Sunday 29 September 2013

Heat me up!

It's been a little while since I blogged so it's good to be back! Life has been its usual busy self - working, ferrying the children to all their various activities and trying to fit a little crafting in, here and there! Knitting and sewing are what keep me sane at times, and I have even started a little project just for myself !!! I'll show when it's finished, but the smallest clue is - fruit salad!
I have 'made' a new product
Heat me up hand warmers
Teddy is modelling one here, Heat me up hand warmers, a name chosen by Pickle-Lily herself. In fact this is her one teddy is cuddling. It's made from double thickness of flannel or brushed cotton filled with rice and then you pop it in the microwave to warm up. I was so pleased with it I made some more!
more Heat me up hand warmers

 
I'm wondering - would you like a tutorial on them, or are there too many around already?
 I've decided they would make rather good presents for all my teaching friends for keeping hands warm on playground duty.
By the way the lovely fabric comes from Rebecca at Cloth Head.

Sunday 15 September 2013

Halloween's coming

Amazingly enough despite my post title, it seems the supermarkets have skipped Halloween and gone straight to Christmas! I went to look for Cadbury's screme eggs and couldn't find any yet, but could find Christmas chocolates! So I settled for a Kinder egg.
Anyway, in preparation for Halloween, and after the success of the glow in the dark ghost, I have made him some friends to keep him company.
Happy Halloweeeeeeen!
We have a pumpkin with twirly tendrils and a bat - all ready for some screme eggs (or Kinder eggs).
The basic body is the same for both the bat and pumpkin.
You need double knit yarn and 4mm needles.
With the yarn double - knitting two strands at the same time - cast on 25 stitches.
Keeping the two strands garter stitch 15 rows and then cast off.
For the tendrils I used 3mm needles and one strand of yarn (as normal).
Now, there are two versions of the tendrils as I experimented for the best twirl. One is very simple, the other more complicated. I actually tried about five different versions, including knitting two stitches together and purling, but these two were the best.
easy tendrils
For the easy tendrils cast on between 10 to 20 stitches - I knitted mine in various lengths to add to the effect. Then cast off, leaving the last stitch on the needle. Use this stitch to cast on some more stitches and then cast off again, leaving the last stitch to cast on some more. You can do this as many times as you like, depending on how 'hairy' you want your pumpkin to be!
For the trickier version, this is the one on my pumpkin and is far curlier.
Again cast on some stitches as with the easy version. Then, knit into the front and back of the first stitch, so that there are now two stitches on your needle, cast off one of these, leaving you with one stitch on your needle.
Knit into the front and back of the next stitch, three stitches on your needle. Cast off two of these, leaving one stitch on your needle ( take the middle stitch over the stitch closest to the tip, then the end stitch over, as in a normal cast off). Continue to the end, keeping the last stitch as your new casting on stitch. This gives a lovely curl!
To make up - fold the body in half and sew down either side. Sew on two googly eyes and the curls on the top.
For the bat, I did the same but in black yarn. No tricky knitting here at all, for the wings I cut a piece of black felt into a bat wing shape and sewed it onto the back of the body.
Pickle-Lily is making rude comments about how weedy the ghost looks as I type, but I only bought one egg!
 

Sunday 8 September 2013

Autumn days ...

The past few days have made me realise that autumn is now well and truly on its way, and I have been finishing off some woodland based designs, as well as thinking about Christmas! So with no further ado ...
Foxy Loxy bag
Meet Foxy Loxy - Pickle-Lily thinks this is my cutest design ever, and I have to admit I am very pleased with it. I was also pleased when the latest issue of craft magazine arrived and it was full of woodland creatures.
Next up is ...
Cyril Squirrel
and then last, but not least ...
Pog the hog - hedgehog that is! Pog came from the children at school last week, when I took my hedgehog puppet in and they decided to name him. I had a lovely afternoon with them building different homes for him with the children, one even had Christmas decorations in it! Some were very construction based, roof, walls, a food store, whilst others were based on the presentation. I put a couple of pictures on instagram and if I can find how to put the pictures in my blog I will do so. If you would like to see them I am jopicklelily on instagram.
I'm off to join in with Handmade Monday today - why don't you say hello as well?