Bloggy Competition

Recently we've had someone away from work for a bit, so I've been working extra hours which has left me a bit tired and grumpy. Anyway, I've decided that because of that I deserve some craft booky goodness...and that's where you guys come in.

I've come up with a bit of a list of books I'd like to get (but unfortunately I can't get them all) so I'm looking for feedback on where best to spend my money. Either let me know which books are fantastic (or which one's you've heard are fantastic), which one's overlap a bit (and so I should only pick one), or any other books that you think I should add to my list. I'm aiming to get a bit of a range of crafts.

1. Books I'm almost definately going to get:

Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew by Amy Karol
I've heard really great things about this one.

2. Books I'd love to get:

Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty
They're very cute...but I've got an excess of soft toys at the moment. Although great gifts.

Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori
Again, lovely and cute.

Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution by Kim Werker
Ok, so it's not actually out yet. That shouldn't stop comments should it?

A Crochet Stitch Dictionary
I didn't actually find anything specific, so suggestions of good ones would be really appreciated. I'd probably like something with a nice range, clear directions, inspiring pictures.

3. Books I'm not quite sure of (but that still look lovely):

Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects by Lotta Jansdotter
I'm just not sure how many sewing books I should buy right now because I don't sew as often as I'd like to.

Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To (Spiral-bound) by Jenny Hart
I've got a few embroidery books and there are great resources on the internet for different stitches, so this would mainly be for patterns, although I've heard they're not as unique as the individual Sublime Stitching Patterns.

Plush-o-Rama: Curious Creatures for Immature Adults by Linda Kopp
Because now I'm on my third toy book. But still cute!

Best comments* will win a bookmark so leave a comment, along with your preferred bookmark and I'll probably draw it (and order books) next week, so you've got a little while to think about it.

*Best comment may be based on most useful, most funny or simply picked randomly.

Scatterday

It's Scatterday and this weeks letter is W.

First of all we have a black thing, my wallet. Always too many receipts and not enough money. Anyone else have that problem?

Then we have tools, and whisks, more kitchen utensils I guess, but I reckon they're close enough. I don't believe I've got any interesting whisk stories though...

Finally we have games, and a wooden game chest
. There is also a Where's Wally jigsaw puzzle in there, but basically the whole thing needs a good sort out. Although it's not high on any to do lists.

12 inch square CAL: August easy square

Only two to go...but I'm definitely finishing this CAL late. Never mind. Although I'm quite impressed with the amount of stuff I'm managing to get done at the moment, particularly with the amount I'm working. I just need to stop signing up for swaps!

Here is the August Easy Square for the CAL, the pattern comes from here.

Briar Rose Quilt Square

Ceilidh has received one of the squares I embroidered for our personal swap (and liked it, yay!). The other two I sent on in the Aussie Tour (because our personal swap was for a couple of extra squares), but I didn't manage to finish this one in time.

I had lots of fun on the border with this one, and it turned out just how I wanted. I'm so glad the ribbon roses turned out too as it was my first time with them (I did woven wheels with the ribbon). Ceilidh is a spinner too so I wanted a spinning wheel on one of the squares I was embroidering, although I got half way through embroidering the wheel before I realised it was the wrong way for the old woman, but that means it's the right way for Briar Rose!

Scatterday

Happy Scatterday! I hope you've all had a good week.

This week's letter is B and the categories are:

My favourite things: So Easy! I love books and here's a quick snapshot of my bookcase. I love taking a peek at other people's bookcases to see what they've got so I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at mine. I'm a bit of a fantasy nut and my books are vaguely arranged in order of preference from top shelf down (although rules may be broken depending on series length and available space). I've been rereading a couple of books lately which is why there are some gaps. I've also just started double stacking my books which is A Bad Thing. It leads to the accumulation of more books.

Big Things: A Bear. This is Freddy Teddy who belongs to my sister and is almost adult sized. One of her friends mum's made it for a birthday years ago. He lives upstairs away from the dogs because Barney would like to suck on his fur and make him dribbly. Disgusting isn't it?

Shop: I don't like using plastic bags and this is my favourite bag to use when I shop. It's also a bookcrossing bag, so there's another B. It's great because it folds up very small and fits into my handbag. Although I do have a yearning for one of those knitted mesh market bags...

TAST Week 16: Palistrina Stitch

Week 16 in the TAST challenge was Palistrina Stitch and I'm really happy with how this has worked out although the colours are a little washed out.


I probably won't be posting very often for the next couple of weeks because I'm working way too many hours and it's putting me in a foul mood. Stupid twelve hour days...and that's if I can leave on time. Grumble Grumble Grumble

Scatterday

Looks like it's scatterday and for once I have Saturday off. Woohoo!

This week's letter is Q and we have:

Music: A Queen CD. Lots of fun. I'm not much of a singer but last year I'd often sing when I was doing my night checks (the acoustics were good - high ceilings, and it was better than listening to barking dogs) and random Queen songs were a favourite. I'm not sure if I should have admitted that.

Square: It's a quadrilateral (a shape with four sides and four corners - so all squares are quadrilaterals, but not all quadrilaterals are squares). My granny got this for me as a Christmas present about 6 years ago. At the time she was caring for my grandpa and couldn't really go out shopping and they were staying at the Leukaemia Foundation. She bought this at a fundraiser event for the Foundation. I've been wanting to do something with it for a while but couldn't think what because it's not really a quilt. A couple of weeks ago I had a brainwave and decided to brighten up the wall above my bed.

Clothing: A quilted jacket. Probably from about 2001? I still think it's kind of cool (which is why it hasn't been donated to an op-shop yet). It'll come back in eventually won't it?

Aaargh Matey! We have treasure!

I've always been jealous reading other peoples blogs when they have a really fantastic thrift shop/op shop find. I've found good bits and pieces but nothing that's got me really excited...until now that is.

I took this random tied up plastic bag which looked like it had some zippers and stuff in it to the counter along with some other stuff I'd bought and asked if the whole bag was for sale. After some brief consultation the two women decided it was, and priced it at $5. Look was I got!



I'm so impressed...although it probably means I need to learn how to sew a zip now! It also made my day a lot better, I'd been working on what was supposed to be my day off, and it ended up being so quiet it wasn't really worth me coming in. Never mind, I bought some good craft goodies.

TAST Week 15: Oyster Stitch

Not a terribly exciting contribution for Oyster Stitch but it didn't quite end up looking as I planned. I was going for a bit of a rain drop effect and I guess I got that but it's not one of my favourite bookmarks. Nevermind, not everything turns out beautifully!



I found this to be a bit of a tricky stitch intitially, but once I got the hang of it, it was quite fun.

12 inch CAL: August experienced square

Three squares to go in the craftster CAL, although with all the swap embroidery I'm doing at the moment and being very busy at work it may take me a while to get onto them!


The colours in this don't look as mismatched in real life, but I did run out of red yarn with very little left to go.

The pattern is from here.

Scatterday

Once again it's Scatterday and here are today's photos.

Today's letter is R, and the categories are the plant world, the arts and childhood.

First we have a rose which is in a bouquet of flowers for...my sister, but it was one of the easiest things to find.

Next we have two photos which fit both the arts and childhood categories, and they are relatives. It's my aunt and uncle and I skillfully drew them when I was 5. My uncle kept them and then framed them and gave them to me for my twenty first birthday, which I think was a pretty amazing thing to do.

Craft Show Goodies

I went to the Craft and Stitches show on Wednesday and bought myself a couple of things.



I got some pretty fat quarters...and some of them are even for specific projects, some beads (not for anything specific - naughty me!) and some more embroidery scissors, because they always come in handy.

On the topic of buying things, I'm working a lot during September so I was thinking of having a big craft book splurge in October so have a think about any recommendations between now and then and I'll probably have a big of a competition with suggestions!

Personal Swap Goodies

When I was in the Aussie Shop the Swap I ended up doing a personal swap with cmc_aust, related to another swap we're both in, the Aussie Embroidery Tour swap/round robin. I've embroidered three items (including mine) so far, but I'll wait until the end to post all the pictures and keep it a surprise.

Anyway, she sent me some lovely hand spun and hand dyed yarn (isn't it pretty!).



She also sent me some additional squares to embroider for her quilt (she's sending squares for the tour), which I won't show yet (because they haven't been embroidered). Although it should mean I'm ahead for the next part of the swap, because even if I don't get the original square done I'll have at least one to send on. I think by the end of the year I may want a break from embroidery!

TAST Week 14: Bonnet Stitch

Week 14 in the TAST challenge was Bonnet Stitch


I'm calling this one "Tentacular" because I like the sound of it and I think this looks like tentacles stretching into the air.

Scatterday

It's Scatterday and here's my entry!



Today is brought to us by the letter G...with the categories vehicle, colour and household item.
First up we have a goat cart (not my picture, I borrowed it from here because I couldn't come up with a g vehicle, but a goat cart it pretty cool.

Next we have colour and green, because it's better than grey (which I thought about) and all my green embroidery threads, aren't they pretty.

Finally we have a household item, and graters. Do you think four graters (actually one of them comes with an additional grater attachment - see Dy's blog for more, that one is my favourite too!) is a little excessive for one household, especially as we really don't use them that often? Two of them I've never used. But they are shiny...

12 inch square CAL: July easy square

Here's my July easy square from the craftster CAL. Getting to the end now (only four left in total).


Pattern from here

More Swap Goodness

I've had quite a productive weekend this weekend (well, Friday and Saturday anyway. Sunday was a write off because my sister kept me up all night with a party...she even barged into my room at 3am and stole all my dress up costumes...then everyone jumped into the pool with them five minutes later - so she's got some replacing to do). Apart from that over the weekend I managed to:
- Tidy out my cupboard - including resorting out my fabric and washing more of it
- Clean my room
- Dust and vacuum my room
- Strip and make my bed (that would have happened anyway)
- Sort out my bookcase
- Polish my shoes
- Clean my fan
- One CAL square
- Embroidered two TAST bookmarks
- Started making some Christmas presents

My room wasn't actually that bad but now it's lovely...except for the damaged dress up box sitting in the corner waiting for my sister to sort it out.

In other news I received another parcel from the Aussie Shop the Swap (Yay!). This was from Velvet Rose and had a Rapunzel Scarf and 100g of Merino-Border Leicester Slivers. Now on with the Spinning!

Scatterday

I decided to join in the Scatterday challenge from Random Applique for a couple of reasons, to make myself take more photographs, blog more often, and also share a bit more about myself.



This weeks letter was L, and the categories were animals, food and sewing. There are four pictures because my two dogs won't sit together helpfully.

First we have animals (because I thought they'd look better next to each other) and their breed is Labradoodles (ok, so actually a cross breed but never mind). On the left is Deefa and on the right is Barney. They're getting on a bit, nearly eleven now, but still doing pretty well. One day I'd like to spin some of their fur up and make something. Ignore all the beer bottles behind Barney, my dad has just started home brewing and is collecting them. Although it would be nice if he'd move them into the garage.

Next we have food, which is lemons, because we had quite a few of them hanging around.

Finally for sewing, we have location (I may be stretching it a bit here). There isn't really a good spot for me to set up my sewing machine so it gets put in front of my computer (which is probably why I don't sew as often as I'd like). I have on occasion been sewing and tried to check my email (or craftster, or bloglines) at the same time which involves me putting my arm through the machine to use the keyboard. I'm that addicted to the internet.

12 inch square CAL: July experienced square

Wednesday's are my normal day off and it's nice having a day off during the week because you can do things around the house (eg craft) without disturbances, do a bit of shopping, and go places that may be closed on the weekend (bank, post office). Anyway, today I had to go in to work for a staff meeting. I figured since I was doing that I was entitled to spend some money at Spotlight (fairly close to work, although a bit of a pain to get to and I normally finish too late)...except I got asked to drop a dog home on my way back, which was around the corner from home so no shopping for me. I'm still trying to decide if this was a good or bad thing. Otherwise the going to work in the middle of the day did manage to disrupt me from doing anything useful.

Here's my July experienced square from the craftster CAL



Pattern from here.

Swap Goodies

I received a lovely parcel today from cyndiq, as part of the Aussie only Shop the Swap on craftster.

I got a gorgeous crochet hook pouch, which is fully lined with pockets for hooks and has a cute beaded zipper pull. I can see this will be handy for reducing the number of things dragging around with my crochet. At the moment I had various balls of yarn, scissors, measuring tape, hook roll, pattern. Now I can put my active hook, scissors, measuring tape and probably pens/pencils and bits of paper in the pouch.

I also got this lovely domino pendant. Isn't it cute! Now just to go somewhere that I can wear it.

Shawl-Collared Wrap Cardigan

Another jacket, I made this with some yarn I bought from ebay. A little hint - if you are making something, check your yardages/meterages? first. I ended up with about 10 grams of yarn left over - although the belt was skinnier than it should have been and I made a couple of modifications to the pattern - I didn't make sleeve cuffs or a pocket (not because of yarn shortages, but I would have run out if I didn't make the modifications)



It's the Shawl-Collared Wrap Cardigan from SweatBabe.com's Fabulous and Flirty Crochet and it was a fairly easy pattern to follow...I might just need to wait until the weather gets a bit warmer to wear it.

TAST Week 13: Knotted Cretan

TAST Week 13 was Knotted Cretan Stitch and I did end up using a similar idea to the ordinary Cretan Stitch.

So this one is called 'Pressed Sample 2'

12 inch square CAL: June Easy Square + Naughty Tree

I came downstairs on Saturday morning to discover a lot of leaves outside our front door and on closer inspection found this had happened...

Luckily that's not my car...and there isn't really a lot of damage. If you look closely in the picture the branches to the left are going in a different direction and are a slightly different colour...because they're off a different gum tree and came down on Thursday, cutting off the power across the road. After two reasonably sized branches have come down in a week we're getting a tree guy in to look at everything and let us know if we need to take any trees or branches down.

Anyway, I've finished June on the CAL now. Now just for July and August, although there will only be September after that so I've just got six squares left in total. Then I'll just have the TAST and hopefully I won't sign up for any other ongoing challenges after that...I also have a round robin swap and a shop the swap on at the moment...and I did want to take part in a Christmas ornaments swap this year (if anyone else is doing this and sees it come up on craftster, could you remind me in case I forget to look on the swap board?)



The pattern is from here

TAST Week 12: Couching

Week 12 in the TAST challenge was couching.



This bookmark is probably the one that's taken me the longest so far, but I'm really happy with it. It's so tactile and yummy.

Hmmmm...couching handspun yarn would be fun too wouldn't it?

A project from my first spinnings

I've been very good and used the first thing I've spun up to make a beanie.



I've wanted to make a slouchy hat for a little while and I got some compliments on this when I wore it out which was nice. The pattern was from here.

I really should get an action shot but it's very hard to take a picture of your own head and there isn't anyone else around.

TAST Week 11: Up and Down Buttonhole

Week 11 in the TAST is Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch which I had quite a bit of fun with.



I'd had a similar idea with a couple of other TAST stitches, but it hadn't quite worked out until now.

12 inch square CAL: June experienced square

So I had almost caught up in the craftster CAL, but now I'm behind again (5 behind I think, better get moving again!)


This one is the June experienced square, and the pattern is from here.

TAST Week 10: Barred Chain

Week 10 in the TAST challenge was Barred Chain and once I eventually came up with a design I then had to sew my two bits of fabric together...which was a little more complex than I anticipated - those curves are tricky! Once it was done (a little dodgily if you look closely) the embroidery was pretty quick.

First Spinning

Here is my first spinning attempt and I'm pretty happy with it. It's not quite even, and it's both overspun and underspun (and overplied and underplied) but at the moment I'm pretty sure it's useable! It's made from about half? of one of the Nundle Cheeses, which were pretty easy to work with because it was just one loooooooooong string of roving. The hardest parts were connecting a new bit when it broke a couple of times.


At some point I made even roll it into a ball.

Post Office Hat

My sister kept borrowing/stealing the last beanie I made so I said I'd make her a beanie if she bought me the yarn...three months later she did (when I went to Southland with her - she actually works there) and I made this.


It's the Post Office Hat which I've been looking for an excuse to make, and she initially said she wanted something really lacey so version 1 (not photographed)got frogged because it had really big holes in it (by that stage she'd forgotten she wanted something lacey). I've still got enough yarn to make her a narrow scarf, but she has to wait for that one (as she got the beanie the day after she bought the yarn).

Done in Patons Caressa DK - lovely and soft. Now I've just got to make her a matching scarf with the left over yarn.

More Pretty

Here's some more gorgeous roving that Meshell sent me. This one is from Celia's Basket and the colour is Jungle Flowers and it's lovely and soft and ever so pretty.


The cheeses I ordered from Nundle Wool Mills have also arrived so you should see some spinning from me soon...and I may have also won a couple of lots on ebay as well so I better get to work!

I've just counted the Nundle stuff - and it looks like while I ordered a kilo, I've got one and a half. Lucky me!

Pretty

I've just sent the lovely Meshell some books for her 110 Books to Read List (which has some great books on it) and she was naughty kind enough to order me some beautiful roving.


It's from Copperpot Woolies and the colours are gorgeous. I did however shred the paperwork that came with it (I was giving my desk a much needed tidy up and shredding anything that I didn't need and was the least bit personal - but now my desk is lovely and neat!) so I don't know the colour names.

This stuff is so soft I could use it as a pillow - except that I'd probably dribble on it and wreck it, so it's going to be spun up. Except, because Meshell has done this, she made me get a move on and I've ordered some plain roving to practice on first, so that should arrive soon too.

TAST Week 9: Cross Stitch

Week 9 in the TAST challenge was Cross Stitch which I've used a bit of in the past.

I started off with some plans for maybe some Assisi Work but I wasn't really happy with the design I came up with, so I went with a simple tree, which I think is quite cute!

TAST Week 8: Fly Stitch

I'm certainly starting to amass some bookmarks! Week 8 is Fly Stitch.



It was quite fun exploring this stitch and after doodling a little I came up with doing a dandelion (which is interesting because librarylass said my Week 3 bookmark looked like a dandelion). I ended up stitching this one at the craftster meet in the city (so it was a little while ago), but it seems the sewing together is taking a little longer than the actual embroidery.

Crocheted ATCs

I thought I'd have a go at making some crocheted ATCs the other day and came up with this series.



It's called 'The many browns of Australia' and clockwise from the left we have the beach (which is my favourite), the desert (with rocks) and a paddock (with sheep and trees). Even though they're not as obvious as I'd hoped they were still fun to make.

TAST Week 7: Feather Stitch

I'm really enjoying the way the TAST challenge is not only making me use more stitches, but I'm also looking at using different threads and looking more at designs.



While this week's design is fairly simple and admittedly I haven't branched out that much on the stitch, I have started using some Perle cotton, previously I've only really used the six stranded embroidery thread so it's nice to go in a bit of a different direction.

I ended up giving this to my mum as part of her birthday present and she really liked it.

Birthday Card

A bit of a break from all that embroidery today!



I whipped this card up quickly for my mum's birthday the other day. No real pattern, just made up (and frogged back!) as I went along, and glued to a card.

TAST Week 6: Algerian Eye (plus a bit of a rant)

Just a warning, I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent and have a little rant before I get onto the crafty goodness. If you're not in the mood for me being annoyed just skip ahead.

Anyway, on Monday nights I work until 8pm when work closes, and then I'm on call for the rest of the night. Several times I've had people come in late with their pets for the last consult or just keep talking, so that I'm there until 8.30 - 9pm. Normally that's not too much of a problem because I know that people love their animals (but turning up on time is always helpful, and vets don't generally keep you waiting as long as doctors), but on Monday we got a call at 7.50 about a dog that apparently was having difficulty breathing and it's face had swelled up. The owners of the dog had to collect the dog from where it was and then come to us, so it was going to take them about an hour to get there. It sounded like this could be a pretty serious problem, especially as the dog was a week away from giving birth, so I advised them to go to an emergency center (which was about ten minutes from them) but after speaking to one of my bosses on the phone, he said that if they wanted to come in that would be alright. So I had to wait at work for an hour (on my mum's birthday as well), to see a dog, that ultimately was panting a little because it had a belly full of puppies and had no facial swelling. And unless, I leave work and come back, I don't get paid overtime. Then I started work at 8am Tuesday. And while I'm complaining, we've also got a vet away today, so I have to work extra hours...on my usual day off, for a month. At one point I'll be working 11 days in a row.

Alright, rant finished!

This is the first of February's stitches for the TAST challenge, and it's Algerian Eye.



Unlike some of my favourite craftsters I'm not a huge fan of pink (I think I overdosed on it at about age 5), and while I was making this it seemed very pink, but once I washed out the transfer pen it magically looked better and now it's a completed bookmark I'm really happy with it. Although I think it is still a bookmark to use on chic-lit!

TAST Week 5: Chevron Stitch

I've finished January with Chevron Stitch.


I didn't have a great deal of inspiration for this one and ended up going with a bit of a 'Frankenstein's monster' idea. This time I did tea and coffee dying of the pillowcase, and it's given some subtle colour changes. If anyone reads Discworld books, it's an Igor creation!

TAST Week 4: Cretan Stitch

Week 4 in the TAST challenge is Cretan Stitch. I've been going well so far with catching up! I've been using recycled pillowcases for all my bookmarks, and tried some tea dyeing on this one, and I'm happy with the aged effect it's given me.


I'm calling this one 'Pressed Sample' and I was going for the effect of a dried fern or leaf in an old book.

Crocheted Socks

I've wanted some hand made socks for ages (been drooling over all the gorgeous knitted ones on craftster!) but as my knitting skills are very rudimentary I've been looking for a good crochet pattern for a while. I did start one pair a while ago but I used the wrong yarn/hook size or whatever and after about 10 rows realised I had something with the drape of cardboard and so I gave up.


The pattern for these is from here and I'm proud of myself for making two, because I've abandoned other projects where I've had to make two things previously.
The second sock I did fits better because I made a few modifications, but they're not too bad!

TAST Week 3: Detached Chain Stitch

Here's week 3's TAST bookmark (yes, I'm going with bookmarks at the moment) and it's Detached Chain Stitch.

I did have a bit of an image going on here but it may have turned out a bit abstract. If you can guess what I'm going for then well done! If you can't then you can probably also congratulate yourself on being clean minded.

TAST Week 2: Buttonhole

Here's my week two TAST offering, with Buttonhole stitch


I'm calling it 'Buttonhole ciliates' as I was going for a microscopic organism look. I really need to make myself a light box so I can start taking some better photos.

TAST Week 1: Herringbone Stitch

After being inspired by some of the lovely embroidery around (such as here, and here and other places, but I'm too lazy to post any more links), I decided to start the TAST challenge. I figure starting so late I have no pressure to keep up because I'm already behind!



Here's the first week's stitch, Herringbone stitch made into a sampler bookmark.

12 inch CAL May experienced square

I'll catch up eventually! I really like this one, I quite like Celtic imagery and purple so this is very nice!



The pattern for this one is here.