Around the World Blog Hop

This is my first blog hop and I'm feeling very chuffed that Eleanor over at Seeds and Stitches has invited me to join in.

Taking part next week are:

Kaylie over at Kindred Like Me who blogs about books and theatre, her own writing, and her broader journey to shape and direct her life. Kaylie wrote me a poem for a Christmas present once that is still one of the best presents I have ever received.

Cheryl at Time to Craft, sharing beautiful pictures, thought-provoking reflections and super simple tutorials for crafting at home, particularly with kids, and slowing down to savour everyday moments. Spinning and patchwork, garden and chooks, and rescuing bats all feature.

What am I working on?

Several projects - a skirt made from a pair of my boyfriend's old trousers, an embroidered table cloth and my first patchwork quilt. I also have several 'in-progress' projects tucked into various cupboards which are a bit stalled.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Probably the greatest difference is my tendancy to run before I can walk, and taken on epically huge projects. This embroidered tablecloth is such overkill and will take me months to finish, my first attempt at making a skirt is done without a pattern, just adapting as I go, and my first piece of patchwork is not something small but bigger than two square metres.

Why do I create/do what I do?

I get enormous satisfaction from making something tangible. A lot of what I do in the day does deliver progress but you can't see it, touch it, use it. Looking around me and thinking 'I made that' gives me a warm feeling on the coldest winter day.

The process of crafting is often therapeutic in itself, knitting, crochet and embroidery help me to slow down and take my focus away from a tv or computer screen.

I also like making practical, useful things that are good value for money. I made all the curtains in the flat for slightly over €300 - custom-made, heavy, lined curtains would have cost me considerably more than that. The most satisfying creations are those using scraps, odds and ends - essentially free. These show me that I can fulfil some part of my homemaking dream even while working a busy job - whether that's making dishcloths or a pair of pajamas.

How does my creating process work?

Inspiration comes from blogs and pinterest, and from my imagination. I know I should restrain my ambition but where's the fun in that? I plot out what I'm planning to do very loosely - develop an easily repeated embroidery pattern based on more complex examples, calculate the number of square patches for the quilt - but rarely develop a precise and clear plan. This is both a strength and a weakness - I enjoy being able to adapt my plans as new ideas come, but sometimes I can't decide or end up duplicating stages because my ideas change part-way through. Not really a sophisticated process but it works for me.

The crafty home

This post is part of a series on homes that inspire me, as part of mulling over what my dream house looks like and to help motivate gmy declutterin. Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

This home is rather different from the others I've blogged about. It's not an example of small-space living or building your home from scratch, but rather of making a space utterly your own. (Warning: this is quite a picture-heavy post.)

Source: seedsandstitches

Hannah is a professional stylist/design/generally creative person, which is blindingly obvious as soon as you land on her blog. She made the (I think) very brave decision to become a mother at what is now a relatively young age (though as my boyfriend's grandmother likes to remind me, for previous generations having kids in your mid twenties was already late, hint hint hint...). She left the world of steady employment and is now making a career as a freelance writer/styler/generally creative person.

Source: seedsandstitches

Source: seedsandstitches

What I love about these pictures is how an already beautiful space becomes totally alive, thanks to the simple, personal and often seasonal touches she uses. Some of the things I love, some are less my style, many I would never think of in the first place, but she has made her home a space that speaks very warmly of her, her life and her imagination. I am increasingly aware that my home is rather impersonal in some ways - I have all these ideas and never really have the time/discipline/competence/courage to implement them. Hannah's blog is gradually giving me the courage to make some bolder moves in my home.

 Source: seedsandstitches

Source: seedsandstitches

The same space evolves through the year - all the photos below are of the same kitchen table through the seasons:

 Source: seedsandstitches

Source: seedsandstitches

 Source: seedsandstitches

Source: seedsandstitches

Source: seedsandstitches

I love that's both simple and chaotic, colourful and calming, and above all - unpredictable. This is not a home you could pick out of a catalogue, it's been pieced together like a patchwork quilt, with colours and patterns that my brain tells me don't go together while my eyes point out that this is quite evidently not true.

Source: seedsandstitches

Definitely food for thought. Plus she's given me some fabulous ideas for homemade birthday and Christmas gifts.

Pictures from http://seedsandstitches.com/ used by kind permission.

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!

Only sixteen months late...

In my start-of-year energised crafting mode, I have started several projects lined up for some time. Or rather, I have tried to - but discovered that the dress patterns are the wrong size, and I am missing one essential item (eg pair of knitting needles of a certain size, not quite enough yarn) for all my queued projects. So until I hit the craft shop for the missing links, I've taken the opportunity to complete another never-quite-finished project.

Do you remember this shirt? I bought it from a local second-hand shop in September 2012. I was planning on pimping it up slightly by changing the buttons, but discovered after I'd bought the buttons that they were too big for the buttonholes. Never mind, thought I, this is an opportunity to teach myself how to sew buttonholes. And in July 2013, after throwing a tantrum at the sewing machine, I did indeed start to unpick, enlarge and restitch the buttonholes by hand.

And now, finally, it is finished. Only seventeen months after I started.

On the plus side, I do now know how to stitch buttonholes by hand.

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.

The dilemma of decluttering

I love reading about de-cluttering. I love the idea of getting rid of all the stuff that's clogging up my space and my energies. But I also love the idea of being ultra-frugal, of avoiding waste and getting as much use as possible out of something before passing it on or disposing of it. And these two often come into conflict. Add into the mix that I am by nature a MASSIVE hoarder, and struggle to let go of the most mundane, useless, impersonal things (say, a packet of noodles that's several years past it's use-by date), and you have a constant inner battle over what to do.

A classic example of this is my craft pile. Consisting of half-finished projects, fabric and wool bought for things I've not yet made, and numerous scraps and old clothes which I am holding on to in case I ever take up quilt making, this pile spreads through three cupboards, the wardrobe, under the bed and most recently, a growing pile on the sofa. Hardly ideal!

So I'm slowly trying to work my way through my project pile and my stash, as this is the only answer for both frugality and decluttering. My latest achievement: an oven glove! This project was started quite recently (I ran into issues with insulation) but is pretty frugal - the main part is made from a tea towel I picked up in a flea market in Finland (isn't it gorgeous?!) for a tiny sum, and the mits are cut from odds and ends of previous projects. I did buy the binding and the insulation, but there's plenty of insulation left for me to make further oven gloves as gifts. (Although one way of looking at this is: I have added more to my stash than I used up in this project...)

Honesty compels me to admit that I did get the main panel on the other side (hidden in the photo) the wrong way round but after four and a half hours, I couldn't face unpicking everything. The stitching is also a little messy as I had to sew over the bias binding several times to catch all the edges, but this is the first time I've used bias binding so I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. And it works!!

I'll never buy cereal again

I start most mornings, like so many people, with a bowl of cereal. I tend to pimp this up a bit by adding oats or seeds and raisins, but I've never made my own cereal before. While browsing blogs a while ago, I stumbled across this recipe for toasted muesli by Easy Peasy Organic.

It's taken me a while to get around to trying this out, but I'm a convert already. It took me about half an hour to make this batch, which is about half the volumes of the recipe. I reckon this would last me just over a week, and there are endless variations of nuts, seeds and dried fruit! This batch includes oats, ground almonds, linseeds and sunflower seeds, with prunes and raisins. I couldn't resist it and just had to try it, and I've found it tastes like a flapjack in a bowl - far from boring! 

Clearing the crafting decks

Following the completion of the second set of miniature stocking advent calenders, I am being very focused and non-spontaneous. I am aiming to finish off ALL of my works in progress before I start on anything new. I have several on the go, which is adding to the clutter and mess of my crafting supplies. I am working up to sorting through these supplies but want to do myself the favour of clearing as much out of the way as possible before I do so.

Step forward, WIP number one: cross stitch panel.

Bitten by the baking bug

So what is it about Great British Bake Off that has me dusting off my apron and tutting at the poor array of baking equipment in my cupboard? (Seriously. Can't even do a Victoria sponge.) 

I seem to have been bitten by the baking bug. In the last week, I have made: one loaf of white bread with linseeds (and who'd have thought that the humble linseed could so totally transform bread?); one batch of rotis, ginger and oat cookies, chocolate chip and walnut biscuits, and now I have a teeny tiny batch of meringues in the oven. I've never made meringues before, but I've been meaning to try for a while, and with an egg white left over from the biscuits, I thought - why not? The world's smallest batch of meringue ever made. Fingers crossed they come out well.

Only 7 months late

Finally! This morning I finished the last of these teeny tiny stockings. It's taken me quite a lot longer than I expected - hence a project intended for a birthday present last November has only been completed now.

Friday night sew-in

Last night, I curled up under my crocheted blanket with Pride and Prejudice playing, and spent some time working on my current procrastination *cough* project - 25 miniature embroidered stockings to form an advent calendar for my cousin.

I intended to make it for her birthday last November, and one for my other cousin by last Christmas. I slightly underestimated the amount of time each stocking would take, and I'm still on number 16 of the first set. I felt rather daunted by the work around January, and put the project on one side in favour of some cross-stitch, but it is now looking like next Christmas might come around before it's finished, so I've dusted it off. I will be so proud when it is finished!

Overambition?

I know it's not only me - I read several blogs about people doing much the same thing. Simple living, thriftiness, the new home front - call it what you want, it essentially comes down to trying to buy less and make more, to do things for yourself rather than paying someone else to do it for you.

It's easy to feel disheartened by the number of things not yet achieved. I look around and see the housework not done, see the things I still buy instead of making, things like bread and soap which are among the first things that you start making for yourself, as well as cleansers and make up and toothpaste, containing chemicals I would rather eliminate.

Looking for alternatives

I'm actually feeling a little bit annoyed with myself - because yesterday, I had the opportunity to challenge myself to find an alternative to muffin cases. After all, there were cupcakes before cupcake cases (I presume, anyway!) When a friend made several very practical and frugal suggestions, including one I could have implemented without making any additional purchases, I felt a little bit ashamed that I didn't think of them. I guess I still have a way to go in thinking outside the box.

In many cases, this comes down to focusing on the result you want to achieve - preventing the cakes from sticking to the tray - rather than the tools the recipe tells you to use.

Well, thanks to my friend's suggestion, I will look carefully at muffin cases and at her suggested alternatives, and make a selection that balances practicality with frugality. I think I may go for baking parchment, which I can cut into squares and use. I think this will be more cost-effective than cases.

One good thing did come out of my search - I didn't find cases last night, but I did find affordable gelatine sheets, which I have seen in several recipes but been unable to find to date.

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...

Craft Workshops

Hello! I am still alive, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Life caught up with me, so I do in fact have a long list of blog posts I'd like to make on various topics, some of which are looooong overdue. Like this one.

As part of my interest in the journeys that our possessions take from the extraction or production of the raw materials through to the disposal of the used product, I am just a little bit interested in craft. I work with wool, and I am interested in all of the stages of the process from fleece to jumper. When I started working with Sunbeams, a Brussels-based charity promoting ecological issues in the English-speaking expatriate community here, I mentioned my interest in craft, and eventually we organised a Christmas Craft workshop.

It was a really good fun afternoon. There were several different activities going on, and the group of children moved naturally and easily from one to another as each was completed. Most of these involved using items that would normally end up in the bin - the insides of toilet paper rolls, scrap paper, and especially Christmas wrapping paper. My own contribution was introducing them to crochet, making creations vaguely resembling snowflakes. I did find that teaching crochet to that age group was rather tricky, as you can't do any of the fun stuff, but that's just something I need to work on.

I really enjoyed learning to make, for example, plaited heart-shaped bags to hang from the tree, using old wrapping paper. And I loved sharing my passion with a group of little people, who were all really proud of their creations. I think what made the craft afternoon so successful was that there was a range of different activities, so that the pressure didn't fall on any single person to keep people interested for the whole afternoon, and that it had a fairly specific focus. The range of activities also meant that people could arrive and leave whenever suited them, and do as many or as few projects as they wanted to, as quickly or as thoroughly as they liked.

I have attempted to get a craft workshop focused on crochet up and running, but I think the brief has been too vague and I haven't reached my target audience very effectively. Looking back at the success of this workshop, I think it would be advisable to choose a specific brief and bring together people interested in different crafts for a similar afternoon. Hmmm... It's a shame I missed the boat for Easter, but perhaps a Midsummer festival theme would work. Feel free to contribute suggestions.

Happy Imbolc!

Tonight is of course Imbolc, the pagan festival that falls between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. In a perfect world, I'd have had a mahusive party with loads of friends, an array of seasonal (organic, locally produced etc) dishes, candles, a big fire in a fireplace and far too much homemade wine. With that in mind, I made a Moroccan dish with lamb and apricots cooked in orange juice, honey and cinnamon. De-licious.

Imbolc is a time for creativity and inspiration, and I have been very creative in the past week. Coming up soon will be details of the range of home-made toiletries I've been making, but the highlight of today was making hummus for the first time. It worked! I made HUMMUS! And it tastes NICE! And I made it the low-tech way - almost every recipe I found basically ran, "Step 1. Place the ingredients in a food processor. Step 2. Blend until smooth." I used a potato-masher-thing. It worked surprisingly well, and my hummus has a delightfully rustic, homemade texture to it. Definitely one to repeat! I also added some cumin and coriander for extra flavour, but I was a bit too careful. I think I need to be more daring with the spices next time.

Other creative projects currently on the go:

• A crochet blanket. Not particularly fancy or complex, but something comforting for my bluesy days.
• Valentine's Day cards for my lovely, lovely friends who should really be told that they are beautiful people more regularly.
• Crochet flowers for keyrings, and other simple demos for the crochet workshops I am setting up this month.
• A bookmark for my mother's birthday. Don't tell her. I made her one last year and it got lost in the post (Sod's law!) so I plan to make another this year, and supplement it with a book. And maybe a cake. You can never go wrong with a cake.
• Many additional crafts are in the UK awaiting my return - including a couple of simple, beginner's dress-making patterns and my mother's sewing machine, the Cath Kidston 'Sew!' book which I am dying to get started on, and many other brilliant books of recipes, patterns and crafty ideas. (Soapmaking and churning butter are on the list...)