New things update

We're half way through the year so I thought I'd do a round up of how my '12 months of new things' projects are going:

Jan - sew a padded seat cover for our new bike. I did this and am very happy with it. I even completed it before the end of January!

Feb - make my own pasta dough. Didn't happen at all but I did substitute this with another project - learn to applique, which was very successful and has held my interest.

Mar - learn to crochet. I had a good go at it but I ended up with several tightly twisted scraps of yarn that I could no longer get the hook through and decided it would be better to learn from a person... and haven't tried again since. I can't say I get it at all and therefore my enthusiasm has waned.

April - sew an item of clothing for myself. I watered down this project to what I thought would be a more achievable refashion job but it's turned out to be quite tricky (naturally). I'm about 90% there I think, just need to gather strength for the home straight.

May - knit a vest for Angus. Well it's early July and I'm still going strong. I didn't touch it in June but last week I finished the back and immediately cast on for the front. I'm enjoying this.

June - make my own bread (learn how to do it and keep doing it). Didn't even try but the trip kind of took over June so I will get to this at some stage... maybe this month?

July - try quilting. I think I'll shelve this one until I have an idea of what I might like to make. I'll make July the bread thing instead.

Verdict: My commitment to the timeline has slackened considerably, I need to get back on track. But I love having a plan and look forward to what is coming next on the list.

I need to decide what my August project will be; at the start of the year I just said something to do with photography but I need to work out what. Perhaps it should be to finally read the darn manual and set the camera up how I want it instead of always using it on auto settings and being disappointed with the results!

Project for May

My May goal is to knit a vest for Angus but I knew that it would take me more than a month to do this so I've been practicing for a few weeks now.

First attempt at ribbing - not a success

I had never tried ribbing or even stocking stitch before and to be honest I never really understood the whole moving the yarn from front to back to change stitches; but it suddenly clicked and I'm pleased to say I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it!

Second attempt at ribbing and first at stocking stitch - not bad

Next I need to frog all of that knitting and start again using a pattern. I've never tried to read a knitting pattern before and I haven't yet found one I like for a vest for Angus so these are the next things to overcome to achieve my May project. I've just kept going on the knitting in the mean time because I'm enjoying it, but the more I do the more disappointing it will be to frog it and there's no way what I've started will be wide enough for a vest.

Sunday Stash

Two visits to the supermarket of craft stores today.
They are having a sale and I can't resist a bargain.
Woops...
The fabric at the top is for my April mission and I hope some of the others will appear as completed projects soon (but I admit that some are just for the stash for now).


The yarn top right is for my May mission and the rest was just a bargain. Foolishly small quantities I have realised already - a common mistake made by the rookie knitter (who in this case has never completed a garment, except a rather small scarf which I'm not convinced counts).

No excuses now, better get crafty!

Learning

I am trying to learn to crochet, as was the plan for March, but I am finding it as difficult as it was learning how to knit without being instructed by a knowledgeable person.

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was quite young (about 7 I imagine) and I knitted little scarves for my teddies because that was about all the attention span I could muster and so I never developed my skills any further. I wasn't terribly interested again until I was about 33 and saw on several blogs how to reclaim yarn from a knitted jumper which inspired me. So I went out and bought some needles and yarn (and an old jumper) from a thrift shop and set about refreshing my memory of how to knit over the internet.

It went rather well and I quickly knitted a lovely scarf until I ran out of yarn and decided that next I wanted to try the "other" stitch, purl. Purl was OK too but going from purl to plain and back again was leaving me very perplexed until a real live knitter showed me what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, I am finding that crochet is equally difficult to learn without a teacher that has a pulse if you have no experience of it whatsoever. I mastered the chain thing pretty quickly and I am starting to get the hang of the single crochet I think but confidence feels a long way off right now. Of all the online advice I found this site was the best.

Yep, Definitely Hooked

Buoyed by my recent success on my first applique attempt (yes, I did rate it as a success) I was keen to try some more adventurous projects. I started with a mending job which I was quite pleased with - patching the knees of a pair of pants for Angus.


Next I moved onto a t-shirt potentially for a gift and liked the little giraffe so much I did one for Angus too. I'm still not sure how I managed to get it to face the other way though (well I guess I know how I must have done it, just didn't realise I had at the time).

Just need to add a tail to the little guys now.


















And then I made my favourite so far, a little grey elephant on a t-shirt for Angus. The shirt is an old one of Rohan's and the grey fabric is from a thrifted linen shirt. I'm particularly pleased with the ear which I satin stitched with the machine. Next time I think I'll try using a walking foot on the machine, I think I read that somewhere.

Shame I haven't managed my February challenge to make my own pasta but I have at least tried a new thing and I'm enjoying it a lot!

Applique

OK it may not be on my list but I've tried a new thing...


...this is my first ever attempt at applique. Yes, it is a bit wonky. Yes, the stitching is a bit average and the cotton is the wrong colour but the applique was on and I was too impassioned to wait until I had the right colour cotton. Yes, I did choose a square for the most simple sewing because I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to sew around the shape with any kind of accuracy at all.

Verdict: I think I'm hooked - I love it!

Burst of sewing

I achieved my January challenge of sewing a cushion for the bakfiets! The picture was taken in a hurry, I would have liked to attach the cushion properly to the seat, make sure it was fluff free, have a nice backdrop etc but you get the idea. I used entirely thrifted/upcycled materials for this so I am doubly pleased. It means that the piece of foam in the back rest is not quite the right size but it's just fine for the boys and they love it.


On Saturday I made a small stuffed elephant, Olga, from More Softies (pictured) but I finished so quickly and was in such a hurry to give it to a friend's daughter that I didn't get a picture of the finished Olga. So this is the Olga in the book pictured with the fabric I used for my Olga.


And today I decided I needed a pincushion so I whipped up this one from here during the boys' nap. Cute!

Is that someone waking now? I think so.

Change

My baby (12 months old) started daycare today. Rohan (3 yrs) has been going there since he was 13 months old and loved it from day one, he was excited this morning to be going back to 'school' and was happy to now be in the big kids' room (3-5 yrs).

So today Angus just went in for a few hours for orientation, he was an angel the whole time we were there and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I left the room for half an hour or so at a time so he got a chance to know the carers which was great. At morning tea he enjoyed sitting at the table with the other kids, in a special little chair rather than a highchair, and he fed himself chunks of fruit. At lunch he was happy to be fed by one of the carers and ate three helpings of lunch and two of dessert! Then I whisked him home and straight into bed as he usually has a morning sleep. Three hours later and he is still asleep!

I have the day off work to take Angus in for orientation so during this unheard of only-one-child-at-home-having-an-amazing-three-hour-sleep thing that's happening today I made a padded seat cover for our neeeeeeeew bike! The seat part is only half the job, I need to do a backrest as well, so I can't say I've completed my January project yet but I'm half way there. Here's the seat cover. More on the bike later.

Planning

photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Planning to learn new skills and setting a timeline is a brilliant idea I read on this blog and it's inspired me to come up with a plan of my own. I love structure and deadlines so although I am inclined to resist committing myself when I am already so busy (and hate the thought of setting myself up for failure) I think having a timeline will inspire me to make more of an effort. It was also one of my New Year's resolutions to make better use of my time and this is a good way to keep me on track.

Some new skills I'd like to acquire and projects I'd like to try are:

Jan - sew a padded seat cover for our new bike
Feb - make my own pasta dough
Mar - learn to crochet
April - sew an item of clothing for myself
May - knit a vest for Angus
June - make my own bread (learn how to do it and keep doing it)
July - try quilting
Aug - something to do with photography
Sept - grow some plants (food) we haven't tried growing before
Oct - plan homemade Christmas gifts and get started
Nov - make Christmas cards and gift tags with the boys
Dec - 'do' advent for the first time to make Christmas really special

Hopefully this time next year I'll be able to make a mosaic like the one above from my own images!