Ally Pally 2011

Today was a good day.

Mum and I met the lovely Annisa on the steps of Ally Pally and we worked the aisles, room by room, scooping up the inspiration by the bucket-load. The student shows provided lots of ideas as usual from recycled materials to knitted furniture.

I kept getting distracted by buttons and fabric as there were so many gorgeous stalls to tempt me in, but I managed to resist, apart from two fat quarters, ahem! The most gorgeous stalls that I have to mention were a couple of little querky makers. Kate Haxell’s stall pulled me in with pure whimsical charm. Her cute jam jar and teacup pin cushions really made me smile.

Then there was Tugba Kop who made me laugh with this old man portrait bag. There were more fantastic leather goods and portraits of old ladies playing bingo on the stall. Her art work is well worth a look.

There was lots of fun at the annual ‘yarn dive’ on the black sheep wools stall. Annisa got stuck in and I nabbed a bargain of 10 balls of Rowan Purelife organic wool for just £14.99 – Score!

My other purchase was from the lovely Millamia girls who had their latest book on sale and their yarn at a discounted price. I of course had to get involved in that and so bought the book and yarn to make Flo a cardigan for next winter.

Also worth a quick mention was an amazing new design I caught on the Purl Alpaca’s stall called Lillian. Another multifunctional knit from these talented people, the garment can be a top, dress or poncho. My favourite is the top variation. So gorgeous.

Another year gone by and another great Knitting and Stitching show. Bring on 2012!

The Disorganised Knitter

Somehow this year I have totally managed to let Ally Pally creep up on me! I didn’t organise myself a ticket until a week before, how uncharacteristically disorganised of me! Perhaps this year’s show won’t be as much of a military operation as it was last year, although I still maintain the general rules: take a packed lunch, a room at a time, only considered purchases allowed and no panic buying! Some may laugh at these (Nicola) but you’ll be sorry when you miss out on some amazing bargain yarn because you’re fannying about trying to get a sandwich from a kiosk.

This year I have no idea what I’d like to buy so am going to let the show give me inspiration and hopefully not persuade me to spend too much money. I’ll be there on Sunday, so if you happen to see me rummaging through the bargain bins, do say hello!

There are 2 things on my needles at the moment, the Free Rapunzel hat and Nola Jane baby jumper.

The hat I am making as a request from my sister in law who saw it and immediately bought the yarn and handed it over to me to knit for her. The pattern is from Tiny Owl Knits,which is also the website responsible for the current hexipuff craze with the Beekeepers quilt. Thankfully this fabulously sunny weather we're having this week is buying me some time to get it done before the chill sets back in.

The jumper is from the cute as a button Petit Purls and I’m making it for a very deserving Flo. I couldn’t believe it when I realised that I haven’t knitted anything for her since Christmas last year when I made her the stripy babygrow! I should be ashamed! I'm almost ready to join the arms to the body, so I'm quite pleased with my progress. The cuffs and hem are quite ingenious. They are done by crochet cast on, knitting for and inch, doing a row of reverse stocking stitch and then knitting for another inch. You then undo your crochet cast on and knit the cast on edge together with your live stitches to create a perfect little cuff or hem,with the purl stitches creating a neat fold. It's a bit of effort but a lovely result. Flo will just wipe her mouth on it I suspect.

In other news it was our 3^rd wedding anniversary last week and the Mr kindly bought me 2 gifts! I got the lovely Great British Bake Off book (for the second series, which I love by the way) and an amazing gold ball of yarn necklace! I totally wasn’t expecting it and it was such a lovely personal gift. Love you Mr!

Quilt love

It’s been ages since I last blogged which is mainly down to having a new job, which is nice a busy on the 3 days I work, but sadly not allowing for lunch time blogging. Then in the evenings I’ve been getting that change of the season hibernation feeling where I just want to snuggle up and fall asleep on the sofa in front of Masterchef with the Mr.

However, despite this I managed to finish the quilt I’ve been working on for the past couple of months and yesterday I handed it over to its intended owners, my oldest and dearest friend Shanthini at her wedding to the lovely Marc.

Shan and I were born on the same day and our parents met in the beds next to each other while waiting to give birth. Ever since we’ve had a very special relationship, I’d say one of unconditional sisterly comfort with each other. So it was really important for me to give her something meaningful for one of the most important days of her life. My hope is that the quilt will become a family heirloom and keep her, Marc and their family warm for years to come.

Front of the quilt

Back of the quilt

Embroiders date of the wedding

 

She likes it!

 I loved making the quilt and it has spurred me on to get out my half-finished Christmas quilt and get working on it. Want to take bets on if it will be ready for Christmas 2011?

Wool Steak and TV fame

The last few weeks have been a real whirl wind. I spent most of it organising a surprise 30th birthday party for the Mr and then we got burgled a few days before the party. The intruders stole the usual electrical goods, TV, computer, camera etc along with some jewellery and Flo's piggy bank :-( There's nothing that we could have done about it, but it just feels like a sad thing to happen.

The surprise party went really well. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including Flo who was allowed to stay up late and party till the late hour of 9pm! She enjoyed dancing, pointing at all the old pictures of Daddy and dragging my handbag around with her. The Mr. had a great time too and got some suitably manly presents for a 30 year old. One particularly apt present was a couple of fine steaks! When we opened up their special cold bag I found this inside:

It's basically just a bag stuffed with natural wool which keeps your meat cold. Brilliant.

I'm really missing my camera already. I keep seeing things I want to snap and the realise that my camera's probably on Ebay right now! So not many pictures to share with you I'm afraid. The above was taken on the Mr's phone and emailed to me.

On a more positive note Purl Alpaca's have asked if they can use my photos of the Cleo skirt I made on their TV slot on the Create and Craft channel. It will be on Thursday at 5pm Sky channel 671, Freeview 36 and Freesat 813 if you fancy watching. I'll let you know if I can get a link to the show once it's aired.

Top Tip

My Mum was helping me iron and cut out my new quilt project and she came up with the genius idea to hang the ironed fabric from a skirt hanger so that it stays relatively flat while you cut. With Flo running about like a crazy nut it's meant that I don't need to get the iron out every time I need to cut more fabric. Top tip!

However unless you hang it somewhere they can't reach it doesn't stop toddlers from trying to steal it, presumably for their own secret quilting projects?

Now you see them... now you don't!

Here are the finished baby trousers which I'm calling Isla's camo pants as they're for baby Isla and are a little bit camouflage.

I made a couple of mods to the design, making the legs a few rows longer (46 rows) and adding elastic into the waistband rather than doing an i-cord tie fastening. I'm pleased with them despite them being a little mental in colour! I enjoyed the project so much I'm going to make some more but in a solid colour and with the seed stitch patterning. I wonder if I can make them adult sized?

Crafting not Rioting please!

With all the riots going on in London it’s been a rather unsettling time, but crafting has been keeping my spirits up. Knitting on the tube into work genuinely seemed to bring some kind of calm to people who smiled and watched as I worked away. But when Flo’s nursery called to say they were locking all of the parameter gates and I was sent home from work I got a bit twitchy again. But once the family was safely home and I got stuck into some quilting I was a much calmer person. Crafting not rioting people!

It’s so sad to see the destruction of people’s communities. The saddest parts are where independent shops and people’s homes/ cars have been destroyed. I can’t imagine what they are going thorough having to rebuild from scratch. Let’s hope the violence, looting and destruction is put an end to soon.

I promised I’d share a picture of my finished Lacy Blue top. And here it is:

My good friend James Diggle came over to do a little photo shoot for the magazine the other day and took this photo among others, which were all a bit too ‘catalogue model’. You can just about see the gold coffee bean buttons on the bust, which I think really set off the shimmering blue of the yarn. I’m really glad it’s finished and I’ve worn it a few times already. There’s nothing like a successful project to make you smile.

My new quilting project is making me smile too. Look at those prints!