Knitted Flowers.

As you might have gathered from most of my posts, I love knitting. 

I had a go at making flowers a while ago using fabric but I couldn’t find a way of stopping the edges from fraying… and then the whole thing falling apart in a shredded mess.  So then I thought I’d have a go at knitting flowers.  I already had a few patterns for them at home but they were just a bit too complicated for me.  I’ve been knitting for almost a year now and I’m picking it up well enough but I’m not very good at reading/understanding patterns, and there’s almost always a stitch or technique involved that I haven’t learned yet.  So I thought, “b*&$!r it, then!” and, using the patterns as a starting point and the knowledge I have so far I set about making my own patterns. 

It took days to get something close to anything that I had in mind. But finally, I had it!  I had the main flower done, but to me it seemed like something was missing.  It was nice enough but it definitely needed something more.  So I tried making a tiny one, and after a few more days and a bag full of bits of yarn, I had that sussed, too. 

Well, now what was I going to do with them?  I started by layering up the two flowers and stitched them together.  And then I spent a good 40 minutes or so going through my button box and chose three buttons to use as the centre of the flowers.  I layered up the buttons and then stitched them on top of the flowers.  But what was I going to do with that?

Ages ago, I bought some brooch backs from Art Store, randomly.  I don’t even remember buying them!  They were in the bag containing beading needles and some elastic (that I do remember buying) and I happened across them when I was searching my craft cupboard for something else.  It took a while to finally get one of the backs on the flower… after I’d been jabbed far too many times.  I decided after that I would just sew one of them on!

I then had an idea about bouquets of knitted flowers.  I want to make one to display in my craft room – just for me!  So I ordered some florist wire online and then waited rather impatiently for it to arrive.  When it did I set about making more flowers, layering them up as I  had before and choosing three buttons and tried to attach them with the wire.  It was a bit fiddly at first but by the 3rd attempt I pretty much had it cracked.   I even made a couple of leaves.  Brilliant!

… Well, almost!

   

It’s coming together ok but there are quite a few flaws in the design that I’m still trying to figure out but I will get there in the end…!  I will not be beaten!

The Awesomeness of Decopatch…

You know those times when you feel like your brain has turned to goop?  I get it on a too-frequent basis.  It’s especially troublesome when I need to be creative.  Thankfully, I’ve discovered a cure: gluing.  Specifically, playing with the prettiest paper ever invented and a ridiculous amount of glue.

It all started at my 30th birthday party.  I decided that I wanted to do something a bit different for my birthday.  I’ve done the go-out-and-drink thing loads of times and I figure I’m probably getting too old for that now.  Certainly it’s a bit cringey to be loud, drunk and silly these days.  Instead, I thought I’d invite a few friends to a craft party, but what to do?!  It was then I remembered Damselfly.  Damselfly is the best, most amazing craft shop I have ever set eyes on and set foot in.  Everything they do and have is so pretty.

I’d seen them demonstrate Decopatch at a craft show before and it looked like fun.  Anything involving glue and a little mess is awesome!  A few friends and I headed to the shop on Saturday 22nd October, very excited.  It took a while for us to decide what we  wanted to make but once we got started, I think it’s safe to say that some of us got a bit addicted… We even had tea and cupcakes!  The cakes were incredible, by the way.  They had glitter on them.  It was almost a shame to eat them, but it’s cake and cake has to be eaten.  It’s sort of The Rule.

I made a giraffe.  Giraffes are awesome.  When I chose it, I noticed there was a small tear in one of the legs but I didn’t think anything of it… Until I pretty much snapped it off!  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!  I settled for staring wide-eyed and silent at the nice ladies in the shop.  Amazingly, one of them was able to save him, and I glued a few long strips of paper around the leg.

After all that I decided that the giraffe deserved a name, so I sort-of named him George as I was making him.  By the time I finished him he looked a bit random to be just George… And so it became Random George.  And here he is!

  

Well, then I was left with a load of bits of pretty paper.  I kind of over-estimated how much I would need to finish Random George.  And then I stuck them in a small jar on my desk and did nothing with them. Typical…

A few weeks ago I was set the task of making a ridiculous amount of things in a ridiculously short space of time.  Naturally, under that much pressure the brain goes goopy and you make so many mistakes and then you make a mess and then you can’t be bothered to create anymore because what’s the point when it all goes wrong and before you know it youthroweverythingasideanddrinktoomuchciderand…  And that’s when I thought I’d try Decopatch on a glass jar.

Actually that wasn’t the first one I did.  The first jar a covered in glue and paper was this one…

…but that was used for something else that I’ll share with you another time.  I liked it so much I made the other jar.  And I liked that so much I decopatched an empty cider bottle that I had in my kitchen.

I can’t wait to find more stuff to cover in glue and paper!  It’s quite therapeutic, actually.  Which is why it’s perfect for those times when you want to scream/destroy what you’ve tried to make…  And it couldn’t be simpler; you just paste a little glue onto the object you want to cover, lay a piece of the paper down and then top it with another thin layer of glue.  You can get proper Decopatch glue, but it can be expensive and is hardly ever available.  It comes in the shops and goes straight back out again!  I find the PVA Craft Glue from The Works just as effective.  I tried using Anita’s Tacky Glue once and it was rubbish.  I do recommend you get a proper Decopatch brush, though.  Other brushes tend to shed hairs and get stuck to your crafty-make, and that’s not cool at all.  I’d also recommend tearing the paper instead of cutting it.  You get a softer edge and it looks nicer, in my opinion.  Cutting it is fine (and quicker if you want to use a lot of different papers), though.  And you can pretty much cover ANYTHING at all!  Awesome!

Oh, and the brain-goop goes away long enough to be more productive in other crafty-creative projects, so the thing you or I shove off the desk/hide under the desk, etc. can be finished in the end.  Hooray for Damselfly!  Hooray for cupcakes!  Hooray for Decopatch!