Finishing Off My Little Makes

I have had such a sporadic craft time lately I feel like I not achieved much at all. I have been decorating at home though and now have a freshly painted bathroom, but painting = not making nice pretty things.
Some things I can show though are these; picture the scene, you have a really long day at work you have just attended a meeting in the Wirral a 7 hour round trip for a 2 hour meeting and you finally reach home and spill in the door only to find a parcel waiting for you! I forgot all about my day as I ripped into this, I won a gift from Pene's lovely Giveaway, I was over the moon with this little lot, just have a look;

(please forgive the bad washed out photos, I have had to take them at night)

Beautiful handmade cards, a wonderful fleece doggie and some love hearts, yum!

How wonderful is he? Thanks again Pene you lovely thing you!

Some more bits I can show you are these, my swap gift for the Autumn Swap, I have shown what I received this is what I sent:

Besides this I have been knitting and crocheting little peoples clothes, a cute little crochet hat and knitted mittens from one of those 20p patterns from the 1970's, these will be for my lovely friend's baby due in February:

I have been obsessed with knitting and crochet for a couple of months now, but I think I have my sewing mojo back, my fabric stash is growing and I've been looking at it instead of using it.

I have had these cut out for weeks now just sat in my sewing pile, I finally made them up last night all hand sewn and stuffed full of french lavender, I actually fell asleep quicker than usual last night I am sure it's down to these:

Oh, and I finally finished my crochet lavender bags, I made a felt insert stuffed with French Lavender again, I am pleased with these they are really lovely:

I am terrible for finishing things off, I have lots of in progress items and keep starting something new. I decided that I would behave myself and make one thing at a time and this week I started a fabric teddy bear but got to the eyes and realised I didn't have any so I started a new crochet cushion cover, and then some felt Christmas decorations ~ will I never learn!!

Am I the only one with lots of WIP (Work In Progress)?

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Still Hookin'

Well I am continuing on the crochet theme, it has gotten a hold on me. From the magazine I bought that I made the spooky doll from, I followed the pattern for the hats and came up with these. I need to get some practice in for making baby bits and pieces for my friend's baby.

This one was made following the pattern:

For this one I amended the pattern and used two rows of double crochet and 1 row of treble crochet repeated.

These were all made with the wool supplied with the magazine, and they are infants hats aged up to 6 months. They were really easy to do and I loved making them.

These I made using the double and treble stitches and using a cream and white wool which has turned out quite neuteral.

I made a little flower to add, but I have not attached it yet. If I made these for a little boy I would have to leave the flower off or add something else. Any ideas of what I could add for a little boy?

I need to find a pattern for some mittens now.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Sock Monkey Hat & Scarf Pattern

A few of you have asked for a pattern to follow to make a hat and scarf for your sock monkeys, or equivalent sized toys.
As mentioned in my previous posting I followed a pattern given to me by the lovely Claire aka 3tabbycats from the money saving expert sock monkey thread. I contacted Claire and she has kindly give me permission to post her pattern here:

The pattern was given with instructions to use 4mm needles, I only had 4 1/2 mm needles to hand so I used those.

Hat
Cast on 28 stitches ~ knit 2 ~ purl 2 until it measures about 25cm, cast off.


Fold this in half and from the wrong side stitch up each side to make a rectangular pouch.

From the wrong side again at the place that is going to be the top of the hat you can either leave this as it is and add two pom pom's ~ one to each corner (on the outside), or like I did you can gather the top of the hat by sewing a running stitch (using the same wool) along the top inside and gathering it in.

Scarf

Cast on 8 stitches ~ knit 2 ~ purl 2 until it measures about 50cm and cast off.

Pom Pom

For the pom pom the outer circle of card is cut about 2.5 cm in diameter and, for the middle circle about 1.75cm (or draw around a 5p piece) ~ remember you need two of these. Wind the wool onto the circles with a wool needle to make it easier and neater.

You can now add either tassels or pom poms to your finished creations and voila, a miniature hat and scarf!

I must admit my hat was a tad on the large side for my monkey, but this was because I used the larger needles and the pattern is intended for a ladies sock sized monkey and not a childs sock (which is what I used).

Thanks again to Claire for the instructions x

Back Soon

Kandi

x

Saturday, Shopping and Knitting

Yesterday I finally finished knitting my little sock monkey a hat and scarf. I think they look so much better finished off with accessories. I am not a knitter it has to be said, but I followed some really simple instructions from the brilliant 3tabbycats on MoneySavingExpert, Sock Monkey Thread and came up with a little hat and scarf in no time (well, more like a couple of hours!), here he is all finished and ready for the next frost;

He was my only make this weekend so far, I have been putting off sewing until I got a rotary cutter as I have some small bits I want to cut and my eyes and scissors are just not cutting straight and I don't want to waste any more material (I lost my temper with some wonky felt on friday... I really must get a life).

Anyway shopping yesterday I found a lovely little craft shop which is close to where I live and it was a little treasure trove. In the main it has loads of stuff for cardmaking and scrapbooking, but there were sections for sewing and jewellery making along with lots of tools and bits and bobs. I was rather suprised at the prices as I thought they were very reasonable, the lady who owns it mentioned that she is a crafter and she tries to keep her prices as low as possible as she knows how expensive these hobbies can be (ain't that the truth)! This was my stash from there yesterday, including a rotary cutter;

I have left all the prices on, rotary cutter £8.45, Craft Pliers £3.95, Eyelt Plier £4.25, the cotton at the front was 30p a spool! The craft pliers are infact a crimping tool which I paid £8.95 for recently so I bought this one for my friend, at that price I couldn't not. In addition to this they run a loyalty card scheme every £10 you spend you get a stamp and fill up the card for money off.

Anyhoo, if you live in or are visiting Northumberland this little shop is Crazy Crafters, 1 Poplar Bulidings, Ashington, Northumberland (opposite Wetherspoons Pub ~ Rohan Kanhai).

Following on from my craft haul I scoured the charity shops and came away with this top for £1.50, it's not something I would wear but thought I could make it into something, it's a boden kaftan type top and it's a size 20 so plenty of material to go at.

Nb. I don't hang my tops out to dry like this it's only for the sake of the picture, my Nanna would be turning in her grave to see a top hung on the line, it was drummed into me ~ 'If you wear it on the top hang it from the bottom, if you wear it on the bottom, hang it from the top'... I really, really must get a life....

Now what to make with this material.........

Back Soon

Kandi

x