Official crafty blog for my Quiet Water Craft Etsy shop
Current WIP count: 5
Sleeve island strikes again; I hate picking up stitches so Catmint looks exactly the same as it did two weeks ago. I really must figure out two-at-a-time sleeves for my next top.
My Siobhan’s Crafts sock is back on track with the heel and toe in their correct places. I shall try very hard not to make the same mistake when I get to the second sock, but I have no idea how long that will take me so no promises.
Hannah
xXx
White rabbits!
Current WIP count: 6
I am a dingbat sometimes. I reached the end of the foot on my Siobhan’s Crafts sock on Monday; toes are easy enough to knit and sing at the same time so I carried on. Turns out, no. Instead of paying attention to the scrap yarn that will be removed to add in a heel, I just started making a toe at the beginning of the round like I usually do, and now the heel would be on the side of the foot.
Time to frog.
My sister is learning to crochet and she sent me photos of her first ever granny square attempt. The bug must be catching because the next day I just had to grab my crochet hook and start making some granny squares myself.
I only have one cake of this mysterious yarn so it’s going to be a very small doll/kitty blanket, but I like the way it’s looking and it means one less skein in stash mountain.
Hannah
xXX
So if you ever fancy making a name badge yourself (can’t say I recommend it), the answer is to have knits and purls on both sides and do a tight crochet border.
They’re still not 100% squared off and the ‘S’ needs a bit of duplicate stitching, but overall I’m proud of these. I can’t wait to hand them out!
Hannah
xXx
Well I solved the curling issue!
Now I need to work out why it’s such a weird, lumpy shape instead of being a good little rectangle like it’s supposed to. It may have something to do with my fix, which was to purl the stitch between each letter rather than knit so that all the purls aren’t gathered on one side. More research is required.
At this rate, my whole choir will have their own name badge by the time I figure it out.
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 6
It was going so well with the two-at-a-time sleeves, but I must have stopped paying attention for a round because the four tiny balls of yarn over two cables got into a terrible tangle. My breaking point came when I found one massive stitch in the row below, I’m talking a 3cm loop just hanging out for no apparent reason, and I undid the lot. I went back to knitting them separately and the first one is finished, with only these tiny scraps of yarn leftover.
Fingers crossed I divided the yarn up evenly so there’s enough in the last two bits to make a matching sleeve.
The problem of the curly name badges has been swirling round in my mind for days, and I have a few ideas to try out before buying in even more craft supplies to fix them. Each badge only took about 15 minutes to make, so if I find a fix I’ll just frog and redo them the better way. These little scraps are teaching me more about knitting than anything I’ve made before.
Hannah
xXx
A border did not help with the curling problem. Probably because it would need to be much bigger to have the desired effect. It feels like a pretty large badge already so I’m not adding any more to the edges in an attempt to ‘fix’ it.
My next plan is to buy some felt and attach that to the back to give it some more stability, as well as making it easier to attach a safety pin. I really don’t want to bring more stuff into the flat before we move but I really do want to get this finished and wearable. I don’t know yet which side will win.
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 6
Catmint is not very photogenic right now, as I made a start on the two-at-a-time sleeves with one set of needles significantly shorter than the other. It works so I’m rolling with it. The set up took some mental gymnastics and I had to start again a few times, but the actual knitting is easy peasy. As usual, I made it into far more of an issue in my mind than it really is.
I decided to make a name badge for myself after my friend’s badge went down so well. We use them at choir, writing our name on a sticker every week and then throwing it away at the end of rehearsal. Very wasteful. This one should hopefully last a bit longer as well as using up some tiny scraps that I can’t use for much else.
My camera can’t pick up the background colour properly. It’s actually neon green, so it shouldn’t get lost in my bag
My friend’s badge desperately wants to curl up no matter what I do to it, so this time I’m trying a tiny garter stitch border to see if that will keep things a bit straighter. We shall see.
Hannah
xXx
I bought three skeins of hemp and cotton yarns from Aldi ages ago with the idea of using them to make reusable face wipes for myself. After trying out one wipe from each, I realised they really weren’t suitable for the task, and the colours didn’t exactly spark ideas for other projects (dark green, very pale green, and grey) so the leftover skeins went into stash mountain. There they remained until last week when I got a sudden urge to use them up and made a couple of shopping bags.
The first one is this pattern and I used strands from two skeins held together.
I wasn’t totally happy with the shape for a shopping bag, so for the second one I held strands from all three skeins together and tweaked the pattern to make a wider, straight bag.
The colour change at the top of the second bag is not a design choice; the dark green ran out before I was finished so I started pulling from outside the grey skein as well as the centre to keep it at 3 strands. I think it looks deliberate enough to get away with it.
The Dimple blanket has grown a couple of rows from last time, although it’s still not long enough to keep my legs warm as I work on it.
I need to time myself because I’m fairly sure it took over 3 hours to complete one row of dimples at the weekend. If that’s true then I definitely feel less bad about how slowly this blanket is progressing!
If you want to check out some more scrappy projects, go and have a look at the other blogs joining in with Scrap Happy.
Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, Lynn, Tierney
Hannah
xXx
I was talking with one of my friends about name badges (I can’t remember why), and she asked if I could make her one. I said I would, then spent months only remembering it while driving or at work or anywhere else that I didn’t have my crafting paraphernalia with me. This is why I should write things down.
Thankfully, last weekend it reappeared in my memory while I was sitting in front of my craft bag with no current projects in my hands. It took a bit of drafting on squared paper to get the curvy letters right, but overall I only needed a couple of hours to go from idea to finished object.
I’m really not confident about sewing a safety pin to the back of knitting (why can’t it be as simple as crochet??) so I plan to thread it through a few stitches instead.
I’m quite proud of my little name badge creation!
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 5
This week I got a bit distracted by sorting and cataloguing my yarn. I’m trying to squeeze it into as few containers as possible ready for moving, and I figured I might as well update my stash spreadsheet at the same time. So now I know exactly how much I’ll be carting across Glasgow!
I did finish the body of Catmint but all I’ve done for the sleeves so far is split the remaining yarn in half.
My brain is very tired so it’s putting off learning the new ‘skill’ of two-at-a-time sleeves. Even though it’s just knitting with more than the usual number of circular needles. We’re going away to my favourite place for my birthday soon, and I’ve booked some days off work, so hopefully that will give me the headspace I need to get moving with it.
Hannah
xXx
The missing WIP has been found! I had put it away in a box, underneath an old laptop and a pile of socks to be darned. As you do. These socks have a forethought heel so for now it’s just stockinette until I reach the toes.
I did turn the heel on my rainbow sock but ended up with 1 stitch left to work on one side and 3 left on the other, so I tinked back and it’s still awaiting another attempt. Hopefully next time will go better.
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 5
Long weekends are the best. I cleared out some unwanted magazines, packed a few boxes ready for moving, and made it to the bottom ribbing on my Catmint top. I got a bit too excited about reaching the end and made a mistake a couple of rows ago so I’m currently tinking back to fix it. Thank goodness I noticed now and not after casting off.
I think there will be enough yarn for the sleeves, since they’re so short, but as previously mentioned I’m not great at knowing how far it will go. The plan is to split the remaining yarn in half and try knitting the sleeves two at a time so I can just keep going until it runs out. Maximum top with minimum leftovers!
My choir sock has also progressed. I’m on the heel, which needs a bit more attention than I can give while learning a Lithuanian weaving song so I’m working on it at home until I get to the foot.
Rainbows make me so happy.
Hannah
xXx
Quiet Water Craft 
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