Progress with the duck

I’m feeling really chuffed with myself today. I’ve made the beak, the feet (which were super fiddly to get started, but highlighted the fact that I’m still using my own techniques rather than reading the Toft instructions properly, which obviously make the process a lot easier!) and solved the eye problem.

Mr E holding his little duck… He was so excited to see the beak

A characterful duck with its wonky feet that make it look like it’s mid stride!

For the eyes I put the needle through the mid point, then sewed on vertical straight lines, and then brought the needle back out of the entry point. I knotted the ends together and then poked the knot back through the hole to bury it in the stuffing. I think this should hold well and stop the eyes becoming loose.

Now little duck just needs two wings and it’ll be finished. That’s a job for tomorrow though!

Something different

I think I’ll be missing today’s inktober drawing. I’ve still got my migraine and I’m not feeling up to it.

So I thought I’d share a couple of things I’ve been working on over the weekend.

First up, my first ever virus shawl. I’ve been wanting to make one for ages and I’ve finally started it.

Plus here is a little pom pom penguin decoration. Not exactly how I wanted it but hopefully they’ll improve if I make some more

Spirits of life update

I’ve been a bit focused on drawing this last week, but today, with nothing planned other than going to watch the local rugby team play in the park near us, I did a bit of crochet as well.

I’ve got a third square made and all the ends sewn in, so I’ve just got one more to do and I can stitch that section together.

Glad I’m still making progress with it!

Blast from the past

Today, for the first time in ages, I was actually able to make it to the craft morning at my church. I’ve really missed hanging out with these ladies and it was fab to be back. I debated for ages about which project to take with me, but finally decided that I really ought to do something about trying to finish off my spirits of life wrap. I know… It’s been forever… And I’d stopped somewhere in the middle of a C2c section so I couldn’t even decide to call it quits and turn it into a cushion cover or something.

So the first half hour of the session was spent getting the tablet to work so I could see the pattern. Then trying to find where in the pattern it told me which size hook to use… Before then discovering the hook in the bottom of the project bag it was stored in!

But then I sped off making progress! It really helped that I’d worked recently on my c2c blanket as the technique was familiar to me. Plus I didn’t need to follow the pattern too much as I just lined the new column of blocks up with the ones underneath in the previous section.

Here’s where it started today

Where it got to by early afternoon

What I’ve added to it this evening while watching TV.

The other lovely thing is that one of the ladies put it round my shoulders to see what it would look like as I was worried it was too narrow due to my tension and would end up too long to be a useful shawl. When she did that (why had I not thought to try it myself??) I realised it was going to be perfect, and would look just gorgeous, so now I actually have motivation to finish it so I can wear it 😊.

We’ll see how quickly it progresses now!

P. S. Sorry about the blurry photos… My phone seems to be getting less and less reliable with the quality of photos

A viking dress!

Hey there everyone. Sorry its been such an age. First I couldn’t craft because of our trip that involved travelling through the South of Sweden, over into Copenhagen, Denmark and then to Edinburgh. Travelling with hand luggage only rather prohibited me from taking any projects. I really missed crafting while I was away, but then found it hard to get back into it when I got home. I finally had to dust off sissy (my sewing machine) and get to work transforming an old brown curtain into a viking lady’s apron dress for a dress up day in school! I’m pleased with how it turned out, apart from not thinking through how flappy the top corners would be (not that that shows in this photo!)

While working on the ties I accidentally misjudged how many I would need, and made 4 and thought I was done! I actually needed 8,so I wondered if it would be quicker to make button holes on the front to thread the ties through and tie them back on themselves. After a bit of fiddling…. And then reading the sewing machine manual (!) I figured out how to make button holes! I decided against them in the end, but I’m glad I now know how to do them. It was kind of fun just putting my foot on the pedal and just watching the sewing machine figure out what to do!

Plus, I’ve now got out my crochet hooks and have started making an autumnal toadstool, thanks to sonspopkes. Its a simple pattern to follow and I got this far in an hour.

A bag and a skirt

I’ve got my goddaughter staying with me and we’ve had a really chilled day today. While we were watching wild child I started working on a masa bag with a really chunky Peruvian alpaca wool that is just gorgeous to work with. This is how far I got during the film

I’ve got to add more to the width as it needs to be 1:3 ratio. My plan is to then sew it into the right shape and then try felting it, but I’m not sure if it might be a bit too ‘open’ to felt as I’ve ended up using a slightly bigger hook than I’m supposed to as I didn’t have the right size at home!

Anyone got any ideas on whether it will felt and the best method of going about that? If it won’t felt then I’ll just have to have another go at lining a bag!! 😂

Then I made my sister’s second birthday skirt. She decided she would like a skirt in the mouse material even though she likes wearing blue as this will be a nice autumnal colour. Isn’t it super cute?

I was thrilled on the waistband that I was able to join two pieces together and almost completely perfectly pattern match them!

I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out… It’s getting easier to hem the curves each time I make another one (this is my third skirt so far), and I’m sure I’m generally getting quicker at it.

I still love doing my double stitching with the variegated thread too!

Only I forgot which way was up when I was sewing the waistband on so the inside ended up with the variegated thread and the outside got plain burgundy. It still looks cool though… Just maybe not quite as cool as I’d have liked (not that anyone is ever going to look that closely at the stitching!)

Cherry blossom necklace

Hi again! I’ve just spent the last couple of hours working on turning a stone into a necklace. Initially I planned to just crochet around the edge of the stone and I used this tutorial to get going. I didn’t follow it exactly, partly because I didn’t realise initially that it was US terms not UK, so, ended up double crocheting instead of treble, and partly because my stone was so much smaller than hers.

But once i’d worked around the edge I was wondering if the stone might ever wiggle out of it. So, I continued with her idea for a tree with winter berries, but modified it to a tree with cherry blossom.

Then I just added a mixed pink chained thread to tie it on as a necklace (I’ve used embroidery thread for the whole thing) and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out.

This is an idea I’ve had for a while, and I’m sure I’ll explore it more with a few attempts at different designs.

A llama and a shawl

This evening, while watching poldark I quickly made up this cute little felt llama. My sister is feeding rather under the weather, with labyrinthitis and 3 children to home school, so I wanted to make something for her so she at least has some happy mail.

It’s from a kit by the make arcade and its quick and easy to do. I Like that you get templates, so if you like a design you can just get more felt and make another one! I hope she likes it!

Over the last week or so I’ve also been working on this windmill shawl, which is now quite a repetitive pattern of 2 alternating rows. I’m not sure what I think of patterns where the rows get progressively longer though… It feels a bit disheartening.

A non-naked armadillo!

Over the course of yesterday evening and tonight I’ve got the armadillo finished. Unfortunately I misunderstood the instructions for measuring if the shell was big enough so I ended up adding a few stitches unnecessarily, which means it’s not really tight enough to hold him in when he’s rolled into a ball, but other than that I think he’s turned out pretty well.

I’ve really enjoyed making him and have had lots of little moments where I’ve admired the clever creativity of the designer luna in the ways she’s captured different aspects of the armadillo, like the ears and the shell.

I’ll definitely be making some more of these little cutie-pies!

Armadillo in progress

This evening I’ve started on a quite quick project using a free Ravelry pattern for this super cute roll up armadillo

This evening I have made a body, head, dinky little ears and a tail (which was quite fiddly). Hopefully tomorrow he will be finished with 4 legs and a shell he can roll into, but for tonight he is naked!

Excuse the poor photos but I thought you’d like to see him anyway!