March 18, 2023 · 4:19 pm

16 Years Of Blogging

First image on my blog

I have been blogging for sixteen years! My first blog was on March 18th 2007 and I wrote about creating a snail trail quilt using my embroidery machine – I never did finish that quilt.

810 posts and 1234 images

Back in the early days it was all about the quilting and the sewing. I did a lot of machine embroidery. I made the girls applique t-shirts for Easter and Christmas

And I went through a phase of making embroidered patchwork cards

I thought I could somehow turn my craft into a viable business, I tried making personalised T-Shirts. I went to that disastrous market and I even set up an Etsy store, but it was just a big fat failure.

And then, in January 2008, my love affair with knitting socks started. Over the years, I have had a lot of knitting failures; necklines too small, necklines too big, but the socks were always reliable. As far as my knitting goes, I am most proud of my Chemo blanket and Miss A’s blanket.

Miss A’s blanket on the left and the Chemo Blanket on the right

I was very chuffed with my Advent Calendar, which we still use every year

I have included book reviews and baking (I don’t do much baking now days).

In 2015, I started a Canvas work class, cue my interest in hand embroidery, in particular counted embroidery.

And I have bought so many hoops, embroidery stands, Q snaps (twice because I gave the first lot away!), but I think I have now settled on my lowery stand

Now that I look back over the past sixteen years, I can see that my more successful projects involved machine embroidery (why did I stop?). Miss A’s quilt (the sampler quilt) stopped me quilting altogether. I love doing cross stitch. My stash purchasing (for all crafts) is far greater than my ability to use these supplies and this makes me feel guilty.

A few knitting things I’m proud of

Machine embroidery

My redback spider costume

My hand embroidery sampler

What will happen in the next sixteen years?

Hopefully, I will finally finish the Sampler Quilt! And get back into more machine embroidery, more sock knitting, more cross stitch, more blanket knitting, maybe some shawls, more book reviews, and possibly a bit of weaving.

I get so much joy, contentment and satisfaction from crafting, despite not being very good at it. I now feel that I can do it simply because I enjoy it, with no need to turn it into some kind of side hustle.

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March 16, 2023 · 2:43 pm

Knitting the Threads of Time – Nora Murphy

Knitting the Threads of Time – Nora Murphy

I am not sure where I first heard about this book, Brenda Dayne may have mentioned it on her podcast. I found a copy on Abebooks and it slowly made it’s way to me (I wasn’t in any hurry).

Here’s the blurb …

In an era of global warming, war, escalating expenses, declining income, and drugs and violence in schools, many mothers feel they have little control over their families or their worlds. Nora Murphy eloquently demonstrates that many women do control one tiny thing: their next stitch.

While tracing the frustrations and joys of knitting a sweater for her son through the course of one cold, dark Minnesota winter, Murphy eloquently brings to life the traditions and cultures of women from many backgrounds, including Hmong, American Indian, Mexican, African, and Irish. Murphy’s personal stories — about her struggles to understand esoteric knitting patterns, her help from the shaman of the knit shop, and her challenges sticking with an often vexing project — will appeal to knitters as well as everyone else who has labored to create something from scratch.

We follow Nora as she knits her son a jumper and muses on the roles of knitting, textiles and craft in the lives of women. Ms Murphy’s writing style is conversational, you feel like you are sitting together knitting over a cup of tea.

If you like knitting, social history, women’s history, then you will enjoy this book. It is an easy read, with short chapters (I did a lot of ‘just one more chapter’).

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March 9, 2023 · 6:19 pm

My Kit has Arrived

Dame Nature du Printemps

My kit from Jardin Privé has arrived – it was very quick. I am super keen to get started, there is a sheep and a chook!

I do have to finish my Gingerbread House, and my Cinnamon Stars first.

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March 7, 2023 · 2:14 pm

Project Update

I have been working on some of my projects.

  • Gingerbread House (Top Left) – I have almost finished one section of the roof and then its just the other roof section. I am only working on this at my stitching group, so it’s months from completion.
  • Cinnamon Stars (Top right) – I have worked on this for a few hours this week. While watching the movie version of Brideshead Revisited and a new SBS series Vigil. I was watching Vonna’s floss tube yesterday and she mentioned that she only ever uses size 22 needles (regardless of the linen count), so I thought I would give that a go.
  • I have joined A Bee in the Bonnet’s Golden Honey Sock club, so the yarn (bottom left) is for the first pattern. I have since made it into a ball and started knitting the swatch.
  • More progress on covering the joins of Miss A’s quilt. It’s physical hard to man-handle the quilt through the machine.

There will be no new projects until some of these are finished.

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February 27, 2023 · 7:29 am

Lowery – Table Clamp

Lowery Table Clamp

I have added the table clamp to my lowery purchases. I wanted the extender bar for the stand and decided to combine postage. My plan is to use it for my stitching classes. It’s very sturdy, holds everything very still and doesn’t sag under the weight of my magnifier.

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February 6, 2023 · 3:17 pm

New workstand – Lowery

I have splurged and bought myself a new embroidery workstand – it’s a Lowery in stainless steel. I had considered them in the past, but thought they were too expensive and I made do with different table stands (but none of those were ideal). This is great. It’s so sturdy, my clip on magnifier doesn’t make it sag and I can sit on the couch and watch TV while stitching.

I am very happy with my purchase (which I got from JK’s cross stitching supplies – brilliant service). Now I am considering the table clamp for my friday morning stitching class.

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January 26, 2023 · 2:36 pm

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House Progress

I haven’t been able to work on my quilt because Miss P is using the sewing machine to make a ball dress (purple satin!). So it’s back to the cross stitch.

I have almost finished another side, just the back stitching left, and then it’s onto the two roof pieces.

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January 18, 2023 · 1:31 pm

Working on the quilt

Quilt progress

I am determined to get this quilt finished. So determined, I am not working on anything else. I started in 2013 and now I just want it finished. I have joined all of the blocks, and now I am covering the joins with bias binding. At first I planned to make the strips, but in the end I bought it (50m of the stuff), but I think it saved me a bit of time.

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January 11, 2023 · 2:22 pm

Finished Item

Scout T-Shirt

I bought this pattern way back in 2016 and finally got started about a year ago, and today I finally finished it.

It’s the Scout T- Shirt from Grainline Studio. The instructions are great, I would definitely recommend this pattern.

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January 9, 2023 · 5:51 pm

No Idle Hands; The Social History of American Knitting – Anne L MacDonald

No Idle Hands – Anne L MacDonald

I have had this book (on my Kindle) since 2020, but I had a sample of it for much longer. I finally decided to read it.

Here’s the blurb …

“Fascinating . . . What is remarkable about this book is that a history of knitting can function so well as a survey of the changes in women’s roles over time.”–The New York Times Book Review

An historian and lifelong knitter, Anne Macdonald expertly guides readers on a revealing tour of the history of knitting in America. In No Idle Hands, Macdonald considers how the necessity–and the pleasure–of knitting has shaped women’s lives.

Here is the Colonial woman for whom idleness was a sin, and her Victorian counterpart, who enjoyed the pleasure of knitting while visiting with friends; the war wife eager to provide her man with warmth and comfort, and the modern woman busy creating fashionable handknits for herself and her family. Macdonald examines each phase of American history and gives us a clear and compelling look at life, then and now. And through it all, we see how knitting has played an important part in the way society has viewed women–and how women have viewed themselves.

Assembled from articles in magazines, knitting brochures, newspaper clippings and other primary sources, and featuring reproductions of advertisements, illustrations, and photographs from each period, No Idle Hands capture the texture of women’s domestic lives throughout history with great wit and insight.

This was great, if you are at all interested in knitting and history, then this is the book for you. This was published in 1988, and therefore doesn’t cover the last thirty years, but, despite that, it is very interesting. Who knew that knitting was big in the 1930s (and not during war time)? What it also highlights is how women’s roles have changed over time, and how knitting has changed from a necessity to a relaxing hobby that’s good for mental health.

A review

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