Orange Socks, White Rabbit

I recently joined the Solid Socks group on Ravelry. I have all this really old bright sock yarn that has long since been discontinued. I think of it all as candy colors or circus colors and I am not sure I want to use all the colors together in colorwork. Anyway, the group has challenges each month and June's color is orange.

Here are the Puppy Love Socks designed by Pauline Schultz from the Joy of Sox. I used Froehlich Blauband (color 59) and size 2.75 mm dpns. I did do a few mods - I made the legs longer by adding three pattern repeats, I did a longer toe, and I did a regular cast on for the triangles on top and just picked up the stitches. It is a nice, easy pattern that is perfect for these hot days where I keep the house pretty dark.

Bubbles actually came over and plopped her large bunny self right down next to the socks during the photography session. She usually doesn't like the camera but I guess she felt her photo hadn't been on the blog in a long time. In other important Bubbles news, this summer we learned that she hates watermelon but loves blueberries.

I'll post some pillow photos this week as soon as the pillow forms I ordered show up.

Dogs wearing pearls and ducks in Malta.

Duck Launch Malta

Flying airmail to Malta as I type, my good friend Nikki will be popping this little duckling in the Mediterranean.

Armed with the Lyric of the Late Jim Reeve's...........

" Please Release me let me go"

up-date to follow.


Dog days

Rasmus in my pearls.

My full Swedish family member has been under a lot of pressure this weekend, realising that changes are afoot.

Something to-d0 with the massive amount of bubble wrap and art that I pain stack-inly packed. Our house fast became an alien zone.

His pass port is ready. Not very pleased about his 1st flight. Nor his anxious owners. My pearls made him happy for a while;-)

Lazy days

Making the most of the last week....days..... left in stockholm;-(

The outside experience, summer in Stockholm revolves around the water and the sun.

Golden body's, Tanning and bad does not quiet compute here!, I like tanning with moderation. Its all golden hair, golden beaches , be it local man made. They are still pretty golden and river swimming, great.

Home soon to the British rat race. I never really got that meaning until I left. Running in every direction And packing as much into one day as one can.
(my interpretation)

As opposed to Sitting back and noticing the seasons change. And wishing this summer season will not end. Stockholm for me

It's all just to much.

Tuesday-pack up day, more importantly triple bill, Twilight Night at the movie's, here I come;-) yes very lucky.

an Amish quilt top flea market treasure

I found this quilt top at the flea market recently,

for $12.

For years I've searched for something

like this, but they are always out of my

price range--it was apparently my lucky day.

The vendor told me he had bought an Amish buggy

and this quilt was inside it--the Amish

folks told him he could have it.

There are so many great vintage prints,

I love it!

There are, however, 30-some patches that are very

frayed and need replacing,

like that striped piece seen in the middle

there.

I am cutting out replacement squares

of vintage-looking fabrics from my

scrap bag.

If you have any suggestions on the best

way to remove the damaged squares and

replace with new,

I would appreciate it greatly!

~Deb

A Dark Side knit ( The force is strong with this one)

Very Strong with this one............

Two separate knit Cafe's and told the same, the shock and a gasp (exaggeration is always required)

" unusual colour scheme" nice colours, but very dark.

Welcoming My inside out, dark side bag.

I began this on public transport as I quiet often do, a tram, a train then a coach and plane.

It's called inside out as a new stitch I made simply Looked better on the inside than the right way! Strange, these things happen.

So I reversed it! No rules ,it's just as I like it.

Why the darker wintry colour scheme? ..........
when the sun shine so beautifully.

I'm just not sure, it was my birthday shopping I envisaged a bright bag

(The 80's luminous)

Tick, done........

But I have been working with a lot of bright lately and I guess maybe with out realising I sensed that the darker days where coming. (Moving country)

I love the tweedy colour scheme it reminds me of farmers and tea cosy's.
And a girl named Kirsten;-)

This being my 10 move, since I began my family. Oh well (I like change)
I embrace it........

But it is tough , the restarting, over and over, now that I'm late 30's I feel almost like I need kick starting.

A little more energy required, but when I'm ready to settle, i'll know;-)

Hopefully one day.

So it's simply dark days (kidding)

Knit and crochet my dark side, inside out ,mostly constructed

on the way to Prague bag.

So far so good. Project frozen as I briefly lost this mixed knit........

A first I have lost hooks but never hole projects.

Mid summer lunch with my Brother and I left it, with out realising............
(The two glasses of bubbly may be to blame)

I panicked as the thought of loosing my emergency knit kit that was in with my latest project, nearly brought me to tears;-(

Luckily a late text from my Sis In Law, confirmed the find, she just wanted to say bye bye again. I will miss Emm.

Finished.

Completed.

Done.

Dusted.

Ended.

A bright along with my dark side. All my ends stitched in, a cute little summers day top for those cut off jeans shorts. I may even where this my self.

Who knows

simple pleasures

Today's simple pleasure...

an old wooden bowl, that my mom

no longer needed,

has found a new home

and given me motivation to get some

skeins of organic cotton

rolled into balls.

What was your simple pleasure

today?

Toasty Mitts

Recently I had the privilege of working with this gorgeous handspun skein provided by Lisa of Becoming Art. It was love at first sight. I find this color combination amazing! The colorway for this one is

"Green Goodness" just like the skein pictured in the previous blog post.

Of course this skein is spun up differently, but all of the same beautiful colors are there.

I had to make something simple and special with this yarn, so I decided to work up some mitts for this upcoming winter. The pattern is called "Toasty" and can be found for free here.

These mitts were so insanely easy to make! They went so fast and were so fun to make in this beautiful yarn.

I found it to be a wonderfully mindless, comforting knit.

I really enjoyed watching the colors change as I went. It's addicting working with yarn like this.. you always want to see what colors are coming up next.

I really love the way these turned out and I am now officially addicted to handspun yarn. This project even motivates me to drag out my spinning wheel and see if I can produce amazing yarn like this on my own.

After that entire project, I even have this cute little ball left over. I'm thinking that my daughter's doll might just need a handspun sweater. :)

Click here to see all of the beautiful yarns and fibers that Becoming Art has to offer.

making a slipcover from old linen tablecloths

lifeinredshoes asked about my linen tablecloth slipcover way back when,

so I thought I would show you

what I did.

For each part of the loveseat

I roughly cut out a piece of linen

that was a couple inches larger all around.

Extra needs to be left wherever you will

be tucking in the slipcover ~ in this case,

all around the back and sides of the seat.

I lay the pieces in place right side down

and pin them somewhat snuggly along all the

seam lines.

Relief cuts are needed along curves,

and some spots get a bit tricky.

Once all is pinned, I trim away the excess

fabric, leaving about a 1 inch seam

allowance.

Then, it is gathered up and taken to the sewing

machine.  I sew my seams along the pinned

lines, periodly placing the cover back

on the furniture to recheck it.

There is often a bit of seam ripping

involved in this process!

I used to do piping on many of my slipcovers,

but lately I have been taking the simpler route

{gotten lazy} and have left it out.

This is a very simple explanation--if you

would like more details, I have

found Simple Upholstery & Slipcovers: Great New Looks For Every Room
 to be very helpful.

making rose water

I made my rose water

and have been using it on my face

for just over a week now.

I have to admit my skin does feel softer,

and the rose water smells

oh so good.

I used a distilled method found

here;

there are easier ways,

but I wanted to give this one a try.

Now I'm thinking of making

a rose water linen spray,

if you've ever made your own

with rose petals,

I would love to know how...

thanks,

~Deb

Prague, Stockholm and France it's all soooo International

Prague duck release,

And not the traditional release (river) as we where a little pushed for time so the Hostel/hotel we stayed in had mini water feature, so that's where the duck left the flock. (So to speak)

Prague- This is my second visit to Prague and I absolutely love the place. I went before I came to Stockholm and in my mind I think that the Gothic style of Gamla Stan it kind of reminded me of Prague.(my opinion)

The one word I would use to describe it is Beautiful. Every where you look you see such fantastic architecture. And the Cobbled streets are another favourite of mine.

That and Beer costs 1 Euro/£1 , Stockholm 75kr ish (Nearly £8.......) Hotel Mosaic (5 day open/5 weeks memory) strongly recommend. Funky and totally modern, one might say "pretty arty" with standing lamps that stand actually hanging from the ceilings in the dinning room.

http://www.mosaichouse.com/ Added plus a bar man looking like Johnny Deep, Pirates Johnny hair not so big, another hotel high light.
Total value for money;-)



Prague Knitted Graffiti. (Sorry I forgot to write down the destination)
Not Central Prague, more by the river it could have been next to the National Theatre. My memory has never been good!

Stockholm.

Mid Summer's coming and a large May Pole by the palace/2010 love ending.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer

New Crochet.

New Crocheted Top.

The green yarn is a Chain of crochet and then I threaded it with a needle, I will attach it at the back, but not sure how.

Not sure Whether it should be hidden or a feature. Next Threaded a chain of two yarns under the bust part, just for some detail.

That's it so far.

Rasmus trying to knit my wires!

Bag linings



Here is my little production line of bag lining, some of the knit/crochet bags come up so strong that a lining is not always needed. But for some I thought that a lining would look a little bit more professional.;-)

Funny thing is that my hand stitching is not quiet up to my knit standard and it really did look as if a young child had sowed them in.........

I used the sowing machine and old T shirts to make the lining, so that part was easy but the sowing in with out showing or simply neatly was a little bit of a challenge.

So for now ill count the stitches as the tacking and when I return to England my good friend Angela can show me how!!!



France

Unfortunately I have not been recently but this was La-man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hours_of_Le_Mans and a car shell designed by none other than Jeff Koons ( I want one)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Koons

Not a race car any old banger but with this paint job it's very cool.
Photo taken from the web site below.

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1046066_bmw-m3-gt2-jeff-koons-art-car-makes-le-mans-on-track-debut



THE DUCK MINI MOVIE..............

The first you-tube was simply to show the my idea at the time
(Original!, who knew?). I was a very inexperienced film maker.

This one actaully has a title and end credits, still not exactly experienced but better. I would like this one to be the official ducks release, for my knitted graffiti duck project that launched in 2009.