... a mini jesters hat

I don't really know why I like making mini hats, but I do - they are brilliant!  I have been long meaning to add a mini jesters hat to Dan's collection of mini hats and here it is in all it's mini glory.  In the next post you will see a photo of it in use illustrating quite how wonderful having a mini hat in your life can be.

More mini hats in 2012 - thats a promise!

... an embroidery for Kate

I haven't done embroidery for years apart from details on a few toys.  For my birthday the lovely Kate (Dan's sister) bought me some V&A pattern books, beautiful little books made by the Victoria and Albert Museum (as far as I am concerned one of the best places in the world) full of patterns from wallpaper and fabric etc they own in their collection.  I wanted them to use as inspiration for a range of craft projects and what better way to say thankyou than making the first project for Kate's Christmas present.

The design is based on a Lewis Foreman Day / Jeffrey and Co.wallpaper titled 'Memphis'from 1887-1900.  I changed the colous as Kate loves purple (and so do I and it is always nice to love the colours you are using - I think it makes me enjoy the making even more).  I am pleased with the design and the stitchwork and am already having thought about more embroidery projects....watch this space!

... Pixie Hats

Here is the first of a series of posts containing my Christmas makes.  I was pondering what to post first and then it turned out to be Tuesday - renamed Pixie Tuesday in my house after the wonderful postings of Wellington Drawe.  I was lucky enough to get a Wellington Drawe original pixie drawing for my birthday which I love to bits and so for Christmas I sent Wellington Drawe a pixie hat based on one on a post detailing pixie hat styles and a mini mini fez for a pixies favourite, Osterwald.  As you can see from his blog the pixies and indeed Wellington Drawe seemed pleased with their gifts. 

I also made Wellington Drawe a mini fez of his own so hopefully Osterwald and he can enjoy the coming year wearing fezes and eating liquorice together.  Enjoy, my fine fellows!

... a new hot water bottle cover

My old hot water bottle cover, made in November 2009, after 2 years of very hard service has finally disintigrated.  I have had this old grey jumper in my stash for ages and have long thought it would be the successor to my lovely blue stripy cover finally hung up it's hat.  I used tapestry wool to do some rows of embroidery around the cables on the jumper to make it more decorative and am very pleased with the results. 

This is another crafty bargain costing me just the price of the electricity for my machine with an old jumper for the outer and an old tshirt for the lining, tapestry wool and sewing cotton I have been given.  Great!

... a fairy mural

As you may have noticed I haven't posted much recently.  I have fallen into my favourite trap of having loads of things on the go and therefore getting nothing finished!  Hopefully however, that might mean a flurry of posts as I get them all finished (well that's how it works in my head anyways).  However, I have managed to paint this cutey fairy mural for the beautiful Flo, the nearly 4 year old daughter of some friends of mine.  While I could never paint anything as cute as Flo I have really enjoyed doing a bit of painting again - I don't do it very often.

I wish I was nearly 4 and still believed in fairies!

... a mini fez

Dan loves a Fez and I love making mini hats.  So i made a mini fez.  Makes sense!

Mini hats are great and realised recently I have made loads but not got round to posting many of them so I will make a post of mini hats soon.....  I started making them a couple of years ago as part of Innocent Smoothies' Big Knit Campaign and have carried on.  I will be making hats for their campaign again this year which aims to raise money to help older people keep warm in winter.  The hats are sold on bottles of smoothie which is cool.  If you can knit or crochet join in!

Exciting news - if you want to make your own mini fez you now can (although this one is a bit big for a smoothie bottle - mini mini version to come soon).  I have made my first pattern which I am very pleased about.  It took ages for me to have the confidence to make anything without having a pattern to follow and here I am writing my own.  Click on the picture to the left download the pattern for yourself

... black crowes

For the eagle eyed amongst you these might seem familiar - they are a version of Birdy that I made earlier this year.  These were also a present for Dan's birthday (yes - I do seem to just make him toys - may need to consider this!).

I made Chris and Rich (that's their names) as we went to see the Black Crowes this week on Dan's birthday which was super fantastic.  As the pattern I used for Birdy also had a crow version a pair of black crowes to mark seeing the Black Crowes seemed appropriate.  I scaled the pattern down and produced a pair of small little sweeties.  They are about 8cm tall with out the legs and were quite a challenge to sew being that small!

It can be tricky to know if people like the gifts you make for them but one of these (Chris I believe) got painted as painting of the day on Dan's birthday as part of his DanYoungDaily blog.  I will take it he liked them!

... Batman egg cosy

This little fella is a birthday gift for Dan who loves boiled eggs and Batman.  Ergo the ideal pressie is surely a Batman egg cosy - no?

I would love to say this is all my own design but he is based on pattern from the wonderful Ravelry website which I use a lot to get inspiration from. I am really pleased with him - I think it is one of the best things I have crocheted so far.

It is tricky making crocheted gifts for someone you live with as you make them in little fits and starts as the other person is upstairs/out - thank goodness Dan paints each day giving me a bit of time to get something made.  This does however lead to slightly comedy moments as I rapidly stuff what I am making back in my workbag when Dan finishes painting quicker than I expected.  I try to sit there with an innocent look on my face but I am not sure it works very often!  I did leave him on the table one day by accident when Dan came downstairs but he didn't notice and I quickly stuffed him back in the bag.  Whew!!

...Pac-Man

Basically, someone asked me to make them a crocheted Pac-Man, so I did!

No posts for a little while - secret making is now the name of the game - see you mid July with some new stuff

... a wash basket lining

We have needed a new wash basket for ages.  Our bedroom looks lovely but our wash basket was monsterous and ugly.  We have been looking for a new one for what feels like forever but couldn't find exactally what we wanted.  The big hope being that the really good basket stall at the Malvern Spring Show would have one for us and bless them, they did.  So this beauty came home with us and needed lining.  A small sewing challenge as it is tapered and not very even due to it's lovely basketiness.  I am really pleased with the finished article - a triumph of £1.50ish a metre calico from Ikea.  Lovely buttons from my button collection and more of that free cotton I got with my machine and homemade bias binding means this cost less than £2 - super!