Half Term Doings

Hello there.

Half term was quiet for me, a couple of lovely friends came over, I went to see my mum and dad, took the dog for walks and generally pottered around.   

I brought two old pop-up tents home from school, which were no longer too keen on popping-up and were destined for the bin.  A shame to put fabric to waste, I decided to make it into bunting which can be used at school.

 I unpicked the edging strip which turned out to be perfect blind tape

and then started to cut out triangles with my scissors.  I quickly realised it would be quicker and much more fun to cut with my rotary cutter.

I then stitched the triangles into the edging strip and hey presto!  I put it up in our new room and I think it goes rather well with our orange blinds.

A few of the days in half term have been damp, grey and a bit miserable so I made my first hot chocolate of the season.  Yum!

 With the clocks going back I decided not to stay in bed an extra hour but get up and use it.  I did the summer/winter wardrobe swap, pulled everything out of my very untidy wardrobe and colour coded it.  What do we learn from this exercise?  That I like grey and pink cardigans!  It is looking rather neat in this picture, it will not stay like that but at least once a year it is tidy.

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On the knitting front I am making another stripy cardigan from Drops Delight and Drops Alpaca.  It is a Drops Pattern, I am not putting the lace bit in.  It's bottom up in once piece and as it's 4ply the rows are long but no sewing up.

And here's a close up because who doesn't like wooly loveliness? 

That's me for now I think, have a super week.
Clicky Needles

Blind Finished!

Hello Folks

Firstly I'd like to thank you for your lovely comments about my craft room.  I have to pinch myself when I go in, I still can't quite believe it's all mine! 

I've been working on the blind.  After a not very fruitful Pinterest search on how to make a Roman Blind I had a dig around in my (very) old patterns and came up with this one. I pulled it out of a magazine ~ Prima possibly ~ and made a blind for our flat we had when we lived in London 25 years ago.  A lot of patterns I saw used blind tape sewn onto the lining, this pattern however, makes the channels with the lining fabric which you then insert the rods in ~ for me wooden dowling.

The new kitchen island was the perfect place to cut and measure the fabric, no kneeling on the floor.

The instructions were easy to follow and I was soon congratulating myself on a job well done.  I hung the blind, tied the cords and pulled it up.  The centre hadn't come up that well.   I puzzled over why, did I need and extra cord in the middle?

Then I noticed that I hadn't stitched through all the dowling channels and the fabric was loose.  So down it all came, battening out, sewing machine back out the box.

That's better.

I love that the fabric matches the clock and oh! the wallpaper ~ I'm still excited by it.

I noticed that there is another Drops Sale on all their alpaca yarn ~ now until Christmas in case you were wondering ~ and the combination of alpaca and 30% off was too much to resist.  The folks at Wool Warehouse are super efficient at sending out their orders and this lovely combination arrived on my doorstep a few days later.  This is a new yarn, Nord which is a combination of 45% alpaca, 23% wool and 30% polyamide.  I got 3 balls of each colour thinking I'll make some socks and something else.  

It's a 4ply yarn similar to their alpaca yarn, but the addition of the wool gives it a bit more structure.  I can't wait to use it. 

Also this cute Knit Pro needle sizer dropped into my basket, I couldn't find mine anywhere when I needed it.  Of course a day after a new one arrived I found the old one.  Hey ho.

It's half term with me right now, the weather is distinctly autumnal and not in a good way.  Damp, foggy and grey. Meh!

Right, that's me for now, have fun.

See you soon.......Clicky Needles.

My New Craft Room

Hello Folks!

The very exciting news that I need to share with you is that over the last few weeks I have been working on making my new craft room just right.  The craft room has been created from what used to be the dining room, which we had knocked through to make a kitchen diner, eight years or so ago.  Our new extension gave us the space we wanted, so the wall that had been removed, was re-instated.  

The starting point was this rather fab-u-lous wallpaper that I found.  It is slightly raised on the knit section of the rib so it looks and feels really realistic.  Mr Clicky and I put it up, the first time I had hung wallpaper, and I have to say I'm rather pleased with it.

We papered the two long opposite walls and the two smaller short walls I have painted white. 

On one side of the room I have a tall unit with a door that was our pantry unit in the old kitchen, an even older Ikea cube storage unit, a new Ikea Kallax cube storage unit, which just leaves enough room for Maisie (the Mannequin) in the corner.

The coloured fabric boxes are all from B&Q ~ Ikea ones are quite muted tones at the moment ~ and the low unit means I can sit on it and knit/craft/contemplate if I need to, and also have an area to display things for bright pops of colour.  You'll see that Albert the Alpaca has also taken up residence here. He was a present given to me by Miss Clicky in the summer.  She told me he was 'not to go outside' but I told her not to worry I knew just where he would go.

On the opposite side of the room I have my workspace.  A lovely new Ikea desk top with a five drawer Alex unit which is brilliant for storing patterns in.  My sewing machine is living underneath so I can pull it out easily when I need it.

I really want to put shelves on the wall above but I can't bring myself to drill through my lovely  wallpaper, so for now I'll wait. The orange chair is also from (you guessed it) Ikea; one of our new dining set.

I am really happy with what I have so far, but the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted I have no window dressing yet.  I am in the throws of making a roman blind in a fabby fabric called Great Spot from Prestigious Textiles in Olive Oil colourway.  I'm loving the colours, the blind will really liven things up.

I'm so so happy with my room and I know that I am incredibly lucky to be able to create it.  Mr Clicky is also happy because he says I have stopped leaving projects all over the house.  As I walk past the door I pop my head in, my heart does a little skippy beat and I smile.  Result.

That's all from me for now.

Have a super week........Clicky Needles.