October | 2014 | EmpressFibres

Hello everyone,

Just sat relaxing in bed listening to the heavy rain outside. I love listening to rain, it’s so relaxing. The more wild and loud the better. I love hearing the wind and rain. I do not however, like how it is for my poor chickens! Poor things were drenched when I went to see them in the afternoon. I decided to do them some porridge which they all tucked into happily.

These photos were not from today but I think they are gorgeous.

Grace sitting on my hand in the left picture with cheeky Martha sitting next to me in the right hand picture. I love these two so much, as well as my other two gorgeous girls. I love the way they greet me when I go into their run. They all crowd round and they jump up next to me when I sit on their jumps. I kneeled down to see them the other day and Grace jumped on my arm. I turned to see what they others were doing when Rose leapt up next to her 😀

So, what craft things have I been up to? I decided to get some carding done finally. I chose to do my laundry bag of natural cream Jacobs fleece. It took a good while and I was getting fed up towards the end. The end result is always very pleasing though. I carded each of these batts twice to make them nice and smooth and then they were tied with orange ribbon.

I washed another fleece too. It was so big that it took five dryers to hold it all outside. It is a Whitefaced Woodland sheep. Here it is fully unrolled outside. It was huge!

I think this only had two hot washes and two hot rinses before it was ready to be spun in the washing machine. I might dye some of this later.

Ooh, I’ve finally knitted something else! I seemed to go off knitting for a while (I haven’t touched that baby cable cardigan in aggges) so I am amazed I finished these.

These were knitted Two At A Time using a circular needle and the magic loop method. I LOVED this method and will certainly be doing this again. I’m thinking of buying some specific sock yarn next time – something bright and cheerful. Also, when I made socks before I knitted back and forth and picked stitches up the sides. On these I wrapped stitches and continued knitting in the round. Love them. The yarn is a recycled dress which possibly was blogged about a long while ago. The socks are way nicer than the dress!

I crocheted this little hat too. I think it’s really cute and want to make some more in bigger sizes. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it seems very open at the back. I love the white trim detail. I also crocheted a top to match. I followed the instructions for a newborn crocheted sweater but as you can see it was ridiculously small for baby doll.

I really want to get another reborn doll. This time one with their eyes open I think.

I thought I’d try out something different yet again. My Mum and I visited a friends house and she had done the most amazing work with loom bands. I instantly wanted to do some too. The friend generously gave me a really good loom. I had left some bands at my Nannys house but wouldn’t be getting those back for ages. We nipped into the shops on the way back and this is what I got –

I haven’t done too much with them as I find you need to have intense concentration and everything seems to be making my eyes ache at the moment. I also find that I always leave one loop left unlooped which wrecks the whole of the item. I managed to do one though – a fish!

I am going to put a keyring on him and attach him to my keys.

Now… as you will have seen I’ve been really getting into my sewing. My sewing machine has been an amazing piece of machinery and I am so grateful for it. I think it was one of the cheapest models I could find but I have absolutely no complaints. Here are some of the things I have made very recently. . .

Dungarees (0-3 months)

Shirt (12 months) I still need to do the button holes for this. I hadn’t actually learnt how to do them at that point but I know now. The collar is definitely not right but it doesn’t matter.

This was already cut out in a kit but all the sewing was done by me. I changed the way it closed a little bit and I really like the end result. I also added in some plastic at the bottom to give it some more depth and structure. I would like to strengthen the buttons on the side a bit more though.

Pants, pants and more pants! (0-3 months) I adore making these. I absolutely love this pattern. Whenever I feel the need to sew something I grab the simple paper pattern and getting pinning. I’m glad I bought so much elastic when it was cheap.

Don’t I look grumpy? This was a mock dress I made to see how a pattern worked. I’ve added in boning and a zip at the back. I’m really proud of how this turned out. It fitted very well and wasn’t in the least bit uncomfortable. The only problem I think was the zip bunching at the back. I intend to remake this dress using a gorgeous silky pink fabric with a black lace overlay. I can imagine the silky material is going to be very hard to cut if it keeps sliding about.

The black lace is simply pinned on the top of the dress as I was seeing how I might like it to go. I like it very much and so does Freddy 😀

As for my future crafty plans?

I’ve started cutting out the pieces for this and plan to start sewing them up tomorrow.

I’ve cut out the pieces for six, yes, SIX, more pants. Told you I can’t get enough of these! I made this little one up very quickly too. I might time myself actually… They all look very dark but some of the colours are nice and bright. The nice blues are not showing.

The party dress on the right in the bottom right corner is how I want my dress to be. I bought this pattern last week along with the one next to it. Can’t wait to do the little sailor outfits 😀 I borrowed the top middle from my brothers sewing pattern collection, the right one he bought for me from a charity shop for 49p (its the wrong size so I shall just trim it down and adapt it) and the one on the right was bought for me by my Mother. Such funny little teddies and toys 🙂

As for knitting and crocheting I am unsure of what to do next. I would like to get on with knitting the cable cardigan but I seem to have such a mental block whenever I pick it up. I’ll find something. I have shelves full of beautiful yarn all wanting to be made into something nice.

Anyway, have a nice night everyone.

xXx Love Kais xXx