Tidying The Craft Room

 I love having a dedicated craft room where I can sew or spin and keep my supplies, not only the supplies for my own work, but for the craft group that I run once a week. Those range from fabric scraps to old greeting cards and toilet roll cores. I have a whole drawer full of buttons. I try to keep it all under control, but lately it has gotten out of hand. So I spent yesterday morning cleaning and tidying in there. It still looks rather chaotic, but now it is organised chaos!

Tatting

 

I've been tatting flowers for a food net. Our winter is drawing to a close, so I suspect the window for socks and gloves in handspun wool is beginning to close. I thought I had better make something else for Saturday's market. 

Mending

 

I don't mend my own socks; I chuck them out and knit a new pair. But at the July market, a lady asked me if I would sort out the heels of her socks. Mmm. I don't think my darning skills are good enough to cover such an area of sock. How about knitting an afterthought heel? Many years ago, I made my children tracksuits with knitted welts, following a pattern in Anna Burda magazine. The stitches for the welts were created by sewing over a knitting needle. Could I use the same technique for the socks? I could:

I created 48 stitches on four needles around the edge of the heel and then knitted an afterthought heel as usual. 

Voila, new heels on two pairs of socks. 

Spun

 

I'm struggling to regain my oomph, but I have spun four skeins of wool. Spinning and plying a 'plain vanilla' yarn doesn't require a lot of concentration or wits. 

Flowers And A Failure

 

The flower bracelet worked well. I really like the other bracelet too, but I haven't been able to get the invisible join right. I've had some sort of winter bug and felt unwell. I think I'll wait until I feel better and have more wits about me before I try the join again. 

Two Finishes

 

In my daytime crafting, I've finished another bracelet. 

And over several evenings, I've knitted a pair of socks. They're definitely fraternal twins, one is darker than the other. I'm not sure why. As I showed in this post, the two skeins were dyed together. Anyway, I think they look ok, fraternal it is. It's also interesting how different the colour pattern is to this pair of socks which have definite stripes. Hmm, that's the joy of hand dyeing wool. 

Two

 

I've finished two beaded crochet bracelets. I've just been working on them during the day, knitting socks in the evenings. I can knit without looking at my work, which is good when watching TV. Beaded crochet needs more concentration.