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Tuesday 22 December 2009

Resin button

Today I made a little silicone mould of a glass bead using a 2 part mix (Gedeo Siligum-Silicone Moulding Paste), I have used liquid latex to make moulds before but this method was so easy. Just mix equal parts of the white and blue mixture together press around the shape you want place on a level surface and 10 minutes later you have a usable mould for plaster, polymer clay, silver clay or resin.

I used the mould with a uv resin (Lisa Pavelka Magic-Glos) I am making some buttons for a bracelet, I will post more of them soon, here's a finished one I am just experimenting to see which ones I like.

Monday 21 December 2009

Winters here


Today the heavy snow arrived and London transport ground to a halt.
It was so cold and slippy, but for a short time (before the snow turned to slush) everything looked clean an bright.

Monday 2 November 2009

Which Ewe Are You? « Crown Publishing - CrafterNews



Crafternews: whether your passion is fiber, cloth, paper, metal, or clay, Crafternews is your crafting community for ideas, inspiration, free projects, and instruction.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Knitted Pumpkin




Knitted Pumpkin

Abbreviations:
k = knit
p = purl

kfb = Knit into the front and back of the stitch (this is an increase)
k2tog = Knit two stitches together as one stitch
sts = stitches
st = stitch

Materials:
Double knit/ worsted weight yarn used in orange & green
Knitting needles appropriate to yarn used (I used 4mm)
Polyester toy stuffing, Polyfil or scraps of yarn

Scraps of black felt

Pattern
:
Using orange yarn cast on 6
sts
Row 1: [
kfb] X 6 (12sts)
Row 2: p12

Row 3: [
kfb, k1] X 6 (18sts)
Row 4: p18
Row 5: [kfb, k1, k1] X 6 (24sts)
Row 6: p24
Row 7: k24
Row 8: p24
Row 9: k24
Row 10: p24
Row 11: [k2tog, k1, k1] X6
Row 12: p18
Row 13: [k2tog, k1] X6
Row 14: p12

Row 15: [k2tog] X6
Change to green yarn (leave a length of orange yarn to use for sewing up)
Row 16: p6
Row 17: k6
Row 18: p6
Row 19: k6

Row 20: p6
Row 21: k6
Cast off leaving a length of yarn to sew up stalk

Sew up stalk using green yarn

Sew up pumpkin body
using orange yarn leaving a small hole, stuff pumpkin body until fat and sew up hole

Cut 2 small
triangles and 1 large triangle out of black felt (or embroider eyes & mouth) sew onto pumpkin

Saturday 17 October 2009

The Knitting and Stitch Show 2009


Last weekend I went to my annual visit to the Knitting and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace.
I arrived late, both bus & tube problems. I was surprised at the entrance there were 100's of ladybirds flying around (I have been making crocheted ladybirds for a few weeks), of course I decided not to bring my camera with me so these photos are with the camera on my phone. The ladybirds were all different types, red with black spots, yellow with black spots and black with red spots. People were running in to escape them. The first photo is of the entrance wall the tiny spots are the ladybirds.

After buying my ticket (£12.00 this year the price is getting a bit pricey I think) I looked at this display of a knit covered boat including knitted sails.
I did not buy to much, this time I had bought yarn at the Iknit event only a few weeks ago. Texere had nice gimp yarn I have been looking for to make some evening bags, plus very nice linen.

I often see this brand Eucalan in American crochet & knitting magazines, the lady at the stand was very friendly and explained the product was eco-friendly, non-toxic, had natural lavender/ grapefruit/ eucatypus depending of type chosen. Could be used for handwashing or machine and did not need to be rinsed from the garment. I bought some and will try it and see, it does smell good.

I got some nice wire, beads & findings, the bead/ jewellery type stands were very popular and hard to get in to, to see or buy from. I liked the crazy wire company, totally beads and with love crafts

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Casting on with Bobble Yarn

So many people have emailed me about how to cast on with bobble yarn (and Joanna posted could I explain with pictures) so here's the way I cast on with it.
This is for right handed cast on I will put this and a left handed example on NezumiWorld which is in the process of been updated very soon.

1. For the bobble yarn I used a knit cast on, normally to begin I use a slip knot but with the bobble yarn this looked untidy (and was a bit fiddly) so I made a simple knot.
Insert the right hand needle through the stitch (knot) on the left hand needle as you would to make a normal knit stitch.


2.Yarn over the right hand needle making sure you use the yarn between the bobbles.


3. Pull loop through the stitch, the bobble should not be pull through the stitch.


4. The stitch (knit stitch) you just made on the right hand needle is now transferred back onto the left hand needle.


5. Repeat making a knit stitch than transferring them back to the left hand needle until the required number of stitches are achieved

Thursday 24 September 2009

I love mochi

The first mochi I love is round, soft and very tasty - onde onde mochi - steamed sweet rice flour filled with coconut

The second mochi is again round, soft'ish and also very tasty - mochi ice cream - come in about 4 flavours, I tried the vanilla and green tea and liked both of the flavours

The third mochi and new to me is super soft, round and yummy (but not to eat) to crochet & knit with - mini mochi yarn - a machine washable 80% merino wool/ 20% nylon mix


Saturday 12 September 2009

International Crochet Day

Today is International Crochet Day
and to celebrate I have added a new flower pattern


This flower & leaf can be made in different colour combinations and used to make a brooch, a necklace or add to a bag, shoes, on the front of a thank you/ greetings card, whatever takes your fancy :)
DK yarn/worsted weight
4.25mm - 4.5mm UK/ (6/G USA) hook

(I used 4ply Worsted weight Peaches & Creme 100%
cotton)
Abbreviations:

(how to make the stitches plus more at NezumiWorld main site)
st – Stitch
sts – Stitches
dc (UK)/ sc (USA) – Double Crochet (UK)/ Single Crochet (USA)
htr(UK)/ hdc (USA) – Half Treble Crochet (UK)/ Half Double Crochet (USA) tr(UK)/ dc (USA) – Treble Crochet (UK)/ Double Crochet (USA)
dtr(UK)/tr (USA) – Double Treble Crochet (UK)/ Treble Crochet (USA)

ch – Chain
sl st - Slip Stitch

rnd - Round Yarn - Two colours used for the flower you can use one colour for the leafs Using colour a (I used yellow, label is printed with cream no.3)
Rnd 1: Ch 2, 6 dc (UK)/ 6 sc (USA) into 2nd ch from the hook (the 1st ch that was made), join with a sl st into the top the 1st dc (UK)/ 1st sc (USA), (you should now have 6 sts) cut yarn
Using 2nd colour (I used red/ burgundy no.97)


1st petal: Into a 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA), 8 ch, (working back down the chains) 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA) into the 2nd ch from the hook, 1htr/ (1dc USA) into the next ch, 1htr/ (1hdc) into the next ch, 1 tr UK/ (1 dc USA) into the next 5 ch, ss into the same 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA) you started on

2nd Petal: Into the next 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA), 8 ch, (working back down the chains) 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA) into the 2nd ch from the hook, 1htr/ (1dc USA) into the next ch, 1htr/ (1hdc) into the next ch, 1 tr UK/ (1 dc USA) into the next 5 ch, ss into the same 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA) you started on
3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th petal: As 2nd petal Cut yarn and pull end through back to tidy.

Leaf pattern (I used yellow for the centre so it would show up in the photos the whole piece can be made in one colour, I used olive no.64)
Rnd 1:
Ch 2, 6 dc (UK)/ 6 sc (USA) into 2nd ch from the hook (the 1st ch that was made), join with a sl st to top the 1st dc (UK)/ 1st sc (USA)
1st Leaf: 10 ch, (working back down the chains) 1 dc UK/ (1 sc USA) into the 2nd ch from the hook, 1htr/ (1dc USA) into the next ch, 1htr/ (1hdc) into the next ch, 1 tr UK/ (1 dc USA) into the next ch, 1 dtr UK/ (1 tr USA) into the next 6 ch, miss 1 dc (UK)/ 1 sc (USA) ss into the next dc UK/ (sc USA)

2nd & 3rd leaf: As 1st leaf

You now have a flower and leaf section, join together or make more flowers sections in different colours and layer. Have fun and play.

Wednesday 9 September 2009

International Jewellery London 2009


Monday I attended the International Jewellery London 2009 at Earl Court 2.
Usually at this event its a time to stock up, make contacts and see the trends for the future year.

The first thing I noticed was the show was much smaller than previous years.There was an interesting new designers section which had some very nice shapes and ideas.

There were lots of companies with charms and individual bead style components - Pandura,
Chamilia, Amoree&Baci
and there were many more companies. The metal beads & metal core beads came in Sterling Silver or with gold and silver plate finishes and have evolved and become more detailed with glass, crystals and enamel mixes.
Silvex had some very nice murano glass in silver and resin pieces.
I found some nice displays and boxes I will check out in the future, but I don't buy any new stock which was disappointing.

Sunday 6 September 2009

Ticket for Iknit Weekend


On Friday I took a trip with a good friend to Waterloo to buy my yellow ticket for the I Knit Weekender Event on the 11th & 12th September

Lots of nice yarns were on display in the shop, even a visiting nezumi hiding amongst the skeins

As well as my ticket I was very happy as I managed to get the glow-in-the-dark jelly yarn I have been looking for to make crocheted pods for some solar lights I have. I though when the light goes the pods would glow for a while, I will experiment and see. The yarn might end up as something completely different now I have my paws playing with it.

Friday 4 September 2009

Craftzine's very first crochet-along!

CRAFT: Crochet-Along
Laura from Craftzine.com sent me an email about a new crochet event taking place over at blog.craftzine.com Craftzine's very first crochet-along!
A super cute fuzzy panda amigurumi, the first lesson starts on Tuesday, Sept 7th at Noon PST (that's about 4am UK time) with Tamie Snow the designer of the fuzzy panda and author of Tiny Yarn Animals
There a list of materials required so you can get ready before the event plus the pattern all very clear and well written.
There's also a flickr group to share your finished pandas with random giveaways to participants who upload photos.

Friday 21 August 2009

Mint Tea


I always have mint & basil growing in pots on the kitchen window, this summer they have grown extra large which is great for me as I like to relax with a hot cup of mint tea.

Just take a handful of mint leaves, rinse in cold water, put into a pot (or cup), add boiling water and leave for 3-5 minutes, pour into a cup and sip and relax. (If you want to sweeten add honey or sugar to taste)

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Bobble Yarn


I went to All the Fun of the Fair (yarn shop in central London) recently and bought a couple of balls of this very soft bobble yarn.
I am using it to make a knitted bag (the fabric was to holey looking when crocheted to make a bag) which I will attach a selection of knitted and crocheted flowers.
I have been using large needles and doing a simple stocking stitch. Its an interesting yarn to use you knit and purl between the bobbles.

The fabric looks great on both sides and is so soft.


I will line the bag and post when I finish (hopefully soon)