The Turtle Moves

Bottled needlefelt

Hello!

While browsing through the various catalogues that plop through the letter box at this season of over-spending on useless rubbish I noticed some interesting Christmas decorations - tiny little toadstools inside the sort of little glass bottles that bead shops sell. What a nice idea - and I bet they wouldn't take long to make, I thought. So ... Ebay for the bottles and into my stash of merino tops with felting needle in hand ...and VOILA!

What do you think?

The larger toadstool that's not in a bottle was the first one I made, just to get the idea of the shape, and of course it's too big for the weeny bottles, but maybe I should make a little elf to sit beside it and make it into another sort of decoration.

They really didn't take long to do and the materials used cost about a fiver to make these 10 decorations. I think the catalogue in question was asking £19.99 for four.

And another one

Heeeeeere's Santa!

Here's another figure from the Night before Christmas in Crochet that I told you about last time. Yet more mistakes in the text of the instructions, and minimal to non-existent instructions for Santa's eyebrows and moustache - so I invented them.

I re-iterate - if you're starting out with amigurumi - don't start with this book! Having said that, however, the concept is quite sweet and the figures are nicely detailed. So if you're a confident and experienced hooker - go for it!

Ooh-er, missus.

It's That Time Again

I'm sorry to break this to you, but it's 9 weeks to Christmas.

That means it's only 5 weeks to our town's Christmas Lights Switch-On celebrations and Christmas Market.

So - Stuff has to be made. I thought I'd try crocheting the Christmas decorations this year, and lit upon this book as a start. It looks like a lovely idea - 'The Night Before Christmas' in crochet. Hmmm.

The reindeer looks okay, but he was not 'easy' as the blurb states. The instructions are a bit confusing, and there is at least one mistake, where the written word is completely at odds with what the chart diagrams are saying. (I've only made this one creature - and there was a mistake. Not a good start.) Let me advise you now - if you have never tried to crochet a 3-D figure before, Do Not Start With This Book.

Maybe I'll go back to Needle Felting some Santas and other festive chaps. At least you don't have to rip out stitches and re-do things when you make a mistake - you just Stab That Wool with increased vigour. I would like to have a wee change of look, though. I expect what I need is someone who really does it properly to tell me how to needlefelt correctly.

In other news, I met with the splendid army (royal engineers) chap who is going to build the staging for our DJ at the Lights switch-on event and he seems confident, sanguine, nay, insouciant about what we need him to do.  Last year's lighting contractors have at last released the lights we bought to the local firm who are going to do the installation this year (and hopefully for ever afterwards).  I think everything is on course for Santa's Grotto and the Christmas Market - I'm just lacking a few Elves. I'm sure they'll answer their emails soon.  It's all going to be fine. I only have back ache because I'm imagining myself to be stressed. I'll just pour another gin. .....Aaah.

We're switched on.

Thank goodness, my life can now resume a more restful pattern. The Christmas Lights Switch-On happened yesterday, and there were lights, there was a market, there was entertainment, Santa arrived and I think most people were happy. Result.

Heeeere's Santa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the lights are on.

We had a market in the street, Djembe Drummers, the Cupar Pipe Band, the Fife Nativity players (which gave me a lovely photo of Mary talking to some Fife Council workers - asking them about accommodation perhaps?), a DJ playing lots of Christmas music and spraying fake snow over the kids and little kids' fairground rides. The street was buzzing all afternoon.

In the car-park there were bigger fairground rides and in County Hall there was a Christmas Market.

It's all done.  Phew. Night night.

I've been busy

Hello there.

I'm really sorry - I've just realised it's more than a month since I've spoken to you. My excuse is that I have been mega busy (and stressed) organising our town's Christmas Lights. This is the first year we've had to do it all ourselves, including paying for the lights, because of course our Council is having to make budget cuts like everyone else.

I won't bore you with the details - they are just soooooo tedious. Instead I am directing you to Lucy's lovely blog where she is offering a splendid give-away. The picture above tells you that it is super colourful and guaranteed to cheer you up. The offer is only on until 1st December, so hop across to Attic 24 NOW and leave me to wallow in contracts, icicle lights, catenary wires and road works. I told you it was tedious.

Getting Festive

Only ten more sleeps to go!

I iced my Christmas cake today - do you like the stars? the pretty Swedish-style paper cut-out ladies are from the splendid book Christmas Crafting in no time. I made lovely owl decorations from it last year.

The cute little tree in the red fabric sleeve is from Tesco - I couldn't resist it. In fact I got two of them and they are making the place look quite festive already. I'll be putting the decorations up tomorrow, but in the meantime the dresser is looking splendidly colourful as the Christmas cards arrive, and the lovely hibiscus, which was an early present, comes into bloom.

So tomorrow it's time to go over the top with tinsel, holly, ivy, baubles, beads and of course daft felted angels (see my avatar).

Good-oh.

Bob bob bobbin' along

Hello!

Yesterday evening was the Christmas Fair at my wonderful Grandson's Primary School. For this event I was crocheting cheery robin Christmas tree baubles all week. They went well! They are a lovely quick and cheerful thing to make - one robin takes about an hour once you get into the swing of it - and it's a small enough amigurumi project that you can count the rows as you go along without bothering with stitch markers. As long as no-one comes in and engages you in conversation in the middle of it of course!

The pattern can be found here. I made mine with acrylic yarn and didn't bother with the brushing it up to make it fluffy, because I was going for a shiny Xmas tree bauble effect (hence no need for legs and feet either) and it looks fine. If the rate at which they sold is anything to go by, lots of other people thought they looked fine as well.

Give it a go!

Mrs Claus and da boyz

So here we are, a couple of snowmen of the type featured in the film (although not quite fat enough) and a Santa who turned out to be a lady. Hi Saint Nicola!

I didn't attempt the snow dog - the snowmen took so long that giving them a dog to cuddle would have meant no other felty people got made, and I think variety is probably more important. Anyway, Santa probably doesn't like dogs - I expect he gets a hard time from them just like the postie does.

Talking of variety - this angel is definitely wearing her party frock, isn't she? The Lady GaGa of the woolly world. Her dress is a nice multicoloured wool from the lovely people at Colinette. They used to just do fabulously dyed spun yarns and ribbon yarns, but now you can get a hank of unspun stuff as well - all ready for you to stab or otherwise mistreat (for purposes of felting it you understand). Any of you yarn junkies out there - I urge you to look out for their wares.

Festive felting

Hello there.

I have finally knuckled down to the task of needle-felting some Christmas figures. How do you like these chaps? I made the emperor penguin chicks first (because those fluffy grey bundles with the clown faces are just so cute) and then thought they'd better have a daddy to look after them. I haven't attached a hanging loop because I think they might look better sitting around in a table decoration or something rather than dangling from the tree.

I got busy with the santas as well, so there is the beginnings of a troupe of them - well, two of the chaps, anyway. I will diligently stab wool all this week. Now that the Christmas Market on the 1st of December for our Christmas Lights switch-on is organised I should be able to concentrate on producing stock for my stall at it. That's the theory, anyway.

I'm going to try and make a snowman like the one in the animated film - I'll  let you know how it goes. Apparently this year there's another film coming out about the snowman and a snowdog - hmm, I wonder. I don't know if making woolly representations of cartoon figures is a wise move, since the woolly chaps are sort of cartoons themselves, but it's worth having a shot at it just as an experiment.

Flowery Bags

Hello!

Remember a wee while ago I was crocheting flowers in May and then wondering what to do with them? Well, I thought of something! Little wet-felted bucket bags embellished with some needle-felted leaves and stems and then a profusion of crochet blooms stitched on. I like it!

It was a really, really sunny day today, so the photo is a little bleached out, sorry. I hope you can get the whole joie de vivre of the little bags anyway. And one of these days I'll learn to do photography.

The needle-felting was done with the aid of a fancy brush sort of felting mat and a four-needle tool from Clover which made it very quick and easy. I made up the shapes as I went along, being quite familiar with needle-felting already, but I can see that it would be a splendid way of attaching pre-cut felt shapes to a background, and an absolute doddle to do. I must experiment further - perhaps I should try making a picture of some sort, or little applique pieces to make into greetings cards maybe.

Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely sunny day too and were able to get outside and enjoy it.