For a cloudy day

Now this is a great project for a beginner, or for a more advanced knitter who wants to make something quick and easy.
It's all garter stitch, two pieces sewn together, in chunky wool, so much fun!
And lovely and original in every living room I think.
I got the pattern from the book 'Breien en haken met dikke naalden' (the Dutch translation of 'Knitting with giant needles') by Hanna Charlotte Erhorn.
It's the same pattern I previously used to make some mobiles. You can read up on them here

Tintin

Needle felting is something I really like. It may be time consuming and every time during the starting phase of the felting process, there is this moment when I think that this time, the magic is not going to happen. And then it works out fine.
A couple of years ago I made Tintin, the famous reporter from the comics. Originally, his hands were stuck fast to his body, but the person I gave Tintin to (and whom I asked to take a photo so I could write this blogpost), detached them, so the hands look a bit unfinished.
Nowadays I pay more attention to photographing my work, it has become part of the crafting as it were.

This old sweater is a pair of wrist warmers

This is my favourite kind of upcycling: something has become unusable (seriously shrunken sweater), another thing is actually needed (wristwarmers for my son) and it all results in an easy project with great result (imho)!
I cut the sleeves from the sweater and made holes for the thumbs, sewing round the holes so that there wouldn't be any unravelling. The sweater had already felted a bit, but I wanted the wristwarmers firmer, so I put them  into the washing machine on a high temperature. They came out super warm and nice. And quite cool too, if I may say so :-)

Here you can see how much more the wristwarmers have shrunk:

 cool!

A small cape in autumn colours

The pattern for this cape you can find in the Dutch magazine "Simply Breien" (nr 1van 2012). I really enjoyed knitting it, in the round. That has a lot to do with the yarn I used : Rowan Hemp Tweed. It is a blend of 75% wool and 25 % hemp, feels lovely and soft and has a natural and tweedy look. And the colours are gorgeous! I bought the yarn at the Stitchery in Lewes on one of our holidays in the UK, as always looking for local yarn shops.
This cape is simply great to wear on autumn walks!

Duttons for Buttons

Some years ago, I visited Harrogate in Yorkshire (UK). There is this wonderful shop, Duttons for Buttons. What a treasure cove, or in their own words : "For haberdashery & lace & spare-time & needles & thread & ribbons & rainy days knitting with friends & wool & needlewordk & making stuff with the kids & just about every needlecraft thing you'll ever need…" Along with some beautiful and unusual buttons, I bought the shop's environmentally friendly souvenir bag. I
customized it, as is the idea, with lots of buttons from my button box. It took a while to sew them all on, but for what's now my favourite tote, it was totally worth it!

When you can't do what you love and when there shall be sunshine after rain

For the last couple of months I have been suffering from severe shoulder and back pain that has been preventing me from doing practically any crafting. So for the past months most of my blogposts have been on work I did earlier. Now that I know I need surgery, which will involve a long rehabilitation period, I wanted to let all you readers know I will sadly be posting less frequently. Luckily I still have some material to write about, so I won't disappear alltogether.
I am full of hope that surgery will bring an end to my pain and to these physical limitations and that in a couple of months I will be able to continue my crafty path. I am so looking forward to that moment. It is hard, as it would be for any crafter, not to be able to spend time in my happy crafty place.
I really very much hope you can all bear with me and keep following my blog. Thanks so much all!


Here is my dear stash... waiting and waiting… wait for me!

And my ongoing projects, protected against light and dust, also waiting, albeit much more patiently than me...!

A happy garland

For my birthday I got a box of Quality Street chocolates from my mum. As a child I loved these sweets (still do actually) and I always thought the colourful wrappers enchanting. In fact I still love these shiny bits of paper.  I decided to keep the wrappers and make them into a kind of a garland. I looked for some bright ribbon, decided on pink. With a bit of thread I attached the wrappers in a kind of butterfly formation onto the ribbon, added some tinkling bells and these was my happy garland! Perfect for our outside spaces, it gives a wonderful festive feeling and when wind and sun play with it, spots of light dance on the patio tiles, or on my book. Makes me happy!

Yay for summer !

Sun and wind make these magical spots of colour dance over my book and over he tiles, fun!

Best biscuits ever!

I looove Custard Creams! So when Mollie Makes presented issue 82 with a kit to make a custard cream keyring, I bought a copy, of course.
Fun little project in between other projects. And I love my keyring!

Very basic Hubbie Hat

I found, somewhere deep down my stash, a skein of bulky yarn : Tiziana by Lang Yarns (50% wool and 50% acrylic). I bought it once because of its beautiful colours. Okay, I'm not really into this kind of yarn anymore, but I wanted to make use of it anyway. My husband is always in need of a hat and was super glad that I could make him another one for his collection. I decided to try to design my own, admittedly very simple knitting pattern for it. And well, it worked : another warm nice hat ! Rather proud.

And here is the pattern : 

(you can have it for free, but if you would like to leave a comment, or even better, if you would like to follow my blog by subscribing, that would be lovely !!)

Very basic Hubbie Hat

Materials : 5 mm 60 cm long circular needle

                 5 mm Double pointes needles

                 1 100 gram skein of bulky yarn (120m/100gram)

Pattern :

Cast on 67 sts, on the circular needle

Join the work in the round, making sure not to twist your stitches.

Place marker for end of round

Work in garter stitch until piece from beg measures 16 cm.

Next row: [k9sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (61 sts now on needle)

Knit 1 row

Next row : [k8sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (55 sts now on needle)

Knit 1 row

Next row : [k7sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (49 sts now on needle)

Knit 1 row

Next row : [k6sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (43 sts now on needle)

Knit 2 rows

Change to double pointed needles.

Next row : [k5sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (37 sts now on needle)

Knit 2 rows

Next row : [k4sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (31 sts now on needle)

Next row : [k3sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (25 sts now on needle)

Next row : [k2sts, k2tog] rep to last st, k1. (19 sts now on needle)

Next row : k1, [k2tog, k1] rep to end (13 sts now on needle)

Next row : [k2tog] rep to last st, k1 (7 sts now on needle)

Cut the yarn, leaving a long strand.

Use a yarn needle to thread the strand through the remaining 7 stitches.

Draw up tight, secure end firmly. Weave in ends.

Make do and mend part 4

My dad's favourite sweater has holes in it, gets glue spilled on it... OK, in a situation like this my creativity is at its happiest : save the sweater! I embroidered some flowers to mend the holes and hide the stain, using some leftover yarn. I think it worked, yay!