Another new blanket ta-dah!

It’s been an epic few days of sewing but I have finished my latest baby blanket, phew!

I am not kidding when I say the amount of sewing for a small blanket was ridiculous! So many ends to tidy up. The main stripy bit of the blanket wasn’t too bad but the little squares I made to edge it with (top and bottom) took forever, well maybe not forever but far longer than I would have thought.

I’ve made similar blankets to this one with these types of little edging squares before and I’m sure they didn’t take as long to sort out. Ho hum, got there in the end.

After the stripes and the squares I decided on a nice chunky border in blues and cream to finish it off and then just for an added finishing touch a little bit of frilly too. 

Ta-dah!

I am very pleased with how it all turned out and I think all that sewing was worth it in the end, it’s is neat and tidy, snuggly and warm and I think will be nice for a new baby boy that a friend is expecting in a month or two.

It has been lovely crocheting this, I made it slightly on the large side, I think I got carried away with my foundation chain and this is the size it ended up. The benefit of that is that as the evenings have been getting colder it has been a nice warm thing to have on my lap while I granny stripe the time away.

The cooler nights have been a wonderful excuse to have our first coal fire of the season at the weekend. A day outside giving our little garden its last tidy up of the year and then a lovely fire blazing away has made for a great weekend and a great accompaniment to all the sewing!

Now on to more seasonal projects. My Christmas cards are coming along nicely and to go with the sleigh one I made before I now have a little reindeer to go on the front of another card. I won’t leave Rudolph by himself; he might get a present or two and some snow.

I already miss having a blanket on the go so it won’t be long before I start another one I am sure but in the meantime lots more ideas are bubbling away that I really must take care of before the list becomes too big! Happy hooking

XXX

A head start on Christmas

Ooh I am so pleased with what I have been making today! Just to get one thing clear before I tell you about it, this is an idea I've copied from Lucy at Attic24, who last year (I think) made her own Christmas cards. If my memory is right, she made a picture and had some cards printed with the picture on it. I haven't done this, I have bought my own glossy greetings card blanks and I'm printing my own, so I can tweak it and maybe do lots of different ones.

There are so many things I could put on a Christmas card but I wanted to use my favourite bright cotton, Rico Creative Aran, which is quite bulky and makes nice simple shapes. So it had to be a simple design without too much detail.

I made these bits with a basic idea in mind and added little bits here and there as the idea developed.

Some blocking with the iron and some careful arranging on a canvas:

A few buttons and beads, and look!

Now to wind up my ancient printer and see what would happen.

My printer isn't that great and I will be replacing it soon, before I do a final print of my Christmas cards but I am so happy with how it turned out!!!

I have 50 cards and envelopes which should be plenty to keep me going. :)

XXX

Another blanket

My goodness! I didn't realise it had been so long since my last post! The end of the summer holidays seems like a long time ago now and since then I have been very busy getting back into the old routine of work-life and fitting in the boring household stuff and generally getting back to normal.

I have several irons in several fires with crochet at the moment but none are ready for me to tell you about yet. Lots of Christmas ideas are bubbling up and there is one project in particular that I am very excited about. For now though I am making a simple granny stripe baby blanket for a friend that is expecting soon.

It is for a boy and I think these colours work well. I didn't want to just use shades of blue so I've mixed in some greens and a lilac too. This is my favourite type of relaxing hooky, something to take to work to do in my lunch breaks or at home late in the evening when I don't have to concentrate too much.

I love making blankets at this time of year, even smaller ones like this, they add an extra layer of snuggly while it's getting a bit chilly, but we try very hard not to put the heating on for few more weeks.

It seems to be baby season at the moment! Another friend is also expecting and I am making a little flying lamb mobile for her (pattern here!) 

Two and a half little flying lambs made and I plan to get the third and other bits for the mobile finished this weekend. This is strictly a job for good, bright, daylight hours; snowflake yarn is a complete pain to crochet with and I need all the help I can get with being able to see where the stitches are.

I promise not to leave it so long next time, now my routine seems to be settling down a bit I am going to focus on crochet for a while and let everything else wait, why? Because crochet makes me happy and the ironing doesn't :)

XXX

Starting early

The last week of my summer holidays is progressing nicely. I've been busy sewing, baking and of course crocheting. I started messing around with a few ideas at the weekend and came up with this little Christmas jar cosy and this stocking.

I know, I know, it's only August! So why am I already thinking about Christmas? It could be the weather we've been having lately, so wet, dark and grey all the time it does feel like summer is over. Anyway I digress, I've wasted no time in getting this Jar pattern written up with a full photo tutorial no less! You can find the pattern here.

Don't they look sweet with candles in them? I have made them to give as Christmas presents that I will probably fill with sweets for people. I have several of these jars spare and this pattern is so quick to make, I might make a few more. 

If you would like to make your own jar cosies please don't be put off by some of the stitches that the pattern calls for. I've added as much detail to the photos as possible so I hope they will be fairly straightforward and when you get the hang of them they are quite easy.  

It's great getting started early on Christmas makes, takes the pressure off nearer the time when all thoughts turn to shopping, baking and organising. That said, there is the whole season of autumn to go first and I have lots of ideas of things to make on that theme.

XXX

House stuff

I have been taking a well-earned break today. This last week or so has seen me FINALLY decorating our bedroom! It's has only been planned for the last 12 months and at last I got the paint brushes out and got stuck into it. Of course it's never as simple as just painting is it? There is always holes to fill and sanding to be done and all the shifting of furniture etc etc. I am now at the reassembly part of the job which isn't simple either. We have an awful lot of clutter and tat and nowhere to put any of it so I am having a good throw-out too.

 We had this old mirror up before. It's just a cheap plastic frame that I think I got from a car boot sale and painted black.  In an effort to try and make the room much cheerier and prettify it a bit, I have been thinking of ways to up-cycle it. Obviously my first instinct was to yarn-bomb it and crochet a cover for the frame. I soon realised that would not be an easy job, it is a tight fit in the frame and having yarn involved would complicate things. So I grabbed some fabric odds and ends and a pot of PVA glue and set to covering it in fabric, decoupage style.

I also found these pinking shears that I got from my Granny, still neatly boxed, I love the box!

Using the pinking shears on the fabric should be a nice simple way of avoiding fraying, I hope.

 MESSY process!

I wasn't sure if PVA would do the job, it was taking forever to dry so I got my hair dryer out to speed up the process. It seemed to be sticking OK so I carried on.

Now it's finished and up on the wall, I keep looking at it, do I love it or hate it? Is it too girly and not grown up enough?

I am 99% sure I like it. Taken as a solitary item yes it is probably a bit twee but as part of the room I think it works.

|XXX