A Spot of Dyeing

This is a quick post while my banana bread (for work tomorrow) is in the oven- check me out, a domestic goddess!? I don't think so- it's one of only two things I ever bake and only when the bananas are so black there's nothing else to do with them, I can't bare the waste of throwing them out!

This weekend with weather being so lovely of late I decided it was time to dye a dress I had been meaning to do since last Summer. As it's mainly viscose with a little Lycra, I used my go-to-dye, Dylon Hand Dye, in my favourite colour- burlesque red (which is actually more of a purple).

The instructions state that one pack dyes 250g to full shade or larger amounts to lighter shade; the dress weighed 350g so I decided to use two packets for a nice intense colour.

Once the dress was in and the dye was doing it's stuff I felt like I was not getting my money's worth so looked around for something else to put it... 
A couple of 50g balls of Sidar Sunseeker Cotton Chainette, a 100% cotton DK yarn, caught my eye.

As it was all a but last minute, I decided to be a little experimental and didn't bother to unwind the balls as I have done previously when dyeing yarn. Instead I soaked both balls as they were in warm water as per the packet's instructions,

I then skewered (love that word) both on a long knitting needle and suspended them over the dye so only half was submerged. I had to poke the bottom of them a few times and gave them a few good squeezes to try to get the dye to go right to the centre.

Once done, after about 2 hours, I removed them from the dye and rinsed them out really well with cold water.

After squeezing them out I popped them into a pair of tights and put them in the washing machine with a dark load (along with the dress) and then hung them both out to dry.

This was the end result....

Once I unwound it to make sure it was dry through, which they weren't quite, I discovered the dye had penetrated quite well even in ball form (there's no scale in the photo, so it's hard to tell, but the ball below is about 85% unwound).

And this is both balls completely unwound.

I would recommend unwinding yarn beforehand if you decide to do a spot of dyeing and want a predictable result but in a push I think this way works. I'm looking forward to seeing how it knits up.

Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x 

Day Tripping to The Historic City of Wells

Yesterday my husband and I headed to the historic city of Wells in Somerset, which as the crow flies is almost exactly 30 miles (48km) south of us. In reality it's actually about an hour and a quarter away, 21 miles (34km) south of Bristol and certainly worth the drive.
Steve bought tickets for The Bishop's Palace on Amazon Local and we were keen to see Wells' Cathedral too, so while the sun was shining we headed to Somerset's ancient city. Also as one of our favourite films, Hot Fuzz, did a lot of its filming in Wells we thought it would be great to see the place in real life. (My dad actually informed me after we were back home that we went when I was little but I honestly can't remember that.)
The Bishop's Palace was stunning & the cloisters of the cathedral were very tranquil.

Unfortunately we didn't get to go properly into the cathedral as a special service for a retiring Dean was taking place but what we did see was very impressive.
Saturday is market day so we had a good look around that, there was a large selection of items on offer. It included a farmer's market so we bought lots of lovely, local produce to enjoy over the weekend, my favourite being very tasty pies (chicken, mushroom and asparagus in filo pastry for me). The Town Hall was hosting an antique fair where I bought some delightful teaspoons just because I couldn't resist.

An absolute gem of a wool shop was located down a little street (Mill Street). It's very unassuming frontage completely hides the huge array of wares inside, it was massive yet you would never have known from outside. I didn't even know it's a name until I looked it up once home, Mandy Wools. It has a very large range of yarns, together with all sorts of crafty goodies such as buttons and clasps and vilene etc.

There was also Millie Moon, a fabric and haberdashery shop, there was no way I was leaving without a purchase or two from inside there!

Look how beautifully wrapped my items were, using a piece of pattern paper and Millie Moon labelled stickers.....

I almost didn't want to unwrap them but, of course, I did.

Around the corner from there was a wonderful little bead shop, Bella Beads Boutique, again I wasn't leaving empty handed.

On top of that I managed to pick up an old Quality Street tin containing, yep you guessed it, BUTTONS for £6.50 from a charity shop. They're just crying out to be sorted and that makes for one very happy Ernest!

And that doesn't even cover everything, I also bought 4 crafty books in an Oxfam bookshop and a few other bits and bobs to use in projects in the near future.

What a great day- as a place to visit I would highly recommend it!

Until next time, craft in earnest. Craftin' Ernest x

Knit Texture Buttons

I don't know if you can tell from the background but I really love buttons, it's borderline obsessive. I love sorting them, sewing them on things and making them, as this previous post will attest to.

So when I completed another knitted project, a stripey knitted cowl, I searched my extensive collection and decided it was time to make a couple of buttons I had been thinking about for some time- with the help of a teacup and saucer!

To knit the cowl, I used a Paton's 4ply Regal Cotton in pale blue for the main sections and a denim blue, 100% wool from Guernsey for the thinner stripes. As I wanted it to be quite chunky I used three strands of each to knit with and 7mm needles.

I started with a 5 rows of rib stitch before switching to stockinette stitch. I knit 15 rows in the pale blue and 6 rows in the denim five times before 15 further rows in pale blue. In the last set of 15 pale blue rows I included 2 large buttonholes, created over 2 rows, and finished off with another 5 rows of rib.

The yarns I used led to very defined stitches and this is what told me it was time to make knitted textured buttons! 
A few months ago I stumbled across what I thought was a real bargain in a shop I love, Paperchase- a teacup and saucer with a knitted texture for £4. As if I could leave it behind!? Not only does it look fantastic but I thought I could get crafty with it at some point. Now was that time.

To make the buttons I used Milliput, a 2 part epoxy putty that is just perfect for making buttons. I know this stuff thanks to my dad and his model making days, it also came in very handy for jobs around the house so he would often use it to fix things.

It comes in a few different colours, all of which consist of two rolls of putty which you mix together in a ratio of 1:1. Once thoroughly mixed you have a couple of hours before it sets and after 24 hours it can be sanded and drilled. It really is tough stuff once fully cured- I dropped the buttons a couple of times on tiled floor (unintentionally of course, I was having a clumsy moment) with no damage!

For these buttons I used the silver grey, I had originally intended to use Milliput Standard but accidentally gave that to my dad when he needed some, thinking it was the older of the two packs I had. I was most definitely incorrect about the age, so the rolls in the pack I was using had gone hard on the outside, this just meant I had to cut away the outer layer on both and discard them.

 The colour didn't matter as I planned to paint the finished results anyway.

 Once it was the right consistency I made two balls the same size.

Ooh by the way, it's recommended to wear gloves when you mix Milliput however I don't, I use bare hands, but I make sure I apply barrier cream beforehand and have never had a problem.

The next stage is where my wonderful Paperchase find came into its own. Although Milliput is very adhesive, water can be used to prevent it sticking and this means you can impress a texture into it if the surface is wet.

I coated the surface of the saucer in water before pushing the balls of Milliput, one at a time, into it creating a rough circle shape, the right size for my buttonholes. I decided I liked the irregular shape but if wanted a cutter could be used to neaten the edges, just remember to wet the surface of the cutter.

Once I had two similar sized discs with a scrummy knitted texture on each, I put them aside on foil for 24 hours to set. The next step was to drill two holes in each using a 3mm drill bit and my electric multi-tool. Be prepared, this can be messy, especially if the door opens just as you finish and the wind blows the bits EVERYWHERE! I could have pushed holes into them before they cured, for example using cocktail sticks, but I like the sharpness you get from drilling.

Once the holes were drilled it was time to paint them. I used nail varnish, in a colour also called denim, which was very similar to the thin stripes knitted in denim wool. I only gave them one coat because I liked the way the pattern was highlighted by the lighter colour of the putty underneath so it worked out well using the silver-grey

All that was left was to attach the buttons, for this I used the pale blue yarn, and bingo- one happy Craftin' Ernest!

Until next time, keep cosy and craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest xx

Can't Stop Knitting

Perhaps a little late in the day, with January all but over, but happy 2015 peeps!
I've been trying to have a chilled out January & just concentrate on making things for fun, experimenting a bit with no real deadline or reason. I've been making birthday presents too, thought I'd get a head start on the year. 

With the weather being rather chilly, I couldn't help but be drawn towards the big chunky balls of wool in my stash! There isn't much better on a damp and cold January evening than getting all snug in front of the TV, surrounded by huge balls of yarn that's the width of a pencil or more.

I got busy with a yummy ball of Rowan Big Wool in shade 65 "Champion" a scrumptious, burnt orange colour (one of my three go-to-colours at the moment, the other two being navy & mustard). 

I think nice, fat yarns work up lovely using a really textured knit. One ball was easily enough to make 2 cosy headbands, just the thing needed to keep your ears warm when out for wintry walks! 
For this sort of project I usually grab my box of "Harmony 101 Stitches to Knit" by Erika Knight. As the name would suggest it contains all you need to knit 101 different stitches, each one detailed on it's own, handy card, just right to slip in with your project on the go. I think it's a great addition to any knitter's library.

For one of the headbands I used the ric rac (or rickrack if you prefer) stitch, so called because (yep, you guessed it) it looks like ric rac. Here's a great YouTube video by New Stitch a Day with all the instructions needed for the stitch.

I used 7mm needles and 16 stitches, it needs to be multiples of 3 +1. Once I was happy it would comfortably fit around my head I cast off and sewed the cast-on and cast-off ends together. For an extra bit of detail I gathered the join and covered it with a small strip of stocking stitch (17 rows of 5 stitches on 5mm needles) and attached a big button in the centre of the strip. The colours of the wool and button are distorted in the picture because they're actually almost identical.

The second was made using the knot stitch or star cluster stitch (the same stitch just known by different names, I've heard a few others too but I think these are the most common- please correct me if I'm wrong). It's a really simple pattern (here's a YouTube video with instructions), more so than above, repeating every 4 rows with all right side rows being plain knit, always good. The wrong side are purl and involves knitting 3 stitches together as well as wrapping the yarn and the needle and knitting into the same stitch, nothing more complicated than that.
I used 13 stitches, this time it's multiples of 4 +1, but I used 12mm needles and although the knit is much looser the headband has a similar width to the ric rac stitch one but obviously needed a lot less rows! I decided just to sew the ends together with this one, I thought the texture was all the detail needed.

Along with the knitting, I've been "making" almost instant rings and by "making" I just meaning gluing a ring finding onto the back of something. I had a great little charity shop find- a kitschy brooch clip for 50p. I removed the back look and glued a silver plated ring finding to the back of it with E6000 glue. Now the reason I mention it was a silver plated was because after wearing it for less than an hour it broke. The glue had held tight but the plating had come away from the finding! I was left with a nice silver circle in the glue, so I filed down the the circle on the ring to the copper before re-gluing and so far it has held tight.

Buttons are always wonderful to make into rings also and the one above, on the right, from my Grandma-In-Law is a real beaut. It looks lovely and old and well-loved and as it was a shanked back button I had to snip that off

. I gave the finding a good file beforehand with this one and I used Hard-As-Nails super glue, also once it had set the following day, I gave it another layer over the top. That button isn't going anywhere (I hope I haven't just jinxed myself)!

I hope 2015 is super, wonderfully, crafty for you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated.

Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x

Even More Hectic December

One week today it'll be Christmas folks, but far more importantly to me, only six days 'til THE BIG DAY- my sister's wedding!
As I mentioned in my last post it's all go and I was right that I'd be hard pressed to blog, sorry!
I'm really enjoying all the making, however I still can't share most of it. I'm almost done, just need to do the alterations to her dress, which she bought, so no pressure there! That's the task for the weekend. Then the fresh flowers for the table decorations and her bouquet but that'll be the day before/morning of job.

In between the preparation for the main event I've managed to finish a few homemade gifts although I have bought Christmas cards this year, say whhhaattt? 
I know but what can a girl do when's there's only so many hours a day and the day job takes up a lot of them?!
I did find some I liked with owls (can't go wrong) which were just right to embellish, out came the glitter glue and the ever trusted buttons and they're now just a little more special....

I also managed to fit in a trip to Cardiff's Christmas Market and picked up some lovely pressies from local makers, always good!
 http://www.cardiffchristmasmarket.com/

My "go to" present when time is ticking is the always reliable cowl....
For the first one, I used super cosy Rowan Polar yarn (60% wool, 30% alpaca, 10% acrylic) which is sadly now discontinued :-( 
I used a scrummy, purple colour and crocheted three bands approximately 7cm wide and 60cm long. I then plaited them together and joined the ends with a few more rows of triple crochet and included a couple of button holes on one end. I used lush, chunky buttons on the other end and the result is a rather snug cowl.

For the other cowl, I used James C Brett's sumptuous Monsoon yarn (70% acrylic, 30% wool) but knitted this one. I simply knitted 5cm of double moss stitch then continued in stocking stitch. The wool produced lovely bands and lent itself to being symmetrical. Again I included two button holes which were made over two rows. I then attached two vintage buttons to complete it.

Although the cowl is 65cm long and 22cm wide, one ball was plenty with quite a bit left as you can see from the picture.
Hopefully the recipients like them!

Thanks so much once again for taking the time to read my post, it means a lot.
I hope you and your family have a wonderfully festive Christmas. Be prepared for wedding overload in the New Year ;-)
Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest xx

Learning to Crochet & Finishing a Long Forgotten Jumper

I realised over the weekend I learnt to crochet just over eight years ago now!
I used the book, "Good Housekeeping Crochet" which I had bought in a charity shop. It is still available second-hand from Amazon here and I've just noticed it's almost the same age as me (first published in 1981). I think it's great (as do both people who gave it 5* reviews on Amazon) and still regularly refer to it if I'm looking for a stitch. It doesn't contain patterns for items, it's more a directory of stitches and gives examples of things each stitch may be good for and suggested yarn, etc.

The first book I bought which contained patterns for finished items, just after I had mastered the basics, was "Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet" by Nancy Queen & Mary Ellen O'Connell. I bought it whilst in Ireland for my Grandma's 80th birthday party, she would have turned 88 last weekend so I know it's been eight years.
This book also has a good "how-to" section and discusses different yarn types etc. However, it is an American book and as such uses American terminology which I had to get my head around as I had only just got the hang of British terms.
I'm not a fan of every item in the book but there were a few items I really liked and it seemed like a good choice for a beginner especially from the options available in the general book shop I was in.
My favourite pattern is easily the shell stitch hat, Surfer Chick Quick Cap, on page 109. 

I have made this hat I don't know how many times, most female members of my family have received one at some point! I've made them in lots of sizes by changing the wool and hook size, right from newborn upwards. I also quite often add a accent such as a crocheted flower or a button. I also tend to make it a bit longer and not quite so tight as the one pictured in the book.
There's no scale in this picture but it's for a newborn and the yarn was a super soft mix.

The first item of clothing crochet item I attempted was the "No Sweat Hoodie" on page 91. This was just after the first hat I made. As I had found that nice and easy, I was buzzing with confidence. 
Unfortunately I never actually finished the hoodie though, I made all the sections but when it came to sewing it together I couldn't get it to work. So I folded it up, but it in a storage box and promptly forgot all about it. 

I decided now was the time to rescue the sections from the depths of my storage mountain and see if it's clear to me now that I have a good bit of experience behind me and I have to say I must have been a complete moron back then!!
I honestly don't know what was wrong with me but I can't have been thinking straight. The hoodie features raglan sleeves- I know full well what raglan sleeves are and did so long before I could crochet, so I don't know what my excuse is for completely missing an entire section of the pattern; this resulted in both my sleeves ending with straight tops without raglan shaping at all?!? 

Before

Like I said, moron. I'm going to put it down to the fact I was very inexperienced at reading patterns. Suffice to say it would be impossible to finish it as it was. Thankfully I've come a long way since then so decided to finish the jumper.

I looked up to see if there were any discussions online and found some comments on Ravelry. That made me feel a whole lot better as other people were struggling with the back and I managed that at least. Although, looking at the pencil notes I made all over the place I don't think I found it super straight forward.

I finished the arms to a nice raglan point (yay!) 

After- raglan style!

I sewed the front, back and arms together and tried it on. It was okay but not great, a big short and tighter than I would have liked. To be honest the yarn I chose may have been a factor but it is the correct weight suggested and after doing a tension square I used a 12mm hook instead of 11.5mm to obtain the gauge needed. I loosely attached the hood and decided against it altogether, it didn't look right at all only coming up to the top of my head. 
So to increase the length, I decided to add a waist band using three rows of half treble stitches (US= half double stitches) and a row of double stitches (US = single stitch). 
Once I had done this I decided to make it a polo neck jumper with 4 rows of half trebles and a row of doubles to match the bottom and I completely disposed of the hood altogether. 
(If the sleeves hadn't been plenty long enough as they were, I would have added wristbands to match also.)

That's the great thing about a bit of experience, it gives you the confidence to change the pattern up a bit and even make your own patterns. In many ways I actually prefer to make it up as I go along now rather than reading a pattern but you do have to allow for trial and error!

I used Patons' "Eco Wool Chunky" to make the jumper and while it is really nice to crochet with and the result is lovely and snuggly, I'm not very keen on the colours. I think my taste must have changed since then, although it looks better as a ball. It is ecological though and knowing me it was probably on offer? ;-)

What do you think? Thanks so much for reading this post!
Until next time craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

Wool, Bees & London!

Ooh I've been a little lax of late post-wise as so much has been going on!
The weekend before last was truly wonderful thanks to the fantastic City of Bristol! Although I live in South Wales I am just a hop, skip and a jump from the border with England and thus only 20 minutes from Bristol (where I actually work and got married).

Bristol is such an amazing and colourful city, it's quite small but has a lot of diversity and has a truly ethical spirit. It has it's own barter currency, it really promotes supporting "local" and has a real artsy feel about it. The famous graffiti artist, Banksy is from Bristol and there's always some impressive art project taking place, for example see my previous post about Knitted Bristol here.

Being such a great place, more often than not there's something that attracts my attention but that weekend was extra special... Bristol hosted it's first WOOL FAIR and a BEE FESTIVAL!! Whoop, whoop, two of my favourite things :-D

I volunteered for 3 hours at the Wool Fair, my duty was to stand at the entrance/exit gate collecting people's tickets and giving them a wristband. It was a lot of fun and I met some interesting people, many of whom were quick to give their opinions (most of which were positive thankfully) and saw lots of sheep and a couple of lovely alpacas. 

For the few hours of volunteering, I had free access to the event and felt totally justified spending the money I had saved on the entrance fee (and a bit more too) on woolly goodies!
Here is my lovely haul...

If I really had to choose a favourite it may be the pair of 11mm rosewood knitting needles from The Little Knitting Company. They're such a pleasure to knit with and what made me love them even more was my husband thought I'd bought myself a Harry Potter wand when he first saw one of them.

The Bee & Pollination Festival was hosted by The University of Bristol's Botanic Garden which is a wonderful venue in itself. There were lots of exhibitors, talks and demonstrations and, as it was a beautiful day, there were lots of bees and pollinators about, doing their thing, buzzzzz!

After the fun of the weekend I had my birthday to look forward to so made a week of it. I headed to London for a girly break with my sister for a few days. We shopped a lot, caught a West End show, "The Pajama Game" which we really enjoyed and it included sewing (it was set in a pyjama factory), perfect!

We returned in time for my birthday on Friday, this was spent exploring the amazing Roman ruins in Caerleon which is only 15 miles from where we live and eating lots of cake.

Then on Saturday I hot-footed it back to London for a long weekend, this time with the hubby for more sight-seeing and BBC Radio 2's Festival in a Day. 
Of course, I took some crochet with me to keep me busy between the bands.

Again we had a fantastic time and we got to see the incredible poppy art installation at The Tower of London, "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red". It marks the anniversary of the First World War and by the end of Autumn the Tower's dry moat will be filled with 888,246 ceramic poppies, each one representing a British or Colonial soldier killed during the war. The last poppy will put in place on Remembrance Day. Already it is a pretty incredible sight and very moving.

So all in all I've been pooped since we got home on Monday, I returned to work on Tuesday and I have only just returned to "normality"!
Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it.
Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x