Friday 20 September 2013

Weekend to do list - A lot of knitting


Missed the Fabric of Britain: Knittings Golden Age programme on BBC4 last evening. Going to catch up on BBC iPlayer over the weekend but first I'll be doing a bit of walking...


...a bit of cake baking (to eat while watching knitting on iPlayer)...


        ...trying to finish my Ursula Mittens by Kate Davis
started back in August


...working on a new Hand Knitted Things design using 
Rowan Felted Tweed Aran...


Have a great weekend..

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Lotta Jansdotta Bella Quilt



Never having made a quilt I was looking for a design that wasn't too complicated but still a bit of a challenge.  Inspiration came from Film in the Fridge's - Innocent Crush Quilt. Then I saw the Lotta Jansdotta Bella fabrics and put the two together. Squares and rectangles with boarders. How difficult could that be....Well I've learned a few things from making this quilt.

Cutting and Measurement
Precise measurement and cutting makes for an easier life later in the piecing together stage.


Blocks
I made the squares and rectangles a little larger than shown in the quilt block tutorial. Some of my prints needed a slightly larger square to see the design. If I made another quilt like this I would probably try using a smaller pattern print with less directional influence.

Quilting
I thought it would look quite nice to do the quilting stitch around each square/rectangle. A good idea but in practice this left me with a few problems with fabric shifting, hundreds of loose ends to sew in and on the back the effect not as pleasing as the front. Will remember this for the next quilt.


Binding and Fabric
Some time after purchasing the bulk of the fabric, I was searching online for extra Bella 'yellow dot' fabric to complete the binding. I discovered the range to be discontinued. I will have to plan ahead my fabric purchases (and get on with things instead of leaving them in a cupboard) similar to knitting yarn and discontinued ranges. They always do advise you to purchase enough to complete the project!  In the end decided to settled for making a plain white neutral bias binding to complement the other colours.

Finished Size
46" x 56".

Finishing
Some of my finishing work could have been executed with more finesse, however, for my first effort I'm please with the result.





Sunday 15 September 2013

Crochet Hexagons and Colour Chart


So far on this Lakeside Forest Blanket I have made 30 out of the (hopefully no more than) 99 hexagons. After completing about 10 hexagons or so I'm weaving in the ends. The prospect of doing all these at the end is very off putting and the only thing I dislike about multi-coloured crochet projects.


I'm doing the hex's in stages, making a batch of coloured centres first, then adding the cream boarder on all of them, then adding the final grey edging.



I planned the colour sequencing by using this custom hexagon graph paper generator. The URL for this gadget was included in the crochet blanket instructions and has proved quite useful.





The paper I generated has a few more than the 11 x 9 hexagons


I'm using five colours for the centres, pink, green, yellow, blue and purple. The paper has helped to organise the sequence and no two colours are next to each other. 




 
Each hexagon measures 4 1/2 inches (11.5cm) across. Based on this measurement the 11 x 9 hexagons should make a blanket approx. 40 inches by 50 inches - I'll be adding a boarder and maybe some more hex's, I'll see how it looks once I have the 99 sewn together.



Tuesday 10 September 2013

UK Handmade Magazine Autumn 2013



This is a another visual treat from UKhandmade (as always). 

I love the photography in this publication. 

As well as being a visual treat, this season there's lots of interesting articles including:

reviews
interviews
how to's
finds
craft business know how...






pinterest-4d72c.html



Saturday 7 September 2013

15 Tweed Pins

The weather is cooler and autumn feels like it's on it's way...time to think about warmer clothes and colours...

Click here or on the image to take a look at my 'Tweed' board on Pinterest.

Friday 6 September 2013

New Look

Regular visitors may have noticed a new look to Hand Knitted Things blog. 

Soon (in December 2013) HKT will be five years old. Time I thought, for a change.  

Jennifer from Raspberry Road Design has been working on the graphics and dealing with all the technical things for me. She has been great to work with.  

I'm delighted with the finished look...hope you all like it.

Thursday 5 September 2013

Postcards from the Island of Guernsey



We took a summer break on the Island of Guernsey. We did lots of walks along country lanes, coastal paths and beaches...