World Craft Week 2017: Knitting

Over the course of the week, for World Craft Week, I have been exploring the various crafts I have done over the years, from cross stitch to sewing to crochet, and today we get on to my favourite: knitting.

I have been knitting for a very long time! I clearly remember knitting during my break times when I was 7, with my best friend at the time who had learnt to knit around the same time. But knitting did not click immediately with me.

My mum (who is an excellent knitter) first tried teaching me to knit when I was about 5, and, while I was interested, I did not get the hang of it at all. My attempts did result in a small (think tiny, like child's purse size) stripy bag made up of all sorts of oddments, which I loved, but I didn't enjoy the knitting enough to continue with it.

When I was 7 a babysitter (an old lady who lived round the corner from us; she was probably only in her fifties, but she seemed old when I was 7) offered to teach me, and sat me on her knee, using her hands to control my arms and direct my fingers. This time it clicked, but my technique was far from perfect. I clearly remember the babysitter casting on 15 sts for me in pale turquoise yarn, and within 50 rows of garter stitch all my odd yarnovers had resulted in well over 100 stitches! But I enjoyed it! With the confidence of a small child, my knitting knew no bounds. My first 'proper' knitted piece was a Baby Sunshine doll from the Jean Greenhowe scarecrow collection. The doll had many loose stitches, and the whole thing was knitted very loosely, but I loved her, and the sense of achievement in finishing her.

With time and practise my knitting improved vastly, and by the time I was 11 or 12 I was knitting intarsia jumpers for my little sister (there's a photo of her wearing a Little Miss Giggles one at my parents house). I knitted theraputically, and whenever I was ill it would give my hands something to do; I worked my way through books of Jean Greenhow patterns. Unfortunately all these early items are now long gone, but they live on in my memories of them.

I have knitted on and off ever since I learnt, and started to get really serious about knitting when I was pregnant with my son, and a lot of my friends were pregnant with their first children as well. I knitted several beautiful shawls as newborn gifts, my favourite being this one in red DK acrylic. No, this is not what I would choose to use now, but I loved the process of knitting it, and the final blanket was beautiful.

With every item I knitted I learnt something new, and would happily improvise when something wasn't to my taste. When my son was 18 months old I wanted to knit him a Christmas pudding hat and couldn't find a pattern with 3D sauce, so made up my own and decided to make a leap into the unknown and publish it. That was, as you know, the first of many.

My first design, the Christmas pudding hat

And a more recent design, Busy Buzzy Bumble Bee (one of my favourites!)

How did you get into knitting? What's the knitted item you're most proud of?

World Craft Week 2017: Crochet

This week is World Craft Week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell you about some of my non-knitting crafting adventures. So far I have written about cross stitch and sewing, today is the turn of crochet.

I had been interested in crochet for many years before I actually got round to doing any. As a child I had been played with yarn a lot, seeing what I could do with yarn using just my fingers, mostly plaiting, twisted cords and knotting, but also creating what I now realise were long crochet chains. The only trouble was that I didn't know anyone who could teach me.

Fast forward to my final year at university, when I was working in industry and finally had enough disposable income that I could afford to buy my own craft materials. That Christmas I asked for a beginners book on crocheting (Start Crochet by Jan Eaton) and sat down over the holidays and taught myself. I've never been one to start with something simple, and after crocheting a ripple scarf I decided that I would crochet a double bed sized blanket for some friends as a wedding present.

And so I made my first project, a join as you go granny hexagon blanket in all the colours! The house I lived in that year was very close a branch of Boyes (a shop that sells everything, and each branch has its own haberdashery department) so I picked up another ball of yarn whenever I fancied. The blanket went down well with my friends and I have since made several more crocheted blankets as wedding presents.

A crocheted wedding blanket

I really like crochet for homewares; crochet grows faster than knitting, and is generally a bit denser, making it really cosy. But I'm not keen on it for garments, so I don't do it that often. I have also used crochet for toys; I love the way that there is only one stitch on the hook at any time, so you can always see the shape you have created, which makes it much easier to improvise a shape than with knitting. Every time I go to a yarn festival and see the TOFT stall I have a little longing to crochet some animals, but the fast-growing nature of crochet means I'd run out of homes pretty quickly! My daughter has recently started requesting unicorns though, so maybe I do have an excuse to make one.

Silly, but I had a lot of fun making this skirt!

My proudest crochet moment: a dragon hat

Can you crochet? What's your favourite thing to make?

World Craft Week 2017: Sewing

This week, for World Craft Week, I'm having a look at the crafts I have done over the years. Today it's sewing.

When I was little my mum had a sewing machine in one of our main living rooms, housed in its own special work table. The sewing machine collapsed into the table and the workspace folded over to take up less space when it wasn't being used. I assumed this was normal and am very disappointed that my living arrangements do not have enough space for such a thing - my sewing machine is kept in a sewing machine bag in a corner of the living room and if I want to sew I have to clear the dining table, and as a consequence I don't do very much sewing!

I learnt to use a sewing machine when I was very young. My mum was always happy to let me play with her scraps and I was constantly improvising bags for me and clothes for my toys. Over the years I learnt to do appliqué, which I loved, quilting, which I didn't love and eventually moved on to making garments for myself.

Applique curtains for my son

I'm pretty tall (5 foot 10) and one of the joys of making things for yourself is that you can adjust the proportions so that the item actually fits! I made evening dresses to wear for my prom and balls at university, and several day dresses; I made my bridesmaids dresses and even considered making my own wedding dress (until I realised quite how long that would take!). These days my sewing is limited to curtains and project bags, although I do have plans to sew a summer dress for myself this year. As soon as I had children finding the floor space for pattern and fabric cutting became a bit of a battle and I still haven't found a solution to that, but when I do (probably when my children are bigger) I will spend a lot more time sewing.

Project bags in quirky fabrics

Do you like to sew? Do you have a solution to my lack of cutting space?

World Craft Week 2017: Cross stitch

This week for World Craft Week I am looking back at all the crafting activities I have enjoyed over the years. Today it's cross stitch.

The walls of my parents' house is evidence of my love of cross stitch: most walls feature a design stitched by me. I started cross stitch very early, possibly as young as three or four, using binca (aida cloth with 6 stitches to the inch), brightly coloured embroidery threads and no pattern. My Mum really encouraged me in this - she has always been creative and has a huge stash of craft materials, which I had pretty free access to. At this point my sewing was more crazy freehand embroidery than cross stitch, but my skills and patience developed quickly and I was soon following charts and creating little pictures.

I carried on cross stitching (and raiding my mum's craft supplies) for many years, with the fabrics getting finer and my ambition increasing. Every year I would request a cross stitch kit, often Country Companions hedgehogs, which I loved doing in spite of their slightly faffy variegated spines. My favourite designs required using only whole stitches - I never really enjoyed making quarter and three quarter stitches as they slowed me down - and I never enjoyed backstitch. I did try evenweave (around 28 strands per inch, with crosses worked over two strands), but it made my eyes hurt!

My mum used to buy a lot of cross stitch magazines, and each one came with a small kit for a card, needle case, or gift tag and I worked my way through all of those, enjoying the speed at which I could create a finished object. I didn't always have uses for the items, so we occasionally had a stand at a craft fair to sell some of the items on.

Once I'd exhausted the supply of kits I started designing my own cross stitch charts. My favourite images were based on the Bang on the Door characters, whose bold black outlines suited the pixilated nature of cross stitch. Had it been as easy to create and sell cross stitch designs as it is now, I may have gone down the cross stitch route over the knitting route for longer, but one day I stopped as I had run out of wall space!

I haven't done any cross stitch in well over ten years. While I enjoy it - the repeated motions are very therapeutic - there really are only so many ways to use the items you've stitched, and my parents have enough of my cross stitch cushion covers and pictures to last a lifetime. I have a few pieces that still need framing (I stitched the Winnie the Pooh picture at least ten years ago!), which I might get round to one day.

To be framed, ten years on...

Last year while I was in Hobbycraft I did briefly entertain the idea of doing some more cross stitch and bought a kit for a festive design to be mounted in a hoop. I ran out of time to do it before last Christmas, but think I probably will of it for this year. 

A nice quick project when I fancy it

Have you ever done cross stitch? What have you done with the finished pieces?

World Craft Week 2017: Introduction

This week is World Craft Week, a new event hosted on Facebook by Immediate Media, who publish a large array of crating magazines, including Simply Knitting, Mollie Makes and Simply Crochet. I'm always enthusiasic about a new crafting event, so have decided that this week I will tell you about my adventures in crafting over the years.

While knitting is now my primary craft, I have tried many! Cross stitch, crochet, sewing, colouring and many more have all made an appearance, some with more success than others! I'm really looking forward to taking you through my crafting adventures this week.

Immediate Media are giving away a free digimag featuring 25 craft projects, as well as a collection of discount vouchers to use over World Craft Week. If you fancy downloading a copy, follow this link.

Are you a crafter? What is your favourite craft and what would you like to try next?