New year, new post

 First, the UFOs:
The only one I finished was the Fabric baby book. One of my colleagues was expecting a baby, so I finished it all except for the cover - and then we all started working from home before I could give it to him, and he's now left the company, so I guess it will keep for another baby! It's quite nice though

Once that was done, I made a rainbow blanket for my friends who were also expecting. It was made with rainbow yarn so I didn't need to keep switching colours, and it came out quite well, if a little bit longer than I meant it to.

 

I even made an easter chick from a kit!

By then lockdown/working from home was in full swing, so I didn't get much else done till later in the summer as work was busy. I did manage to make a "bumblebee costume" one evening thanks to a random request:

Once work quieted down a bit at the end of September, I had more free time in the evenings (bed times had also got a bit earlier I think). So I made quite a lot (well, quite a lot for someone only sewing two hours a day) of clothes for the small one - mainly leggings but also a dress. I also made some for a couple of her friends. And we managed to finish the hat to go with her red pinafore, she requested doll's clothes for her scary looking doll one day, last of all I made her a party crown for Christmas.

I did manage to make some things that weren't children's clothes, too - mainly presents, but hopefully I can make myself something in the new year!

The best thing I got all year (got it in January, which seems so long ago) was my zigzag attachment which means I can do zigzag seams with my Singer sewing machine - otherwise I couldn't sew all these lovely knit fabrics!

And this year I've signed up to the 52 week sewing challenge on Facebook, so who knows I might be able to post a few more blogs since I'm documenting it all there anyway.

UFO review post

Back in April, I posted about some of my unfinished projects. Most of these are still unfinished but I've done three:
Crochet shawl (which my friend no longer needed, but my daughter has claimed as her "green blanket")

The quilted square (still not quite sure what to do with this to be honest)

My mending pile 

Not done yet:
Dress - started May 2016. 75% complete

Fabric baby book - started 2007. 5% complete. I know a few people having babies in 2020 so I might get around to doing this eventually

Camp blanket - started 2000 ish. I might get around to this at some point as I could do with another blanket.

Kingfisher cross stitch - started 2003. 60% complete. I've just got back into cross stitch over Christmas so the next cross stitching I do will be this.

New UFOs:
Crochet hat - I was going to make my friends some hats, and I found a pattern, but somehow I gave up halfway through so I will probably just unravel it and use the wool for something else.
Bag - I was going to make a laptop bag for work but then I got a backpack for it instead so not sure what I'm going to do about this. 25% complete.

Next up is a dress that my mum got me from Clothkits which I need to make up before my daughter gets too big for it!

Yarn substitution

When I do crochet, I get quite a few free patterns from various sites online, however these are often sponsored by particular brands or suppliers and I can’t always source the same yarn especially if it’s a North American site rather than a European one.
I generally get around this by looking up the specified yarn on the manufacturer’s website, getting the length of yarn per ball and finding a similar yarn that my local shop stocks that I like. This is generally ok but can be a bit of a hassle. However today I discovered that somebody clever has made a site that does the substitute for you!
Yarnsub is the site - I’m not sure if they have all manufacturers covered but at least it will give you a good place to start. Hope this is helpful!

Where are all my pins? UFOs and the pile of shame

I'm sure many crafters have a similar problem to this: you go to start a new project, but your pins/crochet hook/ embroidery hoop are still being used for a previous project that's not quite finished yet. This year, I'm trying to finish off some of my UFOs (unfinished objects). So far I've completed three new projects and not finished any old ones! So here's a list of my current UFOs and how long it's been since I started them. At the end of the year I'll do a review post to see how many I managed. Crochet shawl - started Nov 2018 My friend was making shawls to give to a women's shelter near her, and I offered to help. However life got in the way and somehow this got abandoned. Hopefully I can finish it off before next winter. 40% complete.

Dress - started May 2016 After I finished my vampire cosplay, I was all enthusiastic about sewing and I found a pattern for a summer dress that I could do as part of a sew-along blog. I was most of the way along (though the instructions were a bit frustrating) and then I found out I was pregnant so it seemed kind of pointless trying to make a dress that might never actually fit me. I packed away my sewing machine into a cupboard as we needed that room for the nursery. However I'm now more or less the size I used to be, so I'm going to try to finish this off and adjust the size a bit if I need to. 75% complete

Quilted Square - started Feb 2014 I intended to make this for a friend's baby when it was born. The child is now five. I have the quilting all done, I even made a label but somehow I didn't manage to finish hand stitching the binding around the edges. 90% complete

Fabric baby book - started 2007 I got a kit to make a baby book with embroidery when my niece was born. She's eleven now and I still haven't done it! I would have made it for my daughter if I had remembered where it was. 5% complete

Camp blanket - started 2000 ish You could argue that a camp blanket is never finished as you keep collecting badges throughout your life. This is true, but I have quite a lot of badges to sew on in a bag somewhere. Priority low as I don't go camping any more! Kingfisher cross stitch - started 2003 This was a Christmas present from my sister as my name when I helped with Brownies was Kingfisher. The main part of the picture is done, but I have quite a lot of awkward stitches on their own to finish the picture. This has been packed away in a cupboard for about eight years. 60% complete.

Last but not least - the mending pile There are several things gathering dust on my mending pile. I should really get around to fixing them - if I could remember where I tidied it away to. I'm not going to bother listing the projects that I bought things for and never actually started. That would be too long of a list...

Dusting off the blog! Past crafts:crochet

I have been crafting recently, I just stopped blogging about it. Here’s some things that I’ve made with my crochet hook in the intervening time.
Amigurumi - I made a few little animals as presents for my nephew when he was born:

The patterns for these came from “Let’s Get Crafting” magazine who helpfully put all their patterns online too, so here’s the links if you want to try. The wool is double knit weight.
dolphin pig crocodile
and here’s a little red dragon that I made for myself by adapting the crocodile pattern.

Blankets - I’ve made a few blankets for my friends and their babies, the first one I made was a stripy red one for my friend’s twins.

Here’s a granny square blanket that I made for us to curl up with on the sofa:

This one is one that I started not knowing who it was for and then I finished it when I got pregnant. I actually made two to the same pattern but somehow they ended up slightly different sizes. My tension isn’t always consistent so I like blankets because it doesn’t matter if they end up slightly the wrong size! It look like its lots of different colours, but it’s actually only two, the green sparkly wool and the rest is multicoloured random-dyed wool. The pattern for this came from “Let’s Get Crafting” as well so here’s the link Filet Crochet Blanket

Here she is when she was tiny under the blanket. She uses it for her dolls pram these days.

Baby clothes - I got a book of crochet baby patterns, so I made a couple of things from it, but the sizing seemed to end up a bit too big (could be my tension again) so I didn’t make too many after that.
Jumper - this one is for my cousin’s baby, it’s made with random dyed wool so that it can be stripy without having lots of ends to sew in! I made the 3-6 months size but it fitted him till he was a year old. The pattern is quite clever so there is only a small amount of sewing up, the centre back plus a small bit around the arms.

Coat - I made this for my daughter but it turned out that the sleeves were too long once she grew into the rest of it, and since it’s made of chunky wool it’s difficult to turn up the sleeves, so she hasn’t worn it all that much.

Dress - this was for my friend’s little girl for her first birthday. The zigzag stripes took ages with all the increases and decreases but it looks good in the end.

Other things - There’s a few other bits and bobs that I’ve made in the past few years.
Tiger gloves - I made some tiger stripy gloves out of chunky wool for my D&D character. I got the pattern from The Crochet Crowd, who do lots of free patterns and video tutorials, though they are based in Canada so the wool they use is not always available here.

Hungry Caterpillar - I made this as a toy for Grace before she was born. It was supposed to be about two feet long but ended up a lot bigger, I think I used wool that was heavier than the pattern intended. The original pattern is from a blog that doesn't seem to be active any more. If anyone wants the version I used, I have it written down somewhere so just drop me a comment.
Well I think that’s enough for now to cover the past six year of crocheting.

Marzipan learns crochet

I have a friend who teaches children to crochet in schools, and one day I was at her house chatting about wool whith her and another friend (as you do) when I said I wanted to learn crochet. She gave us a quick lesson, but I didn't quite get the hang of it, and then she went away for summer holidays...

A few weeks later she came around to my house & taught me how to make chain (it's like finger knitting but with a hook) and slipstitches (to tie the bits of chain together). I made a ring, and a flower:

Ring and flower made of chain & slipstitches

Then I got a bit carried away, and I tried to make a lacy mat-type thing with different colours of wool that I had:

Based on a flower, with chains around the edge

Except it looks a bit more like a hat than a mat.

I got quite into making chain while I was on the bus to work but I got a bit carried away:

This chain is longer than I am when it's stretched out.

 Then I was in the crafty-shop one lunchtime, and I found some pretty wool to save me having to change colour all the time, and made a flower with it.

Pretty firework wool!

The trouble with that wool is that it's hard to see the stitches because it's so dark.

I got a bit bored of making chain after a while, but yesterday my friend taught me to make proper crochet (double crochet) in rows so now I have something else to do on the bus:

A very tiny scarf?

It's only about an inch wide as it's about eight stitches in a row. Any ideas for what to make with it? Or should I just try to make something more sensible & call this a practice piece?