Getting ready for Christmas

I love Christmas more than any other time of the year! I love the lights, seeing friends and family, presents (buying, wrapping, giving and receiving!) the mulled wine, Christmas markets... Need I go on? But the thing I love most is decorating! So I've been quite busy over the last month making little felt decorations for my tree.



These are ever so easy to make, all you need is a bit of felt, some buttons, ribbon and teddybear stuffing, a pair of scissors, pinking shears if you have some, tapestry thread, needles, and a mince pie. The design is from a flyer I picked up in Hobbycraft but you can also view it online here!

The edge has been finished with a blanket stitch; I got this from my Cath Kidstone Sew book but you can find simple instructions all over the internet.



This is my favourite with all the little heart shaped buttons which were only 99p for a bag which made another heart and may even make one more. Bargain! A little tip for the ribbon is if you don't have any, raid your wardrobe. What you say? Raid your wardrobe? Yes! So many of my tops have these ribbons inside to use on hangers but 9 times out of 10 I never use them for this purpose, and they always get in the way don't they? Chop them off and save for a project! Some people might call it cheap, I call it thrift.





The baubles and lights are just jewellery and crimping beads which I had in a tin for years! The snowflake shapes above I got from a shop in America called Michaels and they have sticky backs which is great for attaching while you sew; I'm sure most LCSs (local craft stores?) will have something similar.

All for now, have a lovely weekend :-)

It's November and I am a terrible blogger

I am officially blaming the clocks going backwards on my lack of recent blogging. By the time I get home from work it's dark and it just isn't possible to take nice photos in the dark. I am sticking to this excuse.

I have embarked upon a new project ladies, and if there are any reading this, gentlemen. My new stash of wool arrived a few weeks ago from Masons, a lovely 17 pack of Stylecraft put together especially for anyone crocheting along with Attic 24 who has used this in her granny stripe blanket.








I'd heard lots of good things about this wool, mainly that it was very soft for a £1.25/100g ball and I'm not disappointed in the slightest. I love it a lot (too much?) and it's so nice to work with! Plus I'm used to 50g balls so this should last me an age :-)

So what to do with it? I do admit I um'd and ah'd for quite a while, asked people on Ravelry what to do, made some test pieces and finally settled on some granny hexagons [tutorial]. Oh no. Not another blanket says boyfriend. Oh yes ! This one will (I promise) be a lot smaller. I have absolutely no plan, no grand design, I'm just going to churn out enough hexagons to make something reasonably sized. Horray!









I promise to be better at writing better things and posting more interesting pictures! When the sun is out x