New hobbies

My name’s Hannah and I’m addicted to new hobbies.

Last week I tried archery, and I’m so in love that I went for an extra session on Monday.

During the week my winnings arrived from Julia’s giveaway.

There are several super cute things I want to make (mainly the cat on the cover!), but I decided to start with a pretty patchwork star because it looked relatively simple. So I headed to Hobbycraft to pick up some fat quarters and had my first go at patchwork sewing

Of course I was hooked, and just had to try another one

Front

and back

The second definitely turned out better. There’s still room for improvement though!

While shopping for fabric, I found a tatting shuttle for £1 in the clearance section. This one is going to take a loooooot of practice, but I’m still loving it. I know how beautiful tatted pieces can be and I’m determined to reach that level one day.

The problem is I don’t stop my old hobbies to make room for the new ones; my long bank holiday weekend was a cycle of sewing, crochet, Tunisian, knitting, and tatting on repeat. With one break for archery and another for running. If I were paid for my hobbies they could be a full time job!

I clearly need to win the lottery I never play, so there’s time enough for all these pastimes. Plus the new ones I know I’m going to pick up in the future.

Does anyone have any tips on juggling all these different crafts? Or maybe new ones I could add to my repertoire (there’s no such thing as too many)? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

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New stitches: Tunisian knit stitch, and…?

Tunisian is so much fun, I decided to learn another stitch this week. Quite a few people mentioned the knit stitch after my last post, and I love the regularity of knit stitches, so I decided to give it a go.

Turns out it’s not as easy as the simple stitch (shocking, right?), and at first I made a whole swatch using…I don’t actually know if it’s a real thing.

For the knit stitch you’re supposed to pass the hook through the loop of the previous round, right here:

I totally misunderstood the tutorial (it wasn’t great) and went through the space at the side of the loop, like so:

Which meant that I had to increase one stitch every single row or skip one at the start, which gave me a very wonky-edged swatch. It did look pretty though.

But considering I’ve never seen knitting like that in my life I figured I must have got it wrong. I frogged it, found a better tutorial, and had another go.

Much better! That’s the column layout I’ve come to know and love, so I’m now officially adding the Tunisian knit stitch to my repertoire.

Does anyone know if my first attempt was a different stitch or did I just make a mess? What do you think of the actual knit stitch? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Finally Friday

I was so excited about making it to Friday (this has been the longest week ever) and leaving work early that I forgot to post!

But it’s okay, I’ve still got time.

I didn’t get a photo of the green octopom I made, so sadly I can’t show that off. Sadface. But I can show the two little kitties I made in record time, using this here pattern from Little Bear Crochets:

This one is about the length of my hand from wrist to fingertips

And this one is tiny. I used up the very last bit of my tabby cat sock yarn from Mothy and the Squid, and a 2.5mm hook.

The face is just sewn with a scrap of black I had in my stash

I am super proud of these moggies because I can really see how much my amigurumi has improved this year.

Turns out practice really does make progress!

I’m not showing any of my other makes yet, as they’re presents that won’t be opened until Christmas day and I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

Only 2 days to go, who’s excited?? Got any FOs you’re allowed to share? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx