Dr Neville

I am unwell and Neville is keeping me company.

Goch Ddraig

I love knitting toys.  It started whilst being ill once and discovering the Jean Greenhowe Christmas pattern book and I was hooked, the majority of our decorations are either by Alan Dart or Jean Greenhowe.

I really adore Barbara Prime’s patterns which I discovered by accident on Facebook.  My version of her Pug in an Anorak came second in the local country show.

Her most recent dragon pattern was spotted by my youngest and as a household which is majority Welsh it was necessary to create the Red Dragon.  I used Robin Chunky yarn (I know it is a bit naff, but I love knitting in acrylic).

http://blog.fuzzymitten.com/

http://www.ravelry.com/stores/barbara-primes-fuzzy-mitten

I started him before Christmas but he was put on the back burner.  He was finished today and has been named Stuffy.

Mark! Mind the stall for me? Look at this lovely pair, only a pound a lb! (Can you see what I did there?)

In true market-trader fashion I now have a pair of fingerless gloves, I only need one of those small aprons with a zip for my change and I’ll be ready for market day on Wednesday.

Disclaimer: These are not intentionally West Ham/Aston Villa supporter gloves.

This weekend I am going to start typing out the patterns and will get them on here as soon as possible.

(Please see other glove post for a much better photo, the gloves are now covered in ginger fur).

My 9 year old took this photo of Neville and the gloves. It was initially a good idea but got slightly out of hand.

 

What is Neville’s purpose? Really? Just sleeping?

Due to the recent extreme weather conditions and new furry throw on my bed, Neville has been sleeping lots.  He is very lazy, but very cute.

Lazy, lazy cat

Crocheting the Nutty Blanket

My grandmother and aunt were mental health nurses in the very large hospital, which has since closed and become a housing development.  They told of patients crocheting large amounts of granny squares which would then be made into the awfully named ‘Nutty Blanket’.

My New Year Resolution was to learn to crochet with the support and help of the beautiful Chain Gang ladies.

http://www.facebook.com/TheChainGangDorch

My first attempts at crochet have been helped along by the generic American lady on Youtube and they are passable, however I am crocheting like a knitter and cannot comprehend putting the yarn in my left hand.

Maybe by the summer I will have my very own blanket without the associated mental health problems.

Uh-huh, Schmon (Michael Jackson I am not)

With some of the leftover yarn from the ridiculous amount of Christmas knitting I thought I would have a try at designing and creating fingerless gloves. I used the remaining Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

However, in true Michael Jackson style I only had enough for one glove.

Who’s Bad?

Partially made.

Finished left glove

Really enjoy this blog by a genuinely lovely lady with some brill ideas

home_to_roost

I wanted to make some Christmas tree decorations – quickly – for a Christmas tree festival in Dorchester. After mentally flicking through a few ideas in my brain, I decided to needle-felt a little gingerbread man. The result was so cute, I ended up making five!

It’s so straightforward and effective, I thought I’d share a teeny tutorial with you. As a certain meerkat would say, Simples!

Materials:

1. Felting stuff
2. Felting needles
3. Felting base
4. Gingerbread man cookie cutter
5. Bodger, pair of compasses, or something else with a sharp point
6. Eyes
7. Button (or some other embellishment)
8. Nylon thread and needle

Method:

1. Position your cookie cutter onto the brush mat. Push it well down into the tufts, so it’s secure.
2. Choose your felting stuff colour. For my first man I chose white.
3. Tease off a bit of fluff and push into the cutter.
4. Using your needle-felting needle (or needle), carefully jab the…

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My knitting/project box/table is big time brill

My Mum gave me a knitting/project box/table for Christmas which she beautifully restored (unfortunately it now has Neville’s dirty paw prints all over the top).  As you can see it is ideal for organising copious needles into numerical order and also has a secret compartment for hiding unfinished projects.

I have realised I never need to buy another 4mm or 5mm needle again.

What’s that? A picture of Neville? No, it is a montage of Neville pictures.

Here is Neville doing different things, I especially like the one of him looking angrily out at the rain (something he has done a lot this year).

Sarah Lund inspired gifts part deux…

By now, as you can probably gather, I am loving the Fairisle knit and embarked on designing and making a hot water bottle cover for my Nan for her notoriously cold feet.  It was knitted in the round with Sirdar Countrystyle DK.  Once I’ve worked out what I’ve done I’ll post the pattern here.  I really enjoyed creating something and will definitely endeavour to do more in the new year.

Mamgu’s Christmas hat was knitted in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino like the first hat, a really easy yarn to knit with a really even tension.  After having a breakdown in my weekly craft group when I twisted the initial few rows, the beautiful Jenny suggested I knit the first few rows straight and then knit in the round.  Pure genius.  The plaited effect looks fabulous and was surprisingly easy.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-inga-hat

Finally the inspiration for this ridiculous amount of knitting, the Arne and Carlos Christmas baubles book which I bought in September.  If you were new to knitting in the round and Fairisle knitting this is a really good book to start with.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Balls-Knit-Colourful-Ornaments/dp/1844487814/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356948172&sr=1-4

Note evil robin top left

Note nice robin top right