The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

It's that time of the quarter, where I realise that I've not actually blogged half the stuff I've finished, so you get a flurry of short and grumpy posts! Next up this quarter is the Sapphire Dragon plushie. He's not actually sapphire, but it's a thing. Don't ask! He was a very belated birthday present for a friend, to go with the cushion cover, and he is very much loved! This is the Water Dragon, from Choly Knight's Floppy Dragon Plush pattern, and like all their patterns, they're really well written and well designed.

Shall we blog? Probably ought to. Life is honestly not great at the moment; work is horrendous and my mental health is taking a bashing as a result. As well as the general fall down of looking after myself and my house, it means I'm not crafting as much. Especially not stuff like sewing that means I have to move from the couch to the sewing room, and focus. I'm doing a fair bit of brainless knitting, and that's about it. But before this all went to shit, I did manage another finish on my QAL list!

Today at work I am mostly being grumpy and procrastinating by uploading all the patterns I have saved on this computer to my google drive, and blogging. It's too warm, my boss is doing my head in, and quite frankly I hate everything about this job apart from the bit where occasionally they remember to pay me. So the first thing to blog is going to be a pair of completely seasonally inappropriate knitted mitts! When I'm not crafting or working or sleeping, I do a thing called Live Action Roleplay (or LARP, or LRP, depending on who you ask). It's like a combination of Dungeons and Dragons mixed with historical re-enactment, and I've heard it described as cross country pantomime before. We run around the woods (or fields) dressed up as Elves and Dwarves and humans and fight monsters and do politics and fake!religion and have all sorts of fun. I have big LARP (Empire) that I help run and is terrifying and huge and is in a field and people pay lots of money for, and...

So quarter 2 wasn't amazingly productive for me; I finished a couple of bits, but I think I started more than I finished, and even with deadlines of events, I didn't get everything that I needed to done. Life is tough at the moment, work is grinding me down and the drugs aren't working. It's also too hot to spend a lot of time in the sewing room, and my hands are too sweaty to knit for long periods of time! I've had a bit of a sort out of the list; some things are being pulled. The Star Wars zip up pouch is never getting done, the cardigan is on hold until cooler weather, and I'll never wear the Astra cowl, and I've used the yarn set aside for another pair of the mitts for a friend, so that's out the window. So, onwards... (not everything has pictures, because I've had a partially fucked phone for the last couple of weeks, so I've not been able to take as many pictures, and having just transferred everything over to a new phone, none of i...

Ohh fuck. I keep meaning to blog this and then failing! It's been done since the beginning of May! Anyway, on with the Porg!

Ahhhh! It's nearly the end of the month and I haven't blogged ANY of my Q2 finishes! And I have managed some! So, quickly from the archives... This is a Taina shawl , a nice, free, simple pattern that I have made before. This time it was made for a co-worker's mother, after he went "ooh, my mum would like that shawl" at my Nudibranch Madness shawl. After some "I have no idea" confusion, we settled on a pattern, a yarn, and a price, and I scurried off to knit. It had to be finished by May 1st, which, due to life, I was slightly late on (knitting in a field full of mud, especially on a commission piece, is not a good idea, so he had to wait a couple of days) There's really not a lot to say about this. The pattern is simple and pleasing TV knitting, and the yarn, "Starlight Express" from AllsWoolThatEndsWool was soft and lovely to knit with; it didn't split and the stellina didn't annoy me like it often does! I ende...

I'm terrible at this blogging nonsense! I've got a pile of stuff to blog, but work is getting in the way of me processing photos and stuff. Oops. I do feel that I should probably try and engage a bit more, especially if I'm trying to advertise my shop more! So, in no particular order, what the fuck have I been up to recently?

I feel like I'm dragging a bunch of these projects from one quarter to the next, and that they're never getting done. That cardigan... I love the idea of it, but I'm terrified of sewing knit fabrics! That zip up tray pouch... do I even have the zip for it anymore? I think I'll hang on to them for this quarter, but after that, I'll have a purge. I always have good intentions, but other, newer and shinier projects have a habit of getting in the way! New stuff with deadlines at the top!

This is the last of my FALQ1 catch up blogs! I'm exhausted, so this is probably going to be a short one unless I start rambling! These are Astra Mitts , pattern by Ambah O'Brien, part of the Astra set of hat (made over xmas), mitts and cowl (yet to be cast on) The yarn is DK in Towpath (green) and Cairn (grey) from RiverKnits , whose yarns are gorgeous.

This is one of those hellish projects that has been sitting around for AGES for no reason other than procrastination. This is the small version of the Heidi clutch from Swoon patterns , and I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. It's a great, fairly simple pattern, right up until you get to the top stitching around the zip.

It's another Finish Along quarter 1 finish! And it's a knitted thing that has been on my list to finish for fucking ever! It's a Hitchhiker :D Despite what some people I know might think, this is only the second one of these I've made. But it's a good pattern, and as someone addicted to pretty sock yarn but who hates wearing socks, pretty shawls like this are the way forwards!

I have a desperate need for things to be FINISHED. It's a problem. My mental health is shite at the moment thanks to work, which means I'm exhausted by the time I get home, which means I have no time to make things. It's a cycle. The less I make the worse I feel, the more work gets to me. I took a day yesterday, called in sick and knitted, finished a shawl. Felt better for it and picked up the next half finished thing. I'm ignoring the pile of sewing that needs doing for a shop update. On my FAL 2018 post, there is an entry for a Fold Up Sewing Folio by Aneela Hoey. It's got some gorgeous big floral fabric and some grey essex linen. This is that project, but I decided I didn't like the essex linen and bought something else instead. I adore this pattern. I really really do.

Good morning! The sun is shining and I know full well the weather is going to turn again this weekend, because it's England, but stuff it, I shall rejoice in the sun, however brief it is! This is actually a Finish Along Finish! Bet you thought there wouldn't be any of those! (I wasn't sure...) This is the Triple Pouch from Aneela Hoey's Stitched Sewing Organisers book. And it's terrifying! But it looks really cool.

More stuff! This was a swap quilt, which I was obscenely proud of, and which went down well with its recipient! If you're coming here from IG, you probably know about the #saturdaynightcraftalong, in which everyone gets together in the tag and posts what they're doing on a saturday evening, and cheerleads each other and drools over other people's projects. It's good, laid back crafty fun, and at the tail end of last year, the organisers of the tag set up a swap.

This was probably finished in time for the last quarter of last year's FAL, but because I'm me, I couldn't be bothered to post it. This is the Rune Shawl , from last year's Shawl Society, and this is the 4th pattern from that collection that I've finished. The Vila and the Sprite's Fen are still in progress! This post is also the introduction of my new little helper, Jazz. I've been talking about getting a cat for AGES, and at the tail end of last year, while perusing the Cat's Protection League pages, I fell in love with a little tortie. After fighting my housing association (who hate answering their phones and giving straight answers) and her having an ongoing case of stress induced cystitis, I finally picked her up just after christmas, and she has been treading on things, jumping on my ironing board and chewing my circular needle cables ever since!

I've got to that annoying point where I've ended up with LOADS of stuff I feel I should blog, and no enthusiasm or time to actually blog them. But, since I am trying to keep track of these things, and since some of them are Finish-Along projects, I should probably get my arse in gear. So... first off, some xmas catch up! First project was a plushie bat. I love bats, most of my friends do, and my bff's housemate/landlady has recently had a bit of a time of it. So while she's not someone I'd usually gift to, I found her a really cool gothy print, and made her a bat.

Oh god, I have so many projects! And it feels like every time I do one of these lists, it gets longer and more scruffy! 1. Star Wars zip up tray pouch - oh my god I will do this! I swear! I mean I'll probably sell it, but I swear I will! 2. Teal ponte cardigan - it's been moved downstairs so I can actually cut it out. 3. Makers Tote - due to an interfacing issue, this is now a birthday present, but it's currently the project on the go, so it will be done! 4. Pink sparrow Heidi clutch - this is going on etsy, I just need to finish the bloody thing! 5. Hitchhiker take 2 - this is nearly done. It's just been shoved somewhere. 6. Unicorn embroidery pouch - this is pissing me off as the design has rubbed off and I can't easily retrace it. A labour of "oh god I will get this done" 7. Meeple cushions - they will be done! The red one has been stolen by my friend's cat, so I ought to make the rest. 8. Sprite's Fen shawl - this is getting huge a...

Let's try and keep the momentum going, right? I'm messing around with machine photos for work, so I might as well write a blog post. This pretty much brings me up to speed with the backlog. I've got one cushion cover left from the FAL Q4 list that I haven't blogged, but I'm currently working on stock and some projects that still have a long way to go, so there might be a bit of a lull. This is the Familiar Shawl , the last of the six patterns from The Shawl Society II this year. And I've got to say, I think it might be my favourite. Although that might just be because it took me about a week to knit, and I've been wearing it ever since.

Another quick and dirty finish resulting in a quick and dirty post! This is my HST cushion cover, that was made from the offcuts of the hearts I made for the Quilts for Pulse drive last year.

The problem with blogging is having to write the blog posts. I never know what to write; I'm not witty enough to write long, rambling descriptions of my life (and my life isn't that interesting to be honest) Anyway, another quick post just to say I finished something. This is the other part of the mugs and monsters swap... A cute little bat embroidery hoop. I hate embroidery. I never know why I do it. It's slow, and it's fiddly and while the results usually look pretty good, I really don't have the patience for it. This took me weeks, and it still didn't come out how I'd planned, because I decided to leave it as line art rather than shade it (a. for time and b. because I love the fabric) The bat pattern is from Urban Threads , which is a dangerous website for someone who likes cute things, but hates embroidery. I own many patterns that I'm probably never going to stitch up. I'm just like that. The fabric is Cotton and Steel "Boo...