Merry Christmas everyone!

Well! I can just breath a sigh of relief and stop the crazy Christmas crochet. No more, nup, nadda, zip, I'm all finished on gifts, wrappings, trimmings and trappings... It's been so long with the work basket out each night that last night's bid for freedom felt sooooo wrong.
Katie's Christmas wrap (the rainbow coloured strip bottom right) was only finished on the 22nd and was causing me so much stress! I could only do it when my little darling was asleep, so, fitting it in with dinner, work and-oh yes- sleep was tricky. But it's done and it's lovely. Thick and warm. Small enough to fit her frame and large enough to use as a small adult wrap will keep it usable for as long as she wishes.
Presents this year seemed to be mainly scarves. This bulky pattern from "Cute and easy crochet" that I talked about last post knocks up so quickly and looks the business.

A last minute gift was this cute pudding. It was a free pattern that came as an email gift from "Inside Crochet" magazine which I was subscribed to. I haven't found many patterns that I would use from this year's magazines, so I haven't renewed my membership. Then this pattern sprung up and it's right up my street. Easy, quick and fun. It's now part of a gift box of handmade decorations for my Mum.
These Christmas projects have now taken my Ravelry page to over 60 projects. Will 2012 see my first 100?? It's a challenge I think I'll go for.

So, Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good holiday and look forward to coming back online after some serious family time!

Christmas is coming...

It's been a whole month since my last post *slap wrist* but I have not been lazy! In fact, it's Christmas Crazy in my work basket at the moment. Where did the year go?? I started so organised with my Christmas Crafty Project in January but had to shelve that due to an overwhelming batch of pregnant friends and family. Now I am in November and my list of jobs seems to be growing instead of shrinking...

Oh well, at least this means that I will have a few posts this month as I frantically pump out projects. This Christmas is turning into a "What can I make with the stash I've got?" kind of year. I've been happily stock-piling lovely wool all year and am trying to work through enough so that I can, once again, close the lid on my huge wool box. This is great for the pennies and means that I am having to read through all my craft books to find projects to match the stuff I've got ( I plan far too many projects in so little time!). I can't wait to take a Crafty Christmas Collection photo of all the completed projects- I may even keep one or two for us this year-Yay!By the way, these patterns (apart from the wrap) came from this gorgeous book. I love, love, love this crochet book! It was one of my birthday presents and may just be one of those books where every pattern is made or planned to be made. I love, love, love this book! I got it as one of my birthday presents this year and just know that it will be one of those rare books where I make all (or plan to make all) of the patterns inside. it's set out into three levels which is great if you want a quicky gift project or something a bit more special.

So, photo explanation is now due, I think. Using left over chunky wool from my earlier baby blankets, I've made a seashell chunky scarf and a lovely shopping bag which will be filled with Christmas sweeties for one of my nieces. I've made a wrap for my Mother-in-law and a delicate scarf for her daughter too! I did take a small Halloween break to stitch this Cat Woman mask for my wonderful minxy daughter (didn't it work up well?) and am now working on another wrap for her too as she has been asking each time I work on one for others!

In between all this is various cards, baby gifts and party presents...I just can't crochet fast enough at the moment. I've also been using crochet and knitting in teaching a Year 5 class about instructions. Quite a few are asking for lessons so I'm sowing some more seeds next week and will keep you posted...A school crochet/ craft group may be on the way!This is why blogging has taken such a back seat as I can't seem to stop long enough to share. I will be good this month and aim for at least 3 posts.

Back from the wilderness!

Hello Peeps! Did anyone out there miss me?? I've just come back from a 2 week break in the Forest- of-Dean (pronounced "Far-rist" mostly) and, boy, did I miss my Wi-Fi. There was no signal for phone or internet in our little caravan which made catching up with friends and family particularly tricky. I had to use a pay phone- it's surprising how strange that felt...


Anyway, I took a whole bag of wool and patterns to work through but got very little done I must admit as, by the time the girls were down and we had eaten, it was way past 9pm and we were only good for a short read before turning our sofas into a bed again.




The joy of a teeny caravan! There's a certain Ballet that needs to be performed for every little task where both of you are looking after bouncy bundles of energy and trying to move around a small space. It normally involves one doing baby care whilst other is standing doing washing up and cooking and entertaining big sister with lots of swapping around. So getting out and about was definitely the key!



One of my highlights was accidentally coming across a craft group on the one evening we had a drink in the pub. I must admit that I gate-crashed these lovely ladies in "The Fountain" in Parkend and probably looked a bit crazed as I was having hook withdrawal symptoms. They politely listened to my wittering and I came away refreshed and eager to get my hooks out when we got back and settled for the night. Thank you Ladies! I'll be back in the Summer if it would be alright to say hello again?




I did manage to make these two little dears as gifts for my friend and her little girl- A Snail finger puppet and an owl from my lovely "Fa La La Felt" book which I'm really pleased with. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break x

Week 8 Decoration- Felty chains again!

I've finished!! I know it's Wednesday but I couldn't post it uncompleted when I was almost there. I LOVE it and it was sooooo worth the effort. I must say, I'm a dab hand at blanket stitch now. You kind of have to after almost 2 weeks of work.

I loved stitching each chain by hand although I would consider using my sewing machine for a quicker gift one next time. I might come back to this another day...

Week 7 Decoration- Felty Chains!

Wow! It's Thursday already and I'm late, late, late darn it! I only started this project on Saturday and was holding off until Tuesday evening to get a bit more done when my laptop decided to develop a glitch. No Internet for 2 days was surprisingly stressful which is very sad really. I didn't realise just how much I pop on to check up little things. My iphone is even worse as I constantly have to answer those pointless questions that pop up every day.
Like: Who's the voice behind Sally from "Nightmare before Christmas?" (It's Maureen O'Hara who was the stepmother in Beetlejuice who did the possessed crazy dance at dinner!) Oh, and Danny Elfman -who seems to write music for everything- wrote the score for the film and

sang the part of Jack Skeleton... You see, pointless really.

Back to the project now. This felty paper chain was an idea I found on

http://paper-and-string.blogspot.com/p/tutorials_01.html

I've been eying it up for a while and decided to make it a two-week project. My husband looked at all the strips I cut ready and promptly declared that it would take me forever. But, as usual, just by doing a little bit each night the chain is growing nicely. I think sometimes people see these projects as too much hard work, but all crafters know that spending your time doing something you love where you end up with something to treasure is so worth the effort and time.

I'm loving it so far, especially using contrasting colours for the blanket stitch. It means my blanket stitch is really improving as wonky stitches look a little naff. I'm not aiming to decorate an entire room but make a length to go along the top of my dresser. I can't wait to see how it will look next week!

Week 6 decoration- Crochet Gingerbread girl

Fred and Ginger are together! I can imagine them swirling around the dance floor...Ok,ok, maybe not- and I'm not making a top hat and cane either- but they are very sweet together. Just a little tweak to turn a boy into a girl and Hey-Presto!

My Christmas drawer may need to turn into a Christmas box soon. We have so little storage space at home though that I don't know where it would go. Time to spring clean I guess...

Week 5 decoration- Crochet Gingerbread Man

http://priscillascrochet.net/free%20patterns/X%20Ornaments/Stuffed%20Gingerbread%20Man.pdf

How do you like Fred? This is another revisit to an early pattern and I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I love the fact that I can now tweak patterns to get the effect I want. In this pattern, the gingerbread men come out quite chunky so I narrowed him down around the body and backed with felt instead of making two separate pieces.

I had some fab buttons from a baby cardi I made earlier this year and used click-in toy eyes which keep him looking simple and sweet. I did add a loop for hanging but I think he looks better on the dresser as a stand-up decoration.

My Fred needs a Ginger though! So I think I'll work up a girl version for next week...

Fun with felt

Flicking through my copy of "Fa la la la felt" by Amanda Carestio is such a treat! The patterns and ideas are so beautiful that you just wantt to dive right in. I've been waiting for my beautiful baby to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time so that I can sit in my sunny dining room and get "Felty". Yesterday seemed like that day until I realised that all the template designs at the back of the book need to be enlarged by various % to get to the right size. Darn it! I have a printer/ photocopier but it doesn't do enlargements.

So, that will have to wait a few more days. Until then, I decided to start creating my own design which I plan to share with you. I sketched out a robin using a google photo image and traced over to make separate templates. These pieces are a bit fiddly-sorry (which I will remember when designing my next piece)

I did find some useful tips for cutting out tiny felt pieces on

http:/americanfeltandcraft.wordpress.com/category/felt-projects/tips-and-tricks/

I plan to have design, templates and Robin finished next week and posted. I would love to hear your feedback and, if anyone fancied making their own, I would be honoured!

Week 4 decoration- Crochet Stockings

Sorry this is late (again!). I meant to post on Monday's whenever I can grab a few minutes but this week has been pretty busy! It also didn't help that I couldn't stop making lovely food for the Tea Party.

I only started these yesterday morning, hoping to get one finished. Then, woosh! Baby slept for 2 hours and I went to town making little mini ones as well. Then, in the evening, I had to keep going and made this cute little set.

The pattern was one of the first projects I tried 4 years from a free crochet site (I don't remember which). I love that what took me hours back then took so little time now. I think I can safely class myself as an "Intermediate" now and not the beginner I always think I am.

Week 3 decoration- Felt Snowflake

I've had fun with my little needle recently and am finally getting better at blanket stitch. This snowflake was stuffed with a bit of cotton wool from my baby's change basket as Hubbie has been "tidying" again and has put my stuffing in the loft... I am not really allowed in the loft after the last time I dropped things through the hatch! Last time, it was a lantern which broke the wooden lid of our nice laundry basket. I will sneak up next week or I could be waiting a while.

Week 2 decoration- Embroidered Tree

Sorry about the poor picture quality. It was another very gloomy day and I wanted to take a picture before I unpicked this bad, bad attempt and went at it again with more of a plan in mind!

I love how it turned out in the end. Random swirly backstitch with tiny silver beads threaded on for sparkle.
I edged in black to keep the focus on the design.

That's so much better and in my Christmas drawer all tucked up tight!

Week 1 decoration- Sewing Machine Heart

So here is the first little decoration! This was just a bit of fun and knocked up in an evening.

1. Cut two hearts out with pinking shears.

2. Backstitch around the edge by hand or on a sewing machine (like me), leaving a space for binding tape.

3. Fill with Lavender and close gap with binding tape in place.

Finishing off was never my strong point in the past but I enjoyed stitching on tiny grey beads in the centre of each dark star which made it a bit more special. By leaving long tales, I was able to stitch ends in neatly. Lovely!

Christmas Crafty Tree Project

Hooray! My 3 month old is starting to settle into a bit of a nap routine (touch wood). Hopefully this means having more than 15 minutes during the daytime to squeeze in lunch, coffee breaks and the current craft project

So I think its time to set myself a little challenge...

Every week I plan to make one Christmas tree ornament using felt, sewing machine, crochet and maybe a few new techniques along the way. The idea is, that by the time Christmas rolls around again, I will have a gorgeous selection of premade gifts (and hopefully some to add to my own collection). This also means that I can get on with larger projects inbetween without becoming too obsessed with making things for others.

These ideas will be coming from books, blogs, crafty websites and some of my own designs I hope. Just before Christmas I will take some pics of the whole stash together on my tree and try to remember that I cant keep them all.

If I start to get a few more followers I might even include a few freebies along the way!