A very quick WIP Wednesday

It's been a hectic few weeks for me, and it doesn't look like getting much better for the next month or so - my only free weekend in May has just been claimed, so free time is going to have to be grabbed wherever it can!

Consequently, my WIP's haven't changed very much, I'm still plugging along with my Steggie, my ripple blanket has been put off until some cooler weather when I don't mind sitting on the sofa under a half finished blanket, and I picked up some chunky yarn and a rather large hook to make my Mum some cushion covers... and then promptly left everything at my parents' house so I can't work on it or take pictures until the next time I head over there!

One thing I have been working on recently, is some spinning! No, I don't have enough time for another hobby; no, that didn't stop me from buying a 'learn to spin' kit!

Anyway, spinning is quite easily as addictive as crochet, and much easier to do whilst watching the TV. So, my learn to spin kit quickly turned into a couple of spindles, a slowly growing pile of fibre and an entry in to Ravelry's Tour de Fleece.

Seriously... they're so pretty and squishy, and spinning (when it's going right) is so relaxing!

Anyway, most of the fibre I have at the moment is meant for specific projects. and there will be a post at some point with more pictures and details... when I can get my pictures to upload properly at any rate!

Meanwhile, have a few WIP photos...

Oh, and I made my cheap Ikea step stool look a bit prettier... figured I might as well, since the one thing I rarely use it for is standing on!

FO Friday!

I totally didn't expect to have an FO post this week! However, in a fit of productivity Wednesday evening (and having had the bad experience of having to rip out a good two hours' worth of progress on my cross stitch) I managed to finish my Elise Shawl!!

And, to go off on a side note for a moment, it's remarkably difficult to photograph a shawl!!

Anyway, I finished the project from the one skein of Jellybean yarns, with about 5 metres of yarn to spare... which made a lovely little pompom, but I digress. It's a little small for an actual shawl, but perfectly sized to be used as a scarf, which is what I wanted... safe to say I'll be making another with a larger supply of yarn (I already have one in mind).

Blocking it was also a rather frustrating effort - involving a bath sheet, the majority of my living room floor space and a squirty bottle full of warm water... but, this was always going to be a piece that needed a fairly heavy amount of blocking - both to open up the texture and to make the picots show up around the edge.

Here's the before picture:

Please excuse the slightly crumpled background and poor lighting - this was at about 11.00pm Wednesday night... and I certainly didn't have the energy, time or patience to iron the towel before I started blocking!!

And here's right after it was pinned and sprayed with warm water (I prefer to pin most of my crochet when it's dry and then wet it, rather than pining after soaking in water):

Hmm... and I didn't realise the top edge was that wonky when I pinned it!! Actually, the more that I look at it, the more I realise that that's possibly one of the worst pieces of blocking I've ever done!!

Anyway, 18 hours or so and some hunting for a coat hanger later... Tah Dah!!!

I'm unbelievably pleased, impressed and charmed by it! :) So, uh, have a few more photos!

WIP Wednesday

Uhm, well I think it's safe to say that my WIP's are getting a little out of hand at the moment! My mum asked me the other day how I manage to fit all of it in... the obvious answer being that it's the reason I never seem to get anything finished!! It's not helped by the fact that I'm pretty busy at the moment with work, so I'm not exactly full of motivation to set to and get things finished - I'm much more likely to be distracted by whatever simply little thing catches my eye.

First, something that's kinda finished, but not...

I have a chronic lack of vases in my flat at the moment (not helped by my tendency to use the ones I do have for holding small balls of yarn that have no other purpose) and the over-sized jars I use in place of vases are kinda ugly. So I crocheted a cover for one of the jars to make it look better! The cover itself is finished, though I intend to make some decorations to attach to it... just struggling to decide which ones in particular at the moment!

I'm probably now about half way through my Elise shawl... or at least halfway through the yarn :) It's already proving to be something of a pain to photograph, so have an up close and personal picture of the yarn and it's unblocked texture!

I also have no idea how I'm going to block this when it's finished...! It's going to need some pretty harsh pinning to stretch the pattern to how it should be, so I'm thinking a dunk in the bath and then pinned onto a sheet or something on my living room floor.  Images of that palaver will, naturally, be posted at a later date :)

I've also made a start on a small mountain of African flowers for my Steggie! It's pretty slow going considering they're so small, though the size of the hook and the absolutely tiny starting chain circle mean that my hands cramp up after a couple of them and I need a break... still, loving them so far!

And here's one in-progress... on a 1.75mm hook!

No, really, a 1.75mm hook! My mum promptly declared me crazy when she saw it... and I don't think I can really argue with her on that one!!

My OUAT sampler is on a little bit of a hold for the moment - I'm saving it to take back home with me over the Easter break, but I was tempted down the sewing path once again by the Frosted Pumpkins, with their new pattern released on the 1st April... this one practically begged to be bought, especially considering I already had some suitable fabric on hand and just needed to order the thread. At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! Here's the progress so far:

I do love innovative solutions!

So, I'm one of those people that has a stupid number of tabs open on their browser at all times - I just closed a few since I couldn't see when new post notifications popped up on my tumblr account, but I still have 17 open at the moment!

Anyway, one that I rarely have open is my twitter feed - mostly because it pops up with new messages every few seconds and tries to distract me... that and BBC Sport are ridiculously bad at warning for spoilers when you're waiting until later to watch the repeat of a given Formula 1 race, but that's a whole other rant. So I popped on the other day and say a message from Folksy linking through to this blog post.

Well, considering how bad my chances are at winning giveaways (I have a bad track record) and the fact that when I clicked through to the kickstarter page there were still the first tier of early bird rewards available, I figured I'd back the project anyway! (And I like the idea of supporting smaller companies like this!)

Image from here and copyright lightcase.co.uk

Basically, it's a portable lightbox! Anyone that has ever tried to photograph their work knows how tricky it can be to get a decent photograph, what with variable lighting, finding a stable surface and something to use as a backdrop and then when you finally get sorted, the light has changed cause it's started raining or... well, you get the picture, if you'll pardon the pun.

I know it's possible to make a lightbox with a bit of ingenuity and a spare cardboard box, but it's something I never quite got around to doing, and then I stopped selling jewellery online and never really needed to worry about it after that... until I started trying to photograph things for this blog and for instagram.

I also know that there are other solutions out there that you can buy, but the last time I looked at those, they either took up too much space when not in use, required their own lighting system or were simply too expensive. This one just needs setting near a light source and off you go! And, the best bit about it? It folds up again when you've finished and seems to take up about the same amount of space as an A4 cardboard folder!

Now, this obviously isn't going to be suitable for photographing larger objects, in fact the space is around about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, but it's a great idea for photographing the smaller objects I've been making recently. And for updating my jewellery shots should I get around to popping those back up online.

It's already passed it's funding goal, but there are still second tier early bird rewards available if you head over there soon-ish, and the whole thing is open for another 30 days if you decide it's something you want to fund and try out for yourself!

The kickstarter page is linked above but is also HERE.

A very quick FO Friday

I've got a pretty busy few days coming up, and my WIP's list is getting slightly out of hand, so here's a couple of the little things I managed to get finished... uh... recently!! *coughs* not that I've been intending to post this for two weeks or anything *coughs*

Since I've been distracted by other projects recently (and work is kinda kicking my butt!) I've only got a couple of FO's from the last couple of weeks. The first is another Bower Bird - made with the intention of trying to correct some of my tensioning issues that cropped up during Lucy's workshop. I think I've solved the problem, though it's something I'm going to have to concentrate on as I go along I guess.

This little guy was made with my trusty Stylecraft Special DK.... mostly because I knew I had enough of that on hand that I wasn't likely to run out halfway through... that and I really didn't fancy the hand cramps that making him from cotton would likely provide!! He's also stuffed with a combination of normal fill and lavender - I couldn't resist!! :)

My other FO of recent weeks is this little guy:

As a first attempt at a (slightly confusing) pattern, I'm pretty happy with how he turned out!! The frill isn't quite as large as I'd like, and no matter what I tried I simply couldn't get his tentacles to curl... but despite that I think he's adorable!!

He's made (from what I can remember two weeks after the fact) from my declining stash of Sirdar Snuggly and is currently hanging from the shelf above my desk... though to be honest I'm tempted to take him into work to hang above my desk there! :)