Yesterday I went to the London Stitch and Craft Fair. I’ve never been before. It was pretty easy to get to, although, some of the underground was closed for maintenance.

It was a packed house! We had trouble getting through the first floor. The major crafts represented were cross stitch, paper craft (card making and such) and knitting. But, unfortunately, the knitting wasn’t as well represented as I would have hoped.

The really popular paper craft was decoupage. There were some amazing examples. I really want a giant giraffe in my house.

It was pretty standard cross stitch stuff, but there were a few really amazing things, like this 3D house and….

Firefly! This was Mr X Stitch’s stall, who is really nice, go check him out here. He had loads of amazing pieces. I wish I’d taken more photos, but my phone was dying.

And then there was the knitted art! So many amazing pieces. There were some crazy tea cozies and some real master pieces:

Overall, it was ok. I think I’d go again, but just with the mind to see cool things, not really to make any big yarn purchases.

Just in time for the cold setting in, I’ve finished knitting my first hat. It has ears!

Now I’m working on secret Christmas projects, so I won’t be able to make craft updates for awhile, seeing as they only people reading this are probably related to me :P. I’ll have to find something else to post about.

In other geeky news, I’ve gotten addicted to Plants vs Zombies on Xbox. It’s so much fun! I’ve also been playing Costume Quest on Xbox too. It was like simulating running around trick-or-treating again. Good fun.

Anyone else excited about the upcoming Harry Potter film??? I’ve been listening to the audio books again. “Reading” them again as an adult, I realise how dumb those kids are.

Seriously, if I was eleven and I thought someone was going to steal, say, the crown jewels, my second thought, after being told that I can’t talk to the equivalent of Dumbledore would NOT be, “I’ll protect it myself.” NO. It would be, “Ok, who’s the second most competent adult I can find?” But more to the point, how shit were those protections on the Philosopher’s Stone? A logic puzzle? A chess game? SERIOUSLY? The later books tell us they have spells to make locations impossible to find except for people that already know. Or transfiguring it into, I don’t know, a chamber pot. Who the hell would steal that?

But as bizarre as some of the decisions they make, I must give Rowling credit. I don’t struggle to remember any of her characters, regardless of weird names or lack of back story. She has a knack for making anyone memorable. I’m reading Skullduggery Pleasant series, which I absolutely love, but I can’t for the life of me remember who anyone is. He writes really snappy dialogue, but backstory zip! (But as I said, I love his books and HIGHLY recommend them.)

Another project done! Probably won’t finish any more crochet for awhile, though. I’m going to try to learn to knit socks! I tried a little while ago (I posted about it). That didn’t go very well, so I bought some books to try and work out what was going wrong. There are SO many books on how to knit socks and SO many ways of doing it.

I decided to start with these two and see how I got on:

I’m going to start the traditional method which is from ankle to toe, using double pointed needles (DPN). The other book teaches you to do it from toe to ankle using 2 circular needles. There’s even books that teach you to do two socks at once! I’m pacing myself…

I’m going to try a trick my friend learned, which was to knit a few rows on a normal set of needles, then move to the usual 3 double pointed needles. You can sew up the unconnected rows after the sock is done. I shall post as I make progress!

P.S. made the BobOmb while watching Silverado. GOD I wish Kevin Costner had gotten typecast from this film. I love him in this, everything afterwards is down hill.

I seriously love Silverado. It’s pretty much the ultimate western for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Clint Eastwood films, I adore Maverick, Brisco County rocks my socks, but if I want epic, it’s Silverado every time.

Another crochet post! I’m sorry, I’m addicted!

I made an elephant. I had a night in all to myself and though “Eh, I’ll just see what’s on TV.” I had a choice between Con Air and Keira Knightly’s Pride and Prejudice. You know what I picked? Con Air. Because a story that makes no sense is better than a good story butchered.

I don’t particularly like Con Air. It’s got a cool cast, but seriously why don’t they blow the fucking plane out of the sky? WHY? Because John Cusack says not to? Seriously, who would listen to that guy?

I really loathe that version of Pride and Prejudice because it feels like watching a Cliff’s Notes with really, really badly read lines. They sound like they don’t understand what they’re saying! Just saying words and hoping it sounds emotive.

I’m going to show these English how to party like it’s 1776!

p.s. In case you were wondering, that’s a Tentacle from the “Day of the Tentacle” video game. Laverne wears it as a disguise…it’s a long story. Play the game! It’s awesome.

Just finished another Creepy Cute Crochet monster:

This was a bit trickier because of the hair. The instructions in the book were..sparse. But, she did a detailed tutorial on her website: NeedleNoodles

That tutorial really helped. I’ve got various states of the project loaded up on Ravelry. I absolutely love this website. It’s so easy to use, I can see how all my projects turned out, make notes, look at other people’s projects, it’s great.

I also started making a sock (note I didn’t say sockS. I’m just trying one to see how it goes). It’s so HARD! I don’t know how any one thought this up in the first place. I’ve had to frog (new term I picked up on Ravelry. Means to rip out thread i.e. rip it, rip it, thus frog…)
twice already.

That attempt was going well until I managed to go from three needles to two, which is wrong. Not sure what I did, but I’ll give it another go later.

I finished my bolero! I don’t have any shots of me wearing it yet, I need to block it (which involves getting it wet and stretching it). But I was too excited not to post.

Front:

Back:

Shoulder seam:

It’s an interesting pattern as I didn’t actually have to sew any of it together. The sleeves just crocheted straight into the body part.

I’ll update when I have photos of me wearing it!

More projects finished! I did these awhile ago, but only just finished off the final touches now. I needed some fimo clay to make the props and then some time to actually model them, so that’s why I only just finished them.

The first one I made for my friend who looked after my cat:

Then I made a monkey! Because, who doesn’t love monkeys?

That’s all! Still working on my bolero, making good progress, I think I’ll finish this week.