Snow!

I was so excited to see the snow when I woke up this morning! Sadly it hasn’t settled, but it got me looking at my snow pictures from last year. I know this isn’t anything I’ve made, but just had to share the Godly beauty – enjoy!

A bag full of stripes

Here is my lastest completed creation! You may remember that I started it a few days ago (see it in progress here) and it inspired something else entirely. So it’s taken me a while to finish it, but I go there in the end!

I’ve adapted the pattern very slightly (it’s based on Lucy’s design) – I used half treble instead of treble stitches around the sides and made the straps slightly differently, but otherwise it’s pretty similar.

And I’m so pleased with it! I started it to use up some of my wool supply and ended up buying so much more in the process, but it’s so worth it! I just love the colourful stripiness of it – yum!

 

 

 

I realised the other day that there has been a deplorable lack of buttons in my recent creations. So to try to make up for it I decided to add some buttons to the flowers that are attached to the straps – so pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what my next project is going to be yet, but I think it may involve recycling some previously used cotton which I’ve had lying around for ages – I need to do some thinking and browsing for inspiration, so will let you know!

Teeny Tiny Bunting

Several months ago my next door neighbour was having a clear out and very kindly gave me loads of beautiful embroidery threads. She used to do a lot of cross stitch, but doesn’t do it any more, and wanted her threads to go to a good home. I’ve used them every now and again for little bits and pieces, but a few days ago saw something that would make the best use of them yet.

The lovely Lucy over at Attic24 has been busy creating again, and has made some gorgeous teeny tiny bunting. I love bunting at the best of times, but to see it so cute and tiny is something else! So of course I had to give it a go myself. I popped into town this morning to buy a small enough hook (2.50 mm) and got started as soon as I got home!

I found it a little tricky at first working with such a small hook and thin thread, but got into it after a little while. And I’m really pleased with the results!

Here is my first little bunting flag:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And two more…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the finished article:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So cute! And it fits perfectly (just!) across the narrowest part of my bookcase…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love it!

Ice Cream

I finished it! It didn’t take long in the end, just a couple of hours over a couple of evenings, and ta dah! A new bag 🙂

And here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a nice close up of the ice cream:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just one more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the sun even came out, making it look even more yummy! It is now for sale in my shop over at coriandr. Enjoy the beautiful, summery sweetness while I consider my next make!

Works in progress

A few days ago I began another project that was inspired by Attic24. Lucy made a beautiful crochet bag, full of bright colours and lovely stripes, and very kindly wrote a tutorial showing how to make it. I thought I’d give it a go in order to use up some of my odds and ends of wool, and when it’s finished it’ll hold what’s left. Unfortunately I’ve got carried away and ended up buying more wool – oh dear!

The base came together very quickly, although it ended up slightly wobbly the bigger it got (but it’s not polite to dwell on big, wobbly bottoms). I also realised that even though I was following the pattern by working in treble stitches there were more holes than I wanted. So when I got to the sides I started to work in half trebles instead. I’m really pleased with how it looks, but as half trebles are smaller than trebles, it’s going to take longer to make.  Never mind.

Anyway, this is how it looked yesterday:

And today:

It’s growing! But it’s still got a long way to go if it’s going to be big enough to hold my entire stock of wool.

And look at the lovely stripiness of it. As I was looking at the latest stripes I suddenly started thinking of ice cream! They seem to me to be very ice creamy colours, and remind me of ice cream bowls…

So I thought “What would be better than an ice cream bag?” And the answer was “Not much!”

Which got me started on another project. It hasn’t gone far yet, but loook at the lovely colours!

More pictures will follow (hopefully of finished articles, but you may have to wait a while – it depends how many other bright ideas I have along the way!)

 

Quick update: The ice cream bag has turned out really well so far! It still needs some handles, but apart from that is nearly there – so exciting! Hopefully pictures tomorrow…

Bits and pieces

Ok, here is a collection of other projects that have been going on in my life that haven’t made it on here yet. Firstly, the granny square slippers I mentioned here. I was quite happy with how the first one turned out – until I tried to put it on my foot. It’s too small. So, at some point, I’ll make one that actually fits. And perhaps add a strap to help keep it in place. But in the meantime, here is my first attempt…

 

I know I said I’d put up pics when I got the size right, but this one is kinda cute, and since I had a pic it seemed right to give it a moment of glory. Besides, who knows how long it might take me to get round to making a pair the right size?!

Another crochet experiment started with a few circles, and ended up being a cute scarf:

This was another project inspired by Attic24. I’m sure you’ll agree that the circle scarf is a beautiful thing to behold, and as soon as I saw it I wanted to have a go. There was no tutorial, so thought I’d just play around until I managed to make an acceptable circle. And they ended up being super simple, and very quick to make (my favourite kind of project!) The finished scarf now belongs to the friend who pushed me towards crochet again, as a sign of my gratitude.

Another experiment was this flower, and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

I’ve seen similar flowers in a few places whilst googling away, but couldn’t seem to find a pattern or tutorial. So again, played around until I came up with something I was happy with – and I just love this! The only problems are that a. I want to make a whole load more, and b. I have no idea what I’d do with a great stack of them! Any suggestions welcome 🙂

And finally, I know this is supposed to be a blog keeping track of the things I’ve made this year, but I just had to share this with you. I had a creative Christmas, and made the majority of my gifts. This is what I made my cousin:

I just love spotty fabrics, and loved the colours of these together. I’ve made similar notebook covers as gifts before, but didn’t take pictures. Which meant that when I came to make this one I couldn’t remember how I done it before – so frustrating! So this time I figured that if I at least took pictures it would make it easier to make again in the future.

Please excuse the ironing board – if I’d known at the time I would be showing these pictures to other people I’d have found a prettier place to photograph it!

Ahh, so pretty.

Time flies…

…when you’re busy crafting! This week has been fairly productive, and I’ve actually finished some things!

Remember that second fluffy scarf I told you about? Done! And added to my Operation Christmas Child bag.

And another project I started last week (but don’t think I told you about) is making good progress. A daughter of some of my closest friends will turn 3 in a couple of months. And she loves rabbits. She’s had a couple of ‘Bun bun’s since she was born, and it’s a nightmare if she ever loses them. And a while ago her Mum saw a pattern in Crafting Springtime Gifts. It’s a very cute rabbit with a smock dress and pantaloons which Little Girl would just adore. So I decided to make one for her birthday.

This is the work in progress on Tuesday:

 

Bunny in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the finished article:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s so cute! And lovely and sunggly and soft – I made her from a dressing gown that was only £5 in the sales – bargain! I’m really pleased with how she’s turned out so far, and looking forward to making her clothes (which will probably be made from other bargains found in the sales). More will follow…

 

In addition, I’ve been buisily hooking away at a lovely ripply scarf. I came across the ripple tutorial at Attic24. I thought to myself “That looks fun – I’ll give it a try and see what happens.” So I tried it and this happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I thought “Well, that’s quite pleasing. I wonder what it’ll look like if I keep going?” So I kept going and it started to look like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And before long it grew into this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you tell I enjoyed making this?! It took some time, but yesterday I made the finishing touches, edging it with a lovely purple border, and I now have (yet another) scarf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t quite decided yet whether to keep it for myself, or give it away (which I’d quite like to do, but can’t decide who to give it to). I’ll hang on to it for now, and keep gazing at it’s lovely ripplyness 🙂

 

So it’s been a productive week, but the mittens and socks sadly remain unfinished.

 

 

A Londony Weekend

I have spent this weekend in London. Even though it was only for 3 nights, I knew that I would need to take something crafty with me to keep me going! There were many options, but decided that knitting would be easiest – a few balls of wool, a couple of pairs of needles and my faithful hats, gloves and scarves pattern book would provide the crafting fix I need without taking up too much space. Plus, knitting is fairly easy to do on the train without completely taking over an entire carriage. (Whenever I craft I tend to fill all available space around me – given the opportunity I’m sure I could fill an entire train carriage with just one project!)

So, I merrily started knitting some child sized mittens for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. (Please notice how that’s linked – I’ve just worked out how to do it!) These mitten, along with the scarves I started making a few days ago, will be bundled up and given to my friend’s Mum, who is one of our area organisers. Thanks to an army of Old Ladies in our town they always have thousands of hats to include in the shoeboxes, but don’t often have many scarves and gloves given to them. So I thought that while I’m not working full time I should put my time to good use (and use up some of my wool stash) and knit mittens. These are very satisfying, as they don’t take long to make – which means I stand some chance of finishing them before being distracted by another project!

On arrival at D and M’s house (my cousin and his lovely wife) M and I quickly got into a knitting discussion. I started to teach her to knit a couple of Christmases ago, and she’s been going from strength to strength ever since! This Christmas D and M visited M’s family in the US, and whilst there M’s Gran gave her a stack of old knitting patterns, probably from the 60s and 70s. There were some fab pics (our favourite was the knitted bikini!) and even though a lot of these were quite dated there were some great ideas.

One pattern was for a pair of slippers made from granny squares – so cute! I made one as soon as I got back yesterday, but it’s too small. Apart from that I really love it! So will try again with a bigger hook. Will post pics of the finished product when I’m happy with them 🙂

But of course, now I have a new project on the go, I have a half finished mitten in my knitting bag. Oops.

New year, new projects

So it’s only 12 days into the new year, and already I’ve started multiple projects that have come to a halt! My problem is that I’m very easily distracted. I’ll start on a project with great enthusiasm and before I’m even halfway through will find something in a book, magazine or online and be completely in love with something else that I just have to try!

So for Christmas I asked for a sock pattern book. This may not sound very exciting to a lot of people, but I’ve never knitted socks before, and wanted to try something new. So I struggled to get to grips with using double pointed needles and eventually finished a sock. But the trouble with socks is that even if you’ve finished one, you’re only halfway through. So I knitted about 10 rows of the next sock before I found some old wool stashed away that would make a cute cosy scarf.

So I made a scarf. Then started another. It’s still not finished.

And also for Christmas a lovely friend of mine gave me a fabulous book full of knitting and crochet patterns. Her thinking was that once I was confident with crochet I could teach her.  So I thought that I’d better start learning. And in the process I found an amazing blog, Attic24 (and as soon as I can figure out how, I’ll include a link!). So yet again I was inspired to do something new. And ended up creating another scarf, this time in circles of crochet. At least I’ve finished something.

But now I’m hooked on crochet (pardon the pun) and I still have an unfinished pair of socks and half a scarf. Well, maybe they’ll get finished. One day.