Shop announcement!

Once again.. it's been a while since I last posted anything here. Life has been very, very busy lately but I just wanted to share some exciting news. After months of preparation, I am finally ready to re-open my Etsy shop. I've been wanting to do it in such a long time and now I feel like this is the right moment. Tomorrow is C.'s birthday and re-opening my Etsy corner will be one of best gifts for him- he's always been my biggest fan, my greatest motivation and support. 

I've been working on my projects during those cold, winter evenings and the more I knit and crochet for Etsy, the more and more I want to make. My head is spinning with ideas.

At the moment I'll be offering knit and crochet garments for babies but I'm working on ladies' accessories, shawls and cowls too. I hope I will be able to update my shop on a regular basis.

I'm planning to list new garments later tonight, so please come and have a peek :-)

Wishing you a peaceful weekend!

xo

FO: Easter bonnet.

 

Yesterday there was Easter party in G.'s nursery and all kids were supposed to wear Easter bonnet. I bought a plain straw hat and decided to decorate it with some crochet flowers. I stayed up late the previous night and almost went blind but loved every minute of working on those flowers in Easter-y colours. I find working with crochet hook more and more enjoyable. Making crochet flowers is particularly relaxing for me.

 

I owe special thanks to Baby F. who cooperated nicely that night and slept six hours straight without waking up once, giving me some quiet, uninterrupted time to work on this hat for his big sister.

 

This bonnet doesn't maybe look exactly as Easter bonnet should but it surely looks very fresh and springy. The only thing that is missing is spring itself: it is so cold these days, with freezing winds and snowy rains. I lost count of how many times G. and F. have been sick (they both are now, again...). I'm so fed up with all that sneezing and coughing around...

 

As you can guess looking at these photos, G. is very happy with her new hat. She doesn't want to take it off and that makes me one happy mama. Seeing her smile and watching her dance with the bonnet on her head is the best prize for my work.

 

Easter bonnet (Rav link)

I hope the beginning of spring is sunnier and warmer in your corners.

Happy weekend!

FO: Summer flower.

One of my recent finished projects is this summer top for G. I made it a while ago, having our holiday in mind. There's no hope she will wear it here any time soon (rain, rain and more rain on the way...) but I do hope we will have nice sunny weather in Italy. We're leaving today and we couldn't be more excited. All we want is some blue sky above us. And we can't wait to see all family and friends!

But coming back to the summer top: I absolutely love the way it turned out. I'm not very good at crochet but every now and then I like to swap my needles for a hook and play a little bit. It was such a quick and enjoyable work. A flower detail to make it more girly. A bit of sewing (this time without swearing) and it's done. We're ready for the sun.

Project notes:
Hook: 3.5mm
Yarn: Rowan Pima Cotton, 2 skeins
Fabric: bought on sale in Jenners, Edinburgh
More photos on my Ravelry project page, here.

Flower obsession continues...

 I keep making these...

They are so quick to make and so pretty, instant gratification. I'm still struggling with constant tiredness and have no energy to tackle some bigger knitting projects. I cannot focus on reading patterns these days but my hands are itchy for some crafty moments. Crocheting these flowers in the evening while watching a movie is quite relaxing and makes me feel like I'm not wasting time. And G. loves her hair clips and always asks for new ones :-)

Knitting again

I haven't been knitting recently as much as I'd like to but slowly I'm getting back on track with my passion. I've got head filled up with some ideas, I only have to find some more spare time to bring them to life.

I managed to finish few small projects recently. One of them is this cute little cardi for my friend's first baby due in mid May. The pattern is Abigail (Rav pattern page), very easy to follow and quick to knit. I used some lovely merino that I bought few years ago in Italy from a street vendor (I do miss those street markets). I hope my friends likes my baby shower gift for her baby girl.

The other day I played a bit with crochet flowers. It seems like G. is always losing her hair clips so I bought a box of 30 plain ones and decided to decorate them myself. My crochet skills are very limited but I'm quite happy with this simple decoration:

I even made a bigger flower and then attached it to a simple baby beanie. It will probably be given away as a gift as well. I used some Araucania Ulmo for the flower and Rowan Milk Cotton for the hat. Love the result!

  

And last but not least: my Shalom cardigan is almost finished (Rav pattern page). I need to weave in ends and sew the buttons on and block it.

Happy knitting!

FO: Love affair.

This project was inspired by this beautiful nightdress by Francesca: when I first saw it, I fell in love with it and wanted to do something similar as a summer top. I'm not very good at working with crochet but I decided to give it a go anyway.

In the beginning it was love affair between knitting and crochet (I planned to crochet the lace part and knit the rest) but as it usually happens with love affairs: they start with excitement but they rarely work out well and they finish with tears. I don't know how many times I had to rip this project off. I don't know how many times I changed my mind about it. But in the end I decided to stick to hook only and crochet the whole thing. And I think it was a good decision.

Joining the fabric was tricky since I'm hopeless at sewing. It took me few days to gather my courage to pull out my sewing machine from the depth of my wardrobe. Few tears here and few swears there and it was done. It is not perfect, it actually is very, very imperfectly sewn but I like it anyway. I only hope I get a chance to wear it. Summer in Scotland doesn't seem to be very summery...

Project notes:
Yarn: Wendy Supreme Luxury Cotton DK, one skein
Hook: 3 mm
Fabric: 100% cotton bought on sale in John Lewis
5 mother pearl buttons for closure

Skill + 1Up - 2KCBWDAY2

Skill + 1UP – 2KCBWDAY2

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Hmm.. Let's see...

1. Cables.

I tried to knit them last year and fell in love with them. I always thought it was difficult to knit cables. Err... So easy! And they always look great.

2. Fair isle knitting.

Exactly around this time last year I was working on my Paper Dolls sweater. It was my very first fair isle project and I actually finished it but the final result was quite disappointing. I followed the pattern closely and the body came out perfect while the yoke looked pretty bad. It was too large on me plus I had problems with stranding the yarn on the left side of the work; my dolls were pretty "tight". I decided to rip the yoke off and before I realized, I'd ripped off half of the sweater. It is now waiting for a better time. I'm planning on knitting it again some time this year, customizing the yoke. I love the pattern (very well written and clear instructions) and I really don't want to waste that fantastic yarn (Rowan Scottish Tweed 4 Ply).

What I learnt from this project:

- i-cord cast on/cast off

- corrugated rib

- short rows 

3. Crochet.

I've always been in love with all the crochet things and always wanted to learn this craft but for some reason I am not able to understand much about it. Honestly, I believe it is a sort of magic with a hook instead of a wand. I'm self-taught knitter and it is quite easy for me to learn new things about knitting but when it comes to crochet, it becomes a problem. You know what's ironic? I had crochet lessons when I was in secondary school and never had knitting lessons.

Last year I finally decided to face crochet. I was determined to make this fantastic blanket. And guess what? I actually managed to work out the stitches! Ok, ok, I know, this pattern is only about double crochet, chain, treble but I feel happy anyway. I've been working on my first crochet blanket for few months now, taking it easy. I really enjoy working with hook. 

This year I'd really love to finally learn to knit socks as well as lace shawls... And explore crochet a bit more!

Hitting the wall.

Thank you all for your nice comments on my "Topolina" sweater, here as well as on Ravelry. I will definitely be knitting another one and I will try to write down the pattern notes to share with you. At the moment not much has been happening in my knitting world- I feel like I've lost my knitting mojo. I have plenty of ideas in my head, I have few projects on my needles, I have new delicious yarns in my stash  and somehow I don't have energy to work. Whenever I pick up my needles, I give them up after few rows. Nothing feels right... It's like I've hit some sort of knitting wall. Do you also experience this sometimes...?

I've been trying to finish this cable sweater that I started long before last year Christmas. I only need to do half a sleeve but I don't see the end of it. Maybe it's because my personal knitting assistant (my two year old daughter) keeps pulling out the needles and I'm fed up with picking up the stitches... This warm, thick sweater will be ready just in time for... summer. Oh, well...

I played with hook a bit today. I made this little flower brooch. That's the most I can produce right now. 

Circle in a square.

I mentioned before (here) that art of crochet is a real mystery to me and I truly admire crocheters for their magical skills. Knitting always seemed to be a piece of cake for me if I compared it to my fruitless tries with crochet hook. While I'm able to learn new knit stitch and technics very fast, I could never understand the basic crochet stitches. Until I saw this:

photo by Tamara (click on the photo to be transfered to her beautiful blog)

When I first saw this blanket, I knew I want one too. It's just so cosy and colorful and I thought it would be a nice gift for G. So I decided to give crochet yet another try. And another... and another... It took a while until this mysterious tr finally stopped being a trouble and became treble. Finally, I have learnt how to crochet.

So now I'm making lots and lots of colorful circles and I can't stop. And then I close them in a square with pale yellow yarn. I like the result and I can't wait to comlete the whole blanket. I think I'm already addicted ;)

(Pattern: circle-in-a-square by Tamara Erbacher)

Little sister's dress (or: big girl's vest top)

Last week we had C.'s parents visiting. This time they came by car, bringing us some stuff that we left in our flat in Genoa in January. They also brought almost all my yarn and needles and started projects which made me really happy. I found this dress among them: I started knitting it before G.'s first birthday and left it unfinished and didn't really think it would suit her now. Long time has passed and now she is a big girl, defenetly too big to wear a dress in 12 month size. But I liked this dress and I wasn't keen on frogging it so this morning, when G. was still sleeping, I got up, made myself nice cup of coffee and finished this dress. Actually, it turned out to be a top.

I realized I didn't have nice buttons for this dress/top and decided to attach a crochet flower. The thing is that I can't really crochet, although I have tried many times to learn this craft. Crochet still is a mysterious art to me, hook is a wand, charts and patterns are a top secret coded information understood only to the chosen ones and any crochet project is just a pure magic to me. I own few hooks and every now and then I try to play with them but this little flower is actually the first crochet thing I successfully completed. I really feel proud; maybe there is some hope for me after all ;)

With some help of YouTube I managed to produce this little beauty:

I accessorized it with a pearl in the middle:

And then I attached the flower to the dress/top:

I'm really happy with the final result. And G. seems to be happy too :)


Project notes:
Pattern: Little Sister's Dress by Tora Frøseth
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK
Needles: US4/3.5mm