Mother's Day presents

I'm finding that writing about an event that occurred this very month is making me feel rather organised and happy. So I may still have to take photographs of P's Christmas pyjamas, which are probably already far too seasonally inappropriate to mention, and there may be piles of stuff to sort balanced around our home but still I'm happy. And the sun is shining and I've just eaten a delicious rhubarb filled Pump Street Bakery doughnut. That may well have something to do with it...

Mother's Day presents this year were a spring plant and a wooly make for both lovely Mums. For my Mum a shawl

 Which was rather tricky to photograph. Because it is a pretty shawl, not as rag-like as it looks here. Beautiful oh so soft wool - the delightfully named scrumptious lace by Fyberspates in Rose Pink. The mix of silk and merino means that this is dreamy to touch but I didn't  love knitting it though - maybe I'm not yet a fan of knitting with lace weight wool.

The pattern is the waif shawlette, a design by Izzywoo which includes two sizes - a scarf and shawlette. This is the larger of the two. And still there is lots of wool left. Hmmm, maybe I have to embrace the lace weight as it would be a shame to let this peach of a wool sit squished in the basket

For the other Mrs Robinson I made a string bag which she loved. In navy because that is the colour of choice, always.

I started following JustBeCrafty's pattern (found here on Ravelry) and am left slightly unsure whether it is written in UK  or American terms. I followed it as a UK pattern and it looks suitably like a string bag

I used three and a bit balls of Rico creative cotton aran which happily leaves me with some leftover to make another string bag for me. I have little need for another and yet am itching to make one using the rest of the dark blue combined with a gorgeous rhubarb colour

Yet again, using up wool from the basket involves purchasing more wool...

Somebody had a birthday... and a Quidditch party

And it wasn't me. Well, I have just had the birthday bit but not the Quidditch party. Not that I was thinking of my birthday at all when I wrote that title - mine was lovely and gentle but most non-blog worthy. Patch's, though now a few weeks ago, was slightly more blog worthy as it involved two cakes and a few makes. The first cake for Patch's birthday

This one made our cat loving boy very happy. Followed a week or so later by a not so gentle looking cake for the party

Which made a group of serious Quidditch players very happy. Both cakes were made with the same chocolate cake recipe - the hummingbird bakery's devil's food cake, with dairy-free butter and milk substitutes, which makes for a most yum choc cake but the very best bit is the creamy icing holding it altogether. In this house we obviously like to include all the family in being able to munch such celebratory cakes but it can sometimes result in a slightly hmmm, you can tell that's not made with butter treat. Particularly so for butter icing. But no longer, with a mix of dairy-free marg, almond milk and Trex. That stuff works wonders for a non-butter butter icing. (I know the supporting kit-kats are not suitable for a dairy-free diet but those concerned were fine having them resting on the icing)

The crazy amount of sugar was just the thing for half time in the Quidditch match. When a Quidditch party was first mentioned, I thought we would maybe blow up a balloon Quaffle and a few bludgers, fashion a golden snitch out of something gold and gather together a few brooms. The most tricky thing was going to be how to attach the hoops for goalposts. But then Daddy got involved and there was talk of official Quidditch teams and a World Cup and proper rules. 

They loved it! All came with brooms (Joshua's freshly made broom still had green leaves), though Zofia misplaced her broom and we had to have a rummage in the village hall broom cupboard. There  were various balls, bright pink laundry baskets for goalposts, a snitch made from a golden cat's toy ball - the ones with holes which was most handy to poke through a length of white netting for wings. Mr R happily took on Madam Hooch's role and amazingly all the children understood the rules and went home undamaged

I did want to make something other than the team bands and decided that Patch really needed a Gryffindor scarf. I had thought that P would be wearing the Harry Potter costume made last year which included a generic wizard cloak made a few years before that. It was only when P was discussing his upcoming party with the lovely owners of Delphine's Diner where we were having an actual birthday milkshake, that P mentioned that the wizard's cloak simply was not the thing for a student attending Hogwarts.  Luckily we had just over a week until the party so time for me to make a suitable cloak. But then lovely, lovely Delphine owner presented Patch with an official Harry Potter cloak for him to borrow. I think she may have seen my face when I realised I had a cloak to make, and had dashed upstairs to ask her daughter if we could borrow theirs. How lovely! Leaving me to get on with knitting a scarf.

I looked on Ravelry and sort of mainly followed this one though rather vaguely followed. I loved knitting the double sided scarf but on straight needles - a little bit of knitting magic! The wool is Drops Nepal in deep red and goldenrod and I just knitted until a good length and then added the necessary tassels. A rather lovely Daddy of a rather lovely friend of  Patch's amazed and astounded us all by making these gorgeous wands for all of the children. Each of the wands was different and made       a magical party bag present. He will be forever known as Mr Ollivander.

Some Nola knitted slippers this time...

I think these are the last of the slipper socks for this year. Possibly

 Certainly my favourite - to make and the look of. Just so snug looking. I used the nicely named Nola's knitted slippers and it really is a lovely knit. The pattern is written for a men's medium with worsted weight wool held doubled, I used some Cascade 220 (Smoke) and followed the pattern and they ended up fitting me (sorry Ems, I did try on your slippers) and Ems who has larger feet. Not oddly large by the way - I think Ems is a seven-ish and I am a four.  The photograph above makes them look like little people's slippers, I should have taken an in-foot photo...

And then I did go on to make some for little toes

Not sure of wool used for these as it was all from the basket. I think I used a lighter weight wool for this first pair, knitted double for a seven year old, and the second pair I used a variety of chunky wools. I think the red is some Katia Peru... These were for a nine year old

The pair above remind me of some sweet stripes moccasin slippers P had when he was little. Sadly for me P has enough slippers so I shall have to wait to knit him a pair. The wools from the basket were much softer and floppier (impressive knitting terminology) and so will probably not be as robust as the ones knitted in Cascade 220. But they look sweet, and those feet will grow so I'm sure they will do the job of keeping toes toastie this winter. 

Do hope that you had happy birthdays Ems, Logan and Harry! And that your toes are toastie...

Keeping our loved ones' toes toastie

Still keeping toes toastie, this time with Erika Knight's slipper boots from Crochet Workshop. I like these, certainly my favourite slippers to crochet so far. But I have some knitted ones to show you this week (maybe - I feel like I may have made such rash statements before and then nothing for a few weeks. You may see them later on this week, or it may be next month) but anyway it is the knitted ones I may be tempted to make for my own toes...

Back to these delights. They do look rather adorable on a pair of small boy's feet

Or not so small feet as these were made for newly eleven and nine year olds. The pattern is for a women's slipper, with notes on how to adapt for different sizes. I chose the simpler method and selected a smaller hook size. This wool - Wendy serenity chunky - is rather soft and floppy, which is lovely but I wanted something sturdier for slippers so the smaller hook size made for a much denser finish. With the added bonus that the slippers now fitted a child's foot.

I love the pads on the bottom. Happy birthday Reuben, Casper and Barney!

We have had a few enforced quiet weeks as P had another round of chickenpox (or chicky spots as they are fondly known in our house. Well, maybe not fondly). So much to catch up on, haven't even mentioned a January birthday with cakes and parties and makes, and a sofa finally recovered. Hopefully more later this week...

Beastie feet without the beastliness

 I suppose the only beastly thing about these slippers is their name - Beastie Feet from Kat Goldin's Crochet at Play - as I missed off the beastly toes of the original pattern. This winter was the year of the handmade slippers as presents, and as the pattern I had already tried out (oh yes, there are many more of these to show) would have needed a lot of fiddling to make it fit a six year old, I decided to give this pattern a go though keeping my original plan of pompom slippers.

I made the 6year old size for a nearly six year old, and they fit just fine. Wool is tricky... I think it may be some Wendy chunky as I have the paper wrappers for this and the colours seem right. I'm usually so much better than this at keeping a record of wool used! So, Wendy Serenity chunky it is in colours ochre and Tarmac.

These were fun to make until the sewing together bit, that was a little fiddly. They would probably have looked neater finished in the same wool but I thought I was going to like the contrast, and also by this time (these were actually the last slippers to be made using this wool) I had used up all the ochre wool.

Happy birthday, Pippa!

And I do still want to make this pattern again, this time in all their beastly glory...

Keeping our eggs warm

I had so much fun knitting these adorable little egg hats. Almost as much fun as making the small - for me - pom-poms for the top, though I still wanted the pom-poms to look oversized for the hats, just as I would a full grown hat for a real head.

 These are the egg cosy caps from Jessica Biscoe's Knitting Smitten. I used all sorts of unknowns from the wool basket, as long as they were white or a Christmas red and vaguely dk. And rather than jab myself with numerous little sticks I knitted these on a long circular using the magic loop method. I think P may need a boiled egg before swimming

A pile of crochet coasters

There may be some photographs of a rather festive mug included. Just warning in case my delayed catch-up of festive makes upsets your idea of seasonally appropriate makes. Again, I could have got away with it's winter so am embracing the hygge feel...if it wasn't for the Father Christmas mug. Oh well. I should also mention that this isn't the last of the festive catch-ups - more to come and there may even be a twinkling Christmas tree in the background. Sorry.

So today, a pile of crochet coasters

 I looked on Ravelry and then cobbled together my own pattern for these circular coasters to fit with the wool I wanted to use. I know I started off with a magic circle and proceeded to crochet rounds of single crochet with some increases but as to exact numbers I no longer have any idea. And that I used a smaller hook than that suggested for the wool to make nicely dense coasters. If you want to crochet your own pile of coasters I recommend finding a good Ravelry pattern! Maybe one day I will actually make some notes as I go along. But it was Christmas, presents to be made, panforte to munch with mugs of coffee...

And the wool - Cascade 220 in harvest, Atlantic and navy

Hope you are enjoying lots of steaming mugs on your wooly coasters, Linda and Ems!