Timps' Place

Ventor's Apron

2011-04-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hey! Made myself an apron. I'm almost content with my project. I still fail to sew straight but I intend to do better next time.

There's a little pocket for my cell phone in the smaller pocket and three little pockets for coins in the bigger pocket. Unfortunately the smaller one can't be used for anything except the cell phone, 'cause it's really tight.

And this is a box for photos. Viki was the instructor, my 5-year-old son was the designer and I was the performer.

Anniversary of the Republic of Estonia

2011-02-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on the 24th of February was the 93rd anniversary of our republic. The night before I crocheted a little flower using the colours of our flag (blue-black-white). Yestarday when I was looking for something else I found a ribbon that had sealed a gift bag a few years ago. And then the idea came, I made a choker:

Crrroak!

2011-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

It's still February and I found a frog on my window sill:

Oh, I like felting!

Here it is

2011-01-30T01:24:00.000-08:00

My first book weaving project:

Now I know what to do better next time :)

Shame on me!

2011-01-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

'Cause I'm really lousy blogger.

At the end of last year I tried needle felting for the first time. It was really fun.

This year began with practicing making lines:

And as the new year brought really too much coins into my wallet (our currency changed, we had kroonid but now we have euros), I had to make a coin purse but as I can sew only as much as my sewing machine, it's far from perfect:

And I just wanted to say that this is the reason why I've never knitted a hat to myself:

This hat belonged to my father, his mother knitted it when he was a child and he made the what's-its-name (the big thing at the top of the hat). So this hat is about 50 years old. I tend to value old things, especially when they come from my family. But last spring I crocheted a beautiful feminine hat (Sarah Arnold's Flapper hat):

I wore it for the first time on the last day of the year 2010. And I keep wearing it.

The yarn used is Jil and the size of the crochet hook was 3.0 mm.

Tonight I tried bookbinding for the first time (yes, I plan a lot of First Times for this year), it didn't come out as good as I hoped, but at least now I know I can do it. I'll add picture later (hopefully soon).

See You soon!

My 2nd Lace Shawl

2010-07-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

In June I casted on 113 stitches and started knitting... a lace shawl. The Haapsalu shawl, to be more exact. I'm very proud to say that I really finished it and it was a wonderful gift. Now I need to knit another one, of course, but now I know that it is really easy to knit, although it took me too much time. I'm not used to knitting lace, you see. Nevertheless I'm sure that the next one is not the last one.

I choosed the pattern of lilly-of-the-valley with a leaf (pr. Ingrid Rüütel pattern) 'cause I think, it's the most beautiful one. I used 3 mm needles for the body, and 3,5 mm for the edge. The size of the shawl is 70 x 150 cm. Yarn I used was Micro 28/2. The shawl weighs probably less than 80 grams.

And now the pictures:

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

All the shops are overloaded by hearts, mostly Estonians make gifts for their best friends (not for their Valentine) on that day. I don't celebrate the day but as I found the guide to make this beautiful ribbon, a 9-year-old lady and I started to make it. I made the white hearts to her and she did red ones to her Mother. As I don't like when beautiful ribbons have ugly endings, I made them more beautiful. There's a little bead at the end of the chain.

Some jewelry

2008-09-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

I tried to make a pair of beautiful earrings:

They are not what I expected them to be.

But these... I'm so proud of myself :D :

Look how proud I am:

Re-use

2008-08-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Meet my mom's coat:

The coat was bought in the 70's. I wore it few years ago, but it looked already old, so I decided to make something else out of it. It was a present to a little boy. i'm planning to sew another one, 'cause my son also needs a hobby-horse ;)

Here's my son delivering the present:

Ode to Men

2008-04-17T02:58:00.000-07:00

My husband, my brothers, my father - the most important men in my life. They all have something in common: they can make marvelous things if they want.

My husband is a teacher (teaches boys' handcraft, I don't know the right term in English). Some of his own work: here (the page is still a bit incomplete as I'm not a IT-specialist ;) ). A collection of pupils' work is on Flickr, but we don't remember his yahoo-account (if you know what to do on that occasion, let me know, please. My husband also has a blog in Estonian. About a year ago he tried a bit beading and wiring:

I have two elder brothers. The younger one made the best looking bunny to my son. My son already had a bunny, which he had for Christmas. They look good together, don't they?

The older brother visited m. some time ago and he too tried beading and wiring a bit.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my father's handcraft and at the moment there's nothing to take picture of. I remember brightly how lovely was a wallet he made to my mother, sadly it was lost a very long time ago. But I can say that he too is not afraid to do something with his own hands.

So men don't just cook well ;)

Practicing

2008-04-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

I love beads and wire. I'd like to make stunning jewelry, the problem is that I don't have any ideas at the moment. Here are some links to marvelous jewelry:
m. (Edit: her blog in English) I particularly like this one from her (usually pink isn't my colour).
Mdm Beadalot
Janalill
Lucy

I just love visiting these blogs. They all have their own style and it's enjoyable. As I'm not even a beginner yet, I don't have my own style so I just practiced making open loops:

Wanted to make a necklace that's simple by technology.

One day I'll show you what my eldest brother made while visiting m. I'm really stunned.

Kitchen Accesories

2008-04-03T02:04:00.000-07:00

Thinking of the house that's waiting for us in a countryside:

It's a kitchen towel (tea towel?), I sewed it myself, and the edging is made by me also, of course. I have some finished lace ribbons waiting for towels so hopefully I'll add some more pictures soon.

Boy, Am I Glad It's Still Winter...

2008-03-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

... 'cause I finally finished knitting a balaclava to my son. First I tried this way, then ravelled a bit, then I tried another way, didn't like it. And then I found the Toasty Topper from knitty.com, I did'nt like it either, 'cause it's hard to fit the ends of a scarf under the jacket. I changed the pattern a bit, and here it is - a balaclava:

I didn't have finances to buy new yarn, therefore I ravelled my old scarf i knitted three or four years ago. It wasn't emotionally hard to ravel it, 'cause the scarf was hideous, it was simple and striped, but the colours!

Edit (13th March): How could I ever think these colours were pretty together around a woman's neck. I like when boys wear bright colours but a nice and neat garment in dark colours suits as well. When my son runs around in the yard, it seems like six little kittens are romping around :D (there are six kittens on the hat).

Here's a glance at my Project Spectrum (March):

Will I ever finish it?

I thought that bobbin lace is a technique I'd never try. Cause it's hard to get the things needed and it seems quite difficult. But today there was a workshop in my very little hometown and I couldn't resist it ;) This is what we did today:

I hope I can practice it more in the future.

Have a nice day!

My First Lace Scarf

2008-02-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

I always thought that my first lace scarf would be something fancy but as I joined this project called "Meestevahetus" - "Men Swap" I decided to knit a simple lace scarf...
as a gift...
for a man...
seriously...
'cause You know men tend to forget all kind of anniversaries and stuff like that. Therefore I knitted this simple scarf just in case. I thought: "Taking part in this project is a present to one's husband, therefore it would be nice if that husband has also something to give. If the one I'm making Valentine's day gift already has a gift to his wife, it's wonderful and he can add something simple to his gift. But if he forgot the present, it's perfect 'cause he can give his wife that scarf." By the way, it took ages to write this part, I hope it makes sense :D

The one I had to make something, likes havin sauna and therefore I made this big mug for him. The text in blue is in Estonian, translation: "On Saturday evenings one can have three warm things: warm sauna, warm porridge, warm woman".

When I was thinking what I should give to a stranger, I was sure I'd avoid hearts, but.. Can You see the handles as two sides of heart? And my Mother said a minute ago that the woman's bottom looks like a heart.

And there's more. As you all know, one can't win someone's heart using force. Gentle moves guarantee that the heart will be his/her. Therefore I made this wire puzzle for my stranger :D

Just some pictures

2008-01-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

Stuff I made at the end of last year.

Wanted to use it as soup bowl, but the are lot of cracks in the glaze therefore it will be used as candy bowl for example:

Kitchen accessories:

Just wanted to try to make a star:

February - Red As Love?

2008-01-15T03:10:00.000-08:00

No, I have other plans for February. You can see from my profile picture what kind of haircut I had a year ago. Now my hair is too long and I needed a headband. And here it is: simple, quick, comfortable.

Yarn: Novita Kotiväki
Hook: 1.5 mm

January. White As Snow

2008-01-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

So much time has passed since I last posted and I have only few things to show. I have been doing this and that, but most of my projects are still unfinished.

At the beginning of the year I decided to take part in Project Spectrum (Estonian) and now I can show my first finished object.

I found a nice pattern from Ravelry :) - The Balloon Bag.

My version of the bag before and after felting:

Yarn: Novita Jussi (double stranded)
Needle: 5.0 mm
Hook: 5.0 mm

The bag was a gift to a little girl who liked it and therefore I like it too, although I'd do it a bit differently next time.

The Fairy-Tales in Our Lives

2007-12-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

At 3 am on the 1st of Dec I saw a little man walking up and down my window sill. He was very disturbed, 'cause he had to leave his gifts on the window sill. At first I didn't understand what he was talking about.

But then it hit me. It's time to let the sweet fairy-tale into my life again as my son is 2 years old already. We need this kind of fairy-tales to make our every-day-lives colurful.

As I didn't have time to look for patterns, I made one myself. To be more exact, I just drew on the paper what Iwanted the boot to look like and then tried to knit it. I'm proud of myself, 'cause the finished boot is not very different from the one I had drawn (usually I need any kind of pattern).

Before making this white snowflake (actually, it's not a snowflake, I don't know if "archaic symbol" is the right term or not) the boot reminded me a rooster's head.

It's All in the Eyes...

2007-11-29T11:32:00.001-08:00

... and that is why I haven't made eyes for it yet:

You all know, of course, how easy it is to spoil the cutest toy by simply placing it's eyes either too close to or too far from each other.

I found this cute pattern from Ravelry - Elefante by Susan B. Anderson.

By the way, a few moments ago when I returned from my kitchen I caught it doing tricks:

The Beginning

2007-11-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

My English is awful... but still - I try to blog in English. Why? 'Cause I joined Ravelry and my blog where I have shown my handicraft is in Estonian.

As I haven't had a chance to practise my English my blog posts are probably full of mistakes. But who cares, right?

My flaw is, that I'm impatient, I tend to rush into new projects therefore it isn't a suprise for me if I discover at the very end of a project that there's something terribly wrong at the beginning :D And I'm not fond of starting it all over again.

Now I need to spend some time on the looks of my new blog.