Christmas is around the corner

Hello all,

I seem to have lost the month of November due to my rapid Christmas knitting for family. I love having a skill which means that I can provide truly unique gifts for my family members. I often look to Ravelry for knitspiration and find projects that suits everyone perfectly. Last year I was able to find a pattern for a toy Starship Enterprise and made that up for my dad as he was a Star Trek fan. He loved it and it is proudly hung on the Christmas tree.

You'll be happy to know that I have almost completed all of the required items and I can start focusing on designing and knitting for myself again :) I am really into cable knitting at the moment. I love the effects that can be achieved using this technique and I am hoping to be the proud owner of some new fingerless mittens soon as mine are pretty done for.

I will be displaying my handmade Christmas bunting in my home in preparation for the big day. Inspiration came in the middle of summer (bit odd but there we go). I started to thing about my holiday projects and dreaming about advent calendars. I thought about how I would love to have bigger chocolates each day as opposed to the tiny ones found in the shop brought ones and the only way around this would be to make my own advent calender. I didn't have a stocking as a child and I felt to make it up to myself I would make 24 mini ones as a bunting. 

I found the gorgeous Milla Mia yarn and a beautiful bunting was born. The pattern was in last months Inside Crochet and I really like this piece. I will be putting it up very soon........I don't want to wait for 12 days before Christmas 

I hope all of your festive projects are going well. I will be going to TOFT's open day on the 20th December with the family. It looks great as there are many demonstrations and also the opportunity to halter walk alpaca's (how exciting). The Cornflower Cafe is also amazing and well worth a visit too. I am hoping to be there with a lovely cream tea or a salted caramel cake..............perhaps by that point I wont care and I'll have both. 

Right...back to these mittens!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Welcome to 2014 :-)

I have had a great Christmas and start to the year. I am now able to talk about my Knits prezzies :-) to start with I am glad that Ravelry exists. I alway find it difficult to think of what to make for my dad. Luckily I found a pattern for a Star Trek Enterprise ship. The pattern is from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starship-enterprise-amigurumi. The project was fairly straight forward and quick to do and was appreciated in the end. =

My sister has been taliking about Ragdoll cats for a while so I thought I would make her one. I have owned the book Best in Show Cats, by Joanna Osbourne and Sally Muir and though I would utilise it. I used larger needles and yarn for my project. The pattern can be at times challenging as I had to learn how to make loops when knitting and the wrap around technique. I was happy with the result and my sister is now a proud Ragdoll cat owner..........well sort of.

My brother requested an elephant teapot cosy for his girlfriend and I found a pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elephants-on-the-tea-cozy. I used drops yarn and decided to sew on the eyes as opposed to add buttons. I made a tension square to make sure that it fitted the teapot which I'm glad I did.

My husband was in desperate need of a new hat and I had chunky wool left over so used the following pattern- http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/that-favorite-winter-hat. I adapted it by adding a few 2 x 2 rib rows. This pattern was great as it knitted up quickly and looked good.

The final 2 makes were original designs. On holiday my brother won me some prizes by playing a game called Doodle Jump. To thank him I thought I would make him the character. As I could not find a pattern I created my own. I think it's OK as he knew what it was. For my sister's boyfriend I made a lion as I heard he liked them. I used the chain loop method to make the mane and this was effective. Pictures of all of my Knitmas makes can be seen on my Facebook page.

I'm currently working on my other sister's baby blanket. She liked the following design - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dinosaurs-blanket. I did begin to knit it but found the design a bit tricky as many colours were used in each line. For my sanity I have decided to adapt the pattern into a crochet design. I will post when completed :-)

I am proud to announce that I have a pattern printed in the latest  edition of Inside Crochet. It is a comforter which is enjoyable to make. I wanted to use a wavy chevron design for a long time and this seemed to be the perfect project. Claire selected some beautiful yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino) in colours that complemented the concept. I love how the magazine have photographed my project and the pattern layout is lovely too.I would like to thank Inside Crochet and Claire for giving me the opportunity and I hope we can work together again soon.

My new years resolution is to try out Tunisian crochet and use my loom

I hope you all have a great 2014

Happy crafting

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