Tomorrow, I estimate that I have about four hours to finish two incomplete craft projects and begin two new ones. I am not sure that I can do it. Sadly, this probably means my Walking Dead crochet blanket won’t get a look in. We only have three episodes of season 4 left to go, and I could so finish it, but alas, I must prioritise.
Doily for Nanna, unfinished. I’m on the last round and it needs blocking.
Very special dolly. Mostly done. Just need to sort out her hair.
The “I hate you zebra”. I managed to put off making this for approximately three years. Its time is now. Fiddly, piddly, and it just takes too blinkin long.
And there are two other things I haven’t even started!Swear words ensue.
Nevertheless, I am mega excited that Christmas is here and I am looking forward to all of it. Happy Christmas. x
Unfortunately, there are some things I can’t show as they will be Christmas gifts, and then there is also the loss of any crafty oomph. I just can’t be bothered. Meh. However, I have decked the halls in greenery, which is something. It feels lovely and festive.
Christmas Tree Decorations
For the first time in twelve years, we have a real Christmas tree!! We were sick to death of the stupid plastic one. Didn’t like it to begin with. The smell of this year’s choice is totally awesome. We went to Cotley Farm in Whimple and within minutes, had picked out this one. We got it home and found that it was too tall, so off with its head. We didn’t mean to get such a big tree, but it obviously wanted to get in our car and come back home with us.
I bought some teeny painted toadstools. They are my delightful decorations for this year. I like to get something new every year, but we are becoming overloaded with Christmas decorations and are having to be more selective about what goes on the branches. Not such a bad thing. And it didn’t stop me from buying some cute little robins on sale yesterday.
We finished Eldest boy’s felt gingerbread man, too. He got bored after a few minutes, so I helped. He tried very hard.
His effort last year is what inspired my felt elf boot decorations this year. He randomly cut a boot shape, and we stitched it together. The other boy is being naughty, riding his bike indoors. With wellies on!
More Christmas Crafts
I still need to write out my Christmas cards. Not sure if I’ve made enough. I might have to print some more. Stamping with gold paint was satisfying yet messy. I got a lino cutting kit last Christmas and am putting it to use this Christmas.
Sewing A Coraline Doll
A glimpse of one of the bigger crafting projects of the week. I’ve been doing little bits of many projects rather than sticking to one and completing it. Therefore, this lady has no face and has only just gained blue hair and a yellow coat. I am a big procrastinator. I know what I should be doing, but I’d rather read my book. Or fart about online.
So, the general mood of the week is, pffft. I’ll stick my face in the Christmas tree in a minute, to give myself a boost. I might be around next week, I’m not sure. I guess it depends on whether I get my craft on good and proper.
It’s properly December now, and the time I thought I had is pretty much gone. I had lots of ideas for Christmas makes, but I have gradually knocked certain things off the list as time disappears. I’ve narrowed it down, and there are three main things still left to finish. Anything else I make after that is a bonus. The first is the crochet above. I started yesterday, and it was fun to get cracking.
I love the colours of the yarn. It is Drops Nepal, an alpaca mix aran. I will be sure to take some more pictures of this little crochet cardigan when it’s finished. I think I will finish it quite quickly. It’s enjoyable to crochet.
This is the crafty stuff that I made, thinking I would try and sell it at the craft fair last month. I also knew that if I didn’t sell it then I would be giving some of it away as Christmas presents. Is that wrong? Feel marginally guilty but can’t put my finger on why.
This is my first Corner 2 Corner crochet and my first Walking Dead blanket. It’s called the Walking Dead blanket because I needed somewhere to look when the zombies/walkers/biters are on screen. When frightened, take solace in crochet!
It’s only a small blanket and made from scrappy yarn leftovers, hence the odd colour choices. They are not my fave colours, but I think they have some appeal. Autumnal.
Another C2C Blanket
This is the second Walking Dead C2C blanket, started when we began watching season three. It’s still not finished, but we have three episodes left, so the two should be finished together. The yarn is made from bamboo fibres. I bought it for £1.39 a ball, reduced from £4. Unfortunately, it smells rank. I’m not sure if it’s the yarn or the cardboard inner wotsit. It has a very specific wet chopping board smell. Hopefully, a good wash will sort it out. It’s very silky feeling even if it is stinky. And it is not the bogey green depicted either, but a beautiful emerald green. The camera does not do green.
Sewing a Coraline Doll
I’m also about to embark on the final version of a doll I’ve been working on. This is a special request from my niece. I worked up a prototype yesterday. After making some tweaks, it is probably what I should finish off first. I don’t take the easy road; I have drafted the pattern myself, which is something I have no real experience in. I make stuff up as I go along. We shall see.
I have another crochet project that I’m putting off, as I know it’ll be tricky. It’s an amigurumi job, and it’ll be in black and white. But that is the third and final thing.
This crookedly cut gingerbread man is what Eldest and I are working on after school. He traced around one of my gingerbread man templates and cut it out. He chose the buttons and stitched on the nose and rosey cheeks himself. I expect him to stitch the two parts together, too. I’m looking forward to seeing it on the tree.
Sooo, that is where I am, and I am getting further behind by tippytappying here. I’m off to see what I can do in the next 45 minutes before I have to wake up Toddler and rush off to the school Nativity!
Dweeb that I am, I have, on three occasions over the years, taken the time to make my own advent calendars. It can take a while to make one, as I have to use scary things like “maths” to work out how to align images and where to cut the little Advent doors. Not to mention coming up with 24 weeny, and different Christmassy pictures.
I don’t remember when I made my first Advent calendar, but it was definitely pre-babies. There is a way I can date them all; each one has a “family” picture inside that represents where I was at that time. (Above is last year’s Christmas scene calendar)
My First Handmade Advent Calendar
This wintery design makes me laugh, it’s so bad. I’m still fond of that cute ice skater, and at least I can see I’ve improved.
Embarrassingly, inside has bad pictures, too. But you gotta start somewhere. See, pre-babies, it was just Husband and me. I don’t even know if we were married when I made this. Maybe it’s around 2006/2007?
The Second Handmade Advent Calendar
I made the second Advent calendar to represent the fact that we now had a baby. So it’s 2009. And I’ve tried harder with the drawing of the festive scene, too. I was very proud at the time. I’m not the best at drawing, but I have my own silly illustrative style. I went for a fairy tale inspired scene this time.
We’re looking a bit tired in this picture. I like my attempt at Mary on a donkey ha!
The Third Advent Calendar!
And then, because I had shown the addition to our family, I had to make a third Advent Calendar to show that Baby now had a brother. I quite like it in the above pic, before I finished it. Right at the end, I added the dark blue for sky, and I stopped liking it as much. I think I ran out of steam.
The Christmassy illustrations have definitely improved over time, but I am not often satisfied, so maybe next year I’ll make another one and include the cat.
One good thing about these Advent Calendars is that I can reuse them if I want to. The doors have been closed again, and after a year has passed, I’ve forgotten what’s behind the doors!
My Eldest had a go at his own festive picture too, but I didn’t want to slice into it, it’s too lovely as it is.
And, just before I go. This is a picture of my stall on Saturday! It was lovely to have a go. The PTA made lots of money for the school. The felt Christmas decorations I made were my most popular items. I sold all of them apart from four lonesome doves. I guess they just weren’t festive enough. I have lots of things leftover, but that isn’t a problem. I have plans for them…
For the last two weeks, I have been crazy busy cutting and stitching felt to make Christmas decorations. I’ve been pretty much knee deep in the stuff. Amazingly, I’ve really enjoyed it; I’ve not once become fed up with the cutting or the stitching.
Most of the time, when it comes to handmade crafting, I make something once and then get immensely bored if I have to do it again. Something must be wrong with me because I had this little production line going and got addicted to seeing how many felt decorations I could churn out. I’ve had fun!
I made brooches that are not really my cup of tea, but I think others might like them.
I made Christmas trees.
Boots for elves.
Peaceful little doves.
I came up with a new robin design.
And I improved upon a prancing reindeer pattern that I originally made two years ago (can’t photograph the old one as that fella is in the loft with all the other Christmas stuff).
These cute reindeer decorations might be my favourites. They’re so fancy!
And more felt gingerbread men!
On Saturday, I’m taking all of my new handmade felt Christmas decorations to the school Christmas Fayre. I hope people like them. I do! I am very glad I’ve finished them, really, because little, near-invisible stuffing fibres kept trying to live in my eyes.
Sewing and crochet this week. Hopefully, I will feel like getting the sewing machine out once the kids have gone to bed, but I’m well behind on Dr Who episodes and everyone is talking about Clara!
If I decide to get out a woolly blanket, the cat will appear from nowhere. Guaranteed! Trying to take pictures of a crochet blanket is even worse. 70% of the pictures I took of this blanket had a cat in them. I eventually gave up.
I’ve put it somewhere safe in case she tries it on again. She has claimed too many of my blankets.
Anyway, I’m pleased to say that I’ve finished the petal patch blanket and it looks lovely. I’m quite tempted to keep it as another blanket for the living room, but it isn’t really big enough. I stopped making squares for it when I realised it wouldn’t go with the rest of the room. It turns out that, actually, it probably would look quite nice. I’m taking it to a Christmas/craft fayre at the end of the month to see if someone buys it…
I really enjoyed making the granny squares. They are the Petal Patch Motif by Betsy Makes and the colour scheme is basically nicked from Attic 24’s Harmony blanket plus a few balls of Parchment and a smattering of the shade, Grape (it’s all Stylecraft Special DK). To give a nod to both of these pilferings, I am calling the blanket Petal Patch Harmony. Blankets have names these days.
It’s now a slightly squashed blanket where the cat sat on it. I should probably wash it before trying to put it up for sale.
Many of these pictures are very samey but it takes too much time, dithering about which ones to use. May as well use them all.
Once again, I used the Continuous Join As You Go. Next time, I’ll move on to a new technique. Not because I don’t like this one (I actually really like it), but because I want to learn some new crochet techniques. I’ve seen a few different ones about that I want to try. Just need to decide which to do first.
It’s a good size for the sofa or maybe a toddler bed. It also works well draped, with nonchalance, over a chair. Perhaps I should aim for one blanket per item of furniture; I can casually arrange crochet blankets everywhere. You’ll never find the cat again.
The border is from Edie Eckman’s Around the Corner, Crochet Borders. Number 27. I cheated and skipped every two stitches, not every other. I did it that way so I wouldn’t have to make as many stitches. I can see that it is ever so slightly stretched, but that’s the punishment I get for being cheaty. I did the same thing on the Fireplace blanket and got away with it more because I tinkered with the pattern. I get told off a lot for not following the recipe.
This granny square blanket measures 95x125cm and it has 63 petal patch squares.
The main colour is Parchment, and I can’t remember if I used three or four balls. The rest of the colours are most definitely less than a ball each. I used: clematis, lavender, lime, meadow, plum, sage, storm, pale rose, turquoise, violet, cloud, petrol, grape, raspberry, parma and aster. Hope I haven’t missed any out… Right, onto the next project!
There’s a little bit of pagan in the air, and I love it. I was especially looking forward to last Thursday for a good old pagan fix. In the morning, I popped into town to take photographs of all the signs that were being put up for shenanigans happening later in the day.
However, before the day could really begin, a poorly toddler threw up in my lap, and I knew that the evening, for our family, had been written off. For everyone else, the roads close and at four o’clock, Ottery St Mary becomes a land of awesomeness.
The first time I went to the Tar Barrelswas in the year 2000. I was coaxed onto a coach from Exeter without knowing what I was heading toward. I had the best and scariest night ever. Thousands of people arrive every November 5th to stand too close to burning barrels of hot, flaming tar. How great is that?
All the shops are boarded up to keep them safe from the hordes of visitors. There’s a risk of the glass smashing due to the massive volume of people potentially being squashed against the buildings. Such fun!
That first time I went to the Tar Barrels, I was petrified and spent most of the evening running for my life. Well, not really, but that’s how it felt. In subsequent years, I’ve found myself running towards the flames, trying to get as close as possible. I flippin love it! I’m not sure you’re supposed to do that. The key is to be respectful and responsible.
Sadly, this year, because of a pukey boy, I was disappointed. I could hear all the cheers and shouts from home. The smell of bonfire wafted all over town, and it felt ridiculously magical. I took the eldest boy out for an hour, so I could say we’d given our support.
These were the only pictures I could get. I had a six year old balanced on my hip, and I forgot to turn on my flash. I didn’t want to get too close because the boy gets scared. It’s funny because next year it’ll be his classmates taking part. Kids from Ottery families start “rolling” barrels from the age of seven. There are kids’, women’s and men’s barrels and they take place all over town. The barrels start small and get bigger throughout the night, culminating with the enormous Midnight barrel. I like the picture on the bottom right. It’s part of our walk home, but the trees form a circle, and the lights reflecting on the road surface look like flames. It’s an upside down barrel! Sort of.
I took this picture in 2011. I can’t be sure, but I reckon this is one of the kids’ barrels. It isn’t big enough to belong to one of the men. A lit barrel is lifted onto the shoulders, and the carrier runs up and down the street, giving a little spin to keep the flames going. Hessian mitts are worn to keep hands from getting crispy, and then many layers of what are usually rugby shirts are worn to protect the body. Awesome!
Bonfire Night
There is also a huge bonfire, which gets built during preceeding weeks. I love the ritualistic lighting of the fire; it’s amazing to watch. It is seriously the biggest bonfire I have ever seen, and the heat that emanates from it is super intense. I always expect it to still be going the next day; however, it has always burned to the ground.
I seem to have written an awful lot for someone who spent less than an hour there this year.
Anyway, 2016 is going to be an amazing year. It’ll be on a Saturday, so the crowds will be huge. This adds to the atmosphere and noise. Great stuff.
I’m still not 100% certain of what my Halloween costume will be on Saturday, but I know it will involve this spooky tiara doodah I made today. It’s still wet, which is why this isn’t going to be a fancy tutorial. And I’ve rushed the pictures because I’m running out of Halloweeny time.
Things You Need to Make an Easy DIY Halloween Tiara
Garden wire or similar.
Masking tape.
Cheap headband.
PVA glue.
Black tissue paper.
Glitter glue.
Get your headband and the wire.
Do some twiddling of the wire around the headband.
I think it helps to do a couple of feet of wire at a time to avoid tangles. Bend the wire into crooked shapes.
Get busy with some masking tape. This creates a better shape without overdoing the paper mache stage.
Mix PVA glue with some water, and glue torn up bits of black tissue paper to the tiara. This might not strictly be paper mache, but it’s what I call it.
I blasted mine with a hair dryer to dry it more quickly. I’m not sure if this is a good idea, but I did it anyway. Splodge on some glitter glue and leave to dry. Job done.
I’ve spent years being inspired by other bloggers’ work. It became something I really wanted to do, too. It looked like lots of fun, and it looked like a good way to keep on track of what I was doing creatively.
I was lazy and procrastinatey and used several excellent excuses as to why I hadn’t just done it. I’m still so new to craft blogging, but if I had started when I first had the notion, then I would have been being bloggy for six or seven years by now!
I’ve spent much time taking pictures of crafty projects, and each time I’ve thought that maybe they would end up as a blog post. So, I’m going to put up some pictures of work that was done in the six months prior to hitting Publish for the first time.
I went through a mandala phase. These two are both Made in K Town using Rico Creative Cotton. Cheap cotton, very splitty, lovely colours. This has led me towards doilies, which I still need to make more of. Soon.
I made my eldest boy an Attic 24 Ripple for his bed. It’s Stylecraft Special. Everyone loves a bit of Stylecraft rippling.
The boy chose the colours. So off I went. It was reasonably speedy once the first few rows were out of the way. A repeating colour pattern was a weeny bit boring though. Next time, it’s random colours, like it’s supposed to be.
I made teeny niece the mini version for her dolly. I didn’t use the same pattern. This version has more ripples so it looks better scaled down. It’s actually adapted from a cushion cover pattern from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. When I say “adapted” I mean “added a few more rows”. The edging, I think, is the one that was on the Granny Stripe made by Lucy at Attic 24.
This grey and chartreuse granny blanket was a special request for a baby blanket. My sister-in-law chose the colours. It’s Stylecraft alpaca DK. The blocks were from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. Don’t go thinking that all the blocks end with the same stitch count, though. They really don’t. Hmm. I really liked how this one turned out, but I only blocked the edge (which is from Edie Eckman’s Crochet Borders book) and not the individual squares. Next time, I will try super hard to block stuff.
One of the quickest little blankets ever. It was so much fun. The squares were done in a few days, and it was the first time I used a continuous-join-as you-go. This was for a baby girl born in early spring. I’d make one of these again for sure. It was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest and it led me to Katie’s Kitchen.
There are six handmade things in the picture above. Six! I am responsible for five of them, but the cream knitted blanket is a mother-in-law job. Three blankets, two cushions and a dolly. Huzzah.
Sewing has been worked on, too. I’m better than I was, but there is definitely room for improvement, too. Having said that, the cherry blossom needlecase is one of my favourite felty sewn things I’ve done.
And a Mermaid’s purse! Well, another needlecase… She was lovely to make. After Christmas, I plan on making more of these sorts of things and giving them a go on Etsy. I’m not entirely sure what the demand is for needlecases and such, I guess I’ll find out. I will obviously shout very loudly on here if these sorts of things head towards my Etsy shop.
Phew, I feel a bit better now. I’m off to have yesterday’s leftovers for lunch, which thankfully, taste better than the experience that I had in the kitchen.
At last, I have finished my new granny square blanket! It has been an age. I got the wool in July, which to me seems like a loooong time ago. The first post I mentioned it in reminds me not to just click on auto edit when sorting out the photos because, crikey, those pictures need toning down. I hope I’ve improved since then. The next picture doesn’t count, it was taken indoors on a rainy day :/
Inspiration For Crochet Projects
These are the decorative fireplace tiles, which originally inspired the colour choices.
I used the Lily pad square from Pasta and Patchwork, but I added extra chains between stitches for the first couple of rounds as my granny squares were not sitting flat. Indeed, they looked like strange nipples. They still don’t sit flat, so they could do with blocking. However, blocking things increases waiting time, and I just want to see a crochet blanket finished. I’m too impatient for it, but this granny square blanket would really benefit from blocking. Over time, it’ll sort itself out.
Woolly Yarn For A Crochet Blanket
I used Drops Karisma yarn for this project. It has alpaca in it, and it’s super warm. It’s nice and hefty; the weight of it has real cosiness.
The colours are: light beige, olive, mint, light dusty pink, dark mustard, light grey green, chocolate brown, wine red and beige brown mix. I used 7 balls of light beige and two of each for the others.
The blanket is an odd size: 6×9 granny squares, which is slightly over long, or not quite wide enough, depending on which way you want to look at it. I actually planned for 7×7, but I didn’t want to have that much leftover yarn, and I wasn’t sure it’d be that big. Unfortunately, I was a square short to add another row of 7. I eeked it out with what I could, and this was the formation that used the most squares.
I think the border suits it very well, and I will use it for my next crochet blanket (which I’ve already started!). The border has come from Around the Corner, Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It’s the last two rows of pattern 27. The corners are made up because I hadn’t laid the foundation stitches from the pattern (not enough yarn for that). I think it works beautifully.
Continuous Join As You Go
I’ve used a Continuous Join As You Go to join the granny squares together. I learned this method using a fabulous JAYG tutorial, it’s the clearest one I’ve found. I used two UK trebles in every other stitch, which is different from the cluster used in the tutorial, but the principle is the same.
I’m properly pleased with this new blanket. I will be waving goodbye to it at the end of the month when I hand it over to my sister-in-law. A Lily Pad blanket for Lily, or a Fireplace Blanket.
