Marshmallow Twist Bag

Wendy is one of my most talented knitting friends. I met her through my local knitting group and she has been my knitting guru ever since. I've written about her awesomeness before in my Knitting Magazine article, but now I have an additional reason to blow my Wendy-is-awesome trumpet.
Not content with being just generally great at knitting she has turned her hand to designing some stunning little kits under the name of Muddy Sheep. My favourite at the moment is the Marshmallow Twist bag which Wendy has kindly let me test knit for her.

First thing to say is that the yarn is lovely. Squashy, warm, rub your face in it snuggly. It's easy and a pleasure to work with. 

The pattern was well written and had enough interest in the stitches and construction to keep me interested. 

There is as little sewing up as possible, which is always great.

But my favourite feature of the kit has to be the gorgeous little finishing touches. As well as a cute little wooden button you also get a board insert to keep the bottom of your bag sturdy and a colour matched oil cloth insert. I think this is genius. You get the squish of the yarn on the outside but the benefit of a sturdy, wipe clean and colourful inside. It just adds that special something to an already great kit.

I managed to finished it just before Christmas and gifted it to my Mum as I know she will use and enjoy it, plus she deserves it. Look at her happy present opening face on Christmas day!

Wendy has several other patterns in the Muddy Sheep range such as the Never Knit Before Cowl which is a perfect kit for beginners and the Striped Messenger Bag which comes with a soft cotton lining to sew. All the patterns are available as downloadable patterns or in a complete kit. These kits are great gifts for a friend (either in kit form or knitted up as I did with my Mum) or indeed are a lovely gift for yourself! 

Obviously everyone's a little cash strapped at this time of year but Muddy Sheep Knits also has free patterns, an online needles and notions store to peruse and clear video tutorials to help you conquer those tricky techniques.

Right that's enough trumpet blowing for one day. All that's left to say is Happy New Year to all of you and your families!

Snowman Mania

We all know that John Lewis have been hard at work with their advertising company this year, trying to come up with the next tear jerking advert to make us spend our money in their shop - like I'd need an excuse? Last year's ad with the little boy who can't wait to give his Christmas present to his parents was a huge success prompting people all over the country to reach for the tissues in a collective weeping session. However, there were internet spin offs pointing out how sinister and creepy the advert could seem. I mean what's in that box anyway? A kid that doesn't like presents? What's wrong with him? This year they've gone even fluffier with a snowman who goes on a journey to buy his beloved snow-woman a hat, scarf and gloves set. It's a cute advert, I'll give them that. But no tears this year, sorry JL.

However, being the marketing masters that they are the snowman advert has spawned not only a children's book, snowman hunt competition and single of the song but the knitting department have decided to go that little bit further and have released a knit your own Snowman kit. I can't help but think they smelt the tears from last years success and decided to come up with something that wasn't just an advert, but a merchandising campaign. Smell that cash rolling in!

I personally won't be purchasing a kit, but think it's a nice gift for a new knitter or perhaps someone who loves the advert? Katie Law at the London Evening Standard went a bit nuts over the tie in and has knitted her little snowman in less than 24 hours. What's your view? Will you be putting it on your Christmas list?

Guerrilla Crafternoon

Last Friday me and my friend/ almost sister in law, Dawn, went along to Craft Guerrilla’s Crafternoon at the Creative Biscuit and had an amazing night of tea, cake, craft and chat. It’s a brilliant alternative to your usual Friday night activities and I highly recommend it!

We arrived and paid our £5 door charge which includes a drink and cake. There was a choice between bottomless tea in vintage china, a cup of coffee or a Bellini cocktail. It just had to be bottomless tea. Every time my cup got low, it was topped up again with a fresh steaming hot brew. We were also faced with the choice of strawberry cupcakes, gorgeous brownies, flapjacks and pastries. Oh the agony!  I had to go for the cupcake and Dawn had the brownie. We were both in a blissful cake-coma after consumption.

Once we’d stuffed our face with cake it was time for some crafting. The ladies from Craft Guerrilla had laid out all the projects you could buy and there were just too many cute little projects to choose from. Almost all of the projects could be completed within the evening and had clear instructions as well as help on hand from the Guerrilla’s themselves. I eventually chose the rolled paper necklace (£5) and Dawn went for the fabric hair bow (£4).

The kits were packaged up like little presents which all added to the excitement as we took out our equipment and got ready to craft. Both projects were super easy and it was great to have all of the bits and pieces you needed in your craft pack. The pliers for bending the jewellery wires were just on loan though! There was also an iron and ironing board on hand for the fabric projects.

We both finished our projects before the end of the night and Dawn even went back for more in the shape of a embroidered tote bag kit, which she took home to make. We had a really great evening bopping along to the retro tunes, sipping tea from our vintage cups and getting crafty with a lovely bunch of people. The Crafternoon runs on the last Friday of every month, so come down next time and craft the evening away!

Rolled paper necklace

Dawn's beautiful bow

Monster Mash

A couple of bear-like friends bought me a cute Donna Wilson Make Your Own Monster Kit for Christmas. It was a really sweet gift as they said "Christmas is a time when parents can be selfless and so someone needs to look out for the Mums and Dads". Awwww!

The best thing about the kit was that it was really quick to make and it was easy to get a bit creative without having to send Flo off to a baby sitter for the afternoon. I had a little look at it on Boxing day and I had finished my little monster, who I named Peter, the very next day.

Peter is a working man by day and a crazy punk by night.

Donna Wilsons designs have often caught my eye. I love her crazy creatures, which you can buy ready made online, from fashionable boutiques or knit your own versions using her cute-as-a-button book The Knitted Odd Bunch.

Although this kit provided me with a nice diversion from mummy duties, being a crafty person already I did have a few criticisms of the kit.

The body shape of your monster has already been sewn for you and so all you need to do is cut round the shape, turn it inside out and stuff it. I felt a bit cheated by this as I was expecting and looking forward to deciding on and then sew the body shape myself. If the shape of the monster is already decided for you then why not have him already sewn and stuffed in the box?

To embellish your monster you get some felt shapes and little machine knitted scraps in some really lovely colours and patterns. However if you cut these scraps into any kind of foot, hand, hair, mouth shape as directed on the box, any knitter will know the knitted stitches will fray and

unravel pretty quickly. I gave it a go and the shape held ok once sewn down, but if you were planning on giving this as a toy to actually be handled and played with, then felt for all of the embellishments would have been a better option.

Over all I really enjoyed making Peter and will be passing him onto a good home soon. I think this would be a good kit for young crafters or really busy craft lovers.