2010 – the year of craft

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking of what I’ve made in the past year. No wonder I at times thought I was developing RSI in my right hand. I was knitting like crazy. Here’s what I’ve knitted/crocheted/sewn/beaded between December 2009 and January 2011 (a total of 13 months), complete with links to the relevant posts:

• 2 strings of personalised bunting for L1 and L2
• crocheted coasters and heat protector/oven gripper thingymabobs
• 3 bunny teddies – 1 for newborn Zeph, 2 for newborn twins L3 and L4
• 2 adult berets – one white, one purple
• 1 adult cardigan
• 4 snoods – for my Dad, Jeff, Lizzi and Emma
• 2 baby beanies
• 4 pairs of baby booties – 2 for the new twins, and 2 for Corinne’s friends’ expectants
• 5 baby/children’s berets – 1 for L1, 1 for L2, 1 for Ida-Maria, 2 for Corinne’s friends
• 6 headbands – 1 for Lizzi, 1 for Emma, 1 for Nina, 1 for me, 1 for my Mum, 2 for sale
• 4 dresses for me from West African print cloth – 1 purple shift, 1 red dress, 1 blue v-neck, 1 wrap dress
• 20 or so oyster card holders – some as gifts – Lisa, Emma and Nina – and some for sale
• 1 string West African print bunting for the hallway
• 1 column of leaves scarf for my Mum
• 7 cushions – 3 for the bed, 1 for a chair, 3 for the settee
• 2 skirts – 1 pink brown and blue, the other pink, yellow and blue
• 2 girls dresses – 1 for L2 and 1 for Hannah
• 11 birds – 5 for my bird mobile, 3 for my parents’ mobile, and 3 for Mie and Dennis’ mobile
• Christmas decorations – bunting, hanging beads, heart pouches and pompoms
• 1 crocheted recycling basket
• and a whole heap of jewellery – bracelets, earrings, necklaces – some for sale on Folksy; some for gifts for Emma, Han, Lizzi, Lisa, PBM, Mie, my Mum, my Auntie; and a commission for Mike

And, that’s about as much as I can recall right now. But I think that may do for 13 months of knitting, sewing, crocheting and beading – at the very least 100 individual items. If I remember anything else, or if you think I’ve missed something off, let me know. But I’m rather proud of that!

Here are a few pictures:

Recent Knits

Since I put down my needles after completing a number of Christmas presents on 23rd December 2010 my attraction to, and need for, knitting hasn’t diminished. I picked up my knitting needles again on Christmas Day 2010 at PBM’s Mother’s house and starting knitting. Since then I’ve knitted four headbands, two pairs of baby booties and two berets. Here’s why.

My work friend, Corinne, is on sabbatical in NZ at the moment to catch up with friends and family and attend two weddings. Before she left the UK at the end of summer she found out two of her European friends are expecting babies, due this March if I remember rightly. She had seen pictures of the baby booties I had made PBM’s sister’s expected twins and thought it’d be nice if she could give something similar to her friends when they have their babies, in yarn that she had chosen. So we took a trip to John Lewis on Oxford Street after work one day, picked out some Debbie Bliss and Rowan yarns in what appear to me rather NZ inspired colours, and tasked me with knitting them up into two pairs of booties and two berets in time for her return to the UK in February. After our little shopping trip we met up with her boyfriend Stefan and PBM and head to El Camion in Soho for a (very delicious) Mexican. And here they are – complete and well in time:

As for the four headbands I’ve knitted, one of those – a lovely green aran yarn – was a commission for my work friend Nina; one was a nice turquoise one for me, similar to those I knitted my East Yorkshire friend Lizzi and my Mum for Christmas; and two were aran wool heather coloured ones in my own design to try and sell via my Folksy shop. They’re not on Folksy yet, so if you fancy bagging them for yourself before then, please do let me know. Both are the same (seen below) and for sale at £8. A snip when you consider the dreaded Topshop sell not-so-nice alternatives starting from £8 and hundreds of people have them. Instead you could be one of two! Here they are. For those of you who enjoy knitting yourself I may well share the pattern via Ravelry:

Gifts for the nieces/nephew-in-law

Today it’s time for another blog post on gifts that I made for Christmas.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to take photos of some of the gifts I made for Christmas 2010 before I packed them off to whoever the (may I say lucky) recipient. However, I did have some photos of the gifts I sent to Denmark (albeit some incomplete) and have since taken photos of the presents I made PBM. But that’s about as far as I’d got. Until New Years Day when, at PBM’s Mum’s house after a five meat roast (yes you read that right), I at last got some more photos for you to feast your eyes over. The gifts I made the nieces and nephew-in-law.

For those of you who don’t know, the nieces and nephew-in-law are PBM’s eldest sister’s family. All six of them now since the twins, L3 and L4, were born in November (see here for them at 2 days old). Last year I made L1 and L2 personalised bunting for their room, and for L2’s birthday in October I knitted her a beret with crocheted flowers.

However, the question was what to make them all for Christmas. And here’s what I came up with:

• pink beret with large pink and purple crocheted flower, in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, for 4-year-old L1;
• pink dress using Ghanaian ntoma for 2-year-old L2;
• bunny teddy made from pink baby corduroy for 6-week-old L3; and
• bunny teddy made from one of PBM’s old blue and white striped work shirts for 6-week-old L4 (much like this I made for baby Z when he was born back in February 2010).

And who better to model these items than the cutest of cute kids ever and the recipients of the gifts:

Note how L1 is also modelling L2’s dress as it is as yet slightly too big for her. This made L2 cry and proclaim “it’s mine”. I think she wants her own, original wardrobe like any reasonable 2-year-old would.

Gifts for Denmark

On 9 January 2010 I published the blog post D’oh where I listed all that I made for Christmas presents and mention that I forgot to take photos of them. Well, I’ve only gone and done it again this year. The problem is that I make Christmas presents and, as I don’t wear them, I forget to take photos, wrap them up, et voila it’s left to those who receive the presents to kindly take photos and send me them. Also, what with the days being short and the nights long, I complete many of the presents when it’s dark out and, as you’ll see from some of the following pictures, it’s not easy to photograph them in the dark.

This blog post lists what I made for my cousin Mie, her husband Dennis and their two daughters Ida-Maria (4) and Hannah (2) in Denmark.

• Beige/golden bracelet for Mie, made with a selection of glass foil beads from Spoilt Rotten Beads and a variety of  stone beads
• Striped beret for Ida-Maria, made from purple and wine merino wool yarn
• Purple dress for Hannah made from Ghanaian wax print (here’s the grown up version)
• Bird mobile from a mixture of Liberty and Ghanaian cotton for Mie and Dennis

I remembered to take photos of these items, though the beret is incomplete – the crocheted flower is missing – and Mie’s  bracelet was shot in the dark. But hopefully you can make them out.

And apologies to Mie and Co. if this is the first time you’ve seen these items. I posted the parcel 8 days before Christmas so I’m hoping they got to Åsum in time for Julaften.

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Two berets

A couple of weeks ago I blogged On and on I knit, and showed L2’s beret, complete but not modelled, and a preview of L1’s beret.

Since then L2 has opened her 2nd birthday present and I received a picture message from her parents on Thursday. Apologies for the slightly grainy image, but hopefully you get the idea. I think she looks cuuuuute. And the hat doesn’t look too bad either.

As for L1’s Christmas beret, I finished the body in the week and then borrowed the brilliant  100 Flower’s to Knit and Crochet from my sister to learn how to crochet some larger flowers. I wasn’t managing to overcome the more difficult aspects of crochet and was experiencing a few problems with some of the easier crochet patterns in the book. So, I settled for 62 Irish Rose tonight after feeling inspired and raring to go after visiting the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally today. Et voila. Here it is. Rubbish photo, but will update when L1’s modelling it, which, alas, won’t be till post-Christmas 2010.

The knitting bug

We’re almost two weeks into September and the nights are well and truly drawing in again. It seems that with September came autumn – the inevitable cooler nights, cloudier skies and rainier days – and I’m not holding out that summer’s returning somewhere along the way this month, like it did last year.

Of course, with this new autumnal feeling has come the desire to knit. I started knitting a column of leaves scarf from green silk and cashmere yarn way back in January this year and then lost the knitting bug in early March when spring was shooting.

But I am now well and truly in the knitting spirit and have knocked out a cream merino wool beret and two pairs of baby booties for my fella’s sister who is expecting twins in November. The parents won’t divulge the sex of the non-identical pair, so I chose to use purple and yellow organic cotton. I think they’ve come out wonderfully. I’m not too sure of the size, as, to me, they look rather large, but I guess they’ll grow into them if that’s the case. Next up, to knit, is a beret for the impeding birthday of said parents’ second born girl, L2. Better get down to John Lewis to buy some more yarn. Then, following that I think I’ll have to get back on the column of leaves scarf.

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