Alpaca Christmas jumper and WIP

Another quick post today as I have pages of boring notes to try and memorise before my exam on Wednesday. Le sigh.

I bought this amazing alpaca wool jumper off St Albans market while I was at home for Christmas as part of my brother Danny's present. It's so soft and snuggly, 70% alpaca, and since he requested a 'funky Christmas jumper', I figured this ticked all the boxes. I miss not having a market in Edinburgh, there's the farmers' market on a Saturday morning but it's reasonably expensive, nice for a treat but not for regular shopping. The St Albans market is much more of a mix of expensive, artisan food stalls, mixed in with your regular fish monger, butcher and veg stalls, plus crafts, fabric, random-crap stalls with flags with weed on them and rainbow bags etc, cheap shoes, cheese stalls and whatnot, there's something for everyone.

Here's the jumper, that's Sally (Danny's girlfriend), aren't they pretty? And check out the tiny alpacas round the yoke!



In work in progress news, I've finally started the Coraline cardigan. Well, I say finally, I knitted a gauge square back in September, and have yet to do anything with it since then. I tried to cast on the other day but it calls for a 'provisional cast on' so I need to wait until I can sit in front of the computer and teach myself with the aid of you tube. So when I say 'started' what I really mean is 'about to start'. But that's half the battle, right?

My first ever gauge square!



I also made an Etsy sale as well, woo! 2 vintage monogrammed hankies have gone to a new home and I've already converted the paypal monies into a pack of 25 plain cards with matching envelopes so I can make cards this year. It's going to be a frugal year since I hit the bottom of my overdraft over Christmas so I figure making my own birthday and thank you cards will save me a tonne of cash! And it only cost £4.30 for 25 cards off Ebay, bargain!

Shanay's panda hat

This time last year I made a Hello Kitty bag for Andrew's cousin's little girl, Shanay. Her Mum, Beverly, asked me to make it for her for Christmas and paid me for my troubles, which was a most welcome cash injection just before Christmas!

This year she requested a panda bear hat so I duly searched Ravelry and came up with this pattern from Lion Brand Yarns. Now, a word of warning for this seemingly adorable pattern, MAKE A GAUGE SQUARE!! I cannot stress this enough, I had 3 attempts at making this hat with the first 2 coming out far too small and the last one (I think) far too big. By that point though I was so fed up of the whole thing that I just finished it off anyway and will post it off this week, it fits me so hopefully Shanay will grow into it.



It was so frustrating since it's actually a really simple pattern. I ended up ignoring the pattern for the eyes, ears and nose since I was using a different thickness of black wool so just guessed at the sizes and came out about right.

He has a smiley face!



The buttons for the eyes came from my friend Karen whose Gran sadly just passed away. In clearing out her house though, she found 2 tins FULL of buttons and passed them both on to me! Once my exam is out of the way I plan to spend a happy day in front of the fire sorting my new found treasure into little pretty piles. So excited!

First tutorial ever!

Just a quick one tonight as I'm miles behind studying for an exam next week, le sigh. Not even started back yet and I'm already behind, lets hope this isn't a trend I'm setting for the new year.

Besides reviews, another ongoing theme I want to start in 2011 is tutorials! I love tutorials on other people's blogs and thought it would be nice to share some of my own. Not that I make anything particularly difficult or complicated but sometimes it's nice to be told how to make a tote bag or resize a sweater rather than having to work it out for yourself. I'm going to have to come up with a cute name for these posts, Tutorial Tuesday for example? Although that doesn't work with reviews...any ideas?

Since tonight's post has to be quick and it's my first ever tutorial so I want to keep it simple, here's my tutorial for...*drum roll*...

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES!



Lets face it, January is a depressing month. It's dark and cold and damp, the excitement of Christmas and Hogmanay is over and you're penniless and done with holidays until Easter. I find the best solution to this problem is comfort food! Especially anything involving chocolate. Make yourself a batch of these, sit in front of the fire with a magazine (my choice would be Country Living) and a mug of tea (or large glass of wine) and savour the chocolatey yumminess.

Ingredients for the truffle base:

♥ 400g of good quality chocolate
♥ large carton of double cream

Possible ingredients for decorating:

It's entirely up to you!

♥ 200g chocolate
♥ chocolate powder
♥ chopped nuts
♥ icing sugar

Instructions:

1. Pour the double cream into a pan and heat over a medium flame until just before boiling. You don't want it to boil so be sure to keep an eye on it!

2. While the cream is heating, chop or break the chocolate into small pieces, as small as you can make them.

3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces and stir until all the chocolate is melted. The smaller the pieces, the easier this stage will be.

4. When thoroughly mixed in, pop the bowl in the fridge until set, overnight is best.

5. When set, take the chocolately mess out of the fridge and, using a spoon dipped in boiled hot water, take spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls between your hands. You'll get messy but then you can lick it off your fingers later.

6. Once you've formed a ball, cover it in the coating of your choice. You can roll them in chocolate powder or icing sugar or chopped nuts. I personally like to make all my balls, then cover them in melted chocolate. Wait for the chocolate to go solid then eat, the hard chocolate breaks to reveal the smooth creamy centre - yum!

If you go down the melted chocolate route, they can be stored in a jar with a pretty ribbon and given as presents, assuming you don't eat them all yourself of course!

If you make any, be sure to post photos on the Second Fiddle facebook page!

Let the old year out and the new year in

Happy new year everybody! Second Fiddle is back in action, I've been away from blogging for over 2 weeks now and it's been pretty refreshing I'll be honest! I do enjoy blogging and once I graduate and have more time I definitely want to make more of blogging about my crafts but sometimes it can feel a bit of a chore, which is silly, it's a hobby after all!

Still, having a break from the internet in general feels brilliant, I waste so much time online and for no reason really, other than procrastinating over work obviously! I've barely been on the computer for 3 weeks now and it just shows how much more productive and energetic I can be when I don't have a screen in front of me.

But, never fear, I have still been crafting! The first finished item I want to share with the world is the aran afghan I knitted for my folks for Christmas. You can see the other work in progress posts here and here but I'm going to post all the photos here as well, just so I can see the transformation from little balls of wool to epic blanket!







The finished blanket!



Modelled by my Mum, in a not-so-subtle hint for the type of wrap she'd like me to knit her for her birthday...



My parents were really delighted with it, my Mum cried (which is always a good sign in a present, no one else's presents made her cry ergo I win!) and my Dad fell asleep under it whilst drunk several times so I'm pleased I didn't give up halfway through. It was pretty tempting to ditch it at several points, but once I got going it's actually a pretty simple pattern. I've got 3 weddings this year so I might try it again for one of those.

Hope everyone had a lovely festive period! It's quite nice to be back to normal now though!

Bohemia review

I'm going to end 2010 with a new blog idea - reviews. I know it's very self-indulgent on the one hand, but on the other I really enjoy reviews on other people's blogs! It's really handy to know what a similar crafty person thinks about a book or shop, it might encourage me to read or visit it myself or to give it a miss if they've not been terribly complimentary. Since I already do my occasional Etsy shop features, it makes sense to review some 'real life' stuff as well.

So, on with the review! This beautiful little shop is just up the road from me, where Bruntsfield meets Morningside for you Edinburgh folks. It's called Bohemia and they also have an online shop with international shipping for you guys reading from abroad!

Moroccan pouffe in Jade



The shop itself is really prettily decorated, the window is always very alluring, it makes you want to go inside and buy everything. They sell a range of items; clothes, homewares, adorable kids stuff and the cutest cards and gifts. They're also one of the few places in Edinbugh that stock Cloth magazine (thanks to Elaine for the suggestion there!), which if you sew and haven't checked it out yet then you're missing out!

Avoca Anthology wrap dress



The few times I've been in the staff have always been really friendly and helpful. My only gripe with this shop is that it's quite expensive, a lot of the clothes especially a quite a way out of my price range, but then if you have a bit of disposable income and are looking for something really special, I would stop by here!

Odd Molly silk and lace knickers



This is me signing off for 2010 folks, I've got an exam on Thursday then I'm catching a train down to London to visit Vicky, then to my folks for Christmas. See you all in 2011 and have a lovely festive season! ♥

Roller skate tote bag

I've been busy with the ongoing cable knit blanket and so haven't had much of a chance to do anything else really! I bought a box to present my crochet cupcakes in but it's a bit big so I'm going to have to make a couple more I think. I've also just started knitting a panda bear hat for Andrew's cousin, she's paying me for it which is nice, any extra cash this time of year is gratefully received! Last year I made her a Hello Kitty bag, which I still maintain is the best bag I've made so far!

In between all this though, I squeezed in making a tote bag for my friend Marlous. Every year she and her fiance host a Christmas dinner for their friends; Andrew and I have been twice now. The food is epic, 4 courses, all hand made from scratch. Last year the main course was roast pheasant, this year it was monkfish (yummy!). We took a bottle of whisky for Adam and I made this bag for Marlous as she's in the local Roller Derby team!





I think my sewing resolution for 2011 should be to branch out from bags! I've made far too many this year!

Sneak peak for 2011!

Here's one of the projects I've been working on for my Etsy shop for 2011 - fat quarters!

I had a big sort-out of my fabric a few months back (mainly because Andrew picked a fight with me about the amount of space it takes up - boys just don't understand) and tried to be really harsh on myself so that the entire stash now fits into one large trunk, one wooden box (still in the process of being made over!) and 2 smaller storage boxes. When I write it out like that it seems like I have loads of fabric...which I guess is the case, though it feels like you can never have enough...



So, to help me pass some along, I decided to make some fat quarters for the shop. That way I'm technically getting rid of fabric, though it will still be in the house, just in my 'Etsy shop box' instead of my 'fabric stash boxes'. See what I did there? Cunning eh? It also motivates me to destash when I know it's adding stock to my shop = greater chances of being found in searches etc. So I guess, winners all round!



I'm planning another giveaway in January as well, I'm 2 hearts away from having 100 hearts in my Etsy shop so I feel like that's a good enough excuse to do a giveaway. Maybe some of the fat quarters will be a prize? Watch this space anyway!