Beside the Seaside

Aren't these fun?

These are seats on the promenade at Whitley Bay, where I went for the Wire-knitting workshop. The shelters were designed by Richard Broderick and are definitely needed at this time of year!

I don't think mine or my sons' sandcastles were ever as impressively straight-sided as these.

Wire-knitting was my second workshop in a week at Made.

The first was called "Get Gorgeous" and involved lots of grating, melting and mixing to produce these.

We made a chocolate-flavoured lip balm, variously scented bath melts, scented bath salts, a brown sugar body scrub and a lemon and lime hand scrub. All in the space of two hours too!

So if you are anywhere in the North East of England and come across a very fragrant and buffed to within an inch of her life female licking her lips, say hello won't you :)

Linking up to Really Random Thursday

Knitting with wire

Last weekend I took a workshop on wire knitting and yes it is as strange as it sounds!

Although I can knit I am not the most proficient so I did wonder whether I had bitten off more than I could chew. Being someone who tends to cast on stitches rather tightly I was convinced I had gone beyond my abilities when trying to knit the first row. Fortunately, the groans coming from the more experienced knitters reassured me that I wasn't the only one who was struggling, and after the first row knitting with wire did get a bit easier.

The wire used is 0.5mm and for this size I cast on 26sts and knitted 6 rows adding a bead every other stitch on alternate rows. As with knitting with wool and beads, the beads are threaded onto the wire before the knitting is started. I used 39  beads in this bracelet.

 To make the bracelet you need to roll the knitted piece back on itself (or in on itself if you want the beads encased) and then "sew" the raw edges together with more wire. The end caps have jump rings looped through with wire that is then secured to the end of the bracelet.

Next time I will definitely cast on the stitches more loosely, but apart from that it was all pretty straightforward, if a little sore on the fingers!

Once my fingers have recovered I will definitely have another go at this, it was quick to do and I would like to think that I will get neater and quicker with practise, but then again maybe not :)

As far as sewing goes I have been paper-piecing away to get a block finished for Quiet Play's Just my Type quilt. My allocated word was Comfort and I could certainly have done with some of that after the wire knitting.

The letter blocks came together really easily and apart from the self-inflicted error of a mark (chocolate??) on the white of an O block, which had to then be replaced,  it was a joy to do from start to finish.


So this is what my WIP list looks like now

• In Color Order HST BOM - Top Completed
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• Tsatime quilt pieced, backed and basted COMPLETED
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (way behind schedule) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks completed and sent (ahead of schedule!)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule just!)
• Friendship Bag Swap - Bag made ready to be filled
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round signed up
• Triple Zip A Long pouch  COMPLETED
• Curved Seams Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And And Sew On BOM - first block completed
• Just my Type paper-pieced block  COMPLETED
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - no progress

I have pulled out my Craftsy BOM blocks and even printed out the instructions for the remaining blocks so, who knows, maybe it will see some movement soon.

Hope you have had a productive week.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and WOW

Mine's a triple!

This week I have been a bit of a bag lady, in the nicest possible way of course.

I signed up for the Triple Zip A Long at a Quilter's Table, which kicked off last week. As my zip order arrived on the first day of the ZAL I had no excuses not to tackle my first ever Triple Zip pouch.

The last step for the pouch really had me puzzled, but a quick look at the discussions in the 3ZAL Flickr group where an alternative for the last step was posted and hey presto! a Triple-Zip pouch. I have already cut out the fabric to make two more of them!

There are over 70 pouches posted to the group already so it is definitely worth checking them out if you haven't already seen them. There are some brilliant combinations of fabrics and zips. Patti's  mixed-up zips will have you looking at your zip stash in a whole new way!

In my quest to keep ahead of things and not be frantically trying to complete projects just before the deadline I have been trying my hand at a quilted Friendship Bag for the Friendship Bag Swap I signed up for recently too. The bag is quilted before being made up so I took the chance to try out quilt marking with a Hera marker for the first time. The marking itself was fine but I had some difficulty seeing the marks under the glare of the light on the sewing machine. I wonder if it is time to finally admit that maybe glasses are called for!

The instructions for the Friendship Bag are available here

It was a joy to put together and I am really looking forward to seeing what my swap partner has come up with for me.

Speaking of partners my blocks for November for the SMQ Bee finally arrived a couple of days ago despite the best efforts of the US and UK postal system! The first time they were sent they were returned to sender but they managed to make their way through unscathed this time. Now all I need are the blocks from October, and they are apparently due to be sent out soon, and I will have the full set.

 

The voting is now open for Rikka's Curved Seams Challenge, which turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. You can check out the challenge entries here (Pam's curved seams dress is just lovely!) and maybe cast a vote or two whilst you are there ;)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Sew Cute Tuesday