Handmade by Siona

Top projects of 2018 – Knit / Crochet / Sew

Following on from the top cakes of 2018 post, here’s the other projects from 2018 that I actually remember to take a photo of. That part is crucial as I am always making something, yet only seem to have a few photos. Top resolution for 2019 = always take photos. As before, here are my…

Top projects of 2018 – Cakes

I haven’t posted on here for over 2 years. It’s very easy to convince yourself that what you make isn’t good enough. I’ve recently reminded myself that I set this page up for me, to remind myself of the things I have made and be proud of these. If it happens to generate ideas in…

Crochet Baby Blanket

For about a year now I’ve had so many different projects on the go that I’ve never actually finished any. I made myself a promise to finish some projects before I started any more. Here’s one of the finished items. I only learnt how to crochet 2 years ago, yet here I am making full…

Organising

It’s been a little while since I posted anything here. Post wedding in July, we quickly moved on to preparing to move house so my projects took a bit of a back seat. I’m really excited that my new house comes with a room that I’ve been pleased to claim as my own craft room….

Crochet Definitions

This post is a little unexciting, but I’m constantly looking for my little notebook where I’ve written down the difference between UK and US crochet. It’s got bright yellow hedgehogs on it so you think it would be easy, but alas no. I therefore thought it would be sensible to type up and put in…

Wedding crafts – ribbon

I haven’t been able to post on here for a while as I’ve been busy preparing for my wedding and I wanted to keep what I was making as a surprise from everyone. I made numerous items for my wedding and I’m going to split up the different items into different posts. Worth noting that…

Mother’s Day at Brownies

I volunteer each week at my local Brownie unit. For those of you based across the globe this is the UK equivalent of Girl Scouts for girls aged 7-10. On Sunday 14th it’s Mother’s Day in the UK and we’ll be making gifts for our mums at the meeting before. Last year we decorated pots…

First crochet project

In September I went to a granny squares crochet tutorial at Tea and Crafting. I’ve posted a review of it in an earlier post but wanted to reiterate how great the class is for newbies. With the crochet bug, I started crocheting a granny square blanket. This is just one giant big granny square, rather…

Crochet for beginners

In August I left a company I had worked at for nearly 6 years. My colleagues bought me a range of baking items and a voucher for http://www.teaandcrafting.co.uk Tea and Crafting is run by someone who sounds like she is as passionate about making things as I am but has actually gone and made a…

Knitted Monkey

I love knitting toys. The patterns tend to be a bit more exciting than clothes with varied stitches, no long periods of st stitch and a quicker sense of achievement. Using the monkey pattern from ‘knitting wild animals’ by Sarah Keen I quickly knit up a monkey for my friend Jemma’s baby to be (at…

More cake

The last few months have had a real cake focus to them! I’m in a cake club at work. The rules are simple – each week somebody bakes a cake. They are marked on taste, texture, appearance and creativity. If you’re not prepared to bake one week, you don’t get to eat any cake. The…

Cake

Cake! Over the last few months I’ve made a few exciting cakes. First from the Clandestine Bakery book a giant fondant fancy. This was an awesome lemon cake, with an entire jar of lemon curd in it! It also survived the 2 hour car journey which is now one of my new measures of a…

Screen Printing

Continuing with the printing theme, another christmas present from ma and pa this time was for a full day screen printing on fabric course. This was at CityLit, which is a new discovery to me but has hundreds of courses, including 1 day taster sessions. Whilst this one was in Covent Garden, I am thrilled…

Lino printing

Armed with a lino printing kit for beginners (a brilliant christmas present), my thank you cards took a more creative twist this year. For those who aren’t familiar with lino printing, it’s a way of making a relief based picture. You cut away the areas you don’t want and ink the remaining to create a…

Secret compartment books

Of all the christmas presents I made this year, these are my favourite. Secret compartment books! Old Spitalfields Market has a bookstall – always there on Thursdays for vintage day and regularly on other days too – where you can pick up old books for £1! I picked up these books: The Robin Hood book…

Christmas decorations

This weekend I taught my lovely friends Flick and Becky the mother of all christmas decoration stitches – the blanket stitch! After a wander round Durham Christmas Market and Cathedral and an epic fish and chip lunch, we returned to Becky’s mansion to watch Christmassy films and make some decorations. With muppet christmas carol on…

Wedding Bunting

In August my lovely friend Caroline got married. Caroline had heard much about all the items I liked to make and had been the recipient of a knitted phone case and a jumper for her dog Mabel (see earlier post here ) So when I said I needed to see her just before her wedding…

It’s late!

The other day, when I told my Dad that I was starting to make christmas cake, he replied with an astonished (but teasing) ‘That’s a bit late!’ It’s the 29th October today and he’s right – I’m off schedule this year. I’ve been making christmas cakes for the last 4 years, a new tradition in…

Jam!

It’s midday on a Sunday and I’ve just finished making jam. Sure last Sunday at this time I’d nearly finished a 25mile cycle round some lovely country roads near Brighton through a Cycletta organised ride, but nonetheless jam by 12 feels very productive! It’s also my first ever solo attempt at making jam. I have…

Thinking ahead

With my last exam casting a shadow of doom across me for the next week, my mind (in the many moments of procrastination) starts to think ahead to my new found freedom at weekends and what to make next. I lose Tim to the football approximately every 2 weeks when he heads to west brom…