Learning To Arm Knit

 Last weekend Mum and I went to the Creative Crafts Show at Sandown Park and we came across a lady at a wool stall demoing arm knitting. We had both seen videos of it before but never seen somebody doing it for real so we were very intrigued to watch her do it. After watching in amazement for 5 minutes at how quick and easy it was to do I decided to get myself some wool and have a go for myself.

Here's a photo of me just getting started...I realised it was a little too loose after this photo so quickly undid it all and started again, only took a couple minutes to get back to this stage so it's really not hard to correct mistakes. I started with 2x 200g skeins of chunky wool and double knitted them, the chunkier the wool or more strands you use the better the scarf/cowl will look at the end.

I used the tutorial video here for quick reference to remind me how to arm knit.

About 45minutes later I had a fully finished cowl that I could wear with pride. I originally planned to make a scarf but the video showed how easy a cowl would be so I changed my mind.

 Really is quite a long, perhaps a little too long?

 Here's me looking a totally proud idiot wearing my new chunky cowl... I even wore it out that evening when we went to the cinema to show it off!

I even have enough wool leftover that I could probably make a snood/single loop cowl for a gift for someone else.

Learning To Knit

 The other month at a craft show I decided it was time that I needed to learn to knit...everyone else can knit and makes me lovely knitted gifts yet I've never ventured beyond knitting the ribbon scarves.

So it took me quite a while to actually start knitting, I tried looking up how to cast on but failed epicly every time I tried so I had to wait till the next time Mum came over, which was a couple of weekends ago...although it wasn't an easy lesson to learn as she's left handed and I'm right handed so it was a tad confusing to start with...Finally we got me going on a friday night with a G&T.

This is how my scarf looked by the end of Saturday evening, not bad for a few hours knitting and a few mistakes I had to take apart and correct without it all unravelling.

An hour or so a night and a spot of diy in the house later... by the Wednesday night my scarf was finished and ready to wear.

It may be just plain, simple Garter stitch but for my first crack at knitting properly with wool I'm very impressed.

Check back over the next week or so as I'll have more knitting projects to share.

January Card Club Pt 2

 January card club part 2 was all about using Serene Silhouettes and trying out some new techniques.

This card needed a lot of drying time before we could put it together so we started the workshop by doing the background. The background was made by inking up an acrylic block with 4 different colour inks, spritzing the block with water then pressing it onto cardstock.

 We used:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Real Red cardstock
• Real Red ink
• Tangelo Twist ink
• So Saffron ink
• Lost Lagoon ink
• Decorative Dots embossing folder
• Memento black ink

 The next card we tried out the emboss resist technique.

We used:

• Marina Mist cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Soft Sky cardstock
• Colour Collections DSP
• Pearl Basic Jewels
• White Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Marina Mist ink
• Petite Petals stamp set
• Petite Petals punch
• Stylish Stripes embossing folder
• Sponge Daubers
• Modern Label punmch
• Word Window punch

 Then we did another messy background technique using daubers and vellum.

We used:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Memento black ink
• Night Of Navy ink
• So Saffron ink
• Marina Mist ink
• Wild Wasabi ink
• White vellum cardstock
• Blooming With Kindness stamp set
• Sponge Daubers

The last card wasn't difficult as such, just fiddly to get the unched holes to align with the embossed stamps.

 We used:

• Very Vanilla cardstock 
• Word Window punch
• Modern Label punch
• 1 3/4 circle punch
• Bitty Butterfly punch
• Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Pearl Basic Jewels
• Gold Foil Sheets
• Project Life Corner Punch

Next month's card club is all about Celebrate Today and the Balloon Framelits dies.

January Card Club Pt 1

The first card club of 2015 turned out to be a crafternoon just the 2 of us as I was the only one who wanted to do the daytime class, gotta love shift patterns where you get odd weekdays off to make the most of everywhere being quiet.

Suriya had a couple of gifts for me to play with. With one of them I made the cards below.

I used:

• Washi Tape Note Cards Kit
• Elegant Butterfly punch
• Bitty Butterfly punch
• Strawberry Slush ink
• Good Greetings stamp set

I also helped her whip up some desktop calenders to post out to her customers wanting catalogues... I even got a calender to take home too.

Now onto the cards and things we made.

I used:

• Sheltering Tree stamp set
• Strawberry Slush ink
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Wild Wasabi ink
• Early Espresso ink
• Whisper White cardstock
• Itty Bitty Accents punch
• Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper

Then a simple card to practice some Blendabilities colouring skills.

I used:

• From The Herd stamp set
• Baked Brown sugar cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Memento black ink
• Coastal Cabana Blendabilities
• Old Olive Blendabilities
• Daffodil Delight Blendabilities
• Smoky Slate Blendabilities
• Skin Tone Assortment Blendabilities

Then we played with a stamp set and framelits that I'm getting as part of one of February's card clubs.

I used:

• Celebrate Today stamp set
• Balloon Framelits Dies
• Bow Builder punch
• Itty Bitty Accents pounch
• Hello Honey ink
• Rhinestone Basic Jewels
• Cherry Cobbler ink
• Tempting Turquoise ink
• Tempting Turquoise cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Basic Black ink
• Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper

Then we made a gift bag to use up some retired designer papers and embellishments that had been lying around forgotten about.

I used:

• Linen Thread
• Cherry Cobbler ink
• Sheltering Tree stamp set

Every card club at Suriya's comes with a challenge card to do, this month is was to make a card using the Lotus Blossom stamp set from the Sale-a-bration catalogue. I do love a challenge card and I really love this stamp set, can't wait for mine to arrive! Here's my challenge card.

I used:

• Whisper White cardstock
• Hello Honey ink
• Pumpkin Pie ink
• Basic Black ink
• Mossy Meadow marker
• Wild Wasabi marker
• Sheltering Tree stamp set
• Bow Builder punch

January Card Club Pt 2 is next week and I'll be collecting my February card club kit to have a play with early too.

'Home' Decopatch

 Before christmas I said there would be some more decopatch projects to come and here's the first one of 2015...

 Another word sign from The MDF Man, this time it's Home. I used some wallpaper that we took as a sample from Homebase and a lot of pva glue to keep it all together. A little fiddly to cut around the curvy edges but I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out in the end.

 Here it is on display in our lounge, it's taken the place of the Noel sign now all the christmas decorations are packed away in the loft once more.

There's more decopatch projects to come soon... and a trip to the Creative Crafts show at Sandown Park towards the end of the month so there will no doubt be even more decopatch projects from me in the next couple of months.