Shrunken 'Garden Trellis Mitts'.

 I'm calling these shrunken because I had been gifted one fifty gram skein of Classic Alpaca yarn. I wanted to use it for this pattern. I knit one and a half mittens following the pattern before it became obvious I did not have enough yarn to complete the pair. So I frogged them both and began again.

 I knit one less row of ribbing at the beginning. I then knit four pattern repeats instead of five. I knit only five rounds of ribbing for the cuff. This left me with enough yarn to complete two mitts. all was well in my world.

 I gave these to my sister, Miss C, along with her Jolly Robins, for Christmas. I forgot (or just didn't have enough time) to take any pictures of them. She very kindly took pictures of them for me. She knows how I like to document my hand made things. Looking at the pictures, I realize I really should have blocked them, but with all that frogging and re-knitting, there wasn't the time. Hand made Christmas can be a crazy life to live.

Mr. and Mrs.

 Exactly seven days before before my sister, Miss C's birthday, I realized it was exactly seven days until her birthday! Not really the best thing to happen, especially when we live on the other side of the world from each other. Last minute gifts are extremely hard to do. I'll blame it on moving and summer busyness. Luckily I had bought the pattern and yarn for these cute Jolly Robins months ago, with the intention of making a few for her.

 I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease yarn and size US 5 needles. The red breasted robing I knit flat and then I had to seam. I'm not very experienced with knitting intarsia, so even when it's simple, it scares me a little. I don't really love seaming, so my second robin I knit in the round and skipped the red breast. Female robins are plain brown in the real world, so she's the other half of this couple. I decided to add a little bit over-stitching when she was done though, I felt she was missing something without it.

 I packed them off to England  five days before my sisters birthday, and you know, they were only three days late. Not at all bad considering the times I've sent things more than two weeks before they need to get there, and then they still get there late! She says she loves them, but she needs more, so I'm going back to work.

Pretty things

 I told you I'd be back with something pretty after my husbands weird beard hat. Well here it is. My third time making the Grrlfriend Market Bag. It's a great free pattern, for a great bag. This one was for my sister, Miss C. She had requested it for her birthday. The yarn is O-Wool Balance in the cinnabar colourway. I thought it looked like coral to me, which is one of Miss C's favorite colours right now. I'll have to make one of these for myself eventually.

 
Right now I'm working on a Colour Affection shawl for myself. This is what it looked like last week. I've gotten a little further on since then. I picked up the yarn for it while we were visiting family out in Utah from a great yarn shop called Knit Unique. If you are ever in Logan, I highly recommend the place.

I find knitting a great creative outlet and stress release. I think everyone needs a hobby like this to keep sane. This week I've really needed it. I already have a 'Keep Calm And Carry On' poster hanging in my house, but I've been thinking I need one of these too.

Hot water bottle cover

Americans seem to be missing out on hot water bottles, as far as I can tell anyway. They are wonderful, cheap, portable, heaters. I feel lost without one on a cold night or when I'm feeling poorly. This water bottle cover is for my sister, Miss C. The pattern is available here for free. I knit it up in Sidar Crofter Chunky. It is a lovely soft cotton/wool/acrylic blend. I'm not sure it shows off the cables as well as I would like, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I had to get a little help from my friends at my local library knitting group to get this started, but it wasn't a bad knit. I'm pretty sure I will use this pattern again. I just need to find some more hot water bottles. They are not easy to come by over here.

Eternal Summer Quilt

 A few years ago my other half had me make him a quilt. It was made of old U2 t-shirts and brushed cotton/flannel. It was a pain in the butt to make. The whole time I was doing it my son was begging me to make him one too, then little miss M wanted one as well. The kids ones were small and therefore much easier and funner to make. I swore off quilts after that though. That is until my sister, Miss C, said she wanted one. I laughed at the time and told her that even if I was going to make a quilt for her it would have to be a wedding or a 30th birthday present!. She told me it was her 30th in three years and smiled. So that thought stuck in the back of my mind until I saw this quilt over at the Purl Bee Blog. I thought of Miss C at once. It became my inspiration and I started to buy a quarter of a yard of fabric here and there. I ended up with 11 different fabrics. I then saw this quilt at the Retro Mummy Blog. I loved the look of this one too. I kind of combined the idea of both of them and came up with this design.

This is a picture of the quilt top, spread out on my bed. I didn't want to machine quilt it and I didn't really want to make binding, so I found this tutorial on the Cicada Daydream Blog. I went ahead and tied it with embroidery thread. Then folded the backing over to make a simple binding.

 Here it is drying out after I gave it a wash.

 And here it is on Miss C's bed looking very summery.

I had various problems a long the way making this quilt. I learnt that you get more fabric when you buy a quarter of a yard of fabric than you do if you buy a fat quarter. I ended up having to sew scraps of fabric together to make some of my squares. When my sewing machine stopped functioning properly, I discovered that you can put you needle in the wrong way! Ha, I felt pretty dumb when I found that out. The last thing I realized is even when you buy new safety pins to hold the quilt layers together, they can still leave rust marks on your fabric. So it didn't turn out to be perfect, but then if it did it wouldn't have been a true handmade gift! Happy 30th Miss C!

Knit like you mean it!

 The first thing I have to share are these mittens, knitted for my sister, Mrs. B, birthday. They are to go with the hat I sent her last year. The pattern, 'house mittens', is from my trusty Charmed Knits book. I managed to figure out the joggless jump on the second mitten. This is for when you are knitting stripes in the round. It makes for a much better looking stripe. It was definitely something I needed to learn, because stripes are fun to wear!

Next is this hat made for my sister, Miss C. She was over for Christmas and asked me to knit her this hat. I just didn't have the time. There is never enough time to make all the things I want to. I have over 70 patterns on my queue on Ravelry. But I digress, I found the time and the yarn left over from the manly socks was enough to make it. The pattern is from Stitch 'n Bitch though you can find the pattern for free from here. I've made this hat for both of my little girls. It's a fun and simple knit. Sorry about the rubbish photo. I'm no photographer!

The third thing I'm sharing is what I'm most excited about. I've had this pattern bookmarked for such a long time, but I wasn't sure about knitting cables. I decided it was time to go for it. It is based of a hat worn by Hermione in 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'. I was going to knit it up in a heather grey, just like the original, but then I saw the colour of this yarn, and decided I had to have it. It's Berroco Vintage, like the manly socks and the kitty hat. I like this stuff. The pattern was really great, the only thing I would say is if I knit it up again, I would decrease the amount of rows between each cable as it is a little deep for my head. It just wants to slide over my eyes. But other than that, I love it. I love knitting cables, so there will be more of them to come.

What are you knitting/crafting right now? And what has been in your queue for way too long. I hope you will give it a try and find yourself suprised at how easy it is:)

Fairy Bunting

 I made Miss C an apron for her birthday last year. When she said she was going to come and visit us for Christmas this year I thought I needed to make her something with the leftover scraps. I decided on some bunting. I imagine her throwing tea party at her flat with her bunting hanging up and her serving scones in her apron.

I had to buy a 1/4 yard more of two complimenting fabrics and some bias tape binding. I have made bunting before for little Miss M's room, but it was very time consuming, although very cute. I went with a quicker but equally cute version this time.

There are lots of tutorials out there for bunting, but if you have done any sewing before you can figure this out for yourself. It was quick and easy.

I started to worry about here not liking it at the last moment. She kept saying things she liked, but never once mentioned bunting. I needn't have feared though. Her reaction when she opened it was all I needed to know I had made a good choice.

My biggest fan!

 My sister Miss C. is probably the biggest fan of my hand made things. She is always letting me know that she wants me to make her this and that. She is a fun person to make for because I know she will love and use whatever it is I make her. This year for her birthday I was not sure what to make her. Not because there wasn't anything she wanted, but because I'm always seeing things I'd could make that I know she would like. A while back she mentioned that she wouldn't mind a new apron (I made her one quite a few years ago). In the past when making aprons I haven't used a pattern and made it up as I went along. This time I decided to use this Simplicity patten which I got for $1, I love a bargain.

I picked pink girly fabric, covered in fairies. She used to be quite into fairies and I'm thinking their having a come back. I'll be honest, even though I was a sewer before I became I knitter, I much prefer knitting. This came out great though, so maybe I'll try doing a bit more sewing in future. Happy Birthday Miss C.