An adulterous crafter

My friend is pregnant, five months ago she told me about her expanding family, and belly, and as she is the first in our friendship group to become a mum I didn't really know what the protocol was. Thankfully my other half came to my rescue and congratulated the couple while my socially stunted brain processed the information. I would like to think I redeemed myself when I offered to make the baby a crocheted blanket. I love crochet so it didn't really seem like much of a chore, win win. 

What hadn't occurred to me was that I had been cheating on crochet with craft. I have been so wrapped up with new forms of craft I had completely forgotten about my first love. So when I started the blanket, excited to be reigniting the relationship I was surprised that crochet was not as excited to have me back. 

The first attempt at an advanced level technique failed miserably- hardly surprising- so I undid it and reconsidered my approach. 

The second attempt seemed to be going well until on my 14th round the square was not so much square and more an uneven hexagon. I decided to persevere but after another hours worth of effort it was clear I needed to undo it again.

After three unsuccessful attempts at following a pattern and having to undo hours worth of work I have to admit I did consider buying a blanket for my friend, ripping the label off and messing with it a bit to make it look like I had made it but I'm far too stubborn for my own good. Instead I abandoned the patterns and went back to basics. 

I used half treble crochet for the middle and a granny square type pattern for the border. It finally, worked really well. 

As the parents don't want to know the sex of the baby and my friend and I have always had a running banter about colours, I went a little crazy with my wool choice. Definitely more than three colours there! The outer edge incorporates the colours of the rainbow- I was certainly sick of the song by the time I reached pink! But I smiled as I imagined my friend singing the song - equipped with a visual aid, to her baby. 

I had a lot of suggestions by my very honest grandmother as I made this as to what I should do but I'm glad I stuck to my imagination. I text a picture of the finished outcome to my friend (we have a long distance relationship) and to my relief she really liked it. I'm not exactly sure what I would've done if she had hated it. 

I really enjoyed my time with the 4.0 needle and have already started thinking about my next project, I also have rekindled my relationship with my sewing machine, just in case Its feeling rejected.

I'm not going to stop meeting new crafts and wooing their crafty goodness but I am going to remember to show my loyalty to the crafts that I woo'd a while ago. 

Let this be a lesson to all you adulterers out there, anger the wrong craft and she will pay you back!

Not just for pleasure

I love cooking because I can bend the rules, adding new ingredients in cooking is a good thing. I love crafting for the same reason. Wherever my imagination is what counts and my resourcefulness is called upon I'm in my element. 

I don't like following specific guidelines. So when it comes to sewing I love seeing what my machine can do to make decorative pieces and as long as the curtains are how I want them I will make them until my needle snaps. However, when I have to repair clothes this is less fun to me.

Redoing seams means strict straight lines. I'm not so good with the strict, the newly sewn hem of my work trousers looks like a five year old did it, but no one is going to see it too closely so I'm not really bothered. On the up side the black cotton I used was free and although far too big for the reel I was able to stick a colouring crayon to the holder so I could still use it. Bargain and resourceful!

But what I really wanted to revel in today is the dress I've brought back to life that you can see in the picture.

I've had this dress for about 7 years (I don't throw stuff away) and I called upon it once again for a wedding at the weekend. But disaster struck when busting some moves on the dance floor my right boob popped out to congratulate the bride and groom. Don't worry we were fully bra'd in place so it wasn't that embarrassing. Now I know I've lost weight- a good thing I'm told- and the dress is old so the elastic on the back is going but I love this dress and I'm not ready to throw it out.

Back to the resourcefulness, after my semi-successful hems I thought I would put some darts in the dress to tighten it at the top and although a professional could probably have done better, I'm rather chuffed with myself.

The dress fits snugly again, I've bounced around my living room to make sure, and you can't see the darts at all for the material that goes around the body and ties at the back. Result!

I think I might be even more cautious about throwing things out in future.

Confession of Craftaholic

It's my wedding anniversary today and that is something to celebrate. I haven't injured myself or anyone else and am still affectionate toward my husband. Enough sop, let's move onto the craft.

As most five year olds, the inner child in me gets very excited about presents. I warned my husband that I was never going to not want a gift and that he should probably remember this when I'm too tired or distracted to drop heavy hints. I am incredibly easy to buy for though so don't feel too bad for him. He on the other hand, along with having a unusual name, is impossible to buy for. His hobbies are so specialised I stand no chance of buying a gift of any real purpose or substance so I'm often left with the unenviable choice of money, I.O.U or voucher. I like receiving gifts but as any outer adult I like seeing the smile of a well thought out gift being appreciated too so imagine my dismay when the first year category is paper and under interrogation my fella decides an airsoft magazine - the paper kind not the load with BB's and shoot kind - would be the perfect gift. Without ordering from the Internet and paying double the price this is impossible. With only a week, ok more like two days, I was running out of options. Then it occurred to me, I just needed to consult my inner craftiness. I would make a magazine, it can't be that hard.

I gathered all the feature stories, reviews, funny pictures and recipes that I could. All good magazines have a recipe of some kind. Then came the putting together. Six hours worth of craft, a full roll of double sided tape and probably a full ink cartridge and the magazine was born.

Seeing how pleased my husband was with the magazine made all the hard work worth it.

Hard work? Who am I kidding, I loved making every page, I'm already looking forward to next year's challenge. Then it dawned on me, if crafting can be used to supply an airsoft fix maybe I really have reached the realm of craftaholicness. No that isn't a word, I will give myself a good talking to for that later.