What happened?

Oh dear, I seem to have gone a little AWOL again haven’t I? It’s not for lack of willing I just haven’t done much worth writing about.

I blame winter – when it’s grey I don’t want to do much. Oh and Bioshock Infinite, I definitely blame Bioshock Infinite!

For Christmas I only managed to make one little hat (it’s become a tradition that I always make Tracey a hat for Christmas!)

It is Meret by Wooly Wormhead and you can get the pattern free from here. In fact, if you like knitting hats this is the place to look – there are lots of lovely designs for all difficulty levels, something for everyone!

Did you guys get lots of gifts made? Is it just me? I’m not really feeling it lately. I want to make knitty/sewey things but I’m having trouble not only finding the time but also getting going. I can spend my few free hours looking through patterns but never really making any decisions. Its a bit frustrating.

In other news I have opened a little shop on Folksy and in it I’m selling these little brooches:

I’ll be adding some other things shortly but for now I’m a bit brooch mad. They are porcelain and feature my (by now) trademark vintage patterns.

Only £10, get ‘em while they’re hot!

Right! I’m only going to play an hour of Bioshock, then I might get out ‘A Stitch in Time’ for a bit of a pattern browse. I’m due volume one in the post any day now – I can’t wait!

Beccy

Christmas collar…

I mentioned I had some last-minute sewing to do and here are the results!

Pinning on ricrac.

Sewing it on by hand.

Adding pretty things from my stash.

And the finished collar. I made it for my friend Elle for Christmas, I hope she likes it. It looks a bit dark in these photos but I used navy linen and pale blue satin for the lining. The daisies are vintage from my stash and the buttons are part of my extensive random collection.

The template for the collar is available as a free download from Mollie Makes here.

I might have to make one for me!

Beccy

Lovely hats…

So, I’ve been very busy lately and my knitting has fallen by the wayside. Unfortunately it’s Christmas in a minute and I need to have these presents finished. I’ve also got a bit of sewing to do but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow (probably).

I finished the hat for my uncle (or my aunt, I’m not sure)

I’m quite pleased with it! I’m even more please with the labels I got free with a Christmassy magazine.

Aren’t they lovely?

I’ve started another one for my aunt (or maybe uncle) in the same colourway but a different pattern – matchy, but not weirdly matchy. It’s the Pastasa pattern from Cascade yarns and it has a couple of motifs to choose from. Of course I went for the snowflake in true Forbrydelsen style!

I wish I had had more time to make things for people but somehow it just didn’t work out. Three hats and a scarf is a poor showing.

There’s still time though… I hope your Christmas making plans are working out!

Beccy

Christmas alpaca earflaps

Heeheehee the pattern name makes me chuckle. I’m childish.

I’m knitting this hat for my uncle for Christmas, I’m also planning on knitting a hat with a different pattern but with the same colourway for my aunt. They’re dog owners, they need hats.

I should say now that I’m rubbish at colourwork, always have been, but so far I’ve managed to keep it loose so it’s stretchy-ish but without a mass of tangled loops on the back. I’m dead chuffed!

The pattern is ‘Alpaca earflaps’ by Ozyarn and is surprisingly easy (if like me you’re rubbish at colourwork). I’m using stylecraft special aran in aspen, parchment and dark brown because it washes well, comes in lovely colours and I’m poor.

I’ll have finished my cardi soon too, just waiting for the buttons to arrive. Hee! Exciting. My stripy blanket is a lot less finished with only about half of it done, mostly because I don’t have the time but partly because it’s boring counting to four over and over again. It’ll be nice to actually finish something for a change!

Beccy

A Shroom for Trace…

I’m getting a head start on Christmas presents (not early enough really!) I’m planning to make this lovely hat from Knitty and then I’m going to make a scarf using the same pattern to match. I’m using Lion Brand thick and quick which is a super bulky yarn that knits up in no time. The colourway is claret – I know, not as bright a yarn as I usually use but Tracey is an accountant and usually wears muted officey colours during the week.

I’ve had to adapt the pattern to knit on straight needles rather than in the round due to a lack of the right sized needles!

Here are my alterations to the pattern rows:

row 1: yo k1 yo k2 to end
row 2: k2 p3 to end
row 3: k3 p2 to end
row 4: k2 p3tog to end

is what it should be but because I was a bit tired when I started, I’ve done row 2 as p2 k3 and row 3 as p3 k2. I got a bit sleepily muddled! It looks nice though, just probably not exactly like is should.

It only took a couple of hours last night to get up to the decreasing rows but it would probably have gone quicker if I didn’t have to purl three together – what a faff!

I had to adapt the crown decreases too:

row 1: k2tog p3 to end
row 2: k2 p2tog to end
row 3: k3tog p1 to end
row 4: k2tog p2tog to end
row 5: p2tog to end

Hope she likes it! Now onto the matching scarf…

Beccy

The baby blanket is finally finished!

At long last. I always underestimate how long these things are going to take. It was supposed to be finished by October, but the birth date came and went so I decided to make it for Christmas instead. At least it’s still Winter!

The worst was weaving in all the ends – look at this!

Anyway, on to the finished blanket.

It’s a bit less wonky in real life (although I think I might have added an extra stitch into that border somewhere), but I needed to take photos quickly! Mum wove in all those ends for me since I did all the crochet. She’s a godsend!

The final size was about a metre and a half by a metre, but I forgot to measure it before I wrapped it up.

I’m pretty pleased with it, and I hope Lindsey and David like it too!

Beccy

Christmas making…

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been doing lots of last-minute making. Well not last-minute as such because I budgeted the last few days for those smaller things. Honest.

A lovely chunky cabled hat for Tracey. She wears muted colours so I had to fight my urge to make it rainbow coloured! I used Lion Brand Thick and Quick in black. It doesn’t photograph particularly well but it looks lovely and warm! The pattern is Speedy Cabled Beret by Paula Chin, available on Ravelry. You need a Ravelry account to see it, but it’s a free pattern. If you don’t have a Ravelry account by now, you should!

A cute little kitten for David’s baby’s sister. It occurred to me that I was only making for the baby – how awful is that? I totally forgot he had a sibling. Ok, so I’ve only met her once, but that’s no excuse. The pattern is Crazy Kitten from Super Cute: 25 amigurumi animals by Annie Obaachen and I used half a ball of Sublime merino. It’s not the best book in the world since there are no making-up instructions and the materials list is more of a hint. Ravelry was a godsend.

An ear-warming headband for Elle. It’s hard to knit things for Elle because A) she knits herself and B) so does her grandad (he knitted the socks I’m wearing right now, they are amazing!) So I chose something that she could wear under the hat he will inevitably make her and that had a bit of lace she could appreciate. The pattern is Blue Leaf Headband by Adrienne Krey and is free from Ravelry and the yarn is Wendy Fusion.

That’s enough my stash-busting Christmas making for now!

Beccy

Christmas cake!

I’ve never made a Christmas cake in my life, but I thought I’d give it a go…

What do you think? The cake frill is a vintage one I found in a charity shop. It’s almost a shame to use it because it’s so pretty. The snowmen are old wooden tree ornaments. I’ll let you know how it tastes!

It’s not as good as my gran’s cake though. She always uses decorations she bought in the 50’s – a church (she even flattens a path in the icing), a fir tree and a plastic ‘Merry Christmas’. If I didn’t know better I’d say it’s always the same cake every year! She doesn’t make hers anymore, it’s a Marks’ special, but she always adds her own royal icing and decorations.

If I remember before she cuts it, I’ll get a photo this year.

Beccy

My hook is on fire!

Not really, it’s made of metal, but if it was wood…

Remember these?

Well I finally made enough to start sewing them together to make the baby blanket for little Liam. It was supposed to be a present for the shower but since he was born in October it’s a little late. Now it’s a Christmas present!

I’ve sewn the granny squares together into strips and now I’m joining them with two rows of double crochet sandwiching a row of shell stitch.

I’m using the Attic24 colour pack of Stylecraft special DK because it’s my favourite (I have a further unopened pack in my stash, I love it that much)

Right, better get cracking – I have two more strips to join then lots and lots of edging. I’m hoping Lucy blogs her tutorial soon for the lovely edging she’s been working out.

Beccy

We’ve been crocheting mad…

Or driven mad by excessive crochet. Either way, since we’ve each had bouts of flu-like symptoms mum and me have had a lot of free time we could only fill with low-impact work.

This blanket is a Christmas present for my aunt, there are 289 little squares and every single one is different (well, nearly – I made a mistake and repeated one square, prizes if you can spot it) It’s not huge, but it is very pretty. We used Stylecraft special DK because the colours are amazing and easily washable. It’s blocking now, so just the edging to do and it’s finished. It’s based on Attic24’s cushion, in fact my recent preoccupation with crochet is entirely based on Attic24 which I discovered a couple of weeks ago. I could already crochet but Lucy’s blog is really, really inspiring – if you haven’t discovered it yet, go and have a look!

The crochet birds are also Christmas presents, and yes the pattern can be found on Attic24. 

I bought this lamp (sorry no before pictures) from a charity shop for £2 because my last one blew up. I liked the shape but the base was a sort of pastely purple with oily lustre. Yuck! So I crocheted a cover for it and slung a tatty vintage traycloth over the top. Much nicer, and it only took an hour or so.

Hail to the all new colourful life!
Beccy

Another Christmas present…

I made this laptop bag for my best friend for Christmas – I didn’t do a proper tutorial though, partly because there are a million tutorials for messenger bags on the net, and partly because I made it at night and the photos would have been rubbish.

I used a large scrap of thick, brown, woven wool, some pale blue spotted cotton and a large doily. The only difference between this and a normal messenger bag is that I quilted the inside.

If you want to quilt the inside of a bag, you need to quilt your fabric before you do any other sewing. I cut all the pattern pieces, basing the size on my own laptop (2 large rectangles, one for the outer and one for the lining, 3 inches wider than your laptop for the width, and 3 times the height of your laptop plus 3 inches for the length) I used a piece of batting slightly smaller than the main pattern pieces so it wouldn’t interfere with the seams.

After I had sewn the whole thing up and added a strap, I patiently sewed on a crochet doily because it looked a bit boring without, and I’m an avid hoarder collector of doilies, tray cloths and the like :)

Beccy