Pods

I love the organic shape of these storage pods. I found the pattern via Pinterest which led me to Love from Beth on Craftsy. The pattern was easy to understand and they came together quickly, which is all one can ask for. No doubt I'll be making more of these.

Blue and white

I made another one! The Open Wide Pouch has become my standard go-to quick present project, it seems. And no wonder, it's such a versatile little thing with many uses - a small one is perfect for make-up or all the little things we carry about in our purses, A bigger one and it will hold a little sewing or knitting project and a large one is great to use as a sponge bag. I like them because they open so wide that you find things easily in them and of course because they are quick and easy to sew.

This is a medium sized one made for my boss on her retirement. She loves blue, so I went for a safe and sweet blue and white colour scheme, but I couldn't resist adding a bit of my cheekiness with an orange zipper and a lime green tab. Why play safe when you can have a bit of fun, right?

Cowl

Knitting little dolls means paying close attention to details and concentrating on the pattern. That's all very well, but sometimes a bit of mindless knitting is called for. I found the pattern for the Ada cowl in Mollie makes. The  pattern is also available through Ravelry.

The original was knit using Quince & Co Puffin, which is a bulkier yarn than the Malabrigo Rios that I went for. I just cast on more stitches than in the pattern, to make it the right width. The pattern is an easy double moss stitch, so as long as the number of stitches was divisible by two, that didn't matter. The result is a less chunky cowl, very soft and drapey, and I am very pleased with it.

Teddy doesn't seem to mind modelling it either...
Colours used: Malabrigo Rios in Teal Feather and Lettuce. Details on Ravelry.

Little people

I found a picture of a little knitted girl like this on Pinterest and managed to locate the pattern on Etsy here. After visiting a local yarn store and finding the perfect shiny black yarn in my stash I was ready to download the pattern and start knitting my own Little Red. Isn't she sweet?

The umbrella needed some kind of support and after a bit of searching in shelves and cupboards I ended up using the domed lid from a cherry tomato container. That meant that I had to make the umbrella a bit smaller than the pattern called for, but it doesn't rain all that much indoors, so I guess Little Red will be safe and dry, LOL. She seems quite comfortable anyway, sitting there on my red shelf, making me smile every time I walk past her.

While I was at it, I also knitted this little guy from a pattern I found in an old magazine.He was put in one of the Christmas decoration boxes, so I won't see him again for a while, but no doubt he will be a nice surprise when I get the boxes out in December!
Both were fast and easy knits and very satisfying - a few evenings of waving some needles and yarn about, resulting in two little friends - you can't beat that for results!

Improv forest

I had a small piece of fabric from Auntie Cookie for ever and couldn't bear to cut into it, but it was such a shame to just leave it unused, you know? So one day I sliced it on two horizontally, added some vertical strips to each piece and stitched them together again. A strip of fabric at the top and bottom, I quilted it in vertical lines in off white and just for fun added two lines of stitching in red thread and just like that I had a little wall quilt. Much better than a lonely little fabric piece in a drawer, right?

Waaaaay after the holidays

 

Better late than never, I suppose. I have some catching up to do, and it occurs to me that I never shared any of my Christmas makes. First of all this little tree of words. I found the pattern just before Christmas and stitched the whole thing in a matter of days. I also got a witchy pattern and one of a sewing machine, all from Imaginating. that I have yet to stitch up. Despite the colour variations the tree is in fact just stitched with two different skeins of hand dyed floss. The wonderful threads from Stef Francis are really lovely and I can never resist them when I come across them at The Festival of Quilts or The Knitting and Stitching Show. My biggest problem is actually using them, because then they will all be gone. But that's just an excuse to take another trip, isn't it?

Just before Christmas I fell in love with some Christmas ornaments in the shape of cars with trees on the roof, but by the time I got around to shopping they were all gone, so I made my own.

I bought some toy cars, covered the windows with masking tape and painted and decoupaged the hell out of them before I glued some miniature trees wrapped in baker's twine on the roofs. And there you are: my very own "Driving home for Christmas"-cars.

They turned out to be too heavy for the tree, but looked rather good on a shelf in my kitchen, if I may say so myself.