Little Socks for little feet . . . and some sheep's tails :)

Thursday seems to becoming my day for blogging :)  I've been pretty busy the last week - it started last weekend when I took the notion to make a little pair of baby socks with some lovely cream chunky wool I had purchased for another use.  My mantra at the moment is "make use of what I have" in terms of yarn anyway!  Once I looked at my yarn stash I started coming up with all sorts of ideas and notions of things I wanted to knit - the plan is to stock my Etsy shop with lots of yummy knitty and tweedy creations, yay!

I have to say I LOVE using my double pointed needles - be it bamboo ones or steel ones.

This yarn was lovely to use - I finally found out that it's a Drops yarn (wool and alpaca mix) so very soft for little squidgy feet :)  I think they turned out quite cute:

I made the decision this week to rename my Etsy shop to the same as my website/business name:  Handmade on the Croft.  I'd named it Yarns on the Croft initially but I've decided to keep everything under the same name now - keep it simple!  

I'm pleased with how my own website is developing and having my own domain name is really good :)  It's also simple to contact me from there on my Contact page :)  I'm trying to tidy things up so it's easy to find me and my 'makes' online!

Back to the fun stuff - I also decided last weekend to make another fair isle sheep sleeve with a little change to the reverse.  I made this one in grey which I thought worked well . . . 

I made a little change and instead of having the reverse exactly the same I embroidered two little bobbly tails (on two bobbly sheep bums!) instead . . . 

Sorry, not so clear in my photo but you get the gist!  I thought it added a bit of fun anyway :) 

I do like how the sleeves are very slim but quite densely knitted because of the double width of fair isle technique . . . 

I've still to get back to my new sewing machine - perhaps later today!  I think the last thing I made was this tweed/vintage style sleeve (I'm a little suspicious that this is what, er, damaged my old machine).  Perhaps I'll be using a lighter weight lace embellishment the next time - I did love this one though . . . 

It's listed here :)

As you can see I've been very focussed on making stock at the moment - perhaps a craft fair should be on the cards later in the year.  It's something I will have to look into definitely :)

For myself I'm still drooling over this yummy yarn which I'd forgotten I'd ordered before Christmas and it arrived well into January . . . 

It's a lovely dark/gold bronze colour - Ji-ji the cat would loveto get her paws on it :)  It'll be on the back burner for a while though until I get my Etsy shop stocked up :)  I have a few more ideas of stock I would like to add eg. tweedie buttons, perhaps more kiddie socks, and of course I'm sure I'll be making some more fair isle phone sleeves - I've another design in the wings!

Are you an Esty fan or not?  I do love browsing through it myself but it's difficult to be impartial when you are also selling from it at the same time!  Any suggestions/opinions re either of my online shops would be gratefully received - I can take it, hehe!

Better go - I still haven't checked out that sewing machine - oops :)  A busy week at the office job next week so I may have to take a week out of my blog - back soon though!

Apologies for a very 'shop' driven post - I guess it's where I'm at, at the moment though :)

Alison x

More fair isle work . . . I'm addicted!

I think the last time I blogged I'd just started a new fair isle phone sleeve (was that only last Thursday??) - it seems like quite a long time ago!  Perhaps I've been busier than I thought?

Anyhooooo, that sleeve went quite well I thought . . .

. . . I had used a design from one of my fair isle reference books, so I was quite keen to use my own design which I put together with various patterns . . .

. . . I was spurred on to make one further design, which was a lot of fun and I think my favourite . . . here it is in the making . . .

Sheep!  Don't you just love them :) :)  After a few false starts and a bit of research I decided that the 'head on' view of the sheep would be the best approach for my design - and Yikes, I ended up knitting with three colours in a row - quite laborious but I think it was worth the effort. (I gave the sheep some little beady eyes with a touch of embroidery - couldn't resist!)

Here's all three of them, completed . . .

Sorry, my photographs are not the best today - such a dark, wintery day here!  On the plus side I did manage to list them in my Esty shop here - my first item to be listed!  Perhaps that should be my New Year's resolution - to list items as I make them -what a good idea, hehe :) :)

The bad news today was that I DID get the sewing machine out and instantly managed to damage it - ooooops!  I knew I was pushing it to the limits with the thickness of fabric I was experimenting with but did I  listen . . . . er, No!!  On the plus side I have a spare sewing machine which I haven't used in a long time so I had to get the manual out . . . . and we all know how we hate manuals, Yuk!  I'm sure I'll struggle through it though ;-)

BTW the sleeves fit an i phone 6 or as I also found out (from 'borrowing' my son's phone!) a Samsung Galaxy A5 - Shhhhhh, don't tell him, hehe :)

I'm off now to plough through the manual for my 'new', old sewing machine which is a computerised one - Ahhhhhhh, technology - eeeks :) :)

Bye for now
Alison x

A very late start!

Oooops, I seem to have missed the beginning of 2016 - at least where my blog is concerned!  Happy Belated New Year anyway :)  Hope you had nice festivities - it's a distant memory now!

I'm back crafting to my heart's content.  The sewing machine is still dormant but I've been busy with some knitting designs.  After making some tweed i-Phone sleeves at the end of the year I thought it might be fun to make some knitted equivalent ones as I had the correct sizing anyway.

I'm currently working with this design chart from one of my fair isle reference books.  I played around with the number of stitches required to give me the right width of knitted fabric, now that I know that, I'm having fun with different patterns.  Here's the current one . . .

I've chosen a button for the closure already, as you can see!

Another pic taken later on today . . . 

The colours look quite different as it was dark when I took this photo - ahhhh, Winter - the days are too short!

Here's a sleeve I finished last week . . . 

I'm just using my stash of acrylic yarn for these as I have a good colour selection.  This second one has been added to my website.

I'll show the finished top one at the weekend.  Next task is to design my own fair isle chart which I'm looking forward to - lots of possibilities!  The woven texture of fair isle knitting gives the fabric extra strength and density which is an added bonus :)

Good to be back crafting in 2016 - I didn't get round to making New Year resolutions this time - maybe I will before the end of the month! (along with a little pile of fair isle phone sleeves maybe!!)

Have a lovely weekend :)

Alison x