Dinosaurs

I bought this amazing pillow case from a charity shop for 99p a while back and had to make it into a zippered bag for my friend Danica's birthday. It took me two attempts (sewing whilst drinking wine and tired is not the best plan) but I'm definitely improving at zips! Once again I used the tutorial for a simple cosmetic bag from Sew Happy Geek, I can almost do it off by heart now. I popped a pair of chunky woolen wristies in the bag, she seemed happy with them both!





I still plodding away at the Coraline cardi, I'm only about 25 rows away from finishing but I need to concentrate on what I'm doing so I've not had a chance to do much on it recently. I'm also working on a cabled baby jumper for another set of friends having a baby, I've had to take it out once already, the pattern is more complicated than I realised!





- The colours I'm using

My next big project for me is a crocheted blanket out of Donegal Aran Tweed yarn. It arrived last week through the post and it is scrumptious, I want to rub it all over my face. I'm planning on doing these 12" granny squares to make a blanket for our next house, since we're planning on moving once I graduate. It's going to be a housewarming present to ourselves, to replace Little Ugly Blanket, who'll be downgraded to the dog's blanket.



- The granny square pattern


Must crack on with the cardi first though, I've been at it since September 2010...

Sleep mask

I had sudden inspiration to make a sleep mask the other day, mainly after finding this super easy tutorial on Whipup.net, via Pinterest.

I've been planning on making one for a while, since Andrew started a new job last year and now gets up an hour before I do to commute to Glasgow. Once he's awake and switching lights on, I find it hard to carry on sleeping, meaning I lose an hour of sleep a night. Which isn't a huge amount, but it's enough to make me crabby.



This little mask is backed with cream boiled wool, a remnant from my Birds wrap for Frances' wedding. It's so warm and completely blacks out any light, I slept right through until Andrew brought me my morning cup o'tea this morning, amazing!

These would make cute gifts for folk, you could make them in so many different colours and styles. This one is pink velvet with 2 vintage doileys hand-stitched on the eyes.

Drawing

A slightly off-the-wall craft post today, since I barely ever draw, but I'm strangely proud of this little sketch I drew while waiting for Andrew to play his turn at scrabble. He takes absolutely AGES to put down a word (though granted those words are then high scoring long words like 'roosted' (50 point bonus for using all 7 letters) as opposed to my quick play words that are invariably no longer than 4 letters like 'yams') so whilst bored waiting, I drew his face on the scorepad. Which is why, for the eagle-eyed among you, there's the top part of the Heinz logo adorning his chin, it was a free pad I scored from some promotional thing going on at the supermarket.



I tried to find a photo of him that looks vaguely similar to the concentrating-on-scrabble-in-an-attempt-to-crush-ones-girlfriend-on-points face he was sporting and this was the best I could come up with.



Wow, I draw so infrequently that I don't even have a tag for it so I'll have to use 'art' (ha!). I'd like to practice drawing more in the future, when I have a bit more spare time. It's quite relaxing, even when you're being thrashed at scrabble

Owl jumper

There's a bit of an owl theme going on with the 2012 posts at the mo, how strange. Anyway, here's the finished owl sweater I knitted for Vicky from her Mum for Christmas (incidentally, that's Vicky of the amazing rose teacosy fame. She's hoping to start a blog soon so watch this space, she crafts beautiful things and takes lovely photos so I'm sure it'll be a feast for the eyes!).



I love this pattern with a passion, it's so simple but so effective, I'm planning on knitting one for myself and my Mum this year. Sadly I didn't manage to get any photos of it on, but maybe Vicky will take one at some point! I'd like one in a tweedy green for me and I'm planning a raspberry or paler pink version for my Mum. I'm going to get some New Lanark wool for both projects I think!

Owl purse

I made this for my friend Alison as part of her Christmas present. She likes purple and things with owls on them so I thought I'd combine the two and practice my new-found ability to sew zips (still not very straight though, clearly more practice/less gin is needed).



She actually gave me the material I used for the lining, she brought me back a lovely bundle of quilting fabric from the States and I know she picked out the colours and designs that she liked since we have similar tastes in these things, so I thought she might appreciate it!



I've got a few more Christmas crafts to show you all but my camera battery has been pinched by the battery fairies...