Tag Archives: crochet

Jan29

January 2024 wrap-up

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Hello friends

It’s time for our January wrap-up and the sewing machine has been earning its keep!

My Stitches and Slapdashery YouTube channel is an absolute joy, and since the high activity levels of Vlogtober and Vlogmas I have been keen to keep talking to the camera! My sewing output has been pretty high, as I decided to start building an  inventory for farmers and crafters market season. I haven’t yet applied for any but I’m hoping to get a table at a desirable location. 

The things I’ve been making so far include zippered pouches, little snap pouches, book sleeves, phone cases, and soon drawstring bags and whatever else takes my fancy. I’m doing my best to use mostly stash fabric and accessories, and it does feel good to be using what I have and hoping that people will enjoy the products. 

I added a Ko-fi link to my vlog, where people can “buy  me a coffee” with a click through to my Ko-fi page. That felt kind of weird at first! If I decide to do online sales, I have the opportunity to add a shop aspect to Ko-fi, but I haven’t yet taken that plunge. The thought of overcoming hurdles like shipping has prevented me from starting so far. The cost of mailing things in Canada can make it twice as expensive to buy something online! 

Other projects I’ve been working on this month have included:

fabric baskets for displaying my wares at the market

book sleeves using old jeans

blankets for the cats at the SPCA (the granny squares were going to be for some wacky pants [trousers] for me, but they just weren’t working out)

amigurumi from scraps of stash yarn (I need something to do with my hands when I’m waiting for my husband at the cancer centre)

a positive potato (yes, a crocheted potato with an encouraging message in its little hands for my husband)

a bandana style cowl (or buff) which knitted up in a couple of days (Nottawasaga Buff)

I’ll add a link to my Ravelry project page here to make it easy for you to take a look at the photos and notes, as it would take up too much space here. 

https://ravelry.com/projects/nicolaknits

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/NicolaKnits

And works in progress are:

the scarf for my husband which is a log of the progress of his cancer treatment – 6 colours, knitting a tube so the ends are hidden inside – green for radiation days, rust for chemo days, blue for rest days, etc. If you’d like to follow the progress of that, you can check out the Ravelry project page. 

the Festoon shawl, which is a crocheted shawl in sock yarn, with a small hook, and I have been letting it languish for far too long!

I’ve published seven vlog episodes in January, and two tutorial videos. The link to my channel is here.

https://YouTube.com/@stitchesandslapdashery

https://www.youtube.com/@stitchesandslapdashery

Yup, I really do love to talk! The tutorials are for fun zipper pouches out of chenille or fleece, and little denim baskets or yarn bowls that used upcycled denim and grommets, and are really simple. Be aware that these are not short pithy videos! I talk, I explain, I show as much of the process as possible, because sometimes people need to know WHY they are doing something a certain way, and what needle/interfacing/fabric is recommended for the project.

As for my husband’s health, well, he’s going through cancer treatment which is always horrible! There’s no way to sugar coat it, it really is a brutal way to try to get someone back to health. He’s having weekly chemo to zap any wandering cancer cells, but the main treatment is the radiation five times a week. His medical team consider his cancer to have been caught early, and don’t think it has had the chance to spread, so that’s good. But both chemo and radiation affect your entire body negatively, not just the cancer cells, and the list of all the things he may suffer from over the course of the treatment seems to get longer every week. We are two weeks in, out of seven. As time goes by, he is having more trouble swallowing. Eating a meal takes longer. He has been told to snack often to keep his digestive system busy and also to maintain his weight. He is using a mouthwash to try and keep sores at bay. He has Lidocaine to spritz in his throat when it gets too painful to eat (we’re not there yet). He has sennosides and Imodium, for the times when the drugs plug him up or give him diarrhea (hasn’t needed those yet either). Silver lining – he’s bald already! And shouldn’t lose his eyebrows!! Oh yeah, I forgot about the long term effects of head and neck radiation, which include loss of function in some salivary glands and tastebuds. Dry mouth is a thing. 

I am past the shock and disbelief and have  made it as far as acceptance. I also have faith that he will survive this. He has been told he is one of the healthiest cancer patients they have seen – no co-morbidities, healthy weight, non-smoker, non-drinker, healthy diet. He has barely ever needed to go to a doctor since I’ve known him. He is now on medical leave and can focus entirely on himself, without work stress, and I am doing what I can to support him. 

Well, that’s enough of that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Please do go and check out my videos on YouTube. I do my best to make them fun and interesting. You might want to have some knitting or crochet on hand when you switch on, though, I do tend to ramble! 

I wish you all a peaceful and healthy February. 

PS: I think my two links above have been duplicated. When I pasted this into my post, I got a warning that it wouldn’t embed so I manually added the links. I’ll leave them as is. If one doesn’t work, the other should!

Mar18

Not a table runner!

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Not a table runner!

Honestly, I didn’t need another cowl (or shawl/neckwarmer/scarf/whatever) but I do love making and wearing them. Nobody likes a cold neck, eh!

I joined most of my grannies together and along the way they told me they wanted to be a cowl.

I briefly considered crocheting around the edges but decided not to.

Love the result.

Jan4

2020 knitting and crochet – a review

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2020 knitting and crochet – a review

Good morning, Monday! Thanks to the fact I worked Friday/Saturday/Sunday, today is a day off and it feels like my weekend!

I stayed up late last night reading a library book. It was compelling enough that I wanted to finish it, and by the time I crawled into bed it was 1am. That meant that this morning it was nearly 9am when I got up. I really shouldn’t go to bed after 11. My face doesn’t like it 😀

I have a bonus Window on the Weather for you. We have fog today and wet snow and our view has all but disappeared. (I made it the featured photo at the top of this post – I’m sure you can click on it to see it bigger.)

So, what did I knit or crochet in 2020? You’d think that with the seven-week covid closure of my workplace back in the spring and fewer outside activities I would have made more stuff, not less. However that’s not the case. When I looked at my Ravelry project pages for things finished in 2020 there were only 32. Some years I have achieved twice that. I know it’s not a competition, and quality is better than quantity, but I feel a good deal of satisfaction from looking at my Ravelry notebook!

Of course there was a huge amount of sewing in 2020, which took up a lot of the time I could have been playing with yarn, so it’s not that I wasn’t making stuff, it’s just that I was absorbed in a different craft. I sewed masks and bags and journals and cuffs and was really enjoying delving into something bordering on textile art, not just utilitarian sewing. The new Janome sewing machine contributed to that too.

Here are the screenshots from my Ravelry notebook. If you are interested in more info, you can go check out my project pages here.

Even though there are 32 project pages, I actually made more than 32 things, as some projects include multiples of the same thing.

There are 3 shawls, 2 sweaters, 5 pairs mitts, 6 cowls, 1 pumpkin, 1 pompom garland, 1 blanket, 6 hats, 3 bags, 3 earsavers, 5 baskets, 3 hearts.

My one WIP is seeing me into the new year and then I have plans for some knitted fingerless mitts for Mr Fixit as his are wearing out. He is happy to have purple ones so I’ll use the same yarn as the current sweater, but probably at a tighter gauge. I’ll just use the Ann Budd pattern out of the Handy Book of Patterns. It’s easy and written for multiple gauges.

Since tidying up the stash, I am feeling an urge to do some stashbusting crochet projects. The desire to crochet has been a little weak in 2020 but I have that beautiful set of KnitPro Waves hooks just waiting for some attention.

The snowflakes just got bigger out there and I am appreciating the fact I can enjoy them from inside a warm house! Take care, everyone 🙂

Apr14

Scrappy Sunday

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I have been having a very colourful time, working on Part 2 of the Creative Crochet Workshop’s Scrapsrific Rainbow Blanket CAL. The above motif will be a 12″ square. The last two rounds were added this week. I have realised that doing a crochet-along like this is very good for the discipline of weaving in your ends. You can’t proceed any further until Part 3 comes out, so often there’s a waiting period between finishing one part and the release of the next part.

The other squares for Part 2 are four 6″ squares. I made the two flowery ones different colours, but the rainbow ones are the same. I like the fact that the rainbow squares incorporate all ten colours in the blanket.

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What’s your weekend been like? Yesterday I was working, and we had another sale where the discounts were a bit bigger than usual, and we were reeeeeeally busy. It made the day go faster, at least, and customers were mostly happy because of the savings (except for a couple of grumblers who thought that the 53% should have been off literally everything – they obviously didn’t read the small print in the mailer)!

Today Tai Chi Man loaded up the prunings from the last couple of days yardwork. He had to cut some dead wood out of the cherry and apricot trees (much to the chagrin of the ants who were inhabiting the hollow branch of the cherry) and so today he took another 260kg of yard waste to the landfill. That’s nearly 700kg of stuff that’s been cleared off our property (of nearly half an acre) in the last couple of weeks.

The grass is greening up, there are more violets in the lawn every year, which is wonderful, we have daffodils and forsythia flowering, and even one of my Christmas cacti is pink and pretty, obviously deciding to be an Easter cactus instead.

The purple dishcloths have been flowing off my hook. I am on my fourth now. I think that may be the last one. When that’s done, I’d like to start another scrappy colourful project which I can work on when I have done my CAL pieces for the week. I have so much DK yarn, mostly Stylecraft Special DK, which would look lovely actually made into something useful. Do you have a favourite scrappy project? If so, comment and let me know what it is.

It’s been a good day of housework, tea at our favourite tea shop, stocking up at Costco, and going to the gym. I set up vegan mac ‘n cheese to bake while we were at the gym (can you believe my 20 year old son still complains when I put broccoli in it?!) so we’ve had a satisfying dinner too. All feels right with the world!

Jan29

Knitting, crochet and courses

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Whoopee! I am now a graduate of the Centre for Nutrition Studies whole food plant-based nutrition programme. I even have a badge for my blog, which is now in the sidebar near the top. It doesn’t fit in that well at the moment. I think it may be time for a renovation around here. I’ve been using the same WordPress template for, like, forever!

So that’s one FO! A finished course, for which I will get a certificate. I did the course partly for myself, partly so I could help others by educating them about healthy eating by not just giving them my opinion but actual facts backed up by actual science. And now I CAN!

The other FO is a crochet one which I whipped up in a little under an hour today.

It’s a cute lamb lovey, made from a kit that we sell at the store. It’s more expensive there than online, but I get a staff discount. And I’ve been eyeing these kits for ages. They come in many colours (always with three different colours/textures in one ball) with a different animal head or ball to go on top.

Rather than go with the crowd and knit a hat, I crocheted a granny square and added the lamb’s head to the centre. I was inspired by someone on Ravelry who has been posting photos of her projects to one of my favourite groups, the Colourful CALs/KALs group.

If you can’t find these at your local yarn store, they have them at Herrschners.ca. They are called DMC Top This knit hat kits.

What else? Ah yes…

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Knittin’…..started these Baby Janes a couple of days ago. Haven’t picked them up since. But if I actually get them finished they will match the bubble gum blanket’s border and will make a cute set. It’s a free pattern from Red Heart – I found it at work in the yarn section.

And the caterpillar is coming along. I did  add some hexagons today, and as you’ll see from the photo I positioned the bits for the head and feet. Tonight I sewed them on because I was too impatient to wait until I had added all the hexes.

We had a very pleasant Sunday. A slow pace, a walk along the waterfront, a cup of tea at Chai Baba. And a couple of interesting new recipes, which the boys were very dubious about. Beetburgers (a beautiful colour) in buns with grilled pineapple (another idea from Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease cookbook) with salad, followed by lime custard tart. I used an unbaked crust idea from the Fat Free Vegan blog (because I couldn’t find the right ingredients for the original crust) which was made with rolled oats, dates and fresh orange juice. The filling was silken tofu with lime juice and maple syrup layered with fresh fruit. It was rather good!

Despite all the doom and gloom in the news (best not to watch) I hope you manage to stay joyful and positive and spread good news instead of bad. ❤

 

 

 

 

Aug12

WIP: Feelin’ Groovy and feelin’ fine

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I was at this stage, evening before last, when I had to stop. Base done, looking a bit wavy in places because it needs blocking. (I have a large glass jar which is the perfect size for blocking the bag over.)

At the end of yesterday, this is where I left it. (Those sc2tog rounds were a b*tch to work into.)

bagphoto

I have designated this as the front, and have my drawstring coming out front and centre. Haven’t added the wooden beads yet as I don’t want them to get wet.

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And this is the back. Just the strap to make now. The original strap is a long chain worked into with a row of dcs, I think. I may just use Tunisian instead, then I don’t have that whole fiddly ‘working into lots of chains thing’ going on. I made the drawstring simpler too – it’s just a chain, rather than making a whole row of sc – yuck!

My main colour (ie the colour I used for the last round, the drawstring, and the strap) is the teal, purely because I have three balls of that and only one of each of the other colours. Wouldn’t want to run out part way through the strap.

After three cotton projects, I can’t wait to get back to good old acrylic! SO much easier on the hands.

 

 

 

 

Dec13

Silver Hills

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I have just had the most relaxing and rejuvenating week. The blog was neglected, not because I didn’t take my iPad with me, but because I was out of town at a health spa right here in the province of British Columbia.

Silver Hills guest house has been operating as a health spa for over 30 years. It’s set in rural countryside surrounded by hiking trails and unpaved logging roads, with its own garden which produces much of what is later served in the kitchen.

The food is all vegan, except for the honey, abundant, and beautifully presented at three set times per day. Snacking between meals is discouraged (and really unnecessary)! There is very little caffeine available, only decaf coffee for the diehards, and a little cocoa powder in the zucchini muffins.

The schedule incorporates two walks per day, one after breakfast and one after lunch. Health lectures each night explain the importance of correct nutrition, water consumption, deep breathing, exercise etc. It’s run by Seventh Day Adventists and therefore there is a spiritual component, saying grace before meals, and a short gathering each morning, which you can embrace or not as you wish. The morning gatherings did include a lot of laughter as well as inspirational readings.

The spa is beautiful,  with a steam room, infrared saunas, hot tub, and treatment rooms where you can enjoy salt scrubs, massages with or without hot stones, detox wraps, reflexology etc. What a treat.

When I initially heard about Silver Hills I looked up their website and thought it sounded expensive but now I think otherwise. You get a beautiful room with en suite bathroom, three enormous meals a day, spa services, guided walks, cooking classes and health lectures. And at the end of the week, you leave with the feeling that you are part of a bigger family (the staff eat with the guests). It’s actually a non-profit organisation and the cost is worth every penny.

While there, there was some downtime, so I worked a little on my crochet blanket which attracted a lot of attention. So far, 122 squares out of a possible 180 have been added. So 67% unless I decide to do more or fewer. In the photos below, the newest squares are at the top.

I hope your week has been awesome too. If ever you feel the need to destress, I strongly recommend a visit to a place like this, even if it’s just for a day. But a week is better!