So today I displayed my work for the first time in a shop. You can now buy a full range of my Ginger Bisquite cards and gifts at Jill, Pop Up shop in Sydenham until Christmas. I've tried my best, with limited time, to create new Christmas designs which I hope are extra special cards to send to friends and family.
I'm currently sitting at the computer designing our Christmas cards for this year. Naturally I have dressed Aneurin in some rather fetching festive gear (Neil thinks it's practically child abuse, boo) I shall post up the design when everything is printed and sent so that it doesn't ruin the surprise for friends and family. But for now here's a little sneak of my uber cute baby boy.
and on with the Christmas style parade... (the last thing our house needs right now is more clutter. Up with the kitchen, then out with the festive decorations) Practical, Yes! But I can't cope otherwise. Here's a lovely link to my Christmas Pinterest Board which includes stylish decorations, home made gift ideas and a few festive printables. Do let me know if you have any good Christmas Pinterest links :)
I have recently added a Folksy button to my page, just over here --> to advertise my new Ginger Bisquite Shop. At the moment I'm stocking a variety of cards, and I'll be making and uploading more and more from now on. Including the release of some new Christmas Card designs to prepare you for winter.
Do go and have a browse and see if there is anything you like the look of. If there's nothing there for the particular occasion; wedding, anniversary, valentine etc. Please feel free to get in touch as I have some stock I am yet to put online or I can make and upload some options.
It has been a slow process getting my designs together and then waiting for the natural light required to photograph on these cold, grey October days! Please let me know what you think.
I recently learnt to crochet thanks to the goodness of youtube / pinterest and a wonderful friend called Jess. It was something that took time, patience and persistence. It probably sounds silly, but I was so proud of myself once I finally cracked it.
I'm still a serious novice, I can only do a few stitches but the ones I can do I can do relatively well. The first thing I made and finished was a little blanket for Nye and I'm now making another slightly bigger one. There are so many how to videos and tutorials online but I thought I would post up which ones I personally found helpful.
So, the first thing I did was buy some wool and then some crochet hooks. I got the wool from Hobbycraft and the crochet hooks on ebay. I had no idea about the different sizes and managed to buy an entire set for about £3.00 just by searching 'Crochet Hook.' Now I find I tend to use the 4.00 4.5 and 5.00 (they are marked on the side of the hooks)
Since my initial wool buying I have purchased all my wool off ebay. As a beginner my friend told me that the wool that multicoloured is good because it means you don't have to change between wool's to get a good pattern. This was a great tip! Wool brands also do special baby wool which is really soft, so that's another thing to take into consideration as well as thinking about whether the wool is easy to wash (definitely a necessity for a baby blanket!)
So, to begin with I had to learn to do a slip knot which attaches the wool to the hook. I'm going to be honest with you, it took me several attempts over multiple days to even learn to do this! But, once I had tried over and over again I did get the hang of it and it is easy (once you know how!) It took me some time to work out how to even hold the hook but to be honest, finding something comfortable comes with time.
Now, I like you may be, was very eager to get going but the best thing I learnt from my friend Jess was to practice doing a single chain stitch over and over and over again. I did this for days. I felt like a petulant child wanting to move on but it was wroth while because it got my hands used to the movement of doing loop after loop. So, persist until you feel like you could do it with your eyes shut!
At this point it is probably useful to know that some US & UK crochet terminology is different. So if and when you want to make something and they start talking about double crochet (dc) for example, this could mean two different things!
Here is a chart for future reference but you probably won't need this yet.
So, now you can do the slip knot and the chains, I used this follow on video to start making my first ever blanket.
At this point, I still didn't really understand the terminology and had to stop and rewind the video about 15 times to catch on as she did each new stitch. But once you start, you gradually learn what she's on about. And once you know how to do a square, you're off. Normally granny squares are sewn together to make a blanket but, as a beginner, I decided to just keep making the square bigger and bigger until it was the size of a blanket!
Then came the difficult bit, learning how to finish the blanket off with a new stitch *scary* But the instructions on Attic24 are amazing. Here's the tutorial for doing the edging.
Attic24 Granny Blanket Edging
Here is a picture of the first blanket I made which Nye now goes to bed with every night.
So, I'm now on my second blanket, here's it's progress so far.
I plan to do a few more rows around the edge and then I will finish the edging using the tutorial above. I've set myself Friday as my deadline as I'd like it done before we head off to Norfolk for my friends wedding.
Oh there are so many good ideas out there of the little things that make a house feel like a home. I made a map cupboard for Nye's room, for storing his blankets and bed linen a while ago, but I've seen so many clever ideas and uses for maps recently.
It's going to be a long few days here as my husband just left this morning for the last of his teacher training. Last year when he went I was in the depths of pregnancy morning sickness and working in a corporate hell hole. Now I'm free and easy at home with a beautiful son to look after. Frankly a 6 month old is easier and better company than a gaggle of office junkies!
I'm going to try and tackle some house DIY while Neil is away which is made much easier by the fact he stayed up till 1am so the house was tidy when he left. Love you my darling husband!
Here's just a few DIY map projects that I love!
Love where you live - County, Borough, Country.
Map Pinwheels for the perfect party
Love this lamp shade and it's associated cockerel
Can extra large letters ever be overdone!?
map lampshade!
I think I might try and make a DIY lampshade this week. There are so many amazing ideas out there, now I just have to get to it. Although I am always a little worried about whether doing something like that is a slight fire risk... Anyone any ideas for not setting the house alight?
