Crochet

I really quite enjoy crochet! I find it much more straight forward than knitting, which I know for people who can't crochet and can knit that, that statement is comical.

Something kind of clicked with me once I got the hang of crochet it just felt good!

I have always wanted to make amazing extravagant things and this was before I even knew how to hold the hook and the same for knitting. So naturally when I couldn't even make a scarf, I would become disheartened and want to give up. I did give up a few times. So when it came time to learn crochet, I tried to take it step by step before I attempted the amazing extravagant projects.
Don't Rush yourself!
I think this really helped me, in fact I was only just saying this to the receptionist at work. You want to learn to knit or crochet because you want to make yourself that amazing chunky knit cardigan, but in reality you can't just jump to step 50. You really need to lay the ground work first, learn the basics and when you get to the level you need to be at to make that chunky knit cardigan it will look so much better.

So after making many sample squares of each of the stitches I had learnt, I was able to comfortably move on to the more difficult projects. I would still only class myself as slightly above beginner.
I made a whole heap of hats in the beginning. Again Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The happy hooker is a great book for learning and there are also some cool patterns in the back. Otherwise you can find free instructions all over the web and like I said YouTube should be you new best friend.

Summer 2009 when my friend told me she was expecting a baby in January/ February, I got really excited about making something special for the him or her. I searched the internet for some ideas and patterns, finally I came across the Afghan star blanket. I was so excited however it turns out this was one of those amazing extravagant things I had mentioned earlier that I just wasn't ready for.  I tried and I tried but it just wasn't working out, so I decided to do a knitted panel blanket which I did in rainbow colours and my Best friend Leonora helped me back it with baby blanket felt (She's the sewer in the relationship. Give her a sewing machine and she's well away, but give her a crochet hook and we'll have a tantrum on our hands.)

Now 3 years later another friend is expecting a baby. This time I was determined to do this star and as luck would have it, a wonderful person made a step by step, stitch by stitch video on YouTube. This was so easy to follow. I am so please with the result and it took me no time at all.

Looking like a star! All going to plan  

Getting bigger and still looking star like Whoohoo!

Feeling pretty proud of myself

Finished 

(well almost, Leonora is going to help me out with a little bit of embroidery) 

Very Pleased with myself! 

Knitting

It took me some time to get the hang of knitting, and to be honest I wouldn't say I'm a particularly skilled knitter. This is something I plan on improving over the next few months.
When I first started knitting my main issues were dropping Stitches and knitting too tight. I can't really tell you  how I overcame these issues, I guess I just improved with practice.

From the little knitting I have done, I do have a preference for the bamboo needle they are just nicer!
I suffer from the curse of the cold hands, this gets really bad when I am knitting or crocheting and well its pretty bad now. I tend to need to wear fingerless or tube gloves so my hands don't drop off when knitting or crocheting.

More reasons to like the bamboo needles, they are not cold, they are lighter, and the yarn doesn't tend to stick and do that horrible squeaky thing. Also that may also be due to the fact that, I also no long knit super tight.

My advice to anyone wanting to learn to knit or crochet is for YouTube to become your new best friend!

Its not even that cold today but my hands are Freeeeeezzzing!! So I am not only rocking the fingerless gloves but the tubes too.

Wish I could say I had made these, but I bought them at the wonderful Camden Market a few winters ago. They are absolutely AWESOME!   

Perhaps this will be one of my blogs learning to make tube gloves.

Reblog

I have had to delete the blog, and do it all over again so lets hope it all stays pretty this time!
fingers and toes crossed!!!!! 

Bears and other creatures continued... Criss crossing

Although we had pretty much given up on Needle Felting there was some room for cross over with other crafts. Enter Crochet

So my f.m.i.l was crocheting, and guess what? I wanted to learn too!

I had tried knitting before and well if you like slopey scarves I was your girl but this time I was determined  
to learn to crochet and knit properly and all at the same time. It was quite a while ago so I can't remember if the chicken or egg came first but the story ends well I can now do both! Yay!

Gwen had moved on to hand made teddy bears. Believe it or not, there is quite a market for these little and some times huge fellas.  After a few lessons from Gwen, at the local bingo hall between calls and a little help from  Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker I was comfortably crocheting. Yay again! So Gwen gave me my first crochet teddy bear project.

It was a pretty challenging task, and I wish I had taken pictures of all the mistakes before they where unravelled and restarted.

This here is is my first ever crocheted bear. Unfortunately I never seemed to get round to putting him together, and I can see from the picture here his body is upside down too oops.

Although it was hard, I did enjoy making this little guy and so I made a few more...

    

 Each of these bears was made from the same pattern, but just with a different size crochet hook and yarn to get the different sized bears. 

So I was never going to be an amazing handmade teddy bear maker. I refer you to the Hugglets website for for examples of amazing handmade teddy bears.  Gwen on the other hand did make some amazing crocheted bears with beautiful felt detailed faces and paws. I'll try and get hold of some pictures

Bears and other creatures....

So my f.m.i.l ( a lot of my post may start "so my f.m.i.l") was making little needle felted creatures.

Needle Felting involves.... you guessed it needles and felt. Martha Stewart has a pretty good post on her website about about how to needle felt. The needles used for felting are no ordinary needle they are barbed and quite frankly pretty evil. Anyone who has ever poked themselves with one will understand what I mean.
Its not just that you poke yourself, its the fact that you poke yourself about 3 time before you realise what you have done. They have these nifty little finger protectors now.

See all those little barbs? They make the felt mat together as the needle passes in and out.

Depending on the gauge, there are more or less barbs and also the barbs are positioned higher or lower on the needle.  

The felt kind of looks like wool candy floss, it comes in many colours and many texture.

Needle felting looked like fun, so I thought I would give it ago. Gwen (f.m.i.l) disappeared in toThe Magical Craft Cupboard for a few minutes and then reappeared with a felting starter kit. Felting needles in a range of gauges, a rainbow of felting wool and not forgetting a piece of foam.

I got to it at the first available opportunity. This opportunity being my childcare lecture at college. I tend to do my hobbies in places I'm not meant to. Much like this blog which I am writing at my desk at work tut tut! It turned out childcare wasn't for me, and I found my fellow classmates unintelligent questions maddening so stabbing a lump of felt was just perfect.

I hadn't really had a plan in mind, when I started mindlessly poking the felt. I hadn't done any research on felting techniques but my mindless poking turned out to be a little penguin. It was actually not bad for a first attempt. Nothing compared to Martha's but an acceptable first attempt.

I can't say I did much needle felting after this, the bag didn't make it to the loft but has been sitting untouched for quite some years now. I do intend on trying other felt crafts but just haven't got round to it just yet.

The Magical Craft Cupboard

I was just writing another post and was referring to The Magical Craft Cupboard and thought this really needs its own post.

Gwen (f.m.i.l) as I previously mentioned is "my crafty partner in crime" Gwen has pretty much tried it all and much like me can't seem to stick with one craft.

Every time I visited Gwen she would either be doing some cool new craft that I wanted to try or I would mention something I wanted to try. 9 times out of 10 what I wanted to try, Gwen would have tried already and had all the necessary equipment in The Magical Craft Cupboard.

This was great for me, it was like having a my own craft library and librarian.

I was free to sample things without having to buy all the stuff.

Just a few things that have been found The Magical Craft Cupboard:

Knitting 

Crochet 

Glass painting 

Felting 

Tatting

Calligraphy 

Card making 

Flower making 

Miniature dolls house

Miniature bears

Fimo

Air brush 

and so many more... 

Some dreamy craft cupboards I found around the web

New Year New Me! Starting a blog

I will start by apologising for my horrible grammar. I have no idea where the fullstops and commas go, this has always been an issue for me and so I would just like to say sorry in advance.

Anyway on to the Jiminybilly Blog! 

I have stolen my title "New Year New Me" from my fiancé who says this every time I look surprised he has washed the dishes. 
Not just thanks for his catch phrase but also a thanks for his inspiration! Mark has started his running blog and so I have been inspired to actually write something on mine as I've had it forever.
My second inspiration comes from my friend Sam. Sam and I both love the creative side of life and though we express our crafty loves in different ways. Sam's blog has again inspired me to write mine.

So apart from all those Blue Peter and Art Attack projects from my childhood, this is where it all started.

I like to dabble in crafts a little fimo here.....

Those where the old days, I started playing with fimo back in 2002 this was a hobby that was started by my future mother in law Gwen (F.M.I.L) My Crafty partner in crime, you will notice a patten here as the blog goes on.
I started with normal fluffy little sheep and as I went on I made little characters adding bows or hats. As you can see from the pictures I got quite creative with my little sheep.

I really enjoyed doing this for a while (but again you will see another pattern form here as the blog goes on) but I then started selling bits and pieces on Ebay. It then started feeling like work and so I started to lose interest, and the joy of just making for the fun of it. So big bag of unused Fimo goes into the loft!

a little Jewellery making there.....

I then decided to try my hand at a bit of beaded jewellery making. I started small with a pair of Star earring, which my mum really liked and snapped up. Mum wore the earring to work and they caught the eye of a few colleagues and so I made a few more.
I then got on trawling the internet, looking at all the great beads that are out there. Let me tell you, I could spend a lot of money if I was left alone in a bead shop and I can tell you I did.

I made earring, bracelets, chokers and necklaces and they were very popular with the woman in my building at work. Unfortunately it happened again! I lost the joy of the Jewellery making but not it in the same way as before, I still liked to do it, but it was when people kept asking me to change what I had already done. Oh that's nice but can I have like this or oh that's nice but can you do it like that. I obliged for a while but it wore me down until the joy was all gone. So big case of beads into the loft!