Sunday 29 July 2012

The Odd Sock Conundrum

I can't be the only person on this planet to have lost socks in the wash. In fact, it happened to me so frequently last year that my flatmates came up with the theory that at some point during every wash cycle, a ritual was held which involved sacrificing a single sock to the great god of washing machines. Thankfully, it was mostly old ones which went missing, so it didn't matter too much.

Pairs of socks appearing out of nowhere though? That's an entirely different matter.


I found these while tidying up my yarn stash. I have absolutely no idea where they came from, or why I would have bought them, as they're a size too small for me. Still, waste not want not. I promptly got my craft scissors out and started chopping them up to use them for other things.

You see, I'm somewhat clumsy. When I got my last phone, I'd had it out of the box for all of two minutes before dropping it. I'm now super-duper careful with other valuables like my mp3 player, although I still lament the fact that some protective covers can be insanely expensive. The solution? Make one.


Okay, so my seam turned out a little messy when I stitched it up. I don't have much experience of sewing other than repairing a sleeve on my flatmate's jumper once. Still, it was an easy enough job to just sew up the bottom and add a button on the top for decoration (it looked a bit bland without it).


Ta-dah! One upcycled protective sleeve. I'm ridiculously happy about having made that, simple as it was to do so - not only does it shield my beloved music player from bumps and scratches, but I also like to think it looks pretty good too. Your mileage might vary though. :P

Have you ever made something small that you've been really proud of?

Sunday 15 July 2012

Making a House a Home

At the beginning of the month, I moved out of my flat in the student village, and up into a lovely little house not far from the university where I study. Now, I'm the kind of person who doesn't like a bare room. I like having trinkets and other pretty things scattered around, so of course my initial instinct was to start adding some personal touches to the place. This wouldn't have been half as difficult if I hadn't been on a student budget. 

This is the point where I have to thank my mother and say "you were right all along". I spent most of last year wondering why the heck she'd bought me a vase, considering I don't have the money to buy myself flowers, and there's no significant other in my life to buy them for me. However, given the sheer amount of yarn in my stash box, a thought popped into my head. Why not make some flowers?



After a bit of digging around on Ravelry, I came across this pattern for some very simple pinwheel flowers. I also found a skein of James C. Brett Woodlander yarn in an absolutely gorgeous pink and purple colourway,  which I thought went perfectly with the other things in my room. I do love the shade variations, partly because it means every flower I make is going to turn out slightly differently. I modified the pattern a little bit, choosing to add coloured buttons for the centres of the flowers instead of making the knitted centres that the pattern calls for.


So far, these are the only two I've made. I've got about another nine to make before I can start attaching them to the green garden sticks I've got for the stalks. In total, these little artificial flowers are going to cost me maybe £5 as a maximum, once the cost of the buttons and the yarn etc. gets taken into account. It's a lovely little purse-friendly project that'll bring a bit of colour to my new room, with the added bonus that these flowers will last a lot longer than cut flowers would. I'll make sure to get some extra photos once the whole bunch is finished. :D

What are your favourite things to make on a budget?

Saturday 7 July 2012

Peekaboo!

Hello and welcome! I'm Jayne, and I'm the slightly mad mind behind PinkPosy Crafts. Bear with me, this is my first foray into blogging - and please forgive me if I start waffling, I have a tendency to go off track quite easily.


I'm primarily a knitter, although I do occasionally venture into crochet and other kinds of craft. I started getting into crafting in November last year, shortly after being diagnosed with depression during my first year of university. I always found that having something creative to do helped to calm my mind and stop me feeling so gloomy, and even though I'm now recovering, I've still carried on crafting things almost compulsively during my spare time. Is there such thing as a craft addict? Either way, I've definitely accumulated too much yarn in the time I've been knitting!


In theory, I'll be blogging every Saturday, provided I actually have something to ramble on about. If I can find that tricksy camera of mine, there might even be photos (which may or may not be of the pretty variety). 


Anyway, I'm off to knit! See you soon. :)