New Skills

Hello,
            I thought I'd post some of the items i've made whilst I've been off work recently.

The first things that I made since my last post was a needle felted sheep. One of my friends has subscribed to crafty creatives, a subscription service where you get a box of various items each month. Last month they included a kit to make a needle felted sheep and as she knew i'd wanted to have a go at needle felting for ages she gave it to me. It came with two wool tops, one black and one white, a piece of foam and a needle for felting.

The idea behind needle felting is that you manipulate the wool top into the shape you want and then stab it with the needle so that it felts and holds the shape. My first attempt was a bit of a disaster as the needle snapped, so I had to order a new one from Clover, I think this is because I was using too much force. However once I got the needle from Clover I had much more success and quite enjoyed making my sheep, even if getting the small parts on like the feet was quite fiddly. I may try needle felting again in the future.

The second thing that I made this month was a flower corsage from a kit that came with January's let's knit. I found it quite fiddly to make, as to make the petals you had to slip up to 8 stitches over one knitted stitch. The end results is quite nice though. I made two, the first has been claimed by my Mum and I might give the second one to my Nan.

In a moment of boredom I also decided to have a go at doing some decopatch. I have done this before and quite enjoyed it, even it is a little messy. It involves using PVA glue to decorate a wooden or card item with small squares of tissue paper. This time I used a free kit I'd received with Crafts Beautiful magazine for making a decopatch butterfly. The end result was quite effective, but I did have to give it two coats of tissue paper, as I found that every time I touched it a new piece ripped!

Lastly I  finally got round to making Sydney Owl from Let's Knit in May! I really enjoyed making Sydney and conquering the stitch knit one below to make his feathers, which was much easier than I thought it would be. I would definitely make another Sydney Owl in the future. You can get the pattern for him and most of the other makes I've made from Let's Knit for free on their website. 

That's all the crafting I've done so far, plans for this week include making a baby's bonnet and Robbie the Robin from my Let's Knit kits. I've also got this lovely kit for making a Lucy Cromwell Decoupage Christmas Card from Do Crafts. 

I'm enjoying trying out new crafts whilst i'm off work and it's much better than watching endless repeats of 70 and 80's TV shows in the afternoon. Hopefully it will make the time go quick and before I know it I'll be back at work.

To do list.

Here are some of the items that I am currently making or might make in the future.

This week I am going to try and make Sydney the Owl from the Let's Knit Kit and a needle felted sheep from a Crafty Creatives kit my friend gave me. I am looking forward to making the sheep and trying something different. I also have two work's in progress at the moment.

1.  A granny square blanket, which I started at the beginning of the year as a way to use up all my odd balls of double knit wool, I plan to finish this by the end of this year.
2. A scarf using Sirdar Fizz.

The next project after this is to try out some of the makes from Let's Knit and Crochet christmas special 2013, as this includes full instructions for making a pair of socks in the round. I have wanted to learn to knit in the round for ages, so I am very excited about this.

By the end of the year I also want to have made up all the free kits that have come with my subscription to Let's Knit. The one's I have left to make are.

1. Baby Bonnet
2. Flower broaches.
3. Robbie the Robbin
4. Scandinavian Baubles.

Other projects I have to complete include making a snood from the leftover Sirdar Squiggle yarn and making scarves from some Sirdar Filigree yarn that I have. The Filigree is horrible to knit with but I am determined to use it up!

I think that's enough for now!

Sirdar Filigree- this is my first attempt, not good!

Sirdar New Fizz- I quite like this so far, but it takes ages as you have to pull all the bits through after each row.

Item's I've made

I thought I'd post some of the items that i've knitted and crocheted so far to start off with.

 Crochet cushion from let's get crafting in double knit wool that came with the magazine.

 Runner for the end of a bed in Grundl Chicago discontinued wool.

Crocheted Luma from Super Mario. 

Tea-Cosy from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nikki Trench.

Christmas Stocking from Let's Get Crafting Knit and Crochet 2012 Christmas Issue. I really enjoyed this colourwork project.

Poinsettia Broach from Let's Get Crafting Knit and Crochet 2012 Issue. 

Scarf for my mum, made with pink and purple double knit. Made to own design.

Cross Stitch I made for a friend's son's christening 2013.

Easter Bunny from Let's Knit 2013, made for friends son.

Easter Bunny 2 from Let's Knit 2013. Made during a trip to London.

Knitting needle holder, made using crocheted heart bunting from Let's Get Crafting 2012 Jubilee Edition.

My first cardigan. Made in Sirdar Squiggle from a pattern for Sirdar Faroe Chunky wool, which appeared in a copy of Woman's Weekly in 2012. I really like this yarn as it's soft, cheap and knits up quickly.

Crocheted Baby Boots, made with kit from Let's Knit 2013.

Scarf made with red heart aurica. One £2.99 ball makes a small scarf. I would in future buy two balls and make a slightly bigger one.

Tea-Cosy made with kit from Let's Knit Lace special 2013. Really enjoyed making this, a quick and easy knit which looks very effective.

Hand-warmers with kit from Let's Knit Christmas Makes special 2013. These were my first knit after coming out of hospital. I didn't really enjoy making them as the colour work was tedious rather than interesting. I will enjoy wearing them though!

Introduction

Hello,
           I've decided to create a blog to display items i've knitted, crocheted or crafted.

I first learnt to knit and crochet about two years ago, because I'd seen people knitting space aliens at the Manchester Science festival and decided that it looked like a lot of fun.

At first I had a go at crochet by myself, using a kit from Amazon at home. After some success, I then signed up to a crochet class with Ministry of Craft in Manchester which enabled me to learn all the basic stitches in six weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to crochet.

After this I learnt that one of my friends enjoyed knitting and we got tickets to go round one of the craft shows at the Trafford centre. I really enjoyed this show as it showed me that there were lots of different yarns and techniques out there that i'd never heard of. So I started trying to knit a scarf from King Cole Krystal, which i successfully finished. This initial success encouraged me to sign up to Knit 1,2,3 with Ministry of Craft in Manchester. I found knitting much harder than crochet but decided to stick with it.

Since then i've knitted and crocheted lots of items. I also attend our local knitting group at the pub, which inspires me to keep going with my projects and to try new techniques. I get lots of ideas from knitting magazines and like having a go at making the free gifts, which nearly always involve a new technique i've not tried before.

The idea behind Em's Makes is for it to be a photoblog, where I can display pictures of my finished projects. I always take a picture of an item when i've finished, so i thought it would be nice to have all the pictures together in one place.

I hope you enjoy looking at my pictures
From Em x