Welcome


Hello, my name is Dionne and I have been crafting for a very long time. As a very young child my mother tried to teach me to knit, it was a disaster. However, it must have sparked an interest in making things and, partly to prove that I was not totally useless and partly because I really wanted to make things, I taught myself to crochet. Over the years I have developed a love of cross stitch and all types of paper craft ..... I eventually even taught myself to knit.


I am married to a very understanding man, thank goodness, because I spend all my time either crafting, thinking about crafting or talking about crafting. I am hopeless at housework and dinner is often late!


Thank you for visiting my blog.


Dionne

Saturday 31 October 2020

Happy Halloween

It seems that with me these days it is all or nothing. No posts for ages and then, I blitz you, that is because I have been very busy making things but there never seems enough time to share them with you. 

 A few months ago, I warned you that you would soon be seeing more of the Knitables toys I had been making, but then the pandemic came along and I got distracted. However, the time has come to give you another small glimpse of these adorable toys.  This post is not so much about the actual toys than a couple of the Halloween costumes.

I have asked a couple of my Knitable friends to model the costumes.


First up we have cat, who is sporting a very eye-catching Halloween Witch outfit, complete with her very own broomstick.


The back of the dress laces up and has a slot in the back for her tail to fit through.


The witch costume consists of the dress, hat, leggings, pointy toed shoes and a broomstick.


Her costume has a pumpkin coloured dress with black and silver petal shaped over-skirt with a laced-up bolero.


I am a little disappointed how my shoes turned out ..... they do look better on than they do off!


I apologise for the quality of some of my photographs, I am afraid my shadow kept putting in an appearance.


I was afraid that I might run out of the pumpkin coloured yar so I altered the leggings pattern slightly by making the black stripes wider than the pumpkin ones.


No, the hat does not have two points, the second one is a shadow of the first - the light is very poor this time of year and I have to rely on artificial lights!


The little dog is wearing the ever-popular Pumpkin or Jack O' Lantern outfit.


There are button fastenings at the back of the costume and a slot for his tail.


The body has a jolly Jack O' Lantern face and a collar of dark green leaves.


Whilst the cap is topped with three larger leaves and a sweet stalk.  It also has holes for his ears.


The bootees also have leaves.


Doesn't he look smart?


I think both of them will make fabulous contributions to this year's Halloween decorations.

Enjoy your Halloween and stay safe.


Dionne

Friday 30 October 2020

Trick or Treat

My apologies for how long it has been since my last post. It's been a very unusual year and my attention has been elsewhere. In fact, I have been making yet more face masks for myself and my family. I do not have any children or grandchildren, but I do have sisters and they have both and we are all very close. So, when I make masks for my family there are eighteen of us ... which is a lot of masks. My total is now approaching 500 masks but I have just a few of the latest to share with you today. 
 
This Halloween there will be no 'Trick or Treaters', although I have heard that some areas have organised special walks for people who have decorated their homes. I thought I would join in the fun in my own way and make a few special masks ...........


The Halloween fabric I bought was rather thin and I was worried that it would not be thick enough to block the virus. I decided to add an extra layer of 100% cotton fabric to be on the say side. I explained in a previous blog how I made my masks, the Halloween masks have four layers of fabric, one of which is a pocket for an additional disposable filter and a layer of Vilene interfacing, which acts as a washable filter.


I tried to cater for all tastes, dancing skeleton's anyone?


How do you feel about covering your face with spiders?


These cats are cute and I think I will still be wearing mine after Halloween.


I had a very small amount of the purple and orange cotton lining fabrics left over, so I made a mask each for two of my small nieces and nephews.


To jolly them up a little I stitched a felt cat to the orange mask and a skull to the purple one - I kept these felt stickers well away from the areas where they breath.


Stay safe my friends.


Dionne