Crafting, Knitting, Crochet and Messing About.

Gosh, two blog entries! I thought I'd do a post on my various crafting exploits. For Christmas, I made my Granddaughter Kitty a 'Jessica' doll and I also made on for a lovely friend Beverley who lives in Batley, Yorkshire for her niece. Here are the two in question:



I ventured into purples for Kitty's doll.



Jim holds Kitty's Jessica for a photo!


Bev's niece's doll.

I also knitted quite a few pairs of slippers. See 'Knitting' below.



I belong to a great women's group called Milliande. We often have 'swaps' of all sorts of things. Before Christmas we did a 'witchel' swap and here is mine:

I adapted a cardboard cut out that I already had as I was short of time and it went off to Canada.

My latest swap with Milliande is for 'pins'. These are sort of little brooches with a maximum size of 2". Here are the 3 I've made so far:


This started out as a collage of all sorts of material on top of black felt. I think melted it with a heat gun and put some cellophane on top which I also melted! I found the lovely glass button and added that to the top and did some sewing in thick gold thread. It's quite funky I think!


This pin is a little collage of papers, tissue and a curtain screw! I then sewed with pink thread on the top and added beads and the other glass button I found.


This one is rather like a shield. The silver centre was a large earring which I straightened out and cut in half. Jim made holes in it so that I could sew it to the felt. The background is a bit more of the collage in the first brooch.

Finally, this little one is just one inch square!


I only have to make 3 so now I have one spare.

Crochet

I have finally learnt how to crochet - well, a little bit! Here is my first Grannie square:


Now I am crocheting a headband. I rather like the effect of the colours (lovely wool bought from WoollyGathering in Tuamgraney) and the spike stitch that goes over the row below. I haven't finished the headband yet!



Knitting

Bev wanted a pair of slippers for her Mum who has quite swollen feet, so I made a wide pair with a slit down the front and apparently she just loves them! Another pair went to my daughter and another to my sister in law Miranda. Here is the first pair I made:


I think my daughter K has this pair. I found the pattern online and adapted it for size. Jim and I have a pair too and they're really warm and comfortable if not a fashion statement!

I did finish Jim's jumper quite quickly. The sleeves were too long but I soon adjusted those and he wears it quite frequently. I haven't a photo of it on it's own but here is Jim wearing it. We (the knitting/crochet group) met up one day in a cafe in Killaloe. Jim knitted a square!


You can see Jim's sleeves turned up!! I was knitting a pair of socks. They still aren't finished because I was supposed to do 'Kitchener stitch' for the toes and still haven't done it.


Messing Around

I love recycling as you probably know and I have collected all sorts of attractive carrier bags. I found a magazine article on fusing them and had a play. Here is my first piece:


This is melted carrier bags plus a bit of wool and some stitching over the top. I called it '3 squares' and rather like it!


A close up of one section.

The second piece I made turned into a document wallet! I'm not sure how that happened. I lined it with dark hessian.


Front.


Back.


Close up of a section.

I had a lot of fun making these and still have lots of bags left!

I think that's enough for now. I haven't mentioned all the beads I made or the dozens of key rings and fingerless gloves I've knitted....

Until next time.