WIP Wednesday – Possum shawl

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I have mentioned in my yearly goals that I would like to design more this year, and I’ve really been enjoying designing amigurumi so far. I have had an idea for a knitted shawl in my head since last week though, and so I’ve started on it using some super soft possum/merino/silk yarn I bought while in New-Zealand. The yarn is Zealana Kauri and it’s just amazing. I’ve been using my new interchangeable needles from Knitpro too, and I have to say that they are great, the transition from cable to needle is just so smooth. Anyway, the shawl is in three colours and I am doing a simple lace pattern with the green/mustardy colour.

I really love the overall effect, I’m hoping to have this finished by next week and I’m hoping that the blocking really makes the lace stand out 🙂 I think it’s pretty good for my first ‘freestyle’ knitting project.

Have you ever designed a project on a whim? I’d love to know!

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Hand Quilt Along – 17/12/17

Hello readers!

It is time again for another hand quilt along update! I’ve tried to add small triangles to fill on of the edges of my EPP this time, and I think it worked great 🙂 Can you see it at the bottom of the second picture? You might also notice that I’ve introduced some new fabrics, the ones from my hoop embroidery project.

This time

Last time

We have some new participants this month, Nanette Sassy and Edith, welcome! Next update in 3 weeks on the 7th of Jan!

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Here are the others participating in this HQAL, please go check their posts!

Kathy, Bella, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah,  Susan , Jessisca Sherry, Nanette, Sassy and Edith

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WIP Wednesday – Mandala Madness CAL

Happy Wednesday! 

Yes, you read the title right! I’ve taken back my mandala madness! I am starting step 4 (I have done 2 row in red already) and I’m hoping to grow it more in the next few months. 

I’m using scraps for this, so the colours are a bit random but I really like it so far. I have lots of blues and greys left over so it will likely grow in those colours in the next few rounds 🙂 I’m really looking forward to blocking this at the end, as I think it will really bring all the details out. 

See you all on Friday for the giveaway winner announcement! 

January SAL with Helene

Hi guys,

I am now allowed to reveal the first 3 steps of the January SAL from Helene. This whole year, Helene will base her patterns on stained glass windows. I am planning on mounting each design on different fabric and try to make a quilt at the end of the year, so this will be a very big work in progress over the year.

Now, without further ado, here are my first 3 steps, nicely put together by Helene 🙂

1 down, 1 to go!

Happy Monday! I have made some good progress with my Drops Design booties over the weekend. I have to admit I have been a little distracted considering the variable weather. One minute I really feel like knitting because it’s chilly and the next I’m sweating under my yarn like there is no tomorrow. But finishing those is one of my monthly goal so I need to get motivated!

Boot n1 is finished (not quite actually, still need to add some nice big buttons on the side), and I’m currently knitting the cuff of boot n2.

I have also made some progress on the Avatar afghan. I have actually found a better way of joining my yarn so that I don’t have thousands of ends to sew in and I’m very excited about it! When the last square of the colour is coming up, I don’t quite finish it and instead I tie a tight knot with the new colour I want. Then I make sure that the square is finished with the right colour and that the knot is at the intersection between both colours. And that’s it! no annoying ends! (put your curser on top of the pics to see captions)

square almost finish

I only leave one of the hoops on the hook and put both yarns next to each other

I tie a knot, it need to be very tight to make sure it doesn’t unravel

You can cut the left over

continue your square as normal

and here it is! no ends to sew in!

For this pattern, my base is a C2C throw (free pattern available here) and I designed the pattern using Avatar: the last airbender as an inspiration 🙂

I’m so glad I found this little hack to simplify my life. Do you guys have some craft hacks you would like to share? I’d love to hear about them!

 

X

Emma

December is here!

Hello beautiful people!

I can’t believe it is already December, where did time go?

I have a few WIPs to show you today and because this is a new month it is also time to review my goals list!

• Craft Christmas presents and cute decorations for our first Christmas in our house. So far, I have made 1 tree ornament and designed a snowflake pattern that you can use as christmas coasters or just hang in the tree. I’ve also almost finished all my presents for my family, and they will be posted by the end of the week with customised cards.

Future bookmark for mum

Those stamps are just too cute!

• Continue the Poké-alphabet updates on Friday. I have been falling behind a little bit with this one but I’m sure I can catch up once Christmas is over

• Post #WIPWednesdays on Wednesdays. Definitely been happening!

PERSONAL

• Book hotels for Europe next year. Still not done, I should really take care of that this month

• Send invites and get a DJ for the wedding. The invites are ready to be sent by the end of the month, I’m still chasing up a few addresses. No idea for the DJ though, even if we have been thinking about songs 🙂

• Find another class I like at my gym. Found it! I now go to BodyBalance, it’s a mix of yoga, pilates and tai chi, pretty cool.

• Run 1k under 6 min. Didn’t happen this month but I have made progresses, I’ve reduced my time to almost under 7 (7:08 to be exact, I started at 7:48).

WORK

• Finish writing my second paper for my PhD. Still waiting on some experiments, but I’ve been working on some figures and they look pretty good so far.

• Keep my LinkedIn and ResearchGate profiles up to date. Still going good for this month!

So you’ve seen one of my WIPs (the cross stitch Little Prince). My second one is a crochet diorama. Not sure I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m a marine biologist, so I’m making an underwater scenery.

I found the lobster pattern here, but the lobster only had 8 legs in the pattern (6 legs plus claws) and I couldn’t deal with it (lobsters are decapods, which means they have 10 legs). So I just added 2 more legs to it! All the rest was done ‘freestyle’. I’ve been trying to experiment more without pattern lately and it’s been a good experience.

I’m hoping to add a few jellyfish and maybe some sea stars.

Christmas is almost there! yay!

Hope you all have a lovely month of December 😉

X

Emma

The Phoenix project…

… Is not actually about a pheonix!

Two years ago, I bought a pattern book from lincraft to make summer clothes. I started on a very cute knitted top made with “bamboozle” yarn (part cotton, part bamboo fibre). The problem is I got bored and put the project aside.

When I found it at the bottom of my stash, I though I’d give it another try but I ran out of yarn. And of course, it has since been discontinued so I couldn’t finish the top.

Anyways, I unraveled the whole thing. I had quite a lot done so I was a bit disappointed but I really couldn’t finish it, I would only have had the front of it! 

But the yarn is not waisted, I am using it for another project from the same book (but much smaller so I should have enough yarn). 

Can you guys guess what it’s going to be?

Also, I’ve finished my umbreon plush and I’ve made another bookmark that I will be sending to my dad for Christmas 🙂

I hope he loves it!

Stay awesome people! And may the force be with you! 😋

X

Emma

Poké-alphabet week 4

I have caught up with the colours in my cross stitch 🙂

So here we have Charmander and Dratini in colour. 

All of the finished pokémon so far

I also needed stitch markers so I made some out of polymer clay, and I converted my little polymer fruits to stitch markers as well.

New pikachu stitch marker

Heart stitch marker

Little heart in action!

Waiting patiently their turn to be involved in my projects 🙂

Have a great weekend guys!

X

Emma

WIP Wednesday – no more brown!

With Monday being public holiday, today sure doesn’t feel like the middle of the week. Yesterday I failed to go to my hip hop gym class because I really hurt my foot and just wearing my sneakers was super painful 😦 So instead I am thinking of going to yoga, at least I don’t need shoes for that!

Also I’ve done some progress on my deer half cross stitch, I have officially finished the dark brown!

I have also done more of the water (easier to see that the brown).

The canvas got a bit out of shape from staying in a drawer, but hopefully I can fix it when I’ve finished stitching.

What amazing projects have you guys been up to this week?

X

Emma

When Monday doesn’t feel like a Monday

Hello crafters!

Today was Labour Day in the country of Oz, so we got an extra day to relax! I haven’t done much more of my programming course, but I’m already well into week 2 so that’s ok! We had to code for a house with a fence and make the lines for the roof and fence thicker than for the house.

I added some flowers and tried to make the house in 3D.

I also had to work with patterns so I made this design, changing the colours of the squares in the background and creating overlapping circles.

Also I decided to finish one of my forgotten half-cross stitch WIPs. I really like the design but I just got demotivated because I can’t really see the progress on it (probably due to the painted background). I think it must have been sitting in a drawer for 3-4 years, so I’d like to finish it by the end of the year, will see how I go! 🙂

I also got this little dude done over the weekend! I really love mudkip, it might actually be my fave starter!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

X

Emma