Lucky tote

On Saturday we went for a trip to St. Jacob's market north of Waterloo. It's a farmer's market with lots of flea market stuff too. I made this new pink tote to take with me, it's fuschia linen fabric that I found at Goodwill, lined with the floral fabric sent by Claudia, plus vintage fabric from an apron on the front. It was hard to cut that up!

Here's a detail, the fabric is really pretty, I like the colours, the pattern and it's very soft. I also got to use one of the cute buttons I found in Montréal:There's also a few antique shops in town, plus a quilting store. I wasn't interested in most of the fabric, but I did find some wool felt, and bought some little bundles and scraps. Plus I found these little gift pouches made from a raggedy-ann-esque cotton fabric.I'm planning to use the wool felt to make more needle books, such as the gnome one I made for Blair. Thanks for the lovely post about my package Blair, I feel so appreciated! At another shop I bought a mason jar of buttons. I sorted through them and there were lots of nice old glass ones, these were my favourites:And finally, I found some wooden handles for my knitting Olympics bag! The bag cost $8, plus I didn't like the bag part at all (maybe it looks better in the picture, really it's not very nice), so I'll have no trouble cutting the fabric part off. I think a dark wood would look better with the purple yarn, so I thinking of staining the wood darker, or possibly painting it black with a glossy finish. Not sure about that. I'm not very experienced at working with wood doing paint or stains.The Knitting Olympics are going well, Bradley has finished the first mitten and cast on the second. They are sooo pretty, I can't wait to wear them. They're a nice soft light mitten that will be perfect for spring. My purple retro bag is getting longer, but I won't bore you with yet another picture of it's progress!

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I've heard about this "tagging" before

I've started making more needle books lately. I finished this one last night, the inside pages are light pink felted wool, and the lining is a pink floral fabric. The top is brown courdoroy with a snap closure and some felt applique and crewel embroidery. It may go into my etsy shop but I haven't decided yet.

I've been tagged by A Little Hut...

Four jobs I've had in my life:
• first job ever: paper route
• working my way through university: data manager
• decided I wanted to do something creative: graphic designer
• currently (my dream job): children's book illustrator

Four movies I would watch over and over:
• about a boy
• A Room with a View
• The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Harry Potter 1, 2, and 3

Four places I have lived:
• one year in Edinburgh, Scotland at age 9
• that's it, except for neighbourhoods in Toronto: grew up in the Beaches, several years in the Annex, currently downtown

Four TV Shows I like to watch:
• The Office (love the original)
• Curb your Enthusiasm
• To the Manor Born
• Doctor Who

Four Places I have been on vacation:
• Dorset, Weymouth, Plymouth and London, England
• Playa del Carmen, Mexico
• New York City
• Holguín, Cuba

Four Websites I visit daily:
• Flickr
• hotmail
• blogger
• fellow crafters blogs

Four of my favorite foods:
• jam roly poly and custard
• fruit in general: especially lychees and longans
• Vietnamese: cold shrimp rolls and peanut sauce
• Japanese: mixed barbecue set

Four places I would rather be right now:
• Number Seventeen, Cherry-Tree Lane
• Moominvalley
• Misselthwaite Manor
• Much Frensham, Little Alders
*The first person to email me at clairelmilne(at)hotmail.com, explaining what these references are, will get a wee prize mailed to them by me! Clue for #4: the children also stay in BEDfordshire. It's over! Cathy Gaubert just identified all four places. Thanks everyone.*

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Illustration Friday - simple

These are the two pictures that go with the cat. I love doing little projects like this, it's creative but quite straightforward. I could have added a lot of details all over the place but I decided to keep it simple. These paintings are for the client's three children, she asked for these specific characters from the stories I illustrated for her previously. They are for birthday presents - but not a surprise - the children have already approved the sketches and seen the finished cat!

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Knitting olympics, needle holders

The retro bag is going well now, I have to admit picking up the stitches around the bottom and starting the two different patterns was a bit tricky and I was getting really irritated with it. I felt better though that I was doing something with a bit of a challenge and I didn't pick something too easy. Also, I usually make things up as I go along which means I often just do what I know. Following a pattern forces me to pick up new skills. As always my stitch n' bitch books were an invaluable reference!

I just got my invitation to another Knizzles, our stitch n' bitch group. I was thinking last time I went that it would be handy to have needle holders in my bag, because they tend to move around and fall about. So I tried it out on the green tote before my trip to Montréal. It's so easy, all I did was sew a rectangle of fabric inside the bag, and sewed columns sized to fit a variety of needle sizes. They are a little wobbly but I did it in a rush at the last minute. I also made ties for the bag and the tiny scrap in the picture is all that's left. Yes, that's right, at the last minute while packing for our trip and getting ready, I was also frantically sewing. I would only confess this obsessive crafting behaviour to you, my understanding fellow crafters!Here are the ties:And last but not least, I've been meaning to post this package from La Ave in Australia. I bought her notebook pouch and sent some extras. This is her pouch and the goodies she sent me - so sweet! My favourite is the cherries fabric with matching ribbon and buttons. Perfect for some little project. Thanks Caylie!

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Catching up with bags

I have a few loose ends to tie up regarding bags, so I decided to do it all in one post and that will be the theme. The first one is the camera case I made just before my trip to Montréal. It's quilted to protect the camera, and lined with my new dots fabric. I used a bit of the ric-rac sent by Michelle on the pocket, which holds the extra memory card and I used some striped ribbon I bought a long time ago for the strap.Here's a detail of the strap.
The outside is some pink wool that I bought a 1/2 yard of recently. Finding wool felt for crafts is difficult, or at least expensive. So I was happy to find this, it's a felted wool that you buy from the bolt and there were a few colours but not many. It costs $14/yard so it's much cheaper than buying little squares. And of course the craft felt that most stores sell is acrylic. It doesn't feel as nice plus it tends to pill if it gets any wear. An even better way to find wool to sew with is from thrifting, either wool sweaters you can felt or even better, a wool blanket such as the one Blair made her beautiful Finny and Skinny from.

The second bag topic is the green acorn bag. I had a question about it, but I couldn't reply directly because there was no email address. I was excited to get a comment from Finland - home of the Moomins! To answer your question, the bag is 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" with a 2" wide strap. The strap is 30" long above the bag. The strap is all knit, so it stretches a bit so you should make it a bit shorter than you actually want it to end up being. I don't remember which needle size but I know it was a bit smaller than the recommended size so that it would be snug.

The yarn is quite special, it's called Trend Collection Linie 82 Mistral and I think I ended up using four 50 gram balls. You could use anything though, and just make a swatch to see how many stitches you'll need. I did stockinette for the main bag, with 6 rows of garter at the top so it wouldn't curl too much. Here's a detail of the yarn:I hope this is helpful, of course if you make the bag, I'd love to see it.

The other question was about the retro knitting bag pattern. The original post seems to have disappeared and I don't like to post it since it's not my pattern. But I will scan my printout and if anyone wants to email me directly I will send it to you. As always I'd like to see it if anyone else makes it.

And finally here is the progress report for the Knitting Olympics. I've finished the bottom of the bag, picked up stitches all around and started to knit up. It was pretty difficult actually. I had to count the stitches over and over. Plus I don't have any stitch markers so I was using paperclips! And here is a peek at Bradley's Knitting Olympics mittens that he's making for me. Isn't it beautiful? I can't wait to wear them!

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Back home

It's good to be home again, but we did have a wonderful trip. I am so lucky because Bradley was happy just to walk around in another city, he loves to travel, and I got to go to all the crafty places I've mentioned. Everything turned out so well, even funny details. For example, Bradley had originally found a B&B that was a llama farm, but it turned out it was closed in the winter. But when we dropped off at The Big Apple in Colborne on the way home, they had some llamas there! The Big Apple is an actual model of a giant apple, and they sell apple pies there. There's also some amusements, such as the llama "farm" with ducks and rabbits too. I asked if they sold llama wool, but the girl at the cashier looked at me like I was nuts. I'm glad that the llama B&B was closed because I really loved where we stayed. Here's a picture of my favourite corner of the room, it's a Victorian house, so there are appealing details like the deep windows, and the owner likes to collect things such as this nice spinning wheel. Little did I know we were staying next door to her crafts room! I didn't go in, but I caught a glimpse of a sewing machine and shelves of fabric etc. It's a good arrangement, the guest rooms are on the first floor, and the family lives upstairs, so there's privacy for everyone. We both also really enjoyed the healthy and delicious home-cooked breakfasts made by Dominique. So I recommend this B&B, it's Pierre et Dominique, 271 Square St-Louis.

Thanks to everyone for the tips on places to go - I know exactly what to see on my next trip to Montréal. Here is the info on how I acquired all the great buttons, ribbon and yarn.

Magasin de Fibre L.B. inc
La Bobineuse de Laine
2270, Mont-Royal Est
514-521-9000

Rubans, Boutons...
4818 St-Denis
514-847-3535
www.rubansboutons.com

Trimcité
7381, rue St-Hubert
514.272.7733

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Custom yarn - knitting olympics day 1

In case you're wondering, we did go for a scenic drive in the country today, and saw some forests and mountains and a bit of the small towns north of Montréal. But we did also manage to get back to the Magasin de Fibre L.B. inc., also known as La Bobineuse de Laine. I wanted to get my nerve up and actually create some custom yarn and the picture above shows what I had made for me. You choose colours in one type of fibre, ie. they don't mix cotton and wool, and there are different textures to choose from as well. I chose cotton because most of the other fibres were part acrylic and I prefer the natural fibres. I chose to blend two strands of medium pink, a strand of light pink boucle and a strand of purple boucle. Here is a close up of the result:The cost for the cotton was $10/livre, which is one pound. This is just one of the cones - the smaller one! I also bought a pretty light blue turquoise blended with a single strand of silver. And I couldn't resist a couple more of the grab bags. Ok three more. They were $1 each!! The lady in the store was very friendly and helpful, I showed her a yarn I had on hand and she suggested using 5 strands to create a blend of a similar thickness. I asked if I could take her picture and she said it was ok.This is another (sorry, blurry) picture of the machine used to blend the custom yarn. This store was so much fun! I'm glad I managed to fit in another trip and I was so happy with how my pound of custom yarn came out. The entire yarn spree cost $18.And finally, here is my progress on my Knitting Olympics project after the first day. This is the bottom of the bag and it's 14 inches wide. After the bottom is done, you pick up stitches and start knitting in the round. Bradley's striped mittens for me are going well - he's already used five of the colours: pink, pale pink, light olive green, red and orange. I guess he'll keep going soon, but right now he's going out for some poutine!

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All buttons and no beadsa crafters trip to Montréal

We decided to take a small holiday and go to Montréal for a long weekend. Now that we're here it seems a little crazy because it is SO COLD. But we're still managing to have a wonderful time. The first B&B (called The Nightingale) was in Ingleside and it was a very comfortable stop before heading on to Montréal in the morning. It's in a beautiful Victorian home and we had a delicious fruit and Belgian waffle breakfast.

In Montréal we're staying in a B&B called Pierre et Dominique's and it's just great. It's in a very good location, lots to see around here and in the middle of everything. It borders on a park and there's lots of space and sun in our comfortable room.

I've had lots of fun shopping, which brings me to the alluring picture of buttons at the top of this post. Bradley noticed the store pictured below while we were wandering around, I had some idea that it was a bakery or something like that, though I did notice the ribbons waving at the top. It turns out it is the best button store ever. They have a HUGE bin filled with buttons and for $1 you can have a scoop full, but for $2 you can take your time and pick and choose and fill the same size scoop (all the buttons in the picture were $2). As you might guess I picked and choosed and was absolutely delighted with all the pretty buttons I found. They also have stacks of boxes with buttons to buy in sets, and ribbons and trim and some handmade bags. It's called Rubans, Boutons... which of course means Ribbons, buttons... The owner was very friendly and gave me a tip on a good fabric district. The ribbon on the right of this picture was from the button store, but the other two are from a store called Trimcité. This was my favourite store in the fabric district. It is similar to a ribbon store we have on Queen West in Toronto but much much cheaper. The pricing guide is very efficient, all the ribbon and trim is marked with a letter and there are charts everywhere saying the price per yard each letter corresponds to.
I've visited a couple of yarn stores, but nothing too exciting. The most interesting place is called Magasin de Fibre L.B. inc. They have big cones of yarn/cotton/wool blends and you can mix and match colours and fibres and they'll wind it together for you into a ball. It's really cheap, you buy it by the pound and most are well under $10/pound. What I found was even better, the cotton you see below is from leftovers from the cones - it's equivalent to a pearl cotton size 10 or so, and I bought all this in two grab bags for $4 (it's more than it looks like in this picture - each bag was a bread bag full). Wow!It seems like most of the stores have staff that speak French and English, but I'm finding my French is quite useful and I can understand everyone quite well. It's interesting to see how people figure out which language to use with you. So there you have it, a crafter's guide to buying crafts supplies in Montréal. If you are reading this and you live here, I'd love some tips on places to go!

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Purple knitting bag - Knitting olympics!

We've decided at the last minute to enter the knitting Olympics! Bradley is making me some mittens, in beautiful colours: orange, pinks and red, and I'm going to make a purple knitting bag. It's the same one that Sarah from our stitch n' bitch made that I posted about earlier. The pattern came from retroknits.com, but I can't find the site anymore, it seems to have disappeared.

I'm making a few small changes to the pattern, it's a different yarn so the size might be slightly different, and it calls for 200 grams and I only have 150, so it will be a little shorter. Also, I have bamboo handles, so they will attach a little differently. I'm not sure yet about the lining, the best thing I have right now is the fabric I use for the photograph, which has some purple in in it, but I may pick something else up later on.

The challenge is having the patience to follow a pattern, plus using two new stitches: butterfly blocks and sock heel stitch. It actually took me a while to figure out the sock heel stitch, I think it's that you have to bring the yarn to the front when you pass over the stitch (sl1). The first time I tried it the stitch looked like little waves, but then I think I figured it out. The other challenge is that it's also quite fine, I'm using size 4 needles.

I just found out I missed the midnight deadline...I emailed in case we can get added later on. After all we may be the only mixed doubles team!

p.s. update on the sock heel stitch - after the tip from Sarah (in the comments) I was going a little crazy trying to figure out what I was doing wrong because it still looked wonky. In the pattern you're knitting in the round so it said to knit every second row. But I just realized I was doing a test swatch on straight needles and on straight needles you perl every second row not knit! I had a weird version worked out that looked similar but was a lot more trouble plus not quite right. So thanks Sarah!!

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Why I can't throw away scrapsvintage green tote

I made this yesterday using a piece of fabric I bought on Ebay. The fabric is vintage so it had a couple of rough spots, but generally it was in very good shape. Of course I didn't use a pattern, but it's basically the same design as the knitting bag in Debbie Stoller's Stitch n' Bitch book. You square up the bag by sewing the corners. The main difference is that I added a lining to mine, but it's just the same thing repeated and turned inside out if you know what I mean.

I had just enough fabric to make this bag, or rather, I made the bag as large as I could and have enough for the bag, straps and a pocket. After that I was left with a small piece, which I decided to turn into a coin purse. I found these great pearl snaps, so I added those to the front pocket and purse. The fabric even aligned on the purse, but I have to admit it was just a fluke.

And finally I had some very small scraps left, so I decided to use the two biggest pieces to make a little strap for the purse. You know how you can't always find your money while shopping and it's embarrassing standing at the cashier digging around in your bag? So the little strap will end all that. So this is what I was left with:
And I can't even throw away these scraps. It's not like I can find this fabric again! What if I need to make some little ties for the bag...wait a minute that's a good idea...

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Fabric stash and coin purse

These are the wonderful cottons I got at the Cotton Loft recently. I love these, but there were so many great patterns it was hard to choose. I find that the fabric is a bit thicker than the Cia's Palette fabrics I bought. It was easy to use their site and it's quite affordable. Most of the fabric was under $6 US/yard and they mailed all of the above for $7.50. I found out about it, along with Cia's Palette which I mentioned in an earlier post, from dioramarama's blog. She has great crafts links in her sidebar, along with posts about fabric and the fabulous things she's sewn, such as a Denyse Schmidt quilt and oven mitt.

I think this is all the room I have now for fabric, but I have to show off how organized I am now thanks to a great tip from splityarn. She has tutorials listed in her sidebar, the fabric organizing tip is on this page. I bought comic backing boards from a comic shop - they cost less than $10 for 100 acid free boards. Then you fold the fabric so it's the same width as the board is tall, and wind it around the board and pin the ends down. It's kind of like a miniature bolt of fabric such as the ones in fabric stores. Very handy for storage but also easier to cut pieces off the end without having to open up the whole piece of fabric.


While I'm mentioned splityarn, I also used her coin purse tutorial to make this little purse (in a different size/shape). The best part was learning how easy it is to add snaps - I bought a little snap kit in the fabric district on Queen West on Friday. This little coin purse was my first one, and I'm including it with the matching tote I have up on etsy now. As you might have noticed by now, I usually don't use patterns. I guess I've been knitting and sewing so long I can kind of figure out how to make something just by looking at it. That's part of it, but mostly I'm just too lazy to follow a pattern. And finally I am a creative person so I always want to do things my own way. But whenever I do figure out some semblance of a pattern I love to share it. And I really appreciate it when crafters share their ideas and techniques - so thanks splityarn!

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Knitted tea cosy

This is a present I made for Bradley this week. It's made from most of one skein of blue-green Cascade Yarns Quatro (100% Peruvian highland wool) yarn. I wound the skein into two balls, so that I could knit two strands together and make it quite thick. It also knits up faster that way. I also used a slightly smaller needle size than normal so that it would be quite dense, and very warm. Thanks to Alison for the cool ribbon - it was on my pouches package!

I looked online for a tea cosy pattern, and found some good inspiration, but not a specific pattern I wanted to use. Have a look at this gorgeous old cable-knit flower-decorated wool-lined tea cosy pattern! So I created my own pattern - it's barely a pattern at all because it's so simple. (As always, I'd love to see them if you make this.) Here's what you do:

Knitted tea cosy pattern
The pattern consists of two squares, which are sewn together at the sides leaving room for the handle and the spout. This way the cosy stays on the pot and you can still pour the tea. The tops of both squares have a row of holes that you thread a ribbon through (or string or braided yarn etc.) to gather it snugly at the top. So you can add the tea and water, then pull the ribbon tight and tie it to keep the tea hot. Of course this pattern can easily be adjusted to fit any teapot with handles/spout of any size and position.

1. Take some measurements of your teapot or have it handy so you can see how wide the circumference of your cosy should be, and how tall.

2. Knit a swatch with your yarn of choice to find out how many stitches to cast on. (You can do all knit or whichever stitch you like). Start knitting the first square, continue until it is as tall as your teapot up to the beginning of the lid. Add a row of holes this way: *K2, YO, K2tog*. Repeat until you run out of stitches. Knit six more rows, or whatever you like to match the height of your teapot.

3. Sew the sides together leaving gaps where the handle and spout of the teapot are.

4. Weave your ribbon through the holes. additional option: Embroider whatever you would like on the side. I used wool and embroidered the word "tea" using chain stitch.

That's it! Enjoy your hot pot of tea.

p.s. I've heard my pictures don't show up on bloglines - they show up when I log in so I'm not sure how to fix this. I'm working on it but if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate some help!

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Splityarn pouches, and berry branch brooch

Ok don't be jealous, but I had another great package in the mail today. I ordered these two pouches from splityarn a little while ago. She also sent this cute Scrabble stitch marker (with a C for Claire)! I just love the great fabrics and combinations of colours she uses, and of course the finishing on her things is really professional. I love them! I recommend her etsy shop too: splityarn.etsy.com.

In the meantime I have been busy working on secret things to go in swap packages, but here is one thing that I can show, it's a brooch with the berry branch embroidery on it. I'm going to put this one in my etsy shop. It's made from very thick wool felt, with pink wool blanket stitch around the outside, and berries and branches embroidered in wool on the front. The back has a red wool fabric lining behind the brooch pin.

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Mail call!!!

I could wait and save these for individual posts (if I were a patient person, which I certainly am not), but instead I'm just going to show off all the great packages that came in the mail today. The first is the much anticipated ATC from Michelle at Green Kitchen. I mentioned I liked her bird paintings, and she sent prints of four of them, mounted and trimmed with gold string loops, each in a pretty paper wrapping. My favourites are the two in the middle (above), you can see larger photos of them on Flickr. She also sent some cute rick rack, which I love, although I have no idea how I can use it because the vintage packaging is so charming too. She also sent some of her own greeting cards, and this pretty handmade clip:I love the paper card it's mounted on, and it came it the wee brown hat box you can see in the first picture. In case you're wondering what wonderful things I sent her, well I only sent my ATC, and she put together this lovely assortment of goodies for me! But we did do a second swap recently, though, and I made her something nice. Thank you very much, Michelle.

The second package had two beautiful pouches made by Alison!!! I love her sewing so much, she has the best fabrics, and her machine embroidery is so cool and pretty. I offered to swap with her and she agreed. I had already seen the brown star embroidery pouch and wanted that one, and she also made me a custom pink one (look at that great lining!!). I made her some custom mittens in dark brown with pink and cream embroidery:And I threw in the fabric they're photographed on. They're felted a little bit for warmth, and we emailed back and forth about measurements to make sure they would fit. I was so happy she liked them, because I knew I would love her pouches. Her sewing is even greater in person, the brown courdoroy is nice and soft and the linings are so pretty...I could go on and on. Visit her shop at malisonian.etsy.com and you'll see all her great stuff.

And now you may be wondering about all those great patterns in the background? Well I also got this assortment of fabric from Cia's Palette. My favourite is the little dots, it's called Funky Monkey. Believe me, I could have found a lot more!! So I recommend this site, it's easy to choose fabrics, the package came quickly, and they even sent an extra swatch - it worked because now I want to order that fabric too next time!I know what you're thinking. That must be it, right? Well there's more! I finally got some fabric I bought AGES ago on ebay. It didn't arrive the first time and the seller had to send it again. It's the one on the left. The fabric on the right is from a vintage shirt which I found on the weekend at a second hand store on Queen West. I had originally planned to use the ebay fabric to line my oak leaf bag, but now I'm planning to use the shirt fabric on the right. But don't worry I know I can use the one on the left too! Ok I'd better stop...this post is getting excessive - I hope you don't mind.

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White wool pencil case with berries

First things first, I really recommend the new crafts site, whip up. It was launched today and it's wonderful. Lots of great info and crafts inspiration. Can you believe that fabric stash?? And that beautiful paper?? I've added a button link for whip up in my sidebar.

Myself, I finally finished my white wool pencil case with berries. It's knitted from the same wool as my popular white berry mittens. (I say popular because they're one of my top pictures in Flickr - you can see how your pictures rank for number of comments, views, and the number of times people have marked it as a "favourite"). I've been working on the pencil case for a while now, on and off. I wanted to use up the rest of that beautiful wool to make something else and had the idea to make a pencil case with it. Here's a detail of the embroidery, it's the same as on the mittens.The pretty lining fabric was provided in a swap with Teresa. I sent her some of my merino wool and she sent me some lovely fabric and ribbon. Thanks Teresa!

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