my boy the chef ::

one of Milo's main christmas gifts was a little kitchen unit.  It's super special because it was handmade by one of our friends for his son and it's perfect for my boy who loves to help in the kitchen.

To accompany the kitchen we got Milo some of these lovely wooden slicing fruits and just 2 days before christmas I decided to stitch him up an apron, hat and oven mitt!

I used (though really I should say that I glanced at for inspiration) these patterns for the hat and the apron.  I really must reiterate that I didn't actually use this pattern, if I had I'm sure it would have turned out a whole lot better, the hat at least I'm sure, I only used it for inspiration.  I wouldn't want you thinking badly of the pattern, because of my bad workmanship!

The oven mitt I made all from my head!  I might try and post a small tutorial here at some point in the future if I make any more.

Most of the fabric I already had stashed away, the lovely kawaii fabric came from mine and my Mum's etsy shop, and the blue ribbon actually came from my step brothers wedding cake.  I suddenly realised this in the midst of stitching it in to the apron!

I wasn't sure at first whether he would actually like dressing up in these bits, but I'm pleased to say he loves it!  Watching put his little had in the mitt, declare 'hot' and then open his play oven, makes my heart swell!

another placket neck ::

I made Joelle Hoverson's placket neck sweater for Milo back in the summer and I loved it!  The pattern was so easy and quick to knit (it does come from last minute knitted gifts after all).  It also introduced me to some new techniques, including knitting on circular needles, which is now by far my favourite way to knit.

So at when time was running out for all the holiday handknits I had promised myself I would make, I figured I'd revisit this for my youngest (and only) nephew.

I used sublime organic cotton, as he has fairly sensitive skin, I thought this would be the best bet and added stripes to the pattern.  Adding the stripes meant a whole lot of weaving in at the end, which was fairly painful, but other wise all was well!

I'm afraid, it was so last minute that I didn't have time to photograph it properly, but I did get this one snap of him with my mum, whilst wearing it!

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here


• my ravelry notes :: here

magic yarn ball ::

I learnt about magic yarn balls, somewhere on the internets back in November and imeadiately wanted to make one for someone.  It seemed fairly fruitless to make one for yourself, so I figured my sister would be the perfect receiver of something so awesome.

I started planning straight away!

If you haven't heard of magic yarn balls before, they are basically balls of yarn, full of goodies!  I included, chocolates, magnets, buttons, sewing needle book, earrings and right in the middle a crocheted pin cushion.  I made most of the items, I included, myself.  I used the pin cushion to start and then rewound the yarn around this, adding other items as I went.  Therefore when my sister came to use the yarn she would uncover little prizes as she crocheted away!

I was really pleased with the way it turned out, especially as you couldn't see any of the hidden treasures peeking through.  My sister had never heard of magic yarn balls before either so the whole thing was a huge surprise to her when she started using it! Making it all the better!

loveheart pixie ::

I have been admiring Meg's lovely version of the stella pixie hat on her boy for a while now.  But somehow it didn't seem right for Milo, plus I think that boy has quite enough hand knits for his head for the time being!  But when my step sister went in to labour a little earlier than expected with her baby girl, I knew that this would be the perfect little hat for her.

In retrospect I should have tried to alter the pattern to make it smaller than the 3-12 month size, but at least it will last her a bit (though of course she probably won't fit in to it until the spring!).

I used some beautiful hand-dyed merino from snowberry and lime, I already had.  I love the colours and the way it knitted up, plus I still have some left over.

  

I used one of my own loveheart buttons for the fastener.

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here.


• my ravelry notes :: here

 

hello ::

welcome to my little (new) creative space.  I have been blogging in various places for a few years now, but I wanted to set up a new place to write about and share my knitting, crochet and sewing adventures. 

You can mostly find me over here.  I've been making beads, buttons and ninjas from polymer clay for about 3 years now and selling them over on etsy, but I have been knitting and crocheting for a whole lot longer than that.  As the ninjas started to become my business and main source of income, my knitting and crochet and stitching became more and more part of my leisure time, with the birth of my little boy 2 years ago in April I was drawn further in to knitting.  Having the ability to produce soft warm garments to cover that little body is a fabulous feeling!

I set up a shop to sell some of these creations almost two years ago now, though I've never really dedicated much time to it.  I feel that with the dawning of this new year it's time to put a bit more in to it all, I don't want to consider it a business as such because I fear I will begin to lose my passion for all that stitching if it started to become a necessity rather than a pleasure, but I would like to spend more of my time, developing my skills, sharing my patterns and if I can make a little pocket money for more yarn in the process then that will be a wonderful bonus!

Welcome! I hope this will be the start of a fabulous creative adventure!

January 05 2011 ::

So I've been a little rubbish at keeping this blog updated, but I haven't really been doing a lot of gardening, so I guess that makes it sort of OK?!

There isn't much happening yet either it must be said, but will a haul of new gardening books from christmas and the promise of spring, very slowly, approaching, I will gradually be sowing some seeds and tidying up my new out door space ready for growing.

I can't wait to get started again and when I do I promise myself I will keep a better record of it all here!

Trusses and violas!

I have some of my first trusses appearing on my tomato plants!

So exciting!

I also bought myself a few violas today.

I am completely in love with the black molly sanderson's.

Johnny feels growing flowers is wasted time and space (which is of course nonsense) so I am restricting myself to only edible flowers!