The Turtle Moves

Teeny tiny crochet

Hello there!

I have been tirelessly testing out Christmas crochet patterns on your behalf!

This little book is one in the 'Twenty to Make' series and has some lovely ideas for mini crochet Christmas things. There are little animals like this wee penguin which you could hang from the tree as baubles. There are tiny wreaths, stockings and snowflakes which you could probably use as festive earrings (if you should happen to be in the sort of employment which requires you to be as overtly merry as possible) or as doll's ornaments to delight small children.

They all require no.3 or 5 crochet cotton, which I didn't have to hand, so the first figure I tried, the angel, I did in my Twilley's Goldfingering crochet yarn (equivalent to No.5 crochet cotton). She has a strange complexion, because the nearest to flesh tone I had was a sort of pinky-blue sparkling yarn. I like her lacy dress, though.

Then I remembered a bag of 'craft yarn' - assorted skeins of cotton intended for braiding friendship bracelets and the like - so the wee penguin was born. You wouldn't be able to make any very large figure with such limited resources, but at least it allowed me to test out this book so I can reassure you it is written in simple crochet terms and the patterns are accurate.

If you don't feel confident to crochet in cotton thread using a teeny tiny no.2 crochet hook, then I'm sure that if you follow these patterns using DK yarn and a 4.5 hook you will achieve some equally pretty figures - just a tad larger.

Have a lovely Christmas!

My First Quilting

Hello!

Now that the Christmas Lights Switch On celebrations have been and gone in our town  (The lights are on, the Christmas market went well, the tree looks lovely and most important of all - nobody left any complaints on Facebook or Twitter!!!!! I must be getting better at doing this - it's the third year I've been organising the whole shebang) I have at last had time to undertake the little project I was so merrily seduced by back in October when My Talented Daughter and I were in Perth.

There is a delightful craft and haberdashery shop called The Peacock and Tortoise in George Street in Perth, and for the Christmas season they have a gorgeous display of Christmas fabrics and printed panels. I was completely unable to pass by this Advent Calendar panel, and finally, over the last couple of days, I have found the time to cut out the little pockets and stitch them to the panel, put on a border of lovely starry material, sandwich it with some wadding and back it with dark green.

Here it is, with its loops all ready for a bit of baton so it can be hung up in the kitchen. I know I'm a couple of days late to start an advent calendar, but the grandchildren don't visit every day, so I think I might get away with priming the pockets relating to the days they will be here. What do you think? Is that expediency and worthy of a politician, or is it practical Gran making the best of things?

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's Owl Right Now

Happy Hogmanay to you all!

Here we are at the end of the year and we're having a relaxed and cosy quiet time in together, just me and my Lovely Husband. I thought I'd show you these sweet little Owl decorations before everything gets taken down and cleared away for another year. I do get quite frantic to clear everything away and get Back To Normal as soon as the last vestige of festive jollity fades away. That's usually 2nd January!

Anyway, the Owls are hanging among the Christmas cards on the dresser in the kitchen/dining room. I made them this year from a pattern in this lovely book. (I also made a splendidly Swedish - looking Christmas cake frill from the same book.) It is full of easy and effective decorative ideas and of course was also recommended by Lucy in Attic 24, a creative lady with a splendid eye for colour who I mention on a regular basis. Apart from anything else, you can follow links and Flickr feeds from her blog and get lost in worlds of colour for hours on end - a useful resource when you are at a loose end, but with no particular energy to do something creative yourself. There is always justification for browsing inspirational material, whatever form it takes. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, it will soon be 2012 - a whole new year in which to make more felt/crochet/cuddly things, play with our grandchildren, go for walks, sing songs and generally enjoy life. I wish all the very best of whatever you need to you all.

Happy New Year!

Season's Greetings

 

Happy Christmas!

The tree's been brought in and festooned with home-made elves and angels, the holly and ivy is twined around the door and splendid husband has gone mad with fairy lights round the trees in the garden. To put us in the festive mood even more thoroughly, we attended our gorgeous grandchildren's school nativity service in Falkland Church  this morning.

Teeny children dressed as angels, shepherds, wise men, Mary and Joseph. There was not a dry eye in the house. Gorgeous Grandaughter did one of the readings, and very beautifully too.

Bless.

Stars in the house

Hello everyone,

I've been crocheting stars in every spare moment over the last month (the Craft Fair on the evening of our town's  Christmas Lights switch-on is upon us this week).

I've been crocheting stars while travelling to and from Cheshire and Wales (mentioned a couple of blogs ago). The drive from Llandudno to Westmoreland Services is an 8 - star journey. (My Dear Husband was driving on that leg of the trip, and then I took over, so no stars between the Lake District and Fife.) I've crocheted on trains and buses, in the living-room and in the kitchen. I've got lots of stars now!

I do hope the Fair goes well. I think I have the absolute Acme of sales gimmicks this year - my lovely grandchildren are going to man my table for me. I will be free to run around making sure everything else is okay, and two gorgeous moppets are going to sell all of my Christmas crochet and needlefelt. How can this possibly fail?

Oh, I've been needlefelting Santas and snowmen and punk angels as well.

Chaps like this all sold well last year, so I must stab wool assiduously all day tomorrow and Build Up Stock.  Maybe.

Or maybe I'll go out into the garden if the sun is shining like it did today. We have to grab all the daylight we can up here in the Dark North you know. Otherwise we retire to the back of the cave and hunker down until Spring.