...and yet more sewing!

My DH hates taking reusable bags to the shops. He always forgets them and thinks they are a hassle, so I made this. It's a tote that folds up to fit inside the pocket on the front. The design was inspired by the kids fold away rain coats, I made it up last night and it works! Woo hoo!



I'll have a rest from sewing for a bit now. I'm taking my family to the New Forest. Will blog pics when we get back.

More sewing!

I got an idea in my head to make another bag today. It looks pretty good but I need a lot more practice at applique! My stitching is far from perfect but it looks ok from a distance.

I've given up knitting...

...this week and have been doing lots of sewing! I seem to go in cycles, flitting from knitting, to crochet, to sewing and back to knitting again. This week it's definately sewing. I have made this little skirt for my Flowerpot Tots shop:



And a friend of mine was showing me some wonderful bags with skulls on Etsy and I thought I'd have a crack at making one myself...

I got a new toy...

...it's a Louet S15! Yes, I've been spinning since January and so far I have acquired a drop spindle and 2 wheels. Not that I'm obsessive or anything you understand!

I love the first wheel I bought, it was pretty basic and I thought it was ok but as I started to learn more about the art of psinning I kept finding fault with it. It spun very fast, it rattled so much the mother of all was coming loose and on closer inspection the flyer rod was not only bent but was off centre in the flyer so can't even be repaired.

At Easter I visited my good friend Babylonglegs and she kindly let me try out her Louet S10. It was a dream compared to my rustic spinner so I gather together enough cash and found an S15 on eBay going for a bargain. My finger slipped on the BIN button and it was mine!

I was so pleased when it arrived, my DH helped me assemble it but we had a few problems. The treadle connector was split almost all the way through. Disaster! Thankfully Babylonglegs had told me about a way to fix it with coaxial cable so 10 minutes later my DH had pinched some from the kids tv aerial and it was fixed. The plastic cap bit that went over the bearings was slightly cracked and a piece snapped off when we put it on. I got it together and started to spin, a dab of vaseline soon stopped the horrendous squeaking and I was away!

I hadn't had chance to use it much what with family life getting in the way of having a life of my own, but last week I found some quiet time and I sat down to spin some lovely rainbow BFL roving when disaster struck again. I was in the groove, my long draw was really consistent and then PING! The drive band snapped in two and fell to the floor! Thank heavens for the Louet Lovers Ravelry group! A kind soul on there suggested that I melt the ends of the driveband to stick it back together and it worked. :-)

I love my new wheel but I was disappointed that so many things had gone wrong with it, especially as it was listed as hardly used and like new. I sent a message to the seller and I asked for a refund to buy replacement parts. She agreed, but even that went wrong! Instead of refunding me £10 she paid me 10 Euros, I got charged for accepting the payment and I had to convert the amount into US dollars in order to accept it. I got considerably less than the £10 I needed for the parts but I was keen to get it sorted so I accepted it and learned my lesson about buying second hands wheels on eBay.

Hopefully now everything is sorted and I can get to know and love my Louet. I've been busy with my first lot of handspun on it. I spun, plied, hand dyed and knitted it into a gorgeous paiir of longies which are going to be part of a special set in my shop Flowerpot Tots

More Creativeness!

I'm on a bit of a creative roll at the moment. I got all inspired yesterday morning and made this with some scraps of handspun that were just sitting on the sideboard begging to be used. It's a cute little brooch with a silver plated pin on the back and wooden button on the front. Like most of the stuff I make I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but I'm sure I'll find a good home for it eventually.

Felting Fun!

Sometimes I get too many ideas for my own good. Sometimes I actually follow through and occasionally it works. Yesterday I got lucky. I had an idea to make some felted bowls. I found some left over BFL, grabbed a crochet hook and made these:

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with them but I have the urge to make some more and experiment with dyeing...

...oh so much yarn so little time!

Wool Longies Charity Auction for SANDS

As some of your may know my daughter Abigail Scarlett was stillborn in November last year. I have made a very special pair of longies for her in my own handspun wool and I am auctioning them to raise money for SANDS, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity. They do some brilliant work and they were there when we needed help after the death of our daughter. Please help support SANDS so they can continue to support bereaved parents and research the causes of stillbirth.

View the auction HERE. Thank you!