Sewing!

I have had a sewing machine for a long time but barely used it.  The one I have now I bought about 7 years ago and it's been sitting behind the bar ever since we moved into this current house 6 years ago!
Last month I found a Horn Sewing cabinet for sale in a local op-shop.  I've been wanting one for years but could never afford a new one.  I couldn't pass this one up as it was a great price and in excellent condition.

Now I have my sewing machine setup in the cabinet and have bought some different coloured threads and other sewing accessories.  I've been buying small amounts of fabric to make some small items found through Pinterest.

Last week I made a Nappy & wipes clutch for a staff member at work who leaves for maternity leave tomorrow.  I found the pattern and instructions on Lemon Squeezy Home Blog and it is so easy to follow.  My first attempt I wasn't 100% happy with but it was the first time in over 20 years that I've actually sewn something from scratch!  I made another one a few days later which I gave to my staff member this week and was much happier with that one.

Inside the clutch I placed two nappies and a travel pack of wipes.

Crochet Duck Lovey

My latest crochet project was a Duck Lovey blankie made for one of the reception staff on my team at work.  She is expecting a baby in December and I decided to make this as a gift for the baby.

The pattern was in a crochet magazine and gave me a little grief with the beak but overall I'm pretty happy with the result.

Learning to Knit!

I've started learning to Knit using The Art of Knitting and finding it easy to follow.  I think I tried knitting when I was a child but couldn't get the hang of it - especially casting on and off so ended up giving it up and sticking to crochet.

I decided recently to give it another go and it seems to be easier.  I've managed to finish the first three squares from the series recently.

The first square is a Garter stitch square.

The second a Stocking stitch square with a garter stitch border.

The third square is Chequerboard Stitch.

This was more difficult and I had to start over twice due to errors I made.  Thankfully I read some comments on the facebook page and realised where I had gone wrong.  It hasn't stitched to the same size it should be so must not have used the right tension.  Something to work on in future!

When I get closer to making up the throw rug I will see how to add a border to the square to increase the size of the square to match the others.

Getting back into Crochet

It's been a while since I updated this blog but I've been busy with work and family the last few years and not really done much crafting at all.  In 2014 alone I changed jobs twice (to avoid redundancy!), one daughter had a baby and another daughter got married!  

I'm now getting back into my crafting - crochet, cross stitch and now learning knitting!  

I have a few things on the go at the moment but trying to stick to smaller projects I can finish within a few weeks.

I finished a crochet project today for my 12month grandaughter Evelyn.  A mini minion blankie!  I found this pattern while looking through Pinterest and was looking for something small to start with.  It's been a long time since I did any crochet and not much more than granny square blankets so it was good to be able to see this coming together.  I added an extra row of yellow in the blanket to make it a little bigger and used a smaller hook to make the eye as the first one I made was too big for the head!  I think I may have used a tighter tension when making the head so it came out smaller than it should be.

Minion Mini Snug Blanket

Thank you to Shell from Mamma That Makes for the free pattern.  There are so many others on her blog that I can't wait to make!