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And I improved upon a prancing reindeer pattern that I originally made two years ago (can’t photograph the old one as that fella is in the loft with all the other Christmas stuff).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’ve been meaning to make this little patchwork baskety thing for ages, and I’m glad I sorted myself out and did it. I thought it was going to involve complicated sewing, but actually, it was mega easy! Pink Penguin is where you need to go. The sewing tutorial is for a small patchwork basket; I made the larger version.
I really like the interior fabric. I only bought a quantity of 40 cm, which was just enough. It was a bit silly, really, but when I bought it, I hadn’t measured anything, so I had to guess. I want to make one for me; this was for my sister.
I also made her this handmade tote bag. Everyone needs a bag now, don’t they?! I made up the basic pattern having seen similar elsewhere.
This pleated purse was the other thing I made in my sewing flurry. I’m running out of people to make this for now. I have done quite a few in different fabrics. The pleated pursetutorial is this one here.
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.
I cut up a lot of old, vintage books. Usually, they have been scribbled on by previous owners, which puts a stop to any guilty feelings. This is most of what I’ve got shoved in my crafty drawer; some may have fallen down the back, lost for a brief time.
I’ve got a lot of birthdays in October, and my collection comes in handy when I don’t have the time to draw a card design. You upcycle those old pictures into something new, like a card! That’s another thing to feel bad about; If you make a birthday card just by sticking a picture onto some card, is that cheating? Well, it’s what I do when time is an issue.
Here is my favourite box of pens and things. I have a scalpel in there wrapped in a tatty masking-tape protective thing (Husband made it a long time ago, and I have stolen it along with the blade), it’s the dirty thing on the left, next to the brown pencil. We’ve tried to find those Stylo pens, but they don’t make them anymore. This one is used sparingly; it is lovely to draw with.
Anyway, I use that scalpel to slice up my old pictures and then just bung them on some card with a bit of glue. Easy!
See? Easy! A bit more slicing and done.
Lazy, or what? No, it might be simple, but it’s also very creative.
I regret not having made the effort to do some drawing, but I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to think of ideas. I really don’t like drawing something if the idea doesn’t please me greatly. Which reminds me, it is another birthday tomorrow…. Husband’s… I have lost my thinking cap.
(The fabric in the background of the pic above is for a project I did at the beginning of the week. I’ve taken pictures, so it will deffo become a blog post soon.)
Not forgetting to sign your “work” after. Sorry to everyone who gets these from me. I do try to match the picture to the person, but it isn’t always possible.
I spent the weekend making these paper mache toadstools, and I love them! In my head, they were expertly crafted and beautifully painted. In real life, they’re not quite as perfect looking, but I reckon I did a pretty good job. As usual, I was religiously trawling Pinterest when I saw some that I knew I had to make.
At the weekend I am helping with a friend’s birthday party. Her daughter is turning four and is having a fairy-themed party. I think I’ll be able to squeeze these in there somewhere. If they survive, I’ll also work them into my Halloween celebrations!!
Anyway, I thought I’d share my pictures of how I made mine. The original tutorial is really good, and it’s a proper tutorial, whereas I’ll just show the various stages of the makings of them. I recommend checking out the original if you fancy having a go.
Actually, this was an addition to the tutorial; I added copper coins to the bottom of the stems to add weight. They stand up nicely.
For the larger toadstools, I made a disc of foil and put three pennies on top.
Then I wrapped that in more foil and squidged it together.
Twisty twisty with the foil.
The caps were made separately from the stems.
Following the tutorial, I covered it all in masking tape so that the paper mache toadstools have something to grip. I don’t know if this was necessary, but it also helped to shape everything.
Once I had covered everything, I left them for a couple of days to dry naturally. In April, I was playing with paper mache and thought I’d put my creation out in the hot sun to dry. It was too intense, and it did annoying crinkly things to what I was working on (Ice King pinata-it was so cool).
I’ve ruined my tray as I was too lazy to get a separate doodah for the paint. I did two coats of acrylic paint. Three would have been better.
I love playing with my glue gun. Stems got stuck to caps. And fingers.
I thought too much about dot placement. Not the worst thing to worry about, I guess.
Now, er, where to put them? I don’t know, and I don’t care, they’re so cute!
I skipped the stage of using paper mache to smooth out the seal between the cap and stem. I shouldn’t have done. It would’ve looked so much better with lovely, neat gills.
Anyway, that is what I did at the weekend! I also squeezed in a couple of crochet squares for the fireplace blanket (nearly all squares done). And I’ve fun over the last two days making half a tonne of tissue paper flowers and other exciting fairy party related things. Really, I should have my own fairy party. It’s all too exciting.
Look! It’s me!! I made these little guys a few weeks ago with scrap yarn and then tagged Simply Crochet magazine on the picture I Instagrammed. I was pretty chuffed to see the crochet fox and raccoon in the magazine. Now I know they don’t make up pretend readers!
I don’t often buy magazines (not reeeallly), let alone make the crochet patterns within the pages, but I did this time. It has definitely given me a boost but I am wondering if I should aim higher next time.
I’m thinking about focusing more on my own crochet designs and seeing what happens if I shout loudly about them… for example:
These little hooters are becoming really popular. I posted the pattern at the beginning of the month. They are my Granny Owl Decorations. A few days later, I twigged that I should probably put them on Ravelry. I did, and it went a bit mental for a couple of days. Then yesterday, completely out of the blue, they gathered loads of interest after someone (I’ve no idea who) posted a link on their Facebook page.
Very interesting, very exciting. I guess I need to be less scared about what I’m doing. Stop being a wimp. And I guess I should say “Thanks” to those who have found and liked my crochet owlies. There will definitely be more patterns from me in the future.
PS I’m many places online: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages. Please Follow/Like and what have you. And I’m also on Pinterest (all.the.time). Have a look! Thank you. X
