In which I discover Mani di fata

Finally, I have my computer back. This past month has been one malfunction after another. Starting with the pipes leaking in my apartment (they had to be completely replaced) and ending with my computer dying on me.

So the past two weeks have been mostly about cleaning up after the workers, vacuuming the endless amounts of dust that seem to got everywhere and waiting for the computer repair guy to do his thing.
Now the water smells and tastes funny and the computer makes a funny noise when you turn it on, but I'm so past caring about that. I have returned to my crafts, and I'm on vacation. So what if it rains every single day? I have my needles ;)

I have recently discovered that the newsstands here carry Mani di fata, an Italian stitching magazine. Although most of the patterns are a little too classic for my taste, it does have some cute stuff. Like the cake and cupcake you see below.


These were both done on 11 count aida cloth (at least I think it's 11, I counted the little squares and got 11 per inch) with three strands of floss. Mostly Ljubica by Unitas.
I should have used 4 strands to get better coverage, I'll have to remember that for next time.
Someday, they will become potholders. Or something else that has some kind of use in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, I busy myself with knitting. I'm working on the Pintuck T-shirt and progress is slow. I just hope I'll finish it before the summer's over.

What to do with mini cross stitch

Make a small fragile keychain you'll probably never use?

Oh well, I did it anyway. It only took me about five minutes too, so yay for instant crafty gratification.

And here's the construction, dead simple. I used a small plastic ring, that probably had some use in plumbing, a little felt, glue and my second cross stitched thing ever.


Basically you just glue your image down on a felt rectangle. Fold some felt over the center of the ring, glue that too, then cut a window in your remaining rectangle and do some more gluing down.

Mine turned out flimsy because I used thin felt. I probably should have added some cardboard between the cross stitch and the back, for sturdiness.
But like I sad, I'll probably never use it. I keep my keys on a little converse shoe I got from a street vendor. It red, just like my real chucks. I call that matching accessories ;)

Mix, pour, wait, then paint

The title pretty much describes what I did with plaster.

I got it ages ago, the kind you pour, along with exactly two molds - one is flowers and fruit themed, the other is Christmas ( a bunch of snowmen, Santas and bears with presents).
Let me tell you, those molds are expensive. And not really worth it, unless you want to make the same motives over and over again. Which I just might have to, because I still have a lot of plaster left.

Anyway, here are my forms, all dried and waiting to be painted. Ideally, I would sand the edges a bit, but I was out of sandpaper.


Painted and waiting for me to glue some magnets on the back. I only had three, so the other ones will have to sit and wait for me to go on a craft supplies shopping spree.

I used Decorlack by Marabu to paint them, which I wouldn't really recommend for plaster. I think it's better to use something that the plaster will aborb, like regular acrylics, tempera or even watercolor. They will blend better, and make your fruit look more real.

And an obligatory action shot. This kind of looks like a commercial for Candy fridges, but believe me, it's not. This fridges makes such bizzare and loud noises that I kind of hate it. But hey, at least it's a good surface for my magnets.

Little gardener

Lately I've been too busy to craft, but here's a project I finshed a while ago.
This little guy was stitched from a DMC pattern booklet. The title is Fairy Tales, I got it as a part of a DMC kit. Since the stores here don't carry DMC, I used Madeira thread and of course, good ole Croatian Ljubica.

I actually like working with Ljubica better, it's easier to separate the threads and it doesn't tangle as much as Madeira. The jeans, the watering can and the paler green are all Ljubica.
Too bad the color palette of Ljubica thread is limited, to put it politely.

I only stitched half of the scene from the pattern, because I just don't have enough patience to do the whole thing.

I might get another plant and put this guy in a frame next to it. Maybe then the plant would survive my care.

88-17

Here we go : the DROPS cardigan I started in February is finally completely finished. I used up almost nine skeins of Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 (in a color called lavender). Originally I started out with 7. So much for my magnificent calculation skills.



The cardigan was done last week. From February to May, that is the longest I've ever worked on a knitting project. Hell, on any project. The cardigan is knit form the bottom up, sleeves are done separately and then added to the same needle as the body. This part was a bit touch and go, as it was a total pain to knit the round sleeve part back and forth on one long cable needle. But it turned out well in the end, I think.

The lowest lace border has a ton of mistakes in it, I ripped and reknit that part three times before I gave up and left it as it was. It's hard to notice, anyway. At least that's what I tell myself.



It was a wee bit short before blocking, so I tried to stretch it out a bit. Turns out I stretched too much.
Now it's about 3 cm longer than I'd like it too be. But I think I can live with that. The buttonholes should have been closer together - when I button it up, there's some gaping, and not a nice closed buttonband.

(click to see biggers pics, sorry about the glare, it was sunny)


I guess I'll just have to wear it unbuttoned. It's going to the closet now. Because I finished this 100% wool cardigan just in time for 30 degrees Celsius weather. Go me!

Pattern: DROPS 88-17
Yarn: Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 (lavender), 8 and a half skeins
Needles: 3 and 3.5 mm
Time it took: 73 days (OK, 59 if you count in the days I waited for the extra yarn to arrive)

Hello Kitty!

Finally back at my computer. I've been on vacation, took a little trip to Zagreb, bought a ton of Madeira embroidery floss there, did some cross stitch, finally finished my 88-17 cardigan and now I'm back home and counting the hours I still have before going to work.

The cardigan is still wet and blocking, but here's a good example of why you shouldn't do cross stitch without writing down the color number of your thread.

Notice something off in Hello Kitty's head? Off white, that's what! I started with some leftover white thread by Madeira, ran out and threw away the little wrapper it came in. When I went to buy some more, they only had that what your see above. Silly me, thinking white is white. Nope. There are shades, apparently.

I still finished it, even if it is with the wrong color. I'm impatient like that, I just wanted it done.
Someday I might unpick it, or start again from the start.
There are a lot of things I'm not happy about - my thread keeps twisting (letting the needle drop and untwist doesn't work) and I keep pulling little thread strands to the front of the work. The back is a mess, in case you were wondering.
Oh well, practice makes perfect, right?

Hello Kitty pattern is from Sanrio DIY Crafts.

X-stitch

Cross stitch is time consuming. Really time consuming. It's a craft for patient people. I'm not sure I'm one of those. It's also a great way to loose your eyesight, especially if you're working on teeny tiny squares. I'm sure this has a name, but I don't know it. Thread count seems to pop up all over the place when you google cross stitch. So, let's call the tiny squares issue the thread count problem.

But despite of all that I have to admit that it's kind of fun when all those little x's begin to take shape of your design.

These were my first attempts. Both designs are from a DMC pattern book, the heart is my very first cross stitch ever.