Taking my camera out to play

I've got a great SLR camera, but it has been living in an old boxlike thing. It's good for storage, but doesn't work for carrying it with me.
I also don't like the standard camerabags for sale. They all look the same and seem to scream: "Steal me, expensive stuff inside!" And they cost quite a lot.
So I got to work with some thick fabric and several layers of fiberfill.
This is a bag I do want to take out with me!


No actionshots with the camera in it, because obviously than I can't make pictures ;-) You just have to take my word, it fits in there nice and snugly.

Pillows

I intended them as a gift. But while I was working on them, I got the feeling that the reciever wouldn't like them. Also there are a few small mistakes in them (yes I am a perfectionist), so I didn't think they were good enough to give away.
So now we have two new pillows ourselves. Patchwork of mostly green scraps on the front and stripes on the back, both sides quilted. DH likes them and I do too (except for the mistakes..) And it's kind of nice to keep them. This was my very first attempt at patchwork and quilting. Not the last attempt, by the way, because I really liked working on this. Maybe I'll try it by hand next time, I did all of this on my sewing machine.
The green is much brighter than in the pictures.

Pride and Prejudice

DD E. is going to the Elf Fantasy Fair on Saturday. She asked if I could make her a dress. I thought something gothic or witchlike. Prejudice...
But I said I would do it. I thought it would be fun and there are plenty of tutorials online for those dresses. But a few weeks ago E. send me some pictures. She wanted the dress Paige is wearing in the Charmed episode
in which the ladies change into greek goddesses. Ehm...do you call that a dress? Does it really have to be that revealing?
But I had some gold organza left and I was allowed to fill up the gaps in the dress with that. A forumfriend would make Pipers or Phoebes dress, so they were a matching pair. But than the friend mailed she had bought this pattern
I have no idea what the relation with fantasy is. Pride & Prejudice is a rather serious book. She is reading it at the moment, in english (we're dutch), so that's a plus.
Anyway. We thought the pattern was too expensive. Well, E. did, she has to pay herself for everything, traintickets, tickets to the fair and material for the dress (she's almost sixteen and has a saturdayjob). So she asked if I could make it without.
I said yes, if she would ask the friend to send me a picture of the pattern pieces. That was not much help, because I couldn't make out the details and there is a lot of stuff going on (I have no idea what the english word for beleg is, the parts you fold or sew double to have a thicker layer in collars and so on). I just winged most of it. And I think it worked out okay. So there you have pride.



DD E. is happy with it...

Stitching

I bought a new sewingmachine. My old one always was a bit troublesome, skipping stitches, things like that. I could work with it, but it took a lot of fiddling with threadtension and rethreading. I always doubted if the problem was the machine of my poor sewing skills... I saw a Singer on sale and DH agreed with me that it was time to find out.
To get a feel for my new machine I set aside the dress I'm making for dd E. (very thin fabric, no pattern) and made a knittingneedle roll. Lots of stitching involved in this.
I put in a thicker needle after doing a few practice stitches on a scrap of the thin fabric, because the fabric I was going to use was a lot thicker. And was very disappointed to see lots of stitches skipped...
But then I changed needles again and had no trouble anymore. Yes! And believe me, this was way to much stitching for my old machine (a pfaff dorina).



It really looks a lot better then the way I stored my needles before (in a plastic bag).

Poncho finished

I finally finished the poncho. My recalculating for the much thinner yarn was right after all. Attaching the fringes
was a lot of work, but it was worth it!

Pattern for cute chick cozies

I used fuzzy yellow and orange yarn I had in my stash and 4mm needles (US size 6)
Cast on 25 stitches in yellow.

Rows 1-8: seedstitch (knit 1, purl 1, etc.)
Row 9: knit across
Row 10: purl across
Row 11: k 2, k2tog, k 4, k2tog, k 5, ssk, k 4, ssk, k 2
Row 12: p 21
Row 13: k 2, k2tog, k 3, k2tog, k 3, ssk, k3, ssk, k 2
Row 14: p 17
Row 15: k 1, k2tog, k 2, k2tog, k 3, ssk, k 2, ssk, k1
Row 16: p 13

Cut off the yarn, leave about 30 centimeters (12 inches). thread the end through the stitches you have left and pull to close. Use the rest of the cut off end to sew the backseam.

For the wings (also yellow):

cast on 3 stitches
Row 1: k 3
Row 2: p 3
Row 3: make one stitch extra by knitting in the front and the back of the same stitch, k across
Row 4: p 4
Row 5: make one stitch extra by knitting in the front and the back of the same stitch, k across
Row 6: p 5
Row 7: make one stitch extra by knitting in the front and the back of the same stitch, k across
Row 8: cast off six stitches (purl)

The other wing is the opposite. Making a stitch while purling was a bit tricky but it looked allright.

cast on 3 stitches
Row 1: p 3
Row 2: k 3
Row 3: make one stitch extra by purling in the front and the back of the same stitch, p across
Row 4: k 4
Row 5: make one stitch extra by purling in the front and the back of the same stitch, p across
Row 6: k 5
Row 7: make one stitch extra by purling in the front and the back of the same stitch, p across
Row 8: cast off six stitches (knit)

Sew the wings on, the straight side should be facing front.

Beak (in orange):
Cast on 5
Row 1: k 5
Row 2: k2tog, k1, ssk
Row 3: k2tog, k1
Row 4: k2 tog
Pull thread through last stitch
Weave in the ends.
The beak will not be a perfect triangle, I corrected this by using the ends to fill it out a bit.

Sew the beak on.

Use black (or any other color) yarn for the eyes. I just made a cross stitch and knotted the ends on the inside.

Cut five orange threads about 15 centimeters (6 inches0. Pull them through two top stitches (I used a crochet hook, but you could also pull them with a needle one by one. Make a knot in the ten ends close to the top and trim to desired length.

That's it. If anything is unclear, please contact me.
I would love to hear if anybody had made this and see how it turns out!

I guess I should also put in something in about selling my pattern or using it to make things you sell. The first: please don't; the second: tell me, give me some credit, but I don't really mind (unless you are a very big company making very large profits with it, then I would like to get my share.)

Finally a (small) finished object!

I made these as a small Easter gift for my parents in law. There were two more, for my parents, but I finished those in the car on the way there (a one hour drive) so I didn't have time to take pictures of them.

Pictures of spring

When you're home because you are waiting for some computersupplies, it's a nice surprise when instead this is delivered:



Easter-present from my parents.
This made me want to set up some easterbranches. A bit late, but never mind. We do have that bush with the curly branches in our garden.



Because I was outside and had my camera ready to use, I decided to make some spring-time-pictures.

The buds on the cherrytree are about to burst open.



The honeysuckle is also growing again. I cut it down fiercely every autumn, but it doesn't seem to mind.



And then I realised the view from the front of our house is very pretty. Especially when the light is not the usual dutch-dim, but bright like today.



The view at the back is also good, but I don't have pictures of that. Yet. I'm sure I will take some later.

Quick update

- Kitchen is in. Water is on and dishwasher works. Just some finishing touches to be done. No pictures yet, I need to clean up first.
- Have been untangling the big pile this weekend. There is some progress, but I'm not there yet.
- Few knitting (a few inches on the poncho), no sewing. I hope this week will be better for crafting...