04 December 2024

It’s December 🎄

 This month’s marker

Hazel is getting to be a show off! 

And it’s not long to Christmas and the tree is up already.

Just before the end of last month I received something that I pre-ordered ages ago and you’ll think this barmy, but I bought an iron!! Not just any old iron…..


A fancy Tula Pink Oliso iron! Bright pink with little fishes on. It has a silicone shark shaped iron rest, an on/off switch, a bright light at the front to see where you’re ironing. It is a steam iron so it has the function to spray or have a blast of steam and the sole plate is non stick. All that in a small project iron and it’s quite weighty for its size. Just brilliant. 

With some birthday money I treated myself to a neck light.  I’ve wondered about getting one for a while for knitting in the evenings and it’s really good. It’s in purple but the photo shows pink ( especially when the lights are on.


The lights bright or dimmed (as with most LED lights nowadays. 

It makes a change for me to spend on new gadgets.  

01 December 2024

End of November 🍁

 November is at an end and December is to make an appearance, though it seems it’s been around for a while with the Christmas ads 

November has been a month of finishes.  First off I finished  pair of socks (for me). This pair was made as part of last month’s Sockoween, a celebration of sock knitting in October by The Bakery Bears.  The sock pattern I knitted was the Incantation socks, The main colour is Pumpkin Patch by The Crafty Bird with the orange yarn by Blue Fern Yarns. 

Another finish, though this had hibernated, was David’s cardigan. Needing the front bands doing I had put this off.  I just need to get some buttons, but as he doesn’t often button his cardigans there’s no hurry. So I finished this cardigan in just under a year.



This was knitted in Aran, 
 
Some more crochet squares on the Yorkshire Blanket have been made.  I completed these 4 to add to my collection.


 Mill wheel


And a final knitty finish is Hazel the Crofter Sheep. This was a kit by Lucy Locketland as part of the Year of Little Cotton Rabbits.  I’d been waiting for a sheep kit to be released and I bought this at Yarndale. I was going to wait until the Christmas holidays, but I wanted a new cast on. I like the little small scale stitching. Her dress curled up at the hem so I had to block it to straighten out.




As well as the dress she also has a shawl, boots and a knitting belt with small scale knitting on cocktail stick knitting needles. She has joins other sheep on the sheep shelf.


A quick knitted make was this pair of mittens for my granddaughter. She choose the colour and I added the daisies to make sure she puts them on the correct hands.


As for sewing I’ve been making pouches for my friend to raise funds for the local Project Linus group. The photo below is just a few of them.


I tried using a couple of squares with a Japanese theme, below, and I’ve kept this.

I’ve finished off a quilt from Project Linus that I’ve put together


Following a Dorset Creative Embroiderers workshop in October, I made this cover for a jar using strips over wadding strips in the style of the Camden Bag. Great for using up scraps and there might be some more next year.


I also finished an embroidery that has been lingering most of this year.  It’s called a Bag of Flowers (I think?). It was a project from a very old issue of Inspirations magazine that was a project started at embroidery group. I sewed this design onto some blue Moda Grunge fabric. I had a floral button that went well with this.


I framed an embroidery that was finished earlier this year.  This is a design by Em Bea Roidery (on Etsy). I taped some purple fabric onto a hoop and finished off with felt on the reverse, just the day before my birthday last week.


So it seems I’ve kept busy in November.  I may not be quite so productive in December as Christmas takes precedence over anything else. We plan to go away and enjoy some Christmas lights in Cornwall during this month.