First attempt at 'pinstriping'

Today my husband asked me to do some pinstriping for him. After imagining what that could mean, he gave me his guitar and asked me to basically doodle on it. Here are the results...

My gorgeous girl in her hand knitted items

Baby knits for my beautiful Willow Eve

A bit late in posting, but here are a few items I knitted for my beautiful baby girl, Willow Eve, born at 11.21am on 19th January 2013, weighing 7 and a half pounds.

Christmas 2012

Another frugal Christmas lead to me hand knitting all of our Christmas presents. Beanies, bobble hats, wristwarmers and cowls. This Christmas project also allowed me to use up a lot of the yarn that I've had lying around for years and years...

I forgot to photograph everything before wrapping, but I have a few pictures. Here are two of the 4 bobble hats I knitted for my little nephews.

Here are the first few beanies I knitted for the menfolk of the family. I think I'm missing 4 images here, eventually I'll fill in the gaps!!

Below is a close up of one of my favourite colour combinations, I love the texture created using all the different yarns mixed together. ( Also a good way to use up finer yarns)

I used a similar colour palette for Jane's wrist warmers in a moss stitch to create texture and interest.

Pink wrist warmers for Lis (her favourite colour)

My new exploration was into headbands / head warmers. Easy and quick to knit but very practical and cute. I embellished them all differently, some with crochet flowers, some with buttons, some just using a few different colours.

The last images are of cowls that I knitted for Lars' (hubby) sister and mother in Michigan. I hope they will send me photos of them being warn soon so I can incorporate them into this post.

We had a few people round on Christmas Eve and exchanged gifts then. I managed to get a picture of everyone in their Christmas presents - a bit blurry - but I'll replace it with a better one at a later date.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

back row: Dan, Lars, Jane, Merlin, Chris

seated: Ivor, George, Maisie

belly dancing costume

In 2010 I took up belly dancing for a short time with two of my lovely New York friends. These two also happened to work in the costume department at the New York City Ballet and so we decided to have a costume making day for when we felt good enough to perform in public (ha ha). Mine never got completely finished, the belt is missing its lining and i never got round to making a skirt, but i thought I'd keep a record of where I got to.

entrelac knitting

I taught myself a new knitting technique recently and decided to turn my practice piece into a funky cushion cover for our new bedroom...

beautiful fabric

I bought some gorgeous fabric from a closing down sale last summer. The idea was to make a skirt for myself out of it... but the first thing that ended up being made was a cushion cover. I went to stay with my sister in Crediton for a few days and attended her sewing class with her. Here is the result.

I used wonder web to stick the applique hearts on before using zigzag stitch to secure them in place. I re-used an old red skirt for the back panel and the hearts.

And there was still enough fabric left over to make my skirt!

a little recycled crafting for the future

Over the last month I have been making a few cushions for the sofa that I will one day own, I the sitting room I will one day be renting/eventually owning... I decided to recycle my end of degree knitted swatches into patchwork cushion covers. For the last 6 years they have been pinned to presentation boards, hidden in a cupboard somewhere, so I have turned them into something useful and creative. Plus I can remind myself of all the hard work I put in to getting my 2-1 and hopefully this will help inspire me to continue being creative when this year gets tough to handle.

ditsy print fabric on the back of the cushions
(envelope finish)

some welcome encouragement from my lovely friend Jane!

I still have enough swatches for one more cushion cover, so when I next get some spare time I'll finish that one up and add the photos to complete the set!