Ruby's Button Tin

A weekend in the sun

A gorgeous sunny weekend ... after the weathermen were promising a deluge of rain!  I managed some needlepoint yesterday, working on a new pattern.  The sketch below gives a rough idea of what it'll look like - oblongs of bright stripy colour on a plain cream background.  

 

The basket in the back of the picture is one I picked up yesterday for £1.50 in a charity shop.  Baskets like this are so useful for yarn or spools of thread. 

 

This idea of putting stripy colour on a plain background was also behind this pin cushion pattern (which could be easily adapted for a full size cushion).  It's really enjoyable to work as you just get to choose any colour you like in those oval shapes.  You can blend them in or have quite marked contrasts. 

 

 

 

It reminds me of those patchwork quilts where you get a white background and circles of printed fabrics appliqued on, then the whole lot quilted. 

Finally, a knitted bag for you.  I've made a few knitted bags in my time, but never ended up with one I liked or that was useful.  The trouble is that I don't like lining bags with fabric as it's too fiddly, but most bags I've tried to make are too flimsy to be useful without being lined.  Then yesterday I had a Eureka! moment. 

I used a sky blue double knitting weight wool along with a lighter blue in a thinner yarn (the sort you'd use for baby knits).  I cast on 30 stitches using this doubled wool and knitted this sturdy little bag.  The bag is just one long oblong, and the handle is knitted separately and sewn on.  I might add a decorative button or a knitted flower, but essentially it was finished in the space of an evening. 

Going to have a go at a bigger version, maybe add stripes to the pattern too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello sunshine

Ooops, the fishy cushion how-to hasn't made any progress, and you can blame the sunshine for that.  As well as my guilty secret - 'Britain's Got Talent'.  

The sunshine - because it's been such utterly gorgeous weather that I'm just spending as much time as I can outside.  'Britain's Got Talent' because I spent an hour last night watching it instead of being good and doing crafty type things.  (Not that I entirely approve of BGT.  The little girl who performed last night and cried her eyes out was just way too young to be on the show.  She looked terrified and it was very uncomfortable viewing.)   So between doing laundry, watching that and doing a mountain of washing up, I didn't craft at all yesterday evening. 

We'll see what today brings - though I'm definately spending a few hours on the allotment today - oh heck!  I need more time!!  For now,here are some pictures of little knitted houses. 

 

 

 

 I've been experimenting with attaching them to ric-rac to make bunting.  Here's the first one I've finished. 

 

 

Knitting news ...

This is a tea cosy I knitted which is meant to be shaped like a cake! The white paper case, the chocolate sponge, the pink icing with strawberries on top. It was partly successful, but I might have another go at getting it right. I wish I had a photo to illustrate the following, but this is a snippet from The Sunday Times. It in turn got the info from the Brighton Argus. It's about a knitter called Audrey Horncastle. She '... has knitted more than 100 woolly breasts in the past three years. They are squeezed into shape by daughter Rhona ... and used to teach breast feeding to new mothers. Audrey, who now produces one breast a day, says "I try to keep the basic fleshy tone but sometimes people ask if I can put in a bit of colour just to make things a bit different."' How fantastic is that!!! What a great new use for knitting.