WOYWW - Best to close your eyes again!

Last week I failed to publish my post for Handmade Monday because my card reader had gone walkabout.  On Wednesday I decided that you could just try and imagine the state of my desk from my description.  So here is this weeks submission to Whats on your workbench Wednesday - the weekly opportunity to have a good old nosey!

The card reader has been returned, so the full horror of my desk can be revealed.

Phew, you can't spot my binoculars, I can't think why they are on my desk

I've been fiddling about with ideas, sometimes jewellery and sometimes sewing, so my desk is dedicated to neither!

I've finally discovered a way to have an area clear for cutting out fabric - I've taken to errecting and more importantly taking down a pasting table.  Because I put the table down, no-one has time to leave anything on it.  This means at a moments notice I can start working on a sewing idea, but the state of my desk is suffering because of it!

Here is just a small selection of the fabric I have been buying from shops and charity shops mentioned in last weeks post

I must just show you before I go a lovely giveaway I received from Paperlicious Delicious.  Seeds collected from her garden and then sealed in little origami sachets with labels on.

A very simple idea, and one that has made me hunt around my garden inspecting seed heads.  Now don't get too excited as mine are likely to be runner beans and nasturtiums, but if you are a gardener then watch this space.

Handmade Monday - Christmas is a'coming...

Hello there Handmade Monday ... this the day in the week when we all admit what we've been up to.  Or at least what we have finished.

I've never been one to put the Christmas Decorations up more than a week before Christmas.  I only go Christmas shopping in December and I don't send Christmas cards more than one weekend before Christmas.  But this year, I have started thinking about Christmas gifts for craft fairs good and early.

Did you know that there could be so much effort to get a Christmas stocking just right?

I've tried fattening, thining, shortening, lengthening, I'm still not sure I'm happy but here goes:

Footnote: (pun intended), I'll get the iron out when I get to the final design!

I think I still might tinker a bit more. I'm trying to achieve a vintage look.  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Knitted sock update: progress continues on the right foot, but panic is beginning to set in, I had to continue for around 6 inches, then do something... if I can't find the instructions soon, then my deadline (that I set myself) of October 2nd, might just slip away.

Doting parent update: I am proud to announce that I removed the stabilisers from my 5 year olds bike on Sunday, and she rode off into the sunset!  Unfortunately the 2 and half year old appears to want to follow suit - he crawled at 5 months, walked at 10 months, so I guess riding a bike by 3 is in his schedule!

So pop over to 1st unique gifts and see what everyone else has been up to.

WOYWW - Close your eyes ...

What's on your workbench Wednesday is an opportunity to take a tour of everyones desks, everyone that is, that is listed over with Julia at Stamping Ground.

I like to use lots of photos in my blogs to keep you all awake but this week I have a bit of a PROBLEM - my card reader is missing.  So you will have to use lots of IMAGINATION and I will have to use lots of DESCRIPTIONS. 

First of all it really should go without saying, but my desk is MESSY.


 I have returned to the STUDIO area, and the tea tray has been emptied. (on to the desk)

now empty

I have broken my promises of 'can you keep a secret' blog, well, adjusted them really.  I haven't bought any fabric from Wheelers Fabrics, but I have bought from several other places.  They are all still in the BAGS I bought them in, PILED ontop of one another.

Imagine: sewing machine in middle, loads of bags in back corner!

The SEWING MACHINE is in the CENTRE, and last night I made a Christmas stocking, which didn't come up to standard, so I shall have to make several more before I get it right.

Finally SOCK NEWS: right sock is progressing nicely towards 1st of October deadline!

WOYWW flower power

What's on your workbench Wednesday.
Some time ago I wrote about Tranhumance crafting. I'm sure you work in the same manner - as winter approaches the crafting table moves closer and closer to the fire.

This week has seen me working back in the house (not in the studio at the bottom of the garden).  It was because I was trying to juggle too many things, I needed to fit my crafting around the children, but I must admit that crossing the garden in the wind and rain has not been attractive.

So here is my workbench - the kitchen work surface, and a tray to take it away in between working.

I have been making flower brooches for my Polly Polkadot cabinet in The Emporium, Machynlleth.  I had planned to deliver them personally (which may have required me calling into Wheelers Fabrics once more), but clearly my plan was spotted and the car broke down.  So OH dropped them off on his way to work.  However I decided to make some more, so that I can visit next week instead!

Using a glue gun and buttons has attracted my assistant (aged 2 and half), half my buttons are now on his necklace.  He is very disappointed that the glue gun does not squirt water, and he has offered rather too frequently to plug it in, in the hope that it might start working.  So the glue gun is definately going back to its box in the studio.

Take a trip over to stamping ground to see how the weather has affected everyone elses work bench this week.

Handmade Monday sock it to you!

Handmade Monday is an opportunity to see what people have been making, noone said it had to be any good, so -I'd like a bit of a fanfare please, maybe a drum roll too. I would like to show you the LARGEST thing I have ever FINISHED in knitting...

Here it is, the left foot:

It is bad luck to put new shoes on the table, what about new socks?

And here is the right foot:

I'm a bit too busy at the mo, but I am aiming for completion by the end of the month.

I treated myself to a sock kit from Laughing Yaffle, followed the instructions, and hey presto, it worked!
Now I suppose I should tell you about my knitting:

• The kit comes with 5 needles, I lost one within a few hours, this must be why there are 5, because I was able to carry on knitting.
• I have never completed anything other than finger puppets (which I did design myself), and that would have been when I was 12.
• I can't knit without looking.
• I really dislike stopping mid row, because when I was about 7 I turned my knitting around and went back the wrong way and everyone laughed at me!
• When my Great Gran was going doo-lally she would put 2 or 3 heels in one sock. 

This to me is the best feature:

grafting the toe!

The instructions for grafting the toe were clearly gobbledy-gooch, they couldn't possibly work, but I thought I would give them a go before complaining ... and I was of course proved wrong, they were perfect.  Look, can you see a join on the middle 8 stitches? Neither can I, and I know which colours I joined.

My partners words of encouragement included:

• I hope you don't intend to sell these they will be the most expensive socks ever.
• When I dropped a stitch several rows earlier: what they've got a hole in them and you haven't even worn them yet?

Anyway, despite the level of laughter that will be coming from the likes of laughing yaffle and Rosmademe, I can proudly say that ONLY took me 2 weeks, just the right foot to go.

WOYWW - Can you keep a secret?

I know, a mess as ever

Now I know I haven't been around for a while, but I can trust you can't I?

You see that white polythene bag on the workbench?  Well I shouldn't really have bought it.

Alvin Hall used to say, do you need it? or do you want it?  (I think you know the answer to that).

Its perfectly understandable really, I'm sure you would have done the same.... Yesterday morning saw me childfree.  So I whizzed to Machynlleth to check out Polly Polkadot stock in The Emporium,  Quilling Crafts have kindly kept an eye on my jewellery over the summer but I really need to get back in the swing of things.

Anyway, I arrived at 10, but the shop doesn't open until 10.30, so where better to shelter from the wind and rain than Wheelers Fabrics.

And I'm sure you would agree that it would have been rude to abuse their hospitality, so I felt obliged to spend a little money in there.

Unforunately I may, perhaps have paid for it from the joint account, but I'll trust you not to tell the OH (don't worry I paid cash he won't spot it on the bank statement!).

But I did make a promise before buying it ... I said I won't buy any more material until I've used this piece.

Why not take a trip over to Stamping Ground to see if anyone can have a messier desk than me, or have committed worse crimes this week!

Handmade Monday, Hello, Good Evening and Welcome

Welcome back to Polly Polkadot blog.  I've been taking a break from the blog world during the school holidays.  Whoops I'm so out of practice I forgot to put my link in, please take a look at everyone else who takes part in Handmade Monday over at 1st unique gifts.

We even managed a bit of a break ourselves - a few days in Somerset visiting family (although I did squeeze in a craft fair down their too!).

Last week saw my little girl growing just that bit bigger by turning 5.  Never one to miss an opportunity to convert new crafters, I made little cotton bags for the party bags, and encouraged the children to decorate them with die cuts.

Whilst I have been busy all summer, both with the children and jewellery making, I feel like I have been treading water in a panicky fashion.

I hope to move forward over the next few weeks, however a friend kindly pointed out that I shouldn't start making any plans just yet  - as I still have this terms tummy bugs, earraches and of course nits to cope with yet!  Sometimes I feel honesty isn't the best policy and I wish he  had kept his thoughts to himself!!!

butter wouldn't melt in their mouths -eh?