Post Christmas Catch Up

 Coming out on the other side of Christmas and heading towards New Year I can now share my makes, which I could before they were gifted.

First off is the clown.  This was for Flo, who likes the clown my Mum made for my daughter (Flo’s mum) which resides in our spare room.  This is Mr Fortywinks, a pattern by Jean Greenhowe.  Quite fiddly with lots of bits and pieces to knit but fun.

Another knit for a little one is a gnome, which Cece took a liking to and only took me a week to make. This is a pattern by Sarah Scherer of Imagined Landscapes on Ravelry was last year’s gnome along.

And here he is with the gnome I knitted last year.  I enjoyed the making of this and I have taken part in this year’s gnome along, which I will share soon.  Her new gnome was really well received. 

On to crochet gifts and I made shawl for my sister, then went on to make another for my Mum. These were made from 150 gram variegated yarn cakes, using a simple pattern, the Half a Granny square shawl by  Churchmouse Yarns. This one is King Cole Curiosity for my sister.

And for my Mum, another yarn cake, this time Sirdar Colourwheel, which I though was not as good in the colour sequence as the King Cole, but it did look really good nonetheless. 

They both have Cavalier King Charles spaniels (from same breeder,  but 2 years apart), so I crocheted Philip the Cavalier, yarn and pattern by Toft.  Admission here is that I started these to be last year’s Christmas presents and although I made the bodies the ears and tails needed loop stitches.  I could not get the hang of making these in spite of seeing the You Tube tutorials.  This year I kept preserving with getting to grips and in the end devised my own way of making the loops, which worked. It might not be the right way but it had the right result!  Two happy Crocheted Cavaliers and two happy new owners (and low maintenance too!).

Here’s one of the ears, above.

They look brilliant together and I’m pleased I got them done for this Christmas.

And I made gloves, these were for older granddaughter S who when she stayed wore a pair of fingerless gloves which she kept on all the time.  I had some dark purple yarn and started on these after she left.

This is a pattern called Fingerless or not by Snapper Knits on Ravelry.  She has small hands so the rib, rows above the thumb and the finger rows are a bit shorter and I didn’t attempt to match the rows but they look as though they do match.  I don’t know what the yarn is as I bought it a long while ago and lost the ball band but it was a real hit with her.  I may be making more, but…

 

Here’s another pair of fingerless gloves knitted for David, this time knitted to the pattern and matched up too.  It was difficult to knit this in secret, so hidden in my room and knitted while watching You Tube Videos (thanks to Vlogmases from Art, Paper Joy and This Little Wonderful Life and a few others).  He gets cold hands and these were well received too.  I know the yarn this time, it’s West Yorkshire Spinners yarn in Yarndale exclusive colour Hope and has worn them everyday since Christmas Day.

I have also sewn, Sarah had wanted some new cushion covers, so I had some Janet Clare fabrics in my stash which have the colour scheme she wanted.  These were a mix of Hearty Good Wishes and Geometry from Moda which I had in my stash and had the muted blues, greens, greys, beiges.  She had 2 smaller cushion pads so I bought larger ones, so all are 16” square. There was also a raindrop fabric which toned in as well.

I really enjoyed making these and making the patterns work to the prints that I had. A lot of fun, shows how I enjoy putting patterns and fabrics together.

So that’s Christmas over and look forward to the New Year.  More sewing, knitting and maybe some papercraft too.

Finally, Happy New Year.

Let’s hope 2023 is a good one.

Christmas Holidays

 

A bit late (as it’s Boxing Day today) to wish you a happy Christmas holiday and I will be back with a post later this week.

December- Heading for Christmas

 

We were out last week to Poole to see the Christmas lights. The above is one of the displays in the centre to which I’ve made my marker this month.

This Christmas tree was on the Quay

It looks all glittery outside the town museum

This was one the quayside

Giant bauble in the High Street. There is an entrance at the side so one can sit inside.

A giant blue anchor on the Quay.

Christmas events have already started with the Dorset Townswomen’s Guild’s carol service at the community church in Poundbury, Dorchester.  My friends and I took the opportunity to see the Christmas market there and seeing the displays at the garden centre before then.  Ladies, including myself knitted bunting flags and jumpers for display outside the church.

I did make 3 jumpers and flags (one of each in red, white and red) a few months ago but I only seem to have a photo of one jumper! The jumper was knitted plain with the pattern sewn on.

There’s more secret making still, but things are progressing. And the Christmas tree is up and decorated today

Furtling in November

 Trying to get this done in November (as I started this, but it’s the beginning of December now) but not a lot I can show as I’m getting stuff ready for Christmas.  I think there will be an almighty show and tell at the end of December!

I have had a request for a gnome so I’ve made Gnombleberry, which was the gnome from last year’s mystery gnome along and quite enjoyed making this little character again. He’s mostly in one piece and started from the hat down, with my preferred method of magic loop, rather than a set of double pointed needles.

And here with my original Gnomebleberry. 

This week I’ve learnt about Iris Folding, thinking it’s almost like foundation paper piecing in patchwork, but not quite. I quite enjoyed this although a bit fiddly with small pieces of paper.

I had a birthday this month, so together with some birthday money plus £5 off at Hobbycraft, I bought one of their trollies and a tin of Inktense blocks as I’d like to do a bit more paper crafting and painting.  I first used Inktense at West Country Embroiderers to colour silk and cotton fabrics and also good as watercolour paints.  Below  are my samples, though I've not produced anything with them.  The paler fabric on the right was a layer of silk which I didn't know was underneath so it soaked up with colour from the top layer. I painted some cotton fabric (the small green bit) and the Inktense block paint coloured that well.

Below is what should have been made, this was by the tutor Liz Kagi.  But maybe at a later date I might feel in the mood to make a picture from the silk pieces. There's just too much going on with the run up to Christmas I couldn't manage it.

I'm hoping all my finishes will be finished in time, so still fettling away (whether its knitting, sewing, crocheting....)

Joining in with Mini Archie's November Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

November Ramblings

 November seems to rattling on and I don’t seem to have achieved much and what I do get done can’t be shared on the blog as they’re secret makings (getting ready for Christmas, etc) but after Christmas there will be a show and tell blog of what I have made.

Meanwhile I received a package from the lovely Helen of Mousiemakes podcast (on You Tube) after a giveaway to celebrate her 100th episode. It contained 2 little mice. Aren’t they gorgeous? Only a few inches tall and complete with little outfits (even the little girl mouse has knickers!). They quickly made themselves at home on the corner shelves with other creatures and are quite happy.

November is birthday month and the first is my Mum’s.  On they way to Christchurch we stopped at Homebase there to get some guttering for the water butts, and greeted with a Christmas dinosaur!

I don’t know what Christmas has to do with dinosaurs, do you? We decided he wasn’t going to come home with us!

David’s birthday was on Monday and after fetching my granddaughter off the school bus, we had Dorset Apple cake for tea to celebrate, which she helped make with my daughter. Earlier that day I went to West Country Embroiderers and as it was just after Remembrance Sunday, the altar in the church still had its covering of poppies.

In December I’ll be taking part in another gnome knit a long, this will be my third. There’s usually new things to learn when making these little fellas which makes then quite addictive. 

(Image by Imagined Landscapes). This gnome is called Gnova , who helps the other gnomes with Christmas presents.  I’ve chosen my colours (with some help)

But the mustard was to close to the yellow so another colour needed to replace, so I opted for the blue and the colour scheme looks much better. These take 20 gram mini yarns and there’s usually some left overs.  Really looking forward to the KAL.

I’ll sign off with today’s picture of Poole Park.  The water was like a mill pond, it was that calm and on our walk we saw the radio model boats on there section of the lake and the reflection was beautiful.

Furtling in October - Way Behind

 It’s November- quite a way into November.

I took this photo about 3 weeks ago as the leaves changed colour and the sky was a vivid blue.  Recently the weather has been grey and wet, so wet you wonder if there’s any more in the sky!

So last month I have been concentrating on getting Christmas handmades done so I can’t share much here.  I have finished a cardigan for Cecily.

I’ve bought buttons now, so it’ll be properly finished.  I also finished off a pair of gloves for Flo which I make from leftover sock yarn (Stylecraft Head Over Heels, with I-cord ‘string’ to thread through her coat.

I was passed on some cotton yarn, Drops Paris, which has gone on to make 4 dishcloths, 3 of which are shown below

They are knitted corner to corner, starting with 1 stitch and increasing at the beginning of each row until I reach about 43 - 45 stitches (the yarn is Aran weight using 4.5mm needles) then I decrease knitting the second and third stitches of each row together until 2 stitches remain, then knit them together. 

The local TG group had a charity sale at the meeting with craft stalls, Tombola, cake sales to raise money for the selected charity this year which is Dementia UK.  I made some Christmas coasters which sold well last year.

And I had oddments of pelmet Vilene and with some scraps made bookmarks, they went well too.

Doesn’t make any dent in the fabrics though.  I have gained a little bit more fabric as my Mum is no longer making quilts.  Most of her fabric will be going to local Project Linus group with a donation from my friend so the group which can go towards the cost of fleece fabric for the backs. 

There has been a bit of card making, though I wouldn’t get involved much with this, but that stash is growing a bit. I’m still endeavouring to keep it contained within the 3 boxes.  But I ran out of Get Well cards, that are sent to the ladies in the TG group and I have some ‘toppers’, which are cut outs that decorate the fronts of cards.

And of course my ATC swap card for this month

Would you believe this is made from serviettes, when separated they make a fine tissue that can be glued and layered onto card.  The bird was on a separate piece of card and mounted on top with the flower on top of that. I got very stuck up with that one, but it turned out well.

And at Hotchpotch craft group we made pencil pots.

That also involved some gluing, so got stuck up again.But they turned out well.

So onto November and more Christmas crafting, so there may not be as much to show, but see how things go.

So linking up with Mini Archie’s Furtle Around the Blogosphere for October.

October Meanderings

Last week I got out my paper crafting stuff and made a couple of ATCs (one to keep, one to send) with the theme of decoupage.  I have some fancy serviettes, which when the plies are separated has a fine printed top layer that can be overlapped, which I did with the Agapanthus background. The bird was from another serviette layered onto card, the flowers layered on top of that. The layers were painted over with Mod Podge glue to seal the surfaces,

The one above is the card I kept.  The card below has been sent.

I received my swap card from Marie and below it’s pictured with my card.

The local Townswomen’s Guild had a charity meeting this Thursday which gives me cause to make a few bits and pieces.  I have some Christmas fabric to use up and some Christmas coasters were easy to make so that took up some Friday afternoon cutting out and sewing. These sold well last year, so hope will be sell ok, which they did.

I found a few pieces of pelmet Vilene and with some fabric scraps I made a few bookmarks and most of them sold as well.  I haven’t been sewing for a while and the bookmarks and coasters were a good ‘palate cleanser’ to back into sewing,

I’ve got a finish I can’t show here at present (as it is a Christmas present, pleased I got that done), so here’s a bit of a clue

I’m also returning to daily walks now it’s autumn.  I have been suffering from Achilles Tendonitis in recent months which has meant I haven’t walked as often and only for short walks.  Although it can cause some discomfort now, I don’t want to let it beat me.  I am enjoying the autumnal weather and the colour of the falling leaves.  These trees are near the local supermarket, but the colours against the clear blue sky this afternoon was just amazing.

I hope there will be more chances to see leaves turning before they fall.