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Thursday 28 July 2011

New Swatches

Yesterday I got my new fabric swatches from spoonflower.com  it takes about 3 weeks (because I am the UK) from order/ printing & shipping. When you open the package the fabric is nicely wrapped in tissue paper and the person who has packed it always adds thank you and their name to the invoice, a nice personal touch. I get a batch of swatches printed together (its also cheaper than getting them done singly) you have to proof them before approving them for sale, I never really know if the prints will be the right colour until I see the samples as what looks good on a computer screen sometimes looks totally different when printed, it can even look flat or if the detail is clear, again ink will blur when printed on fabric so detail and colours can mix to much. I am happy with this batch ( the last batch had a few I had to totally redo) A lot of my designs seem to have owls or cogs/ gears or both. It even seem's to be crossing over to the crochet I have been working on lately (while waiting for my next fabric to arrive a preprinted cut out and sew craft project bag) but that's for another post : )

Saturday 23 July 2011

Knit Nation 2011

Last Saturday I spent a relaxing day at knit nation's marketplace. Touching yarn, chatting to suppliers, renewing magazine subscriptions, buying a few goodies.
Habu Textiles had beautiful copper and bamboo yarn perfect for the crocheted jewellery I have been making, I love the colour and glimmer.
And at last I got hold of some knitpiks yarn now to start some crocheted socks : )
A soft skien of Misti alpaca (I just loved the colour and feel it may become a scarf or gloves) and some Manos silk blend in a beautiful sea blue and green mix, which I may knit into a lace shawl, for a change.
Now to have fun experimenting with my new yarn :)

Sunday 10 July 2011

Summer Porridge

  
One great thing about summer, now its here (the usual sun one minute rain the next)  is all the fresh fruit that's in season especially the  berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries all yummy and as they are in season much cheaper. 
At the weekend I like breakfast this week I made some porridge with nice chunky rolled oats (cooked with milk) a little honey and lots of tasty juicy berries, a great healthy flavoursome start to the day my favourite in summer.
Fuel to make me ready for my beaded projects, beaded crochet (some tunisian crochet) and beaded knitted bracelets and necklaces. I have even been remaking some can tab/ pull bracelets, I'll post some finished pieces at a later date, here's a few images of my hours and hours of stringing, its so much quicker to crochet the beads than string them. 
Plus I am not sure how but some beads always escape and end up in the carpet, the poor hover now sounds very unhappy.

I am still busy designing fabrics, I'm waiting for a new batch of samples, again I'll post when they arrive. Last week I was lucky I had a fabric that was just the right colour and subject matter (the competition had a limited colour palette and butterfly theme) so I entered my  "butterflies together" fabric (it matches my filet crochet chart "butterfly dance") into this weeks spoonflower competition if you like the fabric please vote for me, any votes would be greatly appreciated :)