Inside Crochet magazine

Posted on October 30, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

At the end of last month I was contacted by the Deputy Editor of Inside Crochet magazine, the message said “Hope you don’t mind me getting in touch, but we’ve been enjoying your blog here at Inside Crochet and we were wondering if you’d like to be interviewed for the ‘Our Favourite Blogger’ feature we run every month in our news section?”

I don’t think I need to describe the feeling at being contacted by such a quality magazine like Inside Crochet do I? But I can tell you that I did some of my Zebedee bounces which I reserve for very special occasions.

I tend to chatter freely, but I must admit I have uncharacteristically stayed schtum for weeks and weeks, waiting for the magazine to come out. Well I’ve had some tweets and messages over the last few days saying my blog has been spotted in the magazine, so in case you haven’t seen a copy of issue 47 yet…

Grannying

Posted on October 29, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

Making room in the Little Room for my growing pile of sewing supplies I decided to make big granny squares to use up leftover yarn

It’s been so nice to pick this easy crochet up and treble around without any thought or counting, apart from making sure I stop at twenty rounds…

Inspired by this BeAUTiFuL blanket it’s such a cheery way to use up oddments. I had three bags of yarn ready – tiny little wound lengths, small and medium balls from last year’s blanket making. Perfect for granny squares.

I’ve hurt my left hand so the Clover Amour hook is the best thing to use. I’d like to say it was while doing something glamourous – perhaps during a break in Brad’s filming of Fury around these parts – but actually it was last week trying to unscrew the liquidiser jug from the base after making spicy butternut soup. D’oh! I’ve stuck to sewing and knitting lately to give my fingers a rest, but I’m missing the gentle rhythm of grannying now.

Sew Happy

Posted on October 28, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

I can’t tell you how excited I felt last week about getting together with one of my crafty friends to do some making, rather than go to another craft event to see others’ creations, or buy more pretties which sit and wait to be used.

I set up the dining room into a sewing paradise, stocked the fridge with ingredients for a late breakfast and chilled the wine in case we wanted a post-sewing reward.

I decided I’d better stop arranging stuff as I seemed to be heading towards doing a wall display, or an interest table…

I’ve been saving the Mollie Makes kits for a while now for a social crafting session. My cousin gave me this craft pocket wall organiser, doesn’t it work well?

She’s arrived! We did a happy dance on the doorstep, then I carried in her kit as she unloaded the car. And yes – I know her swanky sewing machine is backwards! We’re new to sewing, or refreshing our long-lost skills, but not that daft. It was where it landed when I plonked it down with the cover still on.

The first thing I said was that I’m not very impressed that Brother don’t sell a cover or case for the sewing machine. It’s going to get dusty in no time, and I don’t want to lift it in and out of the box between use. And so my friend suggested that was exactly what we should make, especially as she happened to have pieces of PVC. What a good idea! Plus it’s a total money saver as the s/m bags I’ve seen are hardly cheap.

We couldn’t match the patterns because we had to be extra careful with the piece of PVC so we had enough. I don’t mind – it’s really cute isn’t it? (I think it was bought in a Dunelm store.)

I had imagined we’d tackle one of the easier projects from Sew! part of my collection of Cath Kidson books but no, we basically made a sewing machine cover from scratch – no pattern! If you’re a sewer (do we have to use ‘sewist’? Where did it come from – is this an American term?) you might be quite unimpressed with this but we’re both fairly inexperienced.

When I tried to hem the bottom of the nearly completed cover we just couldn’t get either machine to go. The PVC surface was too grippy and held tight. After a bit of head scratching I remembered reading how you can use tissue, or a special tear-able material to sew with flimsy fabric for support and improved tension, I imagine. Something tissue wrapped arrived last week and I’d tucked it away Womble-like ….. “making good use of the things that we find, things that the everyday folks leave behind”…..

The drawback was that in order to get the machine to move the tissue had to be at the front and back of the cover. Ha ha! I’m not only sewing a new material, on a brand new machine, but I’m sewing blind. It’s a bit wobblier than my other pretty even seams, but if you visit and check the straightness of the stitches at the bottom of my cover you just won’t be invited back again.Ripping the tissue off was actually good fun – a bit like when you’re tiny and the wrapping’s not to be admired, it’s all about the present. Of course now I need to look out for more tissue to hoard.

This is immediately post ripping so I can see little white lumps of tissue under the stitches in this photo. Afterwards I wiped both inside and outside with a damp cloth and it all came off.

We did a fair bit of woo-hooing and *blushes* high fived ourselves at the end of the making. Chinese, wine and a sweet DVD followed, of course under no circumstance did we sit and sing along to Jolene

but you can if you want to ;-) I just did a practice run to check this vid and heard howling noises coming up the stairs. Soup for dinner tonight it is, despite the earlier look of depression. That’s what you get for mocking my Dolly.

Bergere de France poncho – Finished

Posted on October 26, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

Enfin, le poncho est terminé!

Isn’t the yarn lovely? It’s a wool blend (51%) and is Sirdar Escape Chunky, bought with my gift card from Black Sheep Wools. It’s just so warm and soft, not at all itchy. It’s a little on the fluffy side – when I hoover after knitting there’s a circle of reddish pinkish fluff on the carpet by the sofa – so I should perhaps wash the poncho soon.

Such a simple beginners design by Bergere de France – you knit two rectangles and through some clever fixing end up with a cosy poncho. In a way it was a little too simple for me knitting-wise and I must admit it did become known as ‘that stupid poncho’ particularly as halfway through the first piece I decided that it was tiny. I held it up against a very petite lady I know and she thought it was not even going to fit her. When in Broadstairs, Kent I visited the lovely little yarn shop C Wool (near the beach, geddit?!) and the experienced knitty owner told me that French patterns use a size smaller needles than we, for a denser fabric, and the Italians use a size larger. So poncho take two began with larger sized bamboo needles and quite a lot of sighing.

It used less wool than the pattern stated and is definitely a less dense fabric using larger needles. I’m very happy with it, although it’s not something I’d ever wear out of the house because, as anticipated, it makes me look like an Oompa-Loompa!)

It could be reversible if your seams are invisible I reckon. Mine are *ahem* not – since I couldn’t face sewing them and decided to slip stitch crochet instead. This means they’re a little on the bulky side as I went under the top stitches and the wool is chunky, but that’s fine. If you’re sewing up a long length of knitting you can’t use too much wool at a time as it will tangle, so I could imagine running out and having darned ends to potentially pop out. Crochet it was and fast too.

The diagram was making my eyes roll as I tried, and failed to match up AA with BB, fold GG and HH and stitch it to JJ (ish) but luckily my cousin was here for dinner and a bit of social crafting Thursday. After merely glancing at the pattern, and pushing it to one side, she worked out how to assemble it, fixing the edges together with stitch markers. So I set off with my crochet hook. Although she had her own crochet with her she *somehow* ended up starting to sew the little red jumper for me. It’s gone home with her, and I didn’t even need to provide buttons. This reminds me of the Snow Patrol ‘Chocolate’ lyric” As a child of 25….” And older…Ha ha!

The neckline is as it should be above, but last night I decided it looked a little wide and drafty as the plan is to wear it when it’s chilly and I’m snuggling on the sofa during the winter. This is far less grannyish than pulling a blanket up to my chin, yes? So for the first time in YEARS I picked up stitches around the neckline and knitted a little garter stitch collar. It rolls inwards but actually that works well so I’m happy.

Happy that is apart from the stream of questions asking if I’d like a llama or a sombrero to go with it. Actually I wouldn’t say no to a BIG bottle of tequilla but that’s not materialised.

Here’s a link to some poncho related facts if you’re inclined to look.

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Tomorrow a good friend’s coming over. She said that we’re always talking about craft, visiting crafty shops, events and emailing links but apart from the embroidery and jewellery workshops we haven’t actually done any together! So she’s coming here with her s/m, I have mine as Christmas came early for me last Saturday and we’re having a stitchy day together. Very exciting!

Do you have the chance to get crafty this weekend?

Wool Window

Posted on October 22, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

As part of Wool Week last week John Lewis set up one of their windows as a plainly decorated room and invited various knitters and crocheters to take part in a living display. Passers by could watch them sitting knitting and crocheting, which must have been fun to see as well as being a bit bizarre for both sides.

The yarny creatives gradually yarn bombed the area (silly term isn’t it? Decorated seems more apt.) I watched it all develop through photos during the week on Twitter which can be an excellent news-service, you often find out about events long before seeing them elsewhere.

I stopped to see it before meeting Emma on Sunday and took so many photos because I found that every time you looked you noticed more woolly items! I found it genuinely inspiring and particularly loved the flowers in the vases, the cat and the covered pink chair. Somebody’s moving pretty fast this week – I think he’s worried he might be covered with crochet or knitting if he stays still for long.

Fabulousss isn’t it dahlink?

John Lewis Open House Blogger Event

Posted on October 21, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

Recently I received an email telling me that I had been ‘hand-selected as an outstanding blogger in the craft sector’ – this is a very promising start to any email, though I have to admit that I scrolled back to the top of the message just to check it hadn’t been sent to me in error! I’d been invited to the John Lewis pop-up shop in Islington, London to attend an exclusive lifestyle, fashion and craft blogger event, with workshops instructing us how to customise and personalise household objects in their new HOUSE range.

The invite included a plus 1, a friend, partner or someone else from the blogging community. I invited Emma from eskimo*rose as we’ve been in touch for a few years now. It was lovely to meet before the event and have a good chat, something at which we’re both excellent!

Here’s a selection of photos from the afternoon. Because we were seated in an area near one of the shop windows I noticed quite a few members of the public taking our photo – I guess we were a living sewing group window display….eek!

Click on an image to view a larger size….

I had been hoping to meet Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It but she wasn’t able to attend as planned. Freia and Tugba represented the Sewing Cafe instead and showed the group some simple sewing techniques. They chatted and sewed along with us during the afternoon which was nice. It’s amazing how long it takes to sew a strip of ribbon to a cushion cover when you’re chatting, stopping to drink bucks fizz and eat delicious sandwiches and cakes. At the end of the afternoon we were urged to take buttons and ribbon home, so I’m going to carry on adding some more to my cover. In fact I staggered out with 2 bath towels, the customised cushion, and a goodie bag. It really felt like Christmas had come early!

The other bloggers who attended apart from Emma and myself were: Aimee of Clones ‘n’ Clowns blog and Lisette of Lisette Loves. Holly from the online marketing department of John Lewis couldn’t have been sweeter or more helpful in looking after us.

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On Saturday we came across Disney filming scenes for Cinderella at Blenheim Palace. Although Kenneth Branagh (directing), Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter were there we didn’t spot them, apart from the many costumed extras including riders on highly groomed horses, different carriages and four white horses with golden bridles, we did come across this beauty…

As weekends go this was a pretty good one.

Knitted dishcloth, button nerdiness & anticipation

Posted on October 18, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

I’m wondering really if I need to start seeking out a dishcloth/washcloth anonymous group soon, because I still seem to be held in the grip of an obsession.

Last night I sat and knitted my way through a Strictly and Gilmore Girls intending to finish another washcloth (in the softest bamboo cotton, not dishcloth string like the one above!) and because I couldn’t seem to stop have ended up with the makings of a scarf. It looks just like the type we used in Brownies and Guides. This morning I’ve held it up and wondered if I should undo half but I might carry on for the fun of it and decide at the end. I’ll post my version of the pattern whatever it becomes.

Really feeling I need to write a blanket apology about the awful photos you’ll see from now until Spring. I’m a clicker not a photographer – that’s obvious – and the blankety grey skies with terrible light levels are not helping at all, sorry.

We stopped here recently and ate a delicious lunch, then wandered around the full to the brim Most Marvellous shop where I bought bags of colour coordinated buttons. I’m going to look out for a big jar – I have so many different little tins and jars of buttons. I guess they’re more colour coded sorted separately, but I do fancy having a big jar full to the brim on the windowsill in the little room. It will provide a handy distraction to stare at when I’m meant to be doing more sensible stuff on the PC!

On Sunday I’ve been invited to a rather exciting event. I can take a plus 1 and asked a couple of crafty friends if they wanted to accompany me. The first is booked on a card making workshop, the second is attending a book-binding course on Sundays. I love my friends! This did make me grin, my busy creative friends.

As the invitation helpfully stated that the +1 could be friend or family or someone from the blogging community I had a little think about who and had a brainwave. She replied within minutes sounding very excited about finally meeting after a few years of internet contact, and about the thing, which frankly is quite exciting!

To be continued….. ;-)

Owl Mug Cosy

Posted on October 15, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

The problem with craft magazines is that I can’t think of not keeping them. You never know when you might need that beanie, baby blanket, gift tag pattern. It’s so nice to look through your back issues, mug of tea to hand. However I know there’s a real danger of a future magazine avalanche. When a friend’s Mother sorted her craft room I was the happy recipient of all sorts of mags from the 1960s, 70s and maybe beyond. I can well imagine getting to the same point of couriering them somewhere….anywhere but here, unless I begin subscribing to digital copies…

But the great thing is that at the moment I’ve got a lovely stash to spend time flicking through to find a mini project to satisfy my itchy fingers. When Mollie Makes issue 21 Mollie-Makes-issue-21 came out last year I loved the look of the owl mitts and mug cosy, but was all about crochet at the time. On Saturday I spent some time flicking through old issues to find a mini project to satisfy those itchy fingers, and ended up whipping up the owl mug cosy designed by Estonian knitter and designer Tanya Antonova.

I can see a purl stitch where there should have been a knit, but other than that am pleased with my second ever time cabling.

I tried these little wooden beads, they are from a bracelet a colleague bought me from her trip to Pakistan. Sadly it broke after lots of wear and was too complex a design to repair, but I scrambled and retrieved all the beads to keep in a tin. They look fine as eyes but didn’t look right when sewn on, perhaps it would be useful to buy some ‘invisible thread’.

I opted instead for slanty woolly embroidered eyes. They are rather piercing in their own way, though admittedly not half as good as the magazine’s beady version.

I crocheted the piece together, not leaving a hole for the handle as it didn’t actually fit any of the mugs in the house! I wondered if my tension was way off, though had used the recommended chunky wool (leftover from the chunky seashell scarf) and size 5 needles but you never know. In moments of doubt Google can really be your friend – I found others who had found the same and decided the mugs in Estonia must be significantly smaller than here. I’ve stitched him up and thought I could either wear him as a wrist warmer (eyes were rolled at this) or make a sweet little jar cosy.

What mini projects are keeping you busy?

Crocheted pumpkin

Posted on October 12, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

It’s been the first Saturday in weeks and weeks that we haven’t had anything planned. We both got mundane jobs – house cleaning, haircut, butchers, market for veg for family lunch tomorrow (the butchers, the bakers, the candlestick makers……!) Sainsbury’s for other things – done first thing and have basically lazed out this afternoon. Bliss!

Gah!!! As Bridget would say – I got to the end of the crochet on version two and realised again that I’d forgotten to crochet into the back loops. It would really add some texture. Again I was listening to Bridget. Oh well, I was just trying to be seasonal.

After a comment about having invented a raspberry yesterday I thought I’d get a better colour than the Stylecraft shrimp shade of DK which obviously wasn’t cutting it. I popped to one of my favourite local yarn shops and bought some proper Halloween orange (cheapo Hayfield Bonus DK, bit squeaky but fine.) Afterwards I tested the colour against real pumpkins and plastic items in Waitrose, just to make sure it was bright enough, this attracted some looks which I ignored.

It’s cute though I have to admit. I might try making version III sometime with added texture, probably not while listening to an audio book!

If you want to have a go at crocheting a pumpkin you can find the pattern here on the Planet June craft blog.

Count how many different shades it looks with the shifting autumn light levels….!

I blame Bridget!

Posted on October 11, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

This is what happens when you are excitedly listening to a brand new audio book released yesterday – ‘Mad About the Boy’ Bridget Jones 3 – while crocheting a new pattern, too late at night and not fully concentrating. It’s a minor crochet disaster.

This is the bottom

:: You forget that you’re meant to only be going into the back loops.

This is the wonky top

:: You make running stitches as instructed, but through both edges of the ‘tube’. If you thought about it you’d have worked out that they are supposed to be around the edge, then drawn up into a circle, not a wonky bumpy line.

You complete it, while chortling about head lice, odd shoes and painful school parents then take a proper look and realise it’s pants!

You could crochet camouflaging leaves but decide to crochet mark (Darcy?!) II soon instead!

This and that in London

Posted on October 10, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

Last weekend in London I found myself taking rather random photos but thought I’d share them with you anyway. I don’t have any of the poncho as it’s still a work in progress. One rectangle is finished, the other is probably halfway through. I don’t knit for long periods with 8mm needles as it’s too much for my little hands!

I saw these beauties in Liberty of London, one of my favourite shops in the city, and had to add it to a mental wishlist of things to own one day. Imagine opening such a pretty case which is full to the brim with bright ribbons, threads, wool and cotton? I really can. If I visualize it maybe I can make it happen!

I had a good play with this nifty sewing box, I really like the clever design. I’m always drawn to storage and boxes in particular. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told to “Step away from the tupperware, wicker, tins, jars, cubes – we’ve got enough already!”

Ta-dah!!!

This book is so cute, but after my exploits with the cat who’s still in pieces, waiting to be sewn up then sold for charity by a nice friend, I’m not realistic about the dolls ending up 3D…

And well, the John Lewis Food Hall is full of Halloween at the moment. I couldn’t stop grinning at these (terrified?) skeleton Gingerbread Men, what a funny idea.

All the orange and black is very eye-catching.

Screme eggs! Ha ha! Tempted though I was by the thought of the delicious green goo in the middle, I resisted since the long weekend was to be full of birthday meals…

Regents Street on Saturday, it was lovely and warm but not a blue sky. Sunday was a different matter – you might have thought we’d been transported back to July. So many were wearing t-shirts and sandals, it was gorgeous. We ate lunch outside and basked in the rays, making the most of it since we’re probably due another 8 month Winter. If we could always have a wonderful Summer like we’ve had I would happily put up with a long Winter.

We ended the weekend with a look around Selfridges. Here’s the man himself made out of jelly beans. I was amused to see some are missing – proving that if it’s edible people will eat it!

MMmmmm aren’t these lovely. (We resisted.)

I haven’t included all the photos I took of full on ____________________ displays in JL and Selfridges. Let’s get Halloween out of the way first please…!

This week has included cooking chilli, homemade soup, jars of apple & sage jelly to go with Winter roasts, (would anyone like some cooking apples? It’s been a bumper harvest and the apples are HuGe) snuggling down in bed reading Naked by David Sedaris and lots of washing hanging about the house. Welcome to the new season.

As I’m mostly in a knitty frame of mind in the evenings, and occasionally picking up my crochet hook to do more of the hot pink scarf, I haven’t begun with joining my 200 Blocks CAL squares together, or even thinking about them too hard if I’m honest. I don’t mind the thought of doing it at all since I’ll be using crochet to join, but my mind is full of other things. I’ve been in touch with the CAL keeners and they’re all fine with their own joining matters, or pausing like me. One day you’ll see all the blocks laid out and be reading of my planning and dithering for a cottage garden something but just not yet. :-D

What are you up to at the moment? I love hearing from you, as always.

Yarndale 2013

Posted on October 1, 2013 by The Little Room of Rachell

I drove to Yarndale from Leeds on Sunday as I had another event over the weekend. The drive was sublime; I can’t tell you how many times I shouted “Wow!” at the stunning scenery. I really do love Yorkshire. As you can probably tell the weather could not have been better either; on Saturday my friends and I were wandering around Leeds in t-shirts.

Doesn’t this look lovely? What a great way to welcome visitors.

I had felt a little sad not to be able to go to Yarndale on Saturday, but after hearing of the queues, people trying and failing to access some stalls, along with traffic issues I was relieved to have gone on Sunday. As it was the main car park was full when I arrived and so I was directed to an overflow car park a short walk from the auction mart.

Can you see your bunting?!

So I walked in deciding therein madness would lie trying to find any of my bunting, looked up above my head and…

Look at that! That multi-coloured triangle with the blue centre is one of mine. This made me laugh – out of over 6,000 triangles mine’s right by the front door.

I wandered into the main room and the brass band starting playing, I truly got the shivers. The sound was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve made some recordings of the music to play at home. They really remind me of the jolly, warm atmosphere. You can also hear snatches of conversations in broad Yorkshire accents as people walk past, music to the ears!

An amused local told me that in Yorkshire you can’t go anywhere without tripping over a brass band, well in my neck of the woods it tends to be Morris dancers…

I headed for the crochet, knit and natter lounge as I just wanted to say hello to Lucy. We chatted for a little bit, then I introduced myself and we had a big hug. She’s as lovely as you’d expect, a petite and pretty lady. I honestly don’t think she had a minute to draw breath all day as so many people came to chat to her, but she seemed to be incredibly relaxed and enjoying being there.It wouldn’t have occurred to me to get my bag signed except a group of four or five women asked Lucy to sign their bags. They were pretty over-excited to meet her and I heard her saying “Calm down ladies!” which did make me smile. After we’d chatted for a while and properly met I asked, with a little shyness, but am glad I did as it’s a sweet souvenir of the day.

Here are some really special bunting triangles. I love the sheep’s head.

There’s something very cool about seeing items that you’ve seen on a blog. I’ve felt the same when Natasja of Crochetime and I have met and she’s worn items I recognise. It’s a crochet nerd thing isn’t it?

Lucy said to “do us proud won’t you?” when I said I was going to take lots of photos. Well, no pressure at all then! I’m wordy and equally so with my photographs – this is just a selection of many. There are a good few photos of skeins of the wooly stuff, oh the range of colours and the feel of it! Bliss. I’m just glad they don’t charge you for stroking it.

After a few laps of the building I settled down to do some crochet and realised I was the only non-knitter in the lounge bit, amongst a lot of people. This surprised me rather. I was amused to see I was at a little table with Lucy’s covered tuna tin flower pot – I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on Someone’s face when I talked about these when they featured on her blog.

Funnily the other individuals who came, one by one, to where I was sitting were also in education; lecturing, teaching or having worked in an advisory capacity. That was curious, it was like education corner. We covered a lot of ground, there were some fascinating stories.

It was very very tempting to buy these circular needles, except I wonder if my iffy elbow would disintegrate after a few rows.

Isn’t this girl’s scarf gorgeous? She was a star for letting me photograph her using the mega needles and then her scarf.

Lynne Rowe, designer, crocheter and knitter had recommended I find the Skein Queen stall, so I made sure I found it. You can almost feel the softness can’t you? Good enough to eat…