Getting my creative mojo back....

Hi everyone, I'm not going to go on too much about my Christmas on here except to say it has been lovely, and although we have tried not to dwell on this time last year, it has been impossible not to. Last Christmas day me and my mum and dad had a hurried dinner before driving to Trafford General where my lovely Geordie was lying in intensive care on a respirator. He didn't know it was Christmas and we weren't sure what was going to happen. We have really looked forward to this Christmas and it was lovely to see him eating, laughing, walking a bit and just being here with us.
Anyway, as he has needed less help with things, I have had a bit of time to myself and have been feeling a bit creative and I have found it quite relaxing.
I found two old stools in the spare room that we had used as bedside tables. They were sturdy but quite scruffy and full of cup ring marks. I didn't fancy painting them so I thought I'd have a go at covering them with some kind of decoupage. I bought two packs of serviettes, one from Tesco for £1.00 and one from Cath Kidston for £3.50 (a bit dear in my opinion and not any better than the Tesco ones!) The only other thing I bought was PVA glue for £1.00.

 

All I did was tear the serviettes into strips and small pieces, brush PVA glue on the stools and stick the pieces on, then brush them into a kind of scrunchy texture. I let it dry then put about 4 or 5 coats of PVA glue on as a kind of varnish. 

 

 

 

 

This is the Tesco one which is now a small table with my Chorlton pottery vase on. (not a great picture but you get the idea!)

The Cath Kidston one is here.....

 

 

 

This one is now next to the fire with a big red candle on. I was really chuffed with these as it was something I could just do for 5 minutes when I got a bit of time and I think these stools would have been lying around forever waiting to be sanded down and painted.

 

I've also been doing a bit of crochet too. I made this scarf for myself out of my scraps....

 

 

....and my friend Ms M asked me to make a hat for her sister-in-laws birthday.

Now I don't often make things for people except maybe a present for family as I'm a bit self-conscious about my work and think it's not good enough or it will fall apart or unravel. Anyway I agreed and made this from some lovely Debbie Bliss cashmere and merino wool.....

It's actually the first hat I've ever made and I just went off what I would like myself. She was really happy with it and actually sent me a photo of said sister-in-law wearing my hat in Copenhagen where her husband had taken her for her birthday!! It was very simple to make. I did a Lucy circle but for 6 rounds then just straight rows-couldn't be easier. The flower was another Attic 24 design from here

I've been up to a few other crafty things but I'll tell you about them next time.

 

Hope you have all had a lovely Christmas.

XXXXX

 

 

 

More scarves and wrist-warmers!!

Oh well, I know I said no more knitting scarves or wrist warmers after knitting them for me, Mum and my sister but my little niece kept trying them all on and complaining about the unfairness of them all being too big for her! She must have told me a hundred times how much she wanted them and how turquoise was her favourite colour, so yesterday I trawled Bury Market , and found turquoise wool! Today Geordie was fixing a neighbours car so I sat and watched Kirstie's Handmade Britain on Sky+, which I love, and knitted little girl versions of my scarflette and mittens.

I haven't sewn them up yet but here they are next to my 'big girl' version. I hope she likes them. The turquoise is a bit more vibrant than it looks on the picture and I know nine year olds can be flipping fussy, so fingers crossed.

Finished my purple one....

I actually do prefer this to the orange one. I made this a couple of inches longer which seems to have made it a little looser and nicer to wear. I used the same scarflette pattern from Ravelry as before and exactly the same wool as the orange (but obviously a different colour!!). Anyway I'm now leaving all types of neck warmers alone for now and moving on to my blanket. I'm making this, or my version of it anyway. I think it's beautiful. I'll probably not make it this big-I just want a blanket to put on the parcel shelf of my car Tulip, to sit out on in the Summer or for a car rug. I want it bright and colourful like this one but with a lot of red to match my car.

Can't wait to get started!!!!

Need it to freeze....brrrr.

Finished my lovely burnt orange scarflette. I love it!! It's so chunky and warm and the colour reminds me of ginger biscuits-Yum!! (can't you tell I'm back at WeightWatchers). The colour's a bit darker than on the picture and it's soooo thick, it needs to get really really cold now so I can test it out in real-life conditions.I've just noticed there's a duck flying out of the side of my head, a rabbit on top of my head and some kind of dinosaur perched on the other side-no wonder I look like I've taken some sort of hallucinogenic substance-lol!

Ps. here are my lovely vintage-style bird slides which I bought off ebay for £1.75 each!! I love love love these....they go so well with my Cath Kidston oilcloth Bird messenger bag.

Another schmatta....

This is a gorgeous wool-superchunky and fluffy. It's really soft and warm and I added more of my mum's vintage buttons. I hope it stays cold for a few more months as I'd really love to make more of these. Just bought some more wool in burnt orange...watch this space!!

Things I've been making....

Just got back into knitting and crochet. Been after a vintage-style tea cosy for ages so just had a go with some scraps of wool I had left. Decided to finish off with pom-poms as I have a bit of a pom-pom obsession and I got fed up making the big ones for my Monsoon-inspired scarf.

Handwarmers! I love these!! I can drive in them, get money out of my purse, look at my lovely Betty Blues nail varnish! I made these from double knitting which I usually hate because I get bored if it's not chunky wool that knits up fast but these were finished in a couple of hours. I'm def going to make more of these.

My lovely schmatta inspired by Amy on Angry Chicken , I love this too as it's perfect for driving in. It doesn't get in the way like scarves do. I wanted to make a teal one but they didn't have any super chunky wool in the wool shop in any colours I liked. I went for this on an impulse, it's chunky but I knitted 2 strands together. I really really really wanted to start knitting it straightaway so I had to choose something and get going. I'm really pleased with it, especially the purple vintage buttons I got off my mum.

I've started another one now in olive green....I feel a new obsession coming on!! Someone slap me quick!