Vintage Swap and a thank you for Nbg!

Drum roll please.... I have at last finished my vintage swap for Gingermonkey. In truth I doubt I could actually claim that the amiguiri owl is vintage but it was crocheted with charity shop wool (courtesy of The Garden House Hospice in Hitchin, which incidentally is an absolute treasure trove for wool and needles). I am much more pleased with this amiguiri owl than the last one, mainly because I stuffed him with a lot of stuffing (he's very firm but, as a result rather large!) and I popped a couple of curtain weights in the bottom so that he stands up better, he still topples over a bit after a while but I didn't want him to be so heavy that he caused injury if thrown at someone!

The sachets (one for GM and one as a thank you for nbg) I feel are much more in keeping with the vintage theme, you don't really see them about much in these supersonic high tech days and they are basically my MILs old curtains cut up and used as an inner lining with a couple of filet crochet panels sewn on top. Filet crochet is also one of those old worldy things that you don't seem to see much of these days and I love doing filet crochet, it feels really calming and I really enjoyed making them. And although I have done filet crochet in the past, it's a long time since I picked up a small steel crochet hook (always small steel hooks for fine crochet) and a bit of cream coloured thread and actually done some, I even enjoyed sewing the lining and I am not a lady who enjoys hand sewing much usually. Although I popped a couple of rosewood balls in with the stuffing so hope the recipients like rose, still I'm sure if not they can find someone to gift them to.

Enjoy!!

A glorious vintage treat from GM, a now battered amiguiri owl and a surprise from another lovely MNer.

I'm obviously a lucky, lucky girl this week, I got paired with Gingermonkey again for our MN vintage swap and this gorgeous bag with two lavender mice is my reward. Of course darling daughter has snaffled one of the mice to stash in her vest drawer, she abides by the mantra 'what is yours is also mine', I will get my revenge by spending her inheritance on fancy fabric! The gorgeous bag is now living in my handbag and keeps together my tissues, lippy and compact because I love the idea of nonchantly pulling out a bag made of gorgeous vintage fabric to retrieve my 'nose blowers' (copyright dd), plus it means I can easily find those bits and bobs that would otherwise entail a 15 minute hunt throught the warzone that is my handbag.

Last week I finished my first attempt at amiguiri, this owl was featured in Crochet Today last year, I'm fairly pleased with it but my next attempt will involve more stuffing, I think. That aside I was rather chuffed with her obvious delight at receiving it and it hasn't left her bed since.

Another kind mner, this time Nbg, offered up some leftover fabric on our craft board and kindly said I could have it. It's perfect for lining bags, I do love a nice lining in a bag. Of course dd has her eye on it to make flowers with, so I might save her a square!
This week I've mainly been finishing my swap(s) for Gm, which are nearly done, of course I need to go to the habby stall at Hitchin market (it's my new addiction) for a couple of things and then, I'm done. Will blog results at the weekend, hopefully, along with a few photos of our growing button collection (courtesy of every charity shop within a 20 mile radius of us).

A pressie from the divine Gingermonkey and a ramble about other stuff.

Thought I 'd show you one of the things that I've been up to in the last few months, here, modelled by my very own handsome ds (it's in the genes you know!) is the cuff that he nagged me to make, it took me longer to thread the beads onto the wool than it did to actually knit it but it was my first real go at knitting with beads and it was blissfully easy. It's a pattern from the ubiquitous Debbie Stoller, think it's the Stitch 'n' Bitch tome. Unfortunately he showed it to his mates and now they all want one!! They're Emo's you know!

As part of the Emo thing, he's had me rooting about in charity shops for suitable t- shirts (which is obviously a real hardship ;-), he really wanted a Slipknot t-shirt and I explained that you can't always find exactly what you want , it doesn't work like that. And would you believe it .... after a few weeks of dedicated charity rummaging, yes I found one, along with a couple of punk rock festival t-shirts and one with nirvana type doodlings on. You can crown me queen of the charity shop rummage if you want. While I was there I picked up the 2mm needles I needed for the cuff, I'm sure I have some but they're currently in hiding. Of course, he's picked up the charity shop habit now and can be found amongst the boxes of old LPs , searching for hidden treasure, when he's not mugging old ladies , of course.

On to this delightful chick, courtesy of the divine Gingermonkey, it was my swap in return for my knitted breast, sorry I meant cupcake. To avoid the hassle of prising it from the grubby mitts of my dd, I waited until she went to school to take this photo, it should be noted that she's also appropriated the lavender sachet that went with it (which I was going to scent my undie drawers with) and put it her wardrobe to make her clothes smell nice! I got my revenge by nicking one of the chocolate eggs that came with it.

A little swap for the glorious mner that is GM.

Whilst I have been absent from my blogging, I have been far from absent with my crafting, over christmas, managed to make all sorts of knitted and crocheted bits for family and friends, more of which later.
On mumsnet, that hallowed website where mums judge each others lifestyle choices, sorry I meant support each other ;-), there is a busy corner named the arts and crafts section, which boasts the nicest bunch of mners you are ever likely to meet. In the general spirit of bonhomie which occurs on this corner of the site, one of the arts and crafts ladies decided to set up a craft swap, swappees were decided by lottery and there was a theme, although I didn't, in true rebellious spirit, stick to it and I couldn't think of anything suitably 'Easter'.
Knowing my swap partner is a keen and talented softee maker and knowing she does so with bare hands, rather than machine, made me think she may like a pin cushion. So voila!
I used the pattern from last months issue of Knit Today and although I had a bit of a wrestle with the top icing, due to the stuffing, which led to a few stitches being looser than I would have liked, I'm fairly chuffed with it. Well I was until darling husband said it reminded him of a breast!
I crocheted a bag to put it in with some stash wool and bought a metre of ribbon from the local market to top it off with. Hope you like it GM!

Keeping the chill out.

Whilst avoiding my Wips, I decided I needed a bit of light relief and what better way to provide it than a quickie, or in this case, two.

I knocked these two little beauties out in a mere 4 hours with 40 minutes to spare (and all whilst cackling like a hyena at Most Haunted Live). I printed the patterns out from the shifio website http://www.shifio.co.uk/freepatterns/Beanies19pattern.htm and despite the fact that the white one looked more complicated, I tackled that first. I am really pleased with it and garnered a lot of complements from the fellow mums at the school gate (a notoriously hard to please posse', as anyone who's ever visited a school gate will agree).
The red one is also lovely but, it's hard to tell from this picture, it is not in actual fact unravelling, it has matching red flowers sewn onto it. But they are hard to pick out in the photo. You'll have to take my word for it... it is utterly gorgeous!
Now what else can I make to avoid those pesky Wips?

Barbara Warner, eat your heart out.

I have to confess that I finished my vintage crochet creation some time ago but, due to my compulsion to faff about with bits of wool, I've only now got round to taking pics of the finished result and here it is in all its final glory!

I am really, really delighted with it, the original pattern is a 60s/70s Barbara Warner one and I've left off the picot edging, mainly because I thought it would look a bit twee, picot has its place but not at my neckline!
I'm so chuffed that I'm considering making another one from this pattern (in another colour) but I have so many BW vintage patterns that I may just tackle a different one, after I've cleared my backlog of WIPs/Ufo's.
Speaking of which, I've nearly finished my 70s tank (the teal/turquoise) but I've made a bit of a pigs ear of it, (made a mess of picking up the stitches) so I shall finish it and wear it in the dark where people can't see it. Either that or I shall state that the holey bits are a design feature. And then I shall cheerfully move on, it's been a learning curve and I know what not to do next time.

A tryst with tunisian.

Whilst still not finishing my UFOs, I've been faffing about trying out my new found tunisian crochet skills, inspired by an article in the US mag Crochet Today (love this mag, it's so American Apple Pie schmalty, that I cannot pass by it without being compelled to open my purse). So, I used some old wool and swatched away and was so impressed with the results that I've now decided that I need to make an Afghan...right now.

I espied some Twilleys Freedom Spirit wool which looked the part and this, dear reader is the result so far. I have to admit I love Twilleys Freedom wool, it has such a cuddly, stroke me quality about it that I love and I'm not a girl that coverts really expensive pure wool usually. Although I do have a particular affection for Twilleys, as all my mums 60s/70s old crochet patterns seem to be Twilleys, mostly crocheted in sparkling, fabulously named Twilleys Goldfingering. I remember leafing through these patterns as a young girl and being entranced by it's shimmery twinklyness.

Anyway back to Afghan, I'm working it in panels, so I've chained on 40 stitches and am going to do 3 or 4 long strips, then I'll join them together (at the front) with double crochet, just to give bit of contrasting interest and texture. Then when I've finished I'm going to wrap it round me on cold evenings. Shame I don't possess a log fire!