In love with fabrics

To be honest I'm not only in love with yarn (that's why I have an enormous stash which I'm trying to downsize since 2014), I'm as well in love with fabrics. So today when I was passing a small clothes alterations studio I noticed a small basket there with a note "Fabtic remnants, £1 a bundle" I couldn't resist myself to dig in. And I found two lovely bundles that I just had to take home with me.

 

Why would I need them? Well, I had a few things in mind for quite a while but didn't have the right fabrics.

The Christmas tree decorations are from a Tesco free magazine and the bunnies are from a sewing magazine I bought a while ago. Plus there are the little owls which I absolutely Love. And they are a free pattern. Take a look: http://moonstitches.typepad.com/photos/tutowlrial/zakkaowls.html

So happy seeing to me. Now I only need to find a bit of time for it.

Socks and coffee

I had such an awesome time from the beginning of November getting ready for a craft fair, taking orders for Christmas and crocheting every spare minute I had. At times it felt like crochet hook is a natural part of my hand. All of the little creatures I made in this month and a half deserve a special post and there will be one, but today I have a well deserved right to rest, because yesterday I gave away my last Christmas order for this year. So today will be a lazy day with coffee and sock knitting.

Time and mandalas

I think I'm getting used to say "This week was so busy/crazy/awful", I'm getting used to tell people how tired I am and what crazy things my kids do to drive me insane and turn the house into a complete mess. I'm used to those things so much, that they make my every week look and feel the same and in the end of the week I tend to forget that it was not only busy and awful, but actually it was filled with lots of different things, often - lovely and positive ones. This week was for instance filled with watching "Call the midwife", knitting red socks for my granddad, planning a trip to Latvia, thinking of participating in a craft fair and crocheting bunnies as a result, enjoying colouring books with Michael, who is three and his favourite question at the moment is "What is this?", making paper swans and teaching one year old Mathew how to dance. Not bad, I'd say :)

And this evening, when little people go to bed will be all about mandalas. The case is I made a mandala quite a while ago, before Yarndale 2014 with a plan to send it to Lucy (Attic 24 blog owner). I was imagining it being displayed with lots of other mandalas at Yarndale, but then I discovered that my design was too big for the specific sizes they wanted, so my mandala never got anywhere except my own living room. 

But when I made it it seemed that people like it and wanted a pattern. So now finally it's time to write it down and share with happy hooking community. I already made a chart using my original mandala and a tiny tester I made this week, now it only needs a written pattern for those who can't read charts. Looking forward to it:)

Lost and found

I'm here today to tell you a story. A story about a girl who was lost for quite a while and suddenly found herself again in a box of gouache paint one night. A girl who was doing lots of things she used to like, but could not find any inspiration and joy in them anymore, so all the things she made turned into just a mechanical process for her. She was struggling to find a purpose and happiness in her life and after some time she gave up in trying to identify them and decided to live her life without any. But that was like living in the dark, only the darkness is inside, not around you. You can't live your life in the dark, pretending that you are ok, because you are not. It would be a sad sad story if something wouldn't have happened. And that something was a TV show about artists. May be you think that it is stupid to be influenced by telly, but sometimes answers come from any most unexpected sources and we just need to accept them and let them change us. So that show surprisingly influenced her, and she went and bought a set of gouache colours and a few brushes without even clearly understanding why. She used to paint before, when she was a kid, but it seemed like something from the previous life and she never was really good at painting. All that thoughts made her slow herself down and leave the gouache untouched for a few days until yesterday when feeling lonely and unhappy she finally opened it and made a drawing, letting the brushes fly as they wanted and the colours mix as her soul felt they should. She switched the brain off she told her rational part to shut up and made another drawing. And felt better. The next morning she woke up, looked at her drawings and felt something growing inside. And that something was inspiration - a new light meaning that the time of living in the darkness is over. 

That girl is me.

And here is what I have been drawing.

Cars

Sometimes I think that it would be nice to have daughters, lovely little girls with their dolls who would definitely need lots of crocheted and knitted dresses, booties and other stuff, plus I could make endless teddies and bunnies, because girls just like teddies and bunnies. But I have two little boys and they don't need any doll clothes or teddies and bunnies. My house is full of cars, trains, helicopters and railroads. Probably that's why I decided to try to crochet a car for my youngest one. He is starting to crawl and when I see him near wooden or metal toys, or anything with sharp corners, I don't feel that this toys are safe enough, I want to protect him at least by giving him toys that are totally safe to play with. 

I wouldn't say that I am totally satisfied with the result. Probably cars are just not something for me, I'm much better at making bunnies and teddies... Anyway at least it's safe and can be chewed too, as it's made of cotton. Hopefully the little one will like it, especially if I hide all the plastic and wooden cars :)

Walking and looking for inspiration

You never know which simple things can make you super happy until you get them. That was exactly the feeling I had today after I bought a double buggy. Oh yes, I needed a double buggy as 6 month ago our family grew bigger. Now Little Man is not so little, at least not the smallest one in the house :) So, as I was saying, I bought a double buggy and had a long forgotten feeling of freedom when I was finally able to go for quite a long walk with my two little people. I know it might sound stupid - a baby, a toddler, you and freedom just don't come together, but in fact it was the feeling that I control the situation, that gave me some sort of freedom, freedom of choosing the length of walk, the direction, the speed. And for the first time in this long months a walk out with little ones was pleasant, not stressful. Now I honestly have no idea how could I survive without that double buggy :) Here are a bit of pics of our walk. Just wanted to share that lovely feelings of mine with you all.

We went to the Mere which is like 5 min from our home. Well, may be 10. Anyway it's really close and it's the only place like this near our house. This year there are surprisingly lots of swans. It's like three times more than what you see on the pic. So we had some fun feeding them. little Man even managed to touch one of them ( probably he wanted to give swan a cuddle).

That's how the Mere looks. Now it's a bit neglected with trees uncut and that green stuff in the water, but it's still beautiful.

A bit of autumn already.

I treated myself with some berries found along the way. 

In the end, when the smallest person was asleep me and Little Man had something like lunch in the open caffee. Well, he had some chips and I had some tea with my berries and we both felt really related and happy. Such a nice feeling. Hope there will be lots and lots of walks like this in the future with some nature inspiration, photos and relaxation.

30 Days Of Christmas. Day 2: Knitted baubles

I know I  was going to sew today. But it looks like I'm not in the mood for sewing, all I can think about is knitted baubles. Yes, exactly! Especially after a lot of inspiration found online this morning.

It all started with this picture found on Flickr:

After meditating on that picture for a couple of minutes I went to Google and started searching for some more info hoping actually to find any free patterns. And I found them! Here is a little list of what I found:

1. Three free designs by Marry Ann Stephens (all three in one PDF file):
http://twostrands.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/christmas-balls.pdf













2. One more bauble by Marry Ann
http://twostrands.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/two-strands-christmas-ball.pdf

3. Some really easy baubles by I Like Lemons:

4. Two patterns by Lion Brand:

 http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0286AD.html
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0226AD.html

5. Chevron baubles with pattern and tutorial by Bunny Bosworth

Plus there is a great book by Arne and Carlos "55 Christmas Balls to Knit: Colourful Festive Ornaments" and lots of inspirational pictures online.

I'm going to grab a set of double pointed needles and some yarn bits from my oddments basket and try. Looks like the ones from I Like Lemons are the easiest version. But I really like the chevron ones too...

30 days of Christmas. Day 1: little crocheted heart

So, today I started a little project. Or is it better to call it a journey? A journey through one of the most unpleasant months of the year to a beautiful Christmas tree... I like how it sounds.

First of all I found a box at home. It even looked like a Christmas box which is ideal. Hopefully in 30 days this box will be full and I will be really proud of myself. Then I searched for some patterns and inspiration. I decided that I won't be supertraditional and really anything as long as I like it and it has appropriate size can be a Christmas decoration. It can be bunnies or any other animals, snowmen, little houses, hearts, apples, angels or any other dolls, balls, trees and so far. The best places to search for inspiration are Pinterest (look at my "Christmas decoration ideas" board there), Google images, any craft magazines like Mollie Makes... There are lots of great ideas in the Internet using all kinds of materials and any skill levels, the most important part here is the creativity.

Now shall we start with the first Christmas tree ornament I made. Today the weather was awful, cold windy and rainy and I could sit in my living room and hear that rain and wind outside. Probably that's why I wanted a bit of romance and choose a little crocheted heart by Taube Skywalker as a first project.
I had that "pattern" for a while and never had a moment to try it out. The way it's written may seem a bit confusing especially for beginners, bud don't worry - I will explain :)

Ok, that is how I did it (not totally followed the instructions, but who cares after all). First of all you need some DK yarn (about 200 m in 100g), a bit of stuffing and a 3mm crochet hook. When I made the solid colour heart I was crocheting in spiral, so no slipstitches in the end of each round were needed, but when I made the stripy heart I was working by rows and each row started with ch1 (I didn't count it as a first dc), dc into the same space, and ended with slipstitch.

We start with two heart "tops":
Round 1: Make a magic ring and make 5 dc into the ring
Round 2: 2 dc into each dc of the previous round = 10 dc
Round 3: 2 dc into every second dc of the previous round = 15 dc
Round 4-5: dc into each dc of the previous round = 15 dc
First top done! Cut the yarn leaving a tail and make the second top using the same instructions, just don't cut the yarn in the end. Now we'll need to join these tops together.
Round 6: dc into each dc of the previous round of the first top, then dc into each dc of the second top = 30 dc
Round 7: dc into each dc of the previous round = 30 dc
Round 8: *crochet 8 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 27 dc
Round 9: *crochet 7 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 24 dc
Round 10: *crochet 6 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 21 dc
Round 11: *crochet 5 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 18 dc
Round 12: *crochet 4 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 15 dc
Round 13: *crochet 3 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 12 dc (start stuffing your heart after this round)
Round 14: *crochet 2 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 9 dc
Round 15: *crochet 1 dc, crochet 2 dc together*, repeat from * to * 2 more times = 6 dc
Round 16: crochet every two dc of the previous round together = 3 dc (I found this round most annoying and difficult as it is not actually that easy to pull the hook through the last two dc).
Now cut the yarn leaving an end, hide that end using either your crochet hook or a tapestry needle and you're done!

Hopefully my explanation is ok :) In fact I enjoyed making that little hearts and I'm now thinking of making some more one day. But for tomorrow we need a new project and I'm thinking about birds perhaps... About something like this one:

 

And I should make normal daylight pictures of the hearts tomorrow.

My big Christmas adventure. Making handmade Christmas tree decorations.

Last year somewhere in December right before Christmas I actually understood that I really want to make all the Christmas tree decorations myself. Well to be honest I tried but made only four or five... And in the end they all disappeared from our Christmas tree as The Little Man loved them so much that he decided they should live with his toys, especially the crocheted little owls. So this year I had the same idea again, but I had it yesterday.
I know it's only the 2nd of November, but all that knitting, crochet, sewing takes time so I might need the whole month to make my little dream real. Plus I must confess - I hate November. I have no idea how can you really like this:

or this:

I know there is some kind of beauty in all of that and I was honestly trying to find it while me and My Little Man went for a walk today. It was cold, dark (at midday), and windy outside, but we still went as we both need some fresh air and a bit of physical activity. So we found some goose and a swan... But even they looked depressed.

 

Little Man was quite happy touching the mud, finding dirty stones and running away from me towards the cold dark water (see pic above), so it all was quite stressful and in that circumstances I wasn't able to find any beauty or romance in November really.

In fact the only two things that make November bearable for me are My Little Man's birthday and Christmas decorations that are starting to appear on the streets and in shops windows somewhere around this time.

So I had an idea - why not stretch all of that Christmas spirit for me? What if I would make at least one little Christmas tree decoration each day during all November and then put them all on our Christmas tree in the beginning of December? And it sounded just right!

So starting from today I will start posting the handmade Christmas tree decorations with the links to free pattern, or the pattern itself if it will be my own, and my own explanations and tips. I'm going to crochet, knit, sew them using all the stash I will be able to find in my stash - felt, cotton, beads, lace and ribbons, any kinds of yarn, may be even paper.
Anyone is welcome to join my Christmas adventure - just post the pictures of your handmade Christmas tree decorations in comments. If you have any links to great free patterns or tutorials it would be great if you could share them too!
And now I will leave you and use a bit of free time while Little Man is having a nap to make the first ornament. Will post the picture as soon as it's finished :)

Gooseberries

Well, Little Man is getting better and can play in the yard (still no contacts with other children until this weekend). So he has a lot of fun in his sandpit - sitting there with a big smile and covering himself with the sand. After that all this sand ends up on our living room carpet, but at least Little Man is happy and not screaming :)
Today he had some fun with his dad picking the gooseberries from our little gooseberry bush.

 You can notice that Little Man still has that chickenpox spot marks, but they are disappearing slowly.

We bought it last year and now it looks twice bigger than it was, and there were much more berries than last year, of course.

Sadly they are not sweet at all. May be it was not enough sun for them... So now I'm thinking that I should probably bake a pie with them.
Oh, we have a raspberry bush too! With one raspberry on it:

And I treated myself a little bit and made a little bag for my new phone.

Still not sure if I like it or not as I wanted something feminine and this one looks too girlish for me. Or may be it's not girlish and looks fine. Really can't decide.

Hope you are all doing great and having a lovely time!
xx

I miss nature...

Little Man has chickenpox. Apparently, what he had before was something else. Poor kid! He is all covered with red spots and the first three days were really awful for all of us as he could not sleep and was constantly crying. The picture above was taken a day before all that red spots showed up. But yesterday he already started eating (good sign!) and slept till 6am. Today he even went to a midday nap, so he is asleep now and I have some time for my blog.

Understood today, that I really miss the nature. Well, we do have a backyard with a couple of berry bushes, nut I mean something totally different. I mean forest, I mean empty beach where the only sounds is a sound of waves and your footsteps, I mean fields far away from big roads and cities... I newer was a huge fun of countryside, to be honest, I could not live there all the time, but sometimes, when I need to escape from everything this feels like the right place to go. Probably now I feel like that because I've been at home most of the time for the last three weeks and I really need to go somewhere to find my lost peace, inner harmony and inspiration.

So when I saw this book an Amazon today it really felt like MY book, something I need, something I would really like at this moment:

 

Have a look inside and you will understand why. All of that nature inspired stamps feel so real and calm, like the nature itself.

That is why, if I would need to make a wish list today, it would look like these:
1. Making an Impression: Designing & Creating Artful Stamps book
2. Lino Cutting Handle and cutting nibs
3. Super soft Lino Double Sided Block Sheets

The other thing that inspired me today was this crochet flowers from Mollie Makes:

 

 

(By the way, this issue with flowers was really good). I'm not going to make a garland, but have an idea of making something nice with this flowers as an embellishment.
While I was searching for the picture of this Mollie Makes issue cover I found a nice knitted heart shaped coasters tutorial there:



I really might need some of those as little gifts for my relatives in Latvia. At least it really looks like a quick and easy project.

Well, after talking about nature and looking at beautiful pictures at Mollie Makes I feel a bit better and can be ready for being a mum of a sick child again. (Yes, I needed this little break!) So I'll go make myself a cup of tea and wait till Little Man wakes up.

Hope Little Man gets well soon and we could go to the forest or Robin Hoods bay which I really like. 

Crazy chickenpox attack

I'm going through quite difficult times here. Both my boys - The Little Man and my husband, have chickenpox and I'm the only healthy person at home so I'm really busy right now. The Little Man needs mammy a lot, plus now he likes to scream at night until I get to him, hug him and sit with him on my knee until he gets back to sleep. During the day he is into screaming too, witch would be ok if I would not need to keep him quiet to give my husband a chance to sleep... For my husband things are much more serious - he is all covered with that chickenpox spots, could not sleep for a couple of nights as that spots were too itchy, could not work (obviously), and finally had to have some pills from the doctor. Now he is better, at least sleeping.
But I feel really tired. All of that making tea hundred times a day, treating them both as nicely as I can despite their bad mood, cooking (usually I don't cook anything except porridge at home), washing, cleaning the house... I could not do any knitting for a couple of days. I just was to tired for that in the evening.
I just wish it would all go back to normal soon.
And now I'm going to grab my Kindle and go to bed. Reading is the only hobby I still can do at the moment. Which reminds me that I need to knit (or crochet?) a case for my lovely little kindle friend when he travels with me and The little Man to Latvia this august. I really want it in bright colours so it could make me smile for no reason any time I see it :)
Like this:

(found here: http://grannymania.canalblog.com/albums/swap_automne/index.html)

 

Hope you all are really enjoying your weekend!
Stay safe, feel good and smile! And so will I :)

Coming back

I know I kept silence for quite a long time. That time was difficult for me. Probably that super long winter we had and that cold spring influenced my feelings, but it wasn't the main thing. I think more important was that I just felt lost. Not that I had no idea what to write about or I had no new projects. I was busy with something all the time. I just needed to understand what exactly do I want from my blog, how I want to see it. When I started I wanted to share all that little precious moments I had each day, but I ended up writing posts about what happened a week ago often forgetting to mention what was happening NOW. Now is more important for me and that is exactly what I want - may be just posting a picture with a short note "look what I'm doing right now" and that picture would say much more of what I really want to say.
So that's how it's going to be now.

At the moment I've got a couple of little free patterns to share and that will be the first goal in the next couple of weeks. After that I want to make a post about my new love - spinning. I started spinning recently with no one near me who could help, so I had to search the Internet and books. Yes, there is a lot of information for beginners, but not always it was enough. Like I really was confused about the different wool types you can use. When you are going to order some wool online for the first time all of that sheep breed names will probably mean nothing to you as they did to me. So I tried different types and now can share my experience and personal feelings about it. Hope it will be useful for someone.

And now I'm going to finish one little bunny I want to share with you next time. He needs some eyes and nose. Little Man already approved him even without a face, so I hope you'll like him too. :)

Have a great Sunday!

Just some squares

Yesturday I mentioned that I wasn't really in the mood during the last couple of days. It was not only about blogging, it was about everything including my craft work. So I stopped working on my current projects. They just didn't bring me the joy they used to... But I just can't sit on a sofa not doing anything, I need to be busy, otherwise I start to feel worried, annoyed, bored and so on and so far. That is why I grabbed some yarn leftowers for my charity crochet, found an easy pattern online and here I am - crocheting granny squares for two days allready.



The pattern is Bullseye Squares from Little Tin Bird. It is really easy and I like working on it.



This squares will be sent to the ladies in Russia who make charity blankets for orphanages. I mentioned them before in my blog and allready sent them a parcel with tiny knitted socks, crocheted hats and booties and a couple of bunnies.


Made 12 squares so far. Not shure if I will make the whole blanket or just send the squares, but that is how they look all together:



Not bad, yes?
Probably I would need about 80 squares to make the whole blanket, but this amount of work just scares me at the moment... So I will just continue crocheting the squares till i get complitely bored with them without thinking too much about the future.

How are you all doing? Hope your weekend is great :)
xx