knitted glasses case

This is my last post for a while now, I`m going on holiday tomorrow - yay!  And I thought I`d leave you with a farewell prezzie, to make my almost 3 week absence more bearable *pretends not to hear the sighs of relief*

The other day I decided to make a new case for my sunglasses, instead of the cheap plastic rubbish I got from somewhere as a freebie and which I hated with a passion - not only was it ugly but my shades always fell out of it too, so I might as well have chucked them into my handbag the way they were, the case was useless anyway.

I punched in `(sun)glasses case knitting pattern` into Google and to my great surprise, I was struggling to find anything useful. Being short on time, I decided to design one for myself - and here`s the result:

I used double knitting because I wanted a nice thickness to protect my shades, and I sewed the two double-knitted pieces together so as to show both colour combos. I don`t know how to make clever PDF, etc. attachments, but I thought I`d share the pattern in case there are others out there, looking for a simple glasses knit pattern - so here`s a photo of it:

As you can see, the design is 22 sts wide and 9 sts high - to this I added 4-4 sts on the sides (thus casting on 30 sts) and 4-4 rows above and below. Using standard DK yarn and size 7 needles (4.5 mm), my glasses case measures 17x9 cm (7"x3 1/2"). And, as I didn`t want my shades to slip out of this one too, I finished it with a short piece of I-cord, sewn into a loop, so you can pull the opening tight, like on a drawstring bag.

Hope all of you are having a fab summer holiday, see you again in August!  

Gloria

Well, do you remember this?
Alan Dart`s hippo, whom I named Gloria

I don`t blame you if you don`t, it`s been a while... Still, that doesn`t matter now, the main thing is that SHE IS HERE!!! Are you ready for a gorgeousness overload? (You might want to sit down first...?)

As you might have noticed, I substituted the grey yarn with light brown - this is more of a hippo-colour to me. Also, I have omitted the `finger and toe` nails because I hate sewing and the mouth + nostrils + eyes and generally making her up was more than enough for me. (May I just add here, on a personal note... not that my whole blog is not personal... anyway, probably the greatest factor in Gloria being finished today is the fact that this morning I spent about an hour and a half frogging a commission stitching, practically half of what I`d done so far, so I thought I`d better give cross stitch a break and get on with my knitting - but I`m not a masochist so I didn`t want to sew too much). You might also notice that I changed the eyes - the black pupil with white circle around it freaked me out a bit so I just used black yarn, and also stitched her a few eyelashes, for extra gorgeousness. Finally, I gave up on the sunglasses, and let this be a lesson for all of us, shades knitters of the future: if the pattern says spray it with hairspray, use that and don`t try your luck with spray-on starch - it won`t stiffen the yarn at all. And if you, like me, are crazy enough to switch on your iron in this heat, that`ll make things ten times worse: even on the coolest setting, it`ll make your already limp wool flat and shiny to boot. Thus, alas, there are no cool shades for Gloria but I think she looks stunning even without them - crazy summer heat or not, I might just go back for another cuddle... ;)

birthday birdies

Good job I `Liked` all the stitchy magazines` pages on Facebook - at least I get a wee reminder from time to time when one of my models appears, usually months after I stitched it, by which time I tend to forget about them. Thus I just spotted these little birthday birdies by Angela Poole in the latest issue of Cross Stitch Collection, out today:

Courtesy of The Making Spot, from Cross Stitch Collection 225

Oh, and the Kindle Fire cover I made on Sunday, so that the gadget would be safe when the Wee Man flies to Hungary in a couple of weeks` time? Well, he dropped the wretched thing last night and the glass broke to pieces. Now I can`t help feeling that I jinxed it somehow ;)

a weekend of Kindle covers

This, again, has been a busy week - maybe even more so than usual. Hubby and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday and two days later it was my birthday - and yes, both strengthened my belief that one cannot have too much chocolate. I also happened to finish all my magazine work for the now so this weekend I finally got round to sewing jobs I`d been putting of for ages. Hubby got some new tee shirts at work that doubled as miniskirts and I`ve been meaning to shorten them for weeks. Yesterday I finally got my sewing machine out and sorted them, then swiftly moved on to my Kindle Fire Cover Project. But first, the inspiration: my Mommy-in-law asked me a couple of weeks ago to make a cover for her Kindle  and the other day I started to knit one (I had this lovely lilac cotton yarn and I thought the colour would be perfect for her). I measured her Kindle the last time we visited her - I hope I got the size right!

I`m glad she mentioned the Kindle cover, by the way, because it got me thinking: we`re going on holiday soon - to Hungary, as usual, but this time in instalments. My Mum`s coming here this Thursday and in ten days` time she`s flying back with Gregory, thus giving us, run-down parents a little breather, plus spending some quality one-on-one time with her grandson. Then, to save her sanity, and because by that time I`ll be having withdrawal symptoms too, a week later I`m flying after my wee boy. Finally, after a few days, work-committed DH is arriving with the car, and in August we`re driving back to Scotland, just before school starts again.

Anyway, back to the Kindle cover. So I realised that if Son wants to take the Kindle Fire on the plane, he`ll need a cover for that, so I got my scrap fabrics out and he chose these two (a brownish flowery one and a red linen one with some embroidered flowers). I made the actual cover padded, in case he bumps or drops the thing, and I made an extra pocket for the charger. I finished both sides with wooden buttons I got as a free gift with a knitting magazine and hand-made button holes, which I tried for the first time and considering that, they turned out quite OK. All in all, I`m pretty chuffed with the result:

I almost forgot: I`m so used to not being able to share photos of my stitching any more, as they tend to be super-secret magazine projects, that I`ve just realised that the commission piece I`m working on just now is for a private person, so I can add WIP photos! Yay! It`s a funky little sampler by Riverdrift House, called Dream a Little Dream. I`m stitching it for an 83-year-old lady whose eyesight is not what it used to be but she`d like to give this as a wedding present to her granddaughter. I`ve only just started it but I know I`m going to have lots of fun with this jazzy sampler! :)

a get-well cat

Yet another short post from me (I planned to have a day for my own stuff but Superfast Postie thought otherwise, and he turned up at 8.30 this morning with my next commission - more Xmas stuff and quite a lot so I thought I`d better start it straight away). So I`ll just quickly show you what I`ve been working on for the past couple of days - a little cat for the wife of one of Hubby`s friends, who, as Iain Banks had said, is now `officially very poorly`. I hope she`ll like it - her husband said she would ;)

Durene Jones` Cat Cards from issue 98 of Cross Stitch Gold

Wallace and Gromit

I feel increasingly guilty for neglecting my blog (and others` as well) these past few weeks but the `work schedule` got a bit hectic: back-to-back projects with pretty tight deadlines... Well, actually, they aren`t TOO tight, as long as I work every day, practically all day, so that`s all I`ve been doing - until now, that is. Yesterday and today I selfishly took two days off to stitch something for Gregory`s birthday.

Of course, this still meant stitching but at least it was hobby, not work :)

I just finished it before he blew out the last candle on his cake (it was almost that close!) and I`m so glad he likes this little notebook - he can`t wait to start a new journal, about the eighth or ninth one now, in which he records all the dinosaurs he and his two favourite teddies have in their Jurassic Park :)

And now, after this little detour, I get back to my advent calendar for Gold ;)

Wallace and Gromit pattern from Adele Welsby`s Cross Stitch Characters (David & Charles, 2002)

sleeping puppy`s famous!

I`m so busy sharing this on Facebook that I almost forgot to post here: remember the sleeping puppy I knitted about 2 months ago? When I finished it, I sent an email to Knit Today with a photo of it attached and as it turns out, I was first past the post knitting this particular pattern. So they feature it in this month`s issue, which is great in itself, but! On top of that, I`ll get some Rowan patterns books too as a prezzie! Woooooop! I`m so happy about this I don`t even care about my tooth I managed to chip during lunch (with a pizza! How???? With melted cheese?). Anyway, back to the beautiful cottage I`m stitching at the moment - pictures of that in a few months` time...?

time to tea

I`m so focusing on the Christmas stocking I`m stitching right now that I almost missed the publication of one of my other projects. After months of not being able to post a photo, now finally here`s a chance (all photos courtesy of Cross Stitcher 266 via The Making Spot):

La Scapigliata update

I was about to start with saying that `a good pattern is worth its weight in gold` but then I realised that talking about paper, that wouldn`t mean too much. However, it`s true: now that I have a more unified pattern to work from, it feels like I got wings and I`m flying through the wee crosses. 

Elsewhere, in my parallel universe: I finished the 3 Christmas characters for Collection, I posted them this morning, and last night I finished Six Feet Under (I devoured all 5 seasons of it in the past couple of weeks  in an intensive TV watching marathon). Strangely, I haven`t knitted anything for a while, although Gloria`s beckoning me but I`m so absorbed by my stitching at the moment that everything else has to wait. So back to it I go... Cheerio!

WARNING: this will be a very long post, with lots of links and some photos :)

Before I say what I want to say, I`ve just got to say this: I won again!! Same as with buses and hedgehogs: now two wins come along at once (of course, entering competitions helps). Last night I got an email from Celtic Rose Needlecraft, with 4 PDF patterns attached - Dartmoor Heather, Moonlight On The Shore, Cottage Garden Pond and Daffodil Wood. I`m so chuffed! I just wish I had more time... or more hands... or both... I think if I ever get round to do it, I`ll start with Moonlight On The Shore. (Note to self: Don`t forget to write Thank You email to CRN!).

And now, what I originally wanted to write about: visiting other blogs. The other day my dear friend Katya (http://astitchingtime.blogspot.com) has already touched on this topic when she apologised, unnecessarily, for leaving a longer-than-usual comment after one of my posts. Unnecessarily, because - don`t get me wrong, I`m, like everybody else, glad to receive any signs of appreciation, even if it`s just a four-letter word (I meant `Nice!`, naughty!) but I simply LOVE long, personal comments where we can engage in a friendly conversation. At the same time, I realise that that`s what emails and personal FB messages are for, and maybe not everyone`s interested in the above-mentioned conversation... luckily, this blog is MINE so I can do whatever I want with it, so here`s what I didn`t want to clog my friend`s comments with about her book review:

I`ve been meaning to read J. K Rowling`s `next book`, i.e. the one that came after Harry Potter for ages, just like one day I intend to read The Host by Stephanie Meyer, her `next book` after the Twilight Saga, because I`m always curious how an author is trying to break down the fences their epic first work has built around them. But I have to be honest, after reading Katya`s review of The Casual Vacancy, I might not rush too hurriedly into this novel - I tell you why. Because with every year passing, I notice that I`m less and less tolerant towards sad things. At the moment, I can (just) cope with watching the news every night but I can see a future where even that`ll be too much for me - if I picture my supersensitive, weepy future self, then look back at my Dostoevsky and Camus reading, Goddard and Becket watching teenage self, I guess I`m about halfway through the scale. The little time I have for guilty pleasures like reading, I try to fill with happy  and easy stuff, so apart from perennial favourites, like Pride and Prejudice, I read a lot of historical novels - do you think it`s cowardice that I seem to escape to bygone ages, when the world seemed a less complicated, nicer place? (I know it wasn`t, not really, but you still get the illusion).

Anyway, enough of the heavy stuff, back to other people`s blogs. If you haven`t visited Minnie`s blog (http://minnie-allxxs.blogspot.com) yet, do it now... I mean, after you finished reading this! You know how sometimes you regularly check out a blog and the person`s WIP photo never seems to change? (Like my DaVinci, lol!). Not Minnie`s, uh-huh. She must be stitching 20 hours a day and I love ALL her WIPs, which is rare but I guess we have a very similar taste, I`d gladly take on any of the patterns she`s working on. The other day she shared photos of some of her finishes and I cheekily tried to get her to give me her African ladies cushion (my attempts failed miserably, btw). Shame, it`d have looked so neat with my Joan Elliott design, which I managed to frame since I posted that picture:

And so as not to leave you without news of La Scapigliata: although I haven`t worked on it since last Friday (on the upside, though, I finished Santa so I only have a robin and a snowman to stitch - oh, that reminds me! Now that the weather`s getting summery and I`m stitching Santas, the Fathers` Day hot air balloon cards I stitched last Christmas are in the shops! Sorry for digressing but I have to quickly add a photo here):

Cross Stitch Card Shop issue 90

Where was I? Yes, La Scapigliata. The good news is, I had another look and I hope I was panicking for nothing because the way I calculate it, there should be at least a 2" border so that`s fine. And the teaser from my last post: once I finish this, I shall stitch another version of the same painting, this time designed by one of my fellow model stitchers, Pippa Slack from Stitching Dreams. Her chart contains 22 colours as opposed to Maria Diaz`s 8 - I can`t wait to see the difference between the two! It`s quite a while away yet but rest assured, there will be plenty of progress photos - I`m going to enjoy that, a nice change from all this super-secretive magazine stitching! Obviously, I have to finish the commission works first, then my own 1-year-old DaVinci - but after that I hope not to have too many distractions (luckily, I got a fairly lax deadline from Pippa: "sometime within the next couple of years", lol!). And talking about distractions: have a look at this!!! I can`t believe they didn`t give her a name, she`s OBVIOUSLY a Gloria?!? Can`t wait to knit her!!

Alan Dart`s Heatwave Hippo from Simply Knitting Magazine Issue 107

timelessness

I have the weirdest `out-of-sync` feeling today. This is the first Sunday of May and as such, it`s Mothers` Day in Hungary: my Mum and Gran can finally see the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady cards I stitched for them a couple of months ago. I keep reminding myself to phone Mum`s house this afternoon, where my whole family will get together to celebrate - and all the while I`m stitching Santa Claus for a magazine! And as there`s no other imminent sign of this being anything else but an ordinary Sunday, I`m sitting here in my PJs amidst all these suggestions of special occasions like Mothers` Day, Christmas and May Day. (Even the latter only half-counts in our house: Gregory`s off school tomorrow but Hubby has to go to work :( So much about a long weekend!). And somehow I didn`t feel extraordinarily (intergalactically?) powerful yesterday either while shopping in ASDA, although I`d had several messages of the `May the Fourth be with you` kind.

On Friday I did get La Scapigliata out of its box (HA!!!!). I have to admit, after a year-long hiatus, I was struggling to find my place on the chart, especially as I was working from two photocopied halves on different scales... so I spent the whole day making a new, complete copy of the original* and then painstakingly transferring the squares I`d already worked. Now I have only one chart to work from but by the time I finished with all the paperwork, I hardly had time + energy left to stitch, so this photo will not be too different from the one I last posted about a year ago (still, who remembers that, right?). Oh, and I`ve just realised that I probably cut the fabric too small... happy days! Good job I`ll stitch another version after this - but more of that later... I`m such a tease, aren`t I???

*It is from The Ultimate Maria Diaz Cross Stitch Collection.

pictureless post

This is just to reassure everyone that I haven`t disappeared completely - I`ve been rather busy the past couple of weeks... and probably before that too but that was so long ago, I can`t even remember that far back. Anyhoo, due to the Spring school break/Wee Man being home/Mum`s staying here/Easter/my general laziness, I was relly, REALLY behind with the cushion for Cross Stitch Gold. For some reason, I thought that after Mum flying home, Hubby going back to work and Gregory to school, two weeks should be enough to finish this mammoth of a project* - they weren`t. Even when I increased my daily stitching to 10 hours, I was beginning to see that I was running out of time. So for the first time since I became a model stitcher, I had to ask for an extension on my deadline - and when I got an extra week, what was the first thing I did? I decided to relax a bit after the last few days` hurry, only did 4-6 hours a day... then I started to panic as my second, amended deadline was looming. Again, for some mysterious reason, I first thought that a couple of days should be enough for the backstitch - and they were, in a way: last Saturday I stitched 15 hours, on Sunday 14, and on Monday 6, so I just managed to post it on the designated day, before I had to go and pick up the Wee Man from school. I`d used almost 2 whole skeins of 3799 for the backstitch but it was well worth it (you can see the result in issue 104 of Gold).

I thought that after this stitchy marathon last weekend I won`t pick up a needle for a long time - but by Monday evening I couldn`t resist any longer (obsessed or what?) and started another commission piece, a smallish beach sign. Sorry, I can`t show you a photo of this either but I`m sure you can imagine it, sailing boat in the compulsory nautical colours of red, white and navy blue, plus some beige for the sandcastles in the foreground. It was a nice and easy piece after the cushion and I took my sweet time with it (I only just posted it an hour ago).

And what now, you ask? Well, I thought about getting my La Scapigliata out of its box (don`t laugh! One of these days it`s going to happen!) but I`d better hurry because there`s already another project in the post from Collection (something Christmassy already! Oooh, and it`s by my fave designer, Maria Diaz) - plus occasionally I should clean the house too... but surely, that can wait...?

* it took 180 hours in total

I`m such a winner!

Look what postie`s brought yesterday!

I entered the competitions a few weeks ago and I quite forgot about the whole thing. What a lovely surprise!

Yesterday was a stitchy day through and through: after receiving this kit, I got an email from Twilleys of Stamford (new commission in the post) and with just the odd tea-and-pee break, I stitched for 10 hours non-stop. My deadline for the Cross Stitch Gold cushion is next Wednesday and I`m beginning to have this panicky feeling in my stomach - there`s still quite a lot to do! Sorry, I can`t show you any pictures of it... it`s a shame because it looks gorgeous! And, weirdly, bigger from the computer desk... hmm, maybe I can do this...? OK, back to work! 

sleeping puppy

Hope nobody`s huffing about my tweet-like posts lately - my Mum`s still here and I spend next to no time on the computer these days. Plus, the sun is out (!) so it`s time to take the Wee Man for a walk.

I just wanted to share a quick photo with you of this little pup I started knitting yesterday when my copy of Knit Today (85) arrived, and I finished it just now, in less than 24 hours (my personal best so far). Any suggestions for a name?

my version of a Fashion Cape

The other day, I got fed up - I mean really fed up - with this Arctic spring we`ve been having so far and decided to do something about it. Not the weather in general, but more specifically with the problem that`s been bothering me for a while - namely, that when I sit in my stitchy chair, my shoulders and upper arms are cold. When the knees get a bit chilly, I just put a blanket over my legs but the temperature is getting too warm (in the house, at least) for a thick jumper, and in a thin one my upper arms are still cold. Anyway, long story short, I figured I could do with a cape and I found a pattern in Issue 83 of Knit Today. The original "Fashion Cape" is a lovely, white and navy checked number in pure wool, but I used my recycled pale green cotton yarn because 1. I had loads of it, 2. I didn`t want to concentrate on patterns, and 3. I didn`t bother too much what it looked like (after all, nobody`ll see me in it, except maybe postie if I have to sign for something). I finished it a couple of night ago and I`m happy to report that it`s nice and cosy, albeit resembling a straight jacket but I don`t care. And here`s a photo of it, taken by my Mum, who`s famous for chopping heads off when photographing, but I have to say, this is one of my favourite pictures of myself lately:

No more worries about bad hair days :)

Mum`s Easter chicks

Another quick post as I don`t want to be rude and sit here for hours while the whole house is in Easter fever - I just wanted to share this photo. My Mum might not be a needleworker per se, but she can definitely create all sorts of magic in the kitchen: this morning, for example, she made this breakfast for us! :)

Easter decorations

Today my Mum and I finished the Easter decorations for the table - hurrah! They are uber-expensive styrofoam eggs (a pound for a dozen), over which we - and when I say "we", I mean "she" - stretched the little cross stitched patches I made (I found the patterns in Cross Stitcher 250). Aren`t they cute?

Sorry for the picture quality but professional photographer I ain`t...

a couple of new(ish) publications

Just a quick update this time (I`m still busy with the cushion for Gold plus Easter plus sickness plus my Mum`s here). By the way, she loved the hedgehog and last night she asked me for a wee bag for her camera so I knitted this for her:

I`m pretty chuffed with this: first time I`ve knitted eyelets so my I-cord sits snuggly... all in all, a neat-looking little bag :)

Anyway, I`m just updating here cause I bought issue 221 of Cross Stitch Collection today and I love the tea cosy + tea towel + coaster set they made with my stitching on linen:

Also, although I posted my own pics a few days (weeks?) ago, here`s a link to the official photos of the cheery Easter cards that appeared in the previous issue of Collection. 

If I don`t "see" you before next weekend, Happy Easter everyone!

knitted hedgehog

I have realised something today: hedgehogs are like buses. You don`t see any for ages, then two come along at once. After the Ed Hedgehog I stitched the other week, I couldn`t resist knitting this little critter when I saw the pattern here. 

How sweet is that nose? And the ears? I just love it! Needless to say, Gregory has already claimed it - oh, I almost forgot to mention: he`s home again, this time with a sore ear but luckily the Nurofen is already kicking in, so he feels well enough to watch endless episodes of Garfield (yes, you guessed it, I have to either knit or crochet him one...) and demand `healing` biscuits (???) on a regular basis.

If my updates are a bit less frequent in the next few weeks, it is because model stitching jobs are like buses too: at the moment, I`m working on some Angela Poole cards for Cross Stitch Collection and this morning I got my next assignment for Cross Stitch Gold, a mammoth mandala-type design by Durene Jones, it`s going to be gorgeous, a 180x180 circular cushion cover. Can`t wait to start but first I wanted to finish this hedgehog, plus I`ve got a reindeer to make (have I told you I`ve enrolled in a free Craftsy class? I have 2 days left to learn a bit more about crocheting). I have finished the two Mothers` Day cards for my Mum and Gran - I can`t show you the photos yet but they were WOCS freebies, both from the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady series. Oh, and talking about magazines: on Saturday I picked up about 25 issues of Cross Stitcher from a charity shop for the hefty sum of £2 - yay! So if I have a spare minute (haha!), I have those to go through too. Hope y`all are busy doing your favourite things too, happy stitching!

mastering crochet :)

Another busy day, another late night, another finish and another short post: I had a lovely morning chatting at Jo`s and she liked the bunny - yay! Then I came home, enrolled in a Craftsy class and spent the afternoon learning to crochet: as it turns out, I already knew all the basics, I just kept miscounting, hence the crooked end results. But now, as suggested, I started to use a stitch marker and lo and behold, all my problems are solved (it was really a revelation, can`t believe that a tiny wee thing can make such a big difference!). And the first thing I made? Naturally, the long-awaited angry bird for the Little Man! :))

I found the original pattern here but due to changing the hook halfway through and tweaking with practically every bit, this being sort of a trial run, I could almost call it my own design