Category: MONTHLY PLAN

Knitting and Stitching Show @ Alexandra Palace 2011

And I’m done for this year! this is the one show that’s becoming my regular annual thing, been there last year and back again now. It was packed as usual, even on a Friday, but I loved checking each stall and rummaging through baskets full of yarn and fabric!
It was tiring, but I came back home happy and without the feeling of having spent too much money, which I think I didn’t!
One of the best buy of the day was the wonderful PAY PER BOX deal! Basically you get a clear box, I got the £11 one, and you can fill it as much as you can with all the paper sheets you want 🙂
I got loads of plain and patterned cardstock paper. In addition I got 14 rolls of double sided tape of different heights! I’m still very excited about that, it will help finishing off a scrapbook I’m making for the baby before she arrives 🙂

The main goal now is to make sure I use all the things I bought, unlike last year….still have 10 balls of a very nice country wool stored at the back of my wardrobe….what was I thinking!
So here are the next projects added to the list:

DIY Project 3
Make a quilt for my baby’s pram. I’m new to quilting, but I always wanted to try, hence I ‘ll start with something small. I picked a Timmy Turtle Pram Throw kit from The Little Lavender Patch, which came with instruction and all the necessary fabric. I might make few adjustment to the design, but will decide once I start.
DIY Project 4
Make a quilted Christmas stocking for my baby. We still don’t know where we are going to spend the holidays this year, but wherever it will be I will have something to remember my baby’s first Christmas. I haven’t found a tutorial for it yet, but I know for sure I want to put my baby’s name on the sock! I will be using the Countdown to Christmas Charm Pack from  SWEETWATER.
DIY Project 5 (still in the maybe list)
Knit a striped blanket for my baby. I know….it’s all baby stuff, but it’s all new to me, and because all the things I will be making are tiny, I’m hoping it won’t take long to do them….this is my wishful thinking anyway! The yarn I choose is Patons Fairytale Dreamtime 4Ply Baby Wool, in green/red/blue/orange.
I will probably start doing an update and a monthly roundup, just to make sure I do all these projects I’m planning!

October Plan // DIY Projects

Last day of September today, so I thought I get better organised for the coming month! It will be a busy month….finishing off house renovation, attend antenatal classes and a lot of other things that have been on my ‘to do list’ for months now!
But I’ve set two goals I want to achieve by the end of the month:
DIY Project 1 
I’ve been thinking about a large canvas painting to hang on our bedroom wall for about a year, but couldn’t make up my mind on the subject. I knew I wanted to use acrylics to do it, as I wanted it to be big and narrow, and I didn’t feel very confident in using watercolours for doing big washes. So inspiration stroke a few days ago while flipping through The Watercolour Expert, from the Royal Watercolour Society in London (a gift I received from my colleagues when I left my previous job). I came across a painting from David Whitaker called Sunrise – Sunset and I felt in love.
Sunrise – Sunset, Watercolours (49 x 97 cm)
The painting look simple, it’s just a set of stripes with colours ranging from blues/purples to oranges/yellows. But if you look close enough, each stripe actually has most of the colours in it, so it’s not just a matter of painting each of them using only one colour as I thought at first!
Anyway, I’ve decided that I’ll give it a go…it will be my art project for this month. Got a big size canvas (40 x 120 cm) half price from Surbiton Arts, acrylic paints and a roll of narrow paper tape.
I hope that this is all I need!
Forgot to mention that I have never used acrylics before….maybe some tests before starting would be a good idea!
DIY Project 2
For the second project I got inspired by one of the books I got from the library a while ago (post here). It’s a felted bowl, an orange one for our living room to start with, which I will probably use as a keys or jewellery bowl. If it goes down well I’m planning to do a few more as Christmas presents. 
It’s quite easy to knit (instructions to follow soon), but still not sure if I can do it without a circular needle just stitching the ends together before felting! I will give it a go as it is, and see what results I get!