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

Hectic November!

November is pretty much over and this is my first post for the month! I'm very sorry and I promise it's not that I'm being lax, I've had a lot to make and do this month and most of it I can't share yet! A few sneaky peeks won't hurt though ;-)

My wonderful sister/bestest buddy, Faye, is getting married this year, on Christmas Eve!! She's asked me to play a major part in the organising/details and I cannot express how thrilled and delighted I am about that, as such I've had lots to keep me busy. 
I made the invitations and response cards to send out this month and was really pleased that both the bride and groom were very happy with the finished result. They (she) wanted a snowflake theme so I combined shimmery card with vellum and embossing them together with a snowflake pattern before using a snowflake stamp and silver embossing powder to add some intricate detail. It's hard to capture the detail in a photograph but here's a close-up of the top and bottom...

We have had our hair trials which was a lot of fun. Faye realised she needed her hair accessory for it on the Wednesday beforehand. No problem, out came all my white and silver beads and I got to work on it. 

There's nothing quite as motivating as a tight deadline but I got it all finished and thankfully it was just right for what she wanted and she loved it. Here's a sneak peak in her hair...

Also, it was her Hen Party last weekend and that too involved lots of organising and making, all of which was a surprise for her. We had a truly amazing time making cocktails followed by a boat cruise. As there were 26 of us, I got the Shrink Plastic out and made badges for everyone- any excuse for some Shrinkies action ;-)

On top of all this I have had a few Christmas orders, including my favourite- owl doorstops. Here's two I made today ready to be stuffed and weighted.... 

This hasn't left me with much time to blog I'm afraid, sorry!
And with the countdown to the Big Day in full swing I don't think I'll be much better in December, but I'm incredibly excited and will try and share what I can.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post, I really appreciate it and would love to hear any comments you have!
Until next time, craft in earnest. Craftin' Ernest xx

Making a Wreath- Part 2 Going Autumnal

This post follows on from Part 1 which included the instructions to make the basic wreath, I used a length of thick ribbon to create a nice and strong way of hanging the wreath by threading it through the wire loop and tying a big bow.

I decided to go with traditional autumnal embellishments- a pumpkin and falling leaves.

To make the pumpkin, I cut a rough oval shape out of thick felt (I used the felted jumper I also used to cut some of the wreath circles), then sew around the edge using embroidery cotton, as it's nice and strong, and a wide running stitch.

I made sure the knot at the beginning was big and strong, when I got back to the first stitch I pull the thread to gather the top together and stuffed the inside- I used the off-cuts from all the felt cutting (afterwards I thought it would have been better to use something lighter in weight but it didn't worry me enough to change it). I sewed the hole together securely, this will be covered so didn't need to be very neat.

By using an oval and thick felt, a gnarly pumpkin shape is automatically created. I used further lengths of cotton to give definition by using a long needle and sewing from the top to the bottom and round the outside. 

I used a dark, green DK yarn to make the stalk.  I made it up as I went and didn't worry too much as it's meant to be shivelled and twisted. I started by knitting an icord and increased the number of stitches every couple of rows, I then cast off and switched to crochet.

Sew the woolly top onto the top of the pumpkin body with matching thread.

Using the knitted maple leaf pattern from 75 Birds & Butterflies to Knit and Crochet (see a previous blog here), I made two leaves, one in a burnt orange wool and one is a muted, yellowy beige. I also crocheted a khaki-green leaf with pinky, brown edging trying to mimic natural, autumnal, leaf discolouration, making it up as I went....

I attached each leaf to the wreath with a few stitches of matching thread.

Lastly I sewed the bottom of the pumpkin to the inside of the wreath. There you have it, ready to hang!

Sorry they're not great pictures as it was dark outside but my Mum was delighted with it, I'm pleased to say.

I'd love to hear any comments you have. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post!

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

Making A Wreath- Part 1

My Mum loves a wreath for the front door and she has this one, I made for her up, hanging during the Summer months.

She loves Hallowe'en so I thought I would make her an autumnal wreath which can also double up for Hallowe'en with a couple of easy to add/remove additions.

I used the same technique on both for the basic wreath.
For this you will need:
Thick florist wire (I used approx 50cm/20'')
Felt of various colours- I used shrunken jumpers for both
Scissors
Wire cutters (not in the photograph)

Cut out a large number of circles of about 6cm diameter from each colour felt, you'll need quite a lot- I used about 200 circles of quite thick felt. They really don't need to be perfect and a little irregularity actually adds to the appeal.
WARNING- cutting out thick felt can be difficult and a strain for your hand, I know this from experience and a week later my right thumb is still experiencing a tingling, numb sensation. I know it's really tempting to get it all done but please don't risk injury, take regular breaks if necessary.

Now shape a loop at one end of the wire, florist wire is quite malleable so is easy to shape, it also doesn't need to be super neat as it won't be seen.

Next thread the felt circles randomly onto the wire by poking the wire through the centre- you may have to cut a little nick in the felt if it's too thick to slide on.

Pack them all tightly, pushing them down as you go. Once all the circles have been thread on, wrap the straight end of the wire around the looped end and cut off the excess.

This provides a nice sturdy wreath to embellish....

There you have it, a basic wreath!

You can add all sorts of embellishments to suit you taste and the season. 

For the Summer one, I made a couple of crochet daisies with needle felted centres and felt leaves. I hung a mini birdhouse in the centre with a bee charm attached with glue (after removing the loop for hanging it).

As this is for the Autumn, I decided to go traditional and will give details together with the pictures of it all finished in the next post.

Hopefully my Mum will be as pleased with this one as she was with the Summer one?

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

Wrapping Paper

I love wrapping presents, so much so I'd do it as a job if I could.
Having said that I can feel rather guilty about the frivolous nature of wrapping gifts with paper and the cost to the planet. I always try to unwrap things carefully so I can reuse the paper for something, be it to wrap something else or to make a card or line something, whatever it is it's good to reuse and is cost-effective too- a nice bonus! There are some really gorgeous papers out there that are such good quality they can be used over and over, especially if tied with ribbon instead of using sticky tape.

I'm always on the look out for for things to use as wrapping paper or to make gifts bags etc.
With this philosophy in mind I rescued some paper from work recently after the photocopier had a "software malfunction" and printed out a document as a series of lines similar to a barcode. Most had an overall green appearance due to the stripes being blue, yellow and black and some were just black and white.

I immediately thought the green tone paper would make great Christmas wrapping and the black and white could be easily jazzed up.

I made a gift bag using one sheet of the green, just the right size to pop a few small Christmas presents before finishing it off with a festive bow. I used a box of tea as the base structure (see below) and began wrapping as per normal at one end but without sticking anything down. I then drew a flap template at the other end which I cut out with scissors. I stuck the edge and the folded end together with double sided sticky tape and attached a strip along the edge of the flap, ready for sealing.

Using this wonderful origami tutorial from the delightful Gathering Beauty, I used two, green sheets to make a box. I finished it off with red and white striped washi tape along with a gift bow made with the same tape and plain paper off-cuts. It's just right for a Christmas present of jewellery. 

I used a pink and a yellow highlighter to spruce up a sheet of black and white, I thought this was "bang on trend" ;-) as neon is everywhere at the moment and would be good for my friend's birthday as she likes bright colours. It looks great with black ribbon

Making your own stamps as in this post is a great way to personalise plain paper into something a little more special and could even make newspaper a possible source?!
The other black and white sheet was calling out for haphazardly stamped, hot pink bumblebees and to be made into a gift bag.

I covered it with transparent, sticky vinyl then I used the same technique as the Christmas bag, although, this time, I stuck the edge and flaps down as I went.

I then folded the top 2cm down all the way around and cut 2 holes in both of the wide sides approximately 1cm down. I threaded a piece of ribbon (liberated from inside a cardigan) through each side to create handles and used a bead on each end before knotting for extra security. I also popped a rectangle of card in the bottom for a bit of extra strength.

When that's all done you're left with with a lovely little gift which is durable enough to be used over and over!

I hope you like the results? Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

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