Protectors of the pans

This was a fun travel project : while travelling by train last summer I crocheted 2 pot holders. We use them now as protective layers between our pans when they're stacked up. The pattern is called 'the Cook's Pot Holders' by Purl Soho. You can find the link to the pattern here. It is ideal to use up leftover yarn.
Purl Soho is a New York based shop, with gorgeous collections of yarns, fabrics and patterns, wonderful designs and a passion for natural fibers. It's so high on my list of "would like to see, would like to do, would like to visit"... Perhaps I'll get there one day....

Another booklover

Here is someone who totally agrees with Jane Austen, who declared that 'There is no such enjoyment like reading'.

You wouldn't want to disturb wool-felted bear Humphrey, lost in a book!

Boho bag number 2

First, I knitted two pieces of fabric, inspired by a pattern for legwarmers in the Dutch book 'Breien en haken met dikke naalden' (p.56). The yarn is Sirdar Kiko, a wool-acrylic blend.
Sewn together, this knitted fabric has become the outer bag.
For the inner bag and the carrying strap, I used a well-loved old shirt of my husband.
I added a zipper, a ribbon with a hook for wallet and a small pocket for my phone.
To finish up, I added a beautiful wooden button I bought at Bunyip Beads in Exeter (great shop, very friendly people!). It's a bit smaller than the first one (check it out here), but still perfect for a city trip.

Useful handkerchief sweetness

I keep my yarn and fabric stash in these display cabinets. To keep the sun from fading the yarn and fabrics, I made a kind of screen or curtain from vintage handkerchiefs and attached it to the cabinet doors. Sweet colours from bygone times They make me smile...

A French market bag

This is a free pattern from knitty.com, you can download it here.
It's a market bag with a square base and it's knitted in the round.
I used Debbie Bliss Aran tweed, in a beautiful soft purple colour with speckles. Running out of yarn, I dived into my leftover stash and found just enough Debbie Bliss Donegal aran tweed (dark grey) to finish the bag. I think the colour combination works well.
This is a felted bag, which means that the finished work is put into the washing mashine on a high temperature. The fabric felts, shrinks and strengthens. Here, the purple yarn has felted less than the dark grey and you can still see the stitch definition in the purple knitted fabric. I don't mind, I like it this way. Perhaps I'll try to felt it tighter later on, but for now, it will do.

starting on double pointed needles:

finished, not felted:

before felting : clear stitch definition

after felting in the washing machine:

done and ready for shopping!

Who's calling?

Dr. Who is big in our family. This phone cosy (yesss it's the Tardis!) I knitted for my nephew. You can find the free pattern, by Erinn A. Starnes, here. I used some acrylic yarn from my stash (just the right colours!) for easy maintenance. Nephew happy = me happy!

Eco cotton slipper socks

This is the very first pair of socks I ever knitted. I chose slipper socks, because they don't need an exact fit and can be a bit slouchy (good choice, looking back...:-) )
You can find the pattern for these cabled socks in 'Knitted and crocheted slippers', by Alison Howard (p.102). The yarn I used is an Italian ecological cotton : Mondial Bio Soft, bought at a branch of 'Veritas', a Belgian retail chain. To my delight, Veritas sells every so often an ecological yarn, wool or cotton. They could make more ecological choices in their sales policy, but it's a nice start!

Knitted necklace

This necklace I knitted is based on the sev(en)circle pattern by Kirsten Johnstone. I only made 3 circles.
The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Serena (60% baby alpaca and 40% cotton).
It looks good on the photos, but on me not so much, I think. Perhaps I should have made it a bit longer...

'Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?'

I finished my Balsam Hollow shawl, a design by Paula Emons-Fuessle
"Balsam Hollow was created for the Green Gables kit, a shawl kit from Little Skein in the Big Wool that celebrates Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic story of the optimistic, unforgettable red-haired orphan, Anne Shirley, who finds her forever home at Green Gables.
Balsam Hollow is the name of the actual forested trail on Prince Edward Island that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery and became the fictional "Haunted Wood" of the books."
This knitting project was a real learning curve for me. One of the things I learned was reading charted directions. For a part of the pattern no written directions are provided, so I had to dig in to decipher the chart... and found out I love charts much more than the written directions! Important lesson learned!
Here, you can find more information on the pattern, on its Ravelry page.
The yarn provided in this kit is Leading Men Fiber Arts Callback, Green Gables colourway (2 100 grams skeins, sportweight, 100 % superwash merino). Lovely lovely soft yarn, so nice to work with!
The kit is sold by Little Skein in the Big Wool, a small San Francisco company with "sentimental, handmade knitting kits and original fabrics and notions". All the kits they sell are inspired by children's literature and come with tools and materials from indie fiber artists. Their customer service is, by the way, second to none.

                                     

work in progress...

and finished...

Boho bag number one

This bag is made out of knitted pieces sewn together with some recycled fabric.
The grey yarn is bulky acrylic that was a gift. The light blue yarn is something very special : a vegan yarn, from 'Darn Good Yarn'. It is made from banana fiber, a great renewable resource!  I found it very enjoyable to knit. In my imagination it felt like it was spun from a magical beast's fleece, like a unicorn or something. It's so shiny and super soft. I bought it at Bristol Wool Fair in 2015.
The strap I made from an old jeans of mine. For the "inner bag" I used old t-shirt fabric.
I also added a few lovely beads.