Tea & Crafting

A New Knit Book on the Block

2011-11-20T18:21:00.000Z

I happen to come across this article online. It seems that Fiona Goble has set a trend (Goble published a 64-page manual of pattterns so you too could knit your own Royal Family) and now Knitlympics by Carol Meldrum is now out in the shops to buy or from Amazon here.

You can now knit your own Olympic star!! Check out some of the knitted characters and their real life counterparts below:

Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, both 800m and 1500m Olympic medal-winners in Moscow, 1980.

Carolina Kluft, a heptathlete who won gold in Athens in 2004

Carl Lewis, a sprinter & long jumper who won medals in Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 & Atlanta 1996

Mark Spitz, a swimmer who took 2 golds, a silver and a bronze in Mexico, 1968, & 7 golds in Munich, 1972

Get Crafty for Homeless Dogs

2011-11-10T15:51:00.007Z

I have just come across this cute tutorial for a very good cause.

"If you are a dab hand with the needle and thread or you are keen to learn how to sew, then Battersea Dogs Cats Home needs you. We are calling upon keen crafters to make scented doggie bags to help keep some of our 500 dogs calm in kennels while they wait for loving new homes.

The doggie bags are part of Battersea’s kennel enrichment plan which aims to bring variety into the dogs’ day through the use of different smells, tastes and sounds to help reduce stress in the kennel environment."

For more information and the pattern click here its too cute not too!

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall make some Jewellery

2011-11-09T08:37:00.004Z

Taken from the Telegraph link here

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall had a "Blue Peter moment" in Tanzania, as they raced each other to make pieces of jewellery. They visited a charity workshop that employs disabled men and women in the country's capital, Dar es Salaam, and decided to have a go at making a couple of pieces. Charles and Camilla sat side-by-side at a table to learn from Wonder Workshop staff how to make earrings and a necklace respectively.

Yarn Shopping in Argentina ....

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000Z

Oh my god - Buenas Aires is a mecca to yarn shopping. The corner of Cordoba and Scalibrini Ortiz in Buenos Aires marks the entrance to knitter paradise .... never have I seen so many yarn stores in one road. O.M.G!

So I took advantage of marital bliss and honeymoon lovliness and dragged my husband to the yarn district, actually if the truth be known thank goodness for him as I probably would have got lost. Buenos Aires is a huge city and the roads are very long so it took us a while to get to the junction we needed to. But we got there!!

I bought quite a bit of yarn - well I had to! Would have been rude not to. Great prices and amazing selection I HAD A BALL! You do need to know a bit of Spanish though, I struggled a little at the beginning but by my 3rd shop I got familiar with the terms and hey - alpaca, acrylic, merino etc are pretty similar in any language.

See some photos below of the shops I visited:

Inside Moussa

Inside Nube

And now all my shopping ... above just about to enter Moussa - no yarn yet!

Above: One HUGE bag .....

Above: Two bags woo - hoo this is so much fun!

Above: Just finished my last shop at Nube ... three bags (now just got to figure out I can sneak the yarn in Gavin's bag as there is no more space in mine!)

Crikey where has the time gone?

2011-11-07T09:31:00.000Z

Well the last time I blogged it was over a month ago... time has flown by so quickly!

During this time I was away on my honeymoom in Argentina and I cannot describe what a beautiful and amazingly colourful and creative country it is. I loved every city / town we went to and wish we had just taken 6 months off work to travel the country. At no point were we ever bored! I have also been doing my own crafting and I'll update you on my projects soon.

I had no idea how creative and crafty the Argentines are. I was really in for a huge suprise (as was my poor husband when I had to drag him round stalls and crafty shops! ha ha). But it was difficult to not stop and just appreiciate some of the craft. As you probably already know Argentina is well know for its yarn as well - a blog post on this to follow tomorrow.

So here are some photos of my crafty honeymoon snaps - I guarentee you'll be 100% inspired after seeing them.

Above: crochet circles sewn on a cushion. Neat!!

Above: Barbie doll crochet outfits - amazing! There was even a tango outfit!

Above: A flower brooch made from a glove - I'm going to try this one day.

Above: Vintage buttons :-)

Above: Bright painted walls

Above: Lampshade made from suffolk puffs - genius!!

Above: Crochet cactus

Above: Crochet lampshades using t-shirt yarn

Above: These monster dolls were everywhere!

Above: Crochet flower

Above: Cute hairbands using puff balls and suffulk puffs

Above: Paper art! Amazing

Above: In Palermo Soho - crochet on the trees!

Above: Cute phone covers

Above: Crochet circles stuck on earrings discs

Above: Woolly hats

Above: Crochet puff cushion

Above: Outside a building - must have been some sort of craft / design studio

How to Make a Sailors Knot

2011-10-01T09:57:00.001+01:00

Sailor’s Knot Bracelets

This blog post is taken directly from Simone Tan's tutorial on Etsy - the full link can be found here. I just came across it today and wanted to share it.

Supplies you’ll need:

3.5 yards of twine
14 ounce can for a smaller bracelet or a 20 ounce can for a larger bracelet. Any other round object that has the appropriate circumference for your wrist will do.

Directions:

1. Wrap one end of the twine around the can to shape an X. Leave about a 4″ tail. You will need this tail at the end to finish the bracelet.

2. Wrap the long end of the twine around the can again and bring it up to the middle of the X. Then pass the long end of the twine under the right, upper leg of the X and pull the long end all the way through.

3. Next, move the upper left leg of the X over the right leg of the X to create an oval shape.

4. Pull the long end of the twine through the oval shaped opening you just set up.

5. Turn the can a bit and you will see that the oval shape has created another X shape. Again, pass the long end of the twine under the right upper leg of the X and pull the end through.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you get to the beginning of your project.

7. You will now find a three-stranded braid. Follow the twine you initially laid out and create a parallel second line.

8. Continue around the can. If you find that it’s getting too tight to pass the twine through the openings, you may want to take the bracelet off the can and continue with the knotting in your hand. If you take it off, be careful not to pull the twine too tight, otherwise your bracelet will shrink on your wrist.

9. Continue knotting the rope around the bracelet until each strand of the braid has one parallel line — a total of three passes. At this point you can stop or add another three passes to create the traditional pattern of three parallel lines, like the bracelet in the third picture in this step.

10. To finish, just knot the ends together and weave them into the inside of the bracelet.