Cushion

Unlike last year I haven't home-made much for Christmas this year. But I did make this cushion cover for my sister to match her newly decorated living room. I invented the pattern myself and was very relieved that it worked as I only finished it two days before Christmas!

Christmas Cake Pops

When I left my last job I was bought a voucher for The Make Lounge.

I spent it on a Christmas cake pop decorating course and below are the results.

The tutor April made the pops for us and coated them in a layer of white chocolate. Her recipe and blog is here

 A basic pop

 a bit of marbling

 Half way through

 All finished. See the wine in the background? Provided as part of the course!

 My favourite

 Cute snowman

 Wrapped up and ready to gift (or unwrap and eat)

 Ready to go home

I haven't got around to buying anything to replicate these at home but it's good to know how easy thety are to make. I think Easter egg cake pops might be on the cards this year.

Map wrap

I rescued a 1972 road atlas of Great Britain from the recycle bin at work a few months ago fully intending to use it for lots of crafty projects. I've done very little so far, although I've pinned lots of overly ambitious projects to pinterest and I have a pretty great Christmas gift idea.

Yesterday though was my boyfriends birthday and while I don't know how much he appreciated it, I was very impressed by the wrapping of his gift.

 Card and book

 Bow made from the amazing route maps at the front of the atlas (also it's hard to wrap a guitar)

Birthday fun

More baby stuff

Although I try to avoid making blue things for boys and pink for girls sometimes it just works out that way. Below though is a blanket I made for a christening in purple cream and brown and I think it looks lovely.

Babies in crochet!

One of the best things for me about crochet is making things for other people especially when the people I'm making for are as cute as these babies.

Here's Nina in Sitges, Spain keeping warm in winter on the beach with her hat and blanket. Nina is the daughter of the beautiful Flavia and Gaby.




Natalie in Maine is the daughter of my prom date Anthony and his lovely wife Jess. Who not only have an awesome wedding dance but also an awesome baby.



And last but by no means least, here's Jamie holding Gideon who's all wrapped up in his blanket in Cheltenham.

Valentines Day

I got a bit over-excited about having re-discovered my sewing machine and decided to use it to make some valentines cards. I sent ones to my my family and gave one to my boyfriend.

I quite enjoy valentines day. My boyfriend less so, so this was his card. Happy arbitrary day of love!


In the same way I love Christmas without being religious I think anything that encourages people to be nice to one another and show that they care is a good thing. And yes I know rampant commercialism, why only appreciate someone on one day, making single people feel bad etc. etc. blah blah blah but I'm with the Oatmeal on this one.


Although from experience and talking to the girls at work I think xkcd has modern valentines day pretty much in a nutshell

Classic Crochet

As part of home-made Christmas my sister found my stepmum a beautiful folder of vintage knitting patterns. Debbie already had this crochet book so donated it to me


I decided to make this stylish tie.



And here is Emerson modelling it beautifully





I also submitted it to the wonderful Helen Zaltzman's collection of #shitgift tweets. You can read the whole joyous collection here

Blanket

For my Dad and Step-Mum I made a granny square blanket. I love the colours and I like the way the different patterns worked out together. I couldn't decide how to edge it but the good people of twitter helped me decide and I went for red grannny stripe, brown granny stripe and then a red single crochet to finish. And I also enjoy the badly posed photos :-)

Scarves

Here are Jennie and Jonathan in their scarves. Jonathan's was extra thick and chunky thanks to the front-post back-post rib stitch. I didn't follow a pattern and it was almost too chunky and solid but someone at Stitch Balham taught me the trick of soaking it in cheap hair conditioner to make it wearable. For Jennie's I followed a ravelry pattern and really like the flower drops.





Everyone in their crocheted gifts on Christmas morning.

Handwarmers

I made these handwarmers for my step-sister-in-law-to-be Laura on a train from Edinburgh to London. I sort of invented the pattern myself from what I could remember of a similar one on Ravelry. I really like the ribbing on the cuffs (back-loop-only dontcha know) and was pleased how it turned out overall. I was even more amazed that I managed to make the second one the same!