X-Stitching

Hi guys :)

As many of you will know last month I was sent a cross stitch kit by my partner Laura in the cute and quirky swap. I was really pleased as I had wanted to learn how to cross stitch properly but didn't really know where to start :/ It was great as it really helped me to learn the basics, for example I thought for cross stitch you used the whole thread but you actually only use a couple of strands at a time. (No wonder I found it difficult and it didn't look right when I tried once before, the thread was too thick!)
To my surprise I managed to follow the chart well and kept all my little cross stitches facing the same way!

The kit made a sweet little seagull picture which I turned into this pincushion once I'd finished :D

I don't think it's bad for a first try :)

I backed it with some pretty blue fabric I had and added a couple of buttons for decoration :0)

I have got to perfect my cross stitching though so I get into a rhythm and don't have to check each stitch!

In the future I want to cross cross stitching and knitting/crochet to see what I can create :-) But I have got to do some more practice first. I might try to pick up some more little kits when I'm on holiday seeing as this one was soo fun and helpful! (I have already bought a copy of Cross stitcher magazine which is great too and has loads of cute mini motifs to stitch, so I might try some projects out of there too)

See you soon,

Au revoir :)

*First Blogiversary!*

Hi guys!

Exactly one year ago today I posted my very first blog post, so that makes today my first blogiversary!!!!! :D

(Photo taken by Rachel of Millie Holloman Photography and found here)

I'm soo happy and excited as my little blog has come so far (mainly thanks to all the kind and wonderful readers :) So to celebrate and show you just how far the blog has come in only 365 and a 1/4 days (hahahaa, the 1/4 makes all the difference :) I thought I would share some stats with you from over the year...

• The blog has gone from 0 followers to a very healthy 55! (thank you followers!)

• 128 posts have been posted (including this one :)

• Over 150 comments have been posted by readers

• 11 people have become lucky giveaway winners!

• 12 free patterns have been put up

• And this is perhaps the most amazing stat of all, the blog has had over 12,919 views from people around the globe and has been mentioned on several different sites!!!!!

I would just like to say thank you to everyone, I really do appreciate every single one of those 12,919 page views!

I'm so thrilled and I hope by the time the next blogiversary comes around I will have even more amazing stats to share with you. I'm going to keep improving the blog and posting about even more fun and exciting stuff so please do stick around for another year! :0)

See all you lovely people again soon :)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

P.s. Oops I nearly forgot the cake, silly me! You can't have a celebration without cake :) Help yourself to a slice....

(Image from: here)

Mmmmmm..... :0)

Bye x 8-)

Dad's Birthday!!!

Hi,

Today is my dad's birthday!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!! Happy birthday dad!!!!!!!!!!

My dad likes to bake (as many of you will know from seeing the pictures of the amazing cakes he bakes for me and my brothers birthdays!) and one of my favourite things he makes are these delicious brownies........ mmm:P:

They really are good so I designed and knitted up the MEGA BROWNIE for him as a gift :0)

 I did a slighlty lighter shade on top (like where the brownies get cooked and lighten) and sewed on the nuts to make it look as realistic as possible. The reason I called it a MEGA BROWNIE is because it's quite substantially bigger than the real thing!

I also got him some other gifts and as an extra surprise me and my brother made my dad a very special cake. My dad's favorite place is the Isle of Wight so I came up with the idea of making him an IOW cake.

 I am a perfectionist so as soon as anything went wrong I had a panic attack and my brother had to calm me down! :D But we got there in the end and I think we did really well.

Here is the IOW cake:

I had to cut round a cut out map of the IOW to get the shape just right!

The little flags show some of my dads favourite places to visit.

(I'm so jealous though as my brother wrote the flags and I think his handwriting is nicer than mine! :)

My dad really liked it and we've finished the cake now as we had it for breakfast,  it tasted good! All that icing and jam...:P

I think next we are off to visit some National Trust gardens as that's what my dad has chosen as his birthday outing,

See you all later, bye!

Takochu! (+ free knitted Takochu pattern)

Hi,

Aren't these just amazingly cute! *o*

Image from: http://weheartit.com/tag/takochus

They are mini octopus toys called Takochu (made by Pine), they even stack on top of each other! I first found out about these on Berrysprite, she has posted about them on her blog a few times and since I saw them I have been kind of hooked :)

They are quite difficult to get hold of though as they are veeeerrrrrrryyyyyy expensive usually and the only place you can really get them for a good price is Kawaii Shop Japan, problem is they sell out very quickly! And then you have to wait for them to restock. I think they have some in stock now though so get down there quickly if you want to get your hands on some like I do! Im ordering some in a couple of weeks :)

Berrysprite put up a free crochet pattern so that people can crochet their own Takochu: http://berrysprite.blogspot.com/2010/07/amigurumi-small-takochu-tutorial.html

I thought the pattern was great when I found out about it but then I got thinking,what about those who can't get hold of the real thing or crochet? 

So I sat down a wrote a pattern for a knitted Takochu style octopus!!! :0) And I'm putting it up for free so there is no one who now can't have a Takochu if they so want one!

Here is the Knit style Takochu octopus:

(hhehehhe, in the background is my fish Razor :) He loves his new friend!!!)

And here is how to make one!:

You will need:

• Small amounts of DK yarn In any two colours you wish (1 colour for body and tentacles and 1 for the Takochu's mouth)
• A pair of 3.25mm needles
• A small amount of stuffing
• A darning needle
• A small length of black yarn for embroidering eyes or beads/toy safety eyes
• And a pair or scissors

Head/Body (make 1):

Cast on 6sts in main colour (6sts)

Row 1: Kfb into each st (12sts)

Row 2: P across row

Row 3: *K1, Kfb* repeat from * to * across (18sts)

Row 4: P across row

Row 5: *K2, Kfb* repeat from * to * across (24sts)

Row 6: P across row

Row 7: *K3, Kfb* repeat form * to * across (30sts)

Row 8: P across row

Row 9: *K4, Kfb* repeat from * to * across (36sts)

Row 10: P across row

Row 11: *K4, k2tog* repeat from * to * across (30sts)

Row 12: P across row

Row 13: *K3, K2tog* repeat from * to * across (24sts)
Row 14: P across row
Row 15: *K2, K2tog* repeat from * to * across (18sts)
Row 16: P across row
Row 17: *K1, K2tog* repeat form * to * across (12sts)
Row 18: P across row
Row 19: K2tog 6 times (6sts)

Thread yarn through remaining stitches, draw up and fasten off.

Tentacles:

To make the tentacles you have to knit four separate tentacle parts (leaving each piece when finished on the same needle) then knit across all four tentacles to join them together:

Tentacle pieces (make 4) (cast on to same needle each time so all four pieces end up on same needle when done):

Cast on 5sts using main colour
Row 1: K across row
Row 2: P across row
Row 3: Kfb, k3, Kfb (7sts)
Row 4: P across row
Row 5: K across row
Row 6: P across row
Leave sts on needle and make next one

Once you have completed all four tentacle pieces work the following rows across all of them:

Row 7: K2tog across (14sts)
Row 8: P2tog across (7sts)

Thread yarn through remaining sts, draw up and fasten off. (You should have something resembling a flower)

Mouth (Make 1):

Cast on 14sts using 2nd colour
Cast off in K


Making up:

Take the head/body piece, carefully sew down the seam (with right side facing inwards) stopping before reaching the bottom. Turn the piece, Stuff then continue seaming. When you reach the cast one edge/bottom (which will actually be the top of the head) thread yarn through 6 cast on sts and draw up to seal in stuffing and create a sphere shape.

Darn in any loose ends on the tentacles and sew the centre of the flower shape (tentacle piece) to the centre of the bottom of the sphere. making sure the right side of the tentacles in facing upwards.

Then take the mouth piece and oversew one end to another to create a small circle. Sew this to the front of the Takochu. Embroider on some eyes using black yarn etc... (use picture as a guide). Finally you can curl up your Takochu's tentacles a bit and shape your Takochu as you want and add any other decorations then you are finished! (you can also spray your Takochu with hairspray if you wish then leave to dry to hold all the tentacles in place or you can just leave it)

Woo hoo!

Once you've made one I guarantee you won't be able to stop :0)

I couldn't!

I hope you like the pattern :) See you soon,

Byeeeee xxx

Abbreviations:

st(s) = Stitch(es)

Kfb = Knit into the front and back of the stitch (a type of increase)

K = Knit

P = Purl

K2tog = Knit two stitches together

P2tog = Purl two stitches together

(P.s Please don't sell items from this pattern without letting me know or linking to my blog first, thanks :)

Cute giveaway winner and runner up! :D

Hi!

Entries are now closed and it's time for me to announce the winner and runner up of the cute kit giveaway :D

I put all the entries into a big old sweet jar and gave them a good old shake

I then got my brother to pick out one entry randomly to be the winner...

And that lucky person is: Jean Lindgren!!!!! Congratulations!!!!! You have won the cute crafty kit! :)

Woooooooooooooo!!!!!!

The second entry my brother picked out was from Lorraine O! who is the runner up and gets the cute sheep pen! :D

Well done Lorraine!

 

Congratulations again to the winner, Jean, and  runner up Lorraine! I have sent you both an email so you can claim your prizes :)

 

Don't worry if you didn't win this time there will be plenty more giveaways and fun stuff coming up soon,

 

See you later,

 

Bye!!! xxx

Only 1 day left to enter giveaway!

Hi Guys,

This is just a quick post to let you know that tomorrow entries for the cute kit giveaway close and the winner and runner up will be announced!

If you haven't entered yet do it now otherwise you could miss out on all the prizes! :D

Good Luck!

See you tomorrow..... xxx

Be a thrifty crafter :0)

Hey guys!

Today I thought I would post some of my best tips for stocking up on your craft materials while keeping the cost very low :)

You may already know/follow some of these tips but if you don't hopefully it will help you to enrich your craft box and save you money!

Here they are, my top tips!:

1. Ribbon can be very expensive to buy especially thick luxurious satin ribbon or patterned stuff. However if you keep your eyes open and take a look at some things before you throw them out you may find it on more things than you would imagine! e.g chocolate boxes, cards, gift wrapping, and even around boxes of bubble bath sets or Christmas cake boxes! So keep your peepers peeled and you'll soon find your ribbon stash building up (you can sometimes find buttons or beads in these places too!). This is just some of the ribbon I have collected:

2. If you are getting rid of clothes (and they are not going to the charity shop) make sure to cut off the buttons! This is something so easily forgotten but if you remember you can find yourself with a full set of buttons ready to be used in a project :) Also if the clothes are made of some interesting fabric cut out a large square or two and keep it. Then you will have some beautiful fabric to make a dress for your next amigurumi creation, for example. Without costing you a penny!

3. Get a large jar or tub and store all of your yarn tails from your projects in it as there are tonnes of uses for these scraps. Firstly you can tie them all together (leaving short lengths of the tied yarns sticking out at the knots) to create your own rainbow coloured furry novelty yarn. Secondly you can stuff toys etc... with them. Yarn scraps are great for stuffing toys as they won't cause lumps in toys unlike some kinds of stuffing and they make toys really soft and squidy, thats what I used to stuff my Red Nose Day monster :) You can also use them to make cool rainbow pom-poms! Again without costing you anything.

I keep all my scraps in an old sweet jar:

4. Collect up birthday, Christmas and celebration cards as you can cut sections of them out to make pretty and unique labels for your handmade items! Here is my collection of cards:

5. My final tip is ASK YOUR FAMILY (or drop hints about saving you their craft stuff if you don't feel cheeky enough to ask :). Ask your mum, dad, brother, auntie, nan, grandad, Anyone! to save up any old buttons or beads or ribbon they find lying around and ask them (politely! :0) if you can have the stuff. You could even make them a little thank you gift from some of the stuff they give you. A while back my auntie gave me a load of buttons and my nan gave me lots of embroidery thread, all of which has come in very useful.

I'm pretty sure that that is all :) I hope this post has been even the littlest bit helpful.

Happy crafting,

Bye :D



Seaside themed swap parcel!

Hey guys,

Today my swap parcel from the cute and quirky swap group I run on Ravelry arrived from Laura :D

This months theme was Seaside Fun and I got, again, a really great parcel from Laura who was my swap partner from the last swap too! All the stuff came wrapped in some cool glittery tissue paper and the candyfloss notecard from Laura was really cute *o*

Wow! Doesn't it just ooze cuteness!

I got:

• A packet of sweets, some pez (with a Hello Kitty dispenser!!!!) and a Hello Kitty chocolate lollipop, Yum :P
• Some cute food/ice cream stickers and some foam sealife stickers
• Two gel pens one with a little octopus on it and one with a starfish on it :3
• A pack of tissues with a cool ice lolly cover! I'm soo pleased about these as I kind of have a collection of different packs of cute tissues :D
• An amazing 'Summer holiday' cross stitch coaster made by Laura herself
• A sweet knitted starfish design postcard
• A little seagull cross stitch kit with I'm really thrilled with as I am just starting to teach myself how to cross stitch :0)
• And also these two cuties, handmade by Laura!:

Aww... Pop and Sicle and Ice and Lolly (what I decided to call them: Ice is the ice cream and the orange one is Lolly!) are all going to be best friends!

Thank you soooooo much Laura!

I'm off to go and start my cross stitch kit now!

Bye XxXx

P.s Don't forget to enter the in it to knit it giveaway if you haven't yet, entries close 22nd July, don't miss out!

I finally found a crafting group :D

Hi!

Today I went to a knit and natter group at my local library and it was really fun! I can't wait to go back :) I have to wait two months though as I'm on holiday for the next months meet.

I took along my DAL project (the cherry blossom wristlets/gloves) and managed to get quite a lot done, even though I was chattering away and munching on biscuits!

Many of the women there (who were all lovely and very interesting!) were making baby clothes so when I go back I'm going to bring the Rowan Kids winter clothes knitting book I got for getting my letter in a knitting magazine for them to have a look at and use the patterns. I haven't got any kids yet (and probably won't have for a while!) so I don't really need it :)

The group is also helping to make a very, very, very long string of bunting to be hung up locally in celebration for the Olympics coming to London so I get to help with that :D

Oooh I don't think I can wait two months!

See you soon,

Bye xxx

The big knit is back!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

The Innocent Smoothie Big Knit Is Back :D

If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can visit the Innocent Smoothie website to find out all about it: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit/

(It involves making lots of funny hats to put on smoothies sold in supermarkets for charity :)

You can also see my creations in the 2010 hatwalk posts I put up last year :)

Post 1

Post 2

But if you do indeed understand/know about it then I'm sure you are getting as excited as I am right now! :0) I loved making the hats last year (the first time I took part).

Today I made my first hat (Of many!) for 2011!!! I call it the Lovvvveeee hat!

I can't wait to make more, you kind of get hooked (as many of you will know)!

But... It is my bedtime now so Ill have to start the next one in the morning,

See you soon

Bye xxx

Sweet dinner party favours :)

Hello!

The other day my Aunty came round for dinner. My dad made a reallllllllyyyy nice meal and I made these little sweet holders :) I wrapped a fudge up in each one and put them in everybodys places as little dinner party favours :)

The pattern is my own and I'm really pleased with how they came out. I will definitely be making them again for future dinner parties! They only use up a little bit of yarn each so I was able to crochet them all from some yarn I got in a kit with a magazine. (I have soooo many little balls of yarn from magazines so its good to find a cool way to use some of them up)

The fudges I put in them were yummy too :P My brother had eaten his within 2 minutes of sitting down, Hahhaa :D

See you soon,

Bye xxx

Cute Kit Giveaway! :D

Hey! :D

As it is coming up to summer I thought I ought to do a special giveaway to celebrate!

I'm giving away a cute crafty kit for you to use with your projects over the holidays :3

Here is what you could win :

• Two reels of cute ribbon! One polka dot, one stripy.
• A set of sweet pink ribbon decorated buttons
• A pack of multicoloured star beads which could be added to amigurumi to make it extra cute!
• Two little handmade teatime treat charms which can be turned into stitch markers or clipped on bracelets or zips :)
• A very cute animal tape measure! For checking tension or measuring your finished goodies!
• A pack of mini lollies (because I always like to include something sweet in my giveaways :P)
• And a sparkly bag to store your stuff in! :0) Meaning you can carry your project and crafty bits and pieces down to the pool, or out with you on day trips during your hols :)

Close ups of the prizes!:

Yum! :)

This time around I'm also giving away a runner up prize:

A Very cute sheep pen, good for jotting down patterns or making quick notes :D

Trust me, I have one in purple... sooo sweet!

Entries for the giveaway close on Friday 22nd of July and the winner and runner up will be announced and contacted on the same day.

The giveaway is open to anyone, any age, anywhere!

To enter all you have to do is send an email to: iitki@hotmail.co.uk. If you are a follower mention this in the email and that will get you an extra entry and for another extra entry you can leave a comment at the bottom of this post stating your favourite thing about summer :D (please also mention if you do this in the email so I know).

(So you can get three entries in total, one initial entry for email (you have to send an email to be entered at all), an extra entry for being a follower and another extra entry for commenting)

(Not the same person can win both prizes so when the winner is chosen, if they had more than one entry their other entries will be removed before I select the runner up :)

Good luck everyone!

Bye :)

Yarn, *Tick*, Needles, *Tick*... Woo, Im ready!

Hola! :)

Today I finally got the yarn I need for My design for the Dal (design along) on Ravelry!

I'm soo happy, I got it in hobby craft today. I got two balls of candy pink for the main parts of the gloves and then some in a coral pink for parts of the little flowers. The candy pink yarn was £1.99 per ball and the coral pink yarn was only 99p per ball, they were having a sale. So not only did I get some lovely soft yarn it didn't cost me a fortune either :D

I was also pleased because when I got home I found that I had some circular needles in the size I needed too, I thought I was gunna have to buy some of those too, but no! :0)

Ohhh I can't wait to start!

But first is the matter of a tension square....

Check you later! :)

Byeeeee

Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!

Hi guys,

I have been awarded a Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!!!!!!

I was given this by the very fabulous Jasmine over at Jasmines crafts. I would like to thank her immensely as this is my very first blog award and it means a lot that she thought of me as a person to pass it on to :0) I am very grateful and want to thank her again for her kindness!

THANK YOU JASMINE!!!!! :) xxxxx

As part of the award you have to give 7 random facts about yourself... here goes! :) ...

1.  My favourite animals are Great White sharks. I find their power and size amazing and love their sharp teeth! >>> (I used to have a poster on my wall of one with its mouth open coming out of the water, it freaked lots of people out! Hahaha :-)
2.  If I wasn't called Jordan my parents would have called me Imogen or Ocean.
3. I like watching murder mysteries with my mum and get very proud/excited if I manage to work one out before the program is finished! We also watch fantasy Island together and sometimes I really wish I was there :o)
4. I go on holiday to the Isle Of Wight around 3 times a year. It's really great there, especially the shops and the choc dipped ice creams you get by the seafront :0P
5. I really like cornbread (It's the cake you get to eat with dinner!)
6. I strongly dislike (hate is a strong word :) Coca Cola tea and coffee >-<  There is only one type of fruity tea I've found that I like so far and I have a special tea straw to drink it with!
7. Sometimes I sit and wonder what I would do if zombies suddenly took over the earth/where I live :0) (Please don't think I'm crazy.... It may happen one day and then I will be prepared!)

And finally you also have to pass on the award onto 7 other bloggers :) I have chosen:

Laura from Cute crocheted creations: as I found her blog through the cute and quirky swap and love looking at all the marvellously cute amigurumis she makes, her blog is totally sweet and well deserving of this award!

Holly over at Berrysprite: because I love looking at all the cute things she makes and I enjoy reading her posts and learning about cute things I never even knew about before e.g Takochu!

Alyssa from Aly-oops: because her blog is just fabulous and I really enjoy looking at all her latest projects, design sketches and cute pets :)

Twinkie Chan over at Twinkie Chan's Blaaarrgghhhh!: as I really like her amazing projects and love her style. Her blog is very sweet indeed :3

There are soooo many great blogs out there that I'm finding it very hard to decide on my last three! I'm going to have a think and decide three more and then Ill pass on the awards in a later post...(Its just too hard :0)

Thanks again Jasmine xxx

See you all later,

Byeeeeee!

Crochet crisp packet coaster tutorial!

Bonjour :)

I hope you all saved up some food wrappers and cardboard like I said, as today I thought I would post a tutorial on how to make a crochet crisp packet coaster!!!! You can use any food wrapper, I just first made one with a crisp packet :)

They are pretty much recycled and are quick to make and I think they look great. They come in very handy at parties as everyone can choose one, (their favourite food!!!) and there is no more problem of mixed up drinks! Make them now ready for your summer party/barbecue, you can never have to many coasters...

You will need:

• Some cardboard e.g from old cereal boxes or birthday/Christmas etc... cards
• Some food wrappers (about crisp packet size)
• A pen
• Glue
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Hole punch
• 3.75mm crochet hook
• Small amounts of any DK yarn of your choice (e.g chosen to match your wrapper)
• Darning needle

How to make them:

Firstly take your cardboard, measure and cut out a 10cm by 10cm square. It doesn't matter what is on either side of the square as you won't see this when your coaster is finished.

Next take your chosen wrapper and place the cardboard square on top of the area of your wrapper you want to be shown on your coaster. Draw around the square.

Then remove the cardboard and place it to one side and cut out the shape from the wrapper, make sure you cut through both sides so you end up with two squares (one from the front of the wrapper and one from the back), both the same size as the cardboard.

Now glue one piece from the wrapper to one side of the cardboard square and the other to the other side. (You can use any glue just make sure it dries before continuing with the next step).

Now this is the tricky bit :/ Take your hole punch and punch 9 holes along each side of your square. (Corners are shared so there are 32 holes in total, see picture if confused)

I recommend you practice on a 10cm x 10cm piece of paper before trying it on your coaster.

After you have done that care fully snip off a little bit of each corner. This makes the corners easier to crochet around and gives them a more rounded finish :)

(It also stops the corners sticking out of your finished coaster!)

Next take your yarn and crochet hook and join the yarn to one of the holes (do this however you normally join on yarn). Do 2dc into each side hole and 4dc into each corner hole. When you get to where you started join with a slst and fasten off.

Finally darn in any loose ends and voila! you have your finished crisp packet coaster :D

The back even looks good too... :0)

Heeehehhee a coaster that gives you nutritional information too, that's impressive!

Abbreviations:

(I am using UK crochet abbreviations)

• dc = Double crochet
• slst = Slip stitch

I hope you like the tutorial, you could even make one as a gift using a wrapper from someones favourite food :)

See you all again sooooooonnn

Bye xxxxx :D

(P.S. please don't sell items made from this tutorial, if you want to for charity or another reason please contact me first, thanks xxx)