The bear, and the cat, and the panda

Stacked

… would like to wish you a Happy New Year! 🙂

We’ve had quite a nice break for the past few weeks. Been to the zoo, reorganised my stash, and managed to do some crafting too.

The softies above, were made with Mochimochi Land’s Stackable Cats pattern. I modified the ears to be more rounded for the bear and the panda (and shorter tails for them, but I’ve got no tail photos…), and different facial features for all of them. They were for hubby’s little brother, who loves softies and requested these.

And, like many people, part of the fun of starting a new year is getting a new diary. I was excited to discover that my favourite stationery store, kikki.K, sells diary ‘refills’ — their usual stylish diary contents on the inside, but without the pretty cover on the outside. I saw them and thought that these would be excellent to make custom book covers for. So I made one, out of some scrap japanese fabrics and linen. I love it so much, imperfections and all.

Diary cover

Diary inside

Too bad I discovered them a little too late, otherwise they would’ve made fantastic Christmas gifts I reckon! Next Christmas, maybe? 🙂

7 January 2009

Festive

Fabric wreath

Joyeux Noel

Things are starting to look festive around here. I made this fabric wreath, inspired by this one, using an embroidery hoop and fabrics from my scrap box.

We have finally ‘finished’ for the year — no more preschool or dance classes until February. No more mad rush in the mornings for 6 weeks, thank goodness. I’m hoping for lots of time to relax now. Today was Annette’s last day at dancing, and they had a dress up day. She wanted to dress up as a princess (no surprise there). I refuse to pay ridiculous amount of money for one of those Disney princess costumes that are not even well made, so in a moment of craziness I decided to make one myself. I used a pattern from a japanese craft book called All Your Kids Need (page 53), and an embroidered taffeta-like fabric from Spotlight (and lots of tulle underneath). I never thought I would attempt anything like this, and it’s not for the faint-hearted, but it turned out quite well I think.

Princess dress up

Some more things finished this week, thankyou gifts for teachers — face cloths and handmade soap (soap from my local health food store).

19 December 2008

Red scarf, blue scarf

The red thing is done and blocked…

Red gossamer scarf

Silhouette

Pattern: Gossamer stars scarf from Interweave Knits Summer 2008. I made it slightly narrower by casting on 53 sts and working only 6 repeats each row. Worked out to about 8 inches wide and 58 inches long.
Yarn: The Knittery‘s Merino Chubby Sock yarn in Merlot, 1 skein.
Needles: 3.75mm
Rav link

I made it for my friend N’s birthday, and I’m glad to say that she loves it 🙂 I love this pattern. The motif keep changing, which kept my interest level up, but not so complicated that I have to keep looking at the chart. Also, as the pattern alternates between stocking stitch background and reverse stocking stitch, it makes the scarf sort of reversible — not identical on both sides, but it does look good from both sides, so I like it. In fact I like it enough to make a second one, this time in blue, for another friend’s birthday. Here it is, also done and blocked.

Blue scarf

Pattern: Gossamer stars scarf from Interweave Knits Summer 2008. I made this one narrower still (by casting on 37 sts and working only 4 repeats each row) but longer (added one extra repeat of the patterns). Worked out to be 7 inches wide and 80 inches long.
Yarn: Grignasco Champagne in light blue, 2 balls.
Needles: 4mm
Rav link

19 December 2008

A nice red

Red scarf

Something else I’m working on. Gossamer stars scarf, a birthday gift for my friend N, who has been very kind to our family, and who loves red.

14 November 2008

One pair done

Paraphernalia socks done

Pattern: Paraphernalia socks, largest size, for my dad (so they’re a bit big on the foot for me in the picture there)
Yarn: 2 balls of ONline Linie 2 Supersocke Silk in charcoal
Needles: 2.5mm circulars, magic loop

Despite how it looks, this pattern is not that complicated, as the cables pattern is only on one side of the leg and foot (the side facing outwards), and the rest is just simple 3×1 ribbing. I don’t have much experience knitting socks for a man (in fact this is the first time, as hubby doesn’t want knitted socks — go figure), but I think this is indeed a nice man sock pattern. The ribbing and cables keep them ‘manly enough’ I guess? Although that said, I wouldn’t mind something like this for myself either. I hope my dad likes them. Now I just have to finish my mum’s socks and then I can send them both.

14 November 2008