Knit project 1, 2 and 3

For Christmas my mum bought me a 'knit your own nativity' pattern book and here is stage 1, 2 and 3 (I think there's going to be 20+ stages, there are a lot of characters in the nativity)

First, there was Mary

In a lovely shade of lilac and blue, with a cream headdress














Then came Joseph

In a very manly shade of green with matching headdress, with a red waist coat and a nice beard.













Then came the baby Jesus

In a very cute nappy. Yes the pattern asked me to knit a nappy.


It took two attempts to knit Mary, mostly because the first attempt was re-teaching myself how to knit after not really knitting for about 19 years.
I'm not quite sure that's how they're feet are supposed to look, or if I've just made the clothes too small.


I'm hoping I'll get all the characters done before Christmas...

Polymer clay

Polymer clay (popular brand is fimo) is often used to make figurines, beads and toys. I thought i'd try something a little different and made some tea-light holders

I got hold of two glass tea-light holders from a craft shop and made sure they were heat proof because I didn't want shattering glass in my oven.
I then got hold of some fimo and had a play.
I figured that if you make pieces like you would a stick of rock then I should be able to make small flower pattern but keep quite a lot of the detail.
I started with the yellow centre and made a tube about  1cm in diameter, then added a pink tube that have been wrapped around in purple fimo, then packed in the spaces with white and then all around that a layer of a different colour pink....still following?
I then rolled the thick sausage like fimo tube flower into a thinner and thinner tube.
Using a flat craft knife (it was like rectangle blade, I found the angled blades did not cut cleanly) I sliced the tube up and placed them around the glass.
This is were it becomes a bit of trial and error, too thin and the fimo will just rip, too thick and the fimo will stand too far off the glass and look lumpy.
I found starting at the bottom working one ring of flowers at a time easiest, squishing each flower into each other.
Once all flowers where on I rolled the glasses in my hand to try and get the fimo as even as possible then baked.
You don't need to apply any solvent or glue in between the glass and the fimo it sticks itself.

After baking the fimo for the correct time and the correct temperature (remembering not to mistake the farrenhiehght for celceus or vice versa as I did once, filling my kitchen with toxic gas and very burnt fimo) let it cool down and then you can varnish it. I used duraclear gloss varnish which is a brush on polyurethane varnish which apparently dries flexible so figured that would be the best one. Once the varnish has dried you can pop in a candle.




Now you might think 'what's the point of going to all that trouble to use opaque polymer clay to cover a glass candle holder?  you won't see the candle'

Very pretty effect don't you think?

^.^

Crochet Crochet Crochet

In front of beading for my favourite craft (by quite a long way unfortunately) is crochet.

 And before you can crochet you need a handmade special crochet case to house all those crochet hooks. Along with some very wonky chain stitch embroidery.

Matching needle case is not necessary, but it was felt the crochet case would need a friend or it would be lonely.

Very easy to make, scraps of felt i've had lying around for over a year, smaller pieces inside sewn in place, for the crochet case some cotton covered elastic stitched down the inner piece to make the loops to hold the needles. and then the edges blanket stitched to keep the felt edges neat (I should have done that first before sewing it all together)
If you want a neater finish use a sewing matching...and a ruler. If you want a Katie finish use the 'that looks even' method.

I have a habit of crocheting throws. Mostly because they are easy like this giant granny square, and mostly because my attempts and crocheting anything wearable (apart from socks, slippers, flowers) usually ends up very wrong or being donated to the charity shops.

I can crochet scarfs though. This is my favourite one using Sidar Click Chunky in Blazer. Crocheted with a 6mm hook and in sc (us not uk, I don't understand the uk terms) but in the back loop to make a ribbed effect

Beads Beads Beads

Beads?

I started beading 10 years ago when I was a little 14 year old, hidden away in my bedroom with a bag of seed beads and a roll of elastic.
Lot of years later and after working 4 years in a bead shop I've mastered a few more techniques other than knowing how to tie elastic.

You may have guessed I like beads. Mostly because you can make what ever you want and choose which beads you want to use.
Lampwork are loverly beads, made by hand (not by me I don't have enough room for a kiln). My favourite lampwork beads are these flower ones here. They've been on this bracelet a couple of years so I think it's time they became something new.

Here's some of the earings I've made.

Earings are the easiest thing to make, easier than tieing elastic for certain.

My favourite earings are the purple star ones and the ladybird ones.

The ladybirds have a somewhat supprised expression along with 6 feet which I think is anatomically incorrect, but they're still cute (I have since been told/berrated by my fiance that they do have 6 legs, I apologise)

I love my blue goldstone necklaces, they are so sparkly. I think they look like the marbles that have galaxies in them...if you've never watched men in black you won't know what I mean

 I like my pearls to. I made this necklace for my graduation. They are little freshwater pearls with a teeeeeny tinnnny 3mm very light blue Swarovski crystal interspaced.

 I really like beadweaving as well, but it takes such a long time. The butterfly bracelet cuff was made using peyote stitch and each individual bead is sewn into the peice one at a time. Each bead is about 1mm. The close up gives and idea how small the beads are.

Only a year late....

Well over a year ago I decided to start up a blog with all my craft stuff to show people...Which I kind of forgot to do. But here it is now!


...now to work out how to put pictures up...