Yarn Weigh In

Well  - I did it! I weighed all the yarn up in the boxes in my stash (and a couple of bags and a box downstairs), I haven't searched out wip's - I had to draw the line somewhere!

In amongst the gems were:

• various Shetland wools: 3264g
• Ice DK yarns: 2700g
• Peru chunky: 576g
• Batik scarf yarn: 800g
• Jellybean DK: 2200g
• Fresco: 850g

and lots of other stuff in all thicknesses and materials. Anyway, to cut to the chase, I have 30,592g of yarn upstairs!

So I must have started with 31,034g, gave away 100g and yarn-busted 342g. Just a bit to go then! Oh, and I have the raffle yarn still to come! I'm away to carry on knitting my scrappy scarf, I found lots of odds and ends upstairs.

Yarn busted: 342g
Yarn in stash: 30,592g

192g blanket + 100g given away!

Next raid on the stash was for the friend of my daughter who has just had a baby girl. Pink was the order of the day and Kirsty took 100g to make a hat and asked me to make a blanket in the same yarn. Not sure how that works as a division of labour but my daughter loves her local yarn store - mum's stash! The little bit of yarn left will be knitted into a scrappy scarf I am making.

On the minus side of stash busting I have won yarn in a raffle today! lol!

Stash busting total so far: 342g

150g down!

Having got a new great-nephew I am making the promised colour-coded car seat blanket. I love this pattern, crocheted on a 5mm hook using this pattern: http://crochet.about.com/od/babypattern ... inners.htm. I reduced the number of chains cast on to 85 and soon realised it was going to be too small so decided I would add a border. It is currently about 18 x 21"and has used 150g of Ice Yarns DK baby wool - 40% wool content so should be nice and warm.

If you look on the top shelf in the photo below this yarn is between the 2 boxes on the left.

The Stash Reveal!

I have joined the Stash Buster Challenge over on Linda's Crafty Corner to try to reduce the amount of yarn in the boxes upstairs. First part, take a photo as evidence of the size of the stash!

Ok, deep breath! Here are 9 boxes, there is another one with 4ply and sock yarn in it.

This one is in the living room and contains stuff left from recent projects!

2013!

I have decided to try a few new things in this New Year.

• I have to earn sweet stuff through exercise, trying to do at least half an hour a day
• I am keeping a memory jar containing notes of things in 2013 that made me smile, goals achieved, happy events, etc
• To post more works in progress on here so people can see the things I make as I make them, not just a finished object.

A fun one to start with:

Our school cleaner is retiring on Friday and along with jewellery, flowers and a ceramic bird bath made by our former art teacher we are giving her some fun gifts. She is getting a framed photograph of her hoover (nice frame to reuse), a tub of glitter (bane of her life), a gold spray painted  dustpan and brush and this:

She just needs her eyes now! She is made from a loo brush, a sieve, 6 cleaning cloths, 2 washing up brushes and a mop head with a few ribbons holding it all together.

Newspaper Woven Basket

Recycled Materials Basket Tutorial

Materials:

Newspaper

Pegs

Stapler

Scissors

Before making a basket you will first have to prepare your materials. For the basket we are going to make we are going to use newspapers which we need to fold into strips.

Fold each sheet of newspaper along its length into the centre from both sides and crease. Do this 4 times in total and hold the resulting strip with a peg while you make the rest. For our basket we are going to use 8 strips but you can use any even number to make a bigger basket, but remember, the bigger the base, the shorter the sides unless you add more material.

 

Mark the centre of two strips and using this as a guide, weave the other strips under and over to make the base, making sure there are the same number of strips either side of each mark.

Staple each corner to hold the strips in place, these can be removed at the end.

Starting with the side nearest you, cross the middle two strips over at a right angle, keeping the over/ under pattern going. Take up the strips either side and add them in. Peg in place.

Continue working around the other three sides and you will find that you will begin to see where the strips should be woven. Use pegs to hold your work in place while working on another part of the basket, pulling gently on the strips to keep the weave tight.

To finish your basket pick two weavers next to each other. I am starting with the ones held by the green peg.

Fold the left hand weaver over the right hand one, then fold the right hand weaver over the top of the first weaver and behind the next weaver to the left.

Continue working around the basket to the left in this way until all the weavers are secure. The last one will need to be tucked into place behind the first one.

Excess length can be woven into the basket to make it more secure, trimming off any bits that are too long.

If necessary, crease the basket along the edges of the base to make it stand straight.

Other materials that can be used for plaited baskets are cardboard strips, fruit juice cartons cut on a spiral to make longer strips, magazines, fabric strips, dried plant materials (you may need to spray them first to make them flexible,do not use them green as they will shrink as they dry)- montbretia, flax, etc. use your imagination and see what you come up with. Making something useful from ‘rubbish’ is very satisfying.

Ex

Continue

More a rant than a ramble!

I'm in Edinburgh on holiday and I have noticed when walking around that more and more small children are becoming second fiddle to technology.

• Why is it okay to dangle your child in a pushchair over the edge of the pavement while waiting for the traffic to stop? Oh, yes, you're on your phone and didn't notice that big double-decker bus bearing down on you!
• Your ipad needs attention while you walk along Princes Street? Of course you should let go of your toddler son's hand and leave him to trail after you while you use both hands for your important IT mission. Luckily the small boy did follow his father jumping over the cracks in the pavement and following a pair of shoes because Dad didn't look back.

These are just a couple of examples, there are also wonderful examples of parenting too - of course there are, for example: the mother on the bus spotting numbers with her child while they switched effortlessly between English and Chinese languages. (He called thank you to the driver when he got off too which made me smile).

But when did technology become more important than a child? Why is it so important to keep in touch with your friends or work you lose touch with the person you are with? Children grow up so fast and are surrounded by technology at home, surely while out and about at the very least they deserve some attention, to be kept safe, communicated with and feel important?