Sunday 18 December 2011

Dolly Tai - Tastic

I had a couple of people interested in Dolly MT's last week and I'm really happy with how they turned out. I love the Russian doll fabric from Fabric Rehab, and the IKEA Jungle fabric is always great!

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Long Time no Blog

I appreciate it's been months since I last updated the blog. I haven't entirely been resting on my laurels though, Sam has had a Hotshot from my Snugglebots yarn, and I seem to have caught the hooking bug!  I'm really enjopying Crochet at the moment and have added Hooty Hats to my shop. I love them, they're so cool looking. I did the first for a nappy swap on a forum I use as a little extra, but decided I loved them so much I would happily make more!


I seem to have grown more yarn as well since I last posted - some Thomas TNG yarn with a blue trim and some Gorgeous yarn I recently got from Knittybots

I've seem to have been consumed by all things owly recently! I've done a few owl applique T's of late, again inspired by my secret nappy swap, but other people seem to like them so again, I've added them to the shop along with a bunting t-shirt I made on a whim. Cute huh?!


I think that's probably more than enough for now, Happy Crafting...back to the Christmas knitting!


Thursday 11 August 2011

Yarn PORN!

Here's some pictures of some yarn I just popped up on Jo.Knit.Sew for available knits, lush aren't they!


I know, right!!   I can't wait to knit with them, if no-one wants them then Sam will get lots of yummy longies for winter!  I promised last time to show pictures of my holiday knits, so here they are. I love the Sleuthing Hoodie, and love even better that it fits both boys! My Multnomah has gotten lots of compliments too, so must be pretty!

 

Monday 1 August 2011

Hello Blogspot My Old Friend

It's been aaages since my last blog post. In that time we've been to France where it rained. A lot. I managed to finish Sam's Sleuthing Hoodie - which fits Geoprge now and will probably fit Sam at Christmas, as I hoped!- and am onto the feather and fan section of a Multnomah. (photo's will follow at some point!)

My mum, unfortunately washed Sam's boardies, they ended up about newborn size, with the flexibility of cardboard, so they went into the bin. I was gutted, but mistakes happen.

Sam is also growing out of most of his longies now. He seems to have shot up recently and the rise on most of them is getting too short for over his night nappies. I think I see a wool splurge coming up!

I'm awaiting wool from both TNG coop and Snugglebots coop at the moment, as well as a couple of nappies and t-shirt from Tweedlebee and Tweedlebum, I'm hoping they arrive soon before I spend too much money we don't have!

In other news, I just became a Cheeks & Cherries Champ for the Cannock area, hopefully this will help spread the fluffy love locally, I'm quite excited about it. It's busy busy busy in the Jo.Knit.Sew household!

Friday 1 July 2011

Wow, it's been a week already

I seem to have time on Fridays to update my blog, I should do it more often I know, but looking after 2 whirlwind boys who don't sleep very well in the evenings mean that time is pretty minimal!

Wasn't last weekend a scorcher?? We were so hot, the boys were scorchio and I needed to whip up some shorts for Sam, as all of his are a little *ahem* tight around the backside area.  I tested the sizing with some cheap IKEA fabric I'd got, the children's fabric at IKEA is so cheap it's brilliant. We love it in our house!  Turns out, a pattern hat fits Sam as trousers fits George as Boardies, who knew!!  Anyway, seeing as the pattern was the right size I made Sam some shorts out of some slightly posher IKEA fabric I'd bought.

Cute aren't they. I used this tutorial
I am falling a bit in love with making little reversible crossback dresses. Obviously I live in a house of testosterone and I'm not sure this will fit either me or the dog, so this is for the jo.knit.sew Facebook Shop. The fabric is just gorgeous, so girly, but the blue means it's great for those no so girly girls too.


 

 Last week I mentioned the Packer Boardies I knitted for Sam from some BBM wool. Well, here they are :o)

Friday 24 June 2011

Neglectful Blogger -

Well, not so much neglectful, more busy with children, sewing and knitting. So many things on the go at the moment.

I got woolly post from The Nappy Garden, unfortunately it's not all for me but look at this scrumminess .




I've started knitting the firebird on the left for a friend of mine, they are going to be Packer Pants, but without the knee detail. So far so good, I'm into the leg knitting now and the colours are gorgeous.  The blue and white is set to be a sleuthing hoodie for babySam and the Thomas colour way more longies for a friend.

Sam's Packer Pants have been lanolised and worn a number of times now, in fact I've since done him another pair of boardies which are knitted with some lush Pixie Knits wool I got in Buy British Month over and the Cloth Nappy Addict Forum.



Other important things happening soon include an auction to raise funds for a neonatal unit where a very special little girl lost her fight for life. I'm donating this dress appliquéd with an elephant, as we all know elephants never forget. I for one will never forget Eliza or her story and hope that the auction raises a load of money in her memory.


Here's is Eliza's story, taken from her facebook page.

Eliza Peggy was born at 41 weeks on 12th October 2010.
 Due to complications during her birth Eliza was born with no heartbeat. 
After attempts to resuscitate her, Eliza suffered a number of fits. 
She was quickly transfered to St James Hospital for a new cooling treatment.

Unfortunately, there was no brain function and on 15th October 2010,
 Eliza was taken off the ventilator and given to her Mummy and Daddy.
 Eliza became a star cuddling her Mummy's boobie that day.

In memory of Eliza Peggy, we're trying to raise money for 
The Neonatal Ward at St James Hospital in Leeds.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Big Wol Vest, and other exciting things

Sam, it seems, suits a tank top. I have no idea why, George never did, but Sam looks CUTE in a shirt and tank, so I set about making him the owl vest (link to free Ravelry pattern). It's a 9-12 size but I changed up the yarn and needles and hoped it would fit. Good News!! It fits great!

He's totally rocking this look right??












In other exciting news, I finally published my jo.knit.sew facebook page. Head over and 'Like' me to see what I'm offering!

Wednesday 15 June 2011

And I'm back in!

Thank goodness. I remembered my Rav email address so was able to get back in, it only took 24 hours for me to get the memory jolt I needed.

I've been mainly boy crafting recently. But with a few girly things thrown in for good measure!  The boys are forever wanting to colour, but my house just gets covered in scraps of paper and babySam ALWAYS eats the crayons, which then need sharpening, but someone's hidden the sharpener. A solution....Chalking!!


I wanted George and Sam to have an outside chalking area, with a big enough chalkboard for them both. I bought some International Blackboard Paint and painted a piece of plyboard I found in the garage...as simple as that, we now have an outside chalking area (looking very well used!).

We go to the library a lot. We never remember to return all of the books that are loaned however, and then I have to scrabble round the house for them ready for the next time. I always use one of the cheap calico bags I got from Hobbycraft to carry books, so I decided to make one a bit easier on the eye, so George could hang it up in his bedroom. I added a little bit for his library card too, as we pretty much always lose that too. I'm hoping it helps us to keep everything together for the next time we need to go to the library.

As an aside. Staffordshire Libraries allows you to borrow children's Audiobook CD's for free. How great is that!


Finally, my friend has just given birth to a gorgeous baby girl after having had 2 boys. What better gift than this dress and tunic I had lying around.  I appliqued another of those calico bags to wrap them in, cute!

Monday 13 June 2011

Aaaaarrrrrgh

I changed my Rav password the other week as directed by the Rav staff. Now I can't remember what it was....I'm locked out of Rav, it's like my right arm has been cut off!



So, I'm waiting for it to be reset, as I can't remember the email address I used to sign up either, normal service will be resumed soon I hope. In the mean time, back to Pinterest!

I do have some crafty things to show you tomorrow, when they're photographed.


Wednesday 8 June 2011

Charentaise

It's finished, it's blocked and it's GORGEOUS

I totally love it. I wore it on Monday afternoon to town and a lady stopped me to ask if I'd knitted it (yes), and asked where she could get the pattern, so I left her the details for Ravelry and the name of the pattern. She was lovely and it was so nice for someone to speak to me about me, rather than about the boys (who were impeccably behaved whilst shopping -Hurrah!).

Here it is in all it's finished glory

Monday 6 June 2011

Pinterest

I just signed up to Pinterest....Eeek, I can see it's going to be an even bigger time sink than Ravelry. I wish there were more hours in the day!

Things I already want to do

And that list is just from about 30 minutes browsing this morning!

The other thing that's going to be taking some of my time is blogging with the Four Mums Team, I'm quite excited about it all and looking forward to chatting about numerous things there.

Big news though. I finished the Charentaise, it just needs blocking now. I had loads of yarn left in the end. What was I thinking!!

Sunday 5 June 2011

Half Term...busy busy busy

Half term is always really busy. I like to get out with the boys as much as possible (and to keep my house in one piece) so there's never much time for crafting. I've mainly been knitting things in the evenings so there's not been a massive amount of progress.

Charlie Bear is progressing. I have no idea why his head is larger than his body, that's how the pattern worked it, seems a bit odd but I'm going with it!  I think it'll be brilliant when done (modest as always!) but I've semi hibernated it for a while until I finish my Charentaise, whic has 5 rows left, and maybe enough yarn...eeek.


The Dinky Toy is one of a few that came home from my mum and dad's. My sister and I played with them when we were little, they were originally my dad's and come with a handmade wooden garage. I love having them in the house!!

Monday 30 May 2011

Oooh, new stuff

Yuck, I hate the rain! It does mean however that we can have crafty days at the table, colouring, drawing and playing while I get little bits and bobs done around the generally boy induced chaos!

I went to Hobbycraft yesterday, I think I need to make some placemats for our dining/conservatory, the fabric there is so expensive (it's probably the same everywhere right?) so I didn't bother. I'll probably use my Laura Ashley remnants that came from my mum's.

While I was there I did pick up a new magazine, Mollie Makes which had a cute little phone holder kit on the front. While it was absolutely tipping it down this morning and the boys were occupied elsewhere I thought I'd whip it up.


Isn't it sweet??

The other thing I've been getting on with this week is my niece Hannah's Charlie Bear. It's knitted with Sirdar Snowflake Chunky and I have one word to say about it...YUCKY! It's awful to knit with. I'm hating every minute of it but in fairness, it does look quite a bit like Charlie Bear, and I am in the running for most helpful and wonderful Aunty Jo by knitting it!

As for those boys....look tricky don't they!

Wednesday 25 May 2011

More T Shirts

I've been on a mission recently, The T shirts that I got from H&M were just staring at me itching to be 'done'. Now, they both have matching shirts.

 The VW T shirt was worn the other day too, a success!

I also had a look through some of the fabrics my mum gave me when she moved. I chucked some through the washer and then ironed them and made them look all yummy. Here's some of what I've got!



















Not very boyish are they??

:facepalm:

Sunday 22 May 2011

Cheap Thread

I could quite happily have thrown my sewing machine throught he window yesterday. I was adding some 'old busses' to a Tshirt for George and my zigzag stitch just wasn't cutting it.  I was using cheap thread that I'd got from the village, and it wasn't picking up the bobbin thread. As soon as I changed to some thread my mum gave me it started  working again.  Hmm, perhaps I need decent thread??

I think I'll probably order some from here, I have it on good authority (my mum) that the prices are good! She's trying to work out if her account from Derby Braid is still active, I think probably not, it would have been well before computers were around (well, aside from the Commodore 64!)

But, I finished George's T-shirt, and am pretty happy with the results. There's some more pictures of Sam's too.


I also finished the knitting bit of Sam's 2nd pair of Packer Pants, if I do start to do things for more than just fun I think this is the longies pattern I would get, it's so cute, I totally LOVE the saggy knee detail!


Saturday 21 May 2011

*sigh*

Never leave knitting with a 3yr old near. Luckily it was only 1/2 a row that somehow 'came off the needles' but I could have screamed!!

Anyway. I'm just about to start the tuck knee of the second leg of Sam's longies, these are looking LUSH!

Friday 20 May 2011

T-shirt refurb

I love the H&M plain T-shirts, they're dirt cheap (I'm not sure where they are made though...note to self, do some research) and hold together really well.

I bought some of this fabric from IKEA because I loved the quirky animals. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it but thought it would make a well cute t-shirt for babySam

What do you think?



Wednesday 18 May 2011

WIP Wednesday!

I'm in the middle of a couple of projects at the moment. The first is another pair of Packer Pants for baby Sam, I totally love the first pair I did as a test for Michelle, so am doing another pair. You've already seen what yarn I'm making them with, the background of this blog is the bum of the longies!



The other thing I have going on is another shawl. I'm knitting a Charentaise out of some gorgeous Flamboyance Yarns Gallant  I got from UK Classifieds on Ravelry. As soon as it arrived I started knitting!

I chose the shawl because of the name. My mum and dad are just moving to France (they go tomorrow) and they happen to be moving to the Charente region, it just seemed perfect.  I might give it my mum, or I might keep it for me!!

Let's get started

First things first, I'm Jo, and I'm mum to 2 rambunctious boys. George, who's 3 and currently helping himself to peanut butter out of the jar (it's OK, he's using a spoon); and Sam, who's chilling out next to me on the sofa.

I got made redundant from my first ever 'permanent' job just before I returned to work following my maternity leave, so looked for things to fill my time (because you get loads of that spare with children around of course).  I'd already been knitting a fair amount and then my mum and dad bought me a sewing machine for Christmas. My mum is/was a dressmaker and teacher of Textiles so I'm hoping some of her creativeness has rubbed off on me!