Miss Aine

New Pattern Alert. I know I haven't posted in a while, but you know, life! Anyway, most of my designing recently has been for magazines.  However, an upcoming event inspired me to create a new pattern - the Jumper Wearing Gentoo. My engineer younger sister has been selected to join the Homeward Bound team for 2019 to visit Antarctica.  Homeward Bound was set up to connect women worldwide who work in STEM roles and work together to tackle climate change.  Its a year long programme of study and collaboration that culminates with a trip to Antarctica.  Its a fantastic opportunity for her and as one of only two Irish women chosen to participate it is a huge honour.  It is though, a rather costly honour! She hopes to raise most of her fundraising through corporate donations and sponsorship.  My little contribution is this pattern.  All money raised from pattern sales will go towards he travel costs - and probably a few coats!! The patte...

My latest design to be published is with I Like Knitting magazine - The Clever Fox and Wild Deer Headbands. The photos are taken from the magazine's website. These headbands are knit with Studio Donegal Soft Donegal, a wonderfully soft yarn that is perfect for a headband.  I Like Knitting have a competition on at the moment to win the yarn https://www.ilikeknitting.com/ilk-blog/clever-fox-and-wild-deer-headbands-studio-donegal-giveaway/

I haven’t doing a huge amount of sewing lately. But I trying to get back into it, and get to grips with the rules around CE marking (which I only learned about recently). I’m continuing with the redesign of my rag dolls. The one on the right had a funny body shape and the arms stuck out wrong. The one on the left fits better with the shape I was going for. Next up will be to work out a pattern for the hair, and I’m waiting on CE compliant felt so that I can work on the face.

My little family of Pica Pau characters has been growing. I have absolutely loved making some of the creations in the book. I’m not a very experienced crocheter so this book has taught me quite a bit about different construction techniques. And the overall design of the toys is just adorable. Only another 14 toys to make!

For a while now I’ve wanted to develop a fabric doll with a rounder head. I do like the rag dolls I currently make, but they can’t wear hats well because of their wide flat heads.  So today I finally got out the paper, fabric and sewing machine. I hadn’t done any sewing since Christmas - I think sewing 50-odd dolls in the run up to Christmas wore me out! The first prototype had a square head. The second had a better shaped head but the neck was far too long and skinny to support the weight of the head. The third (on the right) is getting in the right direction. It has a flatter face with the back of the head being more rounded. Now I just need to get more stuffing and keep sewing!

A recently completed commission of a scarf with the logo of a GAA club in Co. Wicklow. I’m really happy with how my colourwork turned out.

This poor little penguin lost the stitching on one of his feet. Luckily it was a quick fix!

Love these gorgeous girls ❤️

#28tomake

Today's task - doodle on a photo. I tried doing it on my phone but I found it hard to do on the small screen. So instead I stuck an old photo to a page and worked from there. I probably shouldn't have tried to turn the flowers into a person , seen as I can't draw people. But the idea is there. #28tomke

I have to say, I was dreading this challenge. I am hopeless at drawing people. The task was to look at yourself in the mirror, put your pen or pencil on the page and draw yourself without looking at the page or lifting the pen/pencil. It was actually quite fun, and it's not supposed to be perfect so that worked for me! #28tomake

Today's challenge was to create drawings from scribbles. So I pulled out some pages the kids had worked their magic on and tried to work my own. #28tomake

Day 7 was a day of rest and reflection. So I'm back into the challenge today with 30 circles.  I'd say I took a bit longer than the 20 minutes assigned- I kept stopping to try and think of something else to draw. #28tomake

Day 6 for as quite a challenge- lettering is definitely not my thing. I gave it a go though, getting into the spirit of the whole endeavour. I also have a finished project to show - a crochet unicorn. Or in fact, two crocheted unicorns. I was commissioned to make one ( pattern by Marina Chuchkalova) but of course I had to make one for Emily too! It actually gave me a practice run at it as my tension changed quite a bit through the first unicorn.

Lettering is not my thing so today's task was a challenge. It did make me focus on how the letters were formed and really trying to watch out for the changes in style. It doesn't look too bad, but I won't be posting a picture of the original receipt 😂 This receipt has a nice memory- a girly trip to the newly refurbished National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin with Emily. We saw some stunning architecture, beautiful paintings and ate some yummy cake. #28tomake

Day 4, completed a bit later in the day today as I was busy this morning. There's nothing too exciting in my bag, but I am beginning to quite enjoy this creative journey. #28tomake

Today I have to draw Album Artwork. Most albums have people, which I'm really bad at drawing so I went for Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew. I love this album, and she knitted and embroidered the all the album artwork so that makes me love it even more 😁

No houseplants in my house!, so I drew my homemade Pom Pom tree instead. I quite enjoy the cheery colours. #28toMake

After the summer of having the kids at home, and on the back of a very strange and stressful year, I've been feeling very unmotivated. On Facebook I saw a link to a creative challenge so I signed up in an effort to get the creative juices flowing. And to give me a kick up the bum! Day 1 is draw your drink https://instagram.com/p/BY2v2QWliJa/ https://instagram.com/p/BY2v2QWliJa/ My phone isn't being very cooperative this morning so I can't post a photo of my drawing, but have included a link. Probably not necessary as it's not a great drawing 😂 So for photo fun, here's one of two toy dogs wearing jumpers made from the tops of socks.

All these baby gifts are for one customer - there's obviously been a baby boom near her!!