Of birds and stones, or crafty decluttering

Hello and welcome to everyone visiting from Stitches and Seeds. I'll be joining the Around the World blog hop next week, but in the meantime if you haven't already seen Eleanor's beautiful Persian sweetie shop blanket, then get hopping!

I've been tackling my craft-related clutter recently. I've been pondering this, and particularly Rhonda's thoughts on a stash of yarn or fabric as another kind of stockpiling. My stash is just clutter - I don't know what to do with it, a lot is poor quality, none of it goes together and I still have to go out to buy new fabric or yarn for a new project.

There's one exception. I'm cutting up off-cuts and torn clothes into patches for my first attempt at a quilt for our bed (partly because I want to try quilting, partly because we don't have anything between heavy duvet and light sheets, and parly to use up the huge pile of fabric odds and ends I have accumulated). Wondering what to use for backing fabric, I came across a vast quantity (about 3m by 2.5m) of plain white cotton which I bought on the basis that white cotton would always come in handy. I bought it from 'les puces' - the fleas - at my favourite fabric shop, Le Chien Vert (the green dog). It's all the ends of rolls that have been moved to the back storeroom to save space and they are super cheap - my 3m of white cotton was €5.

I can see that with a little more understanding of the kind of things I do make, I could accumulate a small stockpile of quality, versatile, low-cost fabric which would come in useful when the crafting bug bites on a Sunday and nothing is open, and help keep the costs of that down when I'm tempted by €12/metre fabric. It's like stockpiling food - only do it with things that will keep and you know you will use. Most of what I have really falls under the heading of 'wishful thinking.'

So this has convinced me. I'm no longer going to try to go no-stash, but I do want to clear out what I have and start to think about building a small but versatile stockpile. I'm trying to find ways to clear the decks without either buying more stuff or just chucking it out, and I have had one small area of success.

Killing two birds with one stone, I have used all the leftover odds and ends from other projects involving cotton yarn to make some lovely new washcloths. I was running low and thinking of getting some nice pretty cotton for nice pretty washcloths and then decided I can do that when I've used up all my cotton stash. These washcloths are noticeably better than my first attempts - looser knit, bigger and a better pattern/texture for washing. Plus I enjoyed getting my needles out again, and the feeling of frugal smugness when knitting washcloths in leftover yarn.

Have you got any top tips for stash-busting?

Progress, or My Easter Monday in pictures

:: Finished scarf with tassels ::

:: Pickled beetroot ::

 

:: Fresh beetroot and radishes growing beautifully ::

 

 :: First try at a loaf with my sourdough starter ::

 

:: Skirt lining - just needs hemming and putting into the skirt ::

My weekend in pictures

The first time the laundry can dry outside

The supermarket coriander pot (cheaper than buying it cut) in a new pot from the brocante yesterday

My current knitting project in its new home - basket from the brocante

New milk jug from the brocante! For ages I've been wishing I had something like this so the milk didn't sit out of the fridge for ages when there's a pot of tea or coffee on the go. Isn't it purdy?

Slower means faster (knitting)

I keep getting so much done! I don't know quite how it works, that I feel much more relaxed and less rushed, and yet I get so much more done on my days at home. (Note: this doesn't apply to workdays.) I meet friends and do laundry and bake bread and do ironing and still have time to sit with a cup of tea and knit.

Today I sewed together the panels of the cardigan I am knitting. I've been super excited about this, and waiting for a weekend when I can get the sewing machine out without feeling rushed. I actually finished all but one of the pieces in February but then had to wait for more yarn to arrive from the UK as I'd run out (and had to do quite a bit of research to match the yarn, as I bought this years ago and most places no longer stock it.)

It's actually beginning to look like a cardigan now! Super exciting! Now I'm picking up the stitches around the neck to knit the neckband in, and then just the button and buttonhole bands to go! This will soon be finished and and I can't wait to wear this - the first full garment (rather than scarves/gloves kind of thing) that I've knitted and I'm so surprised by how quickly it knitted up, and how much I've enjoyed the very visible, tangible progress of watching the knitting grow.

I'm really beginning to feel the impact of slowing down, consciously trying to be present in what I'm doing rather than having something on 'in the background', and giving each task my full attention. I finish sooner, do a better job, and feel motivated to move on to another task. I still have a long way to go yet before I feel fully on top of all aspects of managing my home and, well, my life, but I am really enjoying the journey.

And you? Any Saturday craftiness to share?

Genius!

I was browsing through some old posts on Homestead Lady, which I have discovered through the weekly Homestead Barn Hop, and one Homestead Lady post links to this post over at Green Eggs and Goats on how to make your own knitting needles.

I kid you not.

 Image shamelessly stolen from Green Eggs and Goats

This has utterly blown my mind. Making my own clothes, spinning my own yarn, preparing my own fibres, even making my own drop spindle - all things I had thought of and researched, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be possible to make my own knitting needles.

These also look really easy and super cheap! I can't wait until the next time I need a pair of needles so I have an excuse to try this. And you get nice wooden ones too - I always get metal because they're cheaper but they are so heavily they often fall out of my work and that is deeply frustrating.

Yay for the internet. I wonder what I will discover next?

Slow crafting

I've never really thought about how I go about crafting before, but I've spent quite a lot of the last couple of days meditating while knitting. Normally I knit in front of something I've seen before - usually my favourites of The 1940s House genre, or The Good Life or Little Women or No Impact Man. I'm kind of tuning in and kind of knitting.

Now I'm just knitting. Just knitting.

And it's slowing me down utterly. It's brill-i-ant.

Even more surprising, though, it's also focusing me. Rather than picking projects up and putting them down, it's making it easier to focus on one project at a time, and to resist the temptation to be a butterfly. The interim result is this:

Squee! Why do I ever stop knitting? How do I ever stop? It's addictive and relaxing and intriguing and this lovely woolly panel looks and feels and smells so woolly. I always thought knitting jumpers took months and months, but clearly when you keep picking your knitting up and stop wondering off to try another craft, it just keeps growing, and I'm savouring every minute instead of distracting myself with a screen.

This is the largest piece of work I've ever had on my knitting needles, and I'm finding it really quite heavy now. I have to hold it slightly differently than smaller projects - sort of propping up the knitting and then manouvreing the needles on a plane. It looks like Mrs Weasley knitting. I'm feeling very Mrs Weasley.

I am permitting myself one other project. I hit the fabric sales on Saturday to get me some new tablecloth fabric. Two for everyday and one white one for best was my brief. Check out my fabrics, aren't they cool? I love the sand-coloured plaid but oh my god I could not resist the gingham. I'm dreaming up a cross-stitch border for that one...

This may not sound like I'm focusing on one project at a time, but I was so tempted to buy fabric for future projects in the sales (cushion covers, more curtains?, perhaps gifts for birthdays) and resisted. No more crafty purchases* until tablecloths are clothing the table and the jumper is clothing me.

*Obviously this excludes thread, top-up yarn etc needed to complete these projects.

Take a ball of yarn, add a pair of knitting needles...

So having discovered that I am one size of knitting needles short of a cardigan, I popped down to the craft shop on Thursday and made my first purchases of the year - one pair of 4.5mm knitting needles and a cable needle, as I'm finding using DPNs for cables a little fiddly.

I'm using yarn from my stash - originally bought for my cousin's blanket about two or three years ago, but not used because it just didn't work with the other colours. I'm not entirely sure I have enough yarn but I'm starting and I'll get more if I need to. No more 'but I am still missing xyz...' I am starting this project and I am going to see it through to completion! Before 2015!

I'm using the Stitch Nation Anisette Cardigan pattern, free from Ravelry (ah Ravelry) and am already enjoying the sense of creating. I love looking at that growing nub of fabric, tugging it and smelling it (all lanolin-y) and thinking that this piece of fabric did not exist a week ago, I brought it into being. Way cool.

I'm also finding that sitting knitting without distractions - I normally knit in front of the tv or a DVD, or while listening to the radio - I am coming up with yet more creative ideas. I have had several brainwaves so far. Future projects that I can't wait to get stuck into.

So. Another seventeen months for this project, do you think? I'd like to finish earlier, it looks like it's going to be warm!

Christmas crafting (Update)

My first ever attempt at jewellery! Inspired by my friend Julia from work, who made a similar pair for secret Santa. They were really easy and not too expensive, and I think they look really nice. I'm trying to resist the temptation to keep them for myself rather than give them to their intended recipient...

A(nother) pair of yummy mummy wristwarmers in alpaca. So soft, and so fun to knit up, which is just as well because my sister has asked for a pair for her birthday. These will be a belated Christmas gift for a friend who likes doing outdoorsy things which require fingers, so I think these will come in handy.

More crafting to follow later! I've got plans for this afternoon...

[UPDATE] I hope my cousinlets have not discovered this blog, because I now reveal to you their Christmas presents...

I apologise for the lighting, it's a bit yellow here in the evenings. The local craftshop - a proper Aladdin's cave of crafting tools - had these blank notebooks with plain covers. I thought it might be a nice idea to cover and decorate them. I'm not entirely sure how solidly the glue will hold the buttons on, so I might add another layer before I wrap them.

Several new(ish) skills here, though - decoupage and watercolour painting are not crafts I've really turned my hand to before, but they work really well... I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out.

Christmas gifts by post? Alpaca box

I know, that's an a-llama-ing pun, but I couln't resist!

Because I can't possibly one crafting project on the go at a time, I am knitting up a pair of handwarmers for a friend for Christmas. I'm using the same pattern I used for my pair, which can be found here on Ravelry. I recommend it, it's easy to get your head around and the second time around, it is knitting up very quickly. (I cast on on Friday).

The yarn is baby alpaca from my stash, so this means not only having fun knitting and giving a lovely, soft pair of handwarmers for my lovely friend, it also means I am decluttering. Unadulterated happiness!

Being measured for custom-made clothes

Well... something like that! 

Having learned from my very first ever sock, which after months of struggling with knitting in the round and lace patterns did not actually fit onto my foot, I have knitted a guage tube and measured my feet before casting on a new pair of socks. This will (hopefully) be my second ever pair. I have decided to abandon the idea of patterns - this will be a tube, a tomato heel, another tube and some decreasing around the toe. Basically, I'll make it up as I go, but I will now be certain that the sock will fit, even if it might look a little odd...

This time I am knitting socks made from real wool. I bought this stuff aaaaaaages ago when the idea of socks first caught my imagination, and a friend recommended ebay as a cheap source of wool. This is indeed much better value per kilo than most shops, but I did have to buy rather a lot, and as my first forays into sock knitting were not entirely a success, I still have nearly four full spools of wool (in slightly different but still neutral shades). That's going to make me quite a lot of socks!

I know I still have a huge pile/list of projects which should take priority, but I am casting this on mostly to have something beside my bed to do before I go to sleep. I am finding that even just one row really helps calm me down, slow my breathing and heart-rate, and help me to disconnect and wind down. Although at one row a night, it might take me quite a while to work through that stash of sock yarn...

Winter is most definitely here

You might have noticed that winter is most definitely arrived. The bed has been turned into a shrine to the God of duvets, blankets and hot water bottles, and we are extremely grateful for the semi-finished-but-still-functioning curtains, which are very noticeably and substantially aiding the insulation of the house.

Work has become super-super busy. 8.30am to 7.30pm or later. Add to that the client drinks and other networking events I am expected to attend, and my free time shrinks to almost zero. Hence why I'm so behind-hand on blogging - and on my emails, messages etc. Balance? The scales are totally to one side. I can be there for my work but not my boyfriend, for my family but not my friends... Does anyone have any magic beans that give you the ability to balance all the things you want to do with and for the people you love, the things that make you who you are and the things that can take you to who you want to become?

No? Well, at least I've got a pair of socks that are comfy and warm. Baby steps, yes? I might not feel in control of my life but at least I'm in control of what I wear under my shoes. (Erm. Yes. Very profound.)

Slow living cannot be rushed

There is nothing more tragic than having to throw away an entire unsliced loaf of fresh homemade bread.

Totally screwed up by rushing and/or being overambitious this week: one pair of net curtains, almost finished but now hours of unpicking and resewing away from completion; one loaf of homemade bread which was not given enough attention; one Saturday afternoon which should have been relaxing but wasn't.

Progress on my knitted socks

Ok so this really is abysmal! This is the sock I started knitting last August, and I have done almost nothing! It's mostly my fault - for choosing an elaborate pattern with thin wool and small needles, so it's taking aaaages to knit up. I've thought several times about ripping it out and making something else with the wool, but so far no brainwaves so perhaps I'd better just finish.

New skill - winding yarn

While in Estonia last week, one of the few souvenirs I bought was about 250g of local wool. It was quite a bit cheaper than wool in shops here and looked like it might be handspun, but it wasn't clear, so I only bought one skein.

Self-sufficiency: A Disadvantage?

While I'm interested in the green movement and would like to think that I live a relatively eco-friendly lifestyle, what really motivates me to take the 'DIY' option is an idea of being self-reliant, of not being dependent on anything I can't influence. This has tied in very nicely with the work I am doing at Imperial War Museum North on clothing in World War Two on the British home front. While my main focus has been on the Utility scheme, I have come across a lot of the Make-Do-and-Mend bits and bobs, including borrowing a reprinted edition of the booklet of the same name.

This has contributed to a vague longing to be able to darn my socks. More concretely, it has partially inspired my decision to knit myself a pair of knittens, using double-pointed needles for the first time. (This decision was also inspired by the very cold mornings and my lack of gloves, combined with a limited budget and an availability of cheap wool.) Exploring some of the interactive games aimed at children at the museum, I was thinking today that Make Do and Mend, like more modern Self-suefficiency, is really a state of mind. When something you need is missing, you first see if you can manage without, and if you can't, you improvise with what you have.

This is fantastic when it comes to putting together a patchwork skirt like a few I've seen around the city centre in recent weeks. However, less useful in a more mainstream commercial situation. I work at a fairly standard coffee-and-sandwich shop in a train station for most of the week, and there is a perpetual sequence of obstacles, most of which involve someone-or-other having omitted to order something vital, or said item not being available for some other reason. I instinctively react to this situation by assessing what there is in the cupboard, and making something from that. If there's no brie, use mozzarella. However, some of the people at work look at me like I'm an idiot and ask why I didn't just borrow from one of the other coffee-and-sandwich-type places in our vicinity.

The change in mindset is great for my personal, private life. Less good for my job. Do you think I can persuade the rest of the world to join me? 'Excuse me, sir, we don't have those baguettes in today. Can we interest you in this weird combination of unusual ingredients which happened to be what we had lying around this morning?

Knittingness

So this month I’ve been easing myself into knitting with some knitted washcloths. The logic behind this was that these are useful, so I’m not wasting wool; that they are small, so I won’t get bogged down in a daunting project; and they allow me to experiment with different stitches.

I’ve been using cotton, bought in bright and cheerful colours from the Veritas around the corner. I’ve discovered that I really like cotton – this is the first time I have worked with it, and I’ve been surprised. I was expecting it to be really unforgiving, really inelastic, but it’s flexible and versatile. I will be interested to observe its durability – does it wash better or last longer than wool? Travel better?

So far, I’ve made washcloths in seed stitch, in horizontal stripes, in box-stitch, in daisy stitch and I’m currently doing one in basketweave. I have fallen in love with daisy stitch – it’s a very dense stitch, coming out much smaller than other cloths with the same number of rows and stitches, but I love the texture and the pattern. It’s very small and subtle, but really pretty. Horizontal stripes really didn’t work – but I’ll have a go at changing colours soon and see if that looks any different. The seed stitch is incredibly elastic – it stretches a lot in all directions. The basketweave is fun in a gimmicky sort of way, but I wonder whether or not it would wear evenly – there seems to be more flexibility and less strength at the changes of stitch.

My knitting style is evolving as well – I started off taking my right hand off the needle to wrap the yarn around the needle, but now I keep it wrapped around my forefinger at all times, which has made me a faster knitter, and given greater evenness to my stitches, which I like. I’ve also started casting on by twisting loops onto one needle with my fingers, rather than knitting each stitch into the last. It’s much faster, but still means that the first edge is too long and ends up rumpled.

Next up will be something a bit bigger, I hope - maybe a hot water bottle? I want to have a go at ribbing and cable, and I'm really looking forward to Celtic knots! Feel free to share any good patterns or ideas...