Knitty Things!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I am knitting and knitting and then knitting a little bit more! The children at school that are learning to knit are really inspiring me to constantly learn more. Not happy with 'normal' knitting they want to learn to knit on double pointed needles! No sooner said than a pile of these needles landed unexpectedly in my hands! The only draw back was that they appear to have no sizes. I then asked randomly around how on earth do you size needles? 'Oh I think I have a funny old thing for that at home that was my Grandmothers' no sooner said than it too appeared for me to have a go with. Not only was this gadget absolutely perfect for the job and all the needles are now labelled and carefully bundled in size but it was a wonderful item in itself. In fact I loved it so much I had to photograph it before returning it to its rightful home!

Don't ask me how the rest of it works, I just used the needle gauge down the right hand side.

British made too! That makes a change for as you root through my craft boxes more and more are made in the US we just don't get the same choice over here.

Another treat this week was the arrival of three of the most gorgeous balls of wool from my friend Joey. She knows my colours so well! I was straight onto the Ravelry site to discover what interesting patterns there are out there for these specific yarns. If you haven't tried Ravelry then you absolutely must. I will be adding a Ravelry button to the side of my blog that should take you right there. You can find me under PinFactory!

The following is a piece of knitting that has been felted. You need wool with a high wool content and then once knitted it needs several rounds in the washer with an old towel.

I cannot believe how it changes. I am hoping to sew this up to make a little bag for my knitting needles of course! Here are some close ups so that you can see how the texture has changed.

I think this is a ball of Noro wool that has been kicking around for quite some time. The colours are just amazing.

Whilst on the subject of felting I have to show you some photos of the work done by the children in Craft Club at our school. We are doing wet felting with them this term and they are loving it. This first photo is the fibres laid down.

Here the children added some design features.

Then much elbow grease, hot water and soap later is the finished piece. I will take some more photos of the piece totally finished this week. You must go to the Craft Club website and see what all the children all over the UK are getting upto and maybe even join in. There is nothing like childrens enthusiasm to get you creating!

I am going to give you a sneak peek at Cricket Hollow, just to prove that I haven't really been doing nothing but knit. I made the bold decision to paint the front door red and I am not disappointed in it at all. The door isn't in place yet but I thought I would show you the colour choice.

Just look at those hinges too gorgeous!

I have also finished the Betterleys Halloween Secret Book which I will blog about next time! I know it is the wrong time of year but it just called to me and I had a lovely crafting day with my friend Joey who also made one.

Cricket Hollow continues.....

I have been happily working away on Cricket Hollow and loving every minute of it. This is the perfect miniature project. A truly unique and fascinating way of putting a building together and a great opportunity to mess about with paint effects. As to how much fun I am going to have filling it, well you will have to wait and see!

The windows are in, one in the front and one in the side. The glass is actually glass - which makes it feel so real. There are mullions to go across the windows but I am waiting until I am further on as I can't decide what to do with them as I really want to be able too look in clearly. The logs sticking out at the front are the porch support beams.

Here is a photo of the inside. The beams are in and ready for the upstairs floor to go in. As you can see all the pieces are so clearly labelled, I don't want to imagine how long this takes for each kit but it certainly makes the putting together a complete dream.

This is a view of the side window. Also you can see how perfectly all the logs cris-cross over each other.

Another view of the back.

This is taken from above to show porch support beams and the porch posts in place.

I decided that now was the time to do some painting. In the instructions it gives a very clear description of how to use India ink and rubbing alcohol to weather the logs but I wanted to have a go with just the paints that I had to hand. Firstly I gave the whole building a very rough coat of light brown.

Here is a close up so that you can see the colour and the coverage.

I then went over it all again with a medium grey. I dry brushed it on and then wiped it off. I made sure that some parts were missed altogether and some parts had a heavier coverage.

This is a close up of the edges where I tried to give a more heavily weathered look to accentuate the way the logs are placed as I really love this part of the design. I absolutely love messing about with paint effects. Once this layer is dry I am going to do a little extra with a lighter shade of grey.

I gave the inside of the building two coats of white. It recommends white in the instructions so that Annies quilts are shown off to their best.

I love the way that it looks so rustic - with the log edges showing through the paint.

The other project that is sat on my craft table at the moment is a 48th scale Baby House. My friend Rita was kind enough to pass it my way when she realised how bad my Baby House addiction had become! With it being such a bare kit I thought it would be good to have some fun with the design. I am planning lots of collage probably with a vintage botanical print theme.

But here is the basic Baby House so far. The top and bottom half are not glued together yet and the doors are just propped against it.

Here is a photo of the insides.

These are the legs that came with it.

Lots on the go at the moment. Numerous miniature projects, knitting projects and quilting projects are all being worked on at once. Never a dull moment but that's how I like it.

Another Year Another Hobby or otherwise titled Addicted to Knitting!

Having been amazed by how fast and how proficient the children at our Craft Club are learning to knit I was spurred on to try and keep one step ahead of them. So I decided that I needed to learn the extras - you know that whole new language that means nothing to the non-knitter! But I didn't want it to be boring so I invested in Donna Wilsons book the Knitted Odd-Bod Bunch ! It says on the front cover that the projects are unique and quirky and you can't say fairer than that! They really are totally unique and gorgeously quirky!

The instruction in the book are fabulous. Even as a total beginner I could follow all sorts of instructions that I never thought I would get the hang of! I can now M1R and M1L!!! P2tog was fairly self explanatory but I now know all about P2togtbl - I am impressed with myself for that one. I then went on to skpo and ... wait for it because this was my crowning moment ... I can short-row-wrap!!!! Boy am I pleased with myself right now! So I hear you say what did you produce with all this woolly magic??? I knitted Rill Raccoon-Fox and here is the little fella - admittedly eyeless so far but knitted all the same!

And just look and admire that incredible tail!

Then having enjoyed knitting him so much and having half the wool left over I decided to knit a reverse-raccoon-fox. Again I am afraid eyeless.....

Twins!!!

So my next step needs to be embroidering some eyes on these little guys! But did I do that??? No I picked my needles straight back up and started on Cyril Squirrel-Fox!!! He will be making his appearance here shortly as I have already finished both the front and back bodies and the nose and am currently working on the tail which involves working a colour pattern from a chart stranding the wool loosely across the back! I am in total heaven with this.

As if that alone was not enough I stumbled across a very talented lady called Julie Arkell, whilst shopping for wool and bought her amazing book from Loop.

All of a sudden my eyes were opened to how knitting can be used in conjunction with my other loves, modelling, patchwork, embroidery and collage. Now my head is buzzing with the possibilities and my hands are itching to feel all the different wools out there. Knitting is such a touchy feely craft - both the texture and the colours of the wool are just great to experience and I am sure that this is why the children at Craft Club are getting so stuck in.