Queenie and Ted

Queenie and Ted are lovely ladies who create unique upcycled, customised jackets. As of yesterday, they also became proper shopowners with the opening of their little shop at Columbia Road. 

All very nice, but what does any of this have to do with me? Well, I met them while we were neighbours at a rather pathetic craft fair last December, and they decided they like some of my stuff enough to place in their shop!

I went to the shop last Sunday to deliver my pouches and rings, but since Queenie and Ted (or Linda and Kally) had just received their keys that very day, it was just an empty space with nice white floorboards. It was fantastic seeing that space transformed into a lovely cosy shop in the course of only a week. 

These are the little pouches I've got in their shop - the outsides are made of layers of plastic bags fused together to form a sturdy, waterproof fabric. They're big enough to hold cards, money, or a small digital camera or mobile phone. I've also got some crocheted rings in stock there, but they were displayed in a cupboard and I didn't think of taking a picture until I'd left. Oh well...

That's Kally in the middle, with that wonderful curly hair. Linda is somewhere behind her, I think.  Visit them if you're in the area!

Queenie and Ted
144a Columbia Road
E2 7RG

Saturdays 11am - 6pm
Sundays 9am - 3pm

Giveaway Time!

Lissen up, luvvers! The lovely Crystal over on Watermoolen is conducting a great giveaway, with a whole stash of prizes. One of the items she's giving away will be my Keeper Necklace, so if you fancy getting your hands on one, for free, just hustle on over to her blog and enter the giveaway! 

By the way, I'm giving away a Keeper in the 'Berry' colourway (ie, shades of red) but if you think that red is soooo not your colour, you're welcome to get in touch and let me know what other colours you'd prefer. Good luck!

Finders Keepers

Coming soon - lots more Keeper necklaces, made with cotton thread from my various dyeing experiments.

Good Times

So, I was shivering and starving in my stall in Carnivale yesterday, where I had a stall at their monthly Tik Tac Toe event, when who should come by but Etsy UK blogger AmityUK. Who then proceeded to purchase one of my little Keeper necklaces! Arghhhh! She bought this little baby, right here!

And of course, since I was being geeky and generally stupid, I got all red and blushy, and then ended up giving her the wrong change! Which meant I had to run after her, tap her on the shoulder, and squeak ''I'm so sorry, I gave you the wrong change!'' and then dump another £3 in her hands. Before running away again. Yup, way to make an impression on Etsy staff.

But in case you're wondering, AmityUK is really as nice as she appears in her articles, and I also discovered that she has a lovely little shop on Etsy too, selling really pretty jewellery made from recycled silver. 

Oh, and in another bit of good news on the Etsy front, one of my aprons got featured on the Front Page yesterday too, although I didn't realise it till this morning. Here's a screenshot!

It's that little blue apron, second from the left, on the bottom row. I didn't sell that particular apron, but I did end up selling another one that last night. So, rather a good weekend where Etsy's concerned. Yay!

Found

Some second-hand goodies I picked up recently.

Awesome Halina 35x in fairly decent condition except for a little ding on the metal bit near the lens. I've run a roll of film through it to test it out, and should get it back tomorrow. It was attached to a leather case which was falling apart and missing the front flap, so I'm working on making a little padded bag to ferry it around safely.

Some awesome tea and biscuit tins. The bus-themed tin is a recent Marks and Spencers biscuit tin, and the bottom two are much older, the one on the right is a Twinings tea tin. They both contained a heap of old buttons, beads, and a crochet hook, so it was a double score!

Blue polyester cardi from the £1 rail that was in perfect condition and looked virtually unworn, and a white faux-fur scarf that actually fastens with a magnetic clasp. 

A mega-ton of old photographs, including a photo album that isn't pictured here, and some mini Swiss postcards.. I'm gonna try and scan them all in so you guys can enjoy them too. Most of them were still in their original paper envelopes, from Boots! Their photo packing was so much nicer back then. That little photo of the father and son (I assume?) at the top right corner makes me a little sad. Also, don't you think the son looks a little like Michael Cera?

Speaking of old-school packaging, I also ended up scoring a beauteous Avon pressed glass jar. The top looks like metal but is actually a type of plastic coated in silver paint. It's only little, but surprisingly heavy for its size. I'd probably be more tempted to purchase Avon potions and lotions if they still came in such pretty jars. 

Entertainment!

Or - What I Did When My Computer Wasn't Feeling Well.

Made a mountain of cream cheese biscuits, topped with citrus peel and berry jam. Soft and fluffy, like an edible pillow.

Made a dent in the mountain of acrylic yarn I seem to have collected, by starting a colourful granny-square blanket. It's the blanket that warms you twice - once when you're making it, once when you're snuggling under it. 

Befriended a couple of lovely ladybirds in contrasting colours. Things have been going rather badly this month, so I took the fact that I saw two of them within two days as a sign of upcoming good fortune.

Played around with some of the treasures I picked up about a month ago. I made little baskets out of them (they're about an inch tall, and less than that in width) and crocheted little chains for them, topped with a button. They make excellent holders for little treasures like bottle caps, little nutmen, and  erm, other stuff. 

Made more zipper purses, to be posted on Etsy soon. These are from a pair of old linen shorts (they've been washed!) and some scrap floral fabric.

Experiments With Purple

Made a fruit loaf using this recipe, but substituted frozen cherries, smoked prunes and a spoonful of blueberry jam in place of the bananas. I also used some vanilla soy milk and a tiny splash of ginger wine, instead of the coffee I used in the earlier recipe. The insides of the loaf were a lovely shade of purple, and it was great toasted, with some Nutella on top.

Red cabbage casserole, with grated cheese on top. Yes, it really was that violent shade of purple. May not be the prettiest dish around, but it was hella tasty.

Used a couple of leaves from the red cabbage to dye some white crochet cotton, and it came out this lovely shade of pale blue. My earlier experiments using vegetable matter to dye stuff can be seen here. I always get a little surprised when picking them out of the dye bath, as the colours are never really what I expect them to be.

Winner, Not Wiener!

Congratulations, Liesl of Hoppo Bumpo! You're the winner of my giveaway, and I'll be in touch soon for your mailing address. The granny square bunting will be winging its' way to you shortly, along with a selection of other goodies!

Thank you to everyone else who entered, I'm sorry I don't have enough granny square buntings to giveaway to all of you. I'll be holding more giveaways in future, so stay tuned for more exciting prizes!

I Got You A Present!

Did Santa get you what you wanted for Christmas? I hope no one got a lump of coal, but if you did, well, coal is fairly useful.

On my part, I managed to stuff a 12 course dinner into my gut on Christmas Eve, and then spent Christmas Day working it off in a strenuous session of computerised arse-kicking, courtesy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Because I'm tough.

Anyway, because this is my 100th post, I've decided to give one reader a late Christmas present, to say 'Thanks' for sticking with me! I''ll be giving away a very colourful granny square bunting, handmade by me! Hang it on your walls or over your windows to brighten a dreary day, or just wear it like a scarf, as I've done in the picture below.

The bunting measures 90 inches in length (that's over 2 metres!) and is made up of 16 granny squares, so you'll have lots to go around. I've also included two loops at the ends so you can hang them on nails.

I'll also be including other goodies in the package, such as vintage postcards, a couple of scrap paper notebooks, and some little handmade notecards with envelopes. If I find any goodies from my trip to Swallow Falls next week, they'l be going in to! So, a rather large package will be winging their way to one lucky blog reader.

To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is tell me your favourite thing about winter. Just leave a comment below, and you'll automatically be entered into the draw for the giveaway. I'll be picking a winner out of a hat on January 4th (eep, that's next year!) and posting the results here soon after that. I'll be happy to post internationally, so anyone can enter. If you haven't got a blog account or anything like that, just email me at: dummyentree@hotmail.com and I'll enter your name into the draw. And if you want to remain anonymous, please leave me some way of contacting you if you do win.

Remember though, you have to tell me what your favourite thing about winter is, or you won't be eligible for the giveaway. Good luck everyone, and Happy New Year!

Edit (02/01/10) - I'm extending the giveaway til 10th Januuary, as I'm fairly busy this weekend. Good luck everybody!

Shovelling Snow

The Mancreature and I are going for a short holiday next week, so things'll be quiet round this here blog for a week or so. I'll leave you with some photographs...

Happy Festivus, everyone!

Snow, Socks and Squares

It snowed here late last night/ early this morning, and I woke up to find the view outside covered in a lovely thin veil of white! As you can see, it wasn't a lot, but some snow is still prettier than no snow! Even the cars looked cute, like little snow-covered turtles crawling about.

So I guess it's a good thing that I finally finished the other sock on Monday morning, seeing as it'll be getting rather nippy these days. It took me only two days to finish the first one, and yet, I spent a week trying to finish up the other side! Is this an attack of the dreaded second sock syndrome?

In other news, remember me mentioning the giveaway I'll do doing when I reach my 100th post? Well, here's a sneak preview - a whole bunch of little granny squares. But it's not gonna be a blanket...

Christmas Tree

These were finished a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to make sure the people they were intended for received them before I posted pictures.

The Christmas tree 'bracelet' is actually a wearable pincushion, for sewing on the go. Or just to wear if you want to feel like a Christmas superhero. I made two of these - one for my Mumsie and another for the Mancreature's Mama. They're very simple to make, and you should be able to whip one up in about half an hour, if you need some emergency stocking fillers or gifts. By the way, I'm sorry there aren't more 'process' photos, I didn't really think about making a tutorial until I'd finished them, then I was too hungry to make another one, with photos. Please don't give me lumps of coal for Christmas.

You'll need -

felt (in the colour of your choice)

embroidery thread (I used a matching green for the blanket stitch around the outside, and two strands of red and yellow for the stars)

stuffing (Polyfill, cotton wool, yarn or fabric scraps)

5 inches of elastic

scrap of fabric, about 8 x 4 inches (optional, you can choose to use pretty ribbon or lace and make the pincushion tie around the wrist instead) to enclose the elastic

paper stencil, in the shape of a tree (or any other shape you feel like making, I guess)

- Use the stencil to trace the shape onto the felt, then cut out two pieces, one each for the front and back. To make sure that both pieces are the same size, pin them together before cutting.

- Embroider some 'stars' on the front piece of felt. You can use a washable or disappearing ink pen (like this) to map out where you want the stars to be, but I just placed them randomly. I used cross-stitch for them, first in red thread, then going over those with the yellow thread.

*You can skip the next two steps if you're using ribbon or lace.

- Sew the long sides of your fabric (to cover the elastic) together, making a long tube, then turn it inside out so the stitching and seams are hidden. Put the elastic into the tube (I find it easiest to use a safety pin to guide the elastic through the tube). Pinch both of the elastic and sew them together, making a circular band.

- Ok, this is the part where I just jammed everything together, so...erm...

Sew the ends of the fabric tube together somehow, so you get a stretchy, fabric-covered 'bracelet'. Sew this bit to the back portion of the felt tree shape.

- If you're using ribbon or lace, sew it to the back of the felt tree shape as well, but you won't have to go through all that hassle with the elastic and all. You can leave the ends open so the recipient can tie it to fit their wrist. I should have thought of this when I was making my trees!

- Using the green thread, start blanket stitching around the top third portion of the tree, then stuff Polyfill (or whatever you're using) into the portion that's already stitched. Keep adding blanket stitches and stuffing alternately, until all the stuffing is inside. Knot the thread neatly and securely, then cut of the ends, and you're done! Wearable pincushion tree!

I also crocheted some heart shapes from thin metal wire to send to my family, so they could hang it on their tree. Although my sister tells me that they may not be having a tree this year, so I guess these ornaments won't be going up...

I don't actually have a tutorial for these, as the pattern isn't mine. I got the pattern for the hearts from here - I found her crochet hearts a lot prettier compared to most others (which are mainly made of of rows of single crochet - boring!).

All I did was string some beads onto thin copper wire, then crochet the hearts, and add a bit of yarn to the top for hanging. They didn't take too long to make either, although I found working with the wire very fiddly. You can always make it in nice yarn if you want to be kind to your fingers.

Crocheted Collar

According to my Ravelry account, I started crocheting this collar sometime in May. Which means it's taken me about half a year to finish up less than 6 centimetres of crocheting. And I haven't even blocked it yet, nor I am likely to. Because I'm lazy, that's why.

I also like the ruffliness that the collar has now, and I'm not sure if I'll lose that after blocking. Which is how I persuade myself that it really doesn't need it.

Oh, and that blue beret I'm wearing? Found it in the op-shop for £1, although if anyone asks, I might lie and say I made it.

Beetroot and Onions

My parents, like many of yours, told me not to play with my food. It's a good thing I never listened to them.

How else would I have discovered that beetroot, onion skins, salt and vinegar are not just edible, but give you beautiful autumnal colours too? The skein of yarn above was dyed with two cooked beetroots, resulting in this yummy orangey-pink colour. I'm not quite sure what this yarn is made of, as I found it in a box in the op-shop.

The mercerised cotton crochet thread below was dunked into a solution of red onion skins, which gave me this warm goldy-browny tone. I love how the colour seems to impart a slight sheen to the yarn.

Unfortunately, I haven't got any photos of the process, as I wasn't sure it would work. I'll put up a tutorial if there's interest from you guys, or you could just search the interwubs for instructions.

So, girls and boys, why don't you go play with your food and let me know what happens?

More Crochet Terrariums

Not the best photos, I'm afraid. The corner of the room that they're in never gets much sunlight. You can see a stand-alone one here too. I made that one about 3 weeks before these ones.

This is how I've arranged them so far, there should be a bunch of others going up in the next few weeks. The idea is to make a huge arrangement of them up on the walls so it feels like I'm living in a weird fungi-ifed cave-room.

More close-ups can be seen on my Flickr page. Anyone feel like getting me a pro account as a belated birthday gift?

New Work

More to come...