Happy New Year

A happy and prosperous new year to everyone! The tinsel has been taken down, the Christmas tree is in the loft and everywhere is looking a bit dull! It will take a few days for the house to look normal and in the meantime I will keep thinking what's missing! But as much as I love the Christmas festivities and the lead up to it, once we are past New year (and sometimes before) I want my house to be back to normal and look  less like a party venue!

Up to Christmas and indeed immediately after, I have been beavering away, knitting loads of little hand warmers and mittens. The mittens, four pairs of them, were a custom order sold on my Etsy shop plumcottagecraft , which I have now finished, phew! They are quite quick to make but are fiddly and time consuming to make up as they are  made up of several components and different coloured yarns, with crochet loops to make and buttons to sew on.

I think thay are really cute and I hope the children love them!

Now I am going to give knitting mittens a rest for a while as I desperately want to get on with some sewing!

I love Christmas...

The festivities are nearly over, but what a lovely Christmas we had. I love the build up to Christmas, the anticipation the expectation and all the sparklies and decorations, everywhere just looks so pretty.

I love that we all make the effort and catch up with friends and family and what a good time everybody has! Beforehand I was trying to finish my crafty presents....

Handwarmers for the grandkids...

a pair for myself!

and some Christmas bags.

and attaching labels to gifts already made...

Mum's throw

Denny's cushion

My blue and white quilt is at a standstill at the moment but all the squares have been pieced together

ready for the 6" borders to be attached. The fabric for the borders have been used in the blocks.

Way back in May I promised Joni and Poppy that I would knit them a doll each. I had just made one for Rosie based on this angel doll I made for Christmas.

It was really cute, knitted in DK from a King Cole pattern for an advent calender, this angel sat at the bottom of the calender. It is easy to knit and doesn't take too long, but  having said that it took ages to finish these as I constantly got distracted by lovely new fabrics to try out or something else to knit. I  finished knitting them ages ago but couldn't get motivated to sewing them up, the bit I like least of all! The hair is really fiddly to do, cutting loads of strands about 8ins long and although each one is measured against the next one, they were still uneven when it was ready to be attached to the head. Obviously I am not a precision cutter! And as for the faces, say no more!

 I vary  the colours to make them different. I also match the hair to  who I am giving it to. Rosie has lovely brunette hair and Joni and Poppy have gorgeous strawberry blonde colour hair.

I may not be an artist but at least they are smiling!