My Projects

Here's a few of my projects I have completed over the last year since taking up my sewing class. 

My class really helped me with me confidence using my sewing machine. Now I will pretty much give most things a go. Not saying they all turn out well but here's to trying!!

I have even managed to sew my Son a fleece backed quilt and some tie backs and altered his curtains to fit his room! This is what I love about sewing, doing things for your loved ones so you have a real sense of achievement, I did that! 

Knitting Dog learns to Sew

Well last Wednesday was the first of my six week course on how to use a sewing machine! 

I've been looking forward tot his for quite some time. I have had a sewing machine before but never known to to use it properly. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas but hadn't even turned it on until a couple of weeks ago not knowing what to do! 

The sewing course is in our little Town at a small shop Love Heart Home https://www.facebook.com/pages/Love-Heart-Home/116750541703684 there are only three of us on the course so the tuition is perfect and you can ask as many silly questions as you like! The ladies there are all very knowledgeable and know so much about fabric and techniques. If I can come away with even a a hint of their knowledge about sewing I will have learnt a great deal! 

This week we made a protective heat mat 

Next time I will be making a pencil roll, fabric already purchased from the shop as I'm not fully confident in choosing the right sort yet! I can't wait! 

Birthday Madness!!

Well April has been a bit crazy! 

Lots of Birthdays including my Husbands 30th! The Big 3 - 0! This meant my first ever attempt at a Birthday Cake! 

As he is an avid Derby County fan I decided to go for a Football shirt including Derby County Mascot Rammie! I am by no means a baker but I am a perfectionist! The cake and fondant icing part was definitely trial and error and I have learnt a lot for next time! At least I'm contemplating doing another! 

Making the little Rammie mascot was my favourite part and if I could just make fondant critters all day I'd be a very happy lady! 

Here's a little peek at my creation....

Tomorrow is an exciting day and the first day of my Sewing course in a little shop in my village! I'm very excited and looking forward to telling you all about it in my next blog.....

Shake your booties for Charity

Well I have spent this evening putting together these beauties ready for my sister in law to sell all in aid of the Charity Whizzkids. http://www.whizz-kidz.org.uk

Her husband is running the London Marathon this April for the charity and has to raise £1600 to secure his place. 

https://www.justgiving.com/Matt-Padley/

She is holding a "pop up cafe" this Friday and selling lots of crafty bits and bobs so I couldn't resist making a few more pairs of these as they're soooo cute! I do love these knitted Mary Jane baby booties!

More pics on my Pinterest page under my projects. 

Happy Tuesday!

A Sunny Weekend Away

Well things have been a little quite on the blog this year so far so I am making a March resolution and I must write more blogs, repeat I must write more blogs.....

So far this year a lot of my friends and relatives have been having babies so I have been a busy bee trying to knit some baby bits. My favourite are my Mary Jane baby booties (pics on my twitter page @knittingdog) 

I am currently in the process on knitting some red Snow White inspired ones complete with rosy apple buttons! 

Me, my husband and Little Lola the Border Terrier have just come back from a weekend away in Shropshire, about 1 mile from the Welsh border. A little place called nantmawr. We staying in a cosy one up one down converted pigsty! Well it didn't look much like a pigsty anymore absolutely stunning, complete with log burner and bunting to boot. 

Not that we needed to log burner much, this has been the hottest weekend so far and the beautiful weather made our trip all the more enjoyable. 

We took in sights such as Lake Vyrnwy and its breath taking waterfall and a trip up the Moelydd along part of Offa's Dyke trail to the wonderful 306 degree views all the way across to the snow covered Snowdon. 

We really didn't want to come home. 

Well I must stop rambling and actually write more blogs so it's not such a massive one each time! I do like to whittle on! 

One last thing I am sooooo looking forward to starting my beginners sewing machine course at the end on April! More to follow .....

New Year New Look

Well this maybe a little late but Happy New Year! 

The New year brings a new look for Little Knitting Dog.

My Blog & Twitter profile have both had a little revamp & my little Border Terrier illustrated to become the official face of Little Knitting Dog! 

The lovely sketch is by my very talented Friend Antonia Woodward who is a freelance illustrator http://www.antoniaillustrates.co.uk/ 

I have always loved Antonias' Work and as soon as I had the idea of putting Lola the border Terrier as the face of Little Knitting dog I couldn't wait to ask Antonia is she would put together a few ideas for me. 

She definitely delivered and it was very hard to pick just one to be a main feature!

Thank You again Antonia! 

More projects coming soon... 

December Delights

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I do love decorating the house for Christmas! Tree went up on the 1st December. This year I wanted to make a bauble for my sister as it the first year of her and her husband being married. I wanted to make something personal so I decided to decoupage hearts of her first dance lyrics on to a polystyrene bauble base. I added the embellishment of the extra hears and pearls for extra depth. 

I of course had to have a practice run with my first dance lyrics first! So ended up making one for my sister, one for myself and mixed the two sets of heart lyrics together to make one for my mum! I enjoyed making them so much and will be making more on request! 

I have been busy this weekend finishing off my fire place "Merry Christmas" garland.

This has been made out of Red & Green felt but could be made out of any material and fabric. I have embroidered white snowflakes on to the letters. I toyed with the idea of using silver thread. Maybe next time for another project! 

  Next weekend I will be going foraging in the woods some materials to make my Christmas Table Centre piece! 

Got to love Christmas! 

My First Needle Felt Class

Well this week I have been to my Very First Needle Felt Class! 

This was at The Leicestershire Crafts Centre in Market Harborough. 

I have wanted to try Needle Felting for a while now as I had seen a few amazing pieces on Pinterest. I had seen a little Needle Felt Border Terrier and thought I NEED to make one of those as it looks like my little Knitting Dog Lola! 

I asked my friend to join me on the Needle Felt course as there's always safety in numbers! So after a nice tea out we went along to the course. 

Everyone at the Craft Centre were really friendly and welcoming. We were shown how to firstly create a ball with the Marina Wool, and what the different sized needles can create in the wool. We then had a go ourselves! I had created a green ball! 

After getting to grips with the ball of felt we were allowed to either ditch the practice piece or make something out of it. My ball of felt looked like it had the makings of an apple so after shaping it a bit more I added a stork and leaf to make it look really cute! As I have to go along the incredibly cute lines I decided to add a little tiny worm coming out of the apple! 

As this didn't take me long to do because I had made it out of my practice piece I quickly went on to my second! Staying on the cute quirky miniature lines I went for a Toadstool! 

I absolutely love this! I am going to sew some thread to the top of it and have it as a decoration on my Christmas Tree! It's only about an inch high so nice and little for the smaller branches. My friend suggested making a bigger one and having it as a Pin Cushion! I feel a spending spree on Marina Wool coming on! 

I had about 20 minutes left until the end of the class and time was ticking but I just had to have a go at making the a little Fox that they had printed a picture of off of the internet. It's a bit rough around the edges but I did end up buying two needles and some felt so I could add to him at a later date! 

This has been such an amazing class and I will definitely be creating more Needle Felt goodies! Thank you to the girls at Leicestershire Craft Centre for a lovely evening! www.leicestershirecraftcentre.co.uk

Tuesday Night Knitting Class

Well another knitting class last night with my mum! She really does know her stuff! 

Last night was ribbed knitting. Adding to my sample piece of knit, pearl and Moss Stitch! I made a few mistakes but the Mother was there to save the day! 

I have also booked onto a needle felt course at the Leicestershire Crafts Centre in Market Harborough for the 19th November. I can't wait for this as it is something I have wanted to try for a while. Especially after seeing Sew Retros' posts on Pinterest! Her work is amazing, the stuff I can only dream of making one day! 

More practise on the the Knitting needed this week! Got to think of what I want my first practise piece to be! Maybe a winter bobble hat for the Husband! 

The first of many!

So this is my first post on my blog! 

I don't really know what I'm doing so bear with me!

I've wanted to write a blog for a while but never really knew what to talk about but I suppose the answer there is anything! 

Let me tell you a bit about myself and why I'm doing this...

I have always considered myself a creative person, a lover of things cute and quirky that you can't always find on the high street! Oh and I love anything little, the smaller and cuter the better really! Everything is just better when it's miniature! 

Like I said I've always considered myself creative but I more or less wing things when it comes to sewing, knitting, sticking and drawing! I have had a lot of books to tell me the techniques of things but I kind of read them and then think oh I can do this (never the most technically perfect of people!) 

There's also the fact that I tend to make things up in my head and then will them to exist! The perfect outfit, card, present, so why not make them myself! 

With the creation of "Pinterest" I was in my element as the world is literally your oyster with people from all over the world putting their ideas down for others to see. So I suppose this is my way of putting my ideas down and hey if someone wants to have a read them, then go for it! 

I have decided to go back to basics and learn the fundamental principals of crafts! Absorb the knowledge my Mum has, that she has learnt through her life. The kind of stuff I want to pass onto my children. 

I had a back to basics knitting lesson with the mum on Sunday and I have to show her how I have progressed tomorrow so I best get Knitting again as I don't have a lot to show so far! I'm sure this will bring a lot of stories to my blog so keep reading!