Owl Mobile

Hi everyone. Hope you all have had a good weekend with plenty of sunshine. This is my latest craft project: the little knitted owls. My first knitted toy and the first owls I've ever knitted. I'm very pleased how they turned out. They had been on my to-do craft list but my work colleague motivated me to have a go at them as she couldn't read the pattern. The owls turned out to be easy-peasy to make :) I have a feeling I will be knitting more of them in the future!

The owls come from a lovely book Baby and Toddler Knits made easy. I bought it at my workplace from a bookman and it only cost me a fiver! Bargain! Funnily, this book turned out to be a selling hit among my colleagues and quite a few of us got their own copy. The book is published by DK - one of my favourite publishing houses. They are good at releasing handbooks and the instructions and photos in their books are always clear. There's also a knitting guide at the back of this book too. It's a hardback with glossy paper and beautiful photographs. Another lovely add-on to my crafty book bookshelf. I just love the knitted pattern on the cover!

The whole project is an owl mobile for a baby :) My owls are more of a key ring type. Actually I've already given them away to people at work. 3 went to my colleagues who have a special liking for owls and one went to an autistic boy who loves his book about baby owls - he always brings it to school from home :) 

I had to take a few photos before I let them fly away :)

They came out pretty small, about 7-8 cm high. Very light as stuffed with polyestre. They don't take much yarn, literally scraps and some tiny amount of felt. They are also fast to knit. Just finishing off the bits may take a bit longer but I always like to get my details right :) I didn't have the same yarn as recommended in the book so I used grey yarn to combine with different colours. I think it combines very well with all sorts of colours. 

I hung them on my seasonal tree just to see what they would look like:

This gave me an idea: I'm going to knit my own owl gang, just using different colours to match my mantlepiece decoration :)

A few photos outside :) I even made a crude rustic mobile for them using garden stitcks ;)

My cat Cookie aka Mr Nosey was "helping" me take the photos outside. He's got to be everywhere where something is going on. His job was to hang around the bushes and check if any stranger is approaching :)

But after 5 min. he was ready to take a chilling break :P

Cooling down with his leg sticking up in the air ha ha

Ready with my knitted owl gang for Handmade Monday blog hop. Do join in and have fun reading about other crafters' doings. Have a good weekend and thank you for your comments. x x

Knitters have balls...

...and so do I :) Remember that cross stitched card with a teddy and a pink blanket I stitched for a little baby daughter of my colleague? I blogged about it HERE. Well, I decided to knit some julekuler in a baby version to complete the hand-made gift :) Last year I spent long months knitting all those 55 Scandinavian balls by Arne & Carlos. Then I had a knitting break until now (except knitting the Easter eggs). I missed my knitted balls on double pointed needles. I thought knitting a girly pink-n-white version could be as much exciting as knitting in red-n-white. I chose motifs that could easily go as kiddy ones too - a butterfly, a heart and a rocking horse. 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself knitting these. The gift was well received and I was pleased to be able to make one :) Would love to knit some more, perhaps in blue, yellow and beige/coffee shades :)

Thank you for your visits and the lovely comments you leave behind x x x

New Baby Cross Stitched Card. A very "stitchy" weekend.

This weekend has been all about cross stitching. Woohoo! Finally, I have finished my cross stitched teddy  and mounted it on a card. I was backstitching it all afternoon yesterday and today I've washed it, ironed it and mounted on the card and embellished the whole thing :) Quite elaborate piece of work considering how many hours have gone into stitching the teddy itself plus how much time I spent today pondering on the card layout and choosing the right stamps! :) Pink gingham paper was a must! - I just love gingham patterns. Cross stitched cards are the most time-consuming types of cards but they are so unique and special in this way. Not bad ;) Pleased with the results.

The card will go to my colleague, who recently has had a baby - gorgeous ginger-haired Millie May. Hope she likes it. 

The cross stitch design comes from Cute Cross Stitch magazine, a newbie on the press market, issue no.1, Spring 2013. The stamps I used to make a tag: Nordic Baby from The Waltzing Mouse Stamps and the punched lacy heart border was made using Martha Stewart punch Heart Border. 

Still on the cross stitch frontline, yesterday a new issue of subscribed Cross Stitcher arrived through the post and since I just loved their added freebie, I started stitching it immediately :) These 3 supa cute retro / folksy flowers are sooooo my style! They will make a set of 3 cross stitched notelets. 

I'm really enjoying stitching them right now!

Speaking of the cute flowers, I have been sooo over the moon when I managed to get hold of these 2 gorgeous sets of stamps:

In a way they are very special for me. These are the stamps by Basic Grey from 2009 - series: Ambrosia Bitsy Bohemia stamps. Very difficult to buy now as they are the retired products. I spotted them being reserved and then bought by someone else in a 2nd hand craft market group on facebook (doh!) and since I'm always on the lookout for the craft products with a unique folky feel, I knew I had to find a set like this for myself too. I scoured the whole internet looking for them and finally some persistent search on ebay made my dream come true :)))) there was one seller in Germany who was still selling them and now I can enjoy card making with these beautiful designs. How lucky I was! My favourites among these sets are naturally the  gorgeous folky butterfly, 2 birds on the branches and a folky medallion with a butterfly inside (two separate stamps).

To finish off with this stampaholic confession, I'm linking up tonight at Hand-made Harbour to do some blog hopping. Hope all you have had a good weekend and enjoyed the last two sunny days. x x

Knitting and Crochet books

Hi all. Hope you are all ok and enjoying sunny Friday :) We've had a gorgeous sunny day (finally!) over here in Flintshire.

There have been two books I've been eyeing on Amazon for a while and finally here they are! At my place!  In my hands! :) These are Crochet Workshop by Erika Knight and Circular Knitting by Margaret Radcliffe.

Below, a few photos for you to have a peek. Both are beautifully published with lots of gorgeous photographs inside. Crochet Workshop features some lovely natural beige tone yarns and the projects look very appealing (I'm salivating whenever I open this book!). The book is targeted mostly at beginners (me in this case) but an advanced person will surely find something for themselves. There are nice explanations and pictures on how to master your crochet basics. Very appealing and tempting overall.

Some luscious photos <3

There are both verbal descriptions as well as the crochet symbol charts. Whichever you prefer. I really need to study those crochet charts. At the moment they are all mystery to me.

A couple of exemplary projects. I just love these slippers!

Or... how about a kindle / notebook cover?

I'm so eager to start on this one!

The other book, Circular Knitting Workshop is a very thorough and decent compendium on circular knitting techniques. Rich with information and explanatory photographs. 

The book is divided into 2 main parts - introduction to circular knitting in a form of a workshop and the projects for you to practise.  It guides you from the simplest knitted forms to the gradually more advanced ones.

The explanations are really good, the photos are clear and well taken.

There are technical details and specifications for each of the projects - I really like this feature. The layout and the material is presented in a modern and attractive way.

Ever dreamt of being able to knit a shawl like this? I have!

There is also technique evaluation and comparison - another bonus.

Love the books and very pleased with the purchase. I just love possessing all sorts of craft bibles and compendia embracing the whole knowlege. All in one place. A big crafty pill :) It is my big dream to be able to crochet all sorts of projects as there are so many tempting ones out there. As for knitting, my target would be to be able to knit some Nordic socks, hats and mitten as well as shawls and wrist warmers (for a start). Long way ahead but hopefully with these great resources I'll be motivated to explore a bit deeper the yarn world.

On the cross stitch frontline - still stitching the poor pink teddy for a card. It just needs some backstitch and mounting it on a card. Almost there!

Have a good weekend! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a little note behind :)  x x x