Easter Eggstavaganza Craft Fair

Yesterday I was one of twenty stall holders at the Crafty Critter Craft fair held in Glasgow. This is why I have been so quiet of late. I have been working towards this.

This time I made some cards. You have already seen most of them but I also added some black and white themed cards. It was really an excuse for me to buy this fabric as I loved it.

I also managed to get a few more sock sets done although not as many as I would have liked. And of course I had my usual sock keyrings.

The fair itself was very quiet. There were about 20 stall holders and such a wide range too. Lots of different jewellery stalls, card makers, knitted Daleks, stained glass sun catchers, cupcakes, wood crafts and a few artists. The event had been well advertised by the organiser and everyone had done their best to help. It was just one of those things. You never know how they are going to turn out. I did meet a lot of great people though and for that alone it was a lovely day.

I was also productive and managed to finish these whilst I was there.

Socks #4

I finished knitting these on the last day of March so I am still on target for a pair of socks a month and with one pair extra should I need to miss out a month. I found this pattern in a book that I bought not that long ago. It's called "Around the World In Knitted Socks" by Stephanie Van Der Linden. This particular pattern is called 'It's Tea Time' and was inspired by English Fisherman Sweaters. I loved the pattern and I actually picked this to go with the yarn (rather than the other way about). The yarn is Schoppel Zauberball and the colour way is called Shadows. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and have been saving it for the right pattern. Normally I love bright colours but I liked the changes of grey into black. I've used this type of yarn before and it's lovely to knit with. It's also lovely to wear on your feet.

I did have to pay attention to the pattern until I got used to the flow of it. I also had to concentrate on the heel as the fisherman pattern follows down the heel which is unusual. When I don't pay attention I usually automatically work heels with the basic pattern as it's usually the most popular way to do them. The instructions were easy to follow and there were no stitches in there that I hadn't done before. Although, if you are not a fan of following charts it doesn't have a written out alternative as I have found in some books (I personally prefer charts but not everyone does). I love the patterns in the rest of the book and I already have my eye on a few of them. A few for presents but I have another put down for another pair in my challenge.

Happy Mothers Day

I know you have already seen this card but this one was made especially for Mothers Day.

I offered to bake for my mum and said she could pick what she wanted. Initially it was going to be my peanut butter cookies. After last weeks cheesecake she changed her mind but wanted the chocolate one. Again the recipe is from the Hummingbird. Thankfully the base is different. This one is made from digestives, butter and cocoa powder.

I also knitted my mum a lace scarf. The pattern is a freebie and is called the Travelling Rose. I came across it on ravelry whilst looking for something else and knew straight away it had to be done for my mum. She loves roses and her favourite colour is red. I used Zauberball lace weight yarn because of the colour changes. I also love their sock yarn and wanted to give the lace a go. Glad I did. The pattern was relatively easy to follow but I did find I made mistakes when I was tired. Also it calls for 13 repeats of the pattern. Had I given myself more time I would have added a few more to make it longer.

My First Cheesecake!

I know it doesn't exactly look the prettiest but it is my first. It's a New York cheesecake and I once again used the Hummingbird cooker book. I promise to eventually venture out of that book for baking.

It was fairly easy to do which surprised me. It takes so long because you have to wait for the base to cool and then the rest of it to set. I made it yesterday morning and it has been setting in the fridge until this afternoon. The book said it would only need to be in the fridge overnight but realistically it takes longer. When we tested it I think it could have done with a little longer. Fingers crossed that it will be ready for tonight.

Despite that it did taste good. My mum loves cheesecake and if she didn't like it she wouldn't be able to hide it. It is very rich though and the tiny bit we tried was more than enough. Definitely going to be sending my sister away with a large portion. The only thing that really didn't turn out was the base. I think it stayed behind when I cut a piece. This doesn't particularly bother me as I wasn't convinced by the recipe that I would like the base all that much.

Sssshhhhhhhh!!!!

Every year I plan to make a mothers day card and always fail to have it done on time. Last years was a cross stitch design which is still lurking about. This year I decided to be more organised with my gifts (although I have to say I plan that every year too). Ahead of time I made a mothers day card. The border is machine stitched. I then used some fabric I have lying around to make flowers and of course added buttons too before attaching them to the card.

Last week I was also working on items for a craft fair that's coming up. I adapted the cowl design in the previous post and knitted up five hair bands (the fifth is a deep rose). If I have time later I may knit more of them.

I also stitched some cards for the fair. I used the mothers day card as a prototype. This is the black and red flower range.

Pastel flower range.

I then decided to try it with felt.

Lastly the black and red butterfly range. I might do these in pastels too but probably not in felt. Instead of buttons I used beads to set it off.

This is what happens when you can now see your craft desk. Last week was cards and hair bands. This week I am going to work on bookmarks.

A Very Braidy Cowl

I should have been tidying my craft area. Whilst I did make a start on it I got distracted and knitted this Cowl. A number of friends have been into knitting Cowls for a while now and I decided to give it a go. The pattern was designed by Maryse of Just Maryse (I love her blog). The pattern is free and you can see it here. It's lovely to knit and I can see myself knitting more of them. I already plan on a scarf version for my dads Christmas (planning ahead here, I know).

Not sure what the yarn is although I do know it has a silk content. It fluffs up in a similar way to silk socks I knitted a while back. Honestly I did not lose the ballband this time. My lovely friend Clare gave me a bag of yarn that was going free. None of them had labels but they are all very pretty. This one was calling out to be used first. It's so soft!

The Cowl is also going to my knitting groups charity, the shoebox appeal.

Freebies

I love freebies in magazines but very rarely do I use them. I have countless knitting needles from these magazines still sitting in their packs. Mind you that's mainly due to the fact the tend to give away the size that most knitters are going to have already, 4mm. Plus some of those plastic ones are a nightmare to knit with. Last months Lets Knit came with free bobbly yarn called Cookie by Charlotte Lewis. I love unusual yarns so it got put aside until I got round to knitting with it.

My knitting group recently decided to make the shoebox appeal it's charity this year so I used this to try the yarn. I picked out the scarf from the magazine called Ali (issue 39 in case you were wondering). It was quick and easy to knit and if you don't look too closely turned out okay. The pattern was simple. I normally don't bother with the fringe but in this case the pattern needed it and I am glad I bothered. The yarn on the other hand is a nightmare. The bobbles split and fray so easily. At some points in the yarn they were already frayed. It made it very awkward to knit with. Nice result but I don't think I will be knitting with it again.

I also attempted this week to make some lemon cupcakes from the Hummingbird bakery book. The photo above is my second attempt. Don't fill your cupcake cases quite as high as the recipe suggest as it only leads to disaster. My baking tray looked like one big cake. It wasn't pretty!