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.

Merry Christmas!

Boxing day over and it’s been one of the best Christmases ever. Not because I got fabulous gifts, was pampered and didn’t have to lift a finger, but because the magic of Christmas was bought back by our little Florence. Her little giggles, smiles, mountains of exciting presents and paper tearing abilities reinvigorated Christmas day and Boxing day for the Parkinson and Davis families and bought us all back to the excitement of a childhood Christmas.

So to update you on my Christmas projects, do you remember the Millamia stripy babygrow I bought the materials for way back at Ally Pally in October? Well I actually got it finished and it fits! Granted I finished it late on Christmas eve and didn’t even manage to get it wrapped. And it will most likely only fit Florence for a month or so before she grows out of it. But the 3 months of knitting were still worth it to see her all snuggled inside.

Don't ask me where her sock went.

I also knitted my sister in law a vintage hair snood from Knitting Fashions of the 1940’s by Jane Waller. It was really simple to make and fingers crossed it looks nice when she fixes it in her gorgeous 40’s hair. Photos to follow!

Finally, I confess that my Christmas quilt... did not get finished. It is a little bit of a shame but I really would rather that it be finished properly for next Christmas than be finished in a rush for this one. Now I can try to take my time over it and make it the best I can to cuddle up under next year.

Florence the Mr and I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Mittens on String

I met up with a fellow new mum the other day who showed me the mittens she knitted for her little girl including a crocheted string to keep them safely inside her coat. They are so cute and are even lined with fabric from an old baby-grow to keep little fingers extra snugly. I commented that you don’t see mittens on string much these days, probably because of all the health and safety scares. Personally I’d like to see more mittens on string.

And a quick mention to any of you Knitting Magazine readers; I have submitted my article and shall be back on the back page of February issue. It'll be good to be back!

Craft Life

I’ve recently had a surge of crafting activity and not just on my quilt, which is rocketing along at the moment, but also on the striped baby-grow I’m knitting for Flo and some other household crafting which has been begging to be done for some time.

Ages ago I knitted up some gorgeous curly mohair into cushion covers for my sofa, but a couple of years later they’re malting all over the place and Florence keeps turning up with fists full of fluff. So it was time for them to go and they were unpicked and packed away for a time when tiny hands aren’t trying to tear or eat them.

With the cold weather rolling in I’ve been spending more and more time under my favourite blanket which I knitted throughout my primary school holidays . This knitted relic has been with me through thick and thin but I haven’t shown it much love back. There were large rips in the soft backing fabric and big pulls in several of the squares. So I gave it some much needed TLC by replacing the fabric, washing the knitted top and repairing the pulls. The new lease of life in the blanket means that we’ll be lovely and cosy this winter without the fear of putting our feet though the worn thin fabric.

Continuing with the Christmas theme I made some of Nigella’s Christmas Cupcakes from How to Be a Domestic Goddess today and topped them with edible glitter from one of my favourite shops Lakeland. You’ll never know that you needed so many crazy gadgets and home-wares until you’ve been to this shop and coveted an egg poaching cup or a magic ironing board cover. These cup cakes along with it being the first Sunday of Advent today and the ‘Holidays are Coming’ Coke ad I saw on TV have signalled the true start of the festive season.

To give you a quick quilt update I have sewn the front together and made the backing, which is basically like making another whole quilt! I tried to make it as simple as possible to save some time and it was considerably quicker than making the front. I then sandwiched the front and back with the squishy wadding and have tacked it in place. The next step is the actual quilting part, which involves me hand stitching around each star and across each candy cane square. That’s hand stitching. By hand! Even once I’ve finished that I’ve got binding to put round the edge. Can this really be finished by Christmas?

Sadly I didn’t make it along to the Craftacular today. Did you? How was it? What was in the goody bag? Oh how I love a goody bag!

Christmas Craftacular

It's that time of year again!

I love Bust Magazine's regular craft fairs and their Christmas ones never fail to give me that warm-inside festive feeling.

This year there will be some great classes such as bauble painting from the Make Lounge and moustache crocheting with Prick Your Finger.

As always there will be vintage music accompanying the day and tons of fantastic stalls with crafty gifts for you and your loved ones.

My favourite bit is grabbing a gorgeous cupcake and pot of tea at cute pop up cafe hosted by Time for Tease. So make sure you make a pit stop in between purchases.

Here are the details:

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 28 2010

12pm-6pm

York Hall, 5-15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ

1 minute from Bethnal Green tube station

Admission: £2.

Website

There will be goodie bags for the first 100 through the door.

I managed to get one at the summer fair. Do I chance it and try for a goodie bag again this year? Not sure if I can wait out in the cold for that long!

Quilt Update

Yay! I finished all of the blocks for my Christmas quilt!

This was largely thanks to my Mum who came round a few times to play with Flo while I sat at the machine. Aren't Mum's the best?

Now the challenge is to attempt to have the quilt finished by Christmas day. Who wants to take bets?

Happily Sewn Together Forever

We went to a beautiful wedding last weekend, which I'm going to call a handmade wedding as there were so many beautiful crafty touches, which really made it extra special.

My favourite of these touches were the place settings at the wedding breakfast. Ladies had a fabulous handmade fabric and crochet broach, there were chocolates for the men, who I don't think would have fully appreciated a handmade gift.

Our place settings were little purple painted old style keys with our name tags attached with purple ribbon.

Favours were a packet of wildflower seeds with note explaining that a donation had been made to Great Ormond Street on our behalf, these were studded with little Great Ormond Street badges. Obviously the donation meant a lot to us as Florence spent so long at GOSH and continues to be treated there and it was made especially poignant as it was Flo's first wedding.

Florence and the other lucky children at the wedding had an amazing place setting too. A wooden letter 'F' with fishes swimming across it marked Flo's seat. Beneath this was a sewn bag with 'Play with me' embroidered across it. Inside was a handmade doll and book of 100 things to count. A fantastic way to keep little ones happy at the dinner table!

Other handmade decorations, hand knitted cardigans for little flower girls and hand sewn napkins were the added crafty sparkle on an already glittering day. It was really touching to see how much effort had gone into their big day when so many weddings these days seem to be exact copies of each other picked out of a magazine. All the little handmade touches speak volumes to the nature of this couples love and commitment to each other.

Oh, I love a good wedding!

Congratulations to the happy couple!