Thursday 29 January 2015

Tutorial Thursdays Month-Long Linky Party


Welcome back to another month of linking fun!

You only have a couple more days to participate in this month's party so link up below :)

This month there is no theme, and no feature. 

Feel free to link up all your crafts below.
I look forward to visiting all of the links I find below.

If you want a button for your side bar - here you go:

Marigolds' Loft


Wednesday 28 January 2015

2015 - The Year of Organizing

organizing dpns

After taking over the Weaving Studio at work, I have decided that my priority for this year is to organize the working space. I have begun with the small things in the hope that they will lead very shortly to the bigger things, and that by the end of 2015 there will be order in the momentary chaos that prevails.

I have started by organizing our tool shelf. Having 20 odd hands rummaging through our DPN container at any given time, it was continually a mess to say the least, and I found that you would need to spend a precious 15 minutes at the very least looking for a set of DPNs. If you were lucky you would find the same set of 5 needles, but that would take you an extra 10 to 15 minutes.

I started a "collect gift wrap rolls" campaign at work and managed to come across some very sturdy card roll, which I then had cut into 20cm pieces.

I then glued them all together.

Some of the DPNs are quite short so at a 20cm length, they still disappeared into the holes so I stuffed the back of each hole with some batting covered in cloth, glued on a backing (made of cardboard) and labeled the holes according to the sizes we most need and have on hand.

I think it looks kind of spiffy! And so clearly arranged!

What do you think?

organizing circulars

The next task on my list was the Circular needles - another nightmare all hidden in a knotted mess in a plastic bag!

I took some of our card weaving bobbins and cut them into 5cm lengths which I then glued all together.

I labeled them according to the sizes we need and then went about fixing and straightening the cables.

To do this I boiled some water and poured it into a container. 
Then I placed the strong-willed cable into the hot water for a couple of seconds. 
The cables relax almost immediately. At this point I removed them from the hot water and straightened them so that they would hang flat.

The next thing on my to-do-list is our Straights.
Join me next week when I will share my solution for them with you.

Do you have tips and tricks for organizing your crafting space?

Why not share them here with us all?

You can never have enough ideas on how to organize tools and work-space now can you? :)

Feel free to link up your organization tips and tricks below.
x



Tuesday 27 January 2015

My New Toy - Kindle Paperwhite


I managed to grab one of these babies for an amazing bargain last week and I am thrilled with my buy :)

I have an iRiver Story Ereader that is really super but I have always had a hidden desire to own a Kindle at some point in my life.

I was wondering how it would scrap up to the iRiver (my iRiver isn't the newest model and is about 3.5 years old) and I must admit that I am rather impressed.

I think the biggest plus for this device is obviously the incredible book bargains that you can get with one little click from Amazon.

The most obvious difference between the two readers is the difference in size. The Kindle is minimally narrower and smaller than the iRiver making it the perfect size for holding. 

Kindle Paperwhite vs iRiver

The Kindle is also a touchscreen whereas the iRiver has a Qwerty keyboard and arrow keys. (I must honestly say that I have never had the need to use the Keyboard)

iRiver vs Kindle Paperwhite

 Then onto the display:

I like the build up of the homescreen of the Kindle, I love having the book covers on view instead of just the titles. I am a very visual person so this is right down my street.

kindle paperwhite review

I love the back-light of the Kindle which is not an option on the iRiver, it makes reading very easy on the eye.

All in all I am loving my new toy, and can't wait to finish my latest paperback book so that I can really experience my latest cool title downloads on the Kindle :)

Do you have a Kindle or a iRiver?
What are your impressions?

x

Craftsy

Monday 26 January 2015

Moving Forward

wip

Finally movement :)

I have actually been sitting close to my Juliana this week and knitting up a storm!

juliana

juliana front side

Last week I had just cast off for the armhole. This week I have managed to knit just on 47cm of the front side - WOAH! That means I have 23cm to get to my cast off edge :)

If all goes well I am hoping to be on the sleeves by next week, hold thumbs for me.

Since I have knit exclusively on this project this week I have not made any progress on Kay's Socks this week, but that is okay, I really can't wait to have my Juliana off the needles!

Reading Wise: Unfortunately, I could not get into the title "Pilgrims Rest" from last week and so I put it aside for another title from Khaled Hosseini - "And the Mountains Echoed

and the mountains echoed

I am thoroughly enjoying this book and will tell you all about it once it has been read.

How are your WIPs growing?

I wish you all a great week.
Thanks for visiting.
x

I will be sharing with all my Wednesday friends so do go over there to be inspired :)

Online Knitting Class

Thursday 22 January 2015

Tutorial Thursdays Month-Long Linky Party


Welcome back to another month of linking fun!

This month there is no theme, and no feature. 

Feel free to link up all your crafts below.
I look forward to visiting all of the links I find below.

If you want a button for your side bar - here you go:

Marigolds' Loft


Monday 19 January 2015

Getting into the Swing of Things

wip

Are you already in full swing in 2015?
I can't say that I am....I seem to be crawling rather than walking or running and I really do hope it changes shortly.

I am wondering if I just made tooooo much last year, resulting in a bit of overkill. It is that bad that I just need to look at my knitting bag and feel exhausted, I don't feel inspired to pick up a needle and knit a stitch, I actually would rather sit on the chair and watch paint dry before I feel like continuing where I left off! 

Have you ever felt like this?

I am working on my "can't-give-a-damn" attitude though and am trying to pull myself toward myself. 

As you can see in the image above, I am not standing completely still as I think that would kill me, but am rather filling my time with reading (yes, I seem to feel like doing that again - Hooray!!) and different crafts.

I am slowly creating a time schedule for everything I want and need to work on.

As I have a new job as the head of the weaving studio at work, I am generally getting my fill of knitted and woven crafts, as well as working there more regularly which will result in me having less time to do what I want to achieve at home, but I am sure things will all swing into place as the year progresses.

Because of my new work schedule I will be updating you on my WIPs at the beginning of each week from now on too :)

So let me show you what I have been busy with so far this year:

Kays socks

This is a new pair of socks for Kay.
Her birthday is coming up soon and she has asked me for another pair of knitted socks. This pair is getting knit in Red Heart Sock wool which I have never used before. So far they are knitting up nicely. These socks will be a very plain knit with no patterning included.

Juliana

My next WIP is my revived and pulled out of hibernation -  Juliana.
I put this project on hold last year so that I could focus on all the Christmas knitting, and before I feel I can move on to anything else I need to see this project complete.

I have managed to get passed the second armhole and am basically on the home stretch, though I use this term lightly as that still means I need to knit about 80 cm until I can start on the sleeves!

skirt sewing

I had planned on doing some skirt sewing this morning, but alas, I haven't washed my fabric yet, so if time allows I may get around to these projects some time this week and will show you my progress as I get on.

Handwoven cloth

This is a definite WIP project I am working on in the studio.
We have loads and loads of scraps of our handwoven fabric so I have decided to try and create a log cabin shopper with some of the rests. As I get a moment I add a new panel or two, but I do hope it will grow more extensively in the next couple of weeks :)

Onto other crafts now:

zentangle

Kay and I are working through a book course on Zentangle together and we are progressing nicely. It is really quite a lot of fun, though there is a lot of concentrating involved. who thought doodling could be so intensive :)

wreck this journal

I was inspired over the festive season by Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch to get my hands on a "Wreck This Journal". When I showed the girls they promptly told me that they had wanted one of these journals for over a year now! Lucky for me I found a bundle pack of four journals (also one for hubby) at Book Depository for a great bargain and they arrived on Friday. Since then Jas and Kay have been awfully busy wrecking their journals and Hubby and I have started on ours too. Once you get over the initial "Cracking of the Spine" - SHUDDER - the book seems to take on the look of "I could possibly do this"! I will let you know how we progress on this front :)


Reading wise: This year I have decided that 12 books is the most realistic amount of books I can really get through in a year and so I have set my Goodreads challenge to a lowly 12 books! That way I am hoping I won't be too disappointed come the end of the year, as the last two years I did not manage to complete my challenge!

Let us hope I will manage at least those! So far it is not looking all too bad as I have just started Book number 3 - Pilgrims Rest. I haven't read enough just yet to have an informed opinion but I will let you know a bit more about it once I do.

What are you busy with this week?

See you soon.
x

I will be sharing this post with all my Wednesday Friends.

Craftsy

Thursday 15 January 2015

Tutorial Thursdays Month-Long Linky Party


Welcome back to another month of linking fun!

This month there is no theme, and no feature. 

Feel free to link up all your crafts below.
I look forward to visiting all of the links I find below.

If you want a button for your side bar - here you go:

Marigolds' Loft


Thursday 8 January 2015

Tutorial Thursdays Month-Long Linky Party


Welcome back to a new year and another month of linking fun!

This month there is no theme, and no feature. 

Feel free to link up all your crafts below.
I look forward to visiting all of the links I find below.

If you want a button for your side bar - here you go:

Marigolds' Loft


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