WIP Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, halfway through the week and the weekend is in sight.  The weather has been glorious here, such a shame I have had to be sat in an office, but the early morning commute has been lovely.

This week saw class 3 of my silversmithing course and I am onto a new project. A pendent. The next project is a chain so though I might as well have something nice to hand from it.

The previous week I had drawn up my design, it may look simple but I am no artist, took a while to get the shape right. Then came the cutting out

Not bad for a first attempt. Spent a while smoothing off the edges and the inner heart

then it was onto the design

really not happy with it, luckily nothing is attached as yet, time to change tack, I find it quite difficult translating my idea to the object as I have no idea how the process goes.I have a week to rethink how I am going to get a wave like design on the flat surface, its meant to represent my love of the sea ! Any silver smiths out there?

Weekending.

Back to trying to reclaim the weekends for living, rather than housework. Hubs was working this weekend and I had a whole heap of things I wanted to get sorted in my little pink den. First up was to empty my lovely WIP box

I bought this last year and love it, I am a bit of a neat freak, and like to see all my little project bags lined up inside, sadly it had become a dumping ground and there was allsorts in there, I did manage to find my kindle charger though. All the project bags got pulled out, needles were put back in their cases, patterns back into the file and completed projects put to 1 side to be blocked. Only 2 shawl/scarf/wrap thingy's so not too bad.

1 project had to be ripped though ,Not quite sure what possessed a larger than average knitter to cast on a boxy sweater, especially with that amount of stocking stitch.  Love the yarn so that been popped back into the storage bin until I decide what to knit with it.  After my little sort of here's how many bags I emptied.

6 lovely project bags just crying out for new projects, do I really need that many?  I now have order in my WIP box, and pulled out my Carbeth to finish as the next project.

I love this pattern, no idea why I put it down. Took a bit of untangling as I'm using 2 strands of yarn together, (using up stash ), then a bit of working out where I was with the pattern. The sleeves are looking a bit skinny, but the underarms still have stitch's on holders so am hoping it finishes up ok.  Decided then that Id done enough sorting/ tidying so sat down with Carbeth and caught up on some of the programmes I had recorded whilst waiting for hubs to come home.

Then we were off out, socialising, living, having fun on a Saturday night, whatever next. Boy did we have fun, we went to see a show, Saturday Night Fever

We met up with our friends before hand , had some food and a few beverages then went in.

WOW, what fun, its a great show, bought back so many memories. The actors were amazing the singing and dancing was so good it got you up out of your seats. The best bit was they had ' The Bee Gees' singing the songs with a band on the stage, It was fab.

Today is all about getting the essentials done (ironing, laundry, bit of housework) then having a relaxing afternoon knitting on my carbeth, before sharing a home cooked Sunday roast with the family.  I'm hoping my back will be sorted by next weekend as a walk through the woods is calling me !

Catching up.

Where has the week gone? Time just seems to be running away from me.

I've still had a lingering back pain and tummy issues which have made me feel yuk. But I was back at work and grinning through it. I've reduced my food intake and have cut out foods that I think upset my tummy and so far it seems to be working, I've actually had 2 reasonable nights sleep these past 2 nights.

I made it back to my 2nd silver smithing course and finished my ring.

I am so pleased with it, not bad for a first attempt. Next up is a pendant, I'll try to take some pics at the next class, although I do feel a bit of an idiot as no one else seems to take pics of their work.

I've managed to get halfway through my Mark Manson book

I'm really enjoying it, its certainly getting me to look at things a different way and I love seeing the looks on peoples faces on the bus when they clock the title !

I've been knitting up a storm in the evenings, managed to get 1 sock off of the needles and have cast the next on

Looks a bit weird but I can assure you it fits fine, just needs a wash and a block.

My shawl is now off of the needles but its raining and dull here so cant get a good pic, here's the pic you should have had on Wednesday had I actually managed to do a WIP Wednesday post

I will be honest, I am glad I got this off of the needles, its been loitering for too long and I fell out of love with it. Pretty sure after a wash and block it will be fine. 

My goal this week is to get the 2nd sock done and then go pull out another WIP to finish, the yarn and pattern book came for the Cornwallis, and I am just itching to cast this on.

Cornwallis

I bought Drops cotton merino, (it was  cheaper) and the colours are calling me to cast on. So far I have managed to resist. I have my Carbeth cardigan to finish and my sheltered poncho to finish, both garments that I really want to wear, this will be cast on after that though,

Wonder how quick I can knit?

Hello October.

Hello October.

I love this month, I love the changing colours, the chill in the air and wrapping up in layers.

We have a couple of life 'social'  things to look forward to this month, but other than that I want to start to snuggle in for winter.

The start of the month always sees me planning, I do love to plan and write lists! I am a very goal based person, I need to have things to aim for or else I just drift aimlessly. Winter is a time that especially draws to my inner couch potato

First up is to sort out my books, I have just finished reading Sally Red shoes

and loved it. Its the story of a mothers grief and how she finds her way back to life through meeting 2 extraordinary women. I loved the characters in this book, they are the sort of people I would love to meet. I enjoyed the writers style and the descriptors and scene setting. Its not a  fast paced book, it rumbles along, It was a book that I was able to pick it up and put it down . I had sort of guessed the ending about 2/3rds through, it didn't spoil it, but I would have liked a bit more depth to the end of the story. Its difficult too say to much without ruining it if you want to read it.

I have piles of books to be read, but am in a bit of a dither. I bought a whole heap of non fiction books to read and haven't really touched them,

so October is about trying to read at least 1 of them.

The choice from the pile is:

This is my commute read, I did start this a while back and then put it back on the shelf, If I don't crack it this time its off to the charity shop.

The following  2 will be my bedside reading books, pick up and put down style:

I've been following The fat of it, a women I admire, and she has read a ton of books and this was one of them. Thought I'd give it a go. I'm still trying to address the body thing, diets just don't work for me so I am trying to figure out how to adapt to a healthier way of eating whilst loving the body I have. That includes wearing what the hell I want to, without fear of fat shaming !. Anyway enough of that this is a crafty blog !

Then lastly, just because I liked the look of this book in Waterstones is this little beauty.

So that's books sorted, onto crafting.

Knitting wise I am still trying not to cast on anything else till I get at least half my projects off the needles. It's so tough, I really want to cast this

Cornwallis by Martin Storey.

I might have ordered the pattern book and yarn, (I did opt for a cheaper yarn) hopefully it will take a while to arrive and I can continue to focus on getting the selected 2 knitting projects from last week off of the needles. One of the main goals this month is to not spend any more money on anything craft or book related, no wool, no fluff, no books, no nothing. Zip, zero, Zilch...

The 2 knitting projects that were chosen last week as wips to finish are still on the needles, (you'll get a WIP Wednesday post to update you)

Have done a fair few rows of this so it may well come of the needles this week.

Haven't touched these at all !

Hoping at least the shawl will be off the needles this week and sock no 2 cast on.

I'm going to be good and not set my self any other craft goals this month, I want to focus on getting the knitting out of the way as its starting to bug me. I want to try being a monogamous knitter for once, not a fickle hand in many project bags type of gal !

I did have a bit of a Eureka moment whilst watching Joanna Lumley's Silk Road journey last week, as to why I think I am stuck in a rut with my crafting. (This blog post is already way to long to go into it now. )I'm really enjoying this series,( I will admit to a fan girl crush with Joanna) , how fab is she. I never tire of watching of her. This particular series is really inspiring me, I love learning about the different the cultures and  how they influenced the places along the silk route, Fascinating stuff as is Michael Palin in North Korea, Great to have a couple of programmes to watch and knit along to! I am trying to reduce the amount of crap I get sucked into watching on the TV, but do need a bit of TV knitting throughout the week.

So here's to a good new positive month, and a fond farewell to September.

Silver Jewelry course.

I signed up for a 12 week jewellery making course as an introduction to working with silver,something I have been interested in for a while, but never took forward. I came across Alice Goldsack , and thought why the heck not?

Just before my first session I was having doubts and fears, would I fit in? an overweight middle aged woman? am I too old for this? can I do this? what the hell was I thinking.But I pushed myself to go and boy am I pleased I did, I absolutely loved it.

Over the course of the 12 weeks you make 3 pieces of silver jewellery. First up was a ring. Alice had asked if we could come with some ideas of what we would like to make. I didn't really have a clue except I wanted  a thumb ring. When you've never done something before its really difficult to know what you would be capable of doing so I think I played it safe. Here's a few pics I took, I was the only one that had the camera/phone out, but I just braved it out and took pics!

We started off with a flat piece of silver, needed to do some maths to work out how long it would need to be, cut it, then get it resembling a ring shape. Then came the good bits

soldering then smoothing, look I made a ring !

Nope its not finished yet, were going for texture

This was an exceptionally satisfying task after a long day at work, hammering metal.. however I do think this was one of the contributory factors to my bad back !

to give you some idea of scale, this will fit onto the lower part of my thumb when I have finished shaping it

Next up I am making a smaller brass ring that will 'float' around the middle section of the ring. At the end of session 1 this is how far I had got.  I'm not quite sure of how I get the brass ring to float around the silver, hopefully I will find that out tonight.

Sadly I had to miss last weeks session due to my bad back.But I am really pleased I pushed myself to go. I didn't realise how much energy went into silver smithing, 2 hours of constant activity, cutting, filing, hammering ! my poor body was a bit shocked I think! Whilst I walk my 10k steps pretty much every day I don't have good core muscles, actually I don't have core muscles at all and my upper body strength really is quite poor.  Quite a good workout when you think about it !

Looking forward to tonight's session and hopefully I will be able to pick up an extra session so I get back on track. Lets hope my back lasts !