A little piece of December in January

For Christmas 2010 I made quite a few handmade gifts, as I had promised myself. Some were unfortunately less successful than others. I made two pairs of knitted felt slippers after I first tried to make a pair using granny squares. Now, why should that go wrong you might think? Well, first of all I did not use the yarn recommended. And because I did not use the correct yarn, I had no clue of how loose I should crochet the squares. I did however check the measurements and a finished square was 15 cm, just as it was supposed to be! So I made my squares, started sewing them together, and not before I had completely assembled the first one did I stop to think... Isn't this a bit big? Oh, yes... After a long laughing fit, I thought to myself trying to stay positive, they might shrink 50 % after washing. This however, they did not do. The size 39 was WAY to big even for my loves size 46 feet (Size 50 maybe?). Silly me did not take a picture of them after washing, but this is how they looked before.

Too bad, I did love the colors :(

I might try that pattern again some time, but then I will certainly use the correct yarn. I also dusted off my boxes with jewelry components and made these things.

The remaining gifts I of course forgot to snap photos of, but were a knitted jacket for my nephew, another casing for a friends knitting needles, three pairs of felted mittens and a scarf. Maybe I'll have to go for a few visits and snap some photos... Anyways, I upheld my promise of making most of the gifts this year. I think I will do the same this year, only I will start making them a lot earlier!

Shopping and creation

I have a weakness and it involves shopping. Yes, I do have many more, but this one is particularly tricky as it has massive and rippling effects on my very tiny student budget. My biggest temptations are the fabulous online jewelry supplies and fabric stores… I do love yarn and interior too, but these I prefer to shop where I can see, touch and feel the quality first hand. Anyhow! A few weeks ago I got a request from my good friend Kristine about making a lining for her mother’s knitting basket. Oh joy, I thought! Now I can order fabrics with good conscience as I will actually get paid for the fabric I use! 

Pus seems to be liking the knitting basket without a lining...

With only a few buttons pushed I somehow ended up with a full shopping basket and an exciting package on its way. As you can imagine, no, I did not order only what I was going to use for the lining. My excuse: I have to pay for it to be shipped anyway, I might as well order a few other projects at the same time. When the package arrived I was delighted, until I opened it and discovered that I forgot to order the pattern for the lovely tunics I had bought fabric for! Oh crap, I thought! Now I will have to order again! (and yes, I was a little happy about it too…)

 My student budget on the other hand was not, so I figured I might ask some of my friends to order with me so I wouldn’t have to spend all that money on shipping fees again. 

My knitting basket is not the best model for the lining, but i had to try it out before giving it away!

Now, you would think that since I ordered so much last time there would not be that many temptations left. Well, that was not the case. Perhaps I will have to get a second job to pay for my whims, since this seems to be a pattern of mine… The good news is that the basket lining turned out great, and I of course had a lot of fabric left to make a little moving in present for Kristine as well. The DIY for the knitting needle casing is found here, but is only in norwegian.

A sure fact after this last shopping spree (and the final one before Christmas!), homemade presents for all my friends and family this year! 

A snapshot of the lining in it's basket taken with Kristine's cellphone



Vinyl baby bibs

While my granny squares are steadily piling up I thought I'd show you something else I have made. A little over a year ago I became an auntie for the second time to a cute little baby boy. The moment I found out I was going to have a little nephew I started figuring out all the stuff I was going to make for him! Some of the things I made were bibs with some cute fabrics. 

Of course, now that I want to write a blog post about them I see that only 1 have been captured by my camera before they were given away. Although I do know I snapped a picture of my 16 year old sister with a bib on… luckily for her I can’t find that one… I’ll be sure to take and save the pictures somewhere clever next time!

I made this first bib with the help of this tutorial, but with the later ones I strayed from the measurements and sometimes made them without a pocket. I found some cute fabrics, applied iron on vinyl on the front side of the fabric and covered all edges with double folded bias tape. I found it quite hard to apply the bias tape on the curved edges and without the vinyl fabric slipping away from me, but I got a better hang of it after a few bibs.

My very first blog post

I have been thinking about making a blog for quite some time now. I’ve been pondering about the theme and if I am at all able to make posts interesting enough for someone to want to read. Now, I have spent a lot of time browsing through blogs from all over, reading and looking at the most extravagant and the most plain sites, and no matter how small a group of followers or simple the design, I still get inspired (and sometimes a tiny bit jealous).

It only takes an idea, or a simple picture, and I can end up dreaming and googling the concept for hours. Sometimes I make something out of the idea, and if there is a chance that someone might have a spin-off on one of my creations or thoughts, then why not blog about them.

My plan for this blog is to write about some of my whims that result in something I’m proud of. Some of the things I love to make are clothes, accessories and home decor whether they are from fabric or yarn, and of course jewelry. I thought I’d start off my blog with my current project which I have discovered is quite popular among bloggers, a granny blanket. At the moment, I should rather say granny squares, as I have yet several left before I will start the joining. I just redecorated my living room with colors of grey and a greenish blue, and when my old blankets no longer matched I figured it was a good excuse to make one.

I remember some of my granny’s granny square pillows with the most dreadful color combinations which still give me the chills, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw all the beautiful blankets people have made. My favorite so far is Cissemosse’s divine earthy blanket, and she has made a tutorial in Norwegian here which I have used, but in my quest for a tutorial I discovered that there are plenty out there.