Crafting This Week
It’s been a bit of a blah kind of week. I think it’s because I started knitting a garter stitch baby blanket, and I haven’t become an instant expert. I see knitting everywhere at the moment and thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Well, I don’t think I’ll stay on very long. I’m not enjoying it that much.
Learning How To Knit is Frustrating
I’m tempted to unravel this pappy knitting attempt and crochet my way to a baby blanket instead. It’s messy and has dropped stitches. There is always the fear of precious stitches coming off the needles, and I have no idea of what real knitters do when they make a mistake.
I mean, do you just unravel rows and then painstakingly reattach all those loops? What about unravelling the underneath row by mistake??! What a pain in the arse! It’s happened. Twice.
The first time, my nearly three-year-old son grabbed the knitting needles and effortlessly yoinked away my hard work by swishing around his new “light sabres.” It was my fault the second time because there were too many loose stitches after a colour change.
Ugh. Do I stick with it ?… Or not? I’m surprised that I’ve picked up speed when I’m doing it right, and I love the click clack of the needles, but that is about it. Hmm.
Making Pompoms
In a bid to change the mood, I thought I’d have some fun with pompom making. It turns out that this isn’t much fun either. I bought a cheap pompom maker, and it keeps popping open at the crucial moment, spilling tiny threads of yarn all over my lap. Also, I think mixing up the colours was a mistake. I’m thinking of trying some mono colour balls. They’ll look better.
Crafty Corner At Home
I’ve been sitting in my crafty corner this week. Surrounded by mess. I’m like some sort of creative tramp at the minute. It’s the rotten weather that does it. Although, having said that, yesterday I took the small boy for a long walk around town. I said we could go and look at the swollen, rain-filled river, but by the time we got there, he was asleep in his pushchair. When we returned home, he was angry with me because we hadn’t been to the river. It’s not my fault that he missed it!
Spring Flowers
Looking out the window at the spring flowers, I had an idea that might cheer me up a bit.
Snowdrops!
I love the smell of Hyacinths. I love the smell of daffodils too. They’re also among the prettiest flowers of the spring. They are the first signs that winter is on the way out (although they’ve been fooled as the temperature was -1 this morning, and there is frost on the grass).
Freehand Embroidery
Anyway, I used spring flowers as a bit of inspo for some more crafting. I drew some quick sketches and off I went, cutting up bits of fabric and stitching them roughly together with clumsy embroidery.
I’m really pleased with the results. One or two mess-ups have occurred, but nothing too awful. I asked Husband his opinion, and apparently they are twee and granny-like. Something you’d find in a charity shop, he said. Maybe that’s the result I’m after, but it kind of threw me. Now I’m having doubts.
I think the hyacinths will look the most granny-like and I’m hoping that will change with the things I’ll do to them. I’d really like them to be displayed in the embroidery hoops, but they’re expensive, so I only have one. I’ve got another idea, but I’m afraid that it’ll transform them into “twee” monstrosities. Oh well, we shall see.
Lastly, I have this Drops recycled cotton yarn. 80 pence each! I want to make a doily or two, but still on the lookout for the right sort of pattern. Fingers crossed, I’ll find a crochet pattern soon and get on with it. I’m getting crochet withdrawal symptoms.