Off my needles: felted slippers

I never really understood slippers. I mean obviously the concept of them was not ungraspable, however they were just never really something I got on with until the last few years. 

I had previously made these from a kit I picked up at the Knit and Stitch Ally Pally a few years back; they were a beautiful forest green and I wore them until they were full of holes and fairly filthy, slobbing out to the car in them, spilling porridge and coffee on them whilst clumsily making my breakfast in the dark in them...

When I got a hole so badly that my big toe was poking out, I realised I needed to knit myself up a new pair, however wanted to try and find the cheapest feltable (is that a word?) wool that I could, as I knew they would last about as long as my other ones, and I wear them to death. A quick google search and Ravelry hunt told me that the Cascade 220 was 100% wool and good for felting, so I picked a couple of this colour, I think it was midnight blue or something, from their Heathers collection. It's so good that brands like Cascade and the Drops Alpaca ranges are getting more readily available over here, sometimes you want relatively priced yarn that isn't acrylic, which is pretty hard to find in the UK, I feel like.

Anyway, the pattern you can buy online, or there are similar ones all over Ravelry, but you basically knit giant floppy shapes with the yarn held double, and then you stick them in the washing machine until they felt up. They're super cosy, and great for shuffling about the house in.

I've knit them for a friend, too, who seemed to enjoy them, and they knit amazingly fast - so I would say they make good gifts. They loosen up over time, but that can easily be resolved by a quick wash, and they quickly shrink back up again. Obsessed doesn't even cut it - I'm rarely without these, these days.

Follow

Christmas (2016) Preparation...

I've been a bit out of the loops with blogging, recently. I'm not sure what happened, but one minute it was Halloween and I was all excited for Autumn - then I blinked and it was December 

Somewhere in between a lot happened, apparently. I escaped to the Derbyshire countryside, and even flew across to America, leaving me with seriously depleted funds (new handbag, anyone? And Sephora is a dangerous place...).
I decided, a little bit too late, that I wasn't to make gifts for people - however it is definitely my plan for next year. Hopefully by this time next year, I can be like Mina Philipp and have churned out about 40 pairs of socks in a year!

Since I got back from America, I've stormed through two pairs of socks for people for Christmas, made a huge batch of honeycomb, made two slabs of fudge for my closest friends, as always finding the time to knock out some Orange and Cardamom biscuits for the family.

I think throughout next year, I really want to put the emphasis on making more things for people. I've been discussing it over the last few weeks with people, to test the waters, because theres always that worry (of mine) that people will think I'm being cheap or something. Turns out no, the general consensus is that my friends think hand-made gifts are sweet and thoughtful (which is what I was aiming for...) and also, it makes me think hard about who the people are I'm making things for, because I always go a bit mad and overboard at this time of year.
So, if you're my friend, you're probably getting handknit socks sometime between now and Christmas 2016... Please subtly drop into conversation your foot size.

Also, please excuse the extreme close-up (don't judge my knitting too closely!) - as these are a gift for someone for Christmas, who may or may not read my blog, I'm not sure! I'm obsessed with the 'eye of the partridge' heel that I picked up in the Hermione's Every Day Sock pattern - and have knit it on every pair of socks recently. I think it's 100% more beautiful than the slip stitch heel I usually favour! 

Follow

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! 

blue racoon summer shirt

At Christmas, my mother bought me a metre of this beautiful Tula Pink fabric from John Lewis - from the Acacia collection. For six months I uhm-ed and aah-ed over what to make with it that wouldn't cut up the racoons too much - then my mum bought me another metre for my birthday, and we came across an article in an old magazine about how to draft a "boxy tee" pattern for yourself.. and, amazingly, it worked! I can knit things from patterns but I never thought I'd be able to sew myself a shirt. Admittedly, it did involve a lot of help from my mother (like one of the instructions just said "sew a bias tape" and I had no clue how to do that from the fabric I had...). 

The pattern tells you to measure your bust, shoulders, arms, the length you want the shirt and the circumference of where it will sit, and the drop of the neckline, and it told me exactly how to cut it out.. We made a trial from an old sheet, adjusted sleeves, lengths, necklines etc, and then made the real thing! It was so cool to try it on for the first time. 

I went with a high neck in front, with a dipped neckline in back to keep it cool for summer, long enough to cover the top of my jeans (something I find permanently frustrating in store-bought t-shirts, I'm forever tugging them down because I'm too tall!) and with sleeves that are currently just rolled up, but I am planning on making a little tab and button for them... once I can figure out how to do a button hole (mum will probably have to help there, too!). But, basically, I am in love with it. It's cotton, which makes it really cool for the summer, and I've been wearing it everywhere, with my cut off jeans, faux-Birkenstock sandals and sunglasses - I feel like a kid who won't take off their favourite dress, because I want to wear it all the time.

My next step is to try and make a shift dress from the same pattern - I'm going to go look for some fabric today. There is a foxy print one that I've had my eye on at a local quilt shop for a while.. I never thought I'd be into dressmaking, thinking I wouldn't be able to find nice patterns for my size/height, but making your own pattern seems like the perfect solution.

Have you ever made your own clothes?

(PS - how bright does my hair look in these pictures? I had it re-dyed the other week and I didn't realise it had gone so red in the sun..)