New Year’s Resolutions

2012 will be the start of this blog really; I wanted to do a blog for a long time but just got started at the end of 2011. So my first resolution:

1>     Keep this blog up to date.

I also really want to start an Etsy shop, I have so many ideas for it, but I am going to start out simple by doing made to order granny square scarfs.

2>     Start Etsy shop

A dream of mine would be to make all of my clothes and not buy any, this I can see will not be a reality as ever item I make I feel the need to go and buy clothes and accessories to go with it. However I defiantly want to make more of my own clothes and get better at it.

3>     Improve my sewing skills

Granny Square Scarf

My sister modelling my red granny square scarf

Ive been busy with the crochet hook making granny squares. I made this scarf over Christmas, and i am so addicted to making granny squares at the moment that i have started another!

I used red yarn for this scarf which is very unusual for me because i usually go for everything in shades of blue, green or purple. But the red shades caught my eye at the market, and they really look fantastic together.

Actually i have started another two with the yarn left overs. I have completed 7 squares of one but i am running out of dark red. So have started a third in red, black and cream. I shall have to go back to the market on Friday and hope that i did not get the last ball of dark red, which i have a horrid feeling that i did.

The start of two new scarfs

Christmas Star

Crochet Christmas Star

Mum rang me last night to ask me if i had sent my grandmother a Christmas card yet. No, I always forget. So I crochet this little star for her Christmas tree last night and got it into the post this morning. I found a great little tutorial on this blog.

Knitted cuff

I have this idea of making a knitted cuff and encasing it in fabric. But I just cant see how to do it. I am now on my third attempt and I just cant make the casing professional enough. My problem is at the ends where the two pieces of fabric meet. The middle section look awesome. I have googled it and I can't find anybody else who has done anything similar to what I have in mind. Its getting frustrating as this was going to be a little christmas present for my sister and time is ticking. My lack of experience as a sewer is really showing on this little project. Tomorrow I might try doing it using bias binding instead.

Blue wrap top, fail?

The final version.

This top was made from a pattern i took off the May addition of Sew magazine.  I made it as a warm up to the dress variation i am planning to make in dark grey.

I wanted a top/dress suitable for the winter, so i made it with long sleeves. This was the first time i have ever tried to alter a pattern so radically from the original and it did not go to plan. After i had finished it the sleeves were just too short. So i decided that it was best to shorten them to 3/4 length sleeves. I put elastic through one of the sleeves and left the other one blank to see what looked best and decided on the loose sleeve.

I also made a mistake when sewing up the back seem and had to unpick it, i damaged the fabric and in trying to cover this up the neck line does not sit quite straight. I am possibly the only one who know it is there, but it is there and it is going to nag at me.


Now to decide how to make this grey wrap dress. I still really want long sleeves, but i am now slightly lacking in confidence to pull this off with out extra fabric to make mistakes. i could make the cap sleeve variation and layer it with a black long sleeve top underneath!! This will give me something to think about over the Christmas holidays.

The sleeves were just too short in my first version.

3/4 length sleeves one with elastic and one with out.

      

Simple granny square blanket.

Granny squares have to be the easiest thing to make, especially in there most simple forms as this is. I love simple designs, i think that they are the most effective way of making anything.

I started making this in early August after my mum gave me one and a half massive balls of green Wendy's aran, that she no longer wanted. I also used some really cheep red and white balls of yarn i bought at PoundStrechers last year that have been taking up room in my wool draw. So this has been my Sunday project, as all i do on a Sunday (usually) is go to see my mum and watch her TV and eat her food, whilst knitting or crocheting. I actually finished with the crochet part last week, but have left it until today to sew in all the ends.

Hello

Hi, I am Rosemary. I am dedicating this blog to my life of crafts.

The life I saw for myself as a child and young teenage was to make my living making jewellery. When I was a young child I loved drawing, making things, knitting, even embroidery. At school I used to sell my drawing and friendship bands to my class mates.  Art was by far my best subject at school. This all changed when I went to a new school and had the most horrendous art teacher who used to pick on me and I had to give it up for GCSE and take up Spanish instead (which I failed with style).

My life moved on then and I did all science A Levels and studied geology and chemistry at university. But I have never worked in science I have just drifted for one dead-end job to the next interrupted by long periods of foreign travel, with me trying to find out what it is I want to do with my life.

After a nearly 15year absence from anything remotely crafty I started knitting again, hurray. My first piece was a black scarf, which I started whilst traveling in Tasmania, admittedly all I could remember how to do was to cast on and to knit, I had to ask an old lady how I cast off.

When got back to not so sunny England I bought more yarn and started to teach myself the basics, by getting books from the library and looking to Knitting blogs. This was how I discovered crochet, and from making crochet bags I bought a sewing machine to make lining them easier. From having a sewing machine I had to teach myself to sew clothes of course. Now I am trying to find ways to combine these things together.

This will be my record of all the things I make.