Hooked... (ouch, sorry)

This is a very satisfying way to spend an evening:

My first attempt - very bad

My second attempt - a bit better!

Thanks to Shivani over at Pins and Needles for the links to the videos! These were really helpful and teach you how to make the basic granny square - SO much easier than learning from a book. If you fancy having a go then you can find the videos here, here, here, here, here and here!

Sadly, we had a moth invasion a while back and they went for my wool stash so I've found myself in the market for some yarn to be getting on with. What's that? An amazing wool shop just opened up in my neighbourhood? Whoop! Check out Knit with Attitude, I'm planning a visit soon to pick out some colours for the giant granny square I'll be attempting...

A pocket full of posies (or, more likely, tights and socks)

I originally planned to make these for the nursery - we have a set of hanging wall pockets in there which I have repaired several times now. I had decided to make some new ones for the boy but had the same old problem which was, when I started to look through my fabric stash, nothing was really jumping out at me for fun, boys rooms (although plenty was suitable for a more grown up version...) We do actually have very limited storage in our bedroom and a lot of stuff (okay, it's mostly clothes and shoes and it's mostly mine) so I thought a 'back-of-the-door storage solution' was needed:

I didn't bother looking for a pattern - just had a look at the ones we already had and it looked pretty straight forward. The amount of 'give' to the pockets was kind of trial and error - I tried a few before I got it right but I think the finished article is mostly what I was after. I've resisted doing a google search for 'hanging wall pocket tutorial' as I suspect there is a really easy to follow, lovely pattern out there which I could have done with!

The fabric is one that I've had for about 3 years now, purchased for £2.99 a metre on eBay. I really like the old French Toile de Jouy and think this fabric is remarkably similar to the Cabbages and Roses version but as they're charging £32 a metre (!!!!!!!! yes really!!!!!!) I thought I got a bit of a bargain, no? The binding is a plain navy Klona cotton. Tres chic!

A bit of crochet inspiration

Oh it's nice to be back! We had an absolutely lovely holiday in the north of Italy - I ate pasta like it was going out of fashion and not even a small prang in the hire car could put a damper on things!

Annoyingly, I failed to take any kind of crafting with me. For a while now I've been seeing lots of beautiful crochet around in blogland and have been harbouring a desire to learn. I had planned on attempting to teach myself from a book whilst on holiday but just wasn't organised enough (generally, this is a recurring theme) before we left. It didn't help that the first thing I saw on entering the bedroom in our hired house was this:

And look! If I could crochet then I could make these...

Find Joelle's Giant Granny Square over at the Purl Bee

Find this Mina crochet dress pattern at Posie gets Cozy

The gorgeous Granny Stripe blanket over at Catherine Hirst

A Calm Cowl at One Flew Over

The unbelievably amzing Aurelie Mathigot (as featured in issue 2 of Mollie Makes).

Ok, so maybe I won't be covering chairs or wine bottles but I'd certainly like to master a granny square or two... I'm in need of a portable project and I'm not much of a knitter.

Back tomorrow with a small project I finished over the weekend!

If only adult clothes were this easy...

So I stumbled upon these Easy-Fit Pants pattern and was inspired to tackle a pair for Ruben. We're heading off to Italy at the weekend for a much needed holiday and I thought he could do with some light cotton trousers in the hope that it will be nice and sunny!

You may recognise these stripes from my Crescent skirt, I had just enough left over to make these. Don't worry, I'm not planning on wearing the skirt at the same time as dressing the boy in these, I though that might be a bit much! We'll work the stripes on alternate days! They were SO simple to make which meant for a very satisfying evening's sewing. I'm loving the pattern too as it's so versatile and I immediately wanted to make a short version!

One thing I realised though was that I have a serious lack of 'boys' fabric in my stash. Lots of pretty florals, all a bit girly... So a quick trip to Rolls and Rems in Holloway and I picked up some fabric to make some more:

I altered the pattern to taper the legs slightly (they really are quite wide) and made some shorts.

I also found this great tutorial over at Piccoli Piselli and am planning on making another pair later when the weather gets colder with those tabs, I think they look lovely!

So on Sunday we're off to Liguria for 10 days, can't wait! I plan on eating A LOT. I may have to make some easy-fit pants for me when I get back...