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 : )

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 :)

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 :)

Sales and Cupcakes

This has been a very busy month, so a little time to myself and some shopping (mostly window shopping, day-dreaming of what I will buy when I win the lottery) as it sale time again I took a visit to John Lewis and I broke my yarn diet (only a little), I decided in January I needed to use the yarn in my collection that tucked away in boxes and bags (hidden in the wardrobe) and could not buy anymore unless I had a plan and timescale to use it, plus I have no more room for storing. But feeling the nice soft  Mirasol Wachi 85% Pima Cotton & 15% silk which was only £2.95 a skein (and I do have a plan for it) plus Noro silk garden at £3.95 each I decided to make a small purchase. With a quick trip to the food hall and I found my bargain of the day half price cupcakes (well the yarn diet was broke so might as well have a naughty day) I got some cherry & geranium  which tasted a bit to floral for me, but other  family members liked them and lavender & lemon, I liked this one it reminded me of the violet sweets I eat when I was a child yummy.

Project Ocean

I was walking past Selfridges and saw their stunning new window displays for  "Project Ocean"

The windows will be on display until 12th June 2011, Selfridges has partnered with 20+ environmental and conservation groups. 

Celebrating the beauty of the ocean and highlighting the issues of over-fishing, which is scary to think of, no more fish, no longer been able to cook or eat fish (I love fish and have not eaten red meat for about 20 years)

Their large corner window is a dead sea coral installation (most of the photos I have put in this post) made from coral seized from illegal smugglers by customs officers. 
Beautiful but a sad reminder of how much  life we are losing from our oceans.

New Hook

Here's some photo's of my new Boye interchangeable thread hook set.
It has a hand carved Maple burl handle created by the talented hands of Jimbo check out his blog for more great hooks. The handle is very lightweight and a pretty grained wood, I find its a very comfortable hook to use. When I first got the hook I had injured by thumb and could not hold most of my hooks, but this one I could. I was able to use my index finder in the thumb grip and could crochet as normal. My thumb is now working again and I can use my hook as intended, but its good knowing I can hold the hook comfortably both ways.

Its also good not having to touch the metal of the hook, holding the wooden handle is much kinder on my hand, I have been doing a lot of thread work (tape crochet and filet) and beaded crochet usually I end up with a dent in my finger (anyone else have that problem?) when using my normal metal hooks but now all that has changed : ) no dents and happy fingers.






You can see the pretty grain in the wood in this photo.

Fabric samples and food

March was a very busy month and April is speeding by just as fast. I went to went to the Stitch & Craft Show in Olympia 2 I was very good and don't buy much (only 5 balls of yarn must be a record for me and a new crimping tool for my stitch marker making), well the reason I was good (sort of) was I bought a Boye interchangeable thread hook set with a hand carved Maple burl handle by the brilliant Jimbo the day before I went to the show I will photograph and post the set when it arrives.

I had also ordered more samples of the fabric prints I have been working on, they arrived this week and I was happy with most of them (some I need to adjust the colours) sorry I know a few people emailed about the 'here come the bees' and ladybird ladybird' prints I the 'butterfly dance' is OK) they were the ones I need to adjust. The ones I was happy with are now available on spoonflower. I am ordering larger pieces to make some cushions and bags to hold yarn (trying to be tidy) The owls will be sewn together to make lavender bags for the wardrobe (and put them in with the yarn) I will post the results and how they were made when I have got the larger pieces of fabric.

I have also had the cooking bug and made a few tasties for the family and even managed to add the recipes to the other blog.

I did manage to fit in some, knitting and crochet time  playing with tape yarn (again a future post when I have played more). I added a new filet chart to the main NezumiWorld.com site- decorated Easter eggs and have been very busy planning things for the coming months including more new filet charts, a line of stitch markers for crocheters and knitters plus getting things ready for some Crochet/ Knit-A-Longs even some Design-A-Longs but I post more about that when things are in place.