Too soon?

My mum bought the girls a couple of little Christmas decoration kits. Is it too soon to talk about Christmas? 

They relished decorating them. I do have a bit of a problem with kids craft kits in that the glue rarely fits the job. In my children's vocabulary are the words 'silicone glue' because they always call out for me to get my silicone craft glue and stick the bits on for them after they have persevered and everything has dropped off - I guess it is a health and safety thing but it just sets them up to fail every time. I suppose you could say it is character building. Grrrrr!!!!

I try to keep the Christmas build up in our house to a minimum until about the last week but these were a special little treat from nanny. We don't put up our tree or any indoor decorations until later. The wreath on the door is our only sign that it is advent.

I think my routine of decorating stems from being a Primary school teacher in the past, I couldn't manage Christmas at home and at school at the same time!

I resorted to a brad to hold the ribbon on in the end. Between filing and lesson planning today, I managed to sew six bells on too. 

Joy to you in whatever you are doing over the next few days. Jo xx

Hooded Pixie Scarf Tutorial

Someone asked me to make a hooded scarf. I knew I had been cornered and I was unable to say no even though I am really busy, I don't know them at all and they have no idea how long it takes to actually make something but Hey ho! I took the situation as an opportunity to be creative and make a new pattern to share.

Little M is 5 so it is too small for her but I needed a model!

Hooded Scarf

300m /100g DK yarn
4mm Hook
3 Pom poms

UK terms. Made for age 18mths - 2 yrs 

Scarf
Start with the length of the scarf. Chain 161
miss one ch and dc1 in every stitch. Turn ch1, dc in every stitch to the end of the row. Continue to make a length of double crochet with one turning chain at each end for between 8-10 rows. (160)

Head 
Chain 31 stitches
miss one chain and dc30 times. Continue for 27-30 rows, depending on how deep you want the hood, using a turning chain at each end. 
(30 sts)

Work pointed pixie end as follows:

row 1: Ch1, ss15, dc15 turn
row 2: ch1, dc15, ss15 turn
row 3: ch1, ss17, dc17 turn
row 4: ch1, dc13, ss17 turn
row 5: ch1, ss21, dc9 turn
row 6: ch1, dc9, ss3 Turn
row 7: ch1, ss3, dc9 turn
row 8: ch1, dc7, ss3 turn
row 9: ch1, ss3, dc7 turn
row 10: ch1, dc5, ss3 turn
row 11: ch1, ss3, dc5 turn
row 12: ch1, dc3, ss3 turn
row 13: ch1, ss3, dc3 turn fasten off.
Repeat for the other side of the head piece ensuring you have the fabric the right way round.

Sew two head pieces together along the curved edge and across the top of the crown. 

Front face border
Rejoin yarn at right hand side of front edge of hood. Dc4 rows. This makes a smooth seamless line around the face. You could add a picot edge, scalloped edge or your favourite shell border here now if you wish.

Join the hood to the centre of the scarf with dc stitches. Add pom poms or you could continue to put picot or shell around the scarf(you may need more than 300m yarn if you want to do this)

Hooray! a hooded pixie scarf. You could also make it in other colours for boys too.

Happy Making. I really must make something now for a loved one rather than a stranger to balance my inner crochet turmoil.

Jo xxxxxx

Just in time for Advent

This months Minerva kit is a door wreath made from seasonal fabric. I hang my door wreath on Advent, the first of December but Christmas stays very much under wraps until the last week before Christmas day in our house.

The kit includes four seasonal fat quarters and a polystyrene ring. It looks a bit pink here but it is truly red, gold and green.

The Yo yo's or Suffolk puffs are easy to make and quite addictive.

  

The ring was covered in yarn wound round and round. I overlapped the yarn on the inner ring a little to allow for a full spread on the outside edge. I could have crocheted it but I have done this before and then covered all of my lovely crochet stripes with the decorations so I didn't think it was worth it.

  

The top has a bow made from two rectangles of fabric joined with a tied ribbon but you can go as wild or traditional as you like. Mine is quite traditional as it is going to hang on our front door which is set on a three storey house with sash windows. The buttons are added with a glue gun to cover the centre of the circles.

I like it, it has a sort of traditional longevity about it. 

Thanks for the materials Minerva. Jo xxx

So Sweet.

I am waiting for my friend to have a baby. I don't know what it is going to be so I am going to make another pair in cotton the same cream cotton and grey just in case.

 Made from a book called First Crochet by Lesley Stanfield.

Happy Crochet everyone. Thanks for looking and always taking the time to leave such supportive comments. Jo xxxxx

Friday fantasy quilt practise

I have now cut out 270 squares and spent a lovely evening making 30 piles of 9, evenly distributing the fabric patterns and colours between each group. I labelled them with post its and pinned them together. I had a little help there from Little M as you can see.

I used the smaller squares that did not make the cut to practise sewing seam allowances. Can you spot the two mistakes?

The second blue one on the top row is the wrong way round and I want to try and avoid two patterns next to each other because it makes a new shape (parallelogram for any maths geeks), shown on the left hand side.

I have made some notes on my design. I am going to border each set of nine squares. I had to... wait for it... buy some fabric. Yes people, buy fabric. 

Then I spent an hour playing colour sudoku working out how to distribute thess fabrics over the whole bed area.

Next step sewing 9 patch squares without mistakes.

Anyone else got a quilt on the go? Last week there was a great tutorial on putting layers together on A little happy place blog.

Real work today. Happy Friday Jo xxxx

Hooray! Velvet Skirt

I made a velvet skirt. The fabric was gifted from my dad. I have used it to make a coat and I still have loads left. I feel an 'All Done' post looming in the next few months.

 

The pattern is from an Ottobre magazine. It is a skirt with pockets which adds some extra detail even though they are not really big enough for anything other than a paper clip!

I got a great fit on the waist and hips which I am improving every time I make a skirt. (sorry about the tights part of the image!)

To reduce hem bulk, I overlocked the edge of the velvet then machine sewed on a strip of satin bias binding then whip stitched it by hand to the skirt. A nice technique for thick fabrics.

I am wearing it with my portrait blouse and my new miette cardigan. A vision of petrol and purple, I love these colours together and I am all homemade today. Yay!

I have lost my expert pre-school photographer to full time education so I am grappling with the self-timer at the moment, however,
I have a lovely winter staple skirt. 
What are you making? Jo xxx

Craft cards

My mum follows my blog so thank you for all your kind comments about her knitting expertise, she was thrilled.

I treated myself to a paper craft kit. I had really got down to the paper scraps and the children had been diving in and taking all the good bits!

I bought a kit called 'Sew Lovely' by Do Crafts. This weekend, in little snippets of time, I have enjoyed making cards for my crafty family members: my aunts, my mum, my next door neighbour and crafty friends.

I used the insert picture as inspiration and loved this craft pocket format. I repeated it in various different guises.

Of course, making cards creates scraps so I finished off my weekend of card making with a little card using the bits left on the table.

All stocked up for the ladies, now I need some cards for men - a much trickier affair.

Happy Crafting Jo xxxx