Music Note Bookmark

I have a new design to share with you!

As part of Nerd Wars I wanted to make something to represent Willow Rosenburg's crush on Giles (from Buffy). I couldn't find a pattern which looked the way I wanted, so I designed one:



Pattern: Music Note Bookmark by Tsuki (download now)
Sizes Available: 4cm tall
Yarn: Handspun, approx sport weight - less than 20 yards.
Hook: 4mm / size G
Other: You’ll need a darning needle for weaving in the ends.

You can make a larger or smaller bookmark by substituting a lighter or heavier yarn and using a suitable hook.

Lampshade Upcycle!

I also upcycled a lampshade!

From this basic lampshade

with the help of my glue gun

I made this

I followed a tutorial from Pinterest, there are lots!

Upcycled Pinboard

I'm in the middle of re-decorating my kitchen.
We had an old pin-board, which I wanted to use in the kitchen but which really wasn't going to work in the new room.

See, it's just a basic pinboard. Dull, and a bit manky looking in places.
So what did I do?
I re-painted, quilted and covered it, and ended up with this:

It looks even more fab than this in person!
Here's what I did:

1. Sand down the wood frame and mask it
2. Undercoat the wood frame
3. Paint the wood frame (2 coats)
4. Make a cardboard frame to fit just inside the wood frame
5. Cut out quilt batting to fit inside the wood frame, and a piece of fabric about half an inch wider all around than the cardboard frame
6. Place the fabric face down on the desk
7. Place the quilt batting on top
8. And the cardboard frame on top of that
9. Using a hot glue gun, fold the fabric around the edges of the cardboard frame - you'll end up with a padded square of fabric
10. Place the padded fabric square into the frame and attach using a staple gun

Simple, huh?

Crafty Update

It’s time for a quick crafty update, I think!

The 5th Nerd Wars tournament is now finished, and I just scraped through 6 projects, though the yarn isn’t completed so was only half points.






The shawl is really nice; I’m very pleased with that one, the baby hat is already with its recipient, and the flower will probably be attached to the headband.

I’m working on the kitchen cabinets, I’ve painted two doors (the little ones for under the sink) and I’m on the drawers now. Once they’re done I’ll do the big doors, then the shelf, the plate rack and finally the cupboard carcasses themselves. It’s going really well and the colour is fab.

I’ve also been working on the pin-board. I’ve re-painted the frame and now I want to cover it with my fabric. I’m considering padding it with a layer of quilt batting before I attach it, but I’m undecided as yet.
At the weekend we went to the British Wool Weekend in Harrogate. It was great again, better than last year I think! We also spent a bit of time in the next door show, which was a quilting show. We went in there mainly because the Black Sheep were in that show, and their Yarn Mountain is not to be missed! I got a couple of bargains from the yarn mountain, and some lovely things from the BWW too.




These were all from the BWW show. The coloured chunky yarn is Wendy Thor (great name, right?) and it’s going to be a cowl. I bought a button to go with it, which I haven’t photographed (bad blogger). The plain chunky yarn is a massive cone of undyed yarn, which with the aid of some MASSIVE needles I plan to turn into a rug. First though, I need to dye some sections of it.



These two, and two books, were my goodies from the Black Sheep. I’m planning on making a sweater out of the lighter pink, which is Sublime Chunky Tweed. I don’t know what I’m going to make out of the DK yet, which is alpaca/merino/silk. Lush.

But first things first, I need to finish up my dissertation socks and get the pattern written up. Once that’s done then I can sort out the new e-book I’m planning.

The new e-book, entitled Dangerous Socks, will be a small sock workbook including the Dangerous Socks for Boys, Dangerous Socks for Girls, some heel and toe alternatives for both patterns, guidance for re-sizing the socks for wider/narrower feet, and (hopefully) conversion of sock patterns to mittens! I'll keep you posted on that as it takes shape.