Last minute Christmas inspirations or be ahead of the game for next year

December 13th

A typical example of a vintage calender

Today I share with you many makes that I hope to try if not this year then for next year.  We now live in a world of easy to access inspiration but too often there is too much to sift through, so here I give you my favourite Christmas round up that I have come across this year, hope it inspires you...


A last minute Vintage Calendar to print off and compile from 1899, the dates are exactly the same as 2017, who wouldn't want to receive this.  Brought to you by the very generous Gunnvor Karita:   2017 Calendar 




Again another great post that Gunnor shared were her delightful Christmas boxes in the shape of houses.  These would be gorgeous just sitting on the window sill or as a gift box for a small tiny present.  This would be a great activity to complete with a small one too I should imagine.  I am definitely going to print some of these off and give them a go...  Christmas house boxes

Gift boxes, house shaped

Day 6 of Drops Design Advent Calendar

Last year I shared with you Drops Design Advent Calendar and they are sharing a new one again this year.  Each day you can open an online door to reveal that days yarn design, be it knitting or crochet, it's all so Christmasssy and I love it.  I admit, that I have no time to make anything for this year, but it has me thinking for things I would like to create next year, my eye is currently on Day 6 especially but I love them all really!
Drops Design Calendar


Of course I have to mention Phil over at The Twisted Yarn who claims to not like to think about the C word until around the 20th of December but she has such wonderfully easy Christmas patterns to make that it can entice the most reluctant of knitter and crocheter to give them a try, pop over and see.

Knitted version of a paper chain and
Christmas knitted trees a la Twisted Yarn

Then there is one of my favourite designers on Instagram, the very generous and kind hearted Kate of Just Pootling.  She shares her patterns on blog.lovecrochet.com and her latest Christmas pudding and holly garland is simply Christmas perfect, look...

And finally stuck for a present for that hard to buy for person?  What about knitting your own luggage finders.  I think this is a genius idea and am going to be making lots of these, may even come up with my own designs personal to the people I am still needing to make for... and just a thought what about if you are travelling around Christmas time, how wonderful to make some Christmas luggage tags, holly, mini jumpers or stockings, Christmas puddings even to name byu a few ideas, the list is endless...   Luggage Finders

Knittted luggage finders

And finally today I leave you with a thought from a picture that popped up on my Facebook that made me stop and think.  I whole heartedly believe in this in a time when the world seems to be pulling apart...

Not forgetting today is St Lucia day and I shall be baking my saffron buns later this morning. I'll share them with you tomorrow...

Christmas slippers

December 12th

My latest pair of felted slippers

Two years ago I blogged about mamma's quick knit and machine felted slippers. The post is now one of my most popular. I decided it was time to revamp the slipper idea and create a Christmas version. 

Follow this link Felted Slippers for pattern and photo tutorial of these very quick knit slippers. If you have a couple of evenings free you can make a pair before Christmas. There's still time! 

So how to pimp the slippers for Christmas?  I am sure given more time and thought I could actually knit a Christmas pattern in the slipper design itself but you know what this time of year is like, busy busy busy. So as long as I do not forget this could be a great New Year challenge. If you beat me to it, be kind to me and share please...but onto the quick pimping of the slippers.  

Knitted and machine wash felted slippers

Once knitted and felted your slippers will look like this...

So the quickest way to pimp them I found was to embroider a Christmas design. 

I used embroidery thread but first outlined my design with a single strand so that it gave me a guideline to follow...


If you look at the photo closely you can see that I also stitched in a single strand a mid line on the leaf. This was my guide to keep my stitches short and so I embroidered either side of the line, look...

Holly leaf outline including mid line for guide

Here you can see that I have sewn up to the mid line guide only on one side and I shall do the same on the other.

And when both sides are completed they look like this...

Holly on my slipper

I decided that I probably could not replicate the identical holly on the second slipper so deliberately placed it in a different orientation on slipper two, hope it works that they do not match, what do you think?

Half way through pimping my slippers

And now they are ready for wearing...

Felted and embroidered slippers

I think I may even try and pimp other slippers for other times of the year too, it was so much fun.  and I confess to being a little bit in love with them.  John who seldom thinks my makes 

are of any worth, probably because they are not sailing related, 

even gave a begrudging nod as he walked past me today ;)  Can't be all bad then can it!  

♥  Cosy toes now ready for Winter, 

let me know if you make a pair   ♥

Felted slippers

21st November
 
My mother has always knitted and crocheted for as long as I can remember as did her mother and her

Felted slippers are toasty warm

mother before that.  I crochet, a lot and I knit, a little.  It is one of the things that next year I would like to correct and even out the balance a bit.  Saying that, one thing I have knitted recently are slippers.  The pattern I use is an old one my mother swears by and goodness knows how many hundreds of these she has made over the years.  When I told mamma that I wanted to write a blog about these slippers, she set to for me and began knitting in earnest, these are her slippers and her pattern.

You will need:

100% wool, you will need just over 100g
recommended knitting needles size 5.5

These slippers can be made in a variety of sizes

age 2-4 (age 6-8)  age 10-12 (female) male      [So there are 5 sizes in this pattern] 

These slippers have to come with a warning I  am afraid! 

They are warm, toasty warm.  There will be no cold toes in your house with these felted slippers!

Cast on 48 (52) 56 (64) 68 stitches

Knit in garter stitch till the work measures 12 (12) 13 (13) 14 cm    

 

Cast off 8 stitches on each side of the children sizes

and cast off 10 stitches on each side of  the adult sizes

so you will have 30 (34) 38 (44) 48 stitches left

 

 

Carry on with garter stitch until the work measures 18 (21) 24 (28) 31 cm

 

 

On the next row you will need to knit 2 together till the end of the row

 

Then knit two rows without decreasing

 

Now knit another row knit 2 together until the end of the row

 

Again knit two rows without decreasing

 

Knit a further row of knit 2 together till the end of the row

 

Finally knit two rows without decreasing

 

Cut off the yarn leaving a very long tails, so you have enough to sew the slipper together

 

It should look like this...

 

 

Fold the slipper in half, using the long piece of yarn, sew the slipper together...

 

  

...so it should look like this. 

The top section is kept open, enabling ease of getting slipper on and off

 

 

Now your slipper is ready for washing and felting.  I tend to wash them with my usual washing detergent, in Norway mamma uses something called gronnsape,

a product often used for washing wooden floors!

Place in the machine and wash on a high temperature, about 60 degrees.

 

When washed and wet, leave to dry naturally, but they may need a little shaping and pulling here and there, quite a good idea to put them on to help the shaping!

 

 

This is what the knitting should look like before final decreasing rows

Slipper sewn together and ready for felting

Lots of slippers, great as gifts, or to have ready in the house for guests

Almost a little elf's workshop going on here!

These belong to Mr H and number one son

I have a few pairs, but these girlie ones are my current favourite,
of course in December my ultimate favourite pair will be worn,
RED of course!

This pose took some photographing, I can tell you!

I dare you to make a pair, you will be hooked and everyone once they have tried a pair on will want some.  Get the wool in and start knitting!!! Let me know how you get on!  As an aside, mamma once made these as table presents for everyone on Christmas day, it went down really well.  just an idea ;)

♥ CAL blanket update will be posted on Sunday ♥

 

Thank you mamma for making these slippers so I could write this particular post, love you to the moon and back ♥