It's Raining Beanie Hats

I mentioned a few days ago that I have only been knitting a few years.  Up until now everything I have made have been baby and toddler clothes.  I did try to make a Fair Isle Cardigan for a friend but my tension just was not good enough - and anyhow, I have a low boredom threshold and I much prefer small items.

Over those few short years I have accumulated a lot of knitting yarn, and I mean a lot, I have run out of places to stash it.  So I decided to knit a few bobble (beanie) hats as Christmas presents to use up the yarn.  Just one of two for my little nieces and nephews.  In the end I made something like three dozen!

I made pastel hats, football hats, stripy hats and snowflake hats.  These are just a few.

Here are some of the hats I made for the ladies ......

these are for the football supporters in the family - the embroidered badges came from ebay .......

and these were for the little ones (see I even made a pair of little blue mittens).

I found a snowflake pattern on a pair of mittens and adapted it for the hats.

These came along too late for the first photo shoot .....

and these I only remembered to photograph just before I wrapped them up.

I really enjoyed making these woolly hats and had trouble putting my needles down, but everyone I know must have a hat from me, and you know what, my stash of yarn does not seem to have gone down.  My sister has suggested that the next time I get the urge, I make little hats for premature babies and send them to our local hospital.  Good idea.

Have a great weekend.

Dionne

The Birthday Boy

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you are well.

It is very cold here and we have not seen the sun all day.  How is the weather with you?

A quick post today.  Now, before I talk about the card, I really must apologise for the quality of this photograph, the combination of how dark it is today and the very light colour of the backing papers, combined with all of those reflective surfaces, made it very hard to get just right.

This is a Sugar Nellie rubber stamp called 'Sporty' Home Grown Manga.  I coloured him with Promarkers and mounted him on gold mirri card.

The backing papers is from a DoveCraft pack and both the sentiment and the button are from my stash.

Have a good day.

  

Dionne

Cruising

Thank you for making the time to visit my blog today.  I have a card to share with you today.

I have a nephew who is mad about cars, so I thought that this Vintage Chevy from Delicious Doodles might make an ideal birthday card for him.

I used my F&C polychromos pencils to colour the image, then I mounted it on silver mirri and dark green pearilised cards.

The tartan backing paper was from a First Edition paper stack.  The gems and sentiment are from my stash.

I hope you have a great week.

Dionne

Up the Hammers

The other day I mentioned that in future I shall be sharing with you some of my knitting.  I have only recently taken up knitting and, in truth, I am not very experienced.  I am slow and find my Fairisle is loose (and I lack the courage to tackle Aran) but I enjoy plain knitting.

Up until recently I have made little cardigans and jumpers for my great nieces and nephews and for the new babies born to friends.  However, a few months ago I decided to make Christmas presents for some of my family and friends.

The other day I shared with you a crochet scarf I made for my niece.  Today I am back to share a knitted scarf and bobble (beanie) hat I made for a special friend.  As you would have gathered this friend is a West Ham fan, or so rumoured has it!

Both the hat and scarf were made with Double Knit (Worsted).  The scarf is simply rows of 1x1 rib, each stripe of colour is six inches wide and I made the scarf 6'6" long (or 7'6" of you include the tassells).  I used a pattern I purchased from ebay for the hat, the West Ham badges also came from ebay.

I hope you have a very happy weekend.

Dionne

Flight

Unlike my dear friends Lisette and Pamellia I am not a fan of the cold.  I find the snow very pretty but the damp and cold get into my joints and slow me down.  I have so much I need to do but it seems that today is a day for staying by the fire and crafting.

I needed a card for my brother-in-law and I felt something vintage was in order, something very much like this spitfire from Delicious Doodles.  I coloured the image with F&C polychromos pencils and mounted it on gold mirri and orange card.  

The newspaper print backing paper is from a First Edition paper stack.  The sentiment and gem embellishments were from my stash.

Dionne

Crochet Santa Scarf

Now here's a thing.  Some of the more observant of you will have noticed that I have taken a step back from my role on the Crafty Boots Design Team.  It has been almost five and a half years since I joined the team and I felt it was time for me to have a break, recharge my batteries and get my mojo back.  I hope that it will also give me the opportunity to reconnect with some of my old hobbies, such knitting, crochet and sewing.

I started to do this in the run up to Christmas when I decided to make one or two Christmas presents for my family and friends.

This is the first of those gifts I intend to share with you.  I have had the pattern for this crochet scarf for two or three years but, because of other commitments, I never found time to make it.  Last month I found the time and made it for one of my nieces, I wish I had made it sooner because it took very little time to make and my niece loved it.  

I got this free pattern from Ravelry but, as it was for a child, I had to enlarge it for my adult niece.  In fact my niece loved it so much I have been wondering whether I can adapt to pattern to make an elf for her - do elves have beards?

I hope you will enjoy the other non-paper projects I shall be sharing with you in future.

Dionne

Firefly Lights Jars

Emm, thinking about it now, I probably should have published this post before Christmas but it is another one that slipped though the net.

I couple of years ago I made a light jar and liked the effect so much I decided to make some more this year.  This photograph really does not do them justice, they are far prettier than they look here, especially if you put the lights on a slow twinkle.

In the autumn I like to do some pickling for my family and a while ago I purchased some second hand Kilner jars from ebay for this purpose.  However, it was not a good purchase as I later discovered that they were only pennies more expensive new, and the lids of these jars were rusty and therefore unsuitable for food storage.

However, I did not want to waste the jars so I went on Pinterest to get some ideas of what else I might do with them.  This project caught my eye and they are so simple to make.  Back to ebay to buy battery operated macro lights and some suitable fabric.

My initial idea was to hide the batteries in the lid, but the battery pack was too large for that.  However, because of the design of the Kilner jar I was able to take the wire out through the top of the loose lid and the little fabric mop cap nicely hides everything.  I used red hairbands to hold the mop hats in place.

I think they would also look good outside on warm evenings ..... I would probably change the pattern on the fabric though!

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.


Dionne

Dear Santa

I have been sorting out my photographs and found this Christmas card which managed to slip though the net in the run up to Christmas.

The image is an old style wood mounted rubber stamp from the House Mouse studio called 'Dear Santa: I Ate Your Cookies'.

I coloured it with F&C polychromos pencils and then mounted it on some gold mirri and some Real Red card.  The backing paper came from one of my House Mouse CDs, as did the sentiment.  The snowflake die is by Cheery Lynn and the gold sparkle is washi tape.

Have a good Wednesday.

Dionne 

A Scottish Castle

I hope 2017 has started well for you, it is cold here and I do not like being this cold, I just want to curl up and hibernate.  So I thought it was time to look forward to a little bit of spring with this Delicious Doodles image called 'Scottish Castle and Gardens'.  It is one of a set, I just love this set of images, they are so pretty and very easy to colour.

I coloured this image with F&C polychromos pencils and mounted it on silver mirri and Garden Green card.  The gorgeous backing papers are from a K & Co paper stack designed by Tim Coffey.

The sweet little hydrangea flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the butterfly die is by Memory Box.  Everything else is from my stash.

I hope you have a good week.

Dionne