While I'm waiting...

My version of nesting seems to consist solely of a) cooking and b) crafting. The freezer is chock full of yummy eats (the fridge is particularly empty however. Oops.) and I am sewing to fill the time when I'm not too tired.

I knitted this hat-and-bootie set while at my antenatal classes. (Seemed appropriate!)



That's a modified-for-DK Sweet Norwegian Baby Cap and some Oh Baby Booties. (Picture taken before I realised that the tops of the booties fold down. :) )

And some sewing:



In the background: A simple swaddle blanket from My Longest Year. Behold the power of variegated thread!

Then a little crinkle square (that's the one with bees on), crinkle provided by Oreo packaging; a tiny taggie blanket, idea shamelessly gacked from OxfordKitchenYarns; and two soft fabric balls (in medium and small), pattern by Grand Revival Designs.

I should really be making more useful things, like reuseable baby wipes, but that's much boring-er! :)

Also, the quilt is finished, so a seperate post about that if it stays sunny and I get a nice photo of it....

Sugar Bowl

This is a gift made for a friend who is greatly enamored of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books. There is a mysterious sugar bowl which is said to contain the answer to one of the book's many mysteries, but it is never found. Thus, my friend gets a felt sugar bowl pincushion, which may never be opened...



It was pretty easy to sew together the wool felt. I adapted the bowl pattern from an apple pincushion pattern that I found on the internets. I made the top bit triangular instead of pointed, which helped to make the top of the sugar bowl nice and flat. The lid was the apple base, smaller. I ended up somehow needing only 5 pieces for that one.



I'm very happy with it and will definitely work with wool felt again. If you only make small things then the cost isn't prohibitive!

dye a bundle

I seem to have joined the guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers recently, and I was intrigued when they were running a Christmas competition called "dye-a-bundle", so of course I had to enter!

I received a square of cloth in which was wrapped up many different short lengths of yarn plus a "mystery colour" of Dylon. (Which, as I expected from its greenish hue, turned out to be green.)

After the first pot, I dyed up a second pot in a lighter shade - more fabric, more yarn.

When all had dried I made this:



He's got a woven ridgeback of all the different yarns I'd gotten, which I then sewed and steeked. (Probably not the right term for weaving, but oh well.) This bit took far longer than designing the stuffie himself, he practically threw himself together.

Hooray for me, though, when the voting day came I'd tied for second place out of all the lovely entries. Hurray!

Does anyone want a lizard stuffie? Probably not suitable for children under 3!