Nicsknots

FO Friday. The first finished object of 2012

2012-01-27T18:06:00.002Z

I think a fair few people who were at A Good Yarn last night for the first evening knit and natter will be suprised to see me posting here with a finished object!

I have indeed managed to finish the jumper. I knitted quickly, as Auntie Noo suggested and ended up with at least a meter of yarn to spare. Once I worked out where I was on the sleeve, I finished it off in about half an hour last night but then I decided that I would pop it back in my basket and ignore it in favour of casting on a new sock. Oh how everyone laughed that *the* Nicsknots didn't like sewing up and they even threatened to out me to the world so I figured I ought to put my dislike of sewing-up to one side.

My problem isn't that I can't sew, clearly, it is that I don't think I am that great at sewing knitting up and the seam is always bigger than I would have liked. I think I might have to invest in the ever-popular finishing course that Sara Thornett runs...either that or just stick to knitting in the round, which to honest suits me better because then when I have finished knitting, I have finished and don't have to spend hours putting everything together. Anyway, here is the baby jumper with the left-over yarn above it.

I think, in retrospect, I have somehow managed to do the neck wrong as it has buttons on a flap at one side to help in getting the jumper over the babies (potentially) huge head but my neckband goes all the way around rather than somehow stopping.

I have tested the jumper on Merrythought bear and it goes over his head. To be honest, if that jumper belongs to a baby with a head bigger than Merrythought, I think its Mum might be having some strong words to say to her offspring....just saying ;)

So that is my first FO of 2012. I have a feeling 2012 could be a good year for my knitting...not wanting to jinx it but I seem to be making more time for knitting. If you want to look at all of the project details, they are here on my Ravelry page.

Hop over to Tami's page to see what everyone else has been finishing this week.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday . Russian Roulette Knitting

2012-01-25T11:10:00.000Z

It's that time of the week again; Work-in-progress Wednesday.......

This week we have a baby jumper I am making for one of the hundreds of friends (it feels like!) who are having a baby in the next 6 months.

It is knitted in Sirdar Crofter that I had left over from another project. All was going well until I had to pick up stitches around the neck; the pattern tried to tell me taht hat was possible on one straight needle...I followed the instructions then had a paddy, threw the tangled mess into the naughty corner and left it there for a few days.

My idea was to take it to knitting at A Good Yarn on Saturday and talk nicely to one of the older, more experience straight needle knitters and ask her to ~~help me~~ do it for me but all went wrong, I ended up taking J and L to tennis instead of going knitting so I had to put my big girl pants on and have another go, this time with dpns and it went ok...I think.

Here is the problem though; the second sleeve with 10 rows left to knit and the yarn left...not much....will I make it?

This week is shaping up to be a bit manic; tomorrow my first sewing class happens at A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes. I've decided to have the first as a taster session so if anyone just wants to drop in and see what they could do, they can so I am going to take along some pillowcases and make some pillowcase dresses for the Dress A Girl Around the World charity so if you are in the area and want to come and have a play, the more the merrier!

Hop over to Tami's blog for more WIP Wednesdays.

Chicken run!

2012-01-20T20:36:00.000Z

We're lucky to have a fairly large garden with hedges all around the boundaries and for the most part they are secure so the rabbits and chickens can't escape. I sat in the lounge last Friday lunchtime, feeling all smug because now I am working from home, the chickens can be out most of every day, doing what they want and I don't have to worry about them escaping.....or so I thought......

15 minutes before I needed to go to school, I went outside as usual, shook the pot of meal-worm to bring the chickens back to their house but only Ruby followed me up to the greenhouse. I put her home and listened for Snowy and Mildred then peered over next doors hedge. There they were, just looking at me. Luckily the neighbours were out so I walked round with the meal-worm, found M and S and herded them back into our garden. My neighbours must think I am mad. There I was, walking down the road with two chickens waddling behind me.

All this week I have been trying to block the holes that the chickens have decided they can escape out of but I have felt like I am on Chicken Run. and fell out with my little fluffy friends...

Today I decided I would make a more permanent barrier to stop them escaping and tied wire sheets to the large holed mesh that they had been getting through. I went in the house, made a cup of tea, sewed a new bag with fab fabric and felt smug. Ahhh. I listed my new bag and announced that I had made friends with the hens and that the new bag was in their honour.....

... I opened the window, I shook the box of dried fruit and two chickens waddled to the window, glad to see me. Snowy was missing. She can't have escaped, I thought, she must be in the coop, laying an egg, what a lovely hen...I went outside to find her in between the new and old fencing.....laughing at me! Tomorrow I'm getting serious........

WIP Wednesday is back again!

2012-01-18T12:14:00.000Z

Last year I started doing WIP Wednesday and it really helped me to progress with my knitting rather than start something, get bored and not do anything on it until the next month at knitting. I stopped a while a go because I was too busy and wasn't really knitting that much.

Over the last few months I have started knitting more. There are a number of reasons for this including the fact that I have apparently convinced my friend that she needs to learn to knit; her knitting is fab; so neat and she can do thumb cast-on and knit stripes without cutting the end of the yarn and having a million ends to sew in unlike me so she is inspiring me to carry on...and knitting is good for switching off in the evening...and everyone seems to be having babies in 2012 and who can reisst baby knitting?

Anyway, basically, WIP Wednesday is back at Nicsknots! In the last week I have cast-on two new things. This is what I am loving most.....

It is called Blue Jean Baby (Blanket) and designed by Kate Heppell. It is basically a feather and fan pattern but so clever and addictive knitting. It is my concentrating knitting because there is a fair bit of counting. The yarn is some that Gran got from 'The Art of Crochet' magazine. Normally free yarn isn't particularly nice but this is lovely and had a great sheen to it too. She has about 60 balls so plenty to go at ;)

Work is going well here. I've been grumpy this week. General children blah, trying to sell cars, escaping chickens, still no hot water and the wonderful attitudes of people who think that now I am working from home I'm not actually working at all and that Nicsknots is 'just a little hobby' has been making me a mardy-ass but today is a good day. I've been designing a couple of new bags this week and should have some photos for you tomorrow. I hope you love them as much as the people who have seen them so far.

If you want to join in with WIP Wednesday, nip over to Tami's blog.

Sulking Saturday....

2012-01-14T21:09:00.000Z

This was supposed to be a Flashback Friday post but then I got carried away counting last night while working on *cough* another *cough* new knitting project so I had to think of a something Saturday and most of this week I have been sulking so it seems quite apt.

We are in the process of selling our cars at the moment and last weekend while we were looking for a photo of Bill when he was new to us, we found loads of old J and Lou photos like this, the first time we took both J and L camping in 2006;

I blogged then, perhaps a bit too honestly and a few years ago when Nicsknots got more popular, I hid all of the earlier posts but I'm glad I kept them for us to read. This photo tells the story of the angelic faces of J and L, awake as soon as it had got light after having taken four hours to go to sleep. We'd had them in their sleeping bags, in travel cots, in the car, out of the car, I'd almost lost the will to live and nearly bundled them into the car to go home, only 30mins up the road. In the end M had decided he would sleep in Js bed while I got J and L to sleep, hence why M looked so fed up, he'd had a hard nights sleep in the only part of the tent no-one else was sleeping in!

We spent quite a while reading through my blog and laughing at the photos and stories; when J used to move the beanbag across their bedroom so that he could climb in Lou's cot and her out, the adventures. It all seemed more relaxed then. Even though we didn't get much sleep and it was a lot more full-on than now, I really enjoyed it and we all had loads of fun.

The reason for the reflection? We're back at school, or rather J and L are. L generally enjoys school but J doesn't and so far we have had more morning where he has been in tears before school than not this term; work is too hard, his friends don't like him, his teacher doesn't like him, he can't get the work done in time, the list changes but the bottom line is that he'd rather not be there, then Lou starts telling me she has spent most of her playtimes sitting at the friendship stop with no-one to play with. Ahh how I wish we were back in our own little world again!

I promise there will be less grumpiness next week. If any of you fancy buying either Bill or George, that would make me even happier ;)

Sewing lessons at A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes

2012-01-09T18:25:00.001Z

Starting on Thursday 26th January, I will be teaching sewing classes at A Good Yarn, in Cleethorpes. We will begin right from the start; how to thread your machine up and wind bobbins but before long you will be fitting zips, doing button holes, reading patterns and much more. What you make during the classes will be dictated largely by you but in other classes we have made cushion covers, bunting, children and babies clothes, quilts, bags and mats.

Mardy Monday?

2012-01-09T09:47:00.001Z

Well, you know, they label all of the days up to Christmas as Mega Monday, Black Friday, Even more Mega Monday and I'm sure today must be what they call 'Blue Monday', where all the bills come in and everyone realises that paying for Christmas on credit still has to be paid for at some point in time, but I'm a bit scared that that isn't what it is called at all and if you google it, it might come up with something completely different and to be honest, Mardy Monday fits today better anyway.

It was pitch-black when I woke up this morning and I realised that it was the first full week back at school. Whereas L loves school and would quite happily go at the weekend, J doesn't and every week he is grumpier about the next week. I feel like a cheerleader trying to convince him that writing doesn't kill you, then I paid £200 of music lessons for J and L before 9am and the washing machine is making fatal sounding noises. Mardy.

But, there is going to be no mardy here, mardy gets you nowhere, as I tell J, so we are going to be positive and happy and join in with Natalie in her Making Monday post.

Hexipuffs can't help but make me cheery. When I started making these last year, I didn't think I would get very far and thought maybe I would manage to make enough for a cushion but I am on my 42nd now and it's fairly addictive.

Here they are all laid out on the sofa yesterday

and in the cake stand where Lou has decided that they should be displayed when she isn't playing with them and sorting them into a pattern she thinks they should be in.

Yesterday I also made a hexi-puff bag in a new print too. The yellows and bees really bring a smile to my face and almost make me forget the cost of the music lessons ;)

And look!! This makes me very happy! Starting on Thursday 26th Jan at A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes, sewing classes with me :)

A December round-up...

2012-01-03T20:13:00.002Z

It all got a bit manic in December! I had a feeling it would when I noticed at the end of November that I didn't have a free weekend from then until January with fairs and weddings and family things.

December meant lots of late nights for me, making sure that all of the orders from my fab customers got sent off to them and lots of days filled with glitter and play practices and parties and things at school and excited children at home. Then we got stuck on the A1 for almost an entire night while heading to Cambridge-a journey that should have taken us 2hrs lasted over 7. The wedding we were going to was fab though.

Much to the distress and disbelief of many of my friends, I didn't really start my Christmas shopping and organising until after we finished school on 22nd December. For future reference, this is possible but fairly stressful so perhaps get a bit more organised next year, Nic.

So, to round up this year on the blog, here are some photos of our December.....

How happy does my boy look? Answer; VERY! Hours before we left for my friends wedding, instead of packing the car I was making a tie out of my Dr Who fabric. I blame the bride. She suggested it ;)

J and I both hide from the camera so this is a very rare photo of the two of us not looking too odd.

I finished my Christmas knitting before Christmas! This jumper was for my friends little boy. The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts but even though it is knitted in the round, the 6 hrs time-scale it was given was clearly a lie. It is only a last minute knitted gift if your last minute is a few weeks to a month.

Between Christmas and New Year I was a good girl and did no work so I had lots of time to make hexi-puffs while watching Christmas films with J and L.

Mr Nicsknots made me a yarn swift for Christmas! Apparently it was so that he doesn't have to hold yarn for me any more. Unfortunately for him, I ended up tangling some up so he had to untangle that for me. I don't want him to feel redundant do I?

Today is the last day of the school holidays. My plan was to get the sewing machine out but J and L were having none of it and I felt bad so we played with some of their new toys. J was initially excited by this but when it wasn't finished in 15 minutes, he was less enthusiastic ;)

Lou spent all afternoon sewing Christmas stockings and hand puppets, all ready for next year. Look at that concentration!

So tomorrow is back to school for J and L but I finished at the end of term and from tomorrow I will be working 100% for Nicsknots. Exciting and slightly worrying at the same time! I have so many exciting projects for this year.

Bitter it's not twisted!

2011-12-04T19:24:00.001Z

It's all very busy behind the scenes at Nicsknots at the moment. I have the usual busy things but there are also exciting things that I am planning for the New Year meaning that I don't get much free time, adding Christmasy bits at school and general Christmas excitement, it's busy, busy, busy!

I've been thinking of making a cowl for the last few weeks, flicked through patterns, stalked people walking down the road who are wearing ones that look like I might like them and generally plotted then the other night I remembered that I had some Wendy Pampas super chunky yarn that would make a fab, quick night. Instant gratification for those short of time. Perfect. I cast on, twisted the stitches when I joined them. On purpose to make the twisted look that everyone is wearing at the moment.

Source: wanelo.com via Marissa on Pinterest

Somehow I managed to untwist it and ended up with this....excuse the photo; me after 4hrs sleep. Not a good look.

I wasn't convinced but I have worn it all day today and I think I might need to make more. It is so warm and fairly funky too, even if there is no twist.

Before I go back to sewing and cutting, pop over to the P/Hop blog. They are doing give-aways at the moment and today you could win a Nicsknots Dr Who Miya bag as well as some Sparkleduck yarn....imagine, a present for you after all of your Christmas shopping!

Presents for little people.

2011-11-28T11:24:00.001Z

I have officially started my Christmas shopping so all is ok. I haven't even begun to start thinking about the difficult people but we'll deal with them another day. I thought I would do a quick post on my bags that are aimed at little people in case you were looking for stocking fillers. I sell a lot of them as project bags and for big people to put their lunch in for work but primarily, they were little people bags....

The little 'Lucy' bags were designed with Lou in mind, she wanted a little bag like Mummy so I made her one then made a few more and everyone loved them. They are an absolute bargain at £5 making them ideal as a little stocking filler or even a party present for friends at school. I love seeing little people walking around with their bags full of toys, dolls, food and other important 'stuff'. If you go over to my facebook page you can see some photos of customers with their little bags.

The Ruby bags are a bit bigger for bigger kids and are still a bargain at £8. They are ideal as a book bag for going to the library but we all know that they will have much more interesting things to put in them! I think these make fab presents when teamed up with a lovely new reading book or maybe a colouring book and pencils.

I can make the bags in other fabrics and will be listing more fabrics over the next few days so let me know if you want any other prints. Happy shopping!

Let's get organised!

2011-11-26T11:52:00.001Z

I don't know about you but I have a bit of a love/hate thing going on with Christmas....I love spending time with family and friends, good food, spoiling those we love, no school, etc but the build-up and commercialisation. Pah!

In an ideal world I would make and buy all the presents from crafty people on Etsy and Folksy and crafty markets and shun the big corporations who seem intent on selling us everything and anything all under one horrid roof, in reality, it's not that simple but I do the best I can.

I realised last week that this is my last free weekend before Christmas so I am having a mild panic since shopping and making hasn't really started yet and I am trying to be more organised in general so I love the idea of these organiser boxes for the gardeners and cooks in my life as well as the fab memento boxes..much nicer than what I have my things stashed in at the moment.

As with all Phoenix products, these have all been designed by independent UK designers and are sustainably printed in the UK.

And while we are getting organised, I have finally decided which of the wonderful gift wrap are my favourite this year......

The fancy dress print is definitely my favourite...well until next week then it might be the little winter images....

Rubbish my husband says....

2011-11-18T16:19:00.001Z

There is a man who tweets under the name 'Shit my Dad says' . He is a 29yr old comedy writer who lives with his 74yr old Dad. He tweets some of the wonderfully crazy and sometimes (so don't go over there if you take offense easily!) very brutally truthful things that his mad dad says.

Now, my husband may (only) be nearly 40 but some times the things he come out with are of a similar pure madness and a certain Krafty Koala is of the opinion that I should write a book of his wonderful Michael-isms. Today he has excelled himself.

Our toilet has been leaking for a while; the water that goes into it has slowly been dripping but this last week or so it has got worse so I asked him to have a look at it. Most blue jobs seem to have become pink jobs in our house but I will not mend toilets!! I got home from work and asked if he had mended it;
'Yes, I've had a look,' he said.
'So have you mended it?' ask I, hopefully.....
'Well no but I know what the problem is.'
'So are you going to fix it?'
'No, the toilet is off centre, I've known that has been the problem all along'
Marvellous. That is like saying 'The roof is leaking because there is a giant hole in it but I don't need to fix it, as long as I know the problem!'

Later on this afternoon, I rang up British Gas. We have had no hot water for months because Scrooge won't sort it out and I have got fed up of it so I rang them to see if they would come and give us a quote. I retold the conversation with the woman to him;
'...because we are classed as an emergency call...'
'Why are we an emergency?' He shrieked.
'Because we have no hot water. In most cases in 2011, people would class this as an emergency'
'Well, I don't see the problem.'

Ahhhh someone pass the gin....or a sledge hammer.

WIP Wednesday. Superheros!

2011-11-16T20:11:00.001Z

It's a bit manic around here. This week I feel like I need to be a bit of a superhero so this wrapping paper seemed fairly apt. I've been selling lots of Christmas cards as well as fab advent calenders recently, because, as J keeps telling me, it isn't many days it is until December...I'm not panicking much!

I have been knitting this week!! Not much but a bit and I really want to get this finished because I think it might look quite fab when sewn together and stiffened ...

It's the Yoda baby hat. I don't really do Star Wars and have only ever watched one of the films all of the way through but I think it is quite Yoda-coloured.

The reason for the busi-ness? Fabric......

...and lots of it. I think people have started their Christmas shopping in earnest this week. I've given myself an hour off to blog, catch up on WIP-Wednesday blog posts and knit...better get back to it. I wonder if I can have a finished object on Friday?

Once upon a time it was all so simple!

2011-11-15T19:32:00.001Z

Lots of friends are having babies and are pregnant at the moment and lots more are talking about it and while they talk about the traumas of babies; the feeding, the crying, the lack of sleep, I look back and miss those easier times.

The older J and L get, the more I feel the need for a manual on how to deal with my growing child and to work out what to do 'right' to produce a well balanced member of the community. Somehow it all felt ok to fudge it when they were babies. It didn't really matter if you didn't change their nappy every 2 hrs. No-one really knew and they aren't going to remember it but now they are 7 and 8, what I do now might see them in therapy in a few years or maybe rioting on the streets.

Tonight is one of those times where I sit pondering what is the right thing to do. J has just come home from his friends house where he had tea. His friend is a girl and they love playing together. As he sat telling me what they had been up to, he told me that he had kissed her, in the bedroom, on the lips. OK. Last night he discussed his views on having multiple wives, clearly he is moving on from there....

Having a daughter a year younger, I wonder what the mum would think. I asked him if his friend wanted him to kiss her? 'Well she seemed a bit shocked,' was the reply. When I told him that some people don't like to be kissed and while it is nice to kiss people we care about, it's important to think about how they feel, it was his turn to sound shocked; 'Really? Some people don't like a kiss? Wow!'

Bring back the sleepless nights and colic. All is forgiven!

The HexiPuff craze continues!

2011-11-08T18:52:00.002Z

This week I have tried to wean myself off the Hexipuffs but it hasn't gone well. First, I tried the Rosaleen Shawl . I love this pattern but it was clearly too much for my tired brain to cope with and after the hour or so that it took me to cast-on the right number of stitches, I then mucked the pattern up, got grumpy and went to bed.

Yesterday, I decided that I would have a go at something a bit easier - The Stockholm Scarf. Another beautiful pattern but once again, another hour casting on hundreds of stitches then after a couple of hours of knitting, I realised that because I had knitted it in the round, rather than flat, it was wrong so I went to bed sulking. Again.

Tonight I am going to go back to my hexi-puffs and if something goes wrong there, I am giving up on this knitting lark for good. Here they are on Sunday, in what was possibly the last of this years sun;

If you like The BeeKeeper's Quilt, look at UKHandmade. There is a fab competition there to win an amazing blanket of your own!

I have loads of Hexi-bags to upload onto my shops but because of the rubbish weather, I'm struggling to take good photos. I'll try again tomorrow.

Knit Now magazine.

2011-11-01T20:49:00.001Z

There seem to have been loads of new crafty magazines out this year and I must admit, when I heard that there was going to be a new knitting magazine coming out, I did think 'What, *another* one?' and wondered why we all needed another magazine in our lives but after seeing the mock-ups and getting a sneaky peak of one at the weekend, I am in love!!

The cover looks great and on the back there are photos of all of the projects in the magazine. I like that! Inside there is loads of chat about what is going on the knitty world, reviews of books and yarn shops and shopping, this month it includes one of my bags...

I like the 'Keep calm and cast on' card. Inside I think it should say 'never mind about finishing it off ;)

There are loads of great projects, quite a lot of small ones, it has to be said, maybe why I like them so much but there is also a shawl and blanket pattern as well as a fab cabled bag and a great give-away.......

I'll definitly be buying the next issue.

Things I learnt at FibreFlurry

2011-10-31T10:51:00.002Z

We had a fab time at Fibre Flurry this weekend. It was quieter than last year but it was still a great weekend. I love the social side of shows and meeting friends, old and new as well as meeting customers and people I have talked to on Twitter.

As usual I didn't take many photos but I did have to take one of our afternoon tea in the middle of our stand...

Tea in a proper tea-pot :)

I got some knitting done; I finished the baby hat then did a few more puffs. Excuse the poor photo, it is taken with my phone and a bit blurry.

So things that I learnt this weekend?

You can never take too many sheep bags to a show.......I thought I was overdoing the sheep theme so held back a bit this time and ran out by 11am. Bad Nic!! I'm sending out some today to make up for it but if you missed out and would like to buy one, here are the sheep that everyone wanted in my shop...

Simple counting is too much when you haven't had enough sleep and you may have to rip a hexi-puff down three times before you can get it right.
Travel lodges are confusing places and should you get out of the lift on any floor, it all looks so similar that you might end up standing outside the *wrong* room for five minutes trying to make your key card work before realising that you are on the wrong floor....sorry room 228!

Music, Sweet Music at FibreFlurry!

2011-10-27T18:42:00.001Z

I promised you photos of the collaboration between Nicsknots, Babylonglegs and Atomic Knitting last night and here they are....

For your £22 you will get a drawstring sock knitting bag, a fab violin stitch marker and a space-dyed skein of high twist Merino Sock yarn, in soft “confectionery” colours. I think a round of applause should be given to me for making Mrs Babylonglegs dye pink...it's not a girly pink though ;)

Show me more, you say? Oh OK.....

See you at Fibreflurry! I am in a mild panic now so I shall make a cup of tea, put Saturdays Strictly Come Dancing on and finish off labelling and sorting things out.

A wet WIP Wednesday...

2011-10-26T17:41:00.002Z

We got back from a fab few days in Anglesey yesterday. If you ask J and L, the highlight of the holiday was this window seat...

I admit, it is a fab seat but the hightlighs for me featured lots of chatting, cups of tea, cake and wine not to mention the chance to switch-off from work for a few a days before the madness of shows and the Christmas rush.

So work-in-progress? Excuse the photos because by the time I had got the camera and knitting out, it started raining! Well, we have the baby hat....

I am on the decreases now so I could get this finished tonight but I think this might take over....

I finally cast-on for The Bee-keeper quilt and it is fairly addictive. I don't think I am going to make one big enough for a quilt, more a cushion cover but they are fun!

That pink is Koigu and it is so soft. I have knitted with it before and I just want to sit and stroke it.

It is back to the madness here. Tomorrow I have an exciting sneaky peak at the collab yarn, stitch marker and bag for FibreFlurry.

I think I might have time for a quick look at all of the other great projects over at Tami's blog.

FO Friday - All the F's!

2011-10-21T19:59:00.002Z

Well without furthur ado, look what is (finally) finished.....

These Wildflower socks are made using Fyberspates sparkle sock yarn that I bought at Woolfest in June 2009. I bought the yarn on the Friday afternoon and started knitting them straight away. I made great progress with them to start with but then something happened and Ididn't knit them for ages. I love them! I wore them to bed on Saturday night after I had finished knitting them so they are now christened but they are on the shelf in my bedroom now, being looked at-I don't want to spoil them ;)

So more Fs?

This time next Friday I will be in Kings Norton for FibreFlurry 2011. Last year Fibre Flurry was up there with top show of the year and I am hoping this year will be just as great. I am sharing a stand with Babylonglegs and we will once again be doing a bag and yarn collaboration, this time, we will also be joined by Atomic Knitting in the collab so you will be able to buy a set containing all three.

Another Wednesday, another new WIP.

2011-10-19T20:21:00.000Z

You all need to prepare yourselves for my Friday post because look, I have a new WIP today, meaning only one thing...

After the rumour-mill at work suggesting that I was the 5th person to be pregnant today, I am a little scared to post *another* baby knit but I am making this baby hat, to match the cardigan I made a couple of weeks ago. Mindless knitting to switch off to in the evenings. Something I need at the moment because life is mad.

It's nearly Halloween so the 'Trickle-treat' bags, as Lou calls them, are flying out at the moment. This is my fav print, I have even made some project bags using the fabric.

It is cup of tea and time to look at the tempting projects over at Tami's blog.

Sunny Saturday

2011-10-16T19:42:00.000Z

This was the beach in Cleethorpes yesterday.......

Remember it is October, almost the middle, in fact.

We are practising to be a one car family...or rather I am proving to M that we could live with one car so instead of me going one way to knitting and him another way, with J and L for tennis on a Saturday afternoon, we now all go out together, they drop me off then pick me up after their tennis and random food shopping at Aldi. It is relatively painless ;)

When they picked me up, Lou suggested we go to the beach on the way home so we did. Unlike a week or so ago, when the whole world decided to make the most of the unexpected sun, it was quite a bit quieter this week so we wandered down the beach......

for ice creams. I could really get used to Autumns like this.

FO Friday. The baby one with the funny name

2011-10-07T18:43:00.000Z

Another FO Friday, another baby thing for an as yet unborn baby. I haven't sewn any buttons on yet because I don't know if it will be going to a girl or boy but here is my Pueperium Cardigain.

This is a fab pattern. It took me a day to knit and there was no sewing up! My kind of knitting. It has little buttonholes up the side but I don't think I will put a button right at the top as I think it will be too high under a babies sweaty little neck.

The name, puerperium, refers to the 6 weeks directly after birth and I think this little cardigan will be fab for a brand-new baby when their arms are all non-bendy and trying to get them dressed makes you feel like you are forcing them into a straight-jacket. I made the sleeves short as I thought it would be great worn over a plain baby-gro for a bit of added warmth.

If you are feeling remotely broody, I suggest you don't go and have a look at the project page for this on Ravelry as there and loads of newborns there, all brand-new in their ace new cardis. Instead, hop over to Tami's blog and see what industrious people we have been this week.

I've run out of my cheating finished knitting now and Fibre Flurry is at the end of *this* very month so you know what my next FO needs to be don't you?

FO Friday. The first of the babies...

2011-09-30T16:54:00.000Z

Everyone seems to be having babies at the moment and three people announced they were pregnant at work today so I don't think the trend will be slowing any time soon. This is good because I have discovered that baby knitting is fun.

A few weeks ago I finished this for my new niece and as we went to see her and the In-laws at the weekend, I can show it for FO Friday.

The photos aren't that great. I took them when we had autumn for a few weeks and there was no light. The second photo is a truer colour but it was still a bit brighter than it shows.

It was a fairly easy knit and I love how it looks, especially all of the picked up stitches around the colour. I'm not sure it will get much wear for a few months because even though I did the smallest size, E was only 6lb so I think it might drown her now!

The pattern was from Sirdar and the yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Smiles DK.

I have another FO but I'll leave that for another week. Don't forget that it is Macmillian's World's Biggest Coffee Morning today and I am donating 20% of all sales from my Nicsknots and Phoenix Cards shops to Macmillian. More on my last blog post. I am going to go over to Tami's blog and find some more Fo's before I go out for Pudding Club-not the baby type-4 puddings in a meal Pudding Club!!

Macmillian Cancer Support

2011-09-27T20:27:00.000Z

Friday sees the 21st annual World's Biggest Coffee Morning in aid of Macmillian Cancer Suppport. For the past two years I have had a coffee morning or wine evening but this year, things have been so busy that I haven't had time to organise anything. I was going to give it a miss for the year. I did the Race for Life earlier in the year and sometimes, you do need to say no (I'm learning!!) but a fortnight ago, when I was driving to Leeds with the best friend and most positive person in the world ( I can say this because she is currently on a plane to Australia so she won't read it for a while!) that actually, Macmillian are probably the most important cancer charity.

There comes a point that we have to realise that, sadly, in a lot of cases, there is no magic cure for cancer and sadly people do die from the horrid disease. Macmillian help people to live with cancer and deal with loosing loved ones too and while I would absolutely love there to be a magic cure, until then, I think someone there to hold your hand, help you and support you is probably the most important thing you can have.

So, I decided that I had to do something and I thought about a virtual coffee morning. All you need to do is grab yourself a cup of tea or maybe something stronger and of course, some cake some time between now and Monday, have a look at my Phoenix card website and my Nicsknots shop and from anything that you buy, I will donate 20% to Macmillian Cancer Support.

Chicken Chewsday

2011-09-21T15:56:00.001Z

I realised yesterday that the blog has been seriously lacking in chicken updates recently and a few people had been asking me how they were doing so I decided, in honour of the fact that I spend quite a bit of my time at school translating and guessing what the children have written, we should have a Chicken ' Chewsday'. Why spell it with a T anyway?

Obviously it is no longer Chewsday but I still want to post this photo of the chickens taking over the garden chairs....

As you can see, it was chucking it down with rain so they obviously decided that the grass was too wet for them and that they would all have a sit down on the chairs.

We are lucky to get one egg out of the three of them a day at the moment. I'm not sure if that is because of the weather or if it is because Snowy seems to be broody (again!) and Ruby has been moulting. I started feeding them apple cider vinegar a fortnight ago to make sure they are all happy hens so hopefully they will cheer up soon and lay a bit more!

Making Monday. Maybe reading the pattern before might be a good idea?

2011-09-19T10:00:00.001Z

Katie and I went on a quick escape at the weekend. We'd missed Saltaire crafts fair by a week since M *had* to go climbing last weekend but now that K has been well and truly taken in by knitting, we could add a trip to BaaRamEwe in Headingly to our usual haunts.

I've wanted to go and see it for a while now so was glad of an excuse. The shop was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but was full of lovely woolly goodies including Natural Dye Studio yarn as well as the yarns that are quite often in shops so that was nice to see and the staff were lovely and really helpful when I needed a bit of help looking for some self-striping machine washable dk....not asking for much there.... I ended up getting King Cole Riot Dk. Bit boring and I'm not impressed to be honest but more on that in a mo.

As soon as I got home, I wanted to cast-on this with my new yarn but it would seem that the monster who eats socks also eats my cables for my knit pros and since the pattern called for a circular needle I had to give up....not without spending two hours looking through the cupboard of doom in my bedroom....so called because it is *that* full of fabric, books, yarn and stuff. I actually threw enough stuff out to half fill our wheelie bin and a charity shop bag and the cupboard looks no better. Anyway, no knitting.

Sunday morning I went shopping and reluctantly bought a cheap circular needle in Boyes. I got home, cast-on then decided that the cable was too long so got M to butcher the new needle. He did, stuck it all together and told me to leave it for 2 days. Yeah right! A couple of hours later, I had a go with the needle and the glue hadn't stuck.

At 3am this morning Lou woke me up because her foot hurt. When I got back in bed I couldn't sleep and realised that even though the pattern called for a circular needle, I didn't actually *need* one because I was knitting a cardigan so I would just be knitting backwards and forward on the needle anyway. After an hour or so of not sleeping, I decided to get up and have a proper look at the pattern. Sure enough, the circular wasn't actually needed so I made a cup of tea and started knitting. Clearly I would have done something useful but I didn't want to wake anyone up with my sewing machine ;)

As I said earlier, I don't really like the yarn. It is really splitty and in places unspun. Add to that, the fact that it is quite fluffy when knitted, it doesn't give the cardigan the crisp look I wanted.I'm going to be good and finish it because I do really like the pattern but I might end up giving it to Lou for her teddy and looking for another yarn instead.

For more Making Monday posts, hop on over to Natalie's blog.

Lots of WIPs Wednesday

2011-09-14T18:57:00.002Z

I have been meaning to blog for days but now we are back at school, I don't get around to doing it until late and decide that really bed might be a good idea but today I have WIPs to post.

Firstly, we have *the* sock. I have done the heel flap. Twice, in fact, because the first time I did it, it was wrong so I ended up taking it all down and having to do it again. I blame it on all of the glitter on Strictly Come Dancing....nothing to do with Brendon and James ;)

On Monday I had an impromptu knit, put the world to right, tea and cake night. Only, given how I had just had to pull lots of work down, I decided something easier might be better for chatting so I pulled my granny squares out and finished one of those off. I signed up for a crochet workshop at A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes at the weekend but it isn't until next April so I decided I would have a go at teaching myself so last night I made this...

You can't really tell on the photo but the edges have all started to curl up. The Twitter Crochet Queens tell me that it is because I haven't put enough increases in but I'm not really sure I can sort it so I might just put it back into the bag until I have finished a few more things although, lots of funky crochet things are finding their way into my list, like this and this so maybe I will have to work out where all of my stitches are.

For more WIPs, go over to Tami's blog.

Another WIP Wednesday.

2011-09-07T19:17:00.002Z

It's Wednesday again, back to school day today so we are all worn out tonight. J has spent the afternoon and evening alternating between wanting lots of hugs and shouting and crying at Lou but it's all quiet now so time for a cuppa and WIP Wednesday.

I am still knitting *the* sock. I publicly stated this week that they would be finished by Fibreflurry, the next and last show of my woolly year, a mere 7 weeks away so I need to get a move on.

You'll notice from the light (or lack of!) in the photos that it looks like the depths of winter. This would be 1930 tonight. Light nights are now a thing of the past. I think the chickens may have made the wrong decision to start moulting now because it is freezing and I don't have time to knit jumpers for cold hens.

Another WIP today is this doll that I am making for Lou. It is her 7th birthday on Friday and I always feel a bit bad that I make things for other people but not that much for my own children so when I saw this one day while buying fabric, I thought it might be a good present for her. It the moment, she looks a bit odd but once she is stuffed, I am sure she will look loads better. Then just making some clothes...all in 24hrs.

Since I'm not too late posting tonight, I'm going to spend half an hour looking at all of the other posts before I do a bit more work. Go and have a look if you have a few minutes, there is bound to be lots of inspiration for you.

Making Monday.

2011-09-05T18:03:00.000Z

It's back to school for us this week so it seems quite apt that I should make a lunch bag today. A while back my sister saw one of my bags and said that she wanted it to use as her lunch bag for work. Her (then) fiancé had bought her a bike and the bag would go in the basket. Perfect.

A few weeks passed and as I was looking for fabric one day, I found some that I thought perfect for Mel's bag. It was sold as waterproof which I, rather naively, thought meant that it would be an oilcloth kind of material. It took ages for the fabric to come and when it came, I was a bit disappointed because rather than oilcloth it was a cross between shower curtain and rubberised fabric. Odd.

As with all things that aren't how I wanted them to be, I did a bit of ~~sulking~~ thinking and finally decided that the fabric would be fine for the job so today I made the bag but I also made a sandwich bag. I was going to do a tutorial but it's so dark here today that my photos aren't that great that I abandoned that as a plan because you really don't want to see a load of photos like this...

This is my first time sewing with waterproof fabric. It wasn't as bad as all of things I had read. I didn't use pins because they make more holes than you want in the fabric so instead I just held it because I didn't have any of the nifty little pegs other people like to use and I quite like making life hard for myself too. It was a bit grabby with the teeth and presser foot but I pulled it through a little and it was fine.

Since this wasn't actually the bag that my sis asked for, I decided that I ought to make that too It seemed to attract some attention from the chickens...maybe it was the smelly rubber?

I'm enjoying reading the other Monday Makes posts today including Making Monday; making a difference..

I fear I have created a monster....

2011-09-04T21:26:00.000Z

Look what happened this afternoon....

Lou learnt to knit! To be honest, I didn't think she ever would. I have heard people saying that their child learnt to knit at 3 and that it was so easy to teach them. Lou has asked me to teach her a couple of times. We have sat down, she has demanded to hold needles, she has then got stroppy because she can't do it straight away and gone off in a sulk.

This afternoon my brother, sister-in-law and nephew were here, we were drinking tea and talking so of course Lou decided it was a perfect time to give knitting another go. I cast on a few stitches and was fairly convinced that we wouldn't get very far but she sat on my knee and held the needles with me and we knitted a few rows, then she got bored and went to do something else but when everyone had gone home, she picked the needles up and did it all by herself then she popped her ball of yarn in her Lucy bag and proceeded to walk around the house, knitting and showing everyone how she could knit.

She is knitting a scarf for her teddy at the moment but she has plans on making one for her old teacher next and says that she needs new yarn because 'This orange stuff is nasty!'. She also wants to know if she is allowed to come to knitting night now that she can knit......

WIP Wednesday. Almost late again!

2011-08-31T21:56:00.000Z

I'm slacking. Last week I was late with WIP Wednesday and today it's gone bedtime! I am still knitting though. Here is my resurrected sock knitting. I cast-on the second one at the weekend and haven't knitted anything else since but I will get these finished now. Even if they might not match!

The reason for my lack of knitting and blogging is this little pile....

I'm sewing like a mad girl, trying to get my wholesale orders done. We're getting there!

I've noticed a few new people joining WIP Wednesday this week. I'm going to do some blog reading tomorrow. Bed now.

Making (a mess) Monday....

2011-08-29T20:10:00.000Z

First of all, we interupt this blog post to show you this....

Jack and Lou *still* enjoying the summer hols this morning. I would like to show you all this because I am fed up of other parents asking me if I am looking forward to them going back to school (no) and if we are all bored (still no). Strangely enough I enjoy spending time with my children. Yes they can fight, yes they aren't good 100% of the time but we still have lots of fun and we would all rather that we weren't going back to school next week.

Anyway, Making Monday. I had great plans for today but then I cut the grass and investigated the contents of the shed and found some paint that I had been looking for for ages...the paint for my bedroom. I started off thinking I would only do the recess where the window was, then three walls but in the end, I painted the whole room so I present to you my Monday Mess!

I promise my bedroom doesn't normally look quite so much like a teenagers. It does normally have curtains and the TV doesn't live on the floor! What you can't really see in this photo is that I have tidied my side of the bed and floor so tonight I could just squeeze into bed and leave all of that mess for M.

I am quite practised in the art of squeezing into bed with rubbish on-top because when I was a teenager, I shared a room with my (messy) little sister and Mum used to pile all of our stuff that was left on the floor on top of our beds when she came to hoover the room, thinking that we would have to tidy it up before we went to bed but we had other plans ;)

I have actually been quite busy making things over the weekend. Some people are worried about the amount of knitting I have been doing recently and I think some people had to be picked up off the floor when they saw that I had finally finished *the* sock....the one that I started in 2009.

To see more Monday Makes, go to Natalie's blog.

# Summertime #

2011-08-28T19:02:00.000Z

#...and the living is easy #

For some it would seem so. A certain someone will be going back to work on Tuesday after a summer off which has seen him have lots of lie-ins, spend an inordinate amount of time checking E-bay auctions for things he has no intention of buying, played a fair amount of Harry Potter on the Wii and remade a trailer. The list of things that needed doing while he was off is still waiting ....maybe for Christmas?

I, on the other hand, seem to have been fairly busy with work and children and the garden (and house but lets not bother about that now) shows that. With the end of summer fast approaching, I decided to leave all lazy people and their computers in the house this afternoon and join the chickens in a spot of gardening. Who knew chickens were so good at weeding?

Mildred is looking quite pleased with herself.....

The main veggie patch is fairly overgrown.

The brocolli has gone to seed but the honey bees love the yellow flowers and the hens like hiding underneath it so I have left it for a bit longer.....we can see you Snowy!

The green beans are doing well. We have loads of them in the freezer already for winter. They don't taste as good as fresh off the plant but much better than nothing and fab in soups and things. The leeks are growing well and those two cabbage that you can see are huge!!

When we got back from our holidays, the courgette plants were full of marrow-sized fruit that I cut off and stuffed as well as making some damson and marrow jam from a few but now the plants have just about had it.....much like the boat you can see there!

This is the raspberry patch. Next in-line for the chop. Everything that I read seems to say that raspberries are extremely difficult to grow but this started as half a dozen plants a few years ago and is now seriously encroaching on the rest of the garden! I am going dig the self-sets up and replant them behind the original ones, after disposing of the boat.......

This is the sorry sight that is the greenhouse.Normally at this time of year it is full of ripe cherry tomatoes and cucumbers but I foolishly agreed to grow stupid baby plum tomatoes and they are rubbish. I am tempted to just pull this lot up and admit that we're not going to have any tomatoes this year. Next year I shall do what I want and not have people interfering with my plant plans ;)

A rather (about) timely FO Friday

2011-08-26T19:57:00.000Z

I have another two finished objects for FO Friday this week. I did actually finish them at the end of last year but then they went missing before I could take photos of them or even send them to my friend whose impending baby I had made them for.

When you see them and know that J is possibly the biggest Dr Who fan that an 8yr old can be, you will understand why they went missing.

'Exterminate!'

Tardis

The baby who I made these face clothes for has a Mother who also loves Dr Who so when I saw these patterns, I thought they made a slightly different cardigan or hat new baby gift.

So, I strongly suspect that J hid these. He was grumpy when he found out that I wasn't making them for him and was seen playing with them just before they went missing. Lou found them this week so I was (finally) able to send them to the nearly 1yr old. I'm fairly confident that he will get a lot of use out of them and is probably a lot more messy now than he was as a new born anyway ;)

It all seems to be about Dr Who at the moment. J has been telling me daily this week that the next episode is on Saturday. He has been watching the last episode all week to remind him what happened....I'm fairly sure he has remembered because I haven't even been watching the program but somehow, possibly through osmosis, I seem to know all of the lines and what is happening!

While J has been watching Dr who on TV, I have been making more bags and needle rolls in his honour.

Dr Who dpn roll.@ Nicsknots on Folksy.

For more FO Friday's, go and have a look at Tami's blog. It is the last bank holiday of the year here in England this weekend so I'm hoping to have lots of fun before everyone starts going back to work and school next week.

WIP Wednesday; in which we cheat a little bit...

2011-08-25T07:24:00.000Z

So, all of you eagle-eyed people will notice that it is no longer Wednesday in the UK, however, I feel since this blog-link is hosted by Tami in America, I can maybe sneak in under the time-zone difference and still be classed as Wednesday as it is only just coming up to midnight there.....cunning ;)

I am desperate to post because for once, I am *still* making progress with my knitting. Here is the cardigan that I started last week. I have done the fronts, and back and am on sleeve one so hopefully it should be done by next week, even if I do have about a million stitches to pick up to do the band....

The reason why I am late posting is because we had cake, tea and gossip night last night and I didn't get around to posting. Look at the cake. I made it following the recipe that Ruth uses where you weigh the eggs then use the same weight of flour, sugar and butter. After some conversations on Twitter as to whether you weigh the eggs shell on or off, I made it using the naked egg weight...not sure if that is right as the cake looks a bit flat. It tasted good though and I used some of my damson not-jam-more-like-syrup inside and it was good.

Right, well, I'd better post this quickly before it is Thursday in The US too. Hop over to Tami's blog to see what everyone else is making.

Making (food) Monday

2011-08-22T20:35:00.000Z

I've been a bit busy making this weekend. When we came back from our holidays, I picked 10lb of sloes/damson. Since we came home, they have been for a trip to Grans to be identified as damsons, they then returned home and sat on the worktop in carrier bags for a week or so until I had collected enough jars to put them in...and I had researched damson gin enough to know what I was supposed to be doing.

910 on Thursday morning saw me at Aldi buying gin. As I walked in, I realised how desperate this looked so in an attempt to look like a more upstanding member of the community and less like the (rest) of the alcies that were in there buying cheap booze, I did a bit of food shopping too ;)

Here is a bottle of my fruity gin. I'm still a bit dubious but it is turning a funky colour at the moment. Apparently I have to shake it every few days to mix all of the sugar into it. A bit tricky since the only place away from children I could find to store it was in the back of the food cupboard so before I can get my 5 jars/flasks/bottles out I have to empty the cupboard. I can hardly be bothered to empty the cupboard so I am hoping J and L will think the same and the gin will be safe.

I also made some jam. I've had a bit of a disaster with the damson jam as it hasn't set very well but the damson and marrow is fine and both taste great so I might call it damson syrup and give it to people for Christmas....

For more Making Monday posts, pop over to Natalie's blog.

Finished Object Friday..at last!

2011-08-19T20:49:00.001Z

I meant to get some proper photos of me and my Hitch Hiker before today, given that this is my first ever FO Friday but I got carried away sewing then it got dark so the best I have is this which is pretty poor to be fair!!

As with all of the things I make for me, Lou decided that I had actually made it for her and claimed it the other day, don't worry though, I have reclaimed it!

I still haven't blocked it. I'm not really sure where I could pin it out to dry so I have left it for now. I'm sure it won't be long before it is cold enough to wear it.

The yarn is Krafty Koala Sparkle Sock in a fab colourway for this time of year. It reminds me of brambles and damson....

If you want to be inspired to finish a few of your projects off, pop over to Tami's blog here.

Look what I made, among other things, today....

A new bag! When I got back from my holidays, I keep seeing messages about these mad, little hexagon shaped puffs that people were knitting to make into quilts. To start with I thought they were little toys but I soon found out that you sewed them all together to make a wonderful, warm quilt, using your left-over sock yarn. Fab idea because people who knit (and finish) socks, always end up with scraps of sock yarn. Clearly I wouldn't know this because, look, it's the sock that I have been knitting for years featuring in another bag photo....

This bag is about as tall as my sock knitting bags but it has a bigger, hexagonal bottom to make a dumpy bag. Perfect for all of your little hexi-puffs as well as socks, hats, scarves, shawls, the list goes on!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday and a new WIP...at last!!

2011-08-17T19:32:00.001Z

It's WIP Wednesday time again and would you beleive it, we have a new thing on the needles. Here is the Hitchhiker, finally finished. I just need some photos for FO Friday.

I know I promised myself that I wasn't going to start anything else until I cast this off but I did cheat a little bit and cast my new WIP on the day before casting off but at least it's finished, that's what counts, right?

I haven't decided if it will make the long or short-sleeved version of this cardigan yet. I'm more concerned at the moment, that the armhole for a 0-6month is 10cm...that seems huge. The yarn, Sirdar Snuggly Stripes, is lovely to work with. It is 80% bamboo and 20% wool and machine washable, ideal for babies!

For more WIP Wednesday posts, hop over to Tami's blog .

J and L have been at Fitkids today. They love going and it's great to send them to a club that encourages them to be active unlike the other local options of sending them to sit in front of a computer for the day. They come home telling us about all of the parachute games, tennis, football and bingo (!) they have been doing and it means that I can get on with work for the day without feeling (too) guilty.

I've spent the day making bags with my new fabric. Hens and cats seemed to feature heavily. I am struggling to pick a favourite though. I think it is either Hens on the Green or the Kooky Cats. Which do you prefer?

Thanks!

2011-08-16T20:08:00.000Z

This is one of those blog posts that have been going around in my head for weeks in a 'should I, shouldn't I' kind of way and earlier on today, I had all of my thoughts clear but now it's not working so well so bear with me.

Before I went on holiday I found someone copying my work. I was cross. I wanted to shout from the roof-tops the name of this person who used to be one of my customers, who started her shop making completely different things and definitely not sewing-based before deciding that the party was at drawstring project bags so she would rip one of mine to pieces, rehash it, use the same fabric as some of my bags, take rubbish photos then charge 60% of the price of mine.

I'm not stupid enough to think that my bags are a revolutionary design; they are a fairly simple shape and style but if anyone was going to make their own, not using my bag, would make it slightly differently, they might make the top casing differently, they might even make the bag a slightly different size , they might not use the same amount and style of beads, they might have a different style. They might even chose a name that isn't a play on my shop name. But this person didn't. Some will say complete coincidence. That's fine because actually, I am still a bit cross and I'm still a bit sad that a couple of my customers have bought from them but I'm over it. If you want to copy me, I can't do anything about it and I'm moving on.

Since I re-opened my shop this week and started working with some of my new fabrics, I have had some great comments from customers, old and new and been inundated with orders. I have been featured in this fab treasury on Etsy which is, I agree, 'Outragously Bloody Fabulous' and I am going to continue doing the things that you all want me to carry on with and with the new things that I have planned.

So thanks to all of my customers, friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter and to the copycat, thanks for making me realise how important Nicsknots is to me and how it is going to continue to grow in the direction that I take it.

Making Monday. Back on it....

2011-08-15T21:00:00.000Z

We're home! We had a fab time; a few days with our friends before we all went to France for a week then back to Kent for another few days before home. A really relaxed affair...well as relaxed as a holiday with 4 children between the ages of 4 and 8 and two hyper-active men ever is.

We stayed in this fab house, an old police station in a great little town, complete with the old cells, for the naughty children. Ideal for lots of dreaming out of the window

Lots of making has happened while I have been away. I finished my Hitchhiker. I'm really pleased with it and will do proper photos for Friday but here it is. I couldn't get the 42 tips out of the yarn, even with my best yarn roulette, I could only get 39 but it plenty big enough. It's given me the knitting bug again and I have already cast on for something else. Lets hope it continues now.

The thing is, when you come back from your holiday, it;s always tricky trying to get back into work again, even more when you are attempting it around children so this last week has been interesting but today I am on top of it. I think. The pile of new fabric that greeted me when I got home helped me, especially this...

I love UK!

Thanks to Knittingtastic for pointing me in the direction of Natalie and Making Monday. I'm loving reading about what everyone has been making. All the cake is looking really good. At the moment I have a kitchen full of damsons, strawberries, marrow and pears so I think I might have to have a cooking day tomorrow.

It's a mad, mad world...

2011-07-25T21:40:00.002Z

I'll be honest, I have ignored the news for the last few weeks. I'm fed up of hearing about the phone hacking. Not that I agree with them because I don't but I'm just fed up of hearing about Rupert Murdoch, Rebecca Brooks, one bent police man, another journalist, a few murder victims. Sick.

Then I heard about the Oslo shootings. On Twitter. I read about what had happened but still ignored the TV news. It's somehow easier to read about awful things than see videos of the same heartbroken people and when you watch the news and try to explain to your 8yr old why someone would want to go around shooting people, it makes you realise what a messed up world we live in.

Tonight I watched the news. I saw the faces, terror and fear of the young people who had been on that camp in Oslo, but I also saw a 3yr old boy in a hospital in Somalia. He weighed 12lb. Lucy weighted 9lb when she was born. One in three children in Somalia are dying of malnutrition at the moment. I can't do anything for the people in Oslo but I can donate to Somalia in the hopes of saving some of those children and adults.

I've mentioned P/hop before, it is a charity knitting project that raises money for Médecins Sans Frontières. Basically, lots of amazing knitting (and crochet) designers have given their time and patterns to P/hop. These patterns are then able to be downloaded by people for however much they want to donate. The idea is that you donate based on the amount of hours pleasure you get from knitting that pattern (hence p/hop =Pennies per Hour Of Pleasure) .

There are socks and hats and even a cricket tea cozy pattern....

If you don't knit, you can still donate to MSF via P/hop here.

Summer loving...

2011-07-22T16:32:00.002Z

Today we have broken up for Summer!! I know lots of people who know me read this so I feel I need to start with a disclaimer...I was desperate for the holidays to start last year, and the year before....and the one before that. I am one of the odd people who likes to spend time with their children so my desperation for the summer holidays to start is more to do with the fact that I will be at home with my little people..obviously it helps that I can also have a few lie-ins and not go to school too though ;)

This year has been crazy! I never thought when J and L went back to school in September, that I would be joining them a few weeks later but it just kind of happened that way. I've been working, part time, as a teaching assistant, mainly with children in Yr 1 and 2. The learning curve has been steep. I didn't realise how rose-tinted my glasses were in relation to childrens achievements at school. How lucky I am that J and L want to learn and how lucky they are that they get the support they need at school and at home and how quickly I could make a classroom display out of a cupboard full of random items.

I've had a really good year, it's been hard, especially juggling school with Nicsknots, home with work. It would have been easy for me to shut up shop and get stuck in with school, or vice versa but, you know me, I don't give up, I just sleep less and work harder....and spend quite a lot of time feeling guilty that I don't spend enough time with J, L and M and that maybe the reason why L isn't eating is because I haven't been at home all day or that people will think I am an awful Mother because the house is a mess and we've eaten more ready meals and less fresh veg but we all still seem to be alive...although M had no clean pants this morning, the ironing pile has taken over the lounge and the only food we have in the kitchen are the eggs that the hens have laid and chocolate and biscuits that the children have given me this week.

So now we have 6 weeks. 6 weeks to get up late, to play in the garden that resembles a jungle, to go on holiday to France with friends, to finish making the fab play house, to redo my website, make new bags and 6 weeks to relax. Bring it on!

And we're back with....WIP Wednesday.....

2011-07-20T18:31:00.002Z

While at Knit Nation, a few people may have mentioned that they had noticed a distinct lack of WIP Wednesday blog posts from me recently and when it was a bit quiet on Sunday morning and I got my knitting out, a few people may have giggled because guess what I am still knitting?

That'd be right. The Hitch-hiker. Now, I noticed a few months ago, when I started this in *ahem* April, that quite a lot of people had started this. Over the intervening months, I have noticed that a lot of people have finished theirs but I haven't. I do now have 29 points even though, I'm quite sure, I *still* have more than half of my yarn left.

I am determined to finish this thing!! I have promised myself that I will not start anything else until this is finished and after a weekend of inspiration, I have a lot of things I want to make so I have to get going!

The wedding of the Year and Knit Nation!

2011-07-19T20:49:00.005Z

We're still alive. I did fall asleep in the bath when we came home from the wedding on Saturday night/Sunday morning when I decided that I needed to get rid of the tin of hairspray and face-full of make-up before I had to head back to London on the train at 7 the next morning but it was all ok. We had a fab weekend.

Knit Nation was ace on Friday. So lovely to see my woolly friends again, old and new. Obviously I forgot to take photos, as per usual but here is the stand I shared with the lovely Tilly Flop Designs, WoollyWormhead, and Atomic Knitting.

Here you can see my bit of the super-stand a bit better and the wonderful stand that M made for my Miya bags.

Saturday morning saw us getting up bright and early and getting our glad-rags on. Mum has finally got a good photo of all four of her children...

...then to church for the wedding...

Certain people fancied the Rev...who was a lot like Rev. I don't think I have ever laughed so much at a vicar at a wedding before. I think his most entertaining line; 'For many years K thought he was gods gift to women....'

Congratulations M and K!

My Etsy shop is open again but I am a bit slow opening my Folksy shop due to all of the things I sold at the weekend and the torrential rain since I got home! I'm hoping that by tomorrow I will have photos of my new products and everything will be open again.

The busiest weekend of my life.

2011-07-13T21:30:00.003Z

It's almost here; my sisters wedding and Knit Nation 2011.

I am surprisingly organised for the wedding..well I feel organised. All I need to remember are my shoes and Jack's shoes because everything else has already gone...ahh and something for Michael to wear....better not forget his clothes for a wedding again ;)

Knit Nation I am feeling slightly more out of control with, partly due to my own ~~stupidity~~ stubbornness ; I refuse to shut my web-shops for weeks before a show but then if you keep buying things like they are going out of fashion, my stocks get low. Needless to say, I have now come to a point where I am shutting my shops until I get back. I will re-open them on Monday and I promise there will be loads of funky new fabrics and Dr Who back in stock. As long as it doesn't all sell in London.

Due to the wedding and the fact that I am yet to work out how to clone myself, I will not be at the show on Saturday but you will be able to see all of my things and the fab other people I am sharing a stand with. WoollyWormhead and Atomic Knitting are back again this year and the lovely TillyFlopDesigns is joining us too.

Come and say hi if you are coming to Knit Nation. It really is a fab shop. So well organised by the lovely Alice and Cookie and in amazing surrounding - this is from the girl who doesn't like London.

Countdowns..

2011-07-02T20:28:00.003Z

Vintage Watch Face Necklace by SunnyEmma on Folksy

...lots of them at the moment....

Race for Life tomorrow morning in Cleethorpes.
My little man turns 8 on Monday.
My sister gets married, in two weeks.
KnitNation in London. Also in two weeks. .....

...so if I am a little quiet, please excuse me.

Dr Who!

2011-06-20T21:32:00.003Z

Dr Who is a big thing in our house. J and L love watching it with Daddy on a Saturday night then watching it on 'On demand' for the next week as many times as possible. Jack thought all of his Christmas's had come at once when he managed to see the last episode of the current series twice in one day the other weekend.

A year ago, J would be scared of all of the nasties but still insisted on watching it but now, he watches the programme, then the 'Confidential' afterwards to tell him how all of the special effects are done and he loves it all.

Imagine how excited he was when Dr Who fabric came through the post this morning. We ignored any plans for tea when we came home from school and I made these....

Jack loves the tardis fabric best while Lou prefers the characters. See how many Drs you can spot!!

I've listed these in my shops this evening...well not these two because they are for Jack and Lou but similar ones. If you want bigger drawstrings or needle rolls, just drop me an email and I'll get making.

It is officially summer!

2011-06-18T20:17:00.004Z

Yesterday I went on a school trip to the beach, By some minor miracle, given that the forecast had been heavy rain and strong winds all week, it didn't rain until we were all safely back at school.

Today, we went strawberry picking, look at that sky, so close to clear blue skies....honestly..

For about a month of the year, we spend a lot of time (and money) here; field upon field of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and even brambles. I've always been slightly confused as to why anyone would ever pay for brambles but it would seem that some people are incapable of finding them in hedgerows.

When we walked into the shop to pick up our punnets, the lady noticed Lou's name on her tennis t-shirt and asked her if she was called Lucy, Lou looked at the woman like maybe she was a mind reader and said yes so the lady led us to a field of new strawberries, called Lucy...

They were the biggest, sweetest strawberries I have ever seen. It took us less than 15 mins to pick 10lb of fruit!!

Dress a Girl Around the World.

2011-06-13T19:34:00.003Z

This weekend I finally sat down and made not one, bit two pillowcase dresses for 'Dress a Girl Around the World' appeal. This charity appeal has kept popping up for a while now. To start with I read about it while reading Sewhip then Amanda at KitschyCoo Kids mentioned how she was going to make a couple and I kept thinking I *must* make a couple of dresses but last weekend, while planning for my weekly sewing class, I had a quite look on Facebook, like you do when you are hard at work ;) and noticed my friend talking again about making pillowcase dresses. An idea formed....if I taught the lovely ladies at my sewing class how to make these dresses, they would be able to practise their basic sewing skills but they would also be able to play around with embellishing, frills, any manner of decoration, while making things for a really good cause.

I spoke to the ladies last week and they all loved the idea and the staff at the Children's Centre also loved the idea and wanted me to write an article about it for their newsletter, so we decided that after we had finished making bags this week, we would start on our dresses. This weekend I made a couple of examples. First one using this pattern and a pillowcase. It took all of 15 mins to make;

Next I used this pattern, using fabric rather than the pillowcase because last year, I decided in a tidy-fest, I would give all of my old pillowcases to the charity shop so I don't have many old pillowcases but I do have funky retro duvet covers.....

This dress took longer to cut out than to sew. Again in 20 minutes or so, it was finished.

Both are great, super-easy patterns and I was really looking forward to seeing what everyone came up with today. So, imagine how annoyed I was this morning when I woke up, got up, felt a bit dizzy then nearly fainted when I went outside to let the chickens out. I came inside, started making my failsafe Rice Krispies breakfast (after months of morning sickness with J and L, I could still eat Rice Krispies) but it was no good so I ended up in bed and having to cancel the lesson. I figured that if I had been able to get to the lesson, I could maybe teach but wasn't sure if I had a bug, people with little babies wouldn't like me much and I didn't feel safe to drive. A few hours in bed, I feel quite a bit better, although more dizzy than is necessary for everyday life!

We'll try again next week. I've had some fab ideas. If you have got any pillowcase that you want to send to a good home, let me know! Or random bits of bias binding or if you have been inspired to have a go and make some, that's great!

WWKNIP Day 2011

2011-06-11T11:56:00.002Z

It's World-Wide Knit In Public day today and I'm feeling a bit of a knitting fraud. I had planned to go and join the lovely people from A Good Yarn to go and knit at the Boating lake in Cleethorpes but life got a bit busy.

In a few minutes my sister is coming round for us to go and try on bridesmaid dresses for her wedding then it's a birthday party for my brother so I have spent the morning working and making sandwiches for the great sandwich contest that my bro has asked for us to do for his birthday...don't ask, it's a bit odd but Lou and I are confident that we will win with our Snowy, Rosie and Mildred egg sandwiches :)

So, not much chance to knit but I have taken postage off all of my shops for the weekend so if you went over to my Folksy or Etsy shops*, you could buy yourself a lovely new project bag then you could knit in public in style, even if I can't.

*I've taken the postage off at Paypal so ignore how much it says postage is in the shops, when you come to pay, Paypal *should* give you free postage.

Amazing transformations....

2011-06-02T21:00:00.003Z

I am one of those annoying people who, when I have started a book, no matter how rubbish it is, I have to read to the end of it. Part of the reason is because I think the next page might be where the book gets really good and if I give up on it, I miss something amazing. Part is probably just because giving up without getting to the end would be quitting, right?

It would seem I'm not the only person. At Uni, in my third year, I shared a house with two friends. Two of us fell into the reading to the death catagory, the other didn't. She didn't understand how we could sit there, complaining about a book being so annoying and boring but still insist on finishing it. 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan, one of her favourite books. I read it and it just moaned on and on and on. I endured it though so that I could honestly say I had read it and that it was awful.

The problem now though is that because I don't get as much time to read, my 'to read' pile is forever growing and I seem to keep starting awful books that I then don't want to read because they are so dull then they take me longer to read so I take ages to finish them and never get onto a potentially good book.

While in Saltaire at the weekend, we obviously went to the amazing Salts Mill. The building alone is amazing but then you walk inside. Not only does it display the works of David Hockney, it has one floor dedicated to books. All books. Clearly though, with all of the rubbish books I had to finish, I decided that there was not even any point in looking for books for me until I decided that life was actually too short to read books I don't like.

So on Monday morning, when I woke up really early and it was raining and cold, instead of ignoring 'Making Babies' by Anne Enright (I know, it doesn't sound great but it had an amazing write-up in the paper the other week!), I started reading 'The Help', Kathryn Stockett and I remmebered what it was like to want to read and stay in bed all day reading.

WIP Wednesday

2011-06-01T17:08:00.005Z

I kind of failed at WIP Wednesday last week because I decided that I hadn't really progressed much from the week before but today I figured that I have actually reached 22 spikes in my Hitchhiker so I *am* getting there. Slowly ;)

Only another 20 or so rows to go. We'll not mention that the rows get longer.....

We've been out today, I would say making the most of the good weather with it being half term but we actually ended up going to the cinema to see 'Rio'. I maybe had a quick snooze ;)

When we got home, I went to check on the hens and look what I found.....

You can't really see in the photo but the white egg is about half the size of the other two and belongs to Snowy. For the last couple of weeks I had been suspecting that she had never laid an egg. As I said the other day, we've been getting two eggs a day (except at the weekend!) for a week or so now and we knew that they were coming from Ruby and Mildred but today Snowy laid an egg too. Well done Snowy-Hen!!

Quite apt that this should come through the post today too ........

To see other, probably more amazing and definitely larger amounts of progress, go over to Tami's blog.

International Postcard Swap 2011

2011-05-31T20:02:00.002Z

A month or so ago, while blog-hopping, I came across a fab blog about kids and books for kids. I can't rememebr what I was looking for at the time but I did find a review about a book called 'Measuring Angels', which looked great and I might have gone into school and told the Foundation teacher that she *needed* to get it as they do a topic on growing things and the book was all about that and friends and feelings and all sorts of things.

Anyway, moving on, there was also a post about an International Postcard Swap. The idea was that we would get matched with families from around the world with children a similar age to J and L, we would then send them a postcard and tell them about books we like to read and we would get postcards in return.

Maybe here would be a good time to tell you that when I was younger I had a lot of pen-pals. I kind of collected them. I've tried to get J to write to people, to improve his writing and give him a reason to write but he's not convinced. This time I thought it might be good because I thought he mind find some new, funky books from foreign countries, to keep him interested in reading and Lou just loves post so it was a winner for us. We signed up.

Last weekend we spent the morning making bookmarks for our swap partners. Obviously, as with all crafty activities in this house that I attempt to micro-manage, I was allowed no input, I wasn't allowed to suggest that if they made an amazing bookmark for one child then the sister might be a bit miffed if they got something not as good or that sticking a piece of foam onto another piece didn't really look like an ice lolly, no mind why anyone would like an ice lolly bookmark. Anyway, we all had lots of fun and now our postcards are flying to their new homes and we are eagerly awaiting our post...

Conversations with the crack-pots. Sacraficing...

2011-05-30T13:38:00.002Z

During lunch today we had this entertaining conversation;

Jack; 'Daddy, what does sagrifice mean?'
M; 'Sacrifice. It means killing something in honour of some god or other'
Lucy; 'Have you ever sacrificed anyone then Daddy?'
M; 'No'
Lucy; 'Why not? What about J*, has he sacrificed anyone?'
M; 'No Lucy, we don't tend to sacrifice people any more, it happened a long time ago'
Lucy; 'So has Grandma done it then?'.......

Thank goodness for Horrible Histories!

*J is a random friend of M's. To be fair, if anyone was to perform a sacrifice

Another fab day out.... Saltaire Arts Trail

2011-05-29T20:06:00.004Z

This morning Katie and I went for another crafty day-out to Saltaire Arts Trail. We didn't even get lost this time.....we'll ignore the scenic tour to Ikea afterwards ;) I didn't take any pictures this time but to see how beautiful it is, have a look at my post from last year, here.

I went to Saltaire Festival last year; a great family day out....only after two minutes inside Victoria Hall, where the makers fayre is held, Mr Nicsknots got bored. First of all he decided that he would go and investigate the hall while I was allowed a whistle-stop ten minute tour of the stands of wonderful things, then he decided we'd seen everything we wanted to see and we had to leave. He actually has less patience than J and L!

Anyway, while we were there, I vowed that the next time I came back, I was leaving all men and children at home so that we could wander and look for as long as we wanted so Katie and I enjoyed lots of wandering and looking...and cake eating. Her boyfriend has decided that we plan our days out around good cake. He's wrong, it's just a happy coincidence but it is a good plan ;)

While walking around, we found a lovely lady who makes amazing hand bound journals, these very journals I have been drooling over on Folksy since last September.

They are even more fab in real life. If I bought one, it would just sit in my pretty corner, I would be scared of spoiling it with my messy writing...but maybe I should treat myself to one......

We also saw the lovely RubySpirit Designs. These rings are amazing. I think I might have spent too long chatting and not enough buying!!

I met SwirlyArts too and did the mad 'Hi, I'm Nicsknots!' in that 'I kind of know you online but in real life I've never actually met you, way. Hope she didn't think I was too much of a weirdo!!

The Arts Trail is still on tomorrow so if you are looking for something to do, go on over. There were loads of things to do for the kids outside Victoria Hall, in fact we did feel a little bit guilty about not taking Jack and Lou with us but I have decided that I am going to have a go at making the fab weaved wigwam that they were making outside, for our garden. As well as the makers fayre, there are also many houses around the village that are open and displaying lots of fantastic art.

Chickens!

2011-05-21T20:03:00.004Z

So I talked and talked about getting chickens, I was a bit worried that my blog would turn into 'The Hen Chronicles' then I got them, posted a pic of them and didn't mention them again!

Mildred, Snowy and Ruby are still here and they are laying two eggs a day, except for the weekend, when we only get one. Now you could thinking that is simply a coincidence or it could be because two small people and a larger male one are home more at the weekend and won't leave them alone. I wouldn't want to draw any conclusions .........

Mildred, so named because she was the grumpy, scary chicken when we got her has had an amazing character transformation and has taken to sitting on Ms shoulder and having hugs with Lou.

Snowy has become a lazy/broody hen. We are assuming that she is broody given that she sits on the nest all day and pinches eggs that the other hens lay. I've tried shutting her out of the nest box but she just nests wherever she is.

The last few days we've tried dunking her bum in cold water to shock her out of the broody-ness. When I read about it to start with, people were negative about it, saying that we should let nature run its course and that *eventually* Snowy would get over it, but, she has hardly been eating and is so much smaller than the other two now and since she has no fertile eggs under her, she is never going to hatch any eggs so surely it is better for her to get over it as quickly as possible before she starves herself?

Here she is today. I put her in the greenhouse to see if she would eat more without Ruby and Mildred being around but it didn't work. She did stand up for more than her usual 2mins though!

Here are Mildred and Ruby again. Ruby is an escape artist. When we open the nest box, she hops up and tries to get out while we are collecting eggs! She also hates going back to her house after she has been playing in the garden. M always has to get her because she doesn't like me....even though I am the one that provides her food :(

In honour of my hens, guess what fabric I got today ;)

WIP Wednesday

2011-05-18T12:38:00.004Z

Last Wednesday, I was catching up on blog-reading and saw that Miffy had posted a WIP photo post and I thought it was a great idea and that it might inspire me to get some knitting finished and blog a bit more regularly so I am going to attempt to join in.

WIP Wednesday is a blog-ring organised by Tami Ami so grab a cup of tea and go over there to have a look at all of the great progress pictures after you've seen my progress on the Hitch-hiker that I started making at Wonderwool.

It now has 19 points, it is supposed to have 42. I'm liking it more now. I was worried that it wouldn't be drapey enough but maybe because I spend all of my time pulling and stretching it, it seems good.

It looks quite good with a cup of tea and a carrot muffin that I made yesterday with a recipe out of the new, amazing Handmade Living magazine that I bought last week ....once I got my copy back from friends!

Tutorials. Envelope cushion covers

2011-05-14T21:08:00.004Z

I've mentioned before that I teach sewing/homecraft at a local Children's Centre to some mums. The new mums started on Monday and we had a great time. Four women walked into my room at 0930, all convinced that they would never be able to sew anything and walked out less than two hours later with a cushion cover that they had made themselves. A great sense of achievement for everyone.

I find this class a bit tricky to plan and have spent ages planning this new course. I try to think of a project that we can complete in a couple of hours and that most people would want to make that will increase their basic sewing skills so that when the leave me in ten weeks, they will be able to make what they want, alone. Oh and we have two sewing machines for the whole class of sometimes 10.

So this week was our first week. I'd never met the mums before and I didn't know what kind of skills they had so I decided cushion covers would be a good place to start. Easy cutting out, basic straight stitch to get used to the machines and surely everyone needs another cushion in their lives..unless you are Mr Nicsknots who says we have too many.

A few people have asked if I will do tutorials for them in the past and on Monday, I got asked again so I decided it was about time to take the plunge into tutorial world so bare with me here.

First you need to decide what size cushion you want to make. I have a stash of 14inch cushion pads so I went with that. 14 inches = 36ish cm and from here we will use centimetres.

You will need a square for the front measuring the size of your finished pad plus 1cm each side for the seam allowance so here we have a 38cm square.
For the envelope back, we need two rectangles, each 2/3 the height of the front so 38 cm wide and 26cm high.

I have over-locked the edges of the pieces because I have an over-locker but if you don't have one, don't worry, it's fine. I have ironed all of the pieces though and not wanting to sound like my textiles teacher from school, but you know, it's helpful if you have flat pieces to start with.

Next you need to fold your 1cm seam allowance down on the top of each back piece. Again, I iron these down as I find it easier.

If you feel the need to pin, put you pins in at right angles then you can sew over them without breaking your needle and stabbing yourself in the eye (Yep, someone did that last term, I'm trying to avoid it this time!) and also, you don't stab your hand as you move it along the fabric.

When sewing, keep the edge of your fabric lined up with the 1cm mark on your machine, to give yourself a straight hem.

Next, lay your front material face up and place your back pieces, with right sides facing the front fabric as so....

You need to pin this together then sew all the way around the edge of the square, again with a 1cm seam allowance.

Snip the corners off your sewn cover. This will produce sharper corners when you turn it the right way around. Careful not to cut any stitching here.

Now the fun bit, turn the cover right way round through the envelope opening....

...and hey presto, you have a fab cushion cover.

Make lots more to distress your husband and please your soft-furnishing obsessed daughter who is still in Royal wedding fever!

Let me know what you think of my tutorial. Next week, it's personalised bunting if you want me to carry on.

The Tree of Life.

2011-05-09T19:43:00.004Z

It seems like ages ago now but in the Easter holidays, Jack, Lou and I went to some workshops to help make 'The Tree of Life'. North East Lincolnshire Council wanted to;

'...invite members of the local community to join them in the creation of a 'Tree of Life' sculpture - 'a symbol of the community's vitality and willingness to shape its own future'.

It was a great project, started by local artist Michael Scrimshaw. The first day that we went, Jack got stuck in making branches for the tree using what looked like a giant cigarette rolling machine, newspaper and corrugated cardboard.

while Lou and I made some leaves with clay. She decided that quantity was more important than quality and churned out about ten in an hour....

Over the next week, Lou and I went to a couple of workshops. Jack decided once the tree had been built that the leaf making was a bit boring for him but Lou loved it, as long as she was allowed to do it all herself ;)

This is her favourite leaf. We went to the glass leaf workshop and I didn't really know what to expect. Once I realised that it was like Tiffany glass making and involved breaking glass, using a grinder and soldering iron, I told her that I thought she might have to watch while I made it for her, bearing in mind she was the youngest person there by about 10yrs but no! She managed to convince one of the tutors that she could do it all herself and with her help, made the leaf at the top, with the little corner, so that she knew which was hers when it was put on the tree.

This afternoon, we went to town to seeing the tree officially being handed over to the community, in Freshney Place. It looked great but so much smaller than it had in the workshop but amazing with all of the work on it.

Here is the leaf, good job it has the magic corner on it so that we know which is Lous ;)

And here is Lou with the Mayoress. Lou was the only child there so they pinched her for pics ;)

The tree is going to stay in Freshney Place for a week then be moved somewhere else in town, probably into St James Church.

Pretty updated.

2011-05-04T19:36:00.002Z

Remember this post? Well look here....

The lovely night light from Wendy Jung in my pretty corner. A present for my birthday from my friend and I love it! As well as the beautiful canvas of Jack and Lou.

My pretty corner is going well....not really spreading to the rest of the house, but still...I was reading Lupins blog last week and she is into pretty corners too. Take a look here. I'm thinking of extending my photo wall, starting with some prints that M got me...just need to find some frames ;)

A Good Yarn!

2011-05-01T20:42:00.004Z

Yesterday, I woke up bright and early and feeling better than I have for days. The sun was shining and as I drove out to Cleethorpes, I could tell it was going to be a good day.

I went here....

...to 'A Good Yarn' in Cambridge Street, a mere 10 minute drive from my house.

Every knitter knows how important it is to have a fab shop locally and until now, the nearest shop to me has been Spins and Needles in Lincoln which is fab but an hour away from me so when Kate got in touch with me about stocking my things in her new shop, I was very excited.

Yesterday was the opening day and the shop was amazing! My photos are not though so please imagine the carpeted steps outside the door, the chandeliers in the shop, the bookcase full of wonderful Herdy accessories ... or just head off and see it for yourself.

Walking in the door, there was Michele knitting next to her amazing blanket..

I really want to knit these colourful cardigans that are in the window.....

...and the walls are filled with wonderful yarn and books that make me want to never sleep so that I might have time to make some of the great designs.

And even if you don't really need any more stash enhancement, how about a great knitty gift. These bracelets were so tempting. I might have to go back and buy one next week ;)

Walking through the shop leads to the lounge. Here is where the regular knit and natters will happen. Grandma and Jeanne were already nattering. Less of the old knitting though ;)

Have a closer look at the Royal Wedding display on the chest. I spied some of the limited edition Fyberspates Royal Wedding yarn ;)

And behind the lounge, is the dining room. Not sure these are the official names but here is where tea and cake were happening....

I really wish Kate all the best with her new venture and will be popping back in the very near future.

So busy!!

2011-04-27T19:12:00.004Z

I'm struggling to write things down at the moment. I have a few posts in my head but with going back to school today and incessant ichy back thanks to a tetanus jab yesterday, I'm going to post some pics and come back later in the week.

So, what have we been up to?

Well, we finally set off on holiday and I even knitted in the car..

Seconds after this photo was taken, the car made a loud bang, all of the electrics stopped working and M had to pull in front of two large lorries to get off the motorway. Not fun!

2 and a half hours later The AA found us after they had been looking on the wrong motorway!! The next 12 hrs were spent in recovery trucks but we finally got to Wales and spent an amazing week at Bluestone with fab friends.

We went to the beach in Tenby. The sea was freezing even though it was a boiling hot day

We went to see castles.

Then we went home.

Yesterday was my birthday. See how happy Lou was about the day.....

But look what we got!!

And today, less than 24hrs after they arrived, look what we found!

Funky finds!

2011-04-13T16:02:00.003Z

Yesterday I went for an explore of the junk shops in Horncastle on a girls day out. Our mission; to drink tea, eat cake and poke around in junk shops. We did all three!

The first place we went to is somewhere I have wanted to go for ages. Every time I go to Horncastle for knitting on Wednesday night, I peer through the gates to this...

...table upon table of cups, saucers, plates, glasses.....

I don't understand how anyone can get to this stage. Surely the people who run it understand that the idea of having a shop is that you have to sell some stuff before you get more?

In all of this I found a couple of Japanese style plates, covered in rain water and leaves. When I got them home, and had washed them in lots of soapy water, they looked like this...

I'm thinking they will make fab cake plates for tea and cake in the summer.

A bit further inside the shop, that rambled about as much as outside, I found 4 funky cups and saucers. One of the saucers didn't match but after a bit more rummaging in another room, I found another two saucers and decided that I had to take them home too.

After lunch, in a lovely little cafe by the river, we went for some more shopping. In one of the shops, they had a room dedicated to books;

I was very restrained. I didn't buy any of the fabric. I admit, I was a little scared that we might pull some out and a whole army of mice might throw themselves at us!

Royal Wedding Fever!

2011-04-12T18:27:00.004Z

I've been thinking a while about whether I should do anything for Prince William's wedding and if I should blog about it. There seem to be some people who have very strong views on how much they dislike the royal family and how we are all so poor and the country is in that much of a bad way that we don't want our noses rubbing in it that we are all eating in the gutter while the royals have a lavish wedding but I like the royals. I like their mad, eccentric ways and to be honest, there are plenty of people in this country, bleeding us of our money who aren't royal and plenty of rich people who will be having lavish weddings and chucking their money around this year so pff.

Little disclaimer aside, I am getting excited. Maybe not so much about the wedding, although I will watch some of it and the build-up, but the days off and people actually (my Dad hates this statement+I know reads...) pulling together and showing a little bit of community spirit with their street parties, or just getting together with friends and having parties, bbqs, not going to work....obviously it will chuck it down with rain and I will have jinxed the whole long weekend but never mind. It will still be a long weekend and we will still have fun so thanks Will and Kate :)

I'm also loving some of the great things that have come out to celebrate.

I got involved in a conversation about tea-towels today (clearly I am getting old!) and found this entertaining commemorative tea-towel;

'Corgi Royal Wedding' tea towel by To Dry For

Perhaps, even more entertaining than the Emma Bridgewater one which is here. Although, I do love her 'Hurrah for Kate, Hurrah for William' mug.

While at Wonderwool at the weekend, I saw the amazing yarn that Jeni at Fyberspates has produced, knitted up into an amazing shawl designed by Anniken Allis. The yarn is a stunning blue colour with lots of sparkle and comes in a presentation box with its own certificate of limited edition.

'Fyberspates Royal Wedding Yarn.'

The shawl is rectangular and contains wedding patterns and motifs. When it is finished, it will fit through a wedding ring.

'Royal Wedding Shawl Pattern' by Anniken Annis

I thought it was also a perfect time to get the remainder of my Union Jack material out too so my drawstring bags and needle rolls are also available with the Union Jack print until stocks run out. I have a couple of larger drawstring bags to photograph and list tomorrow too. Ideal for your Royal Wedding knitting party!

Wonderwool!!

2011-04-07T20:57:00.002Z

It is Wonderwool in Builth Wells this weekend. I love this show. Partly because I love Wales, partly because it signals the start of show season and it is great to catch up with friends and maybe a little bit for the Scotch Egg Man!

This year I decided that instead of exhibiting, I was going to go as a visitor. A bit of a bold move but a few of my stockists were going so they could sell Nicsknots things and I knew I would be busy with things going on at home at the moment. A week or so ago, a certain woolly koala asked if I fancied bringing more stock along so if you want your Nicsknots fix, go along to stand M2. There isn't loads of stock, due to a couple of big wholesale orders going out this week but there are lots of fab fabrics, big drawstring bags as well as the standard ones and you can order things if you can't see what you are looking for.

You might even find me there. Or I might be eating cake and knitting...you know, that pair of socks I started two years ago ;)

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-03-29T13:25:00.003Z

I have been attempting to compose this post for a few days but my darling son dropped my laptop the other day which meant that the charger plug was loose and I could only use the computer while it was balanced in a certain way then last night it died completely so I ~~cried at~~ calmly asked Mr Nicsknots to take it to pieces and mend it for me. How brave of me!

Today it is working, if you ignore the cock-eyed keyboard and the 6 screws that were clearly surplus to requirements because M couldn't find where they lived.

So Sunday is Mother's Day. Lots of people have been buying things for their lovely Mums and Grans over the last few weeks but if you are a last-minute kind of person, you can still order from my shop, everything is posted by 1st class post. If you add 'MUM' to your Paypal payment, I will refund 15% of your order until Friday morning.

A few weeks ago, I was featured in a lovely gift guide made by Inspired Celebrations. Scroll down to the 7th March entry. There are some wonderful things there.

Problems solved!

2011-03-27T20:12:00.004Z

Thanks to everyone who messaged me here, on Facebook and Twitter, I now have a veritable array of none floral material winging its way to me as I type. One is already here and I made some of these with it today.

I love the fabric! One of the girls who comes to my sewing class had it the other week and I fell in love with it then I saw it on the super-fab KitschyCoo fabric sale so clearly it was fate!

Another 'problem' solved; I am going to get chickens. Not really a problem as such but yesterday I decided that I have probably spent longer deliberating over getting chickens for longer than I spent thinking about having children. I wonder if I am responsible enough to look after them whereas I know I'm not responsible enough to have kids!

So, chickens. Yes. I am going to ask for them from J and L for my birthday in 30 days when I will be 30 so clearly I will be responsible enough to look after chicks when I'm that old....still not sure about the kids though ;)

While out in the garden this afternoon, measuring where my chicken house will go, I decided that I could wait no longer for rhubarb so picked the first of our rhubarb. Look at the colours! I love the first pick of the season; so sweet, so soft. It was lovely!

I need help!

2011-03-21T19:21:00.003Z

I have a problem. Remember way back in January when I said that I wanted more funky fabric to counter the floral that was taking over my range, well you see, I can't seem to stop buying florals like this;

and this;

Don't get me wrong, I love them but I can't find any funky fabric that I like or jumps out at me and makes me want to buy it. When I am at shows, people comment on how they love my work because of the different prints that I use. Now they will all say 'Wow, there goes boring Nic!' I think I have lost my funky fabric mojo and I would like it back please!!

I have made non-floral things recently like a special order for some ultra-special Knitting Goddess bags for The Knitting Goddess herself (available exclusively from her shop when more fabric arrives!)

I really loved making them which tells me that I need to get my funk on but urgh. We went to London at the weekend. My mission; to find funky fabric. No floral or pink purchases allowed. We went to Libertys. All I wanted were flowers so we left with nothing. More fabric shops, nothing inspired me so we left empty-handed. I've just been browsing the amazing KitschyCoo fabric destash sale (seriously, that woman has more of a fabric problem than me!!!)

Someone help me. I ~~want~~ need links to amazing fabric that I have to make bags and needle rolls from. Please! Save me from the florals!!

Time for tea?

2011-03-13T20:05:00.003Z

I have written lots of blog posts in my head since I last actually blogged but haven't actually got anything down. Here are some of the things I could have written about;

How my darling daughter managed to last 9 days of eating next to nothing before she decided that she might like to eat again. Just like that. A quick chat with her teacher and she was mended. In fact last night she had two teas.

How after two months, J still won't tell me what he has done with something I knitted for a friend because he wants it.

How I am getting a little obsessed with watching Dexter before bed. It's like my bedtime story ;)

How I made some ace tea cozys this morning ready for a lesson on tea cozy making tomorrow morning.

The problem is that everything seems a bit trivial when you see what is happening in Japan at the moment thanks to Mother Nature.

When we were younger, we had some teenage Japanese girls stay with us for a few days while they were in the UK on an exchange program. My sister and I spent most of our time with them listening to The Beatles and playing card games. We had loads of fun. I just hope they are all ok now.

Until Saturday night (19th March) I am going to donate 15 % of all orders on my Phoenix Card web-site to the wonderful Shelterbox who are working in Japan to provide emergency shelter and lifesaving equipment. Please have a little look, there are some great new cards, including some new sheepy ones for you yarny sheep lovers.

C is for capricious...

2011-03-02T21:05:00.005Z

....Like one minute you look out of the back window and the sky is like this...

then you look out the front and it looks like this....

Or one minute your daughter behaves like a normal child..

Then she decides that eating her tea makes her feel sick so she doesn't eat it, spends all of the time while you are trying to enjoy/eat yours by screaming, shouting or telling you that she is going to be sick...

and you spend your days stressed and ready to kill. Hmm. Life is fun. We had a great Half Term but it passed in a bit of blur and we came back down to earth with a bump when L decided on Saturday that she was never eating her tea ever again. Gah.

Tonight she upped the game and threw herself on the floor in the reception of school when I picked her up from tennis and had a great screaming and shouting tantrum. I find that nice when the room is full of teachers and parents all looking at me.

Soooo in the evenings when I normally blog, I can generally be found rocking away, quietly to myself in the corner or watching Dexter...trying to forget about problem children.

I have finally managed to take photos of my lovely new print here...

Spring IS on its way and I will not be a grumpy girl thanks to my grumpy girl ;)

I have sent lots of new stock out to new wholesale customers this week who I am very excited to be working with and have a couple of new and exciting projects bubbling away.

It's almost Spring!

2011-02-12T21:02:00.002Z

Obviously this post is going to signal the start of monsoon season or sub-zero temperatures and snow but I think Spring is on it's way!

Everyone has been saying that February is the worst month of the year, dark days, cold, nothing to look forward to, doom, gloom, a bit doom but here, the bulbs are shooting up, everything is starting to look green and healthy and the days are getting longer.

'Yellow Daisy' by Briole Photography on Etsy

I've been busy making good use of the wonderful weather this afternoon and have been photographing some of my new fabrics. I love this chick fabric and this colour combination of pink and yellow, reflects the tulips and daffodils that I have in the jug in my window...

'Pink and Yellow Easter Chick Lucy bag' by Nicsknots on Folksy

A few weeks ago, I found some pillowcases in this fabric in a charity shop in town, in perfect condition, so you will imagine how happy I was when I went back this week and found matching duvet covers. I love this vintage fabric and it matches the blue that I have had in my shop for a few months now.

'Vintage pink flowers drawstring bag by Nicsknots on Folksy'

(Felt) Balls to you all!

2011-02-12T20:37:00.000Z

When I'm not being the person behind Nicsknots or being a teaching assistant, or a Mummy, I can sometimes be found teaching Mums in a local Children's centre to sew.

Since I started in September, it has been a lovely but fairly laid-back affair; the mums have brought projects that they want to do or told me what they want to make, either for their children or presents for friends and family members, almost never for themselves, it has to be said, but in the very near future, the class will changing to a more structured form where I will have lesson plans and schemes of work and other organised things. At the moment we are in a state of flux; I am trialling ideas on the current Mums and they are making the things that they want.

A few weeks ago, I asked them what they wanted including in the course, one of the things on the list that included being able to follow a commercial pattern, cushion covers, inserting zips and refashioning their childrens' old clothes, came felt jewellery. I was a bit nervous about this one and admitted that the only experience I have with felt was making one solitary bead at Woolfest. Add that to the fact that the wonderful lady who helps me is a felting wizz, I felt somewhat pressured, so, like a good girl, I googled, I pleaded with people to help me on Twitter but nothing really jumped out at me and answered my plea so I put together all that I had found and got up at 7am this morning and got stuck in.

It would seem, the reason why there aren't pages and pages of advice is, mainly, because it is so easy (unless I am missing something really fundamental) but fairly time-consuming to make these perfect balls.

Basically, you get some fibre, you then roll it into a ball, dip it into fairly hot water with some washing-up liquid in it, you then roll the wet ball around in your hands until it goes hard...continue this process until your shoulder joints ache so much that you want to cry...you see, the reason I kept looking for help was that I thought it must be more difficult than that but it seems to work, although making different shapes is a little problematic because I am a bit OCD about perfect shapes.

Lou even made these without one of us having a tantrum. Although, now she wants to make a million more so obviously my house will be filled with felt balls and bits of fibre but that has got to be better than standing on Lego and Sylvanian Families.

I've made a necklace so far. It doesn't look as good as this though because I am incapable of getting knots in the right place. And don't have pretty beads.

'Pink and Violet Felted Balls Necklace by SaraNora'

As much as I enjoyed the way that the almost sloppy feeling fibre very quickly changes to a pleasingly firm ball in not much time, I did also like the look of the supplies shops that provide you with ready-made balls like Paperfish

'30 Spring Balls from Paperfish'

Etsy finds...

2011-02-04T21:28:00.002Z

For a while I have been thinking that I must read-up on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) but every time I start reading even the simple stuff, after a few minutes it is all a blur of blurb that I don't understand so I give up.

The other week though, I noticed that the lovely Katie at TwinklySpangle was doing a beginners SEO course on her blog. I thought I would give it a go and I *think* I understand what I have to do and what's going on in the world of google....well as much as I need to ;)

I've been looking through the shops of people who are joining me in an attempt to understand stuff and make my shops rank higher in search engines and they have some ace stuff.

TwinklySpangle has great blackboard rings and necklaces. I love them! Not sure what I would write on them though...

HarrietandGeorg make some great pieces of jewellery as well as these sweet little heart flower glass magnets.

Kitzie is a wonderful designer and she even prints her work onto tea towels and you know how I am trying to pretty my house up, one thing at a time!

Let there be love..

2011-02-01T20:27:00.003Z

It seems that my customers are a rather loving bunch. I have sold a fair few of these retro loveheart drawstring bags over the past few weeks in my shop

and also a few of the matching needle rolls...

as well as these funky Alexander Henry rainbow hearts on my Etsy shop.

I really love the thought of someone getting one of my bags as a present whatever the reason but especially on Valentine's Day from that special person since the chances of me getting anything from my darling husband are slim to non existent. It's cool, I'm living vicariously through you lot ;)

First show of the year...

2011-01-29T18:27:00.004Z

About a month ago, I received an email from a lady who was organising a Mind, Body and Spirit event in Theddlethorpe, the biggest village in Lincolnshire, we discovered today. I was slightly confused as I was sure that these events were all about tarot cards, reiki and ear candling. I emailed the lady back for a bit more information to and she said that crafty people were going too so I signed up for it, not sure what to expect.

This morning came, cold and icy. Kate and I set off on our way to the community hall. Obviously, we got lost on the way there. In true Nic and Kate style we had driven right past the place, even slowing down to look at the quaint pub at the end of the drive, just not noticing the hall. And the signs. And the cars. Ahh well. Ten minutes later we found the place again and before long the pile of bags and boxes were transformed into stands and displays and we were eating bacon and egg buns with a cup of tea.

I discovered when I got there that my table was smaller than I had thought so decided to display my little girly bags and purses and leave the needle rolls for another place where I have more space.

We had a good day and decided that we ought to become tarot readers and hypnotists because they were busy all day and charging a fair bit for their services. My best-sellers were my newly-made reward charts and babysitter notes. Following talks with other Phoenix traders, I discovered that they were laminating their sheets and adding magnets to them. A fab idea! I love the products but had thought that they would work better as single sheets so I gave them a go.

I still have a few of the charts available so if you want one, leave a comment here, they are £1 each and the first three people will also get a free pen.

The cherry miracle

2011-01-15T22:41:00.002Z

While I was moaning about the everlasting insomniac saga of my darling 6yr old on Twitter the other night, a friend recommended Montmorency cherries. I googled, I read, I mainly got a little too excited that this might be the answer to my/our problems.

Great, I thought but I know that generally, natural remedies take a while to get into the system so wasn't expecting a full nights sleep straight away but my friend told me that her daughter was sleeping soundly on the first night of having the juice so I went shopping the next day.

I went to Holland and Barratt and bought some of this Cherry Active juice. First of all I had to get past the sales assistant from hell. Normally when I go in there, they will try to sell me everything, including their magazines but today, when I asked if they sold Cherry Active, I was told that they did. When I asked her about giving it to children, she told me that I shouldn't and that they didn't recommend any of their remedies for children.

A slightly panicked Nic asked 'What, none of the things in your shop?' thinking about all of the potions and things that J and L have had over the years.

'Yes, nothing except for our multi-vitimin range, designed especially for children,' she replied. I stood for a few minutes, having a moral dilemma; how much did I want my daughter to sleep/how much did I worry that this bottle of pure cherry juice was going to do my daughter damage/how much did I believe the sales assistant?

I came to the conclusion that since the ingredients consisted of black cherry juice, nothing else, the worst it would do was give her a dodgy tummy for a few hours and I could live with that. It would replace the couple of hours of banshee screaming we have had every night. The more I stood there and listened to the sales assistant discuss her love-life in graphic detail with the other sales assistant, the less I trusted her and the more I went with my instincts. Cue dagger looks, on your head be it if you give it to your child sighs and general disapprovement as I bought it.

I, very tentatively, gave Lou 20ml of the syrup in a glass of water on Thursday night before bed. She didn't sleep straight away but she did stay in her bed, quietly, until she fell asleep then stayed asleep all night. When she woke up in the morning, she was a changed girl. She emptied the dish washer when she came downstairs because she 'wanted to help' and was so well behaved all day.

The change in behaviour is amazing and has continued. I think she is sleeping more soundly throughout the night, rather than the cat-napping that was happening so she is waking up a lot happier in the mornings.

Looking at all of the benefits of the miracle juice, I think I might have to start taking some too ;)

A happy coincidence

2011-01-14T20:21:00.003Z

Over Christmas and New Year, I spent a bit of time sorting my fabric out. What struck me, apart from the sheer amount that I seem to have collected, was that a lot of my fabric is now floral and the funky, some may even say wacky, fabric that I started out doing, is getting squeezed out of my range so I decided that I needed to work on my funky side again...not to say that flowers can't be funky, but you know what I am saying. We can do both ;)

So, it is by happy coincidence, that the first Nicsknots thing that gets featured in a magazine in 2011 is not floral. Pink but not a flower in sight;

'Let's Knit' Magazine Feb 2011. (Click to make it bigger)

It is one of these retro heart needle rolls;

This afternoon, the sun finally came out for the first time in weeks so I also managed to take some photos of another funky print. Gnomes!

I love these cheery folk. I am definitely getting more of this fabric to make other things. I have just listed them in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

More bigger bags are on their way too...lets hope for good weather this weekend :)

Guess the bestseller.

2011-01-12T17:41:00.002Z

Tonight sees my first Phoenix card party of the year. I am really looking forward to going and also to the rest of the Phoenix Trading year.

We have some fab new card designs this year, all designed by independent UK designers and printed in the UK.

I can't wait until the end of the month when the beautiful garden seed organiser box is available; I think it is sure to be a best seller with the green-fingered masses. While we wait, how about a gardening wall planner?

While getting organised for tonight, I was wondering what might be the best selling card and thinking that maybe I could organise a fun competition so, have a little look at my website and tell me what you think will be the best seller tonight. Whoever guesses correctly will get a £5 voucher to use against their card order.

Competition closes tomorrow night, Thursday 13th Jan 11:59 GMT

Destash continues...

2011-01-10T21:20:00.002Z

I am really determined to de-clutter our tip of a house. I have updated the magazine destash post, here, because a few have sold and I have listed a few more. They are a bargain because £3 includes the UK postage and they are fairly heavy magazines ;)

It is wheelie bin day here tomorrow and ours is, for once, full to overflowing! Normally it is only about a third full but my clearing out is making a difference. The recycling is also full and charity shop bags are stacking up.

I've started walking into a room I want tidied with a bin bag; it's amazing how much more ruthless I am then; no time to talk myself out of maybe keeping that thing that hasn't been looked at for 6months.

Lack of Lou sleep continues. Tonight after five minutes of being in bed she decided that J had given her a nightmare and that she couldn't possibly go to sleep. After ten minutes of her shouting and complaining, I moved J into our room so that she wasn't disturbing him as much and she continued screaming and shouting about how awful I was to her and that she couldn't sleep (funny that, I can't when I am screaming and shouting blue murder!).

After about twenty minutes I went up and told her to calm down and read a book in her bed. That was an hour ago. I haven't been back up yet. I daren't!

We have always had bath, story, bed routine since they were tiny. Nothing has changed. I think she has just got it into her head now that she can't go to sleep so every night is a different reason. Every night I dread bedtime but I remain positive with her. Every night we talk about how we need to believe that we can go to sleep and if we can't, we need to lay quietly, think about nice things and maybe practise relaxation that they do at yoga. Hmm.

Now she is so tired, she seems like a baby who, when they are tired, they fight sleep even more.

Well that was a bit of a boring waffle. Sorry. If we have sun tomorrow, I may have some very funky new prints to show you...

First good intentions of 2011

2011-01-09T21:28:00.003Z

While thinking about what I wanted to achieve in 2011, more family time out and about was high on that list. With two children who (normally!) play really well together, it is all too easy to stay at home and bumble around.

Lou is still being an insomniac so this weekend, I thought lots of exercise and fresh air might make her sleep so since the end of school on Friday, they have been swimming twice, had a tennis lesson, been to play at the village tennis courts and been for a bike ride. She is still awake while we are ready for our beds!

While J and L threw themselves around the tennis court with their Dad, I finally got to take some photos of the first of my larger project bags. You will have to excuse the photographs; even thought the sun was shining here today, it is still dull, dull, dull!

Now, lots of people have been asking me to make bigger drawstring bags for a while and I have been doing custom orders but not got any made for stock but finally they are here and more will be coming along during the week. Let me know if you have any specific requests and I will do them first.

I took photos of the bag with a standard sized bag to show the difference in size and this photo shows the bag with my crochet granny squares in it, all 10 of them with a ball of yarn and it isn't even half full so you could fit loads of knitting in here!

Here they are in my shop.

Newsletter sign-ups are going well and I am in the process of writing my first newsletter. Exciting, huh?

Oh to be 6 again!

2011-01-06T23:04:00.003Z

Lou, it would seem, is like her Mum. She thinks sleep is for the weak. While I tend to have a shortage of sleep due to work and stuff, she just does it for fun because why sleep when you can torment Mummy when she is trying to get some work done?

The last week or so she has been especially bad. Most nights it has been after 10, normally closer to 11 before it goes quiet upstairs. Yesterday I went to bed and went to check on J and L. Lou was laid on her back, with her Woody from Toy Story toy laid out on her chest with her etch a sketch under her pillow.

This is what she had drawn by the light of her Hermione torch wand...

'I'm having a baby. I feel sick'

I'm not sure if that is the baby or the sick that is on the floor next to the bed. Charming child!!

Take a look at the side-bar here...While supposedly having an early night tonight, I have finally sorted out my newsletter software so in the new super-organised world of Nicsknots, you can now sign up for newsletters to find out all about what is going on in my shop, shows that I am going to and also maybe even a few give-aways and discounts.

So, that early night...I wonder what I will find when I go to check on the monsters tonight.

Pretty!

2011-01-05T21:35:00.004Z

So, Operation 'Pretty up Nicsknots HQ' is under way. This is the cupboard that I bought at the weekend from my new fav shop, Homesense, now in its new home...

I lost the remote control the night I brought it home, spent ages looking for it and in the end gave up. The next morning I asked J if he knew where it was;

'Well, in one of these baskets I should think, Mummy',

He said, as he pulled the baskets out that he had already filled with remote controls, books and Wii remotes. I don't think so mate!! Everything was removed. At the moment the fibre optic lamp that L got for Christmas lives on top because she has nowhere in her room to put it and I quite like my cake stand there. I might move the Christmas Angel though ;)

While sorting things out, I moved all of my notecards and things and Lou spotted these lovely 'Thank-You' cards that the lovely Dots and Spots sent me before Christmas. L decided that she could put them to better use than me and spent an hour writing letters to people tonight while J did his homework.

And you know what would look fab on the top of my new cupboard?

These night lights from Wendy Jung that I spotted on the 'I Love Handmade' blog

Mag destash!

2011-01-04T20:53:00.006Z

Every year, in fact no, every month, I say that I am going to sort this house out and get rid of a load of stuff and I do but I also keep a load of stuff too then get annoyed because a. There isn't enough room and b. I can't find anything.

This year I have decided that I am going to make my house pretty and have a proper clear-out. Anything that doesn't get used is going. It'll be a bit tricky because Mr Nicsknots is king of the hoarders but he has an office and a couple of sheds so all of his stuff can go in there ;)

Anyway, today I have been sorting through my magazines (while looking for something else!) and have decided that I am going to get rid of most of them. I started subscribing to Sew Magazine ages ago and I don't even really read it any more. It comes through the door, I get excited, I flick through it for a few days then I put it away, never making anything with the proper tissue patterns and never reading it properly so now I have stopped my subscription and you lucky people can have some of my almost pristine magazines. They are £5.99 normally so I am selling them for £3 and that includes postage.

Here is what I have photographed so far, sorry the photos aren't great, it's a bit gloomy here, again!

Issue 8 Feb 2010

Issue 9 March 2010

Issue 10 April 2010; **Now sold**

Issue 13 July 2010;

Issue 15 Sept 2010;

Issue 16 Oct 2010;

Issue 17 Nov 2010; **Now sold**

Issue 18 Dec 2010; **Now sold**

I also have a couple of issues of Sew Hip. So far I have photographed issue 4;

If you want any of these, leave me a comment here. Thanks :)

It's all about the poppies.....

2011-01-03T14:14:00.004Z

It seems today is all about the poppies. The first sale of 2011 in my Folksy shop was this Laura Ashley 'Poppies' print drawstring bag. It's ace fabric and every time I get near the end of my stash, it takes longer and longer for me to source this print as it has been out of print for a few years now.

Yesterday when I was in York, I bought this new top with bright pink poppies on it....

From White Stuff...available here....

*Then* I was just looking at Gone to Earth and saw this lovely fabric....

2011 and knitting already?

2011-01-02T22:12:00.005Z

Happy New Year! I can't believe the holidays are almost over and it's back to normality again. We have had a great few weeks. We've all been ill, in varying forms, with the lurgy, but it has meant that we haven't spent Christmas and New Year rushing around the countryside visiting people.

Instead we have had lots of lazy mornings, staying in pjs until lunch then lazy DVD and Wii afternoons. Bliss. I'm not sure how we are going to re-integrate into real life next week, especially as Lou has decided that she doesn't need to go to sleep until after 10pm and get up until after 10am..her teachers might have a few words to say on the matter come Wednesday.

I have relaxed so much that I have even managed to knit something! Lou asked me to knit this hat for her back in July, when I came home from Knitnation with WoollyWormhead's Twisted Woolly Toppers. In October, when I went to Fibre Flurry, I bought some undyed yarn from Mr Wool and Mamalonglegs took it home to work her dying magic on it for me. It has sat, all forlorn for months while I have sulked and stressed and generally didn't knit but the week before Christmas, I had sudden inspiration to order some big dpns from Meadow Yarns, hoping that I might get some knitting done over the hols and wouldn't you know it, I did. It only took me a day to make the whole thing!

In Lou stylie, she decided that the hat needed a certain something to finish it off so she requested a giant pom pom on the end of the i-cord rather than the top-knot. I think it looks quite fab. Lets hope it doesn't go AWOL at school, unlike her last WoollyWormhead hat.

Today I've had a lovely day out in York with my ace friend. We spent the day getting excited over teapots and teacups in Waitrose, buying furniture and scowling at cropped tops and harem pants but we're fairly confident, we're not getting old this year ;)

Everyone is talking resolutions at the moment. Mine are fairly simple;

Get rid of the 'stuff' that is filling my house up and stressing me out, make it pretty and have fun.

I have opened my Etsy and Folksy shops again. Unfortunately, I am going to have to increase my prices within the next few weeks so if you have been thinking about buying anything from any of my shops or you have some Christmas money, burning a hole in your pocket, get over there sooner rather than later.

Due to rising costs and the VAT rise on 4th January, the price of my Phoenix cards will also be increasing from £1.20 a card to £1.50 so if you want to beat the rise and stock up on lots of new cards, click here now.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T18:00:00.002Z

Well I have managed to drag my poorly self to the shops to do food shopping so apart from the presents that I still have missing in the post, all of the wrapping of presents and tidying of the house, we are all ready for Christmas.

I hope you all have a great Christmas with family and friends and a fab start to 2011. I am looking forward to having some time to relax with my little people.

I have decided that I am going to close my shops from tonight and re-open on 2nd January. My darling children have passed their germs on to me and I ended up spending all morning in bed today because I felt so awful. I don't do ill so I'm not very happy about this.

If you have any desperate orders, let me know.

Christmas posting...

2010-12-12T22:46:00.002Z

This is a bit of a boring post, I know, but I also just want to let you know what I am doing with 'last posting dates'

I am the person, who last year, asked a certain more organised person, to reopen her Folksy shop so that I could do some Christmas shopping so you can see why I dislike 'last posting dates' but even though parcels that I sent out last week, mainly got to my customers the next day,I hadn't had any post delivered to me since last Tuesday until this morning so I know that people are having problems because of the snow and more is forecast for the end of the week here.

In a bid to make sure everyone gets their post sooner rather than later, I am asking if you are thinking of buying something from my shop, maybe think about ordering now rather than having another think (yep, I do that too.) and a cup of tea.

I will continue posting until Christmas Eve so don't panic and if you want to upgrade postage to Special Delivery, let me know and I will sort that out for you.

And now I am going to go and take a bit of my own advice and do some more Christmas shopping.....

Snowday #3. Like Christmas holidays only better

2010-12-03T21:10:00.003Z

School is closed again today. If you are grumpy about that fact, perhaps best you move along now because I think it's fab and I'm only going to annoy you.

We have managed to achieve one of my goals in life; a 2day week/5day weekend. Life is good.

After lunch today, we were all in the lounge and I realised that we all had time to just do nothing...or anything for once. Like Christmas holidays only not because there was no burning panic to go and visit people, no hyper children and no lounge full of new toys, tree, crap.

Yesterday I went to the shops. Not because I wanted to do a bit of panic buying with the rest of the village but because I am a disorganised person. I hadn't heard that we would be snowed in this week so hadn't thought to do any shopping before Tuesday so I went to the shops because when I went to the fridge on Wednesday afternoon thinking I would make stew and dumplings for tea, I found we had one carrot, a leek and five potatoes to go with the stewing beef that had been in the freezer for about a year.

I went to the Co-op, it was like a scene from The End of the World. The shelves were empty, not only was there no milk or bread, there was no fresh fruit or vegetable, unless one wrinkled red pepper counts. There were no cereals, eggs, or actually, anything really. I waded through the panicing panic buyers, suggesting that maybe they ought to buy some ballons and Christmas crackers since that was all that seemed to be left in the shop and walked up the road to the farm shop. Because this was a 10 min walk in knee-deep snow, the shop was empty (of customers) and full of food. Ha!

As I walked back home, past the Co-op, I noticed they had had a delivery and they had milk so I wandered back in to find even more frenzy as people struggled to carry 3 cartons of milk each to the end of the queue for the till that stretched all around the shop because 'Who knows when we will get milk again!'. Probably tomorrow but never mind, eh, lets help to perpetuate the panic.

In this snow-covered, mainly car-less world, people suddenly have time to talk to each other. The man next to me in the queue, was telling me how he never goes to the local shop because he doesn't have time as he works but since he hadn't been at work for a few days and he can't get anywhere else, he is glad the shop is there.

Neighbours are all working together to clear their road so that they can get to the main roads and talking to each other even though they have lived near each other for years and haven't really talked at all. Walking home from the shops, everyone wants to talk, maybe they wanted to mug me for the milk I had managed to get but I'd like to think otherwise ;)

I'd like to think that this community spirit would last but lets be honest, we know that come Monday, when the snow has all turned to ice, everyone will go back to their rushed, grumpy lives.

Snow day!!

2010-12-01T21:49:00.003Z

Sorry, I know this blog is getting a bit snow-obsessed at the moment but its a bit mad by British, we can't cope if there is more than a couple of inches of snow kind of way. We always get snow but not really that much. The other night I was laughing at someone on Twitter who was talking about getting snowed in and what provisions she would need to buy in, in case she got cut off. Pah, thought I, I wish we got a decent amount of snow and got cut off, that would be a good game....

Fast forward a few days....
The snow is knee deep. My knee and I am no dwarf ;) This was us on the way to the shops this morning. Notice how the sledge has been abandoned. It would seem we have the wrong type of snow for sledges. We also have the wrong sort of daughter because while we were all super-excited about the amount of snow, she was a whingy monster because she had snow in her welly, it was too deep, too cold, too just about everything.

We did, finally, manage to get around the village and ended up at our friends where she and M built a proper snowman. Our pathetic attempt is now actually lost in the front garden, we can't find him under the snow that fell last night.

I know people are going to hate me,including my snow hating daughter but I like this snow. I like the fact that the roads are quiet, I like that people are walking around the village and talking to each other for a change rather than flying around in their cars, I like the fact that school is closed.

We're not giving in!

2010-11-29T20:47:00.002Z

I have a confession...I HATE making snowmen. I love walking in the snow and I don't even mind snowball fights but snowmen building. Urgh! I think it's mainly because I have no patience and I want the thing to just appear, not have to faff around, rolling snow around for it to only fall apart just as you are putting its head on.

Normally, given the fact that snowman building is a blue job, I leave it to M. Thing is, we ended up stuck in traffic coming home from town yesterday when there was about 5cm of snow and 5m stupids who decided that they needed to drive 5mph so I couldn't delegate responsibility, given that it was almost dark when we finally got home.

Today we were supposed to have a busy day; after school I had to drop J and L off at home then go back to school before coming home and making tea for us and my Aunt. However, thanks to the snow, the meeting was cancelled and the Aunt decided that it was too snowy so we found ourselves with a free afternoon. I stupidly got all excited and told L that we would make a snowman when we got home.

First of all Lou got a wellie-full of snow so she had a full-on melt-down and screamed the street down because her foot was wet and cold. My emptying of the wellie did nothing but make her worse because I couldn't magically dry it. 'Luckily' however, our neighbour A.K.A Lou's adoptive Grandad came to see the farce, shook her boot and all was ok again.

After what felt like an hour of rolling a ball of snow around the garden, I lost the will to live and dumped the pathetic excuse for a snowman body in the corner of the garden. Lou took one look at it, marched over and said 'You're not just going to give in and leave that there, are you?' I suggested it would all look ok once she got her (pea-sized) head on which she dumped on. It promptly rolled off, smashed, Lou burst into tears, stomped on the body and burst into tears again.

At this point J decided that Harry Potter on the Wii beckoned and went inside. I tried to convince Lou that we could do the same, adding the bribe of hot chocolate but she shouted a bit more and informed me that 'We're not giving in!' so we had to start building the damn thing again.

So, we started again, me chuntering to myself about how it couldn't be that difficult to build a stupid snowman, maybe it was the wrong type of snow, maybe I could throw myself on the ground and fact a heart attack or something....I even considered bribing the lads who had decided that towing each other behind a car on a snowboard around the road was a great idea to build Lou a snowman but by this point my snowball had got a decent size and almost snowman body sized.

By now, much to Lou's distress, it was getting dark and she was proud of the fact that we hadn't given up even though it was so hard to make the stupid thing so it was all ok to put the head on, carefully this time, then dress him with his hand knitted hat and scarf.

Now I would like the Nobel prize for peacekeeping please ;)

2010-11-28T21:35:00.003Z

Thanks to everyone for their sunny weather vibes. I got some photos taken on Saturday in between the snow flurries and managed to upload some new bits on the shop last night as the snow was falling and the temperatures were sub-zero.

While listing them yesterday, I thought it might be nice to make some piccies of a few sets so here is the ever popular red fish....

and new this summer, the delicate bird print which has been really popular. This was my least favourite when it came with all of my new prints and its popularity has taken me by surprise. I love the print now too and think it will be staying for a while yet.

We had great plans for today, including the annual pilgrimmage to Donna Nook to see the grey seals but it all had to be put on hold because of the snow. We haven't got loads but the roads to the beach are awful at the best of times and it always feels at least 10degrees colder than it is, being so bleak there so we decided to go next week instead.

All I want for Christmas...

2010-11-26T20:52:00.002Z

For some reason, the world appears to have gone mad this week; the phone has rung off the hook with desperate relatives wanting to know what J and L want for Christmas, everyone I speak to either tells me that they have a. done all of their Christmas shopping (insert smug face here) or b.They haven't even started yet and are now about to have a nervous breakdown because of this fact.

What is the panic, people? It's not even December yet!! I have bought about one present, and you are all stressing me out like friends before GCSE exams...I was always ok until I got to school then, standing outside the sports hall, with friends panicing that they didn't know random facts, that I also didn't know, I wanted to hang myself or run away.

I've had a quick look at my fav lists tonight, mainly on Folksy but also on other shops so here are my Christmas wants, in case you want to buy me anything. The kids, I'll be honest, need nothing ;)

I love these fun baubles from TwinklySpangle. Katy has loads of cool things in her shop.

These cheery paintings would brighten up any corner of my house...like the bathroom should a certain person put it back together again after he took the floor, the bath side and skirting board up at the weekend and scattered it around the house so that I fall over tool boxes and bits of debris ten times a day...Annoyed? Moi? Never!

I have so nearly bought one of these rings from Loving Spoonful, made from vintage spoons, so many times but I can never work out which I like the best. They are all great.

I bought one of these vase covers last year for my Aunt and I love them, such a great idea. The Cotton Potter is a lovely lady; read back to the start of this blog post, you will see that I am one of the late shoppers...she kindly re-opened her shop for me and nipped to the Post Office on a Saturday morning when she should have been on her Christmas break just because I can't get my head around starting Christmas shopping before 20th December ;)

I spend quite a lot of time trying to choose a print from Lola's Room but this mini calendar solves all of those probles. 12 great prints to get me through the next year.

Tomorrow I am hoping to take some photos of new products and fabrics so if people could do a little sun dance...or at least not rain/snow dance for over my house tomorrow, that would be great, thanks :)

How to survive winter...

2010-11-20T20:19:00.003Z

It's all getting a bit mad at Nicsknos HQ at the mo. Most of the daylight hours (you know, the three a day we have now) are taken up by work at school and it would seem that, as much as we want to ignore it, Christmas is in full swing there; I have cut out about 60 hundred hand-prints to make Christmas tree displays, made stars, cut out strips of card to make baubles and attempted to learn the lines and songs for not one but two plays as well as the usual stuff.

As soon as the sun sets, it is back to Nicsknots work. Orders on my shop and wholesale are flying out and I keep finding that material I had great stocks of has suddenly disappeared....funny how the international material mountain in my lounge is getting bigger rather than smaller then...

As if keeping on top of the housework with work, work, work and kids isn't hard enough, the amount of catalogues and general junk mail that I get through the door on a daily basis is growing. Most go straight in the recycling and I wonder how on earth I ever got on a mailing list for a random expensive skincare company but some I enjoy having a look at while eating breakfast. Yesterday I got a leaflet from Howies. I love their mailings. They are always interesting and fun and this was no different. In with photos of their new stuff and a plea to help save the velodrome, there was this;

Sooo true!! I agree with it all and made a pledge to myself that we'd slow down a bit this weekend and enjoy the cold weather so last night all four of us got under the duvet in the lounge and watched Children in Need. I had my reservations about letting J and L watch it and after J's comments after a certain video, I think I was right but you know, when we were watching Dr Who, it was a near perfect moment, as Dad calls it ;)

Today, lots of tea has been drunk while I have sewed, ironed and reclaimed my kitchen from the near wheelie-bin full of 'stuff' that has been dumped there over the last month or so. Enjoyable cooking has happened and I'm sure more will tomorrow...winter's not all bad ;)

Project positive part 2

2010-11-08T20:57:00.002Z

If you want to join the Blog-a-Long to celebrate P/Hop's 2nd Birthday, please visit their website and sign up. It has been extended for this week too.

Fibre Flurry 2010

2010-11-07T08:37:00.003Z

This time last week, 8:39am, Sunday morning, I was still fast asleep after a fab night out and a great day at Fibre Flurry, in Kings Norton. I have to mention this small fact because for the first time in seven years, I got my extra hour in bed with the clocks going back and that's big news in my sleep deprived world ;)

As you might have noticed from earlier blog post, I was rather excited about my last show of the year and it didn't disappoint one little bit. It was held at St Nicolas Place which is an amazing building, originally a wool merchants house. How apt! Of course, I failed to take many photos but others took some lovely ones of the rooms and architecture (and maybe a dodgy photo of me and Babylonglegs too ;) ) .

I did manage to take a couple of photos of the stand that I shared with Babylonglegs. Here is my half...complete with the Cadburys Roses tin....

...and the yarny goodness of Babylonglegs....

The show had a really relaxed atmosphere. Everyone was happy and as usual, it was lovely to chat to all of the friends and customers I have made over the last few years.

The day ended on a real high for someone as she won the P/Hop Lizard Ridge blanket on their raffle....

A great big thank-you to Mikayla and her great team for a fab show. See how I put '2010' in the title? That is because there *has* to be one next year too ;)

Project positive!

2010-10-26T20:24:00.003Z

The lovely Katie from TwinklySpangle has started 'Project Positive' over on her blog. For five days she is going to blog about 5 things that she is thankful, grateful for happening and positive about. I have decided that I am going to join her.

It easy to let things get you down, especially as it's getting cold and dark but you know, there is always someone you can find who is 100times worse off than you and they are often standing there, with a smile on their face, being positive, even when they have been dealt a pile of poo so today I am thankful for......

Cuddles with Loubie first thing in the morning. Even with her cold hands and feet ;) Why do children never sleep with hands and feet under their duvets?
4 days until I go to Fibre Flurry and see lots of lovely woolly friends...can't wait.
Lie-ins. It's half term so we don't have to be at school at 8am tomorrow morning. Yay!
Vanilla tea. I did a swap a few months ago with This Girl is and she sent me some ace vanilla tea bags. It is becoming my fav tea.
Clear blue skies and crisp autumn days. Get the woollies out!!

Right, more sewing and vanilla tea for me. Night all!

Fallen off the face of the earth...

2010-10-23T08:36:00.003Z

Oh my goodness!! Who would have known how much we all rely on computers and the Internet? That would be me after I have had about three weeks first without being able to get on the Internet, then my computer dying then, once again, no internet.

Luckily all of my retail sales also go through to my phone so I didn't miss them but other stuff has been a bit hit and miss depending on which way the wind is blowing or maybe where the gremlins in my router are hanging out at any given moment.

Not wanting to tempt fate but my computer seems to be mended now and I can get into my emails so if you have emailed me and not heard from me, sorry for the silence but I'm back ;)

Fibre Flurry 2010

2010-10-03T19:55:00.003Z

I'm going to Fibre Flurry at the end of the month. It is a new event run in Kings Norton, Birmingham and I am so excited! Some shows just fill me with excitement and this is one of them. I know it is going to be great and you should come too. There are loads of great people exhibiting; Fyberspates, Babylonglegs, Natural Dye Studio, Textile Garden, Krafty Koala, The Knitting Goddess, First for Yarns....the list goes on.....

Spins and Needles, Lincoln

2010-09-23T21:20:00.002Z

I love shows for all of the lovely people that I get to meet; you never know who might come and see you. On Saturday morning at Knit Nation, Woolly Wormhead and I were ~~standing~~ actually probably slouching, feeling a bit sorry for ourselves after a late night; of course it had nothing to do with drink and everything to do with the not-sleeping habits of one of our room-mates.

A lady came up to our stand and started talking to Woolly; she was in the process of taking over a yarn shop and wanted to stock her books, all good, then she said that her yarn shop was in Lincoln; 40mins away from me. I admit, I was very excited and was maybe a little rude in butting into the conversation to ask what was going to be stocked, when it would be open, how excited I was that the shop would be stocked with funky things.

Somehow I didn't scare the lady off and after she had finished talking to Woolly, she came over to talk to me about stocking my bags and needle rolls.

On Sunday I went to Lincoln to drop some of my needle rolls and bags off with Sarah and to have a sneaky peak at the new shop and some of the lovely stock she had in.

Tomorrow Spins and Needles, in Clasket Gate will open with a stash swap in aid of Macmillian Cancer Support. If you've read my last post, you will see that I am a little busy tomorrow but I hope Sarah has a great first day tomorrow and loads of people coming into the shop.

Nicsknots

FO Friday. The first finished object of 2012

Work-In-Progress Wednesday . Russian Roulette Knitting

Chicken run!

WIP Wednesday is back again!

Sulking Saturday....

Sewing lessons at A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes

Mardy Monday?

A December round-up...

Bitter it's not twisted!

Presents for little people.

Let's get organised!

Rubbish my husband says....

WIP Wednesday. Superheros!

Once upon a time it was all so simple!

The HexiPuff craze continues!

Knit Now magazine.

Things I learnt at FibreFlurry

Music, Sweet Music at FibreFlurry!

A wet WIP Wednesday...

FO Friday - All the F's!

Another Wednesday, another new WIP.

Sunny Saturday

FO Friday. The baby one with the funny name

FO Friday. The first of the babies...

Macmillian Cancer Support

Chicken Chewsday

Making Monday. Maybe reading the pattern *before* might be a good idea?

Lots of WIPs Wednesday

Another WIP Wednesday.

Making Monday.

I fear I have created a monster....

WIP Wednesday. Almost late again!

Making (a mess) Monday....

# Summertime #

A rather (about) timely FO Friday

WIP Wednesday; in which we cheat a little bit...

Making (food) Monday

Finished Object Friday..at last!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday and a new WIP...at last!!

Thanks!

Making Monday. Back on it....

It's a mad, mad world...

Summer loving...

And we're back with....WIP Wednesday.....

The wedding of the Year and Knit Nation!

The busiest weekend of my life.

Countdowns..

Dr Who!

It is officially summer!

Dress a Girl Around the World.

WWKNIP Day 2011

Amazing transformations....

WIP Wednesday

International Postcard Swap 2011

Conversations with the crack-pots. Sacraficing...

Another fab day out.... Saltaire Arts Trail

Chickens!

WIP Wednesday

Tutorials. Envelope cushion covers

The Tree of Life.

Pretty updated.

A Good Yarn!

So busy!!

Funky finds!

Royal Wedding Fever!

Wonderwool!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Problems solved!

I need help!

Time for tea?

C is for capricious...

It's almost Spring!

(Felt) Balls to you all!

Etsy finds...

Let there be love..

First show of the year...

The cherry miracle

A happy coincidence

Guess the bestseller.

Making Monday. Maybe reading the pattern before might be a good idea?