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.