Liz's Blog

As the title suggests I've been very busy knitting things recently, and have finally got around to taking photos and actually uploading them!

The main project I had been making was of a cable jumper from a Debbie Bliss pattern book for her yarns-Stella/Pure Cotton. I finally finished it a few weeks ago, and amazingly it took me 4 weeks exactly from start to finish-it's amazing what you can do when you have no summer job.

I've also been knitting scarves too, mostly so they can be people's Christmas presents! So far I've knitted two, but currently have another one underway. I've made a big, thin chunky scarf with very random stripes and a lovely pinky purple one for my Mum as her birthday present! That one was a bit tricky as I had so many stitches and didn't have circular needles, so had to juggle the stitches between four needles! It was good fun though and I used a whole mix of yarns, from super chunky, 4 ply and DK.

I've also made a little bag too-just need to line it now so it doesn't stretch!

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And last but not least I made a whole collection of cards decorated with yarn scraps!

The other day I remembered that I had some shell stencils that we bought from the old Art shop that used to be in Yeovil. As I felt like making cards I put them to good use and got to work with my big box of paper and card scraps-basically a box full of old wrapping paper, coloured envelopes, old cards and scraps from previous projects-it's very useful to put together a box like this as it does come in very handy for papercrafts and cards etc.

I made two types of card using the set of stencils I had. One where I drew around the stencil and cut out the middle bits-effectively making a copy of the original stencil and then made a collage behind it and stuck it over the top. The other type was where I used the bits I cut out and then made a background of shapes for it to be stuck too. In the end I got a bit carried away and now have 20 cards!

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We all went to Fibrefest two weeks ago and it was brilliant. It's basically a huge festival of fibres-eg, wool, yarns, knitting, crochet, sheep, alpacas, silks and various other bits and it was truly amazing. Since then I've come back buzzing with ideas and have about four projects on the go!

At Fibrefest I got to stroke an alpaca-they truly are gorgeous creatures and I'd love to own a few in the future, when I have the space. There were lots of lovely rare breed sheep too and we were able to buy a medium bag of Shetland Morrit fleece, which is perfect for felting, as we've discovered, and wonderfully soft. I also bought some broken Merino toppings in interesting colours to felt too!

Here are some pictures of the most recent results:

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This was my second go on Sunday. I g0ot Mum to join in this time, as she really wanted a go too! Mum's is on the left and mine is on the right. I really love the purple flower and the tree I did. I used Big Wool, which we had spare, (bought at a ridiculously cheap price from the wool shop which sadly closed down earlier this year as the owner retired). I think I'm going to cut this piece up and use each bit to make cards. If you look at the bigger version of this picture you can see I trapped sequin stars into the felt I made!

Mum's piece hasn't felted so well, as she was too gentle, I think she's going to try the rolling pin method next!

Currently I'm also knitting an aran jumper from the book we bought at the show, it's a Debbie Bliss one, which uses Pure Cotton and Stella wool, (now discontinued). The patterns are great and very easy to follow-they also help me to use up Mum's wool stash. So far I've managed to make both the front and the back in just under two weeks!

Since Christmas, up to Mid July, Mum and I, with a bit of help from Vikki have been knitting 6 inch squares, which ultimately have now been turned into a blanket. It was a great project to do and I'm amazed that we managed to get it all done in 7 months, as cumulatively to make a blanket you needed 96 squares! This creates a 6 foot by 4 foot blanket.

I think the thing that took the most time to do were the four edging strips, which run along each side of the blanket, at only 2-3inches wide they shouldn't take too long, but it's just the shear length of them and then attaching them to the blanket which takes the time.

Here are pictures of it now it's finally finished:

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As you get more confident you can change your stitch patterns and add more stripes or even cables. We really like making striped squares in double moss stitch as they give a lovely effect and feel.

One of the most important things when putting all the squares together is to make sure you have a good balance of both plain and patterned squares. This is why we found it helpful to stitch up blocks of four as we went along to work out what colours we needed more off.

Have a go at making one of these-it doesn't need to be this big if you don't want it to be, but they're so easy and use up loads of scraps and oddments you might have lying around.

At the end of July when the weather was horrible and I didn't even dare to venture out of the house I decided I was in desperate need of colour therapy! So, out came Spring/Summer 09 catalogues from Joules clothing, along with scissors and glue and huge pieces of sugar paper! Then out the other end came 3 collages! I had great fun doing them and they have now been stuck on my bedroom walls!

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As it's been so wet recently and I've had no other choice but to stay at home, due to still having no work for at least the next week. I still needed to make my Summer crafting swap pressie for the Omlet forum, so I picked up my paints on a dreary Sunday afternoon and came up with this-now I just need to post it off!

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I've now finished my GCSE exams and my life at secondary school is over-still finding that a little scary to be honest, but am excited about starting college in September, hopefully I will have got the results I needed to get in, but now I've got that long wait until 27th August and then my enrolment day on 28th.

Between the end of my exams and the last day we went off on holiday to Durham/Gateshead area as my sister now lives back up there with her husband and we went to some really interesting places. I particularly loved going to Beamish and Alnwick Gardens.

Alniwck Gardens is wonderful and they have a huge rose garden and a brilliant interactive water garden...where I got absolutely soaked. They also have a poison garden, which is brilliant too.

At Beamish...Left Vikki to take most of the pictures that day!

Well, I feel a tad guilty now, realising I haven't updated this for about a month and a half...A lot of things, (unsurprisingly) have happened since then.

At the end of May it was the Bath and West show, and I was lucky enough to go there twice-I went on Thursday with Mum and Dad and on Saturday to help out on the Omlet stand-which was great fun, although very hot and sunny...thankfully I didn't end up matching my bright pink Omlet t-shirt!

I loved going around all the animals and seeing so many farmers there and record numbers of people, it seems show turnout has increased in this recession, which I believe to be a good thing as it's getting more people connected with suppliers and producers in the area and getting people to see real quality, especially in food and to see how much variety is on offer...cows produce milk, it doesn't just magically appear in a supermarket for you to buy.

Why have we become so mentally detached with the idea of eating and produce-I want to know the farmer and how far it's travelled before I eat it and I don't mind paying that little bit extra. In some cases things like this are actually cheaper when you buy things from local suppliers and shops-it's something my sister noticed whilst at university.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took whilst at the Bath and West...

From left to right: Tamworth and piglets, blue faced Leicester sheep, Zwartble sheep, Fluffy sheep, (can't remember names!) and a couple of lovely jacob rams!

  Some gorgeous chickens-many of which I wanted to take home...Left to Right: RIR bantam, Silver Sebright, Laced wyandottes, Leghorn, blue Pekin bantam.

Have been reading the current NT magazine and been off to a farm open day a few weeks ago and it's got me thinking about the way we're currently living and how unsustainable it is...for example when it comes to sheep farming, it costs more to shear the sheep than their fleece is worth, yet, why whenever you see wool for sale it costs about £6 for 100g, it just doesn't make sense, then you see all these 'luxury' wool goods made from pure wool and they're really expensive, even though they've been machine knitted and most of the time badly stitched.

Also why is it we spend so little on food, and supermarket price wars push the price down yet again and then we moan when prices go up, when in real terms they're no where near to the actual costs. Why aren't we thinking about the actual costs to the producer and why don't they deserve to be paid fairly?

Quotas, this is another thing I really don't understand, we drink more milk in this country from abroad, where conditions and checks on the produce are of a lower standard, yet milk is being thrown away on our own turf because farmers have produced more than their quota allows, again it's similar with fish and dead fish are then chucked back into the water...why aren't we doing anything about this, it's simply ridiculous.

Have been ridiculously busy lately, doing lots of revision and jewellery making in order to unwind. Things are going quite well actually and I've just done a mock B3 exam and got 40/45 marks, so not too bad, the exam's on Wednesday by the way...but before that on Tuesday I have two exams, English Lit and ICT, should go ok, I've got lots of ideas for the essay writing and know the plot and the poems quite well and ICT is relatively straight forward.

This afternoon we drove to Street, in the vague attempt of finding shoes for my prom, as it is I think we're going to stick with the ones I've already got, as they fit better and go quite well with the dress! Here's a picture by the way!

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However today I bought two samples from the joules shop! I love samples, so I bought a pair of Jean Jeanie jeans and a dibdab bag, below are pictures from the joules website of the two items-they were only £10 each and so that makes a saving of £54, Brilliant!