Thread Witchery

Handmade Glamping - The Honeycomb Patchwork Pillow

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:02:00 +0000

The Honeycomb Patchwork Pillow found on page 10 of Handmade Glamping. All made from scraps except the pom pom trim and cushion pad. The lace I had in my stash has a full cover rose pattern rather than being an offcut of a lace tablecloth which is suggested, but although I have been keeping my eye out for one of these in charity shops for a while I hadn't discovered any. I like the way this turned out.

My bedroom has recently had a revamp and is more like a beach hut retreat so a lot of the projects in this book fit perfectly for the new décor. This is an epp project so as I was hand sewing I just focused on thoughts of relaxation and refreshing sea breezes. I often have sleep disturbances and I always manage to sleep soundly when I am by the sea, so focusing on this while redecorating and making my new bedroom items was imperative.

Threaded for relaxation and beach holiday vibes.

7 Steps To Connect With Your Angel Guides Through Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:28:00 +0000

Angels are truly universal. The Pew Foundation reported that 72% of Americans believe in angels. This is a much higher percentage than Americans who believe in any world religion, because angels are fundamental to most of the world’s major religions. We find them in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Mormonism and many other spiritual traditions.

St. Augustine, an authority on Angels, said, “Make friends with angels.” He recommended that we make personal relationships with angels and that we let our relationships with them deepen, much as we would with any important, intimate relationship. Inviting them into your craft space is perfect!

Asking an angel for help with our favourite tasks is one of our most powerful spiritual practices. We can ask the angels for help with our craft projects at any time. Here are some techniques to guide you:

1) Ask for help – Angels offer us help 24/7. The more receptive we are, the more help they can give us. If you diminish your receptivity you limit the angels ability to help you. Create your own invocations, or prayers, that specifically call for the help you need with your knitting, crochet, embroidery or other projects. Continue the call and feel the angelic presence while you work. Realize that when you call upon an angel, what really happens is that you open yourself into greater receptivity to their assistance.

When asking for help, it’s important to realize yourself as fully worthy of angelic assistance. Angels work with everyone regardless of personal histories and beliefs. Angels are infinite and omnipresent, your request does not diminish them in any way, nor does it affect their ability to help the rest of us at the same time. They exist beyond our experience of time and space and respond to everyone with complete unconditional love. No task is too trivial. Ask for their blessing when working on gifts for others, or just for the motivation to finish a long neglected WIP.

2) Connect with your inner divine child as you call upon the angels and ask for help. Your inner divine child is whole, innocent and true and recognizes angels as trustworthy gifts of the Creator. This will help create openness, receptivity, excitement, eagerness and wonder as you prepare to receive their blessings and creative guidance.

3) Hand everything over to the angels when you ask for them to bless your work: every issue, problem, worry and fear as well as every good intention and positive outcome you imagine as the result of your craft session. Relax and enjoy your creativity along side them.

4) Express Appreciation and Gratitude. Find and express genuine appreciation and gratitude for your crafty skills and the opportunity to utilise them. If you are struggling with this, ask the angels to help you to find the love that is present in whatever you are creating. Have patience with this and yourself as you enjoy the process.

5) Know that it is done. Every request is answered and blessings are always given. If you fear that your request will not be answered, then also ask for help in understanding. Trust that you will see the love in every completed sweater, blanket, pair of socks or whatever else you can imagine. You are known completely and loved unconditionally by the angels and nothing that will serve you and others is ever withheld from you.

6) Keep your energy clear by finishing projects (I know, this is a tricky one!). Angelic help is infinite and unlimited, you can not use it up or run out of it. You cannot ask for “too much” and the angels are joyously happy to give to you without limit. BUT by having too many things progressing at different rates the energy surrounding them becomes jumbled as you lose track of where you are, who you are making it for, and why you even started! The faster you complete projects, the clearer the message contained within the threads, and the more clarity you will gain from any help received.

7) Celebrate yourself exactly as you are in the moment. Leave any critical judgments or negative feelings about yourself, your life, or your creativity in the hands of the angels for healing. Even if it you can only spare a few moments, let go of everything that is not of love for yourself and everything around you before you begin. In this moment of surrender much more can be done for you by the angels than you can accomplish on your own. Thank yourself and the angels for deepening the relationship between you.

Hopefully this article gave you some helpful steps to connect more deeply with your Angels for help and assistance while you mindfully craft yourself to bliss. Remember, Angels will be at your side with every step you take today. Angels are always with us and are eager to help.

Handmade Glamping - The Crochet Picnic Blanket

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 15:53:00 +0000

I'm attempting to update all my craft projects and my Ravelry notebook. I want to try and work my way through all of the craft books that I've acquired and then get rid. There is just too many of them! I also have way too much yarn, odd assorted sundries of crafty bits 'n' bobs, and lots of WIP's. This is my journal for keeping track.

I've finished the Spice Of Life crochet blanket so far this year. This ate a lot of oddments up, plus several balls of Stylecraft Linen Drape which was on offer as it's now discontinued. This was my first large crochet project so I'm pretty pleased with this one, and I am already finishing another crochet blanket.

The first book I am working my way through is 'Handmade Glamping'. 10 years I've owned this book. And 10 years ago when I purchased it, I started the Seaside crochet blanket on page 114, decided it was too hard and stopped. The resulting piece of blanket floated all around three different houses in the last decade, mostly draped over the back of my office chair to conceal a small rip. Now, with my youngest daughter floating off to university in August I have decided to finish it as best I can and gift it to her as a little piece of home to take with her, and also to keep her warm when she can't afford the gas bill on a student income. Of course I have only a couple of balls of the original yarn left, so I've tried to colour match as best I can with the stash I now have and have used the original blanket as a central panel to work outwards from. How big will it be eventually? Who knows! I'll just keep going until around the end of July and crochet an edging around it. I'm not surprised I gave up though - the instructions for this blanket are a bit vague and really could have done with a stitch count. As a novice I'm not surprised I got frustrated. The original panel looks quite wonky which at the time I thought was my tension, but even now I've struggled to keep the edge in line and the rows the same width.

DROPS Arctic Tide Sweater

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:34:00 +0000

DROPS Arctic Tide is a free pattern available on the garnstudio website here.

The Man wanted an aran sweater so I purchased a quantity of DROPS Air with this purpose in mind, but then reconsidered and thought I might prefer knitting a gansey style sweater instead - just not in 5 ply as I really couldn't face the amount of work involved. I originally planned this project using the Modern Gansey, but this is more of a recipe than a pattern and I just wanted it to be really lazy about it and I got quite frustrated. Put down project for 6 months. Then with Man's 50th approaching I decided to pull this back out and start again using the Arctic Tide pattern that was designed for this yarn. So much easier!! The stitch texture looks great with the floof of the yarn and gives it a blurry effect. And bonus - I don't have to think too hard.

I'm now coming to the end of the yoke. Trying only to knit when he isn't home so he doesn't know what I'm up to, so progress is currently slow. I have till November.

edit: a review of this pattern has made me realise that I have missed a band of stocking stitch in the yoke. I have no intention of frogging back and fixing it. I like mine better.

Manifestation mantra: May the rest of your life be filled with love, happiness, health and positivity.

Free Sock Pattern!!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 14:35:00 +0000

My daughter will soon be winging her way home from sunny Cyprus after working there over the summer, so I decided to make her a little gift to keep her tootsies warm when she back in windy England. I just grabbed some stash yarn for these, some Peter Pan in an interesting pattern I bought on holiday a couple of years ago. I already made a dead fish hat out of it but still had a couple of balls left. This is my basic go-to sock pattern, although I’ve adapted it slightly to fit a size smaller and a size bigger than I usually knit (yes, all the women in this house have 9” feet). I made up the heel pattern on a whim, but I’m sure in the entire history of knitting someone must have beat me to it, so if you recognise it and can name it, I’d be ever so grateful.

Basic Sock with Fancy Heel

You will need:

4 x 3 ¾ mm double pointed needle (UK size 9) or circular if preferred.

75 (80, 90)g Peter Pan DK shade 1356

or any needles/yarn that will give you the correct gauge of...

22sts and 31 rows over 10cm in stocking stitch.

Measurements: To fit foot length 8” (9”,10”) [20 ½ cm (23 cm, 25 ½ cm]

Cast on 44 (44, 46) sts. Divide evenly onto 3 needles. Join in the rnd, placing marker at beginning of row.

1^st round: *k1, p1, rep from * to end.

Cont. in rib as set for 5 (5, 6) cm.

Cont. in st. st. until work measures 18 (19, 20) cm.

Heel:

Knit 11 (11, 13) sts from 1^st needle. Slip these sts, plus 11 (11, 13) from end of last round onto a separate needle. Place remaining sts onto a stitch holder for instep.

Working on 22 (22, 26) heel sts only, cont. as follows:

1^st row: (WS) p all sts.

2^nd row: (RS) Keeping yarn at front of work *sl1p, p1, rep from * to end

3^rd row: (WS) p all sts.

4^th row (RS) Keeping yarn at front of work *p1, sl1p, rep from * to end.

Rep last 4 rows for heel pattern until heel measures 5 (6, 6) cm, ending on a WS row.

Heel shaping:

Keeping heel pattern correct, proceed with heel shaping as follows:

1^st row: patt 11 (11, 13), p2tog, p1. Turn

2^nd row: p4, p2tog, p1. Turn

^3rd row: patt 5, p2tog, p1. Turn

4^th row: p6, p2tog, p1. turn

5^th row: patt 7, p2tog, p1. turn

^6th row: p8, p2tog, p1. turn

7^th row: patt 9, p2tog, p1. turn

8^th row: p10, p2tog, p1. turn

9^th row: patt 11, p2tog, p1. Turn

Small & Medium size only:

10^th row: p to last 2 sts, p2tog.

Large size only:

10^th row: p12, p2tog, p1. Turn

11^th row: patt 13, p2tog, p1. Turn

12^th row: p to last 2 sts, p2tog.

12 (12, 14) sts rem.

All sizes:

Next row: K all heel sts.

With RS facing, pick up and k 14 (14, 15) sts along left side of heel. With 2^nd needle, k 22 (22, 26) across instep sts from holder. With 3^rd needle, k 14 (14, 15) sts up right side of heel, then k 6 (6, 7) sts from 1^st needle. 62 (62, 70) sts.

Cont. in st. st. as follows:

1^st rnd: Needle 1 – Knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1. Needle 2 – knit all sts. Needle 3: K1, ssk, k to end.

2^nd rnd: knit.

Rep. Last 2 rnds until 44 (44, 46) sts rem.

Cont. in st. st. until foot measures 15 (16.5, 18) cm from base of heel.

Toe shaping:

1^st rnd: Needle 1 – knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1. Needle 2 – K1, ssk, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1. Needle 3 – K1, ssk, knit to end.

2^nd rnd: Knit.

Rep last 2 rnds until 24 (24, 26) sts rem.

Cast off with method of choice. I used a 3 needle bind off, which you can learn how to do here:

This is my first upload to the Ravelry pattern database. A bit scary!! You can find the details here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-sock-with-fancy-heel

Hope you all like it!

Juice Fasting

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 17:39:00 +0000

13 years ago, I gave up work and had my third and final baby. Happy though I was, I piled on the pounds. Here is not the place to confess my previous weight. I took the bull by the horns, joined Slimming World, got a dog, and after 6 months I managed to get my weight down to around 11 stone. My goal weight was 10 stone, but I plateaued and after another 3 months I got discouraged and gave up. Then I started home educating, and suddenly I had no free time! My morning jog with the dog went first, and gradually I moved around less and snacked more. I put over a stone back on. In the last 5 years I have tried, to no avail, to get rid of the this extra stone and lose the original stone to get to my goal weight of 10 stone. It never works. I get to 11 stone 2lb EVERY TIME and then my weight loss stops. I get discouraged and bored, and my weight creeps back up again.
A few people have said to me, “maybe 11 stone 2lb is your body’s ideal weight/natural weight/set point. Your not that fat, you don’t need to lose weight. Just accept it.” NO! If this were true, then why did my natural weight used to be 10 stone? I was 10 stone until I turned 27, and this is the weight I felt comfortable and confident at. Why am I not naturally this weight anymore? My perception of my weight is more important than your perception of my weight, and I refuse to accept it.
But I was tired of menu planning, and calorie counting, and restricting what I ate. So in January I started the 5:2 fast diet.

The 5:2 Diet Book: Feast for 5 Days a Week and Fast for 2 to Lose Weight, Boost Your Brain and Transform Your Health

When I started I was around the 12 stone mark (again). After steadily losing 1lb a week for four months I was – you guessed – 11 stone 2lb. Don’t get me wrong, it came off nice and easily, I had more energy than I’d had with other diets, and my body seemed to have remodelled itself slightly. My permanent muffin top was gone. Great! But here I am again, stuck at 11 stone 2lb. Some weeks I gain a couple of pounds, the following week I lose them again. So at the beginning of June I bought The Gabriel Method.

The Gabriel Method: The Revolutionary DIET-FREE Way to Totally Transform Your Body

What a fantastic book! My weight loss problems suddenly made complete sense! It completely explained why I keep getting stuck. So I downloaded Jon Gabriel’s evening meditation, and I’ve listened to it every night for a month. Jon suggests adding in some extra protein and omega 3 to your diet, which I’ve incorporated. I stopped weighing myself every day. I started juicing at breakfast, and on my fast days to cram in extra nutrients. This book has really helped shift my attitude towards food. I’m definitely eating healthier without really trying.
Now the weather is hot though, I just don’t wanna eat, and don’t wanna cook! I’m also feeling sluggish, like I need a good detox, something I used to do regularly, but haven’t embraced for over a decade. I would also like to see if I can break through the 11 stone 2lb barrier. Today is the 1st day of my 14 day juice ‘fast’. It is not a fast in the strictest sense of the word, as I’m not bonkers enough to enjoy drinking juice for 14 days straight. I’ve cobbled together my own plan from the book ‘Juicing for Life’.

Juicing for Life: A Guide to the Benefits of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Juicing

I’m juicing 6 times a day for the first 5 days and allowing myself a light supper in the evening if I feel I need it. Then I’ll try and do another 11 days juicing 4 times a day, with a normal breakfast and dinner. I’m also going to weigh myself every morning, just for the sake of curiosity.
Starting weight on the dodgy bathroom scales: 11 stone 6lb.
I’ve gained 4lb since the beginning of June. The first day has been ok, with the exception of having green pee, which apparently isn’t that unusual. I had a small portion of homemade lasagne at dinner time – I am ridiculously hungry, yet feel simultaneously nauseous. Also I have a headache and I’m tired. Pretty much what I expected from my first day, so okay so far.

Part 2