Snowflakes in the Snow (with 15 sided biscornu tutorial)

Long post with lots of photos, but hopefully useful information!



I've been a bit distracted from my planned stitching recently (this seems to be happening faaar too regularly these days) by the above 15 sided biscornu or banurukotti. I first saw these last year here on this Russian blog and then saw that Anita had designed this lovely one too. Somehow the idea of making this kind of thing with a snowflake pattern caught my imagination, but I just didn't manage to find the right snowflakes to stitch.

At last, a couple of weeks ago, I saw this post from Janet Perry for the snowflakes on her December twinchy. That got me started! Janet's snowflakes were just perfect for what I wanted to do, so I printed off the charts and got started.



As I got going, I started playing around with Janet's snowflakes, adding beads and trying out different shapes and stitches. And before I knew it, I had ended up with 15 squares each with a different showflake!

Four of the snowflakes are Janet's, one or two were copied from images I found on the internet and the rest are my own. I might chart some of them sometime to share.

As all the tutorials I've seen for this type of biscornu have not been in English, I thought I'd write my own for anyone who's interested.



Step 1 - You need 15 stitched squares all the same size. The squares I used were all 20 x 20 stitches. As with a 'normal' biscornu, the outline round the edge of each square was done in backstitch and I used a #12 perle cotton.

When you have your 15 squares, cut them all out leaving a border of at least about half a centimeter.



Step 2 - I then divided my squares into 3 groups of 5 squares - 5 squares for the top, 5 squares for the bottom and 5 for the sides.




I then whipstitched the 5 squares for the top together.



When you have joined the 5 squares together, you will have a kind of 5 pointed star. Note that it will not lie flat, however hard you try.

Now, join the 5 squares for the bottom.




Step 3 - The next step is to join the side squares to either top or bottom. I've tried to show in the photo below how this works with the arrows showing which sides wshould be joined to each other.



You will end up with something like this.



Step 4 - Now you can start to join the bottom/top to the top/bottom plus sides in a similar way to that in which the sides were already joined. I haven't got a photo of this step - not quite sure how I would show it!

Only join about three quarters of the way round so that you leave a gap for stuffing. I use a general toy stuffing to stuff my biscornus.

Now, this is a point that I've never seen written anywhere for biscornus or anything else. When I make a biscornu, I sew on the central buttons before I've completed stuffing. I like to have my button in a reasonable indent in the middle of my pin cushion, so, in this case, I half stuffed my biscornu and then attached my button. Then I completed stuffing, working the stuffing around the threads holding the buttons, and stitched the opening closed.

Et voila!



And if anyone saw a mad woman yesterday morning, wandering round Vicky Park with a pin cushion and a camera, yes, I confess, it was me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And before I forget, you can still sign up for my PIF! I'll leave signups open until next Monday and then let you know the result. And for those who've asked, I'm quite happy to post overseas, so don't let that put you off!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The snowflake patterns I used in making my biscornu can be found on the following web pages of my blog:

• Family Sampler (with added snowflakes)
• Life without stash

Remember, I also used Janet Perry's December twinchy snowflakes. This gives you 12 snowflakes. I don't have another 3 to share at the moment, so you can either make up your own or wait patiently until I get around to thinking of some more.

My notes on an alternative 15 sided biscornu are here.

PIFs in the snow

I had an unexpectedly quiet and enjoyable week last week, spending Tuesday to Friday at home with Iona - yay! Just what I was needing after a couple of weeks back at work. It did mean, however, that my time online was fairly limited so there wasn't much blog activity going on.

Now that I'm back at work again today, I thought I'd start this week with a PIF!

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Mary's PIF.

Some time in the next year, Mary will send 2 fat quarters of fabric to me on condition that I make the same offer on my blog. So, in the next year, I will send 2 fat quarters of fabric to 2 commenters on this post. If there are more than 2 brave volunteers, then I'll have some kind of draw! And with the FQs I might even throw in a ball of yarn and a few other stitchy goodies for you to have fun with!

I'd love to have people volunteering for my PIF who will take the things I send them and use them to do something new or different. So, those who're up for a challenge, roll up, roll up!

For the snowy bit of the post title, it's been snowing here off and on since lunchtime yesterday. Alexander was devastated this morning when I told him his school probably was not closed and he would be going today! I'm sure he'll have his fingers crossed for tomorrow as there's more snow forecast for later this afternoon and overnight. I think this is probably the most snow Alexander has seen, so I hope it lasts for a bit and he can make the most of it. I think Iona wonders what all the fuss is about, but she'll learn! I have very fond memories of childhood snowy days building igloos in the garden and sledgeing in Castlebank Park. I need to get out with my camera and have a bit of fun with the snow.

To end today's post, this seems somehow appropriate!

The Kindness of Stitchers

Last Thursday I received an email from Grace which completely took my breath away! I was just utterly flabbergasted (if that's how you spell it) and went around all day with a silly grin on my face!

Why? Well, if you notice in this post, I said how much I liked CA Wells's Pyramid Etui, but doubted I'd every have the opportunity to stitch it. Well, here was Grace, on Thursday morning, offering to send me the chart! WOW!

And look what I got in my grubby little hands after I rushed home from work on Friday -


I'm still pinching myself! How kind and generous was that?

Thank you thank you thank you, Grace!

So guess what? My immediate stitching plans have just been turned on their head, although I'm going to force myself to complete a couple of WIPs first (SB Family Sampler and one or two small things). But that just gives me the chance to kit up the Etui first!

Woohoo!!

This week, part 2 - time to show off!

Lots of photos in this post!

I finished this at the end of last year, but haven't had time to blog about it up to now.

I said in November that I'd had a bit of inspiration regarding my Mystery in a Corner from Gay Ann Rogers - well, it worked!

In June, when I finished part 1, it looked like this.


But I wasn't really happy with it. The design was beautiful, and I loved the stitches, but I wasn't happy with my choice of threads and fibres which made the colour scheme far too pale.

My inspiration was to add a new colour of perle cotton in part 2, and I knew exactly what colour to use.

The problem then was how to introduce the same colour to part 1, but with a minimum of frogging. I decided the answer was to add some beads. Later, I changed that to Swarovski crystals, just for that extra bit of fun and sparkle. And, in adding the beads I changed the charted Rhodes stitches to Jessicas.

Finally, I had seen Laura's version of MIAC with her border and loved it and wanted to do something similar.

So I did, and here's the end result!

Can you tell that I'm delighted with it?

It really is a beautiful design and once I sorted out my colour dilemma, I absolutely loved stitching every stitch! The instructions were everything I could have wanted which is a good thing as I splashed out and bought some more of Gay Ann's designs when she had her e-week sale in the autumn!

This week, part 1

I have a long list of things I'm wanting to blog about this week, but rather than one humungeous post that would take all week to read, I thought I'd better split it up into bits.

Today, I have to say thanks to Erna for this award!

Erna is a relatively new blogger who, like me, loves Scotland and stitching, so pop by and say hello to her. Thanks Erna!

While wandering around the web last week, I came across Jan's blog where she was being interviewed on the promise that she interviewed 5 others. It looked like fun, so I volunteered to be one of her interviewees!

Here are the questions she sent me -

1.As a Scot in England (my husband's one too) do you find it very different and is your accent still strong ?

I've been living in England for almost 15 years now and as time goes on, I see less of a difference, although I suspect it's more just me. Recently, I've been feeling a bit kind of 'homeless' - I always used to feel like Scotland was still home, but recently I realised that I'm not so sure it is any more, but at the same time I don't want to live where I do now for the rest of my life. So I'm generally not so sure of the differences.

My accent is still fairly strong, and I certainly wouldn't want to loose it. I do have to moderate it a bit down here, though, to make sure people, particularly those who don't know me well, understand me. Spelling things out loud to people can be a problem as often other people can't tell the difference between my A and E.

2.You have an unusual Blog name - why did you choose it ?

My blog name comes from the part of Lanarkshire in Scotland where I was born and raised. It comes from Tinto Hill which is a biggish hill in the area. In old maps and books, Tinto is sometimes referred to as Tintock Tap. As my blog name, it's deliberately a bit obscure and unusual, but it relates to who I am and where I come from.

3. If you could meet one person dead or alive who would it be ?

As a family history enthusiast, I have plenty of dead relatives I'd like to meet! Such as Sir Samuel Chisholm, Lord Provost of Glasgow 1899 - 1901. Or a certain Jessie McDonald who, as a young woman, had 2 illegitimate children by 2 different fathers, married a 3rd man and had 3 children with him as well as raising her husband's children from his first marriage, and following his death went on to have a further 2 illegitimate children. Could she please tell me which Peter Horn was the father of my ancestor and who fathered her last two children?

If we're talking living people, then I wouldn't mind meeting Gordon Brown, but I wouldn't discuss politics with him!

4 . If you could choose just one craft to do what would it be ? (it can be one that you don't do at the moment) and why ?

The answer to this question would probably change depending on what mood I'm in, or what my latest obsession is. But at the moment, the answer probably has to be my stitching - I could do it all day, given the chance!

5.If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live and why?
Not sure about this one, but the answer has to be somewhere in Scotland. Probably near, if not in, Edinburgh, but I can't be more specific. I love Edinburgh, so it would have to be somewhere with easy access to Edinburgh, but at the same time not too big a place and easy to get away from and out among the hills.

The rules of this interview thing say I now have to offer to interview 5 people now, so if you fancy having a go, here's how it works.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interviewsomeone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Finally, so as not to end this post without any photos, here's a sneak peek of what I think I'll be posting about next!

Oh dear!

Well, now that I'm back at work, I'm back to my old habit of browsing around various web pages and blogs, reading about what everybody's stitching and what's going on in the stitching world. And, boy!, do I seem to be in the mood for being enabled this week!

First of all, I saw this on Margie's blog.


Doesn't it look beautiful? I've long drooled over CA Wells's Pyramid Etui (btw, have you seen Karoline's? It's soooo gorgeous!) but am probably unlikely to ever get my hands on the necessaries, so might this be the next best thing? It's a joint project designed by With My Needle, Cherished Stitches, The Stitching Parlour and Praiseworthy Stitches, to be released as a limited edition in February but can now be pre-ordered.

That led me to discover this.


Quaker Turtles by With My Needle - they're so cute, I really must stitch them too!

Oh dear!

And then I saw this too!


Chatelaine workshop 01! Looks like it uses some of my favourite colours, and lovely Jessica stitches! And Martina has some more new gorgeous designs, like her Autumn Watergarden and Mini Mandala V.

What's a girl to do?

Thanks for all the good wishes over my return to work. Iona's done really well this week and is quickly getting used to our new arrangements for her during the day. In the evenings she is still a bit unsettled as she probably wants to stay up longer as DH, Alexander and I are usually all around and she sees us and wants to play, but at the same time is really tired. Give her a little more time and she'll settle. I'm just glad she's doing so well during the day.

Finally, a pic of what I've been working on this week, although my time for it has been fairly limited, what with putting children to bed, washing dishes and preparing baby food! Here goes, my Shepherd's Bush Family Sampler.

I've spent all week working on that sheep! (Sorry for the useless photo - I never seem to be at home when it's light this week!)

Back-to-work Blues

I had to leave this little darling at home this morning to start back at work. She sat on the window sill watching me with a look that said "Why are you going away outside Mummy? Why aren't you staying at home with me?" Roll on 5.30pm!

Needless to say, now that I'm back at work, my fingers are itching to get on with my stitching. I can see that I'm back to it in a big way and crochet is already fading into the background. Now that I'm back at work, maybe I'll have a little more blogging time to share what I've been up to.

Coals to Newcastle

or Monkees to Bristol?

I recently sent a couple of crocheted monkees to the very funny ( and younger than me <sniff>) Monkee Maker. From her blog, it looks like they've settled in well.

Here are Maisie and Minnie!



Aren't they cute? And they look great together! They were crocheted using #8 pearl cotton and a 1mm crochet hook.


I really like Minnie, she's really tiny! I really should make another one but there are far too many new things to try and I've been really enjoying myself with some stitching!

Short & sweet - Duty calls

Just a short post today to note a particular event that happened 8 years ago that led to my having to phone my Dad and apologise for forgetting to post his birthday card.


HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!!
And Happy Birthday Dad too!

I'm still crocheting away, but the stitching's creeping back in too. Here's a photo of my latest creation.

It's the hat I'm talking about, although Iona is keeping me busy at the moment too as she has a cold and just isn't herself, poor wee lamb!

A bit of catching up

I haven't felt the inclination to blog over the last couple of weeks, having been suffering from a bit of a Flickr obsession. I set up my Photostream there recently and have been spending hours browsing through beautiful crocheted afghans, acquiring even longer to-do and wish lists! If you look in my photostream you'll see a number of items which I haven't blogged about. They're gifts which will or have been sent to fellow bloggers, so until they reach their destination, I'm keeping quiet!

I heard last week that Monique has received the gift I sent her for winning my giveaway!


A felt pincushion, crocheted scissor fob and a crocheted brooch! I'm really glad they've arrived safely and that Monique likes them!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I might find some time for a little stitching, well, here it is, my new start!


Family Sampler from Shepherd's Bush. I wanted to stitch something special to commemorate 2008 and Iona's birth, but not a birth sampler. This way I can include Alexander's birth to as well as me and my DH.

And here's what I sent to my partner, Gayle of Sentimental Stitches, in the Stitcher's Angel Swap. My parcel was posted around a month ago, but I haven't heard whether or not it has arrived - I hope it isn't lost!


Crocheted pincushion, needle book and scissor fob in a matching bowl plus some stitching goodies!

Finally, I had a flash of inspiration at the weekend regarding my Mystery in a Corner from Gay Ann Rogers. I'd rather ground to a halt with this, not entirely happy with my colour scheme. So I think I now know the solution and I'm just waiting for the postman to bring my some more floss, then I'll be into a bit of frogging and then hope to make some good pregress!

Finally (again, and I really think I mean it this time), I'm really behind on my blog reading and even more on commenting. One day I'll catch up ...... But in the meantime, thanks to everyone with the stamina to keep reading my waffling, particularly those who take the time to leave a comment. I really do appreciate it. Blogging has been really great while I've been on maternity leave and keeps me in touch with the wider world and not home alone!

Biscornu with a difference

Given that it's easy in crochet to make squares, I wanted to see what it would be like to stitch two crocheted squares together in the same way as the two sides of a cross stitched biscornu would be.



What do you think? I'm not sure what I think. It is pretty - I love the flower on top, it's shape, the way it lies and the beads. But if I made just the flower, I don't know what I'd do with it!


But, overall, the DK yarn I used is probably too heavy. And somehow it also reminds me a bit too much of traditional crocheted doilies and things like that. With my stitched biscornus, I like to keep my favourites out on display. Somehow, I don't think I want to with this one. I think it just seems a bit too wierd and OTT.


I still want to figure out how to use crochet with the biscornu shape, but I guess I'll just have to have another think and try a slightly different way of doing it.


I've also crocheted these over the last couple of days, but I'm not sure what to do with them now. I had thought of making them the top and bottom sides of a pincushion, but I don't fancy that now. But I really like the design and want to do something with it.... Any suggestions?

Wow!

I'm so chuffed - my to do list is suddenly shrinking! Yay - I've knocked about 3 things off it in the last week! That's what I like about crochet, it can be so quick!

Unfortunately, I can't show most of the things I've made as they're gifts for people who might read this. But I will give a few sneak peeks.

Tiny amigurumi monkey

Crochet scissor fobs

And Alexander insisted I make him a tiny turtle from this book, even to the extent of trying to match yarn colours, but it only took me yesterday evening to complete, so I don't mind. I wanted to call him Tippy Turtletrousers (note the Captain Underpants reference) but Alexander informed me that he's to be called Timmy the Turtle.

And I've just remembered that I never showed you this, not that I finished it in the last few days. I was trying to think of a witty post about 101 uses for pearl cotton, but I can't get past about 2. It's from a pattern by Peachtree Cottage.

At this rate, I might even get some stitching done to show next time!

A little geekishness and a headless chicken

We were woken by the postman on Saturday morning bring a surprise package - my prize for winning Lesley's League of Geeks!


What a fantastic prize and perfect timing too at the start of our half term. Alexander almost immediately disappeared off with Crisp Packet Fireworks to consult his Grandpa and I've scarcely seen them since, only occasionally being summoned outside to witness various demonstrations such as the toaster powered hot air balloon, liquid behaving badly or cola volcano. I think the cola bottle is scheduled to be turned into a submarine today.

The recycled stuff is great fun too - notebook (used to be a car tyre), ruler (used to be 3 plastic cups) and pencil (used to be money), although the pencil seems to have gone walkabout already, as pencils do.

The brain food, of course, did not last long!

As for the headless chicken, that was me last week. Apart from finishing my biscornu, I haven't done any stitching at all since the summer as the inclination just disappeared but I've been crocheting madly ever since. I think madly may be just a bit too true.

I've posted some of the things I've made already (not that they'd take kindly being referred to like that, I won't tell if you won't), but I've also made some things for a swap, some gifts and have been having a go at crochet bowls.



I went a bit headless chickenish last week as my to do list seems to be getting longer and longer and I really want to do some stitching! Aaarghhhh!!!!! I think I had a day or two of being unable to do anything before I managed to stop procrastinating and start one of the things on my list. Rather than having just a randomly jumbled list, maybe I should prioritise and put rough deadlines on some of the items?

And Alexander has refused to allow me to send Monique the thing I was going to send her for winning my giveaway, so I'm in the middle of figuring out what to send instead and that probably means making something as well! Ho hum.


PS. Anyone else hate div tags and the way Blogger likes to add them wherever it feels like? Grrrrr.

The Amigurumi Army

We are the Amigurumi Army. We hereby assert our independence and announce the formation of the state of Amigurumia. (Yes, we know there aren't many of us, but you can't say we're not ambitious.) All amigurumi are invited to join us.



Let us introduce ourselves to you.

Venerable Smuj - oldest and most respected.
	Honourable Pinkie - despite the frivolous appearance, her mind is as sharp as a crochet hook.
Respected Jerry - the so-called hybrid bear-monkee-mouse. Determined to live up to the reputation of his namesake and putative ancestor.
	Most brave No-Name - denied the dignity of a proper name.
Valiant Fuzzz - conqueror of Captain Monkeypants. The defeated captain shall have no power over amigurumi.

We also demand the immediate release of our comrade, Chewbacca, currently held hostage in Manchester.


In return, we intend to continue to hold the monkey known as Zero-X1 until we are satisfied of Chewbacca's welfare, or his return to us.


In the mean time, we urge all amigurumi to rise up against the oppressor and join us in our struggle.

Signed

the Amigurumi Army

973 beads on my biscornu

I spent 20 minutes last night trying to count the beads on my biscornu, but I kept loosing track of the beads I'd already counted. As a last resort I switched to counting the beads in one of my photos where I could at least them cross off as I counted them.

I have to admit that my total is only approximate - I counted around 240 beads in one of the corners and multiplied it up by 4, then added the 13 larger beads from the top, making a total of 973.

I'm very disappointed (LOL) in all the entrants in my giveaway! Most of you vastly underestimated the number of beads I used. However, Monique came closest with her guess of 800, so she wins the prize - congratulations Monique!

I was a little surprised that there were almost 1000 beads used, but only a little as I suspected there could easily be around 200 in each of the 4 corners. And I really don't think it look that long to stitch them all on!

Top Geek

I won, I won! I came out top in Lesley's League of Geeks!

Wow and I didn't really think I was that geeky! I suppose I'm just geeky enough to have taken the league seriously enough to have a bit of fun posting some geeky stuff. And, given my family, it wasn't too hard to find stuff to post.

So thanks very much to Lesley for organising it all.

For the next few weeks, I'd better concentrate on Iona who is to young to be geeky about anything (unless it's milk, silly noises or Mummy singing). However, the geek will have to be temporarily released at half term when Dad comes for a visit.

For now, here's another one of those exciting conversations I have with Alexander -

Alexander - Does the moon have gravity?
Me - Yes but not as much as the earth.
Alexander - Why?
Me - Because it's much smaller than earth.
Alexander - But when earth and the moon were the same size they would have had the same gravity then?
Me - Ummmmm ...... (frantically trying to remember which TV programme he's likely to have got that from).

Anyway, today is your last chance to enter my giveaway. And I'm faced with the wonderful prospect of spending the weekend counting the beads on my biscornu!