Category: crafting

  • Indie Gift-a-long 2015!

    It’s time again for the Indie Gift-a-Long!

    GAL2015-mosaic

    The Gift-a-long is a HUGE, multi-designer, multi-craft knit/crochet along that runs until the end of the year. There are games, prizes, chat and so much more in the Ravelry Gift-a-long group! You don’t have to only craft for gifts or anything, it’s just a big ol’ craftalong party online!

    To kick off the celebrations, I have 20 of my self published patterns on sale for 25% off with the code giftalong2015.

    See my sale pattern bundle! Sale runs until end of day Thursday, November 27.
    Check out the participating designers thread for more – there are 335 independent designers taking part with loads of sale patterns.

    Knit knit knit (or whatever craft you love)! There’s only a few weeks to go…I have a lot to do. ;)

  • Recent Finds

    I met up with Denny at the Textile Museum’s “More than just a yardage sale” on Friday and found some great stuff! See previous years’ haul posts here and here!

    Usually the sale is held partly in the building and partly in tents in the adjacent parking lot – but the lot was filled with huge production vehicles, probably for the Suicide Squad movie filming here. They moved the whole sale inside and it was INSANE. If you’ve ever been before, you know that it’s already a crowded affair. It was even worse inside! But people are (mostly) polite and want to work together to keep the cash line moving and such.

    textilemuseum1

    Fewer purchases than previous years, but I have more fabric than time to sew, so…

    flannel

    Wool-ish plaid flannel, a little over 2m.

    crinkle

    Crinkly cotton, nearly 4m – more than enough for a dress! Maybe lined with voile since it’s a little sheer? (Look at me, talking about making dresses like I’ve ever sewn a successful one.)

    jersey

    Jersey, 2m! I’m always on the lookout for decent jersey. This one has a bit of a slub to it, feels like it might be wool.

    plaid

    Fun plaid – I didn’t notice this pulled section until I took it out to photograph, but I can work around it. The fabric is nice and light, maybe for a tank top?

    silk

    Oooh pretty silk.

    linings

    A couple of lining fabrics, because I always forget to buy them and then obviously I don’t have it when I want it! It’s pretty difficult to discern the type of fabric, but I tried to pick ones that had a good drape and smoothness and weren’t too crunchy.

    otherstuff

    Other bits – a little bit of Aida, an assortment of buttons (there was one real mother of pearl button in there along with the plastic ones!), a roll of ribbon and a tin. It does have the ‘decorative cams’ inside (for a sewing machine) but I really just bought it for the tin!

    newlens

    Then on Saturday I went to check out a yard sale up the street, and got this Sigma lens for $30! It doesn’t autofocus with my camera body, but that’s okay. I should probably practice my manual focusing, for fun at least.

    marigold

    Preliminary testing indicates nice photos! Happy marigolds.

    So, a consumption-y post for sure, but at least everything is from a previous home. I’m usually pretty bad at finding cool things at the thrift shop, yard sales, on the street (and have friends who are awesome at it), so it was really pretty satisfying to come up with some gems this time.

  • Happenings

    It’s getting harder and harder to keep up blogging these days, even though I still love the format! I know I’m not alone, since my feed reader (I use Feedly) is quieter and quieter over time. I do think there’s more action to be had in sewing blog land – some favourites lately include Crafting a Rainbow and What Katie Sews. (Blast from the past, I remember Katie as a knitting blogger! Hi!)

    Anyway, since I can’t really share my knitting at the moment either (I have 3 sweaters due back in the US by June 19!), here are some other things I’ve been up to, mostly from Instagram.

    Dale and I went to the Knitter’s Frolic on April 25 and had a great time! I know I haven’t been around much in the local knitting circles, so it was nice to see knitters I know from here and afar. I didn’t buy much, but I did pick up a few new books, a sheepy mug from Sheppard Handmade, and a couple skeins from sweet fiber.

    I finally got around to hanging a tea towel as a curtain in the bathroom window. I think it’s quite cheery!

    I ordered this awesome sampler from Posie Gets Cozy, I had such a nice time stitching her previous sampler so I’m hoping to get to this one sooner rather than later.

    We spent hours and hours on the weekend making macarons and they are super good. I used the recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, which has some extra steps over most standard macarons recipes I see, making a syrup of regular sugar and water to stream into the egg whites, which stabilizes the meringue and really makes it easier to get good results! We used meringue buttercream for the filling, in vanilla and raspberry. So, so good. Now that I know the process, I can really jump into flavourings!

    Stereotypical #springstagram #nofilter

    Spring’s here – finally!