Calm before the storm?

There is a teeny weenie hint of a little lull at the moment i.e. there are other things I really should be doing, however I am being organised and trying to get ahead of the game.

I have taken a slot in the forthcoming Not On The High Street.com Spring catalogue with my suede storage bags. The catalogue goes live on Feb 22nd, so I thought I’d make a start with making up some stock….

Here’s my beloved industrial free arm sewing machine

and here are some small suede storage bags, part way through being made up. If only I could see into the future I would know exactly how many of each colour to make!

The perfect button

I found the perfect button for a project I am working on

I found it in the sale bin at House of Fraser….I couldn’t have wished for better )

1st day at school

Well, not quite first day at school, but yesterday was Charlotte’s first (half) day at nursery.

I have mixed feelings about sending her to nursery.

On the one hand she is growing fast (now 17 months) and a bit more social interaction will do her good. It will also give me the chance to sit at the sewing machine and get on with some uninterrupted work (babies and industrial sewing machines, glue and solvents don’t really mix that well) or will let me catch up on some rather exciting paperwork.

BUT

On the other hand she is my baby and I ‘gave up work’ to run my small business whilst being a full time mummy. Sadly, the older she gets, the less capable I seem to be at juggling the two.

It is back to the age old problem of wanting your cake and eating it too.

Needless to say she had a fabulous time and was completely shattered and I got loads of orders done and ready for dispatch.

So from here on in, it’s a half day every Wednesday…don’t call as I’ll not be answering the phone, I’ll be in the workroom!

a little bit gutted and a little bit pleased

I somehow managed to convince my husband to come to Manchester at the weekend as I wanted to go to the Stitch and Creative Crafts show. The show sounded like it might be quite good and I could pick up a few bits and pieces. Tragically for me, I was a little bit excited about going.

Well, rather unsurprisingly as it was a Saturday, the show was packed! There was barely enough room to get down the aisles.

I met  the husband and wife team at Christine Gilbert Knitwear (sorry no web site but you can call them on 01619282696). He makes lovely 100% wool felt fabric and his wife makes lovely wool felt clothes. I picked up some dusky pink wool for the reverse side of the ‘quilt’ I am making for Charlotte. It’s been on the back burner for a while, but now I have the perfect backing fabric for it I must get a wriggle on before she’s too big to want to use it!

I stopped by the Toft Alpaca stand where they had some fabulous knitting kits for sale. I have been thinking about trying cabling for a while now but was a bit worried about where to start, not wanting to take on an overly big project and it not working out. I picked up the cable wrist warmer kit that came with the instructions and a lovely 100g ball of wool. Wish me luck.

There was a stand selling off Debbie Bliss and Rowan wool at around half price so I picked up a few balls here and there (will not be disclosing exactly how many!)

Sadly though that was about it, unless of course you were into paper crafts. If paper crafting is your thing then this was the show for you!

So, it only took me just over an hour to go around the show (stopping off to browse a couple of book stalls) and then I was off into the centre of town for a spot of lunch and some retail therapy with the rest of the family. All in all not a terrible day

Sunshine on a rainy day

A very dear friend of mine has been through a tough few months. They say bad luck comes in threes but she’s sadly had a double dose. One of the sad things that happened was that between Christmas and New Year the poor girl had to make the decision to have her cat put down.

So to cheer her up (hopefully) I’m making her a present. Here’s a little sneaky peak of the work in progress….

….what could it be?

Knit one, purl one

Towards the end of last year I decided to take up knitting. I taught myself to crochet and I love it. I have found the method quite therapeutic and natural, but I was getting tired of  the lack of contemporary patterns that appealed to my aesthetic.

So when we went on holiday in October last year I decided to take advantage of the additional child care on hand (there were 7 adults in total – yay!) to teach myslef to knit.

As usual these things are always easier said than done.

I have got my head around the basics….casting on, knit, purl and decreasing/increasing. I do however seem to have developed a strange way of holding the needles (the right one sits under my right arm) and with certain yarns (not so much with wool/high wool content yarns) my stocking stitch looks a little tight on one side of the v…if you get what I mean (there’s a picture further down this post).

I showed my technique to friendly lady at the local wool shop and by all accounts I’m knitting correctly but perhaps my tension is off. She think it will get better with time. Ho hum.

This is my very first project…just the one slipped stitch!

The pattern is from a book I picked up whilst in America, Knitting for Baby. The pattern is supposed to fit babies up to 24 months

Now, I’m not the sort of person to be patient enough to knit a tension swatch. I am sure that this will properly bight me in the bum when I come to do a much larger project. So the hat worked out ok but it doesn’t fit! Either my tension was way too tight or my daughter has a large head for a 17 month old!

Here is my second project from Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss

along with a close-up of my tension problem that I mentioned above….

I was really pleased with how it turned out but being acrylic it seems to have stretched a fair bit. I guess the good news is that at least it will fit her for a few years to come!

Easter comes early

It really annoys me when Easter eggs are on sale before Christmas is cleared off the shelves. Believe me, this was the case in two of our local supermarkets! It makes me feel like we are forever being rushed through the year from one ‘event’ to the next.

I popped to get some petrol the other day and when I went to pay I was greeted by a display of bunnies!! So, I take it all back – bring on the bunnies!

New Year New SALE

It’s SALE time again – yay!

There are savings of up to 50% available from my on-line shop

40% off Suede Pencil Rolls – now just £12

30% off flat out bears - now just £28….just one black bear remaining!

1/3 off leather business card holders - now just £10

PVC print bags – save up to 50%

Small Suede Storage Bags 20% off, now £12

Normal service has resumed

Wow, it has been busy busy busy!

The Christmas rush has been and gone. Thank you to all of my customers for your orders and your fabulous kind words! I really enjoyed the rest* over Christmas and New Year.

Santa came and was as generous as ever – love you Santa x

The snow fairy also came and blocked off the drive for much of last week. Luckily the rain came just before cabin fever really took hold! Having grown up in Australia snow is such a novelty and I really love it, but it did get to the point last week when I just had to get out of the house!

Check out my well shovelled path!

So, now here we are mid way through January and it’s time to figure out where to take the business this year. Think think think! I’ve got some exciting ideas, just not sure I’m brave enough to take the leap!

*by rest I don’t actually mean rest, but it was a rest from work!

Autumn over the oceans

As time passes by this post seems to be getting more and more irrelevant! It was supposed to be a post about Autumn, but the weather is getting distinctly more and more like winter.

Autumn is a time of year that I have mixed feeling about…I love the colours of the trees and the coolness in the air and the spirit of Christmas on the way but I hate the dark nights and the threat of colder weather to come!

This autumn I have experienced two very different Autumn seasons. In the UK we have the changing of the leaves and the chill in the air but on our recent holiday to Florida is was lovely and warm with bright blue skies. The autumnal sentiment was still present though. I find that in America people tend to celebrate the seasons more than we do in the UK. So many of the houses were festooned with autumnal wreathes and garlands, just lovely!

These unusual pumpkins were part of a fabulous display in the town of celebration in Florida. A warming bowl of pumpkin soup anyone?