Mishmash :)

Hello. A few things to blog about today. When the latest issue of Cross Stitch Card Shop came through with the post last month, there was a letter attached for its subscribers. Basically the publishers dropped a bombshell announcing that they are stopping publishing this magazine due to marketing difficulties. I'm gutted. I really am. I liked it. Entirely devoted to cross stitched cards and with a variety of motifs to choose from. One of its kind on the market and now taken away while other similar mags still sell alongside. I will miss this mag definitely.

However the magazine itself doesn't mention a word about closing off. What's more, there is even a preview of the next issue. I do hope I'll find it in my mailbox 'cause I really love those cute cards with pink and orange owls :) The attached letter says The World of Cross Stitching will be taking over the ideas and it will be sent out to those subscribers whose subscription of Cross Stitch Card Shop hasn't finished yet. 

While Cross Stitch Card Shop is soon disappearing from the Brititsh magazine market, a new magazine has turned up on the shelves - Total Crochet Amigurumi. This is a nice mag full of crochet projects in form of amigurumis. I managed to get hold of the two first issues. I especially love the crocheted bunnies and teddies featured on the cover. The overall style of the magazine differs a lot from the British ones and one can easily guess it is not a product from the UK. It must be American, Candian or perhaps Australian, not sure.

The nice thing about this magazine is the fact it doesn't feature any advertisements (yay!) as opposed to the British craft mags that are excessively padded with paid adverts and wasted pages, which really gets on my nerves sometimes. It contains written crochet instructions followed up by numerous photos which makes it easier to work through the projects. I hope it lasts on the market and we will draw many interesting ideas from it.

My dear boyfriend-o has recently treated me to some Easter craft goodies :) Bless him. Here is what I brought from Hobby Craft - some cute wooden block stamps and springy ribbons. 

I particularly love the ribbons. They are cute and I could adorn my knitted bunnies with them :)

Apart from the stamps and ribbons, a few balls of DMC Natura cotton made it into my shopping basket. The juicy green and the slate grey balls came from eBay though. 

I'm especially craving for something fresh and this juicy grassy green is particularly attracting my eye.

In the meantime I'm knitting a pink bunny :) Currently I'm working on its arms and head :) It's coming on! Bit by bit. I'm thinking of giving it to a little girl who adores everything sweet and pink :)

And here is what has happened recently to my cross stitch project - a disaster. I'm gutted as these were supposed to be the cards finished for February and now this major setback with the threads has cropped up. After washing the stitches in lukewarm water and drying them out on a towel, the red Anchor thread discoloured and left the pink stains. I am really mistrustful of this brand now. My fault, I should have pre-washed the Anchor cotton first. For comparison, I've never been let down by the DMC reds. 

There is no other way than to stitch the background over with a white thread and hope for an improvement. So it's DMC this time. No more Anchor for me please.

Well, I went even a bit further and experimented with a colour catcher. Nope. It didn't really help and it even altered the remaining colours. Will have to stitch this motif again. 

Well that my experimenting with washing the cross stitch done. I always wash my stitches no matter how small they are. Whether it is a motif stitched for a card or a large sampler. I just like to know it is fresh and clean. I just couldn't bear a thought is was stitched, touched many times and just left grubby. 

So, what do you do for your stitches? :) 

Knitted Easter balls and eggs

Hi all. There's more Easter craft of mine I'd like you to see ;) I'm still fascinated with Arne and Carlos' Easter knits so for Easter this year I made the 4 new Easter knits:

In fact I knitted the "shells" for these eggs / balls last year but couldn't get motivated to finish them off so they had to wait all year to be finished off this Easter. I steamed them, stuffed with polyester and attached the strings. Ta-dah! Ready to join my knitted Easter decoration :D

They are all knitted with double pointed needles and Dalegarn yarns: Lerke, Heilo and Falk :) I just love how these colours come out in knitted patterns. Very eye-catching, I must admit. The stripey egg is my first own designed pattern :)

In the next post I'll show you my Easter tree with knitted eggs and balls :D

Have a good day and thank you for comments x 

Vipe of Dalegarn

Have I mentioned before that I am a yarn snob loving quality yarns and knitting tools? Oh yes, I have! And here is the proof: not so long ago I placed an order with kidsknits.com in the USA and received this gorgeous mercerized cotton yarn from Dalegarn - Vipe. It came from so afar, all the way from America and it was even custom charged. Sadly, so far this Norwegian yarn is not available in the UK but I do hope it will change one day. First time I've had this type of Norwegian yarn and since it's quite costly, I just ordered a few colours required for the project. 

Additionally, I also ordered two colours of Lerke (also from Dalegarn, it's a cotton and merino blend yarn) which can't be obtained in the UK. I love knitting with Lerke. It's super soft, warm, cosy and it comes in nice array of colours. Last year I used it to knit my Scandianvian eggs - a project by Arne and Carlos.

And now Vipe by itself - gorgeous shades, luscious, soft and pleasant to the touch. I'm gonna use this yarn to make these knitted pouches featured in Arne & Carlos book - Knit and crochet Garden. 

This deep purple shade has been my favourite for years. I used to wear lots of clothes in these shades.

At the close-up, Vipe reminds me of a satin cotton thread - soft and silky with a slight shine. I hope it knits well. Can't wait to start working on these pouches. As soon as I'm done with my Easter projects, I'm going to move onto these. 

And speaking of Arne and Carlos - a Norwegian-Swedish kitting duo - I've already preordered their next book on Amazon. The English edition is going to be released in September 2014. Roll on autumn! Can't wait!

Hope you all have had a good weekend. x

Coffee Mug Sleeves

Knitting all sorts of mug sleeves and mug hugs for one's favourite cups has been very trendy lately. I keep seeing lots of projects like these around in books, magazines and on the internet. I'd been thinking of having a go at it so not so long ago I knitted one for myself and recently I've knitted another one :)

Basically the story is: at work for the children's safety we have got to use the so called safety cups (they can be plastic or ceramic, anything as long as it comes with a lid) so I got myself a "hearty" ceramic mug and knitted my first mug sleeve using a knitting magazine. The turquoise colour was a random acrylic yarn I took to knit "a prototype". It looked acceptable so it stayed and I started using it. The mug despite the double walls which are supposed to act as insulation gets too hot to hold it in hands so a coffee mug sleeve proved to be very much needed. In the meantime my bf presented me with another lovely ceramic coffee mug with a knitted pattern on it (!!!) Collection: The Nordic Pantry from Sainsbury from around Christmas last year. (He knows so well what I love! Bless him! x x) 

My cat, Cookie, has been posing for you as a live background for the mugs :)

However with time and through the frequent use and under the hot temperature, the turquoise mug sleeve has stretched  and became too loose a bit so I had to make another one. This time a different pattern - lace. I've learnt a lot new knitting steps with this pattern: yarn over, pass the slip stitch over, knit into the front and back and slip the stitch purlwise :))) It's not 100% ideal and it probably won't impress someone who knits laces for years but I'm proud of myself as until now I've considered myself unable to read the knitting patterns from the books and mags ;) I'm definitely getting more confidence about it now. 

This is the source of my inspiration: Simply Knitting magazine of 2013 with lovely 3 patterns to knit.

The chequered pattern turned out to be very easy. The lacy one is more complex but with a bit of help of the books and YouTube tutorials I managed well :) Now the remaining pattern is a cabled variant. I can't do the cable knitting right at the moment so I'll have to practise a bit before I have a go at this one.

In the meantime I keep on knitting Easter eggs using my cotton yarns. I enjoy this activity a lot as it's a chill out for me after work. I knit for pleasure and with no rush :)

For the knitted eggs "shells" and small balls of yarn I found at home this wooden bowl. It's not a real yarn bowl but will act as one for the time being until I get a real one for myself one day. It turned out it is a bowl made by my bf years ago at DT lessons :) How unusual! Forgotten, unnoticed and under dust for such a long time! I think it looks good with these natural colours, don't you think so?

This week is going so fast! It's Friday tomorrow and then WEEEEEKENDDDD!!! :) Looking forward to some crafting and chilling out in the comfort of my home.

Have a good  evening x X x

Yarn Snob. KnitPro Karbonz.

Recently I've had a chat with a friend about our knitting preferences and I must confess... I'm a bit of a yarn snob :) I prefer expensive good quality yarn especially from those regions of the world famous for producing their quality wool like Norway, Shetlands, Peru... I'm always on the search for the new yarns from Dalegarn - my favourite Norwegian yarn company and I will go a long way to get the exact yarn I want even if it means paying a bit more. Basically I like to enjoy my knitting wholly, both in terms of tools and materials. I do not despise any cheaper wool like ever-present acrylic yarn, available in many shops around. I even use it myself to make some project prototypes or to test my knitting skills. I do also realize lots of people knit with this yarn for economic reasons but I just appreciate this extra bit of luxury real wool gives you as you knit your stitches. For that reason last weekend I ordered a few colours of a new yarn - Vipe of Dalegarn for my future spring projects from Arne & Carlos book. The order will be coming all the way from the USA as the Vipe yarn is not sold in the UK. I'm really looking forward to laying my hand on this yarn :))))

In the meantime something else made my day yesterday. After coming back from work, I found a parcel from Ebay stuck in my mailbox and it contained this:

A set of brand new Karbonz double pointed needles from KnitPro! I fell in love with them the moment I saw them on the KnitPro website. I HAD TO have them! The pouch contains 6 sets of 5 dpns ranging from 2.5mm to 5.00 mm, the most commonly used needle sizes. 

I must say they are amazing. They are incredibly luscious, luxurious and sleek needles with a smooth feel when in hand. They are light, warm to the touch and very durable. Metal tips are extra smooth and make it easier to make and drop stitches. I've tried them on some acrylic yarn already and it knits much better with this type of needles :) Very very very pleased :))))

I had a bit of a dilemma when I was buying them: Should I order 15's or 20's? For those who don't know, this is the length of a needle. The longer needle, the more stitches you can have on. The more stitches, the bigger the item you can knit. As these posh needles are dear to buy I decided to go for the more practical 20 cm ones. One day the 15 cm long ones could have simply turned out to be too short :)

Dear reader, if you have any knitting experience with the KnitPro needles, I'm more than happy to hear from you. I'm a also a fan of KnitPro Symfonie Wood series of crochet hooks and needles and since I've been using them to knit my julekuler balls, I have never felt disappointed. I'm planning to buy some circular KnitPro's in the future, just not decided yet if I want fixed ones or with the interchangeable tips.

Musings over. Bed time. Long day ahead. Have a good night everyone x X x

Chunky crochet: my first basket

Hi everyone. More crochet update from me :) I have been so keen to try out my new Boodles textile yarns so on the day I came back from my crafty shopping, I sat right down to make my first planned "chunky" project: a crocheted storage basket :) This is a proper xxl crochet and I used size 10.0 mm crochet hook on it. It felt so much different to crocheting with a small size hook. Less precision, more bulk. The texture, the hardness, the thickness of the crochet made me feel a bit surprised but nicely surprised. It also feels heavier in your hands when you hold your work while crocheting. And it grows fast!

Here's a storage idea :)

The basket was crocheted with half treble all the way through. The finishing white edging is double crochet. The basket is about 20 cm in diameter, 10 cm in height and 66 cm in circumference. 

I've used about 3/4 of the Boodles spool to make this basket.

My original inspiration was this project: Storage basket from Ros Badger's book: Hook, Yarn and Crochet. I only used a slightly chunkier yarn and a bigger crochet hook than it's recommended in the book.

Due to its "chunkiness" the basket was coming on very fast. I didn't want it to be too high so I deliberately skipped 3 rounds of crochet :) Overall, not bad for the first time, eh? I'm pleased with myself and I'm going to create some more of these baskets.

My cotton Lerke yarn looks so nice when stored this way. But like I said, I need another basket for storing my sewing bits and bobs and another one for some embroidery cotton yarns too! Oh! And I need one for my knitted Easter eggs too! So more baskets coming soon! I'm having fun with this noodle'y yarn! 

Thank you for your visits and feedback you leave. I really enjoy reading your messages. :)

Oodles of Boodles and other shopping trivia

Hi all. A quick update, mostly on the shopping theme ;) A recent (half-term!!!) trip to HobbyCraft in Chester resulted in bringing home this chunky textile yarn  - Boodles. If you don't know this type of chunky yarn, for your information this is ecological, economical and upcycled yarn made from soft textile offcuts in the fashion industry. A similar sort of noodle-type yarn to Hoooked Zpagetti which is also already well known on the market.

I've choosen my first 3 colours - mint green, white and plum accompanied by a 12.00 mm Bamboodle crochet hook :) 

Recently I've had a crafty urge to try my hand at chunky crocheting and my plan is to crochet some chunky storage bowls and baskets. I get to see lots of these projects in crafty magazines. They are easy to make, perfect to practise my crochet skills and I'd love to store some of my yarns and threads in them.

Cookie is clearly jealous of me taking the photos of my noodle'y yarns so he decided to place himself right in front of my camera. As soon as he hears something is going on on the windowsill, he is there! He's already discovered that the Boodles are good to catch and play with and the wooden crochet hook is something good to chew on. 

A few more shopping treasures :) Magnetic window cross stitch markers - something I've wanted for months for myself. I'm always on the look out for convenient ways of cross stitching. How do you mark your patterns? With highlighters? Magnetic gadgets? Pencil? I hope these will work well for me.

In preparation for Easter cross stitch projects, I got myself a piece of black aida. It can be a bit of a nightmare to stitch on but the folky patterns look so good on the black background :)

And the last but not least, I bought these two small lovely books with crochet and knitting projects:

This should keep me occupied for a while! ;)

Spring Sampler (2) Yarn shopping.

Hi all. Spring is coming on nicely... well at least on my cross stitching frame :) Here's is my progress. I'd say it's about 1/3 done by now. I'm going to stitch the upper part now and then finish with the bottom of the project. I'm really enjoying stitching this sampler and I'm lovin' how the font came out too. 

In 3 days Welsh schools break up for a weekly half-term break. This means the whole week and actually 9 consecutive days of crafting bliss :) I'm soooo looking forward to this free time and I'm hoping to make even more progress with my sampler. In the meantime I ordered another Riverdrift House sampler to stitch. I've kept my eye on this Easter sampler for a while now. I've missed stitching with some pastel colours. 

With the Valentine's Day last Friday and all things nice to celebrate, last Saturday I treated myself to a big crafty shopping :-)))) Finally this gorgeous set of circus font stamps is mine, mine, mine!!! :D

This set can be teamed with a complementary set of cutting dies, which arrived at my place today! :D I can't wait to lay my hands on this set. Naturally, I couldn't miss the shelves with yarn:

Some mercerized cotton in energizing colours: Wendy Supreme:

Sirdar Simply Recycled yarn

 more of Freedom Sincere organic cotton:

Some Sublime Egyptian cotton - never had one so wanted to have a go at this type of yarn:

and all the yarn "loot" together :)

in Lidl, again, I found the remaining orange cotton yarn and a set of dpn:

All these vibrant spring colours inspire me to try some projects for home like coasters, mug hugs, mats, Easter chicks, floral garlands etc. Hopefully I'll find some time to have a go at them. 

Now a good news for all nutty knitters who love all sorts of fonts and words: This gorgeous new book Knit the Alphabet by Claire Garland is hitting the shops at the end of March. I've already pre-ordered my copy on Amazon and I'm awaiting it impatiently :) I have a feeling it will be a big hit in the world of crafty books, just like Knit 55 Christmas Balls by Arne & Carlos.

And to finish off, a few photos of my little furry not-so-patient model - Cookie. I was trying to photograph him on the windowsill but he kept catching the strap of my camera and chewing on it. His attitude towards the cat modelling didn't help at all! Just see for yourselves :)

He can be naughty but he's a totally sweet and adorable little bugger <3