Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 1

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 1

Every year we have a Carnival in summer. Each year is a different Theme. This year the Theme is Board Games. I thought it would be an excellent time to play Dress Up.

Starting Square

I have quite a bit of Felt left from other projects. I pick a nice large Blue Square to Start with.

30 Centimetres

I take a Ruler and Measure the Length. It comes to 30 Centimetres.

Middle Line

I Measure Half Way to 15 Centimetres and make a mark in Chalk. I Measure the same distance on the Opposite Side and make another mark. I then Draw a Line between the two points. This is my Middle Line.

Centre Column

I have taken a Second Piece of Felt and Pinned the two together with the marked one on top. I then take the Middle Line and place my Ruler directly over it. I then Draw a Line either Side of the Ruler.

Once the Ruler is removed the two Lines have created my first Column. This is the Centre Column that I will be working from.

Nine Columns

Starting from my Centre I move the Ruler either Side to create additional Columns until I have Nine in total.

Grid

I spin the Felt around and then using the same technique add more Lines. This had given me a Grid with Small Squares. I have Nine Columns and Nine Rows in total.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 55

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 55

On to the next design.

Original Concept

After searching for lots of pictures, I ended up Drawing something that I do believe looks like a Rat. This is my Original Concept. It will take several stages for it to become usable.

Rough Rat

Next, I transfer my Rat onto Graph Paper. This never seems to look as good as the Original.

Cubed Rat

Once I have Drawn my Rough Rat I then have to alter the Rounded Lines into Squared ones. I have Cubed my Rat Drawing. This stage always reminds me of Picasso.

By the Numbers

Now my Rat is Cubed I can do the next part, which is adding the Numbers to my Chart. This is so I know how many Stitches and Rows I will be doing.

If you notice in the above photograph I haven’t Cubed the Ears, Legs or Tail. This is because they will Embroidered on after Knitting.

Humpback Rat

After counting, I have found that the Rat is far too big for what I need. Therefore, I have reduced its size. Unfortunately, this has Squashed it so much the Rat now looks like it has a Camels Hump.

The thing to remember is that this is a Rough Chart. Unlike Cross-Stitch where you can copy the Pattern, exactly Knitting has different sized Stitches and therefore a certain amount of adjusting has to be done whilst Knitting.

All Steam Ahead 2021 – Mad Hatter Preparations Part 2

 All Steam Ahead 2021 – Mad Hatter Preparations Part 2

Since there was a great deal of Preparation I am going to try and get it in some sort of order. Ideally one blog on Preparation and the next one on what I did with it.

Chalk Circles

 

I started with my usual find something Round and Chalk a Circle around it.

Cut out Circles

 

I Drew and Cut out 4 Circles to begin with. This is because I needed to work out what I needed to do.

Half Moon

 

First of all I decided to Fold the Circle into a Half Moon Shape.

Cheese Triangle

 

I then Folded the Half Moon into what I thought looked rather like the Cheese Triangles you buy in shops. I Snipped off the Corners either side of the Pin at an Angle.

Double Snip

I unfolded the Cheese Triangle and got the Shape above. It was a start.

Middle Snip

 

I Refolded into the Triangle Shape. This time I Snipped out a Triangle in the Middle. I then opened it up and Refolded along the opposite Fold. Then I Snipped another Triangle out.

(Please note that the pictures may show slightly different stages due to some photographs not coming out properly.)

Original Cog

 

I had now done all the Snipping out. However I wasn’t entirely happy with it. I decided to try another tack.

Square Cut

 

This time instead of Snipping at an Angle I made a Square Cut.

Square Snip

 

I then went on to the next part and Snipped a Square-ish Shape out of the Middle.

Cog Corrections

 

This time I got what I wanted. A lovely crisp Cog Shape. Looking at the above photograph you can see all the different attempts that it took me to get it Perfect.

Out of Zone Mask 2020 Part 3

 Out of Zone Mask 2020 Part 3

As I stated previously I am Out of my Comfort Zone with this Mask. Time to consult an expert a.k.a. my friend Laura https://www.alyssa-rose.co.uk/

We had quite a discussion, I told her my ideas and she told me mine plus a quick raid of her Steam Punk items. (A later blog)

Need Chain

 

I wanted to Frame the work that I had done so far but I was unfortunately out of Chain. So after a trawl around the Charity Shops and Flea market I got this for a pound. 

Pin Silver Chain

 

I cut off both sections of the Chain and trimmed to size. I have kept the Beads. I try never to throw anything useful away. I then began to pin the first section in place.

Sew Silver Chain

 

I Sewed the Silver Chain in Place using a simple Tacking Stitch through the Loops.

Silver Square

 

I now had a Silver Square or more accurately a Silver Rectangle around one of the Clock Faces. I was very happy with the result.

The next blog will deal with the other part of the Mask.

Sewn Head Scarf 2017 Part 1

Sewn Head Scarf 2017 Part 1

I have a problem with the sun especially in summer. Therefore I always need to have some kind of head covering to protect me. This could either be a hat or some kind of scarf.

Since I am a little short on summer headwear I have decided to use up some cloth I have to make a Headscarf

Square Piece of Cloth

The cloth I have is calico and I cut out a rough square. I did not measure it I just did it by eye.

Cloth Hemmed

Next I did a rough hem all around with a tacking stitch with beige cotton thread. The size worked out at about 16 Inches square.

Ribbon Attached

After hemming I sorted out some ribbons. I decided on green and proceeded fold over and sew both the ends to prevent fraying. I then attached one ribbon at the top right hand corner and one at the bottom left hand corner.

Once these two ribbons were added I then folded the rough hem over to make a new hem. This time I used a running back stitch. To make it more decorative I used a twin dark green thread on two sides of the square and a light green on the other two sides.

Fleur de Lys Template Middle 

The next step was to decide on a design. I am rather partial to the Fleur de Lys. I therefore drew a Fleur de Lys Template on a spare bit of cardboard. I then cut out the Template.

Folding the square into a triangle with the ribbons both at the end I found the middle. I then placed the Template on the cloth and drew around it in pencil.

Fleur de Lys Template Bottom

After drawing the first Fleur de Lys I turned the cloth over downwards. On the opposite side I drew another Fleur de Lys. This time I positioned the Template at the bottom of the cloth.

Both Fleur de Lys Templates

The above photo shows both of the Designs drawn with the fine detail added.

Drawn Design in Ring

In order to make embroidering easier I put the cloth into a wooden ring to hold it taut. 

Light Green Outlined Fleur de Lys

Taking two threads of Light Green Embroidery Silk I backstitched the outline. I then embroidered the band in a darker green.

Both Fleur de Lys Outlined

After the first one was outlined I then repeated the process with the other design only this time I reversed the colours. As of yet I haven’t decided about the filling in of the designs.I will let you know in the next blog.

Knitting - Please don't blame me for the weather

 Knitting - Please don't blame me for the weather

Oops. We have suddenly had a brief cold snap this week including snow on Friday. I have felt slightly guilty about this due to the fact I happened to comment the other day about it might be getting a little late in the year for knitting Scarves. - Sorry my bad : (

I was unexpectedly given some more yarn so along with what I had left I thought I might as well make a few more knitted items for The Salvation Army.

Garter Stitch Knitted Scarves Continuous

 

Theses scarves are knitted in the same fashion as the previous ones with short pieces of yarn adding together to make one continuous and colourful mixture.

You probably cannot tell from the photographs but third one is slightly different from the rest. Whereas most of scarves have been 30 stitches cast on 5 mm needle (I am still using a circular needle for easy of knitting on the go) the last was only 25 stitches. This was because otherwise I may have not enough yarn to have knitted a sufficient length,

Garter Stitch Knitted Scarves Square

These Scarves are made in a different fashion. They are knitted in Garter Stitch but instead of being knitted continuously from start to finish they are made up of rough squares sewn together. I know they look a bit lopsided but that is because I was rushing to take a photo and didn't lay them out properly.

The cast on is 30 stitches on a 5 mm needle. Each square is roughly 50 rows (25 each side) not including casting on and off, though I have to admit that I did it more by eye than ticking off each row.

The reason I made the Scarves in this fashion is because they were the remains of another project - a blog for another time. I photographed them together so you could see that if desired they could changed from scarves to a blanket simply by sewing them together.