August already!

No blog posts for a while, but I haven't been idle.....

A few little paper flowers - I put glitter on one later and it looks FAB

Here is my latest wooden project.....

...... which was interrupted by Tinkerbell flicking this out from under a planter - poor little toad.  Well, I say 'little' he was ENORMOUS!

And here is my wooden project, its a raised vegetable garden.  Next time its stops raining I'll take a photo of it in situ with, hopefully, some seeds germinating.

My mum liked this wool so much - I made her a cushion with it.

A little knitting at the Bankfield Museum - there is a great exhibition there of a knitted garden.  We also knitted a little sheep, but the lady running the workshop didn't have stuffing or wool sewing needles.  He's still in pieces in my bag, but I did finish this flower.

My meercat is on the right - he's waiting at the bar for some clothes!

I didn't make this, but it is the first Thornton scarecrow I have seen.

Mini book - they were making these on Sunday Scrappers at the weekend.....

and another one....

and another.....

ditto!

Now this is exactly what it looks like!

And two make a pair.  They are educational aids for our student health visitor who qualified this week.  Pattern on Ravelry.

101 uses for a Joanne's bag........

A little crochet practice...

a friend found a link to a tutorial on these crochet celtic knots

and they are just so addictive.  They  measure 3 inches square.

And this one measures 9 inches square - using very very thick yarn.  I am going to felt it at a later date...

Unlucky Friday Thirteenth - I don't think so!

I found both these tea sets on my travels today, and two plates too.

And had a cup of coffee and a chat to a lovely lady in the coffee shop, who asked where I worked and I told her a doctors surgery and she promptly told me about her husbands illnesses. Didn't have the heart to tell her I am admin not medical!

Have been looking for more geometric designs for a while....

...and then find three on the same day!

How cool is this!

 And last week I also found another tea set....

with a milk jug and sugar bowl

and BLACK saucers

and side plates and a sandwich plate!

This is how one of the other beading ladies finished her bracelet!

This is mine finished - with magnetic clasp

Just love the shine on the bugle beads!

Sunday afternoon was spend sorting out space in a cupboard to store all my beads and labelling the boxes.

Tinks found a woolly thing to play with all by herself because I was being BORING and tidying up!

The first fruits from my garden - the black currant bush has tons of fruit again this year, but the gooseberry bush has only produced leaves!

Happy birthday Mummy - only 87 years old......

...... and cake too - lucky mum! (Unfortunately its vegan, but she didn't seem to mind)

Knitting club over the past few weeks has produced this tangle.  When I eventually sew it all together it will be a MEERCAT.... don't believe me?  Watch this space!

A lady came to the wool shop knitting club this morning and showed us a crochet blanket made with sideways crochet, so I had a go this afternoon and apart from the chain at the beginning being a bit too tight, think it is quite lovely.  This will be my next project (after the meercat sewing up - which may take some time,but only because sewing up is boring!)

Jack came back!  And brought his baby!

Sorry its been such a long blog - but I have been busy even though I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks! Must do better next time!

Ring ring.....

Beading club is back again - Hi Dot - glad you're recovered a bit!!  And we made this lovely peyote stitch ring from delica beads and swarowski crystals.  It looks as big as a napkin ring, but actually fits my finger.

Finished the dark green tank top at last!!  It was only waiting for the bands to be knitted and the whole thing to be sewn together and that took a whole evening last week.

Practise makes perfect...

Tink has been climbing the laundry airer every morning now for a couple of weeks

She can now get all the way up to the top.....

... and all the way down, without either falling off, or having to be rescued!

I started knitting this tank top ages ago and was surprised just how quick it was to finish it - just needed a couple of rows on the back and the arm and neck bands.

I must have crocheted this about 20 years ago (or more).  Many years ago we had a craft event at South Square to raise funds for the NCT  and I made stuff for the craft table - this was lying around at a friend's house - still going strong after all these years!

Stellar Art, Trois

Just a little decoration I made for Alun out of a Stella box.

A collection of knitted goods on the tables ready for the craft fair to commence.

All my little knitted puds had already sold before I got there.

Free knitting pattern - tiny Christmas pudding

This is a free pattern - you are welcome to make for charity purposes - we sold them for £1 each for the local childrens hospice.



Size: 4cm or 1-1/2 inches tall

Ingredients
Double knitting yarn brown and white
size 4mm needles
green felt
3 seed beads
1 Ferrero Rocher chocolate (available in abundance in England at Christmas!!)
few inches of glittery thread

Recipe
Using brown (leave long tail for sewing up)
cast on 20 stitches
k1 p1 rib for 8 rows
change to white yarn
knit 2 rows
knit 1 row,
purl 1 row
start decreasing :  k1, k2 together along row until last stitch, k1
purl next row
K1, k2 tog along row
p1 row
cut off thread (leave enough to sew up, thread through stitches on needle)

k = knit
p= purl
tog = together

sewing up
Pull stitches on white tight, with right sides together sew up (or sew up on right side - have a look for sewing up tutorial if you have never done this before), stop when you get to the brown.  Start from the other end and sew up the brown.   Fasten off the end securely.

Using green felt cut out a tiny holly shape with 3 leaves (keep it all in one piece) - see photo.  Sew 3 red seed beads on and securely sew the whole thing to the top of the pudding.  Thread glittery thread through top of pudding and tie securely on the inside,  it needs to be long enough to hang on the tree.  Fill with one of the foil covered chocolates.

Hang on your tree.  Make sure you eat them all during the holiday period, they will not have a long enough date to last for more than a few months.  You can keep the knitted part and fill with more chocolates in the following years.

If you make one - send me a photo link.  If you have a problem with the instructions - send me a message and I will try and help.  Enjoy!

Knitting Natterers Coffee Morning

That will be tomorrow at the Blue Boar 11.30am until 3.30pm.  We have all been busy knitting for charity and the charity we are supporting this year is Martin House Childrens' Hospice.

Lots of little Christmas pudding tree decorations filled with a certain round shaped chocolate that seems to be on sale everywhere during the festive season!

Knitted (obviously) gadget holders - put your phone or camera or anything else in one of these.

These are the little puds before stuffing and adding holly.

Tissue holders - remember the things granny make for bazaars

close up

back

This is the pud I bought (from a charity stall) - they have used a card holly leaf with red glitter glue - I thought this would be SO appropriate to knit our charity event - so I blantantly copied it - well not quite..... check out the next photo

I cut out (with my tiny scissors) tiny felt holly leaves and sewed red seed beads on.

Taught my friend how to make this staircase necklace a couple of weeks ago...

...... look how fabulous it looks close up - I love the RED beads in the centre which are just showing through.