Friday 28 December 2018

...December

  • A rainy walk at the park. Flecks of orange glowing against neutral greys and browns.
  • The annual collaborative Christmas Card design made by our Service User Group at work. An array of jolly snow-people out for a midnight stroll, one perhaps a little too full of the festive spirit...
  • A custom-designed, made-to-measure Christmas jumper for a friend's daughter's teddy bear/best friend - 'Dominic'.
  • Bare trees casting long shadows in the pale winter sunshine at the park.
  • A city centre meeting near the German market provided an unexpected chance to stop and admire the fabulous over-the-toppery of an old-fashioned carousel.
  • Prepping this year's crafty gift for family and friends. Little slices of wood, complete with bark, decorated with tiny snow-globe style trees. I used a mixture of acrylics, watercolour pencils and paints, and irridescent acrylic medium to create a frosty moonlit winter scene. Added a couple of coats of gloss varnish and a magnet glued to the back and 'hey-presto!' - seasonal decorations for the fridge!

  • Two completely different hats from the same pattern - the Antler toque by the fabulous TinCanKnits - made for my two sons. I can't stress enough how much Magic Loop has transformed my knitting life. No more fiddling with double ended needles, no more tedious seams - hats are an absolute doddle these days!
  • Just to hammer the point home, take a look below at what's currently on the circular needles - a complex, cabled beauty of a fair isle hat - the Norrland hat by Sara Huntington Burch.  Now, I'm not normally a fan of fair isle - I always struggle to get the tension right - but I fell madly in love with this design the moment I saw it, and I think the snowflake motif I incorporated into the front of Dominic's little teddy bear jumper gave me the confidence to believe I could at least attempt it. I'm teaching myself to use two handed fair isle knitting which is making my tension a lot more consistent, but working the cables definitely interrupts the flow. Even without those pesky double-ended needles it is still quite fiddly and slow going. Not so much a 'switch off and watch telly as you knit' type of project, more a 'concentrate, focus and double-check' style of thing, but it will all be over soon (I've just started the decreases) and it is absolutely beautiful! I'm making it for my Mum and secretly thinking I might have to make another one for myself...

  • Just to round things off, here is the picture my friend sent me of Dominic in his festive finery on Christmas Day. He's a bear of few words, but, as you can see, his bestie is delighted by his smart appearance!


Saturday 1 December 2018

...pinafores for pigs and bonnets for babies

I 'rescued' this Peppa Pig toy from the charity shop the other week. After a thorough wash and a little bit of loose-seam-fixing she was nearly as good as new. All she needed to bring her fully back to life was a pretty floral pinafore and a yellow cardigan to match her little yellow boots. I have to say that Magic Loop is fabulous for tiny toy sleeves. No more fiddly seams - hooray!

I also reprised the Wee Morrie pattern to make a couple of fancy bonnets for my friend's twin grand-daughters using some novelty yarn from my stash to create a soft feathery border. This is such a quick, easy knit (Magic Loop strikes again), and looks so old-fashioned and sweet on a tiny baby.
Christmas is just around the corner and I'm worried I may have left it a little late for gift-making. I will be knitting furiously for the next three weeks, possibly pausing to make some personalised pebble fridge magnets (I inherited a bag full of self-adhesive magnets recently, and that is the direction my mind has taken with them). Watch this space...