Lucky Me!

The warm and fuzzies have descended upon me as I have been awarded my second Leibster Blog award! The lovely Chloe from Clobell has passed on the award to me and I am honoured.

I received this award in March last year, you can see my blog recommendations, which I still stand by, here.

But I have to add one blogger that I just love to read every time she posts. Yes I Like That is such a funny, thoughtful and interesting blog. It is a wonderful collection of sewing, days out, knitting and general stuff. Go read it!

In other news the 100^th issue of Knitting came out a few weeks ago and I felt very proud to be still on the back page after so long. I really feel that the magazine has come on leaps and bounds in recent years (and not just because I’m in it). It’s lovely to be a part of it. The story I wrote about was a particularly awkward and funny moment in my knitting life and it was really fun to write. Now I just need to keep reading all of these lovely blogs for more inspiration!

Productive

Today has been a productive day knitting wise. I managed to rip back an old project that had been lingering in the stash for, oh a couple of years now, and use it to cast on a new and fabulous top. Just thought I'd share:

I came...

I saw...

I ripped...

Freshly ripped yarn...

... and I made.

I thank you!

Wood Street Indoor Market - GO!

This weekend I went down to the relaunch of the Wood Street indoor market in Walthamstow. This little treasure is well worth the trip and you could easily spend an hour or two sifting through the quirky little shops filled to the brim with inspiring goodies old and new.

When you walk in it's bit like stepping back into the Victorian times. The little window pains that make up the shop fronts and doors are truly quaint and it gives the market an atmosphere of the old Portobello Road from the film Beadknobs and Broomsticks. From antique furniture, vintage and second hand clothing, bric a brac, videos and records you never know what you might find when you start rummaging. These older vendors are now interspersed with new-comers such as East London Craft Guerilla and cute illustration collective Animaux Circus. These fresh new talents are sure to update the market and encourage more customers to pass through the doors.

It was great to pop into the Craft Guerilla workshop to see how they've managed to turn a shell of a unit into a cute a cosy space to sell their local hand made goods and ready for their new classes. I've been watching the progress of the hand painted wall of the shop on facebook so it was great to see it in person and commend the hard work that's gone into it. Word has it that a knitting group may also be popping up there soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that. They are open: Tues./Wed./Fri./Sat. From 10 am to 5.30 pm
And from March: Wed./Thurs./Fri./Sat. From 10 am to 5.30 pm.

If you're into cake decorating then Lilac Domino's Cake decorating supplies is like a dream come true! Everything you could need to bake the perfect birthday, christening, wedding or anyother sort of cake you can think of is in there. I was so excited I bought myself a cake board, sugar paste and a piping nozzel for Flo's upcoming birthday cake. They are open every day from 10am - 5.30pm except Thursdays and Sundays.

Significant Seams also had a unit and it was great to learn about all the amazing community work they do centred around crafts. They run therapeutic craft programmes for pregnant women and new mums, as well as a sewing circle for the vulnerable and isolated, especially people suffering from depression or anxiety and survivors of domestic and/or sexual abuse. What a great idea! Being creative is such a good way of working through your troubles and learning to be proud of yourself as you create something tangible. They also provide sewing machines for hire by the hour, a variety of craft classes for everyone including after school classes, upcycling and daytime Childrens craft workshops. Pop in and pick up a class schedule. They are open Tues - Sat. (Tues 10am - 2pm, Weds 2pm - 5pm, Thurs 2pm - 9pm, Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 2pm)

I'll certainly be going back to the market in future and urge you to check it out too. Perfect for a Saturday pre-lunch/ post-lunch wander.

Snow with the Flo

It snowed the other day, but you probably didn’t know that because no one was talking about it… much.

It was the perfect day for snow, being a Sunday it meant that everyone could either go out and play or stay snuggled up in warm and watch movies.  I do not envy anyone that had to actually get somewhere.

When Flo woke up in the morning I said “Want to see something?” Opened her curtains and she actually gasped and said ‘WOW, SNOW!!!” So cute, but a bit scary considering she’s only 23 months; the kid knows everything!

Why does she look so suspicious?

After realising that her wellies were at Nanny and Granddads I dug out my old sling wrap and The Mr. helped wrestle her onto my back for the walk down the road. Once the wellies were on we explored Nanny and Granddad’s back garden, where granddad kicked the trees to make the snow fall on Flo’s head and the green out the front of the house where quite a few enormous snowmen has been built. Flo was a little 50/50 about the snow and decided that it was time to go back in after a little while. What a different story it will be next year!

On the way home the contented and tired Flo fell asleep on my back in a comedy fashion.

I got to try out my new wellies too which luckily arrived just two days before the snow had fallen. I found them on Amazon and they have a short of knitted fair-isle pattern printed on them, which I obviously love.  I thought about knitting special welly socks for them, but now the snow is pretty much gone and the they have been put away again. But it was a lovely snow day – thanks Flo!

Kat in the Hat

The title of this blog is a little misleading because although I have finished Kat’s second 30th Birthday present of the vintage bobble hat I have not yet given it to her and it is indeed me modelling the hat!

I mostly crochet this item on the way to and from work on the train. It’s brilliant ‘dead’ time to use up doing something productive. It works out well with crochet in particular as you need even less elbow room than knitting requires which makes it a perfect project for commuting.

Crocheting whilst standing up on the DLR - also possible

I had to modify the pattern slightly as using the original number of stitches gave me a hat that sat somewhere on my shoulders. So I reduced the number of stitches and thankfully it has worked out and as shown in the original picture from the 1940’s pattern it perches nicely atop my head.

My Mum bought me some personalised clothing labels for Christmas so I have added a little ‘Made by Purl Princess’ label into the back of the hat. I’m planning to put these in more of my finished items from now on as I think it’s nice finishing touch and really marks how proud I am of each creation I add one to. Therefore beware of creations without a label – they may not have been well loved!

I have now moved onto something else… can you guess what it is yet?

Boobalicious

A friend at my local knitting group asked if we could knit some boobs for the breast feeding counselling classes she is running and I jumped at the chance!

The knitted breasts not only provide an effective ice breaker for the people attending but more importantly help to demonstrate how a baby should latch on, feed and even how a mother can express their milk.

I think they’re a great idea and as the pattern was so quick to knit up I ended up making five. You only need one per person, so I’m not being lob sided! 

I probably could have made more if I hadn’t run out of materials to stuff them with.

The free pattern is from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain and you can get it here. 

I’m not sure exactly how you can find out who needs the knitted breasts, but there are contact details for your local councillor on the website, which seems like a good place to start.

Happy boob knitting!

Post Christmas Catch Up

After Christmas you always think that you’ll have loads of time to do all of those things you’d promised to do in the New Year, like getting round to starting that project, go to the gym or in my case writing some more blog entries. Clearly I have failed as it is now twenty days into January and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write!  The cruel hand of January wins again.

There are two projects that I finished over Christmas and didn’t get a chance to blog about. The first was the completion of the vintage leaf scarf which I made for my good friend Kat. She chose the pattern and yarn so all I had to do was knit it.

Over all it was an enjoyable project however the embroidery on the leaves, once the knitting was done, was quite tedious for me; I clearly am a knitter and not an embroiderer. I only made one modification which was to make the scarf longer upon Kat's request. The finished item looks lovely and I’m pleased with it. Kat seems to enjoy wearing it too so if she’s happy, I’m happy! I’m working on the second of her birthday knits now, but I’ll save that for another blog.

Florence needed a cardigan to go over her dress for Christmas day and instead of buying one I thought I’d whip one up. Although in the grand scheme of things it only took me nine days to make, I always feel like giving yourself a deadline ruins the enjoyment you get from the knitting bit. To make it worse it seemed to be quite big on her despite me checking the finished size on the pattern and making sure I got the right gauge. The good thing was that the tie front meant that I could just drag it in more to make it fit her a bit better and at least it will fit her for more than just that one day.

We had a really lovely Christmas this year. As Flo gets older and starts to understand a little bit more of what’s going on the magic of Christmas just grows and grows. Next year I expect she will understand it all and as a consequence we’ll all explode in a cloud of fairy dust. New Year was similarly exciting as we rented a town house on the sea front in Margate with friends. Lots of big hearty meals round the table together, crazy German board games and walks on the beach with Flo made it another one to remember.

Oh, and if you’re thinking – Margate is rubbish – you’d be wrong! The old town has a while host of cute vintage shops and the amazing tea room called The Mad Hatter is to be recommended. We also loved the new Turner Contemporary Museum there which had a great free exhibition on about teen culture. We even were able to get Flo involved in a free kid’s art club that was going on and were able to bring her ‘art’ home with us.  Margate is the place to be!