Facelift time

Well, I am probably around the 6 month mark of having my own craft blog, and thought I should probably get around to making it more me. Regular readers will have noticed me playing with different templates every now and then, but I wanted my own header bar too. I FINALLY found the tool to do this (so obvious!) and changed the colours to suit. You will also notice that I have added some links to many of my finished projects in the list on the sidebar, so you can click and it will take you to a post where the item is pictured. I have also added a "What's on the sewing desk" list as this is becoming more of a general craft blog as time goes on and I wanted to share all the projects I'm working on, not just the woolly ones.

Back onto the crafting. My D9P quillt now has a total of 12 patches sewn up, as I have been fitting one or two in before bed each night. I am really enjoying working with the colours. Lots of pretty little squares! Thanks EB Quilters! Our next swap looks like it will be a doll quilt - just my size. I want to make one for Elizabeth for her birthday or for Christmas so this will be good practice and hopefully give me some more inspiration for what to do for her. Austy's quilt now has 10 picture blocks and 3 filler blocks, but lots more filler blocks to go. He will get a bed quilt, hopefully for his second birthday in November.

I have also been knitting when I can. I did have a goal to finish at least one sleeve for Austy's jacket by the weekend, but I have been sidetracked finishing some shorties that were hanging around for a while. I want to make a monster bum like my link from the other day, or start knitting with the gorgeous wool here that I managed to buy from Monster Knits - all her hand dyes sell REALLY quickly, especially in the thicker stuff that Austy needs for his night nappy covers so I was very happy to get 200g of this super soft and squishy Blue Faced Leicester wool. It's even prettier IRL.

And you may be wondering where that picture came from for my header bar? It's some wool I have sitting on the sink at the moment, draining off. Yep, I've been at it again, hand dyeing with Kool-aid this time, that the wonderful Ann sent over for me from the US. I am really happy with this one, it was just some cleckheaton country that I picked up on sale at spotlight tonight, with the boys Rugz4Kidz project in mind. It has always stumped me how to make dark blue/denim tones with things like jelly, food colour and kool-aid as the blue is quite bright. My last attempt was the nautical colourway which came out more inky than denim using food colouring. But this time, I think I got it! I almost wished I'd dyed the whole ball blue when I saw the various shades come out. Oh well, Ann gave me plenty of Kool-aid to do it again. I got the colour by using two satchets of Berry Blue and a little tiny bit of Cherry red, adding it almost grain by grain to stop it turning purple. I do have some acid dyes but am yet to get myself some cheap dishes to "cook" it in so am just using food grade "dyes" at present so I don't get acid residue on our casserole dish (that I use to set the colour by microwaving the wool in it).

More pictures to come of what's on the needles... Hopefully I'll have some shorties to show off soon.

Ooooh - I nearly forgot! I got nominated for a rockin girl blogger award - will be back later to fill you all in and give my noms.