Creative Bits

Cat Bag

mtg08 — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:14:47 +0000

This bag made approx 7 or 8 years ago for sewing kit, the idea was the padded cats could double as both handles and pin-cushions. However I learnt a lot from my making experiment and I have to agree, I think it works much better as a nappy bag.

A pair of chairs finally finished

mtg08 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:09:45 +0000

Finally managed to get the two chairs finished!
Included removing all the old staples, the old rusty springs, the yellowed foam and chemically stripping the white house paint; then staining, varnishing, adding layers of natural fibres, coconut fibre stuffing, tacking and stitching, and to finish the final covering with round-headed tacks.

Pirate ship cake (lop-sided)

mtg08 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:00:28 +0000

A childhood ambition to make this cake from my Mother’s cookery book, not quite fulfilled because it wasn’t as good as I hoped, but at least B was happy with it. This cake was also taken from the Sainsburys Book of Childrens’ Party Cooking (now available via Amazon UK from £0.01) and then decorated with chocolate buttercream (I thought the coffee buttercream suggested might make them a bit hyper!).

Simple cake with sea decoration

mtg08 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:59:07 +0000

One of B’s birthday cakes this year, lots of fun to make. NB: the cling film wasn’t part of the decoration!

Knitted mini-laptop cover – free design

mtg08 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:08:21 +0000

This design is based on a Samsung mini-laptop, however misleadingly I had to photograph it with a different mini-laptop hence the pull around the buttons.
Essentially it is just a scarf that has two buttonholes and is stitched up the sides. However if useful the design is as follows:
Leigh, who I made this for, chose the Rowan yarn, the colours and the buttons. Rowan Cashsoft DK 517 Donkey and 503 Mirage, 1 ball each.
I then did a tension square and worked out the size based on the laptop measurements.

38 stitches were cast on and worked throughout. Each stripe had 10 rows, apart from the stripe designed to fit at one end of the laptop, which had 8 rows.
The sequence was: (B10, D10) 3 times, B10, D8, (B10, D10) 3 times, B20, D4 (buttonholes 5 and 6) D4, cast-off.
The buttonholes were worked across the two middle rows i.e. 5 and 6 of the last stripe, by casting off 4 stitches and casting them on in the next row. I have since read about better methods of doing buttonholes. Work buttonhole stitch to strengthen the buttonholes, in matching yarn.
Stitch up the sides matching the stripes, the 8 row stripe is folded in half, and the buttonhole stripe matches the same coloured stripe underneath.
Add the buttons last, stitch through a little patch of linen to strengthen the knitted fabric at the back, and leave a gap between the fabric and the button in order to be able to wind the yarn around and create the button shank.

Free Lego party invitations idea

mtg08 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:58:08 +0000

Finally the party invites are posted. I absolutely love Lego, and B does too, so went with this theme for the invites. I used A6 cards with printer labels for an outside design and the inside information. Avery A4/A5 labels (L7165) 8 to a page, each 6.77 x 9.9 cm. I used mail merge to autopopulate the labels. On the front was the ‘party’ image above, with a legoman helping to spell out ‘invitation’. I created the ‘party’ image by taking a photo of some Lego and removing the background and manipulating the image.

Free pattern child’s 4-ply gloves

mtg08 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:18:47 +0000

There are lots of free patterns out there, but for some reason it took me ages to find just what I wanted: a free pattern for 4-ply child’s gloves i.e. not mittens (there are so many free patterns for mittens). And this pattern is only on two needles which is even better – so excited, have to try this now. Also lots of amazing other patterns on Sarah Bradberry’s blog: http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns.htm

The Knitting Bishop

mtg08 — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:50:07 +0000

Richard Rutt, Bishop of Leicester, and known as the ‘knitting bishop’, is a huge inspiration for me right now. A couple of weeks ago, at a Look-here! project meeting, I was so excited to see the pence jugs and Sanquhar gloves that he had knitted, which are in the Knitting Collection at the University of Southampton.

The Bishop’s book ‘A History of Hand Knitting’ is simply essential reading for any knitter. I bought a second hand copy via Amazon, which was cheap, but unfortunately does smell, but is worth it for the content.

Re-themed blog

mtg08 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:08:01 +0000

Didn’t realise how bad the previous version of the blog looked, I think it depended on the way the colour looked on the monitor, looked boring and insipid. Maybe it looks worse now, but it is nice to have a change and fresh perspective anyway.

Website-type of blog I created just over a week ago, and have now handed-over: http://signforthoughts.wordpress.com/
My next blog project: http://teachingwithimages.wordpress.com/

Birthday themes and invites

mtg08 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:52:43 +0000

Although I have over a month, I am getting excited about a party for my son already. Trying to decide between Gruffalo and Lego themes at the moment.

Lego party invites do exist but took me ages to find, so I decided to add the link here: http://city.lego.com/en-us/downloads/partyPrint.aspx
The Gruffalo downloads are much easier to find at the www.gruffalo.com website. Julia Donaldson’s songs are brilliant (find under ‘Clips’ section).