afford and no requirements on package contents. The only stipulation was you had to wait until Christmas Day to open your parcel! Since in this house, we open our presents on Christmas Eve (as soon as the clock strikes twelve!), I got to be one of the first to open and post pictures of their present.

I have to say, my Secret Santa absolutely spoiled me. I am over the moon with the contents of my parcel. It arrived only a few days before Christmas, so I didn't have to wait too long with it tempting me from the corner of the room! I don't think I could have lasted more than a few days!

All of this was crammed into a parcel that really
didn't look like it contained this much stuff!

I waited until I'd opened all of my other presents before tearing into my secret parcel. The first thing I saw was the yarn. Four gorgeously squishy balls of Artesano 100% alpaca DK in a lovely shade of red.

It's more red than it looks in this photo. The flash, you see.

Hidden under the yarn was a ton of other amazing goodies. A set of red captive bead stitch markers from Atomic Knitting, a set of 4mm 10" Brittany DPNs, a red tape measure and a Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate reindeer lolly...

I just love dark chocolate. I have been well stalked!

Hiding underneath all that, was a beautiful hand made gift - a warm and snuggly cowl, in a fantastic shade of red which matches the yarn I'm using for my Cherry Wrap!

This isn't a great photo, so you can't really see the pattern detail.
I blame the flash again, taking photos at 1am is never a good idea!

As if that wasn't enough, nestling in the bottom of the parcel I found not one, not two, but five printed patterns! The patterns are for:

• A Noble Cowl
• Cafe au Lait Mitts
• Candle Flame Cowl
• The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief
• Wurm

I don't know who my Secret Santa is, but I love her! I am overwhelmed with gratitude. It just goes to show what a fabulous community we're all a part of.

Edited to add: I found out who she is! Nikki outed herself after seeing my gushing praise for her parcel in the forum. Which means you can find all the details on my cowl from her project page.

*so said Francis of Assissi