The Great Wave phone case

I needed a Phone case. So I decided to make one myself, with supplies I had on hand. I knitted a piece of fabric with three small leftover skeins of very rustic wool.  This piece I felted in the washing machine, which made the fabric thicker. This way it protects the phone better. Then I sewed the fabric together with a blanket stitch, attached a cord and sewed on a button. The button depicts Hokusai's woodblock print "The Great Wave of Kanagawa". I like the result: I think the button fits perfectly. And then I came across this cup at the British Museum, which made me smile (even though it was a disposable one...)

The making of:

Rosa Scarf

The minute I saw the photo of this scarf on Ravelry (you can find the free pattern here) I wanted one. I love the simplicity of the rectangle in garter stitch, the snug and also slightly vagabondish style. And now it's finished, I am very happy with it. It was a very boring knit though, rows and rows of garter stitch. The yarn is Pure organic by Veritas  : good quality yarn and I really love the knitted fabric. But I didn't really enjoy working with it, a bit too fluffy for my liking.
The button is a wooden one.

Sooo many rows of garter stitch…

Thinking about the hedgehogs last summer

We have a small garden and it's not very neat. As a reward for this untidiness, 5 little hedgehogs were born this spring, in our compost heap! So so cute!! They have gone their own way now, perhaps one of them will come and visit us again some day.
As a keepsake, I sewed these 5 little hedgehogs. The fabric is tweed from a sample book I bought on the Dutch second-hand website "Marktplaats". I think I'm going to have much more fun with this sample book in the future!

And here are some of the real little rascals !

Happy Merry Christmas to all!

Very, very happy holidays and for 2019 loads of crafty happiness, good health of course and lots lots lots of good news, - in short, all best wishes to you from me and my reindeer Comet!!
Comet is made of felt pieces sewn together (a Mollie Makes pattern). I gave him a nice warm scarf made from a yarnscrap of lovely soft Blue Sky Fiber suri merino.

Cheeky Comet, he loved the photoshoot!

Selbu Mittens

The Selbu Mittens is a pattern by Skeindeer Knits. You can buy it here on Ravelry. Skeindeer is a London-based Norwegian pattern designer highly influenced by traditional Norwegian knitting. She hosts a nice YouTube podcast that I watch regularly.
The pattern is well-written and easy to follow, and I loved learning new techniques (like the Old Norwegian cast-on). It was a bit like solving a puzzle to me. This colourwork knitting is really something I want to do more of.
The yarn I used is John Arbon Textiles knit by numbers DK, bought online from Knit with Attitude
(a local yarn shop in London). I am very happy with these mittens, they are so super warm and cosy. I made them as a Chritmas gift and I hope they will be well received!

Sooo cosy and warm!

starting a new project is always a bit daunting…

Elsa

This is Elsa.
She is made from textile scraps (I even used a shoe cleaning cloth I got in a hotel). The yarn I used is Scheepjes Cotton (brown) and a lovely mini-skein of Trava and Wool, bought at Yarnporium London. I based this on a pattern I found in Mollie Makes issue 84, but changed the knitted part of her dress and made the scarf a bit smaller. I also gave her a more open and confident look.  I often don't like the way girl dolls and cuddly toys have been given this all too sweet and submissive look with long eyelashes etc. So here's Elsa : a real girl bear, smart and confident and ready for the world!

Here is Elsa taking a nap whilst I am choosing yarn for her scarf:

Touchstone Shawl.

This summer, during some travelling, I made the Touchstone Shawl. It's a free pattern on Ravelry, by Laura Aylor. It's quite a big shawl and lovely to wear. The pattern is not difficult and it kept me interested. I used gorgeous Malabrigo Dos Tierras, in the colourways "pearl ten" and "arch angel". I love working with this yarn! I bought it at The Sheep Shop In Cambridge (UK). Sadly it closed in September 2017. The disappearance of more and more local yarn shops is so sad. Buying online just isn't the same!!

 It's a big shawl!

Craftivism and a brilliant quote

Climate change and global warming scare me a lot. I think there's quite a big chance that a lot of people will suffer badly from the effects.
I try not to brood on it too much, because that doesn't help anyone. What we all can do, however, is let our voices be heard at particular times that could be significant. So when I heard about the Claim the Climate March in Brussels on December 2nd, I decided to participate.
I took my mini banner kit from the "Craftivist Collective" and went looking for a quote that I found wise and suitable. I started sewing and stitching and ended up with this great banner. Because we're in this together.
and the March last sunday was amazing and exhilarating : so many people, lots of young people, all of them asking for better ways to live together. It was a hopeful day.

Make do and mend part 3

This, admittedly cheap, sweater had started to pill in a terribly ugly way after I'd only worn it a couple of times... I considered turning it into something else, but then again, I like wearing this sweater...so I came up with a solution. I sewed pieces of leftover fabric (in this case leftovers from curtains) onto the sides, where the pilling was really bad. Then I embroidered flowers onto the fabric with some multicoloured cotton yarn. It turned out quite nicely, in a quirkily unique way ;-)

Steely Tweed Scarf

This is an "oldie". In the autumn of 2014 I knitted this scarf for my son. It was one of my first knitting projects and it took forever. But I enjoyed it and he liked it. The pattern is published "Easy knitted scarves", a booklet by Monica Russel. The yarn is Artesano Aran (50% superfine alpaca 50% Peruvian highland wool), a beautiful strong, soft and robust yarn. Unfortunately, the company shut up shop in 2016.
We bought 2 skeins in the summer of 2014 at I Knit, another beautiful yarn shop in London. I was a real beginner at that time and the two (expensive!) skeins I bought were from a different batch...I hadn't noticed, I even had no idea that this could be a thing. It only became clear while I was knitting... Surely the person selling me the yarn, me clearly being a novice (you could not help noticing by the questions I asked...), should have warned me...? I guess it is one of these lingering  disappointments… I still love this scarf though!
I added tassels from some leftover dark grey yarn I got from my Mum who knitted me this dark grey beautiful sweater years ago. Yes, the story continues...

One of my last projects on straight needles...

such a warm scarf!