A gifting quiz

Ugh I knew WP wouldn’t let us keep the classic editor. I cannot work this one for toffee so my posts are going to be a mess for a while.

But the good news is hooray, it’s quiz time again! This time it’s about giving gifts.

Do you gift your handmade items?
Eventually. Unless I’m making something specifically for someone then my FOs usually sit in a box until an occasion or suitable person arises.

Do you have limits around who you gift to or what you gift?
I used to give to anyone and everyone, but now I’ll only make presents for family and very close friends. Somehow they just seem to appreciate it more.

What type of things do you like to make and gift?
I looooove giving amigurumi! Whatever someone is into there will be an ami pattern out there, and I love seeing people’s eyes light up when they see their favourite character/person/animal/snack food replicated in yarn.

Have you received handmade items?
I have a crochet blanket that I won in a raffle, and there have been many handmade cards over the years, but I can’t think of any gifts at the moment.

Have you ever asked for a gift back?
Er no. That’s not how gifts work.

Do you gift handmade items for holidays?
I have for the last few years, but I’m not sure that’s sustainable. We’ll see.

So there you have it. Feel free to join in if you want!

Hannah
xXx

Stitching santa 2017

The final part of my stitching santa gift finally arrived on Friday so I’m ready to box it up and send it out!

I was actually waiting on the smallest part of the gift, but it’s also my favourite part!

It’s this here polymer clay, teeny tiny yarn skein!

Isn’t it cute!! I’ve threaded it with some ribbon to make a pretty necklace

Also going into the box will be:

This adorable little bauble

Some suitably Christmassy candles

It’s not Christmas without chocolate

A variety of tasty tea sachets (no photo, sorry!)

And this little guy

It looks far less like a skeleton octopom in real life. Honestly.

And I’ll stick in a skein of actual yarn or two, because that’s what we all truly love.

My secret santa was also organised so I’ve actually received my gift already! But I’m running off to choir now so I’ll have to post about that another day.

Has anyone else received their gift? Are you part of a secret santa outside the blogosphere? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 18.10.17

Current WIP count: 5

I’d got it right down to three. Three! But then I realised I wouldn’t be able to make it to the naming day of my friend’s twin girls, so I just had to make something to send to them in my stead.

Which leads to me making my very first foray into lovies. I really like these cute little blankies so I’m not sure why I’ve never made one before, but better late than never.

I’m following this Red Heart pattern, and using up the last bit of two Caron Cakes I had left after making my puff stitch scarf and star blanket; Funfetti and Mixed Berry.

Yes, they’re different colours, and the heads will be different animals as well. I know from experience (I have a brother and a sister) what battles can ensue when siblings have two of the same item.

I also remember how cross I used to get when my Aunty bought me and my sister exactly the same presents year in year out, when we’re as different as it’s possible to be while still being related. I will not be that Aunty.

I’ve only done a couple of rounds of the Funfetti one so there’s not much point showing that, but this is where I’m up to with the Mixed Berry one.

I may have nicked some Funfetti orange for the inside of the second ear…

As the naming day is Friday next, everything else is on hold so I can get these finished and posted out in time. I’ve got a few free evenings this week so I should manage it.

In other news, I just signed up for #stitchingsanta2017 and I’m super excited! A secret santa just for crafty people, it can only be amazing 😀 Click on the link to have a looksee and join in if you fancy it.

Got any lovie tips for me? Thinking of joining #stitchingsanta2017? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 09.08.17

Current WIP count: 10

Just a short one today, as I only had time to work on my Lost In Time scarf last week.

I’ve only got this much yarn left now

So I made a start on the border from the pattern, but I got halfway in and realised that I actually didn’t like it. At all. So I frogged that back and now I’m just continuing with the main pattern until my yarn runs out.

I’m hoping it’ll finish on a popcorn row, although it’s such a beautiful pattern it could stop anywhere and still be good.

So, barring any major disasters, this should be ready in time for a FO Friday post.

Oh I also whacked out a really quick star garland as a gift. It’s in serious need of blocking (currently looks like a string of deid spiders), but after that it will be good to go! Yes, this counts as a new WIP. I have no will power…

What’s everyone else working on? Am I the only person incapable of sticking to patterns? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

FO Tuesday

I couldn’t wait til Friday!

Over the weekend I finished my chevron blanket and baby star blanket. 

The star border only took about 20 minutes so I’m not really sure why I’d been avoiding it for so long.  

After 2 weeks of almost entirely working with chunky yarn, it felt very strange to go back to baby DK yarn. A bit like working with dental floss!

I also finished the chevron afghan, after only two weeks. That was quite a bit quicker than I expected so I’m really pleased, I’ll be able to hand it over to my friend this week. I really hope he likes it.

So about the blanket. I love stats, so if you don’t then just admire the photos 😉

This afghan weighs juuust over 1.5 kg (1517g if you want to be accurate)

It measures 142cm x 181cm (it’s taller than me!)

The yarn is Painbox Simply Chunky in Vanilla Cream, Soft Fudge, Slate Grey, and Coffee Bean

It consists of 101 rows double crochet, and 2 rows single crochet with picots at the points

Each cream section is 8 rows of straight dc

Each section of contrast colour is back loop only dc, alternating 6 and 9 rows.

The side of each chevron is made of 13 stitches (my favourite number)

Each dc row contains 180 stitches

The total stitch count for the whole thing is 18,544 stitches.

18,544

I can’t believe I just made nearly 20,000 stitches….

I was planning to calculate the number of hours I spent on this, but after having to restart it 5 times to get the chevrons to actually chevron, I decided not to.  Let’s just say every spare hour I had over the last 2 weeks.

So, does anyone have any tips for folding/rolling a mahoosive blanket so I can wrap it up before giving it to my friend? Or how to take good photos of something so large? Because I’m struggling!

Hannah

xXx

April review

Monthly reviews are a really good idea. I didn’t think I’d achieved much in April, what with moving house, having my birthday, and being quite ill for a few days, but looking back at it there’s actually quite a list of makes!

This weekend I started a chevron blanket that will be a surprise flat-warming gift for a friend. I’ve seen the flat (it’s fabulous!) and the colours I’ve chosen will fit right in.

I created a phone cosy with the kit I got for my birthday, which also got me a commission from my cousin to make her a kindle cosy…

Which I have almost finished

This isn’t technically a made thing, but I’m including it because it took me nearly 10 days: turning a lovely skein into a massive bundle of knots and untangling it into a not-very-ball-shaped ball.

I discovered that my muscle memory is pretty darn good and I can still remember how to knit, about 20 years after my Nan taught me

I learned the beautiful Love Knot stitch and made most of a lacy scarf using it

I made my first C2C piece; this loooovely scarf

I finished my first ever star blanket with my first ever Caron Cake

I made this blue flower when I should have been unpacking. Procrastination for the win!

I made up the pic-not stitch on my second ever star blanket.

I started Mr Fox; another kit I got for my birthday

I made a few Sand Swirl cards

I also made a birthday card for my cousin, but didn’t get a photo of it. I was really quite proud of it as well. Sigh.

So that was my April!

I’ve decided to set some goals for May, instead of just meandering from one half-finished project to the next as the fancy takes me:

1. Finish pic-notting the baby blanket and get it sent to my sister
2. Finish the kindle cosy and get it sent to my cousin
3. Finish the lacy scarf and list it in the shop
4. Finish the chevron blanket and gift it to my friend
5. Get all my zentangle cards listed in the shop
6. Make at least one knitted item
7. Have at least 10 items listed in the shop

I’m determined that this will be the month of finishing things instead of getting distracted by the latest shiny new project. Wish me luck!

Hannah

xXx

Birthday goodies

It was my birthday last week so I have *lots* of new presents to enjoy (I am ridiculously easy to buy for), and I thought I’d share some that will more than likely end up in my shop.

First up, I got this wee phone cosy kit from Hobbycraft

The yarn that came in the kit was a bit ‘sticky’, but in total it still only took me a few hours to make this up. With some other yarn these will definitely be shop stock soon.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave it simple like that and I’m already planning a dragon scale version!

I also got a copy of Simply Crochet magazine, because it came with a free Tunisian hook

The jumper pattern using the hook looks really good, and I’m looking forward to trying out some of the other patterns in there as well.

This is my first experience with a crochet magazine since I really know what I’m doing, and it is vastly different to picking up that first magazine on a whim and wondering why it was all written in code. Ah the memories.  This time I’m just excited to try all these new things, because I know just fine that I can make them.

And finally, the enormous gold-plated cherry on top:

That is 35 skeins of yarn. There’s cotton, DK, chunky, noodles, acrylic, alpaca…it would take ages to list it all. So instead I just keep taking it out and staring lovingly at it.

Isn’t it beautiful

Do you like the phone cosy? Any ideas what to make with my bumper stash? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

A first!

**ANNOUNCEMENT**

I’ve received my first ever commission (from my sister, for a friend of the family, but shush – it still counts!) for a crocheted baby blanket.

After wanting to make a star blanket for months, now I get to make two at once as I’m still finishing off my Caron Cake star blanket and my sister liked it so much she asked me to use that pattern for the baby blanket.

Almost finished my first star blanket

I’m not sure whether we don’t know yet if it will be a boy or a girl, or my sister knows that I hate the whole ‘pink for girls, blue for boys’ thing, but the end result is that I’m using green and pale yellow baby merino DK.  The green is a wee bit brighter than it looked online, but the yellow is nice and subtle so I don’t think it’s too garish a combination. I do love working with Spring colours as Glasgow is dragged kicking and screaming into warmer weather.

Look at the lovely colours

So far I’m only on round 7 because it’s been such a busy week I’ve had to squeeze in a few stitches whenever I got a minute to myself.  It keeps peeking out of my bag and giving me the eye, so this weekend I’ll make sure to spend a good chunk of time working on it.

Stop looking at me in that tone of voice

I’m so excited to make something I know will definitely be wanted and go to a good home! 

Hannah

xXx 

Magic Mum

A bit of back-story: Although I live in Glasgow now, I’m originally from Cheshire, where the rest of my family still live. Because my Mum is lovely she sends me care packages now and then with bits and bobs like sweet treats, pretty earrings, cool recipes I might like to try out, and little useful things.

The magic part is that nine times out of ten, the parcels will contain something I need. For example, I notice my deodorant getting a bit low and make a mental note to buy some more next time I go shopping, then a Mum parcel arrives all stocked with deodorant.

When my flatmate moved to London she left behind a massive bottle of fabric softener. The weekend after that finally ran out, guess what Mum said she’d bought me?

So basically my Mum is magic and/or psychic. But this week she really outdid herself.

I follow a lot of yarn crafters on Instagram, and since Monday/Tuesday-ish they started talking about Caron Cakes. They look gorgeous, and when I found out they were 200g of beautiful coloured yarn each, they went straight to the top of my I WANT IT list.  However, I’m in the middle of a pact I made with myself not to buy any more yarn until I have a least 20 items in my etsy shop.

It’s fine. I can wait…

Then a parcel arrived from my Mum

How gorgeous are they?? I’m going to make a star blanket with the one at the back, but no plans for the other two yet.

Making a start on my star blanket

Of course the parcel also included tapestry needles, which I was waiting to buy on pay day, and some cute crochet patterns.

I really don’t know how she does it. My Mum is just magic!

Hannah

xXx