Bits and bobs baskets

Myf has been away with her dad for Christmas and should be back in about an hour :-)  I've missed her terribly-she's not been very well either so I can't wait to have her home and wrap her up in cuddles.

The items I made for the sisters exchange were little baskets for keeping useful odds and ends in.  I know that to crochet baskets, you really should use a thick, sturdy yarn and crochet tightly but I wanted to see what would happen if you reinforced it with wire as you crochet.

It's a bit fiddly-I suppose it's like using a padding yarn or crocheting over an end: you give the wire a basic shape (in this case, circular) and hold it on the top and crochet over it.  The worst part is trying to make sure there are no sharp edge poking out.  Plus there's the difficulty of keeping a decent shape.

Thea's:

There's a little one inside the bigger one :-)

Jessica's:

We are using a practise one here to keep Myf's inhalers in-but I think I'll try to make another using a stiff twine and see what kind of results I can get :-)


It's been a really crafty year for me!  I've started another blanket-simply because I love them so much and I have a really fun idea I want to try out :-)

If I don't manage to be crafty again before the New Year, may the end of 2012 take your regrets with it and may the start of 2013 herald a new beginning for us all!

Cushions and covers :-)

My sisters and I were planning to do a gift exchange in September/October but we all had a lot going on, especially in the run up to Christmas!  So Thea suggested adding them to the Yule presents-which was a relief as I'd had trouble thinking of useful things to make (Useful household things was the theme I think)
The main items I made were cushion covers-yet another excuse to play with granny squares but how can I refuse when there's so much a granny square can do?
Thea's cushion cover:

Side 1

Side 2

I've been having fun playing with diagonal squares

Not sure what to call it when you change colour along the diagonal?  I like the different combinations and effects you can make with them :-)

For Jess

Side 1

Side 2

Side 2 is completely diagonal squares arranged to form a pattern that reminds me of an American Patchwork Quilt:-)

I'm no good with zips so I used buttons for closing

Hope they liked them!

Quick Retraction.......

I keep forgetting!  The sisters gift exchange that I posted would be monthly isn't!  I think I'd go grey if I had to try and come up with new creative ideas every month!  It's meant to be every now and then, a few months between, that sort of time frame.  I just got confused.  It happens frequently.........

Sisters Gift Exchange!

I meant to post about this last week but it has been a little busy here so instead here's a huge post with lots of pictures!  The sisters gift exchange was so lovely-it really showcased some of our diverse talents as well as being such a treat to get happy post :-)
So from Thea I got:

She made a GORGEOUS book cover and teabags with beautiful cheer-you-up tags on, two sweet heart buttons, a chocolate biscuit and a mug-hug!  Which fits my favourite mug perfectly by the way :-)  Thanks Thea, I love them!

From Jessica there was :

She made a stunning bookmark with lace crochet and a card with lace crochet hearts, a cute biscuit box (complete with biscuits!) and a lovely night light hand glass-painted with hearts :-)  She also sent some seed for the growing season! Thanks Jess, they're really beautiful <3

My offerings look like this-
Thea:

Jess:

I've been getting into wood burning of late so I 'embellished' a couple of photo frames and I used my wire jewellery book to create the necklaces.  I crocheted a little bag for the necklaces with a few little crochet hearts to decorate and a couple of pretty flowers :-)  My offerings turned up a day late but hopefully I'll be more organised next time!  It was a lot of fun and hopefully my sisters liked them <3

Winnie the Pooh blanket

My monitor has gone all weird-I've tried changing the cables to the monitor, I've even tried swapping the monitor for my spare but the screen is still very stripy so it's hard to see what the pictures look like :-(  Hopefully, they look better on your screen...

Anyway, a while back, I posted about a baby blanket I'd been asked to make by a friend who works in the other branch of the charity I volunteer with for her expecting daughter who really loves Winnie the Pooh.  Trouble was, I couldn't figure out how to make a Winnie the Pooh out of squares so I learned how to do afghan stitch and made a few squares with that to cross stitch on to.  I've been procrastinating for a while about getting it finished as my cross stitch skills are frankly rubbish.
Last week was the first week I'd been back at volunteering as they closed over Christmas and since the New Year, Myf's been home sick with a chest infection.  She was finally better after a week of antibiotics so when I went in, I spoke to S on the phone and she told me her Grandson had been born on Christmas Eve :-)  So once I'd finished my blanket, I spent Saturday getting the cross stitch done as well as I could and yesterday stitching it together and putting a border around it.  And I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.  However, I'm quite nervous, really hope S and her daughter like it!  What do you think?

In other news, I spoke to one of my sisters a couple of weeks ago and she's suggested a really lovely idea.  The three of us don't get to see each other very often at all and we live all over the place but now that I've finally joined the crafty ranks, she's suggested making things to send to each other monthly as a kind of 'Sisters Gift Exchange'.  As we're coming up on Valentines Day, we're starting off with 'Hearts' for the first theme :-)  Now that I have my blanket projects out of the way, I'm playing with ideas and can't wait to get stuck in!

(Last year, I did 7 posts.  This year I've done 7 and January hasn't even finished yet!  This makes me happy...)