Remember when I met Dawn McVey? Well, since then I've been stalking the blogs of a couple of ladies I met on that day. I've pretty much been blown away by the local talent of crafty Mums that I had to give up a few old faves on my must read list to make way for these new finds.
Catherine's blog has been so inspiring that she has had me making homemade lemonade, adding my name to a list at the local thrift store in case an old edition of the Women's Weekly toddler cookbook came in and most life changing of all - downing my paper crafting tools and hand making all of the gifts for Brian's friends birthdays recently. We are talking sewing, fabric (well, mostly felt) and a whole heap of other stuff I still don't know the name of!
It began one afternoon when I printed off the "washcloth pattern" found in the picture of this post from Catherine. Armed with my print out I then pulled out my first and only edition of "The Art of Knitting". It was one of those "special" packages that newsagents sell. The first issue is ¼ the price of the following issues and always comes with a bunch of free stuff, yeah you know the ones! A bit of reading and a lot of trial and error later I had a row or two of knitted goodness on my (metal) knitting needles and (100% acrylic) yarn that came with the kit. It VERY quickly became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to follow a pattern. I would have been happy with one little square of knitted something, but I got something a little better. I have know idea what kind of stitch it is but it worked for me and I was happy.
Next up, before I had decided to commit to sewing 7 separate projects from scratch (no patterns, nothing) in about a two week period, I headed over to Mum's to get a bit of a sewing lesson. Let's say we learned together. Soon a child-sized decorated tea towel (inspired by here) was born.
Georgia's present was complete. Well almost, because who spends hours hand making something to wrap it in ordinary wrapping paper?
We'll answer that one in my next sewing post.
Brooke you've done such a fantastic job with making the dishcloth and tea towel for your friend, I bet she loved them. I love the way you packaged them too, it looks really cute. Trying new things can be a bit scary for me sometimes but the rewards after being able to do something new is so worth it. Thank you for mentioning me in your post, you are very sweet. Have a good show day holiday!:)
ReplyDeleteBrooke, I have been knitting for years, but can only make items that are squares or rectangles. You would not believe how many scarves and dishcloths I have made!
ReplyDeleteBut I recently found a hat pattern that is actually a rectangle that you sew together and then gather at the top. Hope you can use it.
http://knitting.about.com/od/hatpatterns/p/flat_hat.htm
JOANN