Sarah Youde

Flowers in the Snow - ready to go!

I have been busy crocheting the circles for my Flowers in the Snow blanket and I am thrilled that all 192 circles are now complete and ready to be added to the blanket.

I am sooooo excited...

This blanket is going to be so pretty and the Amy Butler/Rowan Belle Organic DK cotton looks and feels amazing :)

I have laid all the circles onto the floor to arrange the placement of them on the blanket which will ensure I don't end up will any unwelcome pools of colour. The blanket is going to be 12 squares by 16 squares, the perfect size for my craft room chair.

Then I picked all the circles up in order making a little pile for each row of the blanket.

And finally, the piles have been numbered to represent the rows of the blanket they will be crocheted onto. 

It's so exciting!  I can start tonight :)

So it seems like I am not doing anything!

That could be about right because I certainly haven't been doing much papercrafting lately and is not due to lack of interest. I have so many things I want to do, mainly involving the Smash products that I bought in America and all the memorabilia and photographs from our trip. I also have a magazine commission or two to get started on and I am excited about those, however, since we returned from our holiday there has been a lot going on and to be honest things that have been a lot more important that have needed to be dealt with.

I have however been plodding along with my Flowers in the Snow blanket and have now completed 37 squares and a further 90 circles ready to be joined onto the blanket so I am getting there with that. I can't wait to finish that one as it is going to be for my craft room and will be adorning the new (but second hand) wing backed upholstered chair I have recently acquired to bring a bit of coziness to my bolt hole!

Next week is the week. I can't wait to go and spend some time in my room. I really can't wait to get the chair in place, my blanket finished, a nice rug and some crocheted bunting completed to festoon the window. Oh, and a new crocheted cushion for my chair. One day, one day :)

I have also been enjoying my Dolce Gusto coffee machine, it's great! 

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

Well we are back from our fabulous holiday in Florida.  It truely was magical and I would go again tomorrow if it didn't cost so much and I wasn't so exhausted from all the running around!

I have loads to sort out as you can imagine we bought lots of 'stuff' and, of course, the kids had Christmas out there so it seems like every room in the house needs a good spring clean at the moment. 

Here is a quick snapshot of our Christmas!

Oh, I so wish I was still there!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, I haven't got back to posting as I hoped and now it will have to be in the new year because I am busy packing and sorting stuff for Christmas!  Tomorrow we leave home Disney bound so I may post some nice pictures from Florida but I am not promising anything.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a great new year :)

The Knitted Character

I may have been absent from my blog and mostly from my home whilst keeping Mum company for the last few weeks but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any kind of craft.  In fact, going over to keep Mum company allows me much more time to do a bit of knitting and crochet than if I stayed at home and cracked on with the housework!

I have knitted a jumper which just needs a few finishing touches, continued with my Flowers in the Snow blanket, made more little rabbits, crocheted four crochet hook cases (to be listed on Etsy when I get round to it) and also crocheted the knitted character from Harry Hill's TV Burp.

More to come on the projects later but I just couldn't wait to share my knitted character, it is just so cute.  I followed a pattern from HERE.  The pattern was very easy :)

I think I need to make a couple more because I just can't give one to Ben, Charlotte or Amy without them all having one!

More updates to follow but right now I need to search the web for the perfect buttons to sew on my now finished Owls jumper (which took me only four days to knit!).

This Week.

This week has been a tough one with my Mum having to go into hospital and urgently have a pacemaker fitted.  She is out now and goes back to hospital today for a check up so hopefully all will be well.

Normal blogging will resume shortly.

Mixed Media - She Wore Her Heart on her Sleeve

I think I forgot to mention that I have been searching for a better way to film my videos.  Previously, I had a tripod taped to the top of my shelving so that the video camera would hang over the tall unit in the corner of my room.  However, I wasn't really happy with this for two reasons; 1) It wasn't very nice seeing the tape all over my unit and 2) that corner of the room is dark and it wasn't the ideal position to film even with daylight lamps on.

Anyway, I asked Mark if it would be possible for my camera (a new proper video camera rather than my flip video) to be mounted over my desk by the window.  I didn't really think we would be able to do it 'on the cheap' but he has only gone and done it!  I bought a tripod for £10 that had a telescopic stick bit that could come out (not very technical, I know) and Mark went to Maplins and ingeniously bought a microphone holder which can be screwed to the top of the window.  The tripod fits into the microphone holder perfectly!  It's brilliant, I love it.

Look, here is the desk all set up and ready to make this canvas with my camera in place :)

So, with this all set up and being able, with this set up to actually see what I am filming as I am filming it I made this canvas :)

Here are some close ups.

This is just a tiny 5" x 7" canvas again, I love doing these little ones.

Here is the video:

    

Glass Tile Pendant Tutorial

...and now for something completely different!  I made a video yesterday whilst I was making a glass tile pendant.  Primarily I made the video so that I could time how long they take to make minus drying time and the video length was ten minutes and that included a lot of faffing around with the bail.  So not only are they really easy to make as you will see, they are also very quick to put together!

Here is the video :)

 

One A Day Blanket - Week 7!!

Week 7?!  I can't believe it, that has gone very quickly.  In another 7 weeks we will be in Disneyworld!!

Ok, so if I was doing a one a day blanket (one square per day) for 7 weeks I should have completed 49 squares but I haven't been doing it as religiously as I should have so I have completed 33 squares which are attached to my blanket using the join as you go method and I have 13 circles ready to join to the blanket.  That is a total of 46 almost finished squares so I am not doing too badly but, Shhhh, I have done about  20 of those in the last two days :)

I love using the Amy Butler Belle Organic cotton it is so lovely to work with and the blanket is so so soft and warm on my lap.

I can't wait to finish this blanket, it is going to look so pretty in my craft room and it will be good to finish another blanket because I have started so many this year that haven't been completed because they didn't live up to my expectations but this one, this one I adore already!

Crochet Coin Purse

I love the little crochet coin purses that you see on Etsy, most of them seem to be crocheted with a double knitting yarn which gives only a few rows of crochet and can look quite thick so I wanted to try and make one using a 4 ply cotton.  So, of course, I did.

I used the lovely Safron cotton from Drops Design and it really is a lovely cotton to crochet with.

I lined the purse with some of the fabric from my little stash of Amy Butler fabrics it matches perfectly.  Once the lining was done it was a labour of love to stitch the piece into the frame - hopefully I will get quicker at that part if I make some more because even Mark commented that it was taking me ages!  I just wanted it to be perfect :)

I just need to get some more frames now but it is remarkable difficult to find them at the size I need in this country (28 hole sew on frames if anyone can tell me where to buy them at a decent price!).