So last weekend I went to Bath to meet the super lovely Scruffy Badger for a Freehand Machine Embroidery workshp at the Makery.
It was amazing fun, but I did struggle to control the speed of my machine. It kept going a bit haywire until Susi, the teacher, put me on a different machine. It seemed the one I was on was misbehaving and the foot pedal was not sensitive enough to recognise when I wanted to GO SLOW.
I made the little piece below.
Am thinking I might frame it using an embroidery hoop. You can see ScruffyBadger's amazing creation here. Check out the lace on the knickers, awesome!!!
Now freehand machine embroidery has so many possibilities creatively. I want to try more. The drawback is my machine doesn't have the capacity to drop the feed dogs (the little spiky teeth that push the fabric forwards). So it seems I am starting to reach a point that my lovely machine is just too basic for what I want to do. Perhaps it's time to look in to upgrading my machine......
On Monday I started a 6 week beginners knitting and crochet class at the Folk House. So far I have learnt to knit and purl. We haven't learnt to cast on yet so I can't start making anything. But I know what I want to make once we have covered the basics. hand warmers!
Now lovely blog readers as Christmas is coming up and I want to start writing my Christmas list, can you recommend any good books for beginner knitters? I want to start with a few simple projects, with a variety of stitches and I like the look of chunky yarns. I know Karen has recommended The gentle art of knitting, and I do like the look of it.
Also recommendations for pieces of kit I may want to get, and good yarn suppliers would be ace.
Oh also last weekend I made a new Kelly skirt (you can see a sneak preview on Scruffy Badger's blog). But it's in the wash at the moment, so that blog post will probably have to wait till next weekend, so I can show you pictures of it in daylight.
Woo hoo!! Your beach huts are so cute!! I'm afraid I'm still musing over beginners knitting books too, and agree Jane brockets looks like it has small projects in that are not too daunting. Our knitting class is at the folk house? That makes sense, I've seen lots of interesting things on their crafty programme....
ReplyDeleteThey're cute! I haven't done that sort of embroidery in ages. I couldn't drop the feed dogs on my old machine either, but I had this little plastic cover that slotted over the feed dogs, a darning plate I think it was but it worked for free machine embroidery too!
ReplyDeleteHmm that could work. I don't have a plastic plate but i could always use a piece of plastic or stiff card.
DeleteI learnt to knit using Knitty Gritty by Aneeta Patel. There are projects to make as you go along, and it walks you through how to follow a pattern. I already had the basics down, but it answered lots of newbie questions I had and helped massively in following a pattern :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book suggestion. One of the girls in class recommended that book too so I will definitely check it out.
DeleteYour beach huts are adorable!!! I learned to knit last October at a class and I never looked back. I didn't go down the beginner book path as the class was so good, but I have and still do look stuff up on YouTube and on www.knittinghelp.com! You can always do an amazon search and read some reviews too. As for yarn suppliers, one of my favourite ones online is one I accidentally found and that always seems to have good deals/sales on: http://www.packlanewool.co.uk/
ReplyDeleteGood point Marie, maybe I should wait until my course has finished before getting anything. I just get so darned overexcited!
DeleteOh, I love the beach huts! I bet looking at them perks you up throughout the winter :) I'd second Ashley's recommendation of Knitty Gritty - it's fantastic! Aneeta Patel has got a second book out now, Knitty Gritty: The Next Steps, which I've just bought, and it's got so many more lovely projects!
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely! Ooh I'm thinking I could make some very nice bits for my niece and nephew :)
ReplyDeleteHi Laura!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I wanted to let you know that because we love your blog so much we’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award. The award’s purpose is to bring viewers & potential followers to blogs with under 200 followers.
Here is the link to the post on our blog, which goes into greater detail about the award! http://teafortwodiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-liebster-award.html.
We hope you’ll take part :)
Elena x