Sunday 6 July 2014

The Importance of "Blocking"

 Well, I have finally made my 'Clematis' Garland Bunting available for purchase via Etsy or Ravelry !  Sorry it's taken me so long.


I thought it was the perfect pattern to point out the importance of blocking. Ever wondered why your finished projects don't look the same as the designers, even though you've used the same yarn and made no mistakes?  Photography has a little to do with it, but blocking is probably the main difference. Blocking is essential to make your finished article look its best, and is applicable to both crocheted and knitted projects. Using the Clematis Garland Bunting as an example, it will bring out the petals on the flowers and uncurl the leaves.


Don’t be scared if you haven’t done it before – it’s just pulling the finished item into shape while it’s wet, pinning it so it doesn't curl back up and allowing it to dry so it stays that way! You can spray with starch if you’d like it to be a little stiffer, but I prefer not to - I like a little curl!


See how curly & scruffy my clematis flowers looked before I blocked them?! This is what I did to get them looking their best:

Wet the garland under the tap and pat dry on a towel or kitchen paper – it needs to be wet through, but not dripping otherwise it will take ages to dry!

Either on a folded towel or on a blocking mat if you have one, lay the flowers down flat and arrange the full garland in a roughly spiral shape so it will all fit on your mat or towel. Proper blocking mats can be quite expensive - I use foam jigsaw tiles I bought from Costco (but you can get them from Argos and other places). For projects which don't have to be measured or pinned to be absolutely the same size, they work just fine. I used to use the foam childrens floor number jigsaw tiles, but the numbers fell out all the time and it got annoying! The benefit of the jigsaw tiles is you can join them together to make huge mats for large projects like shawls.

In the centre of each clematis flower, stick one pin. Tease out each of the 6 petals until they are comfortably stretched out, but not too taut & pin in place. Then place a pin in the ch1 space in the middle of the side of a petal and pull out the next petal, poking the pin through the ch 1 space in that one too & pin to the mat/towel so they meet. Continue around, pinning each petal to it’s neighbour and then to the mat/towel from the centre ch1 spaces.

Now go around and place one pin at both ends of each leaf so that they are comfortably stretched out, but not too taut. Also pin either side to make sure they don’t curl width ways.


Once it is pinned out as you would like it, leave it to dry completely (you can get the hairdryer out if you’re impatient like me – don’t keep it in the same place too long & burn it though!)
Once completely dry, unpin it and it’s ready to hang!


This is a good project to use as an example, but blocking helps all projects look better.  Some are trickier to do than others - hats are a prime example!  Beret's can be damped and stretched over a plate to bring out the pattern and shape, or other hats can be pulled over a suitably dome shaped vase or football or balloon (don't stick pins in if you're using a football or balloon!!!). Garments can be laid flat and pinned into shape, even granny squares look better and are easier to join if they have been blocked.

If you don't block already, give it a go and see the difference it makes for yourself!


Thursday 3 July 2014

Busy, busy, busy!


Hi lovelies, sorry I've been a bit quiet - life suddenly got very busy!


Last weekend was my cousin-in-laws 30th birthday, so the whole family made a special trip to Edinburgh to visit and celebrate with her. As the family are spread all over the UK, we decided to book an apartment that we could all stay in together and spend some quality time catching up.

I was in charge of looking for accommodation, so obviously my (rather selfish) priority was to find somewhere near a wool shop!  I had visited K1 yarns before and knew they had a beautiful range of yarns, so I got their postcode and searched for nearby accommodation. To my surprise, I found an apartment that would sleep all 12 of us right next door!!!

I can't recommend The Trust House highly enough. It was like staying in a National Trust property!  We felt like royalty. The property was beautifully furnished and maintained, and it was right in the centre of the city - a few minutes walk from The Royal Mile, the Castle, Museums and all the delights Edinburgh has to offer.  Unfortunately, considering I had only found it because it was next door to K1 yarns, the shop was closed and had been gutted - builders were in and all I could see was the bare stone. Whether it has closed permanently or was just being re-fitted I'm not sure, but I was devastated!

On our way home from Edinburgh we stopped in Harrogate for the evening - what a town!  I've never been before and I have fallen completely in love with it.  We arrived on the Sunday before the Tour de France was due to start - all of the streets were festooned with bunting made of thousands of little handknit yellow, white with red polka dots, green and white jerseys:


I called in at Baa Ram Ewe and got chatting to a lovely lady in there who told me there were over 26,000 of the little jerseys and they'd been knitted by people all over the world!  It was the most amazing yarn-bomb I've ever seen (and a great promotion of Yorkshire wool!) Whilst there I satisfied my yarn craving and bought lots of Jamieson Spindrift in lovely autumnal colours - it will be time to start thinking of autumn projects soon! :o)

The first stop though, was Betty's Tea Rooms !  My husband took me to the one in York on our honeymoon - what a treat!  I must confess all restraint went completely out of the window - we had florentines, fondant fancies, fat rascalls and engadines japonaise (not all at once - over a couple of days!!!)





I also found a lovely fabric shop called The Remnant House - packed to the rafters with beautiful fabrics.  I could have spent all day (and a lot of money!) in there.  Here are the ones I chose:




This was a lovely little peaceful island in the middle of a crazy couple of weeks.  We've been trying to sell our house and move to Abergavenny on and off for a few years, and we finally got an offer on our house last week!  Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!  We also made an offer on a house in Abergavenny which was accepted!  Even bigger YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! This week hasn't been so much fun - talking to estate agents and solicitors and banks...so much paperwork and planning to do. I wish I could just wave a magic wand and whisk all our stuff into the new house!  But we'll get through it all and we'll be moving into our new home in no time at all.  I'm so excited! Well...I am until I start thinking about where to start with sorting out the loft! Ugh...

But don't worry - through all this I have managed to fit in lots of crocheting!  I've made the tops for two more little dresses - one a much smaller newborn baby size that I've made in Drops laceweight merino wool in bright turquoise to go with the campervan fabric, and another toddler sized one in pistachio green cotton to go with a check fabric in turquiose, white and the matching green.

Also, whilst driving through the lake district, inspiration struck me for a shawl design!  I started working it up immediately, and when we got to Edinburgh I started to write it up and make some adjustments. I still need to work it all the way through & make a couple of test-crochets, but I'm hoping to make the pattern available for sale in a couple of weeks time.

Now, are you sat down?  Please don't faint with shock, but I have also finally got around to re-making my clematis garland/bunting and am in the process of writing up the pattern.  It's blocked right now and drying, but in the morning I will take some new photos and add them to the pattern, then publish it for sale on Etsy and Ravelry!  It's only taken me a year....;o)

I'd best get myself tucked up in bed - lots to do again tomorrow!

Love & hugs
Claire Clutterbug xx


Tuesday 24 June 2014

Eeeeeeeeeep!!!

OMG!!! (& I NEVER type that - that's how excited I am!!!)

I made the Ravelry home page eye candy section!  Out of 7,445 'bunting' projects on Ravelry, they picked my Daisy Chains project!

It is available for sale in my Etsy Shop as a finished item (made to order), and I will try to get the pattern published tomorrow.  I am far too excited to get it done tonight!!!

Time to celebrate - where's the bubbly??? :o)

Love & hugs
Claire Clutterbug xx

Saturday 21 June 2014

Happy Saturday!

I didn't mean to blog on a daily basis, but I've had such a lovely day I had to share, so hello again!

Firstly, our hard work in the garden is starting to pay off - we've got some lovely colourful blooms at the moment:

 My 'Nostalgia' rose - creamy white in the centre fading to deep burgundy at the the tips of the petals.  My favourite plant by a long way!
Some lovely colourful Dianthus - don't they just make you smile?

And my gooseberries look like they're ready!  I've got quite a crop this year!  (apologies to any arachnophobes - I wouldn't have got so close if I'd realised the little spider was making a web on them...but it's helping with pest control so I'll leave it be.

After doing the housework this morning, my husband and I pootled off to Abergavenny to have a nose around a house that's up for sale.  It was perfect, so just have to hope ours sells soon. Keep your fingers crossed. I love Abergavenny in case you hadn't guessed!

Whilst there, we popped into The Wool Croft to gaze lovingly at the yarns and have a little squish!  They sell such beautiful yarns....sigh.  I was tempted by some of the Katia Ribbon Yarn to make a little pouffe, but I have far too much to do at the moment so I resisted.

I couldn't, however, resist buying myself some strawberries, and my lovely husband bought me a little gift too!:
 Look what was inside - aren't they gorgeous?  A little set of four woodland lunchboxes from Cuddle and Cwtch - perfect for my packed lunch!  I can have one for crudites, one for houmous, one for strawberries and one for snacking nuts, seeds and fruits!
Whilst in Cuddle and Cwtch, looking at all the beautiful little dresses for little girls, I decided I just have to make something I've seen on Pinterest (but with my own twist of course!) It's a free pattern on Ravelry - Granny Square Crochet/Fabric Dress by Mon Petit Violon. I've been in love with the pattern for a while, but sewing is something of a chore for me. I don't know why - I enjoy embroidery and cross stitch, but for some reason I feel the same way about sewing construction as I do about cleaning the bathroom! But it's so cute I've got to give it a go.  So I bought a few metres of cotton fabric:

I love the first two fabrics, and with the two reds I'm toying with an idea for crocheting strawberries and cherries into the squares....I was all set to start on them tonight when I remembered I have loaned my sewing machine to someone, and they are on holiday so it will have to be put on hold for a couple of weeks.

So tonight I am making a daisy garland/bunting instead. Although I have just discovered Clipper Sleep Easy Tea (orange, cinnamon, chamomile and valerian mmmmmmmm yummy!)....so hopefully I won't doze off, crochet hook in hand!

Love & hugs
Claire Clutterbug xx



Friday 20 June 2014

New Pattern for sale!

Hi there, coo-eee, it's me again!

Bet you didn't think you'd hear from me again so soon - you were thinking I'd vanish for another year weren't you?!

Well here I am, after work on a Friday, keeping in touch with you lovely people.  I've been a busy little bee this week!  I've registered with HMRC as a sole trader (if you're selling your own hand-crafted items, please be aware that if you're selling more than one or two items to friends and family you do need to register with HMRC - it took me a while to find the information, but I did eventually - HMRC Guide). I've also had my business cards printed:



Aren't they cute?  I've had these made ready for handing out at craft fairs. Did I tell you I'll have a stall at Abergavenny Craft Market on 25th August (Bank Holiday Monday)? If you're in the area do pop in and say Hi!

I've also been thinking about making a few items that might be suitable for selling in shops. With this in mind, I designed this adorable little babygrow with a crocheted daisy chain applique:


This one is available to purchase in my Etsy shop, along with a few other new items I've added. Once I've increased my range a bit I plan on going to see people with independent baby clothes shops to see if they would consider stocking them - I'll let you know how I get on!

The reason I'm thinking of going down this route is I think a lot of people look for knit & crochet inspiration and patterns on the internet rather than finished items. I think they would prefer to be able to touch and feel a finished item before buying it, so I think selling finished items in an actual shop might be the way to go.

In the meantime I have finally started putting my pattern designs down onto paper (well...pdf documents!?!) The first one is my 'Ever Increasing Circles' Necklace and it is now up for sale on both Etsy and my Ravelry Store:

I've got the patterns for my trio of British Birds and the Clematis Garland scribbled on pieces of paper and will soon be typing them up into a form others will be able to make sense of!  

In the meantime, I have a busy evening of housework this evening - our house is up for sale and we have two viewings booked for tomorrow so I'd best get it looking it's best! Wish us luck...  

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

Love & hugs
Claire Clutterbug xx