Me Made May 2014 - Part 1

"I, Sarah a.k.a. dichohecho, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear clothing handmade by me at least one day every week for the duration of May 2014.
I want to use and enjoy all my handmade items and will record progress on my blog and Instagram"

I signed up for Me Made May!
I'd thought I didn't have enough Me-Made clothes to participate but then I decided that accessories can count - and I can commit to one day a week without stressing myself out. So far I've been way ahead of my target :)
I must admit that I have had days where choosing what to wear has been difficult - but I have those anyway and it's very much a first world problem. Picking outfits based on a particular Me-Made item makes it easier in a way - it's easier to be creative within rules than be faced with infinite possibilities. I've also been accessorising with older me-made brooches and scarves that I haven't worn for a while. Early starts & rushing to make my lift means that accessories fall by the wayside so it's been nice to make a point of putting on a brooch or nice earrings.

Here's a round-up of the first half of the month in Instagram photos. You can see them in real time either on there - username dicho_hecho - or on my sewing Flickr. Both have proper captions.



Days 1 & 2 - starting with my most wearable items - rosy top  from Simplicity 9175, a 70s dress pattern & my shapely boyfriend cardigan. The top needs an FBA really.



Days 4 and 3 & 5 - paisley felt brooch and purple-y feather earrings. I was spurred into putting the earrings on new ear wires by the need for more wearable me-made items (the old ones had tarnished)



Days 7 & 8 - lacy flower brooch and shapely boyfriend again. The flower brooch is just a loop of lacy trim gathered into the middle. The scalloped edge looks conveniently like petals.



Days 9 & 12 - crochet chevron cowl and teal cord New Look 6154 with Simplicity 2451 pockets. The skirt making was a bit of an ordeal involving poor fabric choice and cutting fail. I may blog it if I can bring myself to!



Days 13 & 14 - Blue bead earrings & shapely boyfriend. These earrings also got re-made which makes them feel a little less cheaty - they're just about as simple a make as you can get and still claim credit for :)

Right - that's enough for one post. I'm going to go and lurk the Me Made May Flickr group, see you there?

Much Making

My impromptu craft table

...or rather finishing. Since I've been staying in waiting for parcels today & yesterday I thought I'd get some of my on-the-go projects finished off. Having these things completed and my mending pile being smaller feels good :)

I liked the crochet cats I made for S & Boy so much that I've made another for myself. She's got a purpose-bought button nose and bright green eyes but otherwise is just the same as Lab Cat. I haven't stuffed her body or attached her head because I don't know what to stuff her with yet. The pattern is  Crochet Kitten from Marmalade Rose & I've added her to my Ravelry notebook.

My friend gave me this shritdress several years ago and although I loved the fabric it just didn't fit comfortably over my hips. So, after asking permission, I hacked off the skirt section (at a convenient seam) and hemmed the top part into a blouse. There was a button missing at the top but luckily as the placket extended into the skirt section there was a newly redundant button which I transplanted. I think I've only ever worn this once before (with the skirt part folded up) but now it's a wearable blouse :D

These ripple scarves are made of leftovers from blankets I made last year for my friend and sister. The red, white & blue one came first and was actually a first attempt at the blanket which turned out way too long. I tried to make the second one the same size by counting the ripples, but I must've got the wrong hook or had considerably worse tension as it's come out far, far bigger and I had to buy more pink and brown yarn to finish it!
These have been leapfrogged in my crochet queue by a fair few other projects so it's really nice to have them done. They're also part of my 25 Before 23 as they're going to be sent off to some friends on the other side of the world(ish).

Less excitingly I've also patched up some holes in cardigans. I won't bore anyone with photos of those.

My next projects to finish are: stuffing lady cat, re-hemming my suit trousers, birthday present for Boy's Mum, and finishing the seams in my Simplicity 2451. I've just received something that might come in handy too ;)

Crochet - Lab Cat

If not for sits then why is made of warm?

 This is lab cat. He was born of a wish to crochet something small and the collection of wool left over from the blanket I made for The Boy. Lab Cat, as his name might suggest, lives in a lab. He looks after the equipment when no-one is around, helps the boy take measurements, and keeps the lab free of crochet mice.

Can has oscilloscope?

I followed Marmalade Rose's crochet kitten pattern again but continued the body until I had used each colour three times, giving me 42 rows instead of 34. This just means that lab cat is rather longer in the body than his green cousin. He's stuffed with cotton wool as that's what I had on hand - this means that he also stands up a lot better than little green cat.
 You can see all my notes on Ravelry here along with The Boy Blanket.

Most of my latest crochet projects have been for other people - but I'm attempting to balance that out now with a matching little cat of my own. How many cats is too many?

Crochet: Recently

I've been trying to not start new crochet projects that I won't finish, and making sure I've really thought through an idea before starting it so I don't lose enthusiasm or hit a problem which means I have to completely change the project. Also if I've thought something through I'm much less likely to end up with a load of woolly white elephants and yarn-based regrets. With that in mind I'm trying to finish off already started projects, rip back unloved or unfinished ones, and not start anything new until I'm done with the old.

 

  To rip back: one bizarre hat and two scarfy things. I think these were all started when I had no ongoing project and was just messing around. The fuzzy wool is going to be horrible to undo.

Daisy squares: I learned a new technique and made a sort of mini-blanket for S's birthday, it's completed and currently acting as a sort of tablecloth for her chest of drawers. The little drawstring bag holds my embroidery scissors, knitters' needle and paperclip for stitch marking.

Boy blanket leftovers: The blanket is complete and I've made a little stripey cat to match. I need to assemble some photos of the blanket, the cat, and the daisy squares. The whole blanket is only the size of a single bed currently (more on the long and thin side I think) and the boy has cheekily asked me to buy some more wool and make the other half! I might retaliate by stealing it back.

Twin Scarves: The second of the twin scarves is still in progress. I'm almost halfway through but I've run out of brown and will have to go and buy another ball so I can finish it; I'm not sure if this stops it counting in my little stash-busting project but I've already made the two cats and daisy squares from stash yarn so I've reached 3.

Stash Saving

The other day I turned out my whole wool stash with the intention of checking what I have and re-organising it. Alas I found that some of my wool was disintegrating! I put out a plea on Twitter and was advised that this probably did mean moths. I sprung into action and chucked everything in the freezer for 48 hours and purchased a pack of ziploc bags.

Moth-proof for 80p, well worth it

 On Thursday morning I retrieved it all, sorted it, and stashed it safely in the ziploc bags. Now any lurking moths about the house won't be able to get in, and anything that survived the freezer hopefully won't be able to get out. It strikes me that there's a similarity between moth-prevention and backing up your computer - a simple chore now will save a lot of heartache later.
I turned out my jumpers too and luckily didn't spot any damage but I'm definitely concerned about their safety and that of my woolly scarves, hats, and gloves.
I also want to make some more lavender bags - apparently they repel moths as well as being pretty and making my clothes smell nice. I'm not sure how using felt affects their usefulness but they do still smell despite the thick fabric and it's far easier to sew with. I think one can buy dried lavender fairly cheaply online. Lavender bags are a very satisfying little project, they take hardly any time.

Lavender bags I made earlier

I recently tidied my huge collection of knitting needles (passed on by a Flickr contact who doesn't knit) into this surprisingly perfectly-sized box. It also happens to be exactly the right size for this old Sirdar knitting pattern my Dad found in Grandma's caravan when he was clearing it out. Perhaps one day I'll learn to knit well enough to make jumpers.

My embroidery threads found a new home in this nice little tin - it originally contained a kit for making a toy bunny which the boy gave me for Christmas two years ago. This is much better than the bag I had been keeping them in and is luckily exactly the right size for the cards of thread leftover from counted cross stitch kits folded in half (not pictured).

Have you ever had moths? How did you get rid of them? I'm a bit concerned that they'll still be lurking somewhere so I think I'll be buying more bags and trying to prevent them reaching my new flat. I hate the thought of losing things without realising. Bleurgh.

Snoods, Strawberries & Skirts

Big softie by name, big softie by nature

I've been crocheting a Christmas present for my younger sister K - it's snood.
Since she asked for a snood instead of a blanket (like I've made for other people) I thought I'd go to town with the yarn.
Sirdar Big Softie is sort of thing you see snoods made out of in shops. It's very soft (51% wool, 49% acrylic) and, as it says, super chunky. I ordered my yarn from Derramores in the end as they had 20% off and carry the full range of colours. Annoyingly this colour, 324 - Fripp, turned out to be much pinker than it looked online. I'd been aiming for purple & should have picked 323 - Damson. However my other sister & I agreed that this colour will look really nice on K so on I went.
I improvised the design and it seems to be going ok thus far. It's a big loop formed by joining the ends of the foundation chain into a sort of giant magic ring. Mindful of a previous loopy crochet attempt that had been horribly twisted, I carefully flattened out the chain before joining it. It didn't work. The snood is a mobius loop. Oops.

15mm crochet hook hehe

I don't feel totally at home working with this sort of yarn instead of my usual 100% acrylic bargain basement DK. I feel a bit like I might ruin it with dirty/sweaty hands or if I have to rip back any stitches. I also don't know if loose stitches will be obvious, my tension isn't really consistent and I have a feeling that big yarn and big stitches won't give me anywhere to hide... Hmm.

Rag market strawberries

In other news the next thing in my sewing queue is probably a proper Sorbetto made of this strawberry fabric from the rag market in Birmingham. I'm still undecided on whether to use plain white bias binding, red with white polka dots, or attempt to make my own out of leftover fabric. I think perhaps I'll cut out my pieces and see how much fabric I have left!

Simplicity 2451, green cotton sheeting and a matching zip!

I'm quite excited to have a go at making Simplicity 2451. I've seen loads of great versions around, especially by So Zo, House of Pinheiro, and  Bernie & I.

Cotton sheeting probably isn't the right thing to be making it from but this will do as a muslin. I've got very little chance of getting everything right first time, especially as I've not inserted a zip or interfaced anything before.

This looks like the stuff, no?

Speaking of interfacing, my mum said I could use some of her stash before she went away. The only problem has been finding & identifying it! I think I've got the right stuff here, guidance would be much appreciated.
Does the "light" in the name have any significance? Will it affect the floppitude of my waistband much? I'm guessing the side with the dots & shiny is the gluey side...

Domestic Yarn Bombing

I love yarn bombing. It's one of those wonderful things that I happen across in the street and improves my mood amazingly. It's so fun! And creative! And friendly! <3

I've wanted to have a go myself for ages, encouraged by a Yarn Bombing Evening I went to at The Cube back in September; but the civil disobedience part* and the prospect of having someone destroy my work** didn't appeal. I had grand ideas of covering the banisters in my student flat with brightly-coloured cosies but of course the sheer amount of them and the fact that I'm soon to move out made that an impracticality.
One day I was sitting in my room revising something dull when inspiration struck, I could yarn bomb my Ikea uplighter! While it may be quite tall it comes in sections that screw together, and as such is easily coverable in sections. Since I own it I won't have to de-bomb it when I move :D

So, the process goes like this:

- Work out what size rectangle you need to make

- Crochet/knit it, checking the size regularly (I used up and down stitch from my recently purchased Handbook of Crochet Stitches)

- Use a yarn needle to sew it in place (sewing the seam around where the wire comes out)

- Embellish to taste (I used a crochet flower made using this video) and attached it with the trailing ends

Voila!

Have you ever yarn bombed anything? Would you?

* Yarn bombing is technically vandalism I think, although I imagine you'd probably only get a talking to unless someone had a complete sense of humour failure.
** The lady yarn-bomber who was at the event said that people do destroy yarn bombs, sometimes with fire :(

ALL The Crochet

Hello! I've just come back from a relaxing birthday weekend in deepest, darkest Somerset with the boy and my family. We did a lot of walking, a fair amount of eating, and took heaps of photos. I might post some of those if I ever get to wading through them all!
I managed to finish off something I started during the week on the train down - a wiggly scarf!

Wiggles!

And I turned it into a mobius loop.

This was my first foray into exciting crochet patterns. I'd had vague thoughts about looking up some more interesting stitches (I can do single, double, half-treble and treble) but stumbled across Hyacinth Girl's rather lovely monochromatic Afghan via Katie at Little Red Squirrel and decided that this would be a good next step.
I used this video tutorial and pattern from Crochet Geek to teach myself to wiggle. It was incredibly easy! I'd definitely recommend learning crochet by video, actually seeing hands crocheting makes things a lot easier than having to decipher a jumble of abbreviations.
I made this from yarn (not wool, acrylic!) leftover from a birthday snood for my housemate and had no idea how much scarf I'd be making when I started out. I ended up with a scarf that was on the short side and decided to join the ends up. I twisted it so that I had a mobius loop and I think that gives it a little bit of extra volume when it's round my neck. It's nice and warm and snuggly anyway.
If anyone's interested it's Robin DK and I used a crochet hook which says 6.0/US J on it  - I haven't yet figured out how crochet hook sizes work, I just have a variety and pick whatever I feel comfortable with for a particular project!

A blanket for M, both soothing and bright :)

With my hand, for scale

The edge

How is one supposed to hide these bits?
On the grey scarf I've cut and knotted them and woven them in but it's fiddly and I don't trust my knots, and it might pull on my other stitches.  I don't cut it as I go along in case I do something horribly wrong and need to go back and fix it.
On my pink blanket of horrendous ugliness I went over along the edges with the same yarn which was a bit neater, but that requires being able to work out how much I need to cover it and having that left! Perhaps I should just suck it up and buy more of the pink and make pretty scalloped edging. I don't think mismatched dye lots will hurt too much here.

Rustic charm? Or just wonky...

My first attempt at a Granny square. This wool was a hand-me-up from my sister and was to hand when I found this Granny square tutorial. I don't think this is too bad for a first try.
I figured out as I was going along where I should be making the next stitch. It took me a while to convince myself that it was right to stitch all six of the corner crochets into the same loop, but it works! It really does! It just sorts itself out and goes square. No witchcraft involved.

Now what shall I turn my hand (or hook) to next? Any suggestions?
I have some lovely red bamboo yarn which I think would make a nice shawl, but I don't think I'm quite ready for the amazing complicated shawls one sees on Ravelry. Maybe I should actually join Ravelry? I do have a stash...

I should probably just stick with the pink/brown/beige blanket until it's finished, then start on my sister's Christmas blanket. Oh, and revise. I have been doing that, honest.

P.S. This was going to be a sewing post too but it got a bit long, I think I'll leave that for another day!

Crochetage!

No completed blankets for friend or sister yet, but some progress on the former. I've been generally good and restricted crochet to times when I couldn't reasonably be doing something else or need a proper break, or am doing something else. Like being at the pub:

Rosy cheeks courtesy of Dawkins Ales' Sunshine

Another bonus of crochet as a hobby is being able to wrap yourself up in it as you go along.(please ignore my strange technique, I've not mastered the standard way of holding the hook!)
This is the one for my friend, I've gone with doing two rows of double crochet (single to Americans) in each colour. At the end I'll go over both sides to neaten it up, probably in brown.

Distinguished?

I made this moustache for my friend's facial-hair-themed 21st birthday party. No itchy stick-on moustache for me. I used the little bit of plastic-covered wire that came with my earphones to attach it to my nose so it was easily removable too. Crafty, free, and practical.

We are not amused.

I made this snood before Christmas with some lovely "Katia Velvet" yarn I was given for my last birthday. It's really soft! The shape was an experiment and it came out wearable if a little awkward. The foldy bit at the front is big enough that it sticks out strangely, but too small to fold at all. I've found that the cufflinks the boy gave me (thinking they were brooches, poor dear) make good snood-tamers. They're bunny-shaped and I end up with little white china bunnies snuggling in the yarn. Cute :)

XN View finally made a non-wonky mosaic, hurrah!

Roses! Yarn bombing in the kitchen, an experimental one & a brooch.
 I made these on Tuesday and Wednesday after seeing them on Lauren aka Lladybird's blog*. I'm normally terrible at following patterns - I never know where to go next! -  but having a video and being able to see actual hands crocheting made it really easy. I used this one.
I made the bobbly blue one at Photosoc tea, while having a cheeky cocktail on the 2 for 1. Hic.

Bramble (with accidental extra Triple Sec)

* I want a Rooibos like hers, it's amazing.