Crafts, knitting and art....

I have to admit there are two things I miss while I'm in New Zealand - my knitting needles/yarn and my sew on patch blanket - both are in storage and I can't get to them anytime soon!  And what is in storage are not things that I can buy out here and start again.  I don't fancy re-buying knitting needles I already own and neither do I want to buy loads more yarn when the yarn I have in the UK is breeding like nobody's business! 

But most of all I miss my sew on patch blanket, this is a blanket I "acquired" from a popular well known airline and started to iron/sew on patches from places I have been all over the world, the blanket in storage is almost full and has patches from all the countries, cities and towns I've visited to all the musuems, zoos, galleries, Native American Tribes, Botanical gardens etc I been to around the world.  I love it and while I've been out here I've collected more patches so I'd love to add them but can't and I don't find starting a fresh blanket until the original blanket is complete. 

But it did get me thinking about some things that I made for some people last year, they were little notice boards which I just thought were a little quirky.  Very simple to make and you can do them in any style you fancy, with any patterns you like or even draw or paint a pattern or picture.  Sadly I can't draw or paint so I tend to find things and styles to do.  But I have some pictures of the boards I made.

This one was I think the third of fourth I may so it was getting easier to decide what to do and how to do it.  I found a wonderful craft store in York, England were I got the bits and pieces from, I hightly recommend the place.



I actually didn't realise there were so many different gingham colours, my friend got me int them because she loves the country farmhouse red/white gingham look.  I can understand why, they are beautiful.

With my knitting I'm on a mission to make a blanket.  The idea is to knit lots of squares in different yarns not just textures but different colours, then when I have a large collection of squares I'll stitch them together into a blanket.  It'll be a crude looking blanket I'm sure but It'll be made by me and will be quite an individual item.  Here are some squares that I have done already.

There are so many different colours and textures, I think it'll be interesting so see the finished product.  Maybe one day I can pop a photo of the blanket on here.

Along with the blanket I hope to one day pop up a photo of my iron/sew on patch too.

I would love to get into more arts and crafts here in New Zealand, get inspired by the Maori arts.  I would like to return to pottery which I haven't done for years.  To would make for a good challenge and certainly an enjoyable one.