A Pamper cake

My children still wore nappies of material and you washed it, not things you wear once and then throw it away! Today when someone gives birth, you can even give them a pamper cake! Ha!
My daughter used to make them for all her friends who got babies, so now it was her turn. After some difficulties she was pregnant and on thursday 19 december 2013 little Sam William Benjamin was born.

What a jolie little fella! (it is only the end of a very big yawn)

Add a little heart

a pretty rose

or two, or three, or four!

a pair of monkey socks

Et voila!!!

A Pamper Cake

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Socks are designed by Aunt Janet, for pattern click here

Autumn coloured stash bag

 The growing process of a autumn coloured stash bag.

Clearly you can see the time of the year I started out with this bag.

Granny squares in all kinds or formats.

What lushious colours 

Old pants will do the honours of becoming handles.

I hope it works out?

Et voila!

In the lining I made special small pockets to keep my knitting or crochet needles.

A pocket for other little stuff

Finished!

I'm a traveller and need backpacks to get up and down those busses and trains.

Filled and finished!

Autumn

Just soak up the colours

Bears - SOLD!

pattern from http://www.happyamigurumi.blogspot.be/

When I first set eyes on these bears I could feel the itch in my fingers to pick up my hook and start.

Body parts!

look at that face

arms and ears

whoops, no reason to stare at the sky ..... or ceiling all the time

much better

voila!

When I finish my christmassy things, I'll start on clothes for them.

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Yarn is King Cole Splash (DK)

My library

Everywhere I go, the first place I get aquainted to is the library, I love libraries! Not that I read so much anymore, internet has taken over *sigh*
It stands to reason that I like to buy books, so here is my library of my needlecraft books:-
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Cable & aran stitches - edited by Erika Knight

500 crochet blocks - Hannah Elgie & Kath Webber

200 crochet blocks - Jan Eaton

Crochet borders - Edie Eckman 

75 birds, butterflies & beautiful beasties to knit & crocet - Lesley Stanfield

100 flowers to knit & crochet - Lesley Stanfield

75 bloemblokken om te breien - Lesley Stanfield

Bloemen breien - Susie Johns

Poppenkleertjes breien van marie claire - 46 modelletjes

Poppenkleertje breien van marie claire - 50 modelletjes

Slofjes en pantoffels haak je zo - Tanja Müller

Sokken van teen tot boord - Jo Ann Luijken en Marlies Hoogland

Hats of sorts

Hats, hats, shawls, mittens. 

Some of the family had to pose in some of the many hats I've knitted or crocheted, 

those that still exist and the new ones too.

Like this one E is wearing, brand new,she got what she asked

Hats that are still going around every winter, like I can wear one hat at a time, or two!

nice and warm, but not for in the midst of winter

actually this is mine, my daughter and granddaughter are showing it

beautiful hat, but it needs a frogging and knit again

ok, patterns are from:-  red hat with buttons on the side is from Heidi May and you can find the pattern here, then the red cowl is by Alana Dakos and I can't find where I got the pattern from, will have to search again, found it! click here

the purple too big hat is this one click here

Advent stockings .... already

Last year I found this really quaint pattern for Advent stockings on the internet. Here is the link to it  http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/free_knitting_patterns/2007/06/knitted_mini_ch.html
They came out super lovely!

My daughter and daughter-in-law were thrilled with it and asked me to knit them a set too. One pair is finished, so have a look-see.

all of them

red and whites

hearts

whites -and redsandgreens

playing havoc with my cam

the rest, the green one needs some buttons (which I forgot)

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I made them slightly bigger than the pattern and when one of the grandkidz came to visit he absolutely had to try them on.

Floral bag

When I first saw this handbag I knew I must try it. The colour is just brilliant and the flowers are beautiful. What a talented lady Cherry Hearts is, she has such a good eye for colours.

As per usual I started on the wrong side. Often I just start off and go and when I get to a certain point I really have to read the pattern and then I see, duh! wrong again! These little flowers are so easy to make.

the finished product! with lining.

Pattern is from  http://cherryheartboutique.blogspot.co.uk/p/crochet.html

As I fell so much in love with the colour of the bag, I used exactly the colour combination as it was described in the pattern. I did not use all of the yarn and have a lovly colourful stash of this yarn and I'm going to make another handbag with the rest.

WIP

WIPs
What is the meaning of WIP?
It all started on Facebook. At some point I started following this page http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Creative-Crochet-Collective/142317845834754?hc_location=stream . I saw all this amazing pieces of crochet and to be honest I've never searched the internet for tutorials or anything. Over the years I've done the odd things, sometimes crochet, sometimes knitting or embroiderie, but not often. Following this page the interest started again, it's mostly crochet at the moment.
From one page you like you often go the the next, and the next. There are so many pages you can follow featuring your hobbies. Now when I open facebook, my home page is full of all the creativeness of all the persons on these lists. I love it!
All those tutorials, different yarns, patterns (preferably the free ones), how small the world is, even with the different systems, like a crochet hook can have different sizes depending on the country.
And the video tutorials! Crochet holds no secret to me anymore.
Once I ordered yarn in the UK on the 17th of the month, it arrived at home the 19th! Even the post got faster.
Even my house is undergoing a crochet shift, the things move around to accomodate my yarn, WIPs and finished products. :)
If you want wool, you need a place to stash it (another word I used for the first time - stash). A disused cupboard, suddenly became the place to stash my stash.

Today I made a pic of my WIPs as in work in progress! Ewww, I did not realise how many I have!

But, most of them are almost done and the new ones burning to get really started on. The hats, shawls and mittens for my granddaughters need only a final fit and all the ends cleared away. The two handbags need linings and the socks are almost gone. 

Then I can start on the roses wreath, wow! I'm so loning to work on it, in my mind it will be beautiful. 

WIP - work in progress

stash - all the yarns you can't say no to when you see them in a shop

Christening

After seeing all those lovely christening dresses in the shops specializing in Brussels lace, my hands just itched to get started on something similar. Eventually I found a lovely dress I could crochet in a magazine, one I could make, because let's face it, those dresses in the shops were made by specialized persons and I was only a beginner.
Then I was pregnant with my 4th child, my daughter. That is 32 years ago!
Although I have this christening dress for so many years it never came to mind to use it again and only recently when my children were visiting, my daughter spoke about it, about using it when her child is born (second half of december). Lena was only a few weeks old then and when my daughter-in-law saw it, she wanted to use it too for Lena. Looks like it's becoming an heirloom now.

 

I found this wonderfully, beautiful lace in a shop and  couldn't resist.

If you wondered what the scallop is doing .... during april and may of this year (2013) I did a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and I wore my St James' Scallop all the way on my backpack, now it will be used in the ceremony.