Manly Apron

 My husband might kill me for this first picture. He hates it, but I don't care. I do pretty much all the cooking in our home, and I'm pretty cool with that. But there are some things, being a vegetarian, I won't handle. So around all the major Holidays, and whenever he wants bacon, my other half is forced to don an apron and get to work in the kitchen.

I finally got sick of him wearing my apron and decided it was time for him to have his own. I picked up another apron pattern from JoAnns when they were on sale for a dollar and got to work.

I think he had already put the lamb to cook when he opened this on Christmas, but there will always be another opportunity to put it to use.

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.

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.