Modifying a beaded tree

First of all, I have to warn you I'll not be talking about how to make the tree itself.  This tree was a kit I bought from the last Melbourne craft convention (their shop link is here) that comes in a with and without bead decorations version.  This is about how I modified mine in order to have some lights built into the tree.

The lights were just some simple LED lights that run off two AA batteries.  Best time to get them would be just after Christmas in the sales so if you are thinking of making a tree, now is the time to plan your shopping!  I got mine from Kmart but I've also seen them in the Reject Shop and similar as well.

Assembly with the lights is fiddly- if you had a second pair of hands or a clamp it might help, otherwise just take your time and have your branches organised.  The tree is assembled as in the instructions but you include the LED lights in as well, starting with the end furthest from the battery pack.

As you move down the tree, gradually include each LED, wrapping the excess wire along the trunk.  Work out how many LEDs you need as you go (my tree had 9 rows of branches so it works out to 'Twoish' per row).  Once you finish the tree then wrap the wire in the floral tape until your tree is the right height and mount the tree on the box as per the instructions.  If you were fancy you could rig a way to hide the wire but I find I can fit the battery pack into the box anyway and the wire can run around under the lid.

I really like the finished effect, if I do say so myself.  Particularly how the bead decorations catch the lights.

The lantern is another Pinterest inspiration.  Fill a lantern with baubles for a simple decoration.  I just added some more LED lights in there to brighten it up a bit.  The lights are powered by the battery pack hidden under the paua shell in the first image.

Christmas treats

For those paying attention, it has been a VERY long time since I last posted.  Sadly work takes a lot of my time.  But now school holidays are here and I have several weeks to procrastinate on fun things before realising that the pile of work I brought home has not magically marked itself.

I do have a few things in the works but this week has been taken up by lots of Christmas cooking.  So happy Christmas to all and help yourself to a virtual goodie.  Clockwise from 12 we have blueberry friand slice (using fresh blueberries I bought from a market this morning), mini Christmas puddings (recipe below), Chocolate truffles, gingerbread melted snowmen (instructions found through my recent discovery of Pinterest!) and finally some white chocolate and berry truffles that I kind of invented/adapted from the chocolate truffle recipe. 

For my family members who read this blog, there is now no surprises for Christmas nibbles but for those who I will not be seeing on Christmas day, here are a few recipes for you to make your own.  Particularly useful I hope for those who held off cooking in case the world ended and made the effort wasted!

Mini Christmas puddings

Ingredients

One tin of Christmas pudding
Brandy
approx 30g White chocolate
1 tblsp Copha, vegetable shortening (optional)
Glace cherries

Take the Christmas pudding and crumble it up into a large bowl.  Add several tablespoons of bandy and mix.  There should be enough moisture to allow you to roll the pudding into small balls (about 1.5 cm diameter or whatever you prefer).  Place in fridge for at least 20 min.
Melt white chocolate, if it is still thick (because I used chocolate chips mine was) add a small amount of copha to thin the mix.  Spoon over the top of the pudding.  Before the pudding sets, place two small pieces of green cherry and one of red.  Refrigerate until top has set.

White Chocolate and Berry Truffles

Ingredients

200g white chocolate
70g dried blueberries
2 egg yolks
Cherry brandy or normal brandy
dessicated coconut (enough to coat)

Grate the chocolate and place in a large bowl with blueberries.  Add egg and brandy and mix.  Mixture should be moist and able to be rolled into small balls.  If too dry, add more brandy, if too wet add some coconut.
Roll the mixture into small balls, then roll the balls in coconut until coated.  Refrigerate until firm.


Have a great Christmas, Hogswatch or holiday of your choice.

More Nine Patch Quilt Blocks

Many moons ago I started a nine patch sampler quilt as a way of learning some new skills.  One patch of procrastination later and I have learnt a number of things.

While straight lines are easy...

They can get more complicated when the fabric pieces become smaller...

But put together in the right way make pretty stars.  This is my favourite block so far.

However, multiple pieces coming to a point are nearly impossible (I hate to think about how many times I had to unpick and redo seams on this one.  Lets just say that this block and the next were responsible for me packing things away for so long)...

 And curves are Abominations Unto Nuggan and should be banned!  This patch is called Drunkards Path and I think that's because it describes the quilter after making a quilts worth of these blocks!

Still two blocks to go before I face the next saga- putting it all together and quilting it. 

Into the Labyrinth Bag Part 2

Hooray for school holidays!  It means I can finally get some of the jobs that have been sitting on the back-burner done!

Labyrinth bag blocking

Today's post is about how I finished off my 'Into the Labyrinth' bag.  In the previous post I had the bag finished but needing a liner so the wool that was carried on the back of the knitting would not tangle with every item put into the bag.

Step one was to block it so it would hold it's shape.  This was easy to do- lightly wet your bag (the wetter it is, the longer to dry so you ideally want it just damp- or do this on a stinking hot day).  Then put it into the final shape.  I achieved this by rolling up a towel until it was the desired internal diameter and placed it inside.  If sitting it upright like I did to allow it to dry evenly, then safety pins can be useful to hold the top up.

Then to work on the liner. I wanted cheap and easy so I went with pieces of felt. They are available most commonly in A4 sizes so I went with that.  However, if you don't want to sew multiple seams to get the diameter right then fabric shops will have wider widths you can buy by the metre.  For my bag I went with two black pieces for the side and a piece of light green for the base, partly because contrast is pretty and it matches the front but mostly because I hate having to hunt for a dark object in a dark bag with dark lining.  The green piece was cut to be about 1cm smaller than the size of the leather base on the bag itself.

Next sew the sides together and check they fit around your base.  Tiny confession here- technically my sides were about 3cm too short to fit around my base. But felt is forgiving and by the time it was put into a bag I figured it wouldn't matter.  Fit the base around the sides and use safety pins to hold in place and to ensure your sewing will be even.  Then just stitch the base on.  You can see mine below with the cool matching green thread.

Once done, place into your bag and check for fit.  My sides were about 2cm too long.  You could cut the excess off or you can fold over and hold in place.  I chose the latter.

You can also see the cunning method I used to hold the liner to the bag- eyelets.  Adding them is fairly simple.  You usually get a tool to hold the two parts together and you need a big hammer.  Going through multiple layers of felt can result in a poor fit of your eyelet (ask me how I know!)  so I suggest punching a hole through the felt if you have a hole punch.  I didn't have one so I will probably have to go back and redo a couple at some point *sigh*

When finished thread a cord through the eyelets.  I used satiny cord- little tip.  If using something like that the ends will LOVE to fray or unravel.  CAREFULLY IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA use a lighter to set the ends on fire.  The synthetic material will melt and hold the end together.  Be sure to let it cool before touching it (or letting it touch anything else).

That's pretty much it.  One Labyrinth bag, suitable for holding knitting project, lovely jewels, crystal balls, or supplies for 13 hours travelling through a Labyrinth.

Blue Bird of Happiness

Blue Bird of Happiness, a photo by Kelshandra on Flickr.
I'm heading to the Australian Discworld convention in two weeks!  Woot!  And because it is always more fun to have a costume for that sort of thing, after much careful consideration, to dress as the Cheerful Fairy.  Don't remember her?  She's in the Hogfather and is one of several mythical creatures who arise after the Hogfather is um, killed?  Made to not exist?


"'Excuse me madam' said Ridcully. 'But is that a chicken on your shoulder?' 'It's, er, it's, er, it's the Blue Bird of Happiness' said the Cheerful Fairy."

So I needed a blue chicken.  But I figured it would be much more amusing if my chicken was looking a bit sad and pathetic... 'my Blue Bird of Happiness hasn't been himself lately'.  A toy rubber chicken and a can of spraypaint later and things were looking a bit sad.  Paint oozing off the rubber chicken and not drying.  So I came up with a plan B; one rubber chicken pattern later, some cheap acrylic and there you go.  Not sure if I'll use him but I do sense a charity raffle contribution at the end.




Now to go and work out the rest of my costume! Any Discworld jokes for the Cheerful Fairy's joke book?  Leave a comment below.

An elephant for my nephew

It's been a while and my only excuse is that I've not been crafting (which is sad, I know).  But my nephew's first birthday was approaching so I decided to pull out the knitting needles because I found a lovely pattern for a knitted elephant. The pattern is one from the book Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen.  I nearly bought the book in Lincraft but at $30 for the book, knowing that I'd make one or two animals at most, it was a bit dear.  However, happily when I got home I searched Ravelry for an elephant I found that the designer had a pattern available online- free!  Here's the link to the Woman's Day site it is available through.

The pattern is well written for the most part, there was only one part that was a little confusing (and based on Ravelry I wasn't the only one).  While the body pieces use make 1 stitches (so don't increase within a stitch but rely on making a new stitch), the other pieces use increases (knitting in the front and back).  If you don't realise this and instead continue to make stitches when making the head etc, your stitch counts will be off.

But aside from that little hiccup, it's a lovely pattern.  Easy and quick to make and looks adorable. If you wanted to make a menagerie of animals then I would say the book Knitted Wild Animals is a good buy.  If you only want to make an elephant then this is a good one to make- particularly if you are relatively new to toy making.

And the careful observers would already have realised that I've not put a tail on my elephant yet- oops!  I'll just go do that now!

Knitted bag pattern Part 1

I needed a new knitting project, I need a new handbag (the strap attachment fell off and it keeps trying to eat any knitted tops I'm wearing) and I also need to use up some of the wool in my stash (otherwise I'll not be able to buy more!)  I had five balls of Lincraft's Prism yarn in blue and beige.  It has a very slow colour change that I like- I much prefer large lengths in a colour that gently changes than wool that is constantly changing as I prefer the way it knits up.

I had a free pattern from Lincraft for a bag using the yarn but decided to tweak it a bit lot, so here's my altered version.  Warning in advance- this has ended up being quite long so I will split it into two posts- inside and outside!  I also talk a lot about different customisation options so you might want to read through the entire post before you cast on.

Front
Cast on 48 stitches.  Knit in stocking stitch for 17 rows, then knit two rows of reverse stocking.  Repeat these 19 rows, then knit 17 stitches of stocking stitch and cast off.

Back and flap
Cast on 48 stitches.  Knit in stocking stitch for 17 rows, then knit two rows of reverse stocking.  Repeat these 19 rows twice more.   At this point you should have 3 reverse stocking stitch lines ending with the two reverse stocking rows and this back should be the same size as the front piece.

To make the top and flap continue knitting as follows:
Row 1: K2, purl to last 2, K2
Row 2: K all
These two rows repeated will make the front flap in stocking stitch with a garter stitch band on either side to stop curling.  Continue for the size you wish for your flap (include an extra 8cm or so to the length to allow for the distance the flap covers to go from the top over to the front- the top bit in other words). When you nearly reach the size of the flap that you wish ending with a knit row (mine was 21 cm from the last reverse stocking rows), shape as follows for the final rows:

Row 1:  K2, P2 tog, P to last 4, P2togtbl, K2
Row 2: Knit all
Row 3: K2, ssk, ssk, K to last 4, K2 tog, K2
Row 4: Repeat Row 3

Cast off

The garter stitch edging should help the material curl up at all, but you will still probably find you need to block the material to make it lie flat.  In addition, you can line your bag including the flap to help it hold its shape- more on that in a future post.

Sides (make 2)
Cast on 12 stitches.  Knit in stocking stitch until the length of the side is the length of the front MINUS half the width of the side.  So if your front piece was 25 cm and your side was 8 cm wide like my test bag, you want to make your side 21 cm long.
NOTE- if you want to have a bag handle as part of the side, read the notes below first!

Checking the size of the bag side- this is about the right length.  The knitting needle on the right shows the seam point for the bottom of the bag.

Strap
Option 1- Garter stitch
There are several options for bag straps.  Many knitted bags I've seen use garter stitch straps.  On the plus side, these will match your bag exactly since they are, of course, made from the same material.  On the minus side, they tend to stretch, particularly if you load up your bag the way that I do mine.  If you go this option, make your strap shorter than you want it to be to take this stretch into account.

If you have more self control in bag packing than me, then you may wish to make the sides and the strap all in one piece.  If so, just switch to garter stitch when one side is the required length, then stitch for the length of your strap (don't forget the stretch factor) before switching back to stocking for the other side.

Option 2- Icord or other cord options
Icord is another option (tons of tutorials out there online so I'll let you find one yourself).  It can either be knitted on double pointed needles or using a Knitting Nancy (anyone else have one as a kid?  I had two, one of which was my mothers from when she was a kid!).  A similar sort of cord can be made using a lucet which is a bit like a primitive ancestor of a Knitting Nancy.  Yonks ago I wrote a review of a lucet... I must dig it out and post it here

Option 3- Something else
The final option is to use some other material entirely for the bag strap.  Since there is quite a lot in the world that is is 'something else' I shall leave it to you to investigate this option

Assembly
Smart people block pieces before sewing them up.  Thanks to a combination of impatience and absent-mindedness I didn't do this, so please forgive the curly nature of the pieces in the photos below.

Sew the bottom of the front and back piece together (while you could choose to knit this as one piece, using a seam should make the bottom stronger and avoid sagging when loaded up with stuff). 

Bottom and top sewn together  and the first side in progress (the knitting needle shows the location of the bottom seam)

Sew the side panels to the front and back.  I found it best to start an the bottom of the side piece (so at the seam of the front and back) and sew up to ensure things are even.  When sewn on, the side piece should the just the right height to reach the top of the front, and to the last reverse stocking section of the back.

Sew the bottom of the side pieces on first, centred over the bottom seam

 When finished your bag should look a bit like this, or uncurly if you were good and actually blocked the pieces first!

If you didn't block it, now would be a good time.  Dampen the wool (or soak it- just bear in mind it will take much longer to dry) and pin it to shape on a suitable flat surface.  I like to use a beach towel over a cheap yoga mat because I can lay it out anywhere I like.  Once dry, the material should not curl up like it's trying to hide!

Next step is to attach the strap to the bag.  I am using some large rings I bought from the craft shop.  These will be sewn to the top of each side piece and the strap will then be attached to the rings. If you want a simple bag, you can do this step now, add your strap and call it good.

However, I am going to do something sneaky.  I am making a fitted organiser to go with this bag.  It will have pockets to hold things that otherwise disappear such as my mobile phone, and will also sneakily attach to the rings to prevent the bag from sagging out of shape too much.  Because of this, I am going to leave the rings for another post.  Trust me, it will make more sense in the end.

Click here to go straight to part 2

Tatted necklace

Long time, no blog! Blame it on a combination of starting a new job and all that stress it involves and the joy of moving- nothing saps creative energy like unpacking boxes and putting together flatpack furniture.  Which is a pity really, because I've always thought of flatpack furniture as the grown-up version of a giant lego kit!

I only have a small post- a cute little necklace that I made on the weekend before starting my new job as a teacher.  Things will probably remain fairly quiet from me as things I do in the classroom like using osmosis to shrink and expand eggs don't really fit in a craft blog (fun though- dissolve an egg in vinegar over a day or two, then place it in either pure water or a highly concentrated sugar or salt solution and see what happens).

Close up view of necklace

Necklace pinned out for blocking- curve at end due to me running out of cork board!

The necklace was from the book 'Easy Tatting' by Rozella F. Linden and was made using purple crochet cotton and black swarovski crystals.  I think it looks pretty good, can't wait to wear it out and about.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!  Hope 2012 is a good one for you all.  Things have slowed down here on the crafting front in anticipation of my big move (8 days to go).  Because I've been starting to pack, that means about half my craft stuff is packed away.  I only have a few projects out (tricky since trying to decide what projects can be packed up and what should stay out until the last minute changes based on mood).

One thing I have managed to do is finish Queen Anne's Curse.  I had thought the curse would be over once I cast off, and I'd managed to catch a few stitches on the last few rounds that inexplicably jumped off the needles to sit, lurking, waiting for the moment to run away, giggling evilly.  I finished the last stitch on Christmas day and could finally spread out my work to happily gloat over.

Queen Anne's Curse, still with the life lines in

But then I pulled out the two lifelines that kept it in a sort of blobby mass.  Spreading it out for the first time I looked in horror....

The ruddy thing is way too small!  I was expecting it to be much bigger for some reason.  It is about 84 cm in diameter laid out on my bed.  And given it is made of cotton, I'm not sure if it will stretch at all by washing and blocking it (if anything, the cotton might shrink- eek!)

And if that wasn't enough, clearly one of the balls of cotton I used, despite being the same brand, dye (well, white) and type, clearly had a different colour/ thickness? than the rest.  That ring around the half way point is not a design feature- well it wasn't originally, it is now!

It is now packed it a bag to await my big move before I even think about trying to block it   Still, that was 2011.  Onward to 2012, where nothing can possibly go wrong.  Right?  Right?!