Blwerghghbleeebllaaargghghghgh!!

RRRrrrrraaaaAAAHHHHHHHHhh!!!!

The Investment

Yum!





I have big plans for this baby. It's a million steps up from my old machine; it has a computer in it and everything! Wow. Just wow. I haven't used it yet, I'll let you know how it goes after I've had my first go (hopefully) this weekend.

More Purses

These are the rest of the purses I made over the weekend. Again, most fabrics from Fabric Rehab and zips from the market stall. The top two here are more or less the same size as yesterday's bird purse. The one directly below with the spotty lining was made in the same way as the first purse with the hand-sewn lining and everything.



This one here I kinda made up as I went along with the outer fabric and the lining sewn to the zip tape at the same time. I don't like this approach so much, it seems a bit untidy around the corners. But then I was just flying by the seat of my pants with this one, so it's OK. It works, and that's the main thing! The irony of needing a zip purse to hold all my zips.



This one is bigger than all the others; about 30cmx16cm. I call that Pencil Case Sized. For this one I followed this tutorial, which I liked as it was similar to this tutorial I was using at Christmas to make some sock knitting bags, of which, of course, I didn't take any pictures because sometimes I really am a dolt, especially when fuelled by Lindor and tinsel.



I'm not so sure on this way of doing it, either. Maybe it was because my machine was starting to play up and giving me bird's nests everywhere (as you can just about see in the orange thread on the blue spotty fabric above), but even though it is quicker than sewing the lining in by hand, it's just not neat enough for my anally retentive Virgo tastes.

Here it is in its full glory, with the poor, overworked machine in the background. It's now holding all my ribbons and other long, tangly things. I don't know what this fabric is; it's one Lovely Kate bought me for looking after her puddy tat over Crimbo. I can't believe how well it goes with that turquoise zip. That was one I just bought randomly ages ago - its great when things like that just work out!



And all together in my sewing basket. How neat and tidy it is in there now.



I ordered a little present for myself after sewing these. Well, maybe not a present as such, more of an investment. It came today; I'll show pics tomorrow when it's out of the box.

Purse No.1

This is my first go at sewing in a zip and making a purse. I mainly followed The Zip Pouch tutorial in Amy Karol's Bend The Rules Sewing with a little bit of this tutorial from the Purl Bee. I used my zipper foot for the first time, but I don't know if I'm doing it right as it seemed to be slightly pointless. It appeared to be just as easy to use my regular foot. Hmm. Will have to look a bit deeper into that one. The fabric is Frippery Bundle Pink by Kathy Hall, and bought from Fabric Rehab. It also comes in green/blue. The purple zip cost the grand total of 17p from Fabric Land, and the orange thread is just some I had in my sewing basket. It measures approx 16.5x12.5cm.





I sewed in the lining by hand using a slip stitch as the delightful Ms. Karol suggests. As I said yesterday, I made a few more of these using different ways of sewing in the zip and the lining, but I think I prefer this way, even if it takes a little longer. It looks neater and you have a bit more control over where precisely the lining fits on to the tape.

All in all, I'm rather chuffed. Actually, for the reasons above, I think I prefer this first attempt over the later ones I made, which I'll share tomorrow.

Red Sky At Night

Not from today, but from Saturday, when I didn't blog as I decided not to turn my computer on all day. Thought I'd make up the missing post now, though.




Tonight's sunset was something, though; there were the most amazing reds and pinks. I was on the bus on the way home from work and only managed one rubbishy, blurry photo out the window on my phone. There's a quite lovely photo of it over at Wibbo's Hove Daily Photo.

Ziptastic

Due to a bit of a serendipitous detour, Boyfriend and I found ourselves walking down Upper Gardner Street market on Saturday, where we came across a guy selling loads of ribbons, and trims, and odd fabric remnants, and, joy of joys, zips. Loads of the buggers. After a nice, long rummage, I picked out this lovely bunch above. Ten zips for a quid. Bargain.

A few of these have already made it into zippy purses, which I've been a bit addicted to making over the past few days. Suffice to say, now everything in my sewing basket has its own little cloth house. I'll share pictures of those tomorrow; tonight I have to work more on the current illo project. I think - think- it's finally getting somewhere near the finish line, but keep your fingers crossed.

End of Week 4

This Annoys The Bejiggery Out of Me

Don't leave it on the street! THE BIN MEN WON'T TAKE IT! Take it to a flippin' Christmas Tree Graveyard, for Gawd's sake. Bah.

Dial 999

Always keep a stash for times of need.

How Cool is This Alphabet?!

Hehehe! This awesome beard alphabet is by TimYarzhombeck, a Russian illustrator/graphic designer. Love it!

Fresh Bread

I've stayed in all day today due to a horrible cold that's decided to put in an appearance. I've been feeling it building like some gathering storm for a week or so and now it's here. Hurrah. So no library work nor knitting for me today. Hurumph. I have been working on the illo job though, even if I did have to have a little sleep on the sofa in the middle of the afternoon like a little old lady!

The last thing I felt like doing was going out to get any food in, so I made a loaf of bread. This is 60% white flour, 40% brown flour. A "best of both" loaf, if you will. The little holes are made by cutting little nips in the surface of the loaf with a pair of scissors just before the second rise. I was aiming for something like a Hedgehog Loaf, but these little dimples are rather nice. I like it when happy accidents like that occur. I've had a few slices with Proper Butter and a sprinkling of salt. Yum.




The audiobook of "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters has been keeping me company/sane for the last couple of days. I've nearly finished it, it's fantastic and really compelling - a page turner, if I had pages to turn! I'll write more once I've listened to the whole thing. One for the NYR of reading (listening) more, though, which is good.

Bleurgh. I'm off to sit on the sofa and watch iPlayer and eat pizza. And chocolate. And biscuits. And drink Lemsip.

The Fabric is Here!!

Woo! No time to sew right now, though. The illo project continues ad infinitum.

Week 3

They're tiny little gymnasts!

New Books

Lovely new books, although, due to my new ongoing illo project, I've not had the chance to look through them yet. I'm hoping I'll get half an hour tomorrow once I've emailed off my roughs.

Thank you, Deb!

I got home from work today to find an interesting box waiting for me. Inside was this:







From the lovely Ladysnail. Thank you so much, Debz! It's fantastic! No idea what I'm going to keep in it yet, so until then it's sitting on my working desk in pride of place.

Ahhh, My Right Eye...

...how I do sigh when I see how luvverly thou dist looketh Thursday last with green shadow upon thy surface. How annoying red and swollen you now are with some kind of weird-ass dry patch that seems to have taken on a life of its own (verily). How drippy and wet both you and your sibling are today, which, like, totally sucketh.

Ow. My right eye is red, sore and puffy, my left eyelid is just red. And a bit scaly. I hate the winter wind, I hold it entirely responsible. Actually, looking at this photo, you can just see the beginnings of the redness above my eye lid in the middle there. Bumholes.

Work In Progress

Some Christmas Crafting

I made a few of these cushion covers for various people for Christmas, but, of course, like a fool, I forgot to take any pictures. Apart from this one, which was for my Ma. Check out my patchwork! Heck, yeah! I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. I started making them in the middle of November, as I knew that I'd only run out of time if I left them any later. I'm glad I did, as, you know, life likes to get in the way and that. I still didn't look up the "proper" way to do the patchwork, just learned as I went along; I think it was better that way. Sometimes it's too easy to get bogged down with the rules and what's the right thing to do. I just winged it! (Winged it? Wung it? Wang it? Hmm.)

The fabrics are the Josefin range from Ikea, which were naturally totally bargainous, so I think, cushion pads included, the set of five I made cost around £20 in total. And I have loads of lovely fabric left for other projects.





Speaking of other projects, the next sewing problem I going to tackle is How To Sew In A Zip - which I've never tried before. I do believe I have a zipper foot for my machine, but I've been looking at this nifty little tutorial, which shows you how to do it both with and without one. Boyfriend treated me to a little stack of fabrics from the AMAHHZING Fabric Rehab today, so I am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Then the sewing of little purses will commence!

Scarfage Appreciation

Now, I'm pretty new to crochet, as we know. The first proper thing I crocheted was my massive yellow shawl/scarf, which I have been practically living in since mid November. I also whipped up (I LOVE how fast crochet is) this stripy scarf for Boyfriend for Christmas, based on this pattern.

 

Now, since Crimbo, whenever Boyf and I have been out, someone has stopped us and commented on the scarves. Last week, we had a guy stop us in Pavillion Gardens and ask if he could take our picture (he had a Holga, so I let him). Then, not three minutes later, we went into a cafe only to have the waitress comment on the awesomeness of the scarfage we were displaying. Hehehhe! It does make me laff. The power of the hook!

End of Week 2

Snow on the Beach...

....a sight which totally weirds me out. Back in the dark days of my youth, I went to see Pulp live in Bournemouth and I'm pretty sure that after the concert we went down to the beach and it was covered in snow. It was weird then, it's weird now. But who knows if that's a real memory or not? You're listening to the woman who informed her Boyfriend at half-nine this morning: "Hello. I've just been talking to a baby tiger cub on a bus."



Look at Boyfriend manfully striding off to look at the water. An astonishing turn up, as he's a self-certified aquaphobe, if there is such a word. We stood and watched the virtually non-existent waves and I dared them to touch my wellies. They declined to accept my invitation. Until I turned to go, then they got me good. Crafty buggers. Perhaps they are related to the patch of ice that made me skid over and land on my left hip yesterday. My own fault really, I was too busy wondering why the bin men had emptied the big bin but not bothered to take the bin bags on the ground around it, therefore rendering the emptying pointless, when over I went. Hot chocolate at Ethel's made it better, though.

The CIA "Ace" Calendar for 2010

Cover and week 1:

Guess What I Found in Tesco Today?