Loom Knitting

A little while ago I talked about knitting a Miami Dolphins hat and couldnt decide whether to loom knit or needle knit it. Well i decided to have a go at loom knitting it and it went horribly wrong!!

 I can loom knit and have made socks on looms before but trying to do my Miami Dolphins hat was a no no. I think i need to either use chunky wool (i did use two strands of double knit) or add in the additional pegs, anyway I gave up and started knitting it on needles.

Sold another Minion hat today - very happy :) I went to the craft shop after work to get another pair of 5.5mm needles as I struggle with just one pair, which now means i have one pair for knitting not so important things leaving a pair free for hat orders.

Off to do some knitting now

C x

Weekend in London

Visited my mum in London this weekend and had a great time spending the day together. Left my house at 6:10am and arrived home at 9:40pm so it was a very long day with more shopping, drinking tea and chatting than travelling so that was good, only take 2 hr 15mins to get to my mums house so its pretty quick really when compared to a 3hr 30 mins drive.

Anyway we were shopping and I saw a fabric shop!

Only a smallish one but peering through the window I could see rolls and rolls of fleece all in different prints and cotton poplin all in some really nice prints my usual fabric shop doesn't sell. The prices I thought were fairly reasonable with it being in 'London' but I didn't get any :(

Me and my mum were so engrossed in our shopping trip and all the goodies we'd bought ourselves that we forgot to go back to the shop - knowing me we didn't want to go there first and have to carry round metres upon metres of fleece and cotton!

But fear not as I'm visiting my mum again soon so I shall be popping there again and hopefully this time coming away with some lovely fleece (to make my dog and cats all a bed mainly)

Anyway, I have completed another Minion Hat today so I am off to the Post Office to post it before I collect my son from school, then it's home for more knitting as I have a Shark Hat to complete still.

 C x

Miami Dolphins!

The NFL Weekend in London is fast approaching and I want to wear my team hat at the games (Dolphins aren't playing but they are my NFL team so I'm going to wear my hat) Plus its at the end of October so it's going to be a bit chilly watching NFL for 3 hours at Wembley without one. Had absolutely no luck with finding the right shades of wool without shopping online and paying postage and waiting for it to arrive which I hate doing (the paying for p&p not so much the waiting, although this is horrible too) Anyway I rummaged through my wool box/collection/hoard whatever you want to call it and found these shades of orange and blue.

These balls of wool are what I purchased from my recent trip to Knit Moor in Combe Martin, never able to find these shades in my local wool shop.

Now... Shall I knit it on a loom or needles?? I find sometimes loom knitting can be slower than needles and you get a looser knit, so knitting it on needles will probably be the answer.

Colour wise I'm thinking the small top ball of orange and the right side ball of blue. I feel these are the closest I have, but what I'll probably do is ... As on loom knitting its best to use two strands of wool, I'll use the two top oranges and both blues and knit them together, much like I do when I knit hats really. This should give it a nice finish and I'll probably add ear flaps too!

Go Dolphins!! Actually seeing the Lions vs the Falcons...

C x

I'm in Love Sewing Magazine

Wow, I'm so surprised!!

I was reading through the latest Love Sewing Magazine Issue 07 and I always like to have a look at the Readers' Makes feature as it's always nice to see what other sewers have made from the last issue.

And look what I see...

It's always nice to see your creations featured in a magazine and I took great pride in showing all of my family, friends and work colleagues :)

C x

Shark Hatz!

Shark!! Sold a shark hat recently to a lovely young girl who is doing a charity swim with some sharks at the Blue Planet Aquarium.

"A huge thankyou to Hatz 4 Headz for Josie's amazing shark hat.Josie is Teen Crown & Glory Charity UK / Miss Teen Flintshire Josie Millward and taking on the Sharks at The Blue Planet aquarium for a charity Challenge,.. Hatz 4 Headz Very kindly donated the fee for the hat to our charity total, THANK YOU "

My hat was also pictured in the local paper, which is something special I think :)

heart emoticon"scscsscsc
C x

Brother FS-40 Review - sort of.

Another hat was completed and posted off yesterday :) I have another three on order and two dolls on order. Using every moment I can to get in some knitting! (As well as working, school run, homework, beavers, cubs, housework and general mum and housewife things)

I don't tend to do reviews but my new sewing machine Brother FS-40 is going very well. Anyone looking for a machine this one is great. I'd say its perfect for beginners as it gives you all the bits you are going to need when you're more experienced and its not confusing enough when you're learning. For me its perfect as i sew quite a lot so i needed a machine that can handle thicker fabrics and constant use and had that extra special feel about it.

Brother FS-40 Sewing Machine

I have yet to test out all the stitches that it comes programmed with but they look amazing. I have only tested the leaf pattern and that came out really well and looked really sweet on some dolls clothes i made. I usually stick to the standard stitches. The start stop button is definitely a feature i would say is worth its weight in gold, the freedom of not having a foot pedal is really nice as it makes the machine more portable, sometimes I leave the machine set up but when i do pack it away its very easily done. Bobbin is easy to wind and its drop in. Cant fault this machine. I bought it at Argos for £206 which is about right for this machine comparing it to other retailers.

C x

Taking Over The Kitchen Table

I have currently taken hostage of the kitchen table or rather my sewing machine and various fabrics have! I was on a huge sewing mission last week and managed to get lots of sewing done and to do that I need to have everything set up and spread out on the table ready for me to pick up and put down as and when time allows. My working hours have changed so this now enables to me to do a little bit of sewing in the morning before work.

I haven't done any sewing since Sunday as I've been swamped with hat orders which is great news, one hat is being posted tomorrow then I have 4 more to complete. My son has also ordered requested a new winter hat - he doesn't like wearing his purple minion hat to school as he doesn't like the attention it brings, so ill make him a general stripy hat i think.

I'm off to London at the end of October to watch the NFL so I'm going to make my team hat the Miami Dolphins! Just need to get hold of some bright orange and bright turquoise wool, my local hobby craft, as usual, had the same range of colours so no luck there, but I'm visiting my mum in London on Saturday so I may return home with a new supply of wool

C x

To Sew or Not To Sew That is my Problem!!

I spend all day at work counting down the minutes till I can get home and carry on with my latest project and when I get in from work I have my lunch (at 2:30) then I go on the school run then when I get in theres various things that need doing like, washing up, prepping dinner, helping my son with his homework and currently practising the 3 times table. Dinner gets cooked, eaten and cleaned away and then alas its time for me to sew! But what shall I sew! If I don't have a half finished project to pick up and carry on with I find myself looking at all my fabric looking through my patterns or old issues of sewing magazines with my machine on the table in front of me, wondering what to sew??? I do this for X amount of time until I realise its far to late to start sewing now and then I resign to watching a bit of rubbish on telly!

Tonight at 20:23 its going to be different!

C x