Lunch with Philippa and What I Wore April 6th

I went to Sheffield on the 6th of April to meet my friend Philippa for lunch. On the way I dropped some stuff off at Sarah's and also this cross stitch for Robyn for her first birthday. I didn't make her anything when she was born so this was delayed! Sarah loves foxes so I chose a pattern accordingly. I used threads from my stash and think it looks lovely! It's done on black evenweave as I really like the finish that evenweave gives. I couldn't go in to Sarah's as the whole house has Covid (it currently feels like everyone you know has Covid) so I didn't stay long.

Philippa had chosen for us to go to Dysh, which is on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield near Endcliffe Park. I've not been there before, but I knew that children's book shop Rhyme & Reason is on the way, so I stopped off there next. I was pleased to see one of my friend Vicky's "Feminists for Trans Rights" stickers in the YA section. I had a good look around and bought a game which is a bit like Rock Band Go Fish, and a YA book. I only bought one book! A lot of stuff that appealed to me in the YA section is stuff I've already read. I need some intel on what's forthcoming! 

It was throwing it down in Sheffield and I was stupidly early, but I drove up the road to Dysh and went in. Our table wasn't ready but I was offered a window seat and a drink. The window seats are high bar stools which I usually struggle with but these were okay and comfortable. I got a decaf cappucino and I had packed my book in readiness, so I sat reading. Our table came free so I moved to it, and Pippa arrived not long after.

The menu isn't huge but they have quite a few vegetarian and vegan options, which is good. I also overheard a member of staff telling someone about their allergy advice, which seemed really comprehensive and I was pleased the staff member knew it off the top of his head. The breakfasts looked delicious and I would definitely go back for that, but I went for crispy cauliflower with katsu sauce, served with potato tots. The menu said they come on top of, but I'm not about that life, so I asked for the tots on the side and they very sweetly put them in a whole extra dish for me. Philippa had homemade fish fingers also on tots. We got two sides of buttered greens and wild mushrooms and shared both, which were lovely. 

The cafe has a lovely enticing display of cakes at the front, mostly muffins and cookies and with a cheesecake etc too. I went for a raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and a dark chocolate hot chocolate. Both were lovely! We sat for ages after we'd eaten - I would have felt bad but there was someone else in too so we weren't stopping them from closing. It was past 5pm once I got home! 

I pulled out this black Simply Be dress that I've only worn a couple of times since I bought it last autumn. I don't like the floofiness of the sleeves, so I pull them up to my elbow and think they look nice there. There's elastic in the cuffs which keeps them in place. I put the dress on and then went over to my back of Snag tights, intending to pull out either my footless or footed pair of black tights. But then I realised that the blue footless tights - the colour is called Beach Bum - matched the blue hearts in the dress perfectly! So I put those on for the first time. Now I will say that they seem to run slightly smaller than my other Snags. My friend Chloe said this can happen because of the different colour dyes, so I wasn't too surprised. They do still fit fine, but are just maybe a smidge tighter. 

My shoes are from Schuh, I saw an advert for them and had to make them mine. I love the cracked patent look to them. They're slightly too tight, but I'm hoping they'll loosen up the more I wear them!

The gorgeous cross stitch I did for Robyn! There are tons of mistakes in it so don't look too close

The YA section and pro trans sticker in Rhyme & Reason

The game I bought, I'll have to play it with Lee

Cauliflower katsu, on top was pickled carrots and thin fried leeks, I think

Tots! I could have eatewn a bucketful of these

Wild mushrooms, I do love a mushroom

Simply Be dress, Snag tights, Shuch shoes

A close up on the footless tights and shoes - isn't the colour of the tights just glorious?

Hello Deer Cross Stitch Finish

I recently finished a big cross stitch piece that I've been working on since Christmas. There's about seventy hours of work in it, which shows how long it takes to make something homemade and beautiful. I bought the kit from Caterpillar Cross Stitch. I've made a few of theirs now, and I really like them because they're clear and easy to do, and they don't have tons of half stitches and back stitching, both of which I really dislike. I love how they look - you can see some of my other makes here on my blog. This was a stitch along last year, but I didn't keep up to it. I started this in January and have been mostly crafting on it since then. 

I've got two other kits from Caterpillar Cross Stitch to do - one is called Made to Create and it's like different crafty bits, and one is called Hello Petal and it's the sister to this one, and is for Spring. Hello Pumpkin for Autumn already exists, but I don't have the kit yet, and Hello Sunshine for summer is coming soon! I think I will do all four and put them on the wall together.

I loved stitching the robin, the rabbit, and the squirrel on here. I didn't like doing the tree, so I did that after the robin and before the rest, so as to get it out of the way. I bought the kit that had evenweaves instead of aida, which is what most people cross stitch on. I love the look of evenweave even though it requires more counting and concentrating! 

I also finished this bookmark! Whenever I have a few centimetres of thread left, I sew it on to this piece of aida. I've had this on the go for about three or four years. I'm so glad it's finally finished! I'm going to back it on to some felt I think to stop it fraying any more, and then I'm going to start another one!

A Cross Stitch Scene for Me

Towards the end of October I finally finished this huge cross stitch piece that I've been working on on and off since January. It was a Caterpillar Cross Stitch stitch-along and I bought the kit plus the patterns released monthly via pdf. I knew I wouldn't keep up monthly, but also, I knew that was okay and I would get it finished eventually. Lee has been printing off the patterns each month for me and I've been working on it bit by bit. I took it to craft club for quite a few weeks, and everyone there thought the design was really pretty. For me, I love that Sally's designs are really modern and don't require any half stitches or back stitch, two things which really annoy me! For that reason, they're really good for beginners. The kits are a little expensive but you get everything included and more thread than you would ever need.

I finally finished the last bit - the jellyfish - on a Tuesday night, desperate to get it done before I went to bed. You can see where the hoop was even. I don't iron my cross stitch (I don't iron anything in life!) but I'm hoping that when I get this framed the creases will stretch out.

My favourite bits here are the umbrella, the beach huts, the starfish, the oyster, and the lollipop. It is such a cute scene but I think I will definitely do some smaller bits of it in future for gifts. As for this one, it's all for me!

A Star Wars Make

I recently finished this Star Wars cross stitch and wanted to share it with you! I started it last year but I've been working on it on and off. The intricacy of the pattern meant that it took a lot of concentration so I couldn't work on in for long at a time. I started with the top of the helmet, then worked my way down. I finally finished it at the end of January.

I love the floral pattern and I obviously love Star Wars, and the Etsy shop I bought the pattern from has a ton of similar patterns, so I may well do another one at some point. I could have a whole row! I need to get this framed now.

I've started a beach themed stitch-along which has a pattern release once a month all the way up to September; as I write this I've just finished the first instalment. I'm a bit between projects at the moment... Not sure what to do with myself!

Some Christmas Makes

As usual I made some stuff for presents for Christmas, so I thought I'd post some pictures here. I really like giving homemade gifts but they obviously take some work so I usually try to start in October. As it was, I was still having to try to finish Lee's the week before Christmas! Ah well.

Here's what I made:

When we were camping last summer I thought my uncle might like a new teapot and cosy. I ordered a teapot on eBay - it's enamel - but when it came it was smaller than I expected. Never mind, I made it a cosy. I just did layers of doubles back and forth, stitching in the back loop to produce the ribbed effect. did a vague circle for the top and then sort of sewed it on to the lid. I had left gaps in the cosy for the handle and spout, and then I sewed round the edge and pulled it all together. 

Neil really liked it, he said he was going to take it to work for his cuppas there! So that's good. 

My friend Cath asked me to stitch this Star Wars sampler for her partner. I used the threads I had so the colours are slightly different to the ones in the pattern, but I think they look gorgeous. This was a lot of fun to stitch, I've never made a sampler like this before. 

I bought this pattern for the Death Star ages ago, it's actually part of a bigger piece but I just wanted to make this bit for Lee for Christmas. It was a lot, there was so much black. I had to keep a close eye on the pattern and cross off with a pencil when I did a line. I broke it into quadrants which really helped. I love it, and Lee does too! We need to get it framed now. 

I pulled out all my jewellery supplies the week before Christmas because I had some new beads I wanted to make something with. I.... actually forgot about that, because I got distracted making some bracelets and key rings as presents. From the back: I made key rings for my cousin Peter and his girlfriend Beth, I love these circle beads. The yellow and orange glass bracelet is for my cousin's wife Beth (yes, there's two Beths in the family haha), the one in front of that was for my cousin Rob. It's made out of carnelian and amber, it's gorgeous in life. The one on the right of that is for me, it's made out of fluorite which is my favourite stone. It fluctuates between dark purple, dark green, and lilac. I love it. My aunt made me a bracelet for Christmas which is fluorite and silver, it's absolutely stunning and I love it. I've been wearing the two together.

Finally Lee picked out a ton of fun beads for himself. It says "punk/crust/grind/ska", which are all the different types of punk that he likes. He's been wearing it a lot. 

I made this for Caroline (my aunt). It's purple glass, clear glass, silver and purple metal beads. I liked this bracelet a lot, I may have to make one for myself! She liked it

I made everyone in my family a button tree or two. Aren't they fun? So easy to do, you just need some wire and a bunch of buttons. I added the bells on some of them because I had them hanging around too. Lee's was the pink one, he liked it, so we put it on the tree :) 

I joined in with this stitch along through Caterpillar Cross Stitch and kept up with it really well, so it was finished well before Christmas. I liked it, it was simple but really effective. I've signed up for a new, beach themed piece through the same site, which I'm really looking forward to. I haven't had this framed yet, but we put it on the wall over christmas anyway.

Lastly, I did get around to making some bracelets like I meant to in the beginning. The beads on the left are so gorgeous - the light blue ones are very beautiful, and the dark blue ones have a gold flash in them that I love. While I had everything out I made the bracelet on the right out of beads I salvaged for a necklace. I like these for a bracelet. 

There we go, some recent makes!

The Knitting and Stitching Show - Harrogate

At the end of November Lee and I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. I had heard about it through my craft club, who were organising a full day trip. I knew that would be too much for me, though, so I asked Lee to come with me. You can get a Thursday ticket that allows you in between 3pm and 8pm for half the price, so I decided that would be plenty of time and got us a ticket each.

We set off in the afternoon and Lee let me out at one end of the building so he could go park. I ended up in the exhibition area and I'm really glad I did because I got to see loads of fibre artists that I might not have otherwise seen. Lee joined me and we looked at the exhibits, then went into the huge rooms selling stuff.

There was SO MUCH to look at, it was hard to no where to begin and I wanted to see stuff before I decided what to buy. There were craft supplies for basically everything. I do a fair few crafts as you know, so I'd taken along some money. I ended up buying some hand dyed cross stitch aida in gorgeous gold and green, and a thread holder in the shape of a cat, and Lee bought me a rag rugging kit that is for my birthday in January, so I haven't got it yet. I've never done rag rugging so I'm excited to give it a go!

Honestly I could have spent a fortune but I restricted myself. I had so much fun just looking at stuff, I would have liked to buy some beads and maybe some fabric, but I didn't. I would definitely go back next year, I think the late ticket was perfect for me at just £8.50!

I had also managed to do my nails that week, I was wearing this gorgeous rose gold polish from Models Own

Gorgeous nails!

These hearts were in commemoration of the centenary of World War One

Here's what I got!

A Couple of Recent Makes

After I finished my mum's crocheted blanket back in May, I wasn't sure what I wanted to make next. I think I mentioned that I've been going to a weekly craft class at a local library which I really enjoy, so for a couple of weeks I took some yarn and made some squares there, but I couldn't really settle into one project. It was the beginning of the heatwave so it was too hot to crochet really, so I switched my mind to cross stitch instead.

I had been meaning to make a gift for my friend Kate's kids of their names. I sketched it out while on holiday last year and coloured it in, making a whole rainbow, but I hadn't actually picked out the threads or done anything else. So I found my aida and a new needle and a bunch of pretty colours, and took it with me when we went to Cornwall.

It didn't take too long and I really enjoyed doing cross stitch again. I find it really meditative. I really liked using a whole rainbow of colours too.

I framed this just with a simple frame off eBay, I really hope Kate likes it!

Anyway then I'd got the bug for cross stitching again. I've done it off and on throughout my life - a couple of years ago I started a big Tatty Teddy cross stitch as a gift for Lee, which I finished last year while we were on holiday. I started browsing Etsy for patterns and I found Stitchrovia, which sells modern cross stitch patterns. I love their aesthetic, I think I'll definitely be buying from them again. I loved this Eat Sleep Craft Repeat pattern, but I used my own colours and I think it's just as effective.

This pattern took me quite a bit of time, but I found it really interesting throughout. I used metallic thread for "Eat" which was quite a pain to work with, but I like how it looks. I kept swapping between bits, going up and down and left and right just as the fancy took me. I finished this while staying at my friend Jane's house at the beginning of August. I immediately started my next project, which is a gift for a friend. (Eat Sleep Craft Repeat is for me! I almost never make things for myself).

I've also bought myself a Star Wars related pattern and as I type I'm waiting for all the threads to arrive so I can start it!

I liked doing this even though I really dislike doing backstitch. I learnt a lot about designing a pattern and while I can see soooo many flaws here, I also think it looks really good and it's nice that it's in my handwriting

Someone brought this book to craft club to give away so I snaffled it up quickly!

Progress!

And now finished! I just need to find a frame for it! The original pattern has knitting needles in the ball of yarn at the bottom left but I'm a crocheter so I obviously had to make it into a hook!