4KCBWDAY7 - A year from now.

Day Seven (Sunday April 28th): Looking Forward
One year from now, when the 5th Knitting & Crochet Blog Week rolls around, where do you hope your crafting will have taken you to? What new skills, projects and experiences do you hope you might have conquered or tried?

This could be anything from mastering a technique (broomstick lace, entrelac, etc), trying a new yarn or skill, or a long term wish to crochet only from your stash, or knit every stitch in one of the Harmony Guides. Maybe you have no desire or plans for your craft at all, no new element of knitting or crochet that you dream of mastering, in which case write about why that might be. In a year's time participants will be asked to look back to see if they achieved any goals, no matter how general, and see which house conquered the art of looking forward.

In a years time I hope to have opened my own Yarn store here in sunny Dundee. Its my current dream and i am slowly getting my butt in gear and getting it all moving. Scary stuff though. The idea of working for myself and only really having to answer to myself just sounds like bliss to me. None of the normal work place nonsense of back stabbing, people not pulling their weight, the only person i can get stressed out at if things dont work is me! 

However a slightly smaller goal is to have tackled some of my stash, finish my cardigan and crochet a giant granny square blanket! Oh and to get back into drop spindling! 

In the mean time I feel you should all go and like fluph's facebook page! Spread the yarny love folks

p.s a link would help, Click on the logo

4KCBWDAY4 - COLOUR!

Day Four (Thursday April 25th): Colour Review
What are your favourite colours for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colours you seem to favour when yarn shopping and crafting.

Only after writing this part of your post should you then actually look to see what colours you have used in your projects. Make a quick tally of what colours you have used in your projects over the past year and compare it to the colours you have written about. Compare this, in turn, to the colours that are most dominant in your yarn stash – do they correlate?

Now think back to your house animal - do the colours you have chosen relate to your animal in anyway - if you are in the house of peacock, for example, are your projects often multicoloured and bright?


I dont tend to stick to one colour when buying yarn. I tend to just go for something that catches my eye, or gives me the wantsys. My taste in colour lasts about as long as my attention span (approx 5 mins!) When i first became a knitter approx 6 years ago and discovered the wondrous world of yarn i just bought everything and anything that jamp up and said BUY ME! which has managed to leave me with a drawer *coughortwocough* filled with very beautiful yarn, but yarn that i cant seem to fit to a project, i mean as much as a beautiful multicoloured mohair is wonderful to take out and look at. I just cant imagine me wearing anything that's made from it. My current colour crushes are anything combined with grey (i know that's the combinations that are doing the rounds just now but i do love it). Neons, i'm about 6 months out of date with this but for some reason i just want to add Neon pink to everything. Also orange, I cant explain this one! 

However looking through my past year of knits, two things emerged, one i hardly knit/make anything for myself (and i'm ok with that, i adore making things for others) and two I tend to use alot of solids, even though my stash is packed with multi coloured and variegated yarns. 

I suppose the projects that i have done for myself kind of match my current colour interest.

Does my colour match my house animal? I'd say so, i'm someone who is so easily distracted and is drawn to things all things shiny shiny!

4KCBWDAY3 - Infographics

Day Three (Wednesday April 24th): Infographic
There are many ways of conveying information on a blog; text and images being the two most widely used. Many infographics combine both these elements to provide a visual way of presenting text information.

Carrying on with the theme that I am far too quickly distracted, and nice shiny new projects catch my attention far too easily, I give you my Info graphic. 

I wish i could hire little pixies to knit for me, or like have magic powers like Mrs Weasley and make the knitting knit itself.

4KCBWDAY2 - Mascot

Day Two (Tuesday April 23rd): A Mascot Project.
Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that house/animal. It could be a knitting or crochet pattern – either of the animal itself or something that makes you think of the qualities of that house. Alternatively it could be a type or colour of yarn, or a single button. Whatever you choose, decide upon a project and blog about how and why it relates to your house/creature. You do not have to make this project!


When i first pondered this question the only thing that jamp into my mind was Hannah Haworth's bees that she knit to raise awareness of our dwindling bee populations. 

image source and you can get the pattern here

However there have been a few projects that have been making my fingers a little itchy! 

The first is led by this BEAUTIFUL yarn! It is a cobweb lace hand dyed by Old Maiden Aunt. OMG its delicious, but i have never ever ever knit with anything so tiny teeny thin. I really want to knit a HUGE circular shawl with stunning intricate lace patterns, however nothing has jamp out at me yet. Maybe one for the back burner. 


I JUST WANT TO MAKE ALL THE THINGS!!!!!!!

New stitches are catching my attention at the moment. Let me show you a few. 

Honeycomb crochet

Herringbone.

 
   Slightly obsessed with Herringbone i feel.

Double seed stitch

crocodile stitch

However there is something tickling my Textile side with this jumper that has hand spun yarn at the top. However I believe my Praline needs to be completed first.

A herringbone cowl is just calling out to my itchy fingers! with a tiny bee added in!! 

4KCBWDAY1 - The House cup

So this is me dipping my toes back into the world of blogging. I've been hiding away doing my normal impression of a hermit crab. I started the knitting and crochet blog week last year but wimped out due to the mental workload of my BA. So lets try this again.

KCBWDAY1 The House Cup.

A bit like Harry Potter, but not quite, this year’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is split into 4 houses. Don your favourite knitted or crocheted hat and let it guide you to which house you will be in.

The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest.

Yup, that pretty much sums me up, with my crafting and in my everyday life. Knowing that my attention span is pretty short, i try to counteract this by working on small projects along side one big project. So currently I am working on a Praline cardigan,

 however during the time that i have been knitting this I have also made a really wild tea cosie,

 a crochet cushion cover,

Done a little embroidery for a friend,

 chair socks,

plush quaggans, 

I'm nearly finished an out of darkness shawl, 

I have been spraying every possible thing that i hate the colour of, etching my jars for my baking supplies, 

sewing boat curtains, 

and I'm sure that's not all of it. I just cant settle on one thing. My biggest nightmare is Pinterest! My yarny inspiration board is chock full and lets not get started on the sewing board, quilting board and general making board. 

I use my craft as a form of therapy, i need my hands to be busy, and i need something to focus my mind on, or it goes into deep dark places. My best friend started calling me magpie when we were at uni, so i suppose there is plenty of truth in that nickname. I'm far too easily swayed by an intriguing new project, pretty yarn, or a chance to make something for someone else! 

No words

Three hours of Zen

This year for the anual gifting period, along with making some jewellery at Vanilla Ink, Mark and I spent an afternoon painting ceramics at the Ferry Potty. This was the best three hours I had spent in along time, It completely zoned me out, go visit! The basic premise is you go in, pick the blank ceramic off the shelf and then paint it. It is then fired for you ,so it gets the shiny glaze, and then you pick it up a week later. I really struggled to give these away. Especially the snowman.