Let the crafty sabbatical commence!

My soon to be complete craft corner.

So it's the first full working week after new year. Usually, I would be sat at work right now counting down the seconds until the weekend. But instead, I'm sat in my new flat looking at my to do list.

Items read as follows:

• Call GP 
• Do budget 
• Email agency about TV signal 

And at the bottom of my list, but by far my favourite item, is "write out sabbatical plans and goals".

Because it's finally finally FINALLY here. The six month sabbatical that I've been dreaming about forever. It's really actually here! It's really happening!

In the last month I have left my job and left Paris and I'm now living in Brighton on the south coast of England. Things are very much all over the place and there is a lot to sort out for the new flat. But my budget is still (pretty much) intact and I am really excited about taking some time out to work on my creative projects.

Next week I start a drawing class, and in the next few weeks I'll be starting the hand embroidery certificate at the Royal School of Needlework. Just typing those words sent a shiver down my spine. After all this dreaming and planning it's finally here!

Time to stitch, time to crochet, time to draw, time to design, and, of course, time to blog!

Crochet Pattern: Mulled Wine Snowflake

2. Mulled Wine Snowflake

Snowflake number two is written up! It's possible that I will say this about all of the snowflakes, but I think this one is my favourite.

My extremely poor photography skills don't do it justice really but the triple picots at the end give it a nice snowflake explosion kind of feel. If you know what I mean. (I'm not actually sure I know what I mean by that.)

The triple picots can be a bit tricky to get the hang of, so I intend to do a little photo guide for the blog soon. If only that pesky work didn't take so much of my crochet time up!

The pattern can be found here. As always let me know of any queries with the pattern or if there are any errors.

Happy snowflake-ing!

Crochet Snowflake Pattern

Snowflake diameter about 5 inches.

1. All the Trimmings Snowflake

I first came across crochet snowflakes last Christmas and it was love at first sight.

I searched for patterns but couldn't find exactly what I was after, so I decided they were the perfect opportunity to stop chatting about designing, and start designing!

Inevitably, there were a few (many) false starts. But after I'd managed to figure out a couple of simple snowflake-ish designs, it was all systems go.

I've now made ten snowflake designs so far and I will be sharing them with you as I check, tweak and write up the patterns.

I've named them all after my favourite things about Christmas. And as a vegetarian, all the trimmings are definitely way up on that list.

The pattern can be downloaded as a pdf from my Google Drive. It's the first time I'm using this so I hope it works ok!

If there are any problems with the pattern or any questions etc. just let me know and I will try to help.

Happy snowflake-ing!

My Stitchy Sabbatical

In case it's not obvious it's supposed to say 'Yay!'

For a while now I've dreamt of taking some time off work to focus on all the creative things I like to do but never have enough time for. For a long time it was just a dream, but now, it's really happening.

I've handed in my notice. 

I'm leaving Paris.

And in January 2015 I'm going to start my six month stitching sabbatical in Brighton (UK).

There's only one word for it really...WoooooHoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I've worked hard to save for this so I want to make sure I use my time wisely. Because let's be honest, I'm in no hurry to get back to the nine-five office life, so if I can figure out a way to earn some money from doing what I love then that would be ideal.

The plan so far is as follows:

• 1/2 day spent drawing (I'm going to enrol on a class)
• 1/2 day spent on crochet design
• 2 days spent writing (about arts and crafts, of course)
• 1 day spent learning embroidery (I'm enroling on the Royal School of Needlework Certificate!)
• 1 day spent sewing/learning to dressmake

I'm currently figuring out some achievable goals for this sabbatical so that I have something to work towards and show for my time off. Because despite what some people (even my own boyfriend) may think, this is not going to be six months of bum time. I am going to get creative with military precision and eke out every precious moment to build my skills and hopefully find a new way of making a living.

I just want to get started now. My stitchy fingers are itching, and although I don't believe in wishing one's life away, all I can think is roll on January!

Yarn stash stress

I get the impression that a lot of people love their yarn stash. It fills them with ideas and inspiration and they feel comforted knowing that there is always yarn there for them to pick up.

I am the opposite. My yarn stash, which is by no means enormous, stresses me out quite a lot.

This is linked to a general dislike I have of wasting anything. Wasting is wrong and bad for the environment. Wasting means that you don't get your moneys worth of something you've paid for. Both of these are big crimes in my book.

Sometimes I feel that I walk around dragging the weight of all the things I need to use. Those vermicelli noodles that I bought for a complicated dish I'll never be bothered to make again, the nail varnish set I was given for Christmas but that I can't see being able to use up before they all go gloopy.

And yarn. Lots of lovely, colourful, stressful yarn.

You would think that this yarn stash stress would mean that I don't like to buy new yarn. Hah! If only! I have, in fact, just placed an order for several new balls of yarn from Wool Warehouse. I have projects in mind for some of the balls, but not all.

I wonder, will I ever beat my stash?

Big Stitchy Finger Project: the Quilt

A patchwork quilt was the first thing that ignited my love of textiles. I was visiting Jane Austen's house in Chawton and one of the pieces on display was a beautiful and complicated looking patchwork quilt that Jane and her sister had made.

I loved how beautiful it was, the skill it involved, the image of quiet evenings chatting and working on the quilt together, and the fact that it had become an heirloom. 

'I'm going to make a patchwork quilt.' I said. 

So I did!

No.2. Machine made quilt from pattern.

That was seven years ago, and since then I've made a grand total of two quilts. One entirely by hand and one entirely by machine. One designed by me and one following a pattern.

Quilt number three is underway, and has been for a few years now. I'm not going to lie to you, progress has stalled somewhat. 

The design is a simple log cabin, that I drew up using one of my favourite craft books ever, the Quilters Recipe Book.

I'm working it by hand as my machine didn't follow me when I moved to France three years ago. I've always loved working by hand as I find a machine aches my back quickly and the noise means I can't watch the telly at the same time!  But the problem is that in reality, hand piecing a quilt together is quite monotonous, and now that I've discovered crochet with all it's varied stitches, well, my quilt has started to gather dust.

I might pick it up a few times before I move back to the UK, but realistically it will probably be sitting in my work in progress pile until I'm reunited with my sewing machine.

The two blocks that my current quilt project is made from.

Poor neglected quilt. An heirloom in the making, I hope. But not for anytime soon.

Tips for weaving in ends when crocheting

Perhaps this is evident for everyone else (I always have this feeling that it’s only me who’s in the dark), but weaving in ends took me a while to get the hang of. I started out randomly poking the yarn in and out of the fabric, which just created a mess and didn’t ensure a very secure finish. As a result, I would dread doing it.

But now that I’ve discovered a nice and simple way to weave in ends it’s no longer the chore that it was. Happy days!

Instructions
Tuck the yarn under a group of double crochet (single crochet in US) as the photo shows. You can also go back along the same group afterwards (making sure you don’t go back in the hole you came out of!) as this makes it nice and tight and secure.

I usually leave about 8-10 centimetres of end to weave in. But less is probably just as secure, I just like to be able to turn the darning needle easily!

That’s all the instructions needed for this post. It really is as simple as that!