Sock madness!

I have a new pair of socks:
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The pattern is Brucie, and it was the preliminary pattern from Sock Madness. This is my second year participating, and I haven't managed to finish the first round before the time was up either year, but it has meant I have made myself a new pair of socks each year.

The yarn is Soft Like Kittens Unicorn Sock, in Crystal Cavern. I love the colour, and it really is soft like kittens.

(In typing this post, I appear to have forgotten every last little bit of html I know, and couldn't even create links properly. I got there eventually, but I think it is time for bed!)

Baby's First Blowfish

I have found the perfect baby gift!



Pattern is My Little Blowfish, by Selina S. It is well written, and contains humour (and ferrets). This fish is for a friend's new baby, but I will be making another one for my littlest boy for Christmas too. And possibly more, they are very cute, and strangely addictive. Yarn is Ashford Tekapo, I used about 33g.

The fish itself is felted by going through the washing machine a couple of times, the eyes were my first attempt at needle felting. That was very satisfyingly quick and effective, and definitely worth trying for doing little finishing details.

This pattern is part of the Great Indie Gift-a-long on Ravelry, come and join in and make your own blowfish!
(I suppose you could make any one of the 2000-odd other patterns instead, but the fish is very cute.)

New Chairs!

We have some old dining chairs which used to belong to Grandma-in-law. They are quite comfortable, but the upholstery is seriously in need of replacing.


After getting sick of trying to clean what was left of the pile fabric after the 2 year old has been eating in it, I finally got around to ordering some oilcloth to redo the seats. The stuff I found that I actually liked (aesthetically) turned out to be much lower quality than what I found locally and didn't like, but it will still serve well enough. It was also less than half the price, so I'm not particularly surprised.

Thankfully I didn't have to replace any padding, because the original upholstery I found under the layer I was replacing wasn't too badly beaten up. It had a few holes and was very worn, but not badly damaged enough to require major repairs.

And voila:


(I confess I have only done one so far. The others will be done by the time the baby needs a chair to sit in...)

Wedding Sampler

I finished this and got it framed just in time for the wedding we went to a few weeks ago:


The colours are a bit more vibrant than the photo indicates, but this was the best photo I managed to get. I'm just pleased I managed to remember to get one at all, the carpet in the background was on the floor in our motel room...

Pattern is All Because, by Imaginating. I changed most of the colours to match the paua shell theme a bit better. It was a fun pattern to stitch up, and reasonably quick too!

I also made some tidy clothes for two little boys, but failed to get any decent photos of both of them dressed up. This is the larger one, showing what church pews were really designed for...

Doll

I have a few things I've finished in the last month, but I still need to sort out photos of some of them. For a start, I've just finished making this doll for the 2 year old for Christmas:



Pattern is Constance, by Rhiannon McCulloch. I couldn't find a wool in anything particularly resembling a flesh tone, so I resorted to Panda Magnum acrylic, and used a little more than one 100g ball. A few of the finishing details I think I could have done better, but in the end it is for a 2 year old, and I don't think he'll care.

Photos from last time

Little cardigan:


Pattern is Cascade, 3 month size, 6 month length. Yarn is Vintage DK by Skeinz, in colour Tapestry. I used 93g. Buttons have elephants on them, they are from Buttons by Benji

And this is cleared patch of garden:

You can see how horribly messy the rest of the garden is! It seems that whenever I reach the point where I feel like I'm starting to get on top of the garden, something happens to ruin that (earthquakes, babies etc)

And the happy little toadstools that I found: