People to People People

Now, I'm not going to make excuses I'm going to write down what I've been up to!

First of all, there were an awful lot more scarves to make and they have finally been sent off to China! (As of yesterday actually). Bad news is that due to swine flu the volunteer group can't actually visit Mongolia... So instead they will be in nearby (ish) Beijing and the scarves etc will be sent on to them. This makes getting pictures of the kids somewhat difficult and possibly impossible.... There is the potential for a future trip though, so hopefully I'll get to see the smiling faces of children with warm hands necks and heads at some point!

Once the final shipment of scarves was out of the way I had a day or two to pack for my P2P delegation. (An american organisation that takes student ambassadors on educational trips around the world). They get to go to some awesome places, my trip lasted 18 days and we started in Ireland, moved through Wales, England, France, Belgium and Holland. I have absolutely no pictures as I was always busy phoning ahead to restaurants or trying to figure out where I was on the various maps I had which showed no knowledge of there being many hundreds of side roads that quite clearly existed in reality! So I finally arrived home (my liverpool home that is) on monday 6th absolutely knackered and since then I have been in a state of suspension i think. Not much is happening in my brain right now and I've achieved very little other than managing to drag myself back to Edinburgh last Sunday.

Since getting back here, I have managed to plant 2 blackcurrant bushes and one Gooseberry bush as well as retrieve a rose from my little, slightly abused, garden. As well as embark on a personal knitting project which is a pair of fingerless flap mittens. I'll get a picture up as soon as I've unpacked the camera from my suitcase which is still lying on the floor perfectly full of clothes and travel paraphernalia. They are really rather nice mittens!

Long time no see...

It's been a very long time since I've logged anything down, but for good reason! I've been very busy. 

The only project I've worked on properly has been the Charity Knitting for Mongolia project (I pumped out another 5 scarves this morning on the knitting machine!) but I've done a random bit of jewellery work, felting and silly magnet making from the eco-fi I bought some time ago.

I think first thing's first is the eco-fi! I was really excited when this turned up, just look at it! It colours couldn't be any more thrilling if it tried (I know, OTT). But I did that thing were you think "wow it's here! Yay! Now what?" So I just fooled around making some magnets. The original idea was to make magnets that kids could play with on the fridge so things like zoo animals, underwater scenes, garden creatures etc. So I started with a bee (yes, I haven't put the wings, legs or antennae on yet)

Then with some fruit (a strawberry and a kiwi fruit)

And also a clown fish for good measure. I think I'll carry on with the fruit theme, and maybe try to modify the bee a little bit. This would be really good if I could perfect a reasonably easy to produce but cute looking bee design because then they could be sold with my Dad's honey and beeswax candles! I also want to try to make some birds like owls, robins, blue birds, doves...

Next thing I want to share is my button jewellery. Sadly, I left my favourite bits at home. I'll put them up when I get them back, but I still really loved making these. This was very improve, I was so taken by an idea that I couldn't bare to wait and buy some findings, so I used staples instead! Which work really well actually, and look a bit different.

I had a bit of a felting mishap this week, I got really far to vigourous with a new (very large very pointy) felting needle and put it straight through my finger in a moment of utter stupidity. That stopped me knitting for a couple of days because it was right on the tip of my pointing finger... But nevermind, I got some very cute little critters out of the experience. They all escaped without being bled on too which was lucky!

Finally, the Charity Knitting. The deadline is looming and unfortunately I head off to my summer job tomorrow so I can't do much more knitting until I get back. But here is the fruit of my recent labour.

Northern Lights

I was given a skein of Kaffe Fassett's 100% lambswool Colourscape yarn in "Northern Lights" by my boyfriend's Mum for christmas last year, and have spent the last 5 months trying to figure out what to do with it. I wanted to avoid a traditionally "easy knit" because it was such a special yarn.

Naturally, it spent those first five months in the bottom of a draw collecting dust whilst I waited for inspiration to hit.

Finally, it hit me! But it wasn't quite the plan I was expecting, it was more like one of those plans that smack you in the face and seem brilliant for about the first hour (like clearing out all the kitchen cupboards and reorganising them- I've only tried this a few times, but I still feel like it might happen again one day), and then you think hmmm... Now that I can't avoid stopping because I've dug myself too deep down and therefore HAVE to finish, was this such a good plan afterall?

I had decided that I would stop being so pretentious and trying to think of something marvellously complicated to do (that I would probably never have finished) and I would take the easy route out.... I knit a scarf.

Worse than that, it wasn't even a vaguely difficult scarf... No cables, no fair isle motif, not even ribbing!! I made a scarf (far) taller than myself, and I didn't even purl.... not once...

Yep, Garter stitch.

So what do I think? I think it's amazing! The yarn itself is so special and has such exciting colours that by making it too fancy I think I would have ruined the effect! Plus, I found out part way through that the yarn thickness changes, so it would have made a fancy pattern look daft.

The photos don't really do the yarn justice but I tried to get decent ones. Now I have something useful (very useful in Scotland), in really cool colours that is super soft and warm, and is made from something I would never have chosen for myself! 

Well, that is my excuse for bailing out anyway....

I did once try to make this skein into a lightening bolt scarf, which looked pretty cool (I will do this one day) but the gauge on zigzags is bizarre, I would have had to buy another skein to finish the scarf and I didn't want to do that, so I took it apart to make this.

Mad Hatter...

The knitting machine is currently steaming with over use so i thought I'd give it a break for a minute and put some pictures of my creations up here.

These were my very first attempts at figuring out how to knit a hat on the knitting machine. I thought it would be easier to make the square hats at first, but actually the beanie thing is surprisingly quick! I need to make it a bit wider though for it to fit a broader age range. (The random clothes peg is for scale.)

This is how i've been making the scarves (which you can see below!) I knit straight stockinette stitch strips, then block them, and sew them onto what used to be a rather delicious black fleece blanket, but has since been transformed into many, many scarves....

I can't take credit for this final set, they were knit by a volunteer for the Mongolia Knitting Project '09 and I think they are very cute! I especially

 like the little scarf!

Sorry about the pathetically dismal setting for the photos (ie the broken office chair which i found in my room one day when i came home) Anyone who lives in Edinburgh knows that today the weather is delightfully damp with a beautiful muggy sky so the lighting is a bit bizarre too! 

But you get the idea anyway. 

I'm also quite proud of this which I hand knit yesterday (for myself!). 

It probably took around 5 hours, at a casual pace, using circular needles and dpns, and an oh so fantastic merino silk blend yarn I bought yesterday morning. In reality the blue is darker, and richer in colour. I started by using the purl beret pattern from the purl bee but altered it quite a lot because, well, because i haven't ever followed a knitting pattern yet, why would I start now?

Be Frugal Cool

If you haven't already heard of  FrugalCool, check it out now! 

FrugalCool is dedicated to using recycled, natural, ecologically friendly materials to produce objects of beauty and use. It is also specific to the Edinburgh area, promoting the local craft scene and showing you that you can buy beautiful handmade items without breaking the bank.

I met with the founder recently as she was interested in Pretty Porcini and she purchased a good portion of my items to promote on the site. Some of the other stuff on there is fantastic, I especially love the LP clocks, and the felt jewellery, to be honest I had never seen the attraction to felt jewellery until I saw the stuff on FrugalCool. 

So take a look, especially if you live anywhere near Edinburgh!

Gumtree is the best thing in the world!

Today I did my usual Gumtree trawl for jobs and anything interesting in the community section, along with a quick "knitting" search to see what's around.

A *free* Brother Knitting Machine! I called up the person who owns it and I've arranged a pick up (an hours train ride away) so I can go and get it! I'll probably need to get it serviced as it's been unused for some time apparantly... Fortunately there is a shop called David Drummond in haymarket that does knitting machine servicing, the only place in scotland so it seems!

I know very little about machine knitting so this really will be an experience. I'll post pictures once I've seen it for myself!

*update* 

I had it serviced, brilliant, because now it works but it set me back a fair sum! Now I have to master it and start making beautiful things for Pretty Porcini...

Pretty Creations

I thought I'd post some pictures from my collection and some from my Etsy shop today to show you what I've been up to but failed to blog, so that I could explain a little something about how they are made or what I like about them.

First of all my peg magnets. These are a favourite little project of mine. They can hold things in the peg and under the magnet because they are such strong little things, and they just look so cute!

These ones have a paisley and flowers kind of design, and are topped with diamond glaze to make them sparkle. I've also done a few other designs which you can check out in my shop

www.prettyporcini.etsy.com

The next thing I wanted to show you was my Pretty Pin cushions. These are made from leftover material from projects so not only do they beautifying your sewing table, they are saving beautiful material from going in the bin!! I made the pins too which I should be posting onto Etsy soon in packs of 20 in little pin booklets which co-ordinate with the pin cushion! A very cute gift idea for any level of sewer!

These cute little things aren't up yet but should be up on www.BabyPorcini.etsy.com very shortly. At the minute the shop is offline whilst I build up a bit of a stock. The larger mushroom is actually a baby rattle, it has a bell inside so it tinkles when shaken, the smaller one was the original and more of an experiment so it is less functional.

The flower was made from an old abandoned earring of my mothers, and some purple dress lining. I made a selection of them which are fitted with a pin at the back so you can wear them as a brooch. I really like these and they can be made up from remnants which means you always get a different one each time. The others are on my Etsy site and are made with buttons instead of an earring!