autumn leaf bunting diy

I thought I'd show you guys my most recent make, that is hanging proudly in my window, my little autumn leaf bunting. Having been a fan of Attic-24 and her kind of bunting for a while now, I wanted to do something similar that was more me. I'd had this nutscene twine hanging about for a bit and thought I would make some little autumn-leaf bunting. It's a fairly similar pattern, so I'm just linking to the ones that I used, but thought you might like to know how I did it..

YOU'LL NEED:

- 3 small rolls of Nutscene twine, I used a brown, an orange and a yellow)

- crochet hook, suitable for the size of yarn or twine you're using

- a method of hanging, I like those 3M hooks.

- needle

1. I'm not going to repost the crochet instructions here, partly because I'm crap at crochet, and there are so many out there to choose from. I used this pattern for the large leaf and the medium fat bottom leaf from this page, for the small ones.

2. I will say that if you're using the twine, it's pretty hard on the hands to crochet with,and I found it really tough to just crochet in general, so you may need to be wary of that.

3. Leave enough string to hang them from. I found that I could easily get 1 large leaf and 2 small ones from each small roll of twine, with a length to spare - but then ended up with a giant knot in one of them and had to use the leftover length...

4. When you've crocheted all your leaves, use an iron to gently steam them flat as they have a tendency to curl in on themselves.

5. Sew in any ends, and thread through with a needle onto your length of yarn and hang in your window.

So there you go, it's pretty simple but it looks really cute, and it'll be staying up well into the new year, I think. I might even try making a Christmas-themed garland, though I might try a knitted one next time, because I'm really not very good at crochet (I had to have my mum help me with these because I get super confused between the US/UK crochet terms haha). Let me know if you try this out, I'd love to see photos! 

do-it-yourself gifts - part two

image from transientexpression.com, tutsplus.com and julieblanner.com 

This year, I want to try and make as many presents as possible, because I want to give nice things to my friends and family even if I am a bit poor this year, because they still deserve nice things. Over the next three weekends I am going to show you some of my favourite items you can do for friends - that will cute and thoughtful, and won't break the bank!
This week we have things that we have enough time to get making, and can be churned out, so to speak, if you have a lot of friends and relatives. 

• Knit or crochet headbands; my girlfriends have loved these as presents in the past, and I think I'll be utilising them again because they're really quick to make and, in my opinion, much much nicer than the ones you get in Primark that are probably made somewhere horrible and will fall apart in five minutes. I would love to receive one, I know that! There are lots of variations on this theme, like the braided one above, and this Antropologie inspired version, progressing to something to something a little more complicated like this one called Saving Grace, or a real cute seed-stitch bow-headband. Failing that, get a free account with Ravelry and browse their archives, there are loads!
• Handmade cases; this is a sort of catch-all image, but there are all kinds of patterns out there, knitted, crocheted, sewn - hundreds. Search on Pinterest for Kindles/iPad/iPhone case, and there are loads of really good ideas. I love this step-by-step tutorial from tutsplus.com in a self-striping yarn that is really cute, and in the right kind of wool it would be good for guys as well. Here are some great ideas for crocheted iPad cases, or handmade Kindle cases. Find a cute fabric and basically sew an envelope - maybe with some foam in -  for a good protective case.
• Homemade beauty products; obviously, everyone loves something for a good soak and everyone loves getting bath stuff for Christmas (or I do, at least). Giving a home-remedy bath scrub or cleansing balm gives it a great little twist, particularly if you find a cute little vintage jar or Kilner jar to tie a bow around. I would be sure to write a little list of ingredients just incase the recipient is allergic or sensitive to anything. OF course, there are thousands of recipes for all sorts of bath and beauty products out there, I've been making a cleansing balm of Coconut oil and Vitamin E oil of late, and I am really loving that. However, I have rounded up some of my favourites: Gemma has a very similar balm cleanser and Meg has both a cleansing clay mask, lavender bath soakk and a suitably Christmassy vanilla chai body scrub. Bow Tied Beauty also has a wealth of information about making your own products, which may come in useful and I love this mint milk bath from Julie Blanner, but she has a lot of other amazing sounding things which I suggest browsing if interested. 

gifts - part one

Have you started thinking about presents? I know that now I've been paid I'll have to gather my bits and bobs - I think that hopefully I have got all my immediately family sorted, now just a few friends to think about! Attempting to be a bit more organised this year - how about you?

glowing blue

This is such a prized possession of mine, I just had to show you this old knit. I bought this particular yarn from a knitting fair my mum took me to early this year, and I was in love. The hall was full of beautiful yarn, the kind that is super hard to find around here. There wasn't a ball of pastel yellow or fluroescent green acrylic in sight, but hanging skeins of, what I called, 'glowing' wool. They are silk yarns that are dyed beautiful colours. After uhming and aahing for most of the day, I limited myself to just the one skein, and that was this beautiful sapphire blue from Fibres Exotica. It was quite expensive, so I just got the one skein.. which left me with a dilemma - what could I make from one ball?! 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I wanted to knit a crochet lacy hat, and eventually made this beauty - which I'm absolutely in love with. It's not the warmest of hats, obviously, more designed for fashion than warmth!
The pattern was the Summer 'Combination' Hat on Ravelry, and it was my first proper foray into crochet - one that wasn't the easiest of tasks when we had to convert US crochet terms to English and vice versa.. my mum helped me a lot, haha.