All My Favourite Babies

This isn't strictly crafting but I thought I'd post pics of a few things I have made ;0)

It's taken over a year as Rowan is now 13 months but I finally have some good pics of all my babies together. At the back is Abi (dd2) on the left & Jo (dd1) on the right. In front is Rowan (ds) on the left & Mhara (dd3) on the right.



And here's a pic of my pair of posers.

!! PRIZE DRAW RESULTS!!

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who left a suggestion - 16 of you between here & MN! Since there were so many I've drawn an extra 2 names & there are now 5 prizes altogether.

So without further ado [cue drum roll]

1st prize (& I'm so gonna get accused of a fix for this) - Katy (GingerMonkey)
2nd prize - CountessDracula
3rd prize - nbgdoesnthaveachristmasname
4th prize - DutchOma
5th prize - AnnabelCaramel

So Katy wins the bunny, CountessDracula & nbg both get a lip gloss holder & DutchOma & AnnabelCaramel both get a wee lavender pillow. Mhara did the draw from her pink straw cowboy hat (once we'd managed to wrestle it off of Rowan - pink is definitely not his colour) so any thanks/blame should be directed towards her.

Thanks again to everyone who took part - if the winners can email me their real names & addresses (email link on my profile page) I'll get the prizes in the post.

PRIZE DRAW - Help me name my Etsy shop

I want to sell all hand-crocheted goodies & would like my shop title to reflect this but I am rubbish at names.
Anyone who leaves a comment on this post or on my Mumsnet thread with a name suggestion before 10pm on Wednesday 5th Dec will go into a hat to win Bella Bunny. She is crocheted in chunky grey yarn & has felt eyes & nose. Her ears, paws & tail are made of lovely fluffy pink yarn.



Two runners up will each receive a lip gloss holder keyring. It comes with a lip crayon & is perfectly sized for a standard lip gloss tube with wand.



Please please please give me your suggestions for a name - funny, quirky or just plain weird I will consider them all.

Christmas Fayre, hmmmm . . .

Well my first Christmas fayre has been & gone & it was rather a flop :(
There was hardly anyone there - even the home-baking stall had stock left! - & after paying for the table I probably only took about £20. Still I'm glad I did it & at least with all this stock I now have no excuse not to start my Etsy shop.
Which leads me on to . . .

Crocheting my fingers to the bone . . .

The craft fair (fayre?) is on Saturday & I have spent the last fortnight with a crochet hook in hand. I don't think I've made eye contact with Iain all week & he, Mhara & Rowan are feeling a tad neglected.

Still, Iain's a bit happier tonight since I've given him an excuse to fiddle with his camera. A couple of things still need to be finished off but he's managed to photograph most of it so here goes;-



Hair slides, pony tail bands & barrettes (the ones with felt leaves)



Hair bands



Lip balm holders & lip gloss holders



Bracelets



Lavender pillows



A rabbit softie & 2 blanket buddies



Tree decorations. The robin is v cute but hasn't photographed very well. The one in the egg cup is a gnome btw - it was the only way I could make him stand up.



And finally for GingerMonkey . . .




. . . a cupcake bag ;0)

Just a quickie

Okay I know I said I was having a week off to get ready for the craft fair & I meant it, honest, but my Auntie sent me some pics of the gifts I made for her 60th birthday so I thought I would share.


The vase was her 'proper' pressie & was knitted in Colinette Prism then felted in the washing machine & embellished with a crochet flower. The roses are wooden ones that I got from a market stall.

!!WARNING - IF YOU ARE OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW!!

I also made a joke pressie of [[ahem]] knitted gents' genitalia for my mum to present to her at the party (all 3 sisters have rather a bawdy sense of humour). Thankfully she left his wee hat on for the pic so it's not quite as rude as it could be. I weighted the bottom by sticking a glass pebble into 2 balloons (pink ones - poor Iain walked in in the middle of the operation & was horrified) & tying the 2 ends together. It actually gives it a realistic feel [[blush]] & makes it stand up on its own. One of my Auntie's friends spent the whole party stroking the darn thing & tried to smuggle it home - she's asked me to knit one for her the same only bigger :-0



(I'm not sure how long this pic'll stay on the blog so snigger while you can)

Taking a short break . . .

. . . as I've gone & booked a table at a craft fair on 1st December & have practically no stock!!! So I shall be crocheting my fingers to the bone in an attempt not to embarrass myself with a pitiful display.

Will be back in a week or so ;0)

Amelie

The lovely GingerMonkey, who I know from another site, makes the most beautiful hand-sewn toys. I made the mistake of opening her blog while Mhara was hanging off my shoulder so wasn't too surprised when a little voice in my ear said "Santa bring one of them for me Mummy?". How could I refuse? Amelie the Emu arrived last week with her luggage & immediately took up refuge in a safe-house (aka a box in the bottom of my wardrobe) where she will stay until Christmas. She seems quite happy here & the Scottish winter doesn't seem to have affected her so far but she has developed an addiction for whisky & fudge so we may need to loosen her legwarmers soon.



Photo courtesy of GingerMonkey - thanks GM ;0)

Penny For Your Thoughts.

This is Penelope, my first attempt at a crocheted doll. She took about 5 days (and a lot of cursing) to make what with all the ripping back while I was trying to work out a pattern. I'm quite pleased with her now tho' & actually had the foresight to write down the pattern as I went along so as long as I can decipher my scribbles she should soon have lots of friends to keep her company.



Preferring to be called Penny - she's only Penelope when she's done something naughty - she's a little over 12" tall with long auburn hair which she wears in bunches. She's dressed for the autumn weather in woolly tights, knee boots & a crocheted dress. She refuses to wear a coat (typical teenager) but has consented to a warm fluffy scarf. Penny carries a messenger bag (not pictured) decorated with a funky paisley-patterned button. She's asked if she can have one of the corsages to take as a pressie to her new owner when she gets one & to avoid a strop I have agreed.

Corsages and Hairbands and Belts, oh my!

I know the blog's called woolly KNIT bits but I've gotten a bit hooked (I can see you wincing heh heh) on crochet. I bought a huge bag of assorted buckles off ebay for the princely sum of £7.78 (bargain - I paid £2.99 for one at the craft shop the other week!) & have been having fun using up odd balls of yarn crocheting accessories. The blue belt is done in baby bamboo (I love the colour) & the pink is pure cotton. The brown is a tweedy dk yarn that I got from my lovely granny when she was clearing out her stash. There's loads of it so I might try a little toy for Rowan's birthday with it but I'd better get my skates on - he'll be one on Saturday. That can be my MN A&C challenge for this week.



The hairbands are crocheted in Noro Kureyon (blue/brown) & Twilleys Freedom Spirit (green). They can be worn as Alice bands, neckwarmers or earwarmers - handy for me 'cos since getting all my hair cut off I just don't suit hats any more but still need to stop my ears freezing off in our sub-zero Scottish winters. I have orders from my teenage daughters for one each (red for Joanna, blue for Abbie) & Mhara already has one with a crocheted loveheart in a garish pink acrylic marl which she absolutely adores. There's no accounting for the tastes of a two year old.

The corsages are in a mix of yarns (mostly Freedom Spirit) & have all been felted apart from the orange - I'm still not sure whether I prefer them felted or not. I'm hoping to start up a shop on Etsy or similar which is why I've been stockpiling these little bits & pieces - once I've got a few toys & bags to add I'll be ready to go (fingers crossed).

Little Monsters

We had a halloween party on Wednesday & Mhara was so excited - she spent all day telling anyone who would listen that she was having a fancy dress party. Normally if strangers talk to her she just glowers or hides behind me but these poor people were getting their ears talked off with no provocation. Mhara was dressed as a witch (given that she's smack in the middle of the terrible twos it was an appropriate costume choice) & Rowan looked singularly unimpressed with his bat outfit but everyone else thought he looked gorgeous.

Crotchety Old Bag

Or rather several crochet-y new bags. I decided to make halloween bags for Mhara & Rowan based on the easiest thing to crochet - circles. I was so chuffed with the resulting pumpkin that I thought I'd see how many different round bags I could make. Two weeks & several bouts of finger-cramp later I had 6 bags - enough for my 4 & my niece & nephew to get one each at their gran's halloween party. At the last minute I discovered my sister's stepson was coming too which is why there are 2 eyeballs - it was the quickest one to make in a rush. The kids all got them yesterday & loved them (probably 'cos they were filled with chocolate mind you). We'll see how long they last . . .

Bonce

Belfry

Oggle

Boggle

Hecatty

Pye

Spud

It's taken 2 days but I've finally managed to upload close-ups of all the bags (darned pc's been playing up). Spud the spider now has a sparkly silver web handle (crocheted on a packed bus on the way to the party heh heh), Oggle & Boggle have retinas on the back (uurrgh!) & the handles are the optic nerves & Hecatty has pink pads on the backs of his paws but hubby dearest forgot to take rear-view pics (you just can't get the staff) so you'll just have to use your imagination lol.

WooHoo - let the Ravelry begin!

I finally got my Ravelry invite today after 2 months of queue-checking. I am so-o-o-o excited but haven't managed to have a good look yet (darn housework). I have however joined the I Dye for Doctor Who group & have spent a happy few minutes admiring all the Who goodies on there.

Proud Mummy Moment

I started buying Simply Knitting magazine a while ago (steadfastly ignoring the smirks of the cashiers in the newsagents - don't they know knitting is cool these days?) & have been inspired by a few articles & patterns. One of these was an article on knitting breasts for use in maternity hospitals, ante-natal classes etc to help show women how to express milk. I wound up knitting a breast for the breastfeeding group at our local health centre & took a picture of Rowan taking it for a 'test drive'. The picture was so cute I had to send it in to the magazine - lo & behold I opened the September issue to see my son grinning at me from the letters page.

Two months on I buy the November issue, open it & what do I see but Mhara modelling her Dr Who doll. Okay it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise since I sent the pictures in myself but I didn't actually expect to have another one printed. I've now come to the conclusion that the postie on that round must have an easy shift 'cos the magazine can't get many letters (especially since I sent mine by email heh heh).

Totally Tubular

I've been dying to have a go at the Swizzle Vest in the Domiknitrix book but could not get my head around the tubular cast-on instructions in said book. So-o-o-o . . . cue ten minutes with my needles, yarn & knitstricken & hey presto - 45 stitches cast on & all ready to start ribbing :0)



So that's something else to add to my work in progress list, oh well . . .

Blogging virgin

Oo my first post on my very own blog. I'm sitting here wondering two things;

1) What do I write?

2) Will anyone care enough to read it?

I guess the answers are;

1) Whatever I feel like

2) Probably not but that doesn't matter





I've set this up mainly as a knitting blog since I want to design my own knitted dolls but I've no doubt that it will just become a random waffle. I'm currently at the stage of thinking about what kind of dolls I want to do (especially at around 3am when I just can't seem to drop back off to sleep after R's night feed) but over the last couple of weeks I've actively started going into yarn shops & having a good fondle. Maybe this time next year I'll be ready to actually start getting some designs onto paper . . .

Anyway this first post is just so I can stop my spanking new blog from looking scarily empty so I'm just gonna start with a little 'about me';

My name is Shirley (obviously), I'm 34 (eeek I can't believe I typed that) & I live in the East of Scotland with my hubby & my 4 children, 3 girls & a boy, whose ages range from 14 years to 10 months (big age gap? - maybe a tad). I'm a SAHM who really wants to be a WAHM (as per above) if I can ever stay away from the PC long enough to get anything done (curse you Mumsnet). I have a cat & a yarn stash that is steadily edging its way out of the cupboard & onto the bedroom floor (much to the delight of said cat). My stash currently sits at over 100 balls of yarn (I came home from holiday last week with 10 balls of Patons Moonglow & 7 of Sirdar Splash only to find an ebay parcel containing 5 balls of Sirdar Denim Ultra - a happy homecoming lol). I have definite plans for some of this yarn - a shrug from the Moonglow, fingerless wristwarmers from 2 balls of Noro Kureyon that I take out from time to time just to sigh over - but no idea what to do with the rest which is usually picked up in the bargain bin at the LYS.

I love to knit and crochet (the two are not mutually exclusive, honest) & have just discovered tunisian crochet which is fab! As well as yarn crafts I also fill my spare (ha) time by volunteering on the committees of our toddler group & our local Real Nappy Network - cloth nappies are THE BEST. I'm also hoping to start up a babywearing group soon as the best bit of 'baby stuff' I've ever bought has been my Mei Tai sling.

On the needles/hook at the mo;

Chunky tunisian crochet scarf
Ruffled beaded crochet scarf
Crocheted mai tai baby sling (just to see if it will work)
Knitted caterpillar toy
Baby legwarmers (on DPNs - aaarrrgh!)

Recently completed;

Fluffy scarf for M (dd3)
Cosy earflap hat for R (ds)
Knitted set of [ahem] male genitalia for a 60th birthday 'joke' pressie
Felted vase - the birthday lady's proper pressie
Knitted Dr Who doll (pictured) for M since she's too young for the action figures
Wool cover for R's night-time nappy

Right, enough waffling for now. I'm off to do some work.