Knitting, Jewellery and Handmade Monday #47

Finally!! I can start making my Christmas presents for a couple of friends.  The last few weeks have been manic with making and sending out orders and making custom pieces for private clients.  I have to admit I tend to work much better under pressure -weird I know.


So for my presents I'm knitting a couple of my friends neck warmers - they seem to be the in thing at the moment.  Personally I don't like anything around my neck -feels claustrophobic.  I found 2 patterns that I liked the look of and didn't take too long to make.  One was from ravelry and the other was from Lynne's Pattern Parlour both of them are free for personal use and are very easy to make up.  It took me longer than an hour to make them but then I find that I can't knit quickly with large knitting needles and I guess I'm not a "proper" knitter:).

The blue one is the ravelry pattern and the purple one is from Lynne's Pattern Parlour.  The blue wool Aero by King Cole and the purple wool is Sirdar Big Softie - each has taken one ball of wool but you can use more if you wanted.  The flowers that you can see on each scarf are brooches that I'd made some time back and co-ordinate very well.

Last week I posted a photograph of the dress I was going to wear to the sole traders Christmas meal what I didn't have at the time was the jewellery that I was going to wear.  Well I managed to make a beaded necklace and a ring in grey/blue and matt red seed beads.

That's it from me for today.  If you would like to see more creativeness why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what the other creative people have been busy making.

Wearable Art Brooch

After the success of the new Wearable Art jewellery collection I have been thinking of other ways of using the art tiles – lots of different ideas but these had to go on hold until this week when the last of my custom orders were mailed out. I’ve also been asked if I would be making headbands or brooches so with this in mind I have made a brooch with some leftover pieces. I think I need to adapt it a little bit but for a first trial it’s not too bad.

My Party Dress

My goodness how time flies when you're having fun and busy.  It also seems to have gone very cold all of a sudden....................snow on the way?  Let's hope it's not as bad as last year.


This coming Saturday I am going to a Sole Traders Christmas party which has been organised by Shilpa Mistry (no not related lol) and is being held at the Indian Ocean Restaurant.  I could have a party for one but I guess that wouldn't be much fun now would it? or would it? :)  


Joking aside it's a great way to not only enjoy good food and drink but also to make new friends and acquaintance.  At last years party I met the lovely Deborah from Tiger Photography and we have since become very good friends.  


I've not had time to shop and to be honest I haven't seen anything which shouts out and says "buy me" and I certainly haven't had time to make anything.   Which put me on a mission to look through all my "going out" clothes - not that I go out much these days.  So having rummaged through my collection I have decided this year I am going to wear a dress I made quite a few years ago and which still fits.  It's a gorgeous deep wine colour and the over-dress is in grey with splashes of green, purple and deep red.  I've altered the original dress pattern so that it splits open in the front to show the dress underneath.  
I've taken some pictures today - not the best photography as you can see but you get the idea.

My Party Dress

I'm adding this to Wendy's handmade Monday blog even though it's not something I've made this week.  I'm sure Wendy won't mind me sharing something I've made previously.  If you have some spare time why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what everyone else has been up to.

Work In Progress (WIP)

Hello and welcome to the start of another week and it's also Handmade Monday #45.  It's getting much colder here and we've had nothing but rain and hail- thankfully no sign of snow.............yet.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get any until the end of the week as I still have a couple of fairs to attend.  Last Friday was the annual craft fair at the Rams Head pub in Disley which coincides with the light switch on - you can read about it on my website.

As well as my jewellery projects I have been making some ATC's (Artists Trading Cards) for a swap/trade on ATCsforAll and another on the juried sister site iATCs.  I haven't made any ATC's for over 12 months because I've been concentrating on the jewellery and haven't had that urge to create anything arty.  However recently I've been having a "craving" to do something and I wanted to get back into the ATC communitly - I have made some lasting friendships on both sites and I've even met quite a few of them in June (2010) at the artfest in Rochester New York.  So the 2 swaps I've put my name down for are My Sacred Heart on ATCsforAll and a Trees Swap on iATCs. 

I've made a start on the heart themed swap yesterday by sketching out a few designs to see how I can incorporate a few of the essential items that are part of the rules of this trade: we have to add 3 of the 4 item listed - crown, thorns, wings or fire.  I think I have the start of one of them using crown, wings and fire.

Here are some of my ideas - not sure how they will turn out but at least I've made a start on them especially as I have to make 3 for the swap and I always include 1 for the host.  These are on watercolour paper and I've used my favourite Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.

As you can see they are at the early stages and still rough around the edges but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with this swap.  I don't know about you but I always find getting the initial idea the hardest to do.  Once I've got the idea the actual making up of the art isn't as time consuming and it all seems to fall into place.

Well that's enough from me for today.  Why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what everyone else has been up to and if you're a crafter and want to join in we'd love to see your work.