The Big Acorn Race

Hello my dear friends!

It has been quite a long time since I wrote a post on this blog of mine. Life is rolling in its usual way here. I always craft a lot but I’m spending my time on a job hunting which takes me a lot of time. Oh,no result up till now but I’m enduring this situation. Well, if you like you can follow me on Instagram. I love it because I can share the photos of my projects much faster than here on my blog.

I popped up here today because I’d like to share with you somethng really sweet. An amazing blogger and a good friend has published her first crochet book ever. Jennifer from Squirrel Picnic wrote The Big Acorn Race, a real crochet Wonderland!! What to say more?? Oh, my word treasure is really poor to describe it but if you click HERE you’ll find a really nice review by Kathryn Vercillo who has perfectly understood the essence of The Big Acorn Race.

I had the luck to have been asked by Jennifer to be her pattern tester something like a year ago. You can’t imagine how happy I was when she asked me that! I will never thank her enouhg to have had me taking part of her project!Her patterns are magical, they have the power to make you feel happy and thrilled and calm all in the same moment. I warmly suggest you to purchase her book, you will make yourself a really nice and magical gift!

Two days ago I have received my copy and I simply couldn’t resist, I had to put myself on work!

I crocheted some oak leaves by using the pattern from the book and applied them on a shopping bag I sewed for my Mother in law as her birthday present.

See??? This is only an idea and my personal interpretation of a pattern written by Jennifer. There are much more wonders to be discovered and a lot of lovely projects to be made thanks to Jennifer’s creativity!

Go and check out her pages, you will not regret!

Love

xxx

Tajana

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Abilmente Vicenza :: The Second Pair of Socks Is Ready

Hello, lovely people out there!

As you all well know, a lot of things are happening here in my tiny home lately! There’s a lot of sewing and knitting going on! And lot of home issues too, like a broken washing machine (I’m waiting for the machine doctor…) and some tooth ache (seeing the dentist in a two hours…. ) … For God’s sake, my craft helps me to preserve my mental health (read that in an ironic key, please 🙂 ) and I’m able to show you the photos of the second pair of sock I knitted to bring with me at Abilmente. There’s no need to tell that the final recipient of those socks is my Big man. 😀 😀 😀 (….. love is in the air….)

I have taken photos from the cast on because I’d like to write a brief report with the basic directions for sock knitting and I’d like to attach some photos to help a better understanding. So here they are…

The tubular cast on

The removing of the yarn

The ring closure

The heel flap

The heel

The FO socks

How excited I am!!!! I don’t know how to thank properly that fantastic crew of MAGLIUOMINI!!! I know their blog is in Italian but it is worth to be Google translated! Have fun and enjoy!

Better to start writing now!! Wish you a great beginning of the week!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Exciting Events

Hello, my friends!!

How are you? Wow, it is the first day of Autum today!!! How do you feel about that?? The beginning of a colourful season and it is my brother’s birthday!! This is nice! I’ll call him later to wish him a happy birthday 🙂

Since we are entering a cooler part of the year and since this morning I saw this sky…

… I thought it is time to slow down a bit and write a post about what has happened and what is happening lately…

I was at home in Croatia last week and came back with a nice goodie….

A thermic mug!!! Oh, what a big deal indeed! But as I saw it at the supermarket I fell in love with this simple thing and had to buy it! So now I will have hot tea for a longer time than usual! I love those small life pleasures….

I’m thrilled!! Indeed! Like a child! Because I’m going to attend Abilmente! Abilmente is a craft fair held thrice a year here in Italy, twice in Vicenza and once in Rome. There will be a lot of yarn, needles, hooks, fabrics, threads…. and a lot of great creative people! I was invited by a nice group of male knitters called #magliuomini ( find here their FB page and here their blog ) to attend the fair as a sock knitting teacher. I will hold a four hour workshop and anybody interested in socks will get the basic directions to try themself in sock knitting. This is simply exciting!!! This is the first time ever that I’m going to attend an event like that and I’m out of my mind for that! Since there is a lot of excitement to deal with I started to work on my workshop to calm myself down and have finished off my first pair of socks  🙂

(… to notice the thermic mug in its natural surrounding….)

Today I take a day off from knitting but I’m going to start a new pair of socks with the grey yarn from the below photo..

…. yarn bought in Trieste during my last trip in Croatia in a nice yarn store, Lalanalà, run by two lovely ladies indeed! It was fun to buy some yarn in a store I read about and liked on Facebook! This store had opened a long time after I left Trieste and I am so glad to have found a pearl like that in a town I love so much!

Will the excitement end…? No, it will not for a quite long time! Because I received Sheila’s parcel!!! We had a gift exchange and look what this lovely lady and expert tailor sent me…. ❤ ❤ ❤

A bag to bring along my projects…

…. and the matching card keeper, coin purse and phone case with my name embroidered on! How, for God’s sake, can I avoid to have my heart melted?? And did you see the beautiful card she sent me?

My friends, I’m so overwhelmed by all this excitement! Nice things are happening lately and I have to admit that I’m enjoying it with a lot of joy!!

Now it is time to lend on Earth again (…. Huston is calling, Tajana, answer, please!!!) and get on work! New ideas are in the air and I hope I’ll be able to materialize them!

Have a great day!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: Sheila’s Crescent Shawl

Finished off and ready to be shipped 🙂 Sheila,I hope you like it ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

Knitting in the night

11:30 p.m.

Sheila’s shawl is FO 🙂 🙂 🙂 The blocking follows tomorrow.

 

Good night,world! I’m off to watch Law and Order SVU

Back From Holiday

Hello, my friends!

How are you? Is everything ok?? I hope it is and I hope that you are having a great end of this crazy summer! My Big man is back to work and I’m back to my crafting after having spent four days in Croatia. There is a lot of things to talk about and I was wondering which photos share with you first. There are many of them to be shown, in particular those from our holidays are quite interesting, but I decided to start with the craft done before leaving, to put some order in the last week happenings. Both because I’d like to do justice to a great crochet designer and a friend and because I’d like to show you my first Xmas scarf FO yesterday night 🙂

As first, let start with the second bag I sewed for the family girls. I have found a tutorial for a really nice bag. I have simply fell in love with it and decided to try myself with, even if it looked a bit tricky…. well, it wasn’t so difficult to sew but I have had some problems with the union of the top and the bottom since the main fabric and the lining have to be attached in the same time…. oh,my version of it isn’t so bad at all, since I use jute and it looks quite cozy, but if I want to sew an elegant version, like the one from the tutorial, I have to be more careful…. here are the photos of my bag…

I find it so suitable for my artistic SIL! Very simple, made out from some natural fabric as jute and with one beautiful flower to adorn it. I hope she will like it 🙂 What do you think about my versione of the Canvas Slim Bag? Do you like it and, in particular, do you like the crocheted flower? I’m so very happy to introduce this ornament to you because its pattern was written by my friend Jennifer whose blog, Squirrel Picnic, I simply adore. This lovely lady is writing a crochet book, The Big Acorn Race, and asked me to be a tester for her pattern for this lovely flower named Tall ‘n’ Fast!

Can you imagine how happy and honoured I was and am to have taken part to her beautiful project!!! I highly recommend you to have a look at her blog,you’ll find there a lot of inspiration, and follow her during the book writing! She’s a genious indeed!! Can’t wait to see the book! Hi, Jennifer, hugs are crossing the ocean!! ❤

The first Xmas scarf is done! YIPPEE!!! I have started it a while ago and since I worked only during evenings I’m happy that it is FO 🙂 Since today it is quite cloudy I was lucky to have caught some sunshine during the photo session 😀

A simple seed stitch and some nice soft yarn, a mixture of cotton and merino wool, in a nice dark brown shade. So manly,don’t you think? 😉

I’ll be back soon with my holiday photos.

Love

xxx

Tajana

WIPs and Wandering Around…

Hello,my friends!

I’m a bit away from blogland in these days but that is because my Big man has some days off and we are spending them wandering aroun a bit… Two days spent in the Apennines and tomorrow we are travelling to Croatia for a three days trip. I’m still crafting a lot and have some projects to share with you but they are not FO yet. More about when we are back home. For now just a photo of one of them, the gift excange with Sewchet.

I’m knitting a Crescent Shawl for Sheila but wanted to add something more to my parcel to be so I tried myself with some embroidery 🙂 Well,I’m satisfied….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

….and a close up to the yarn for the shawl, brought home last night 🙂 🙂 🙂

Sorry for being so short but have to go and wash my clothes for tomorrow!

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: The Brick Red Crescent Shawl

I didn’t tell you? Sorry I was so concentrated on my sewing projects that I completely forgot to mention that I was knitting another Crescent Shawl in the meantime… This is for a gift exchange with Uncinetto e Mille Fili Colorati 🙂 ❤

I hope that you’ll like it even if you see the same pattern for the third time already … 😛

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: the Button Sanctuary tote bag

Hello, my friends!

The credit for the name of my last FO project goes to Helen from BeastieBlog whose sweet comment on my last post made me smile, she indeed understood so well what I had in my mind !! I have a lot of old and old fashioned and unwanted bottons at mine given to me by my Mother in Law something like ages ago (…..because you never know…. ) and with which I didn’t know what to do at all… then, one day, I saw this on Pinterest….

What a lovely tote bag, don’t you think?

So,at last, all those buttons laying useless in my drawer have found a place “where they can live out their days in peace and contentment”, as Helen said 🙂 🙂 🙂 .

So I went to buy some fabric…

…. and this time I tried, for the first time ever, to use some interfacing to give consistency to the bag…

To be honest I don’t like it much…. not only I had problems in attaching it because it did not glue as I wanted it to, but the tote does not have the solid look I imagined it would have… I was looking for some answers online and saw that there esxist some fleece interfacing….. unfortunately, they don’t have it in the store I always go so I have to be satisfied with what I can eventually find… I hope that the messenger bag I want to sew for my Big man will turn out as I imagine it…. I have the FO image in my head and I do hope that I will be able to recreate it exactly as I see it…. but let’s go back to the Button Sanctuary tote bag! I sewed the lining and I added a pocket too….

….. oops… I forgot to turn twice the upper hem…  😮 I hope that it will not cause troubles….

I sewed on the buttons….

… and voilà….

It is a yarn shopping bag… this because it is meant for a yarn lover…. 🙂 🙂 🙂

…. and it looks good in a crafting den …

This was a kind of a testing bag…. I tested my lately discovered embroider skill, the frame in the front is embroidered with a split stitch, I tested the use of the interfacing and its effect on the overall look of a bag, I tested my button sewing skill since I used buttons of different shapes, and, finally, I tested my top stitching skill…. hard task indeed….

I want to sew eight tote bags for Christmas as gift for the ladies from family and friends and, as said above, a messenger bag for my BM… I hope indeed that I will improve the use of the interfacing but before I’ll sew a quilted bag…. I want to sew a bag for my Mum and give it a solid look… Since I have some wadding left from my quilted blanket project I’ll use it to make a more puffed bag…. I cross my fingers and hope that it turns out good and nice…

Love

xxx

Tajana

I’m Insane Indeed

Why…? Well, look at the following photos…

Try to guess what I’m crafting and why I feel madness has started to rule in my life …..

Love

xxx

Tajana