Friday, December 12, 2014

Christmas crafts


I have been working on some Christmas projects these last couple of weeks. Here is the result.
I especially LOVE the 25 mini Christmas stockings, made into an Advent calendar with a little candy cane in each one!
The pattern for the stockings is from Little Cotton Rabbits website, but I also used some ideas from the Arne & Carlos Knitted Christmas Balls book (so every stocking has a different design). 
The candle ring stars are from Atelier Valerie
The slippers and snowman family are both from Ravelry


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Pillows


Some finishing touches to my new living room decorating.....knitted pillow cases.

I used patterns from Filati Home Magazine # 50 and DROPS Design

I have some more ideas yet (and pillows that need a cover), but right now it's getting towards Christmas so I have to finish those projects first.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Persian tiles - starting

I'm having a good start on the Persian tile blanket. (looks a little bit like Delft Blue pottery too I think)
First 6 blocks (all different patterns) done once.
I also decided on a method to put them together...knitting the edge stitches together with wrong side facing and then cast off.
I think I'll finish it all off by sewing fabric against the back and then stitching it through around each block (like a quilt). That way the yarn loops on the back won't get snagged and it will have a very nice completed look. 
Of course I'll post a picture when it's all done.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Persian tiles

I saw this beautiful knitted pattern, based on Persian tiles on a (Dutch) blog and right away I wanted to try it.
(I used some leftover yarn from the rainbow blanket.)
I could not finish the whole block because I ran out of blue (needed to add about 10 more rows). So I just ended it with a couple of white rows and cast off. Even without those last rows it's still about 23.5 cm across.
I'm sure I'll be making a pillow or blanket using this pattern (for my new sofa!).
I didn't really know what to do with this trial block but Ade wanted to use it in a frame and hang it as art in her home, so that's where it's going

Pattern on Ravelry

Monday, April 14, 2014

Easter ready


I'm all done my Easter craft projects!

The eggs and Little Cotton Rabbits patterns are from Julie Williams and the chicks are a free pattern from Rowan Knits.

Hope the kids are going to be happy when they come over this Sunday.
I certainly had fun making them!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Long cold winter


This is what you get if the winter weather is setting records in extreme cold and you can't go outside.
As you can see I've done a lot of knitting and crocheting.
A whole collection of knitted monkeys, bears, cat and frog


Some great looking crocheted pastries


Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Mini's

With this extreme cold weather (-20C with a windchill of -35C) there is nothing else for me to do but stay indoors and do crafts, so here are the latest finished projects.




These stuffed animals are the same as I made before but this time I used sock-wool and 2.5mm needles so they turned out a lot smaller than the previous ones (25cm compared to 45cm).
Very cute and economical too because I only used 1 ball of yarn!

The patterns are from Zij Maakt Het (Dutch) but they are also available on Ravelry in Dutch and English.
They're very detailed with pictures and step-by-step instructions.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Girls sweaters

Here are the sweaters I made for Ava and Hazel for Christmas.

The sweaters are knitted in 1 piece, so no seams on the sides and the sleeves were done on a circular needle. The ruffle around the body takes more time to do than the whole sweater. And you have so many stitches at the end that they barely fit on a needle. I used an interchangeable circular needle with a long cable.
And at the end they turned out very cute.

I got the pattern for free when I bought the yarn at the Lammy wool factory in Hilvarenbeek (Holland).