One Week's Crafting

I had two days leave this week so managed to achieve more than a little crafty output. Still buzzed from the Festival of Quilts (reviews here and here) I washed all my fabric (to prevent surprise through later shrinkage) and got on with my nephew's stocking. I know it's early but I wanted to get on with it while I was in the zone.

I am pretty happy with it! I cut fabric strips and sewed them together, sewed them into a tube, cut the tube into strips and then resewed it together, then cut out the stocking shapes and lined them before assembling the whole thing. I can do a tutorial if anyone's interested!

I wanted to personalise it so here is a close up of the top.

It's a bit subtle (i.e. hard to see) but I think that works ok. It's not like it needs to be identified at a great distance.

I finished off the sashiko sample piece from the class I did:

And then very quickly got stuck into the one I had bought from EuroJapan Links.

Yep, finished that too. I *love* sashiko. I met up with Nickerjac to discuss SkipNorth (more of that later) this week and said to her that with knitting, unless it is something fiendish, I do it without needing to look at what I'm doing most of the time. Whereas with this, each stitch has to be carefully placed and you have to think about what you are doing.

Which means it is great for those theta brain waves that are such balm to the mind. I have added a page of sashiko resources to this blog (since I was gathering them for myself I thought I might as well share) and am feverishly keen to draw up another one to stitch.

Meanwhile I was reminded of something I had been meaning to try for a while - jewellery from magazine pages. I used this tutorial and got to it.

They're not exactly perfect, but not bad for a first try. It also gave me a chance to get handy with my mighty glue gun. Especially on the backs where I added findings.

I'm not sure yet whether to make a bracelet or a necklace. I'll wait for inspiration to strike.

My lack of sashiko to stitch meant I was able to make myself finally get on with my mater's cardigan (the one mentioned in my last podcast). I drew up the neck chart, taking into the decreases for the yoke, and have got on with it.

I think it's looking rather nice and I should be able to finish the main knitting and cut the steek before I next see her, in time for a fitting!

Then just to end the week on a high, the final parcel from my SecretPal arrived. She had been waiting for some specially ordered yarn to arrive - and it was definitely worth the wait! Here are the goods.

It is that beautiful yarn in the middle that was so worth the wait, although I also love the colours of the sock yarn too. The special one is a rare Kainuu Gray wool. A little research reveals that Kainuu is a region of Finland and also borders Russia. It is 95% forest which I guess it good sheep country as the yarn is lovely. Light but warm with a lovely bloom, and the colour is just wonderful! Straight away I started thinking about a neck warmer like this one or this one (both Ravelry links). I couldn't resist trying it out against my skin tone.

Although I now realise that picture makes me look naked, I was actually wearing a vest type top!

Now I mentioned earlier in this post that Nic and I had been conspiring about SkipNorth, and so we have. It will be from 11-13 March 2011 in Haworth (the same delightful bit of Yorkshire we've been to in the past) and will be awesome. We've got some new places to visit this time, including Texere who are opening especially for us. So, it's obviously time for a ticker to countdown the days!

You can stay in touch with developments using the Yahoo Group, Ravelry Group or on Twitter.