Christmas birds

December 21st

Scrap yarn bird

As a child, we had a few homemade decorations on the Christmas tree, one being a bird made out of
yarn, that mamma had made when she was a child.  She said they had several on their tree and it, along with an angel she made as a little girl, were precious decorations.  Over the years, the bird has disappeared and I was only reminded of it this year when an online tutorial was brought to my attention.  Link to it is at the bottom of this post.  I knew having seen the tutorial that I needed to make a Christmas robin and bring back some of my childhood memories.

These are great quick projects to make in company with adults or children and if I had more time, I know I would have made lots for the tree this year. Got a spare half an hour, then you too could make one of these...

Full tutorial on the link at the end, here are just my photos to give you an idea how to make a scrap yarn bird.

Cut out two pieces of card

Wrap yarn around until you have at least 1cm width of yarn in each colour

Cut just one end, hold tight, so the yarn
does not fall all over the place

Tie each one in the centre

Place the 12cm yarn on top of the 10cm breast coloured yarn

Fold each on half

Take a small new piece of matching yarn for each colour

Tie each as close to the centre as possible

Lay the final colour on top

Scrunch up half an A4 sheet,
his will be the bulk of the bird's body.

Bring together all the loose ends of each
colour section to cover the scrunched paper

Tie tightly  and trim the ends neatly

Make a beak out card

Add some black beads for eyes

Enjoy your bird

As our tree is not yet up, I have added
the robin to the centre of the door wreath

Lovely homemade addition to the wreath

I am sure if we were to make lots of these each one would look different and have their own characters.  Maybe I may suggest to the troops over Christmas that we each make one to put on the tree and give them their own names too!

 For the full tutorial:  Birds

♥  Hope you have a productive weekend  ♥

Christmas Stars

December 20th

Red spells Christmas to me
but then I am traditional. 
These yarn stars would look
fabulous in any colour

I'm a sucker for a quick make and result and especially if I have the material already in the house. And I'm a sucker too for online video tutorials both for inspiration and ideas and quick self-teaching techniques.  Have you ever learnt from watching a youtube video?  It is true you often have to sift through several truly badly filmed and complicated rubbish to land on 'the one' that will help you but I still find it a worthwhile exercise.  And this is how I landed upon today's Christmas make.  These stars would make excellent crafting sessions with children and I plan on roping in both the small ones and the teenagers over the Christmas holidays to make an entire constellation. 

The link at the bottom of this post  includes a free template
or this star, I transferred it onto the back of an old do not bend envelope

The video shows you how to attach beads to the points
but as I only had pom pom ribbon, I used that instead

Tape the beginning of your yarn onto the centre of the star

Begin winding the yarn around the base of two of the points of the star

Once you have wound up to where the two points separate
move across to the next two, do not cut the yarn just continue winding

Continue winding each section, on the back, there will be a bit of
crisscrossing and not quite so nat at this stage, but that can be sorted at the end

When all base star point s are covered in yarn, I began to wind up
the star point to the tip and then back down again towards the body
of the star, thus creating a very padded a full star.

As you near the end of covering the entire star in yarn, try to be a bit
more careful with the back of it and wind it so that both sides
look as neat as possible.  Hang up and admire!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas is just around the corner in our home

Video tutorial and star template can be found here:   Christmas Stars

♥  Have you made any decorations for Christmas?  ♥

New Year New Beginnings New Knitting

January 3rd

Christmas is finished the decorations are still lingering and I need to pull my finger out to dismantle it all for another year. I'm a contradiction in that it's my favourite time of the year, Christmas that is and really I don't want to let go but on the other hand having clear surfaces and less around the house is very appealing. The true reason I suspect that  I'm holding off is that tomorrow the clock begins to tick for us again and I'm resisting the back to school, back to work routine which inevitably brings out the worst in me.

New Years resolutions. Not really. Last year I hoped to knit more and by Jove I did!  So much so that I've begun this year a jumper. Just hope I can last the course and actually finish it. This year I hope to eat more simply and clean. I do not want to diet or try any fads but I want to feel healthier and happier so maybe I will look at my food intake and excercise use this year BUT these are not resolutions you understand. 

This year though I want to make memories with my family and friends and try and 'live' more in the moment and laugh and be less stressed. I hope this is possible. To all of you I wish nothing but happiness and good health in this year ahead...



Pattern chosen for my husbands
50th surprise present

Colours chosen for the jumper

So far so good, 20 rows is about 4480 stitches

 

♥  Happy crafting year to you all   ♥

Christmas cushions

December 16th

I have a thing about cushions.  I love them but am beginning to think they are a tad like Marmite. You either love them or hate them. At Christmas I need to be surrounded by red and the odd 'extra' cushion or two may just come out to play. 

This year using the most adorable yarn by Rowan with an alpaca blend I had a cushion ball all on my own . I knew I wanted something soft and chunky and this fitted the bill, although in my eyes at an eye watering price. I knew if I bought this yarn that I would have to make darn good use of it. There are two motifs that I love and do not  seem to tire of, that of the heart and the other the elusive elk. Having made my fair share of hearts over the years I decided to have a go at knitting an elk pattern on the front of the cushion. 

Having purchased said yarn from the wonderful Fluffatorium, 

Fluffatorium in 'corking' Dorking

Inside a paradise for yarn and colour lovers

don't you just love that word I couldn't wait to get home to begin so like the mad fool that I am stopped the car by a stretch of water surround by birds, I began to knit. Did I mention I bought super duper cute chunky needles too...
 

New knitting needles, knitting in the car...

The cushion panel knitted up much quicker than I expected and so I had to design a motif in a hurry.

 

This project worked up quickly

An elk design was needed

It's beginning to look a lot like an elk

Completed elk design

Once completed (a day later) I couldn't wait to take it outside to photograph...

 

Warm autumn day, but as I knew I wanted this for Christmas,
I had to see what it looked like with red

In hindsight, I should have knitted it a tad bigger

The yarn in question in case you are tempted...
 

Expensive yarn, but so soft, am tempted to use it again

Et voila ~

 

Christmas cushions in situ

♥  Do you have cushions that you bring

out depending on the season?  ♥

A month of crochet

27th October

I love Instagram, its all about the visual, the photos, the insta post and response.  There is nothing (so far) that I do not love about it as a social media platform.  This month I have been fortunate enough to be part of an ever growing number of crochet addicts that have joined in with Ashley from the great blog lasydaisyjones, here is her post about the setting up the crochet a photo a day for a month post: A photo a day

So without further ado, grab yourself a coffee as this may take a while here is my month of photos posting all about crochet.  I will add in the extra four days not shown below,  post October 31st.   Got your beverage?  Then let's begin...

This was the post on Instagram that made me excited and want to join in...

Day 1
Say 'hi'

How to introduce oneself?  In the end I opted for a large and small hook and a simple written 'hi'.  What would you have done?  It was interesting from Day 1 to see how each person interpreted the same idea in a different way.  The rest of the month was no exception.

Day 2
Current WIP

I have several works in progress, some have been sitting there for months, umm, actually one for almost two years now...

Day 3
A colour combo

I love this blanket combo, I'm not usually a pink person, but I love these muted colours and somewhere in there is what we call in Norway, gamle rosa, which is old fashioned pink and I do so like that, a chalky pink.

Day 4
A blanket

I had several to choose from but I love reds and this was made at the beginning of the year on my first ever crochet course that I taught, this will be it's first Christmas outing and I am excited to be snuggling down under it soon.

Day 5
Chunky or lace

It had to be chunky for me as I have not yet branched out into the world of lace, but one day.  Making my own t-shirt yarn was fun, this was written as a guest post for the very talented Phil at The Twisted Yarn, T-shirt yarn, guest post

Day 6
Preferred hook

I have far too many crochet hooks, but I do seem to return to this very simple hook made in Norway which used to belong to my grandmother, then mother and now me.  I love it.  All that hooking(?!?!) that has been produced by this little hook...

Day 7
Square or circle?

These past 12 months have seen an enormous number of mandalas being made, but I still love a granny square best.

Day 8
Future project

The littlebeenz, has so many beautiful patterns and I loved making her Sunday shawl, I've bought this Monsoon stole pattern too, so sometime after Christmas this will be my go to make, can't wait.

Day 9
Fave stitch

In UK terms, I love a treble stitch, it's so fast and you can hook up something so quick with it.

Day 10
Cushion

I could not choose between these two as they were made to compliment each other.  I love these as they are only crocheted on one side and the other I used oilcloth, so they can be used outside even on damp furniture or grass and not be ruined.  We use these ALL the time outside.

Day 11
Fringe or border?

I love a good fringe me, but it's borders all the way in crocheted items that I make.

Day 12
Fave book

I do not actually have a favourite crochet book as I dip in and out of so many, but his has perhaps been the most useful for me.  I would not want to be without it.

Day 13
Scarf

As with many who crochet there have been numerous scarves made along the way, this was made a couple of years ago, but I still am in love with the colour combination of this variegated yarn.

Day 14
Fave make

Despite  being made three years ago now, this 5 metre long heart bunting line is still my favourite.  It's so colourful and jolly and is brought out on many happy occasions that just seeing it now brings a smile to my face.

Day 15
Yarn storage

I was lucky enough some years ago to acquire old staff room pigeon holes.  Using chalk paint one sunny day I created my yarn storage, see post here... Yarn storage

Day 16
Where u crochet

There is no set place where I crochet, I crochet, wherever and when ever I can...

Day 17
Fave yarn

At present my favourite yarn is a toss up between cotton yarn and the chunky Rowan alpaca, it's soooo soft.

Day 18
Christmas make

This was hard for me to choose as there are so many, but in the end I opted for my Christmas cork trees, just love their cuteness.

Day 19
Who taught you?

Originally I was taught by mamma as a child, but soon fell out of love for crochet and became more interested in sewing, spinning and weaving.  More latterly after spending a long summer with mamma, she reminded me of crochet and with her help and you tube, I have not looked back.

Day 20
Vintage pattern

I did not have anything for this, but turned to mamma's crochet and this cardigan brings back many memories.  Mamma crocheted this sitting at her mother's hospital bedside...

Day 21
Pastel or brights

I love the feel of pastels but I am always drawn to brights.  

Day 22
Amigurumi
 

This was my commissioned piece for a large UK company to help them in their environmental week.  Meet Eric the Green Champion.

Day 23
A crochet blog

To choose just one?  This was so hard.  In the end I opted for the great blog of Annette, whose Nordic shawl I have made and love to wear.

Day 24
Flowers

Most who crochet will eventually crochet flowers but what to do with them all?  I hit upon the solution of making some into rings, here is a small selection.  See post here... Crochet rings

Day 25
Yarn stash

As well as having a great yarn storage, current WIP's are often stored in bags all over the house in each room, so should I have a spare minute or two, I can just pick up and squirrel away a few minutes or hours...

Day 26
A gift idea

I was supposed to wait until December to reveal any gift ideas, so here is a sneak view of one completed gift.  I find men not only hard to buy for but very hard to make for too.  There are only so many hat, scarves and mittens one can wear!  So a mittened ice scraper it will be this year...

And finally today...

Day 27
Stitch markers

I tend to use whatever is to hand from safety pins, paper clips, odd pieces of yarn in a contrasting colour to that which I am working on, the odd homemade stitch marker and I have a few bought ones too.  Never next to me when I need one though!!


We still have four days left of the month and you can see the themes in the top photo from Lazy Daisy Jones.  I shall not spoil the surprise and add them in now, but will come back to this post, post Oct 31st and add them in.

Hope you have enjoyed my journey of my crochet life through these photographs, it sure was fun putting them together.

  ♥  What's your month been like?  ♥