Mum's Market Bag

So I've had a long absence from my crafting blog. Mostly because the Holiday season is pretty busy, and almost everything I've made were Christmas gifts so I couldn't share until they'd been received. Here is the first of a few hand made gifts I sent out this year.

The pattern can be found here as a free Ravelry download. I had it on my queue for quite a long time. But if you should know anything about me, it is that my queue is getting very long but my spare time is not! I used knit picks comfy worsted yarn in Crème Brulee and Ivory. I really loved the square bottom of the bag. It knit up really easily. However I had trouble with the lace/mesh. I kept spotting mistakes and couldn't figure out why. It is a really simple pattern and I was baffled until I realised that the stitches were slipping over my too small stitch marker. I ended up ripping it back to the the bottom of the bag and then joining a bunch of my stitch markers together so the stitches couldn't slip over anymore. After that it knit up like a dream. I highly recommend this pattern and yarn. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

A Birthday Cowl

 My youngest sister, Mrs. W. has her Birthday today. I asked her her favorite colours right now and she said, green, mustard yellow and orange. I made her brown/green slippers last year so I decided to go with mustard yellow. I picked out this pattern from the Lion Brand web sight for a simple cowl. She says it will look good with her green coat after she's had her baby. I'm hoping she can get some use out of it before though. I used to 2 skeins of knit picks swish worsted in turmeric for this project. It's a lovely soft superwash wool. I was a little disappointed in it though. The first skein had a lot of weak spots/joins in it. It kind of made my knitting look a sloppy. The second skein was perfect though. I don't know if I just got unlucky with the first one. I love the colour. I think she should go out and eat a curry while she'd wearing it. That way if she spills she will never see the stains.

 

Happy Birthday Mrs. W. I love you.

Cobra Costume

 My eldest has a wild imagination. He also has and enormous amount of faith in my abilities to make anything. He really loves snakes. His favorite is the King Cobra. It came as no surprise to me when he asked to be one for Halloween. I got searching on the web for a pre-made costume and came up with nothing. Then I went searching for a pattern or some idea of how to make a snake costume and I came up with nothing still. I headed to JoAnns with a vague idea of what I was going to do and came back with some sparkly, stretchy, scaly, fabric and a pattern for a kangaroo costume. Obviously I had to make many changes to the pattern. The hood was the trickyest part. I made it once and wasn't happy with it. I wanted the cobra flaps to not look like monkey ears. I took it apart and used some plastic and some wadding/batting to line them and give them structure. I used felt for the eyes, teeth and tounge.

Mr M. was plenty happy with it, so I was happy too. I think this might be anouther costume that I will have him wear for years.

Baby Shower

 I was lucky enough to be invited to a baby shower on Friday. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the mother to be too well. But I know her Mom and think she's just lovely. It was a pleasure to make her future granddaughter a little something.

The hat pattern is called Aviatrix by a designer called Justine Turner. I knitted it up in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Almond. I used some mother of pearl buttons, but I put them on the wrong way because I liked the shade of brown they are. I loved the way this hat shaped up. It was knitted on straight needles when I am used to using a circular one for hats. It used short rows and that is what gave it it's shape. I really loved the pattern and how it turned out.

The booties pattern is from a blogger named Ruth Bennett you can find the pattern here. There were a few errors in her pattern. I read the blog comments before I started so they weren't a problem for me. I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease again. These only had one seam and found their shape with short rows much like the hat. I was worried that they may be a little boyish for a baby girl, but with the added ribbon shoelaces I think they do the job.

The best thing about the baby shower, apart from seeing the sweet joy and appreciation on the face of the mother to be, was the wonderful hand made gifts she received. I love to see what everyone else is making. I fell in love with one quilt especially and I've already asked it's maker to teach me how it is done. So in the near future I will get to learn some new skills. 

Cotton Bolero

 So this month I made something for myself that actually fits. Hooray! This simple but clever lace, bolero pattern came from here. I think the knitting only took three or four evenings. I've always been lazy about getting around to the sewing together and weaving in the ends. But eventually I did because I wanted to get it done before the weather gets to cold and I can't wear it again until next year.

I loved the pattern, it was a lot easier than I though it would be. I used Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton in the colour 'Pecan'. I really loved this yarn too. It is super soft and Aran weight. It was perfect for this pattern. I love the way it is chunky but feminine.

 I was excited to wear it for the first time today, and although I was already in love with it, it was nice to hear others express how nice it was. There will be lots more lace knitting ahead for sure.

This is what disappointment looks like.

Why is this hat so disappointing I hear you asking.

So I'll tell you. I've been dreaming of this hat for over a year. I could see myself shoveling our driveway this winter in it. I got this book 'Pretty in Punk' with the pattern in it for Christmas and continued to dream about it. I had never knit intarsia before and I had never felted before. Funnily enough I was more afraid of the intarsia bit that the felting bit. The intarsia bit went quite well. I won't say I did it perfectly, because I didn't, but for a first attempt, I don't think it was half bad. I spent a month of my life working on it and then I got the the part when I had to felt it. The directions told you to put the hat in a hot wash in the washing machine. So I did. The idea was to shrink it a little to help hide the joints and give the Mohawk it's distinct look. Unfortunately it shrunk a lot. So much so that it fits my 22 month old daughters head perfectly, but not at all on mine. Of course little Miss. I is not interested in wearing it. Maybe come winter she will change her mind. I think I will have to try to make this hat again eventually, but for now I have other plans. I can't help feeling sad about it.

What's in a name!

 I love names, names of paint colours, car names, mine and my kids names, and the names of colours of yarns. I was thinking for a while I needed to make a scarf for my S.I.L. Mrs. V 40th birthday. I came across Lion Brands Amazing in the colourway 'Joshua Tree'. After my husband I think she might be one of the biggest U2 fans I know. It seemed like it was meant to be. This beautiful patten is called Argosy and is found at http://www.kitty.com/. 

I really love the way the colour changing yarn knit up. It took me two or three tries to get it started, but once I got the lace pattern memorised there was no stopping me. I thought about blocking it, but last time I tried to to wet block something it didn't really work. I figured it was because it was 100% wool and neither is the Amazing yarn. I decided to try ironing it on the lowest setting with just a touch of steam. I did half at a time and just let it cool off on my ironing board. It worked really well, so I will probably be using this method again.

Happy Birthday Mrs. V.

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.

Slouch

 My Mum is a natural red head and when I was teenager I wanted to be one too. For quite a while I used to dye my hair. I'm not sure if I was inspired by my Mum as much as the character of Angela Chase on the T.V. show My So Called Life, which was and still is a particular favorite of mine. Anyway I've been thinking of going red headed again recently mostly because teal looks so good on red heads and I love teal right now. I'm not keeping this hat though. It gets to sit on the head of my beautiful 12 year old niece, Miss K. She has very luckily been blessed with natural red hair. I'm pretty sure she will look fabulous in this hat once the weather cools down a bit.

The patten can be found here and the yarn is Caron Vickie Howell Sheepish in Tealish. It is a really great patten that I will be using again. Although I love the colours the yarn comes in I'm not totally in love with the yarn itself. I have another ball of it in tealish and I'm thinking of making some matching fingerless mitts, but only time will tell.

Homeless mitts

My husband thinks that only homeless people wear fingerless gloves, but now I wear them too! Well I won't be needing them for a while since it feels a lot like summer already here. The pattern is from the purlbee the yarn is from knitpicks. The colour is called green veggies, I thought it was the perfect colour for a long time veggie lover like me. I had to make a couple of changes to the pattern. I have quite skinny wrists, so instead of casting on 60 stitches, I only cast on 50. I also knitted them an inch shorter that the pattern stated. I used self striping yarn so I only needed to use one ball. Perfect!

Tutu trouble!

 A little while ago little Miss M. went to a birthday party and came hope with a pink tutu. She wore it everywhere and totally loved it, until it developed a big hole and soon it was beyond repair and so she started asking me for a new tutu. Then I remembered reading this post on the Blue Blog such a long time ago and  before I knew it I was making my own no sew tutu.

 

There is nothing more fun than jumping on the trampoline in a tutu.



Once I'd made one for little Miss M. I knew I couldn't let her have all the fun, so little Miss I. got one too. She's not as in love with it as her big sister, but there is room in it for her to grow, so maybe when she's a little older she will have fun playing dress up.

Little Mr. M. didn't want to miss out on all the dress up fun so now I will be laughing at this video clip for years to come as he dances around acting all goofy.

Fat free cup cakes!

 They are not edible though I'm afraid, but very yummy looking. My biggest sister, Mrs. M, just had her birthday so these were sent to her. 

Last year when I was over in England for my littlest sisters wedding, I came up with the plan to make these for Mrs. M. She was telling me how she would like to decorate her kitchen in a cup cake theme and I knew I could find something cool on Ravelry along those lines. This is what I found. Now a lot of these cupcakes have been knit up by Ravelers with fun changes from the pattern so I ended up with a different looking cupcake from the original. I followed modifications from Neekie and GraceIvy. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease scraps, which I seem to have a lot off. As you can see half are topped with cherries and half are without. I like them either way.

Mrs. M. tells me she is planning on making some cupcake bunting to go with them, so next time I get back to England for a visit I hope to see them together.

Little Miss M's Mouse.

 My four year old daughter decided she needed me to make her a mouse. Luckily my Knitted Toy book by Zoe Mellor contained a sweet pattern and my bag of scraps contained just the right wool.

I can't say I totally loved this pattern. If I make another one I may fiddle with it a little. The pattern called for felt ears, but I didn't want to spend any money on this one, so I just picked up a few stitches and knitted some ears. Miss M. is very happy with it, and it get's to sleep with her every night. Happy times.

Mum's Coin Purse

 My Mum's Birthday is at the begining of May. I had to think quite hard what I could make for her this year because she is currently doing missionary work in the Philippines. I could not send her a shawl or scarf or any of my usual Mum gifts. I wanted something she could use right away. Then I came across this blog and I knew this would fit the bill. I found the purse clip an JoAnns for just 5 dollars and used leftover yarn and scrap fabric. The most expensive part was the fabric glue, but it's cool because I can use it again for other projects. The knitting part was super easy because it was just a rectangle of stockingette stitch. Attaching the fabric to the clip was a little tricky. I used tweezers to get it in place and some painters tape to hold it together as it dried.

Now the blog I got the idea from had a crochet flower on it, but I don't know how to crochet so after another little hunt on Ravelry I found the pattern featured here for a knitted flower. I don't know about you but I don't think it's too bad. It's now filled with Reeces peanut butter eggs, and making it's way across the sea. I just hope it get's there in time.

Owl Pillow

I have wanted to start a blog that features things I've made for a while. I begin with this owl pillow. The pattern is from Zoe Mellors 'Knitted Toys.' You can find her book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Knitted-Toys-Fresh-Fabulous-Designs/dp/B004KAB5L4/ref=sr_1_s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302985224&sr=1-3

It was a really fun and quick knit to make and ended up costing less than four dollars to make. I had some left over yarn from another project and I've had a bag of toy stuffing for a few years that is very slowly being used up. I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn in Lake and Almond. I sewed the felt pieces on by hand but machine sewed the front and back pieces together. I think it only took about a week to come together and I'm really happy with it. This little guy ended up a gift for a friend of mine who collects owls and loves all things retro. You can find her over at http://montydob.blogspot.com/