Month: May 2018

May project goals

I’m all too aware that yet again I’m super late with my project goals for the month but bet late than never! In ‘normal life’ I’m actually one of these people who is always ready stupidly early for things and end up wasting so much time twiddling my thumbs waiting, so I don’t quite know why I’m always late with my blog posts. My excuse is that I’m always so busy making things that, much as I do enjoy writing my blog, I have to tear myself away from making things to write. Not a bad thing I suppose as I’ve always got something crafty to share.

anyway, here are my project goals for (what remains of) May:

  1. Finish winter berry embroidery. This was from Winters craftpod box and although its not really the season for these colours now, I just want it finished and hung up in my craft room. This is as far as I have got currently so shouldn’t take too long to finish.

2. Start spring craftpod projects

I’m really itching to get started on these, especially the botanical sampler. Looking at some of the stitches on there brings back childhood memories of seeing my Grandma embroider tablecloths and later having a go at embroidery myself. I’m very excited about having a go at chain stitch and French knots again. I have to admit that the colours don’t really grab me so I may go a bit ‘freestyle’ with this one and substitute some of the colours for brighter ones that I already have in my sewing box.

Whilst I’m on the topic of embroidery, this week I stumbled across something called ‘zenbroidery.’ I spent hours pouring over different pictures deciding which one to order (yes, yes, I know I’ve a lot of other projects on the go, but I just had to have one!) Basically zenbroidery is a detailed picture printed onto fabric. The pictures are very similar to the adult colouring books that you get and the idea is that you ‘colour’ the picture in with thread. This is right up my alley! whilst I do have a colouring calendar and I do enjoy a bit of therapeutic colouring in, its not something I would ever frame and display, so it seems a bit of a waste of time. However, just imagine, a picture ‘coloured in’ with thread, that definitely deserves wall space! You don’t order them as a kit, as you choose your own colours and your own stitches so each one becomes an individual work of art. I cannot wait to have a go but I’m determined to be patient and finish my other embroidery projects first. Here is the one I’ve ordered….eek!

Anyway, I digress, back to the goals…

3. Sew in the ends on all 240 of these colourful itty bitty beauties…

4. Finish my mystery projects. I don’t want to say what this is going to be just yet as I’m really not sure how it will turn out but it should be finished by the end of the weekend…

As well as all the projects I have on the go, I will be flying back to England for some of half term week with little Miss. Whilst I’m back I’m very lucky to be taking part in a ‘sew your own jumper’ workshop with Sophie Bell-Carr at Huxter. If you have never seen her work, do go and have a look at her website. She makes the most amazing clothes for little people (and adults) and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to learn how to make a jumper for little Miss. Hopefully, using the sewing machine again will get me back into machine sewing and give me the kick up the backside that I need to get the bunting finished that’s all cut out and ready to be sewn see here. I will dedicate a whole blog post to the workshop once I have been and let you all know how it went.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Karen x

 

Bright stripes blanket

Finally here it is, drum roll please…

I won’t say a lot about it but let the pictures speak for themselves (and be warned there are a quite a lot of pictures, the excitement of finishing it plus the beautiful sunshine sent me a bit giddy!)

Now you’ve seen the pictures there are a few bits of information you do need to know…

The pattern is the cosy stripe pattern by Lucy of Attic 24.

The yarn is stylecraft special dk and the colours are  the ‘original’ colour pack also put together by Lucy, available at Wool Warehouse, with a couple of other colours thrown in. Rather stupidly, I didn’t keep a note of the colours I used as I went along and the order was completely random. However, if anyone really does have a burning desire to know the exact order of the colours I used, I could work it out fairly easily.

I’ve had a bit of a love/ hate relationship with this blanket. I’m not really sure why but making it just seemed like such a long process and rather than get into a rhythm with the stripes I just got rather frustrated that each stripe seemed to take so long. I really did have to be in the right mood to pick it up but judging by the fact that it took me well over 6 months to complete, it would appear that the right mood just didn’t come along very often!!

Now its finished though, I do really love it, I love the bright colours, I love the eclectic feel of it and I really really love the border. When I had finished the yellow and green on the border, I will admit, I was tempted to pull it back and start again as it just seemed too gaudy and in your face. In the end I trusted my instinct and chose a further 4 colours to tone it down a little. I love how my friend Michelle described the border, she said the dark purple on the very outside provides the blanket with a full stop and I couldn’t agree more. What a lovely way of putting it.

As well as revelling at having finished another blanket I do like to reflect on all my makes. Whilst I do love how the bright stripes blanket has turned out, I think I would make the border even thicker if I was to do it again. 6 rounds of trebles seemed quite a lot as I was doing it but having looked at the photographs I took today I think it could have handled a chunkier border. Having said that though, I am thrilled with the overall effect and I just hope that the recipient, my sister in law Dianne loves it too.

I’d love to hear any comments or questions that you have about the bright stripes blanket and would be happy to provide more information on request.

Thanks for popping by,

Karen x

Enjoying the simple things

With all the lovely weather we’ve had here in April, there has been a lot of outdoor time here at Chez Oakley and a lot of pottering in the garden. Mr O has given the shed a fresh coat of paint, I have been planting flowers and weeding and little Miss has helped me plant A LOT of seeds. We planted pumpkins, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and courgettes which will all go into the vegetable patch once it has been weeded and prepared. We also planted sunflower seeds which I’m planning to put at the back of the vegetable patch to cover an unsightly wall.

 

 

I’m so looking forward to seeing the flowers grow and fill out the hanging baskets and the geraniums and lavender open up in the flowerbeds. Hopefully in just a few weeks the garden should be transformed by colour!

Of course as well as all the gardening, there has been time for relaxing outside too

We’ve also had a couple of really lovely days out at a local park. The first time we went with my friend Lou and her boys. Little Miss and the boys were absolutely fascinated by the tadpoles and water snails and spent a good couple of hours pond dipping. We made sure that all creatures were put back in the water they were taken from. I got a chance to have a play with my camera and try out some different settings and am really pleased with the result.

My favourite photo from the day out though has to be this one of Little Miss taken by my talented friend Louise Mackenzie with her super duper lens!

I’m planning on having  this one printed out onto canvas.

Last weekend, a week after visiting the park with Lou and her boys, Mr O and I took Little Miss back to see if the tadpoles had changed at all. There was very little change to see but once again she was fascinated and spent a long time ‘collecting’ water snails and trying to spot the biggest tadpole (again all creatures were returned to the water). At one point one of the bigger tadpoles come to the surface to eat some algae and we actually saw it open its mouth, which for a little tiny tadpole is not something you can visibly see very often. Again, I had a play with my camera, trying out some manual settings (until the battery died, which wasn’t very long into our trip unfortunately).

We didn’t stay for as long this time and there was no crocheting done as the weather wasn’t so good and it had started to rain. As the weather is supposed to be lovely this weekend, I have promised  another visit to the park so we can continue to follow the tadpoles progress. We’ll hopefully cycle there, take a picnic and make a full day of it  and of course I shall be taking my crochet with the aim of squeezing a couple of squares  whilst little miss plays. Happy happy days!

Karen x

 

April project round up

Ok, ok, so I know we’re into May already but it has been a very busy week and all I’ve wanted to do in the evenings has been crochet or sleep, so in my usual monthly project review fashion I’m a few days late!

I’m actually sitting here with a very big smile on my face because for once I very very nearly completed my project goals for the month.

It gives me tremendous pleasure to say that the bright stripes blanket is now finished after approximately 6 months. Here’s a sneaky peak but it will have its own post very shortly, once I’ve photographed it in all its glory.

I have now made well over 200 itty bitty squares for a blanket for Little Miss and am getting ready to start the joining process…eek, exciting.

The Winter berry embroidered hoop is halfway through but I’m not too worried that I didn’t finish it as planned as it hasn’t really been the weather to stitch a wintry scene so my heart hasn’t really been in it, at the moment I want to be surrounded by bright colours that reflect the beautiful weather we’ve been having and all the gorgeous shade of colour that can be seen outside at the moment.

I’ve also done a couple of other makes that weren’t on the list. I went a bit Mandala mad see post. Since then I’ve made another one from the beads that were left over and I think this is my favourite:

I also made this Scrabble tile picture for my husbands 5oth, I couldn’t let him get away without having something handmade for such a milestone  birthday.

As the weather has been so glorious here on and off throughout April, I’ve done lots of outdoor things too (post to follow). All in all it’s been a productive month with lots of fun family time and I’m happy with that.

 

Karen x x