A sea of yarn

Since the 15th of December I have finished 5 UFOs (UnFinished Objects). Some of them have been incredibly close to being finished, but something has happened that meant they were tossed into a work box and forgotten about. Whilst it is good to finish projects, the number of item that were almost, almost done makes me feel sad.  

I have realised that I have a blindness - I simply can not see the projects that have been started and are unfinished. As this is perceptual blindness, the solution is pretty simple - stop and register what is actually in front of my eyes. But I must admit, I am frightened by what I will find. The adapted solution is to look in one box and deal with that one box.  

There are a few different things that can happen to these UFOs.

1. Finish it

2. Frog it and donate the yarn

3. Frog it and return the yarn to my stash

Last night I found a UFO that was not mine! It was my daughter's. I'll chat with her today and see if she would like me to finish those slipper socks for her. It would mean one more UFO leaving my work box!

Christmas Pudding Hat

My first Christmas present for 2014 has been made!

This is my husband kneeling before me.  It was the only way I was tall enough to take  the photograph.  

More Socks for a DM Wearer

 

My daughter is an art student, and works in various different materials. Safety equipment is import. Doc Marten boots form part of her safety wear. She asked for a pair of woollen socks to wear with her boots, and then a second request came for socks. 

A request to 'Keep 'em coming' has now arrived. The socks are comfortable and warm. Her friends (fellow art students) think it's rather cool to have hand made socks.

My First Quilt

This is the first quilt I made.

The little lass is now up and running around.

Autumn Leaves

After a break of five days, it feel like it is time to do a bit more quilting.  My Mam loves autumnal colours, and I suggested she might like a table runner for her dining room table.    This is the pattern I'm going to use.

Doctor Marten's Socks

These socks were knitted for my daughter, to be worn under her new Doc Marten's.  They have been worn, and worn, and worn.  A second pair was requested, and those have been worn, and worn and worn.  The plea has emerged, "Please keep knitting me socks!"

Lace Spoon

52 in 52
8  Lace Spoon

My daughter is studying art and one of her assignments is based around spoons.  She commissioned me to crochet a spoon for her.  She will take the spoon, dip it in porcelain slip a few times and then fire it.  The cotton will burn away in the kiln leaving just the porcelain behind.  

Calligraphy Cowl

So far this winter I have been wearing a lot of black.  This needed to change - colour was definitely needed.  

At Sweet Ginger, I bought this lovely yarn Colinette Calligraphy in Florentina.

This is going to become a warm, snuggly Möbius cowl.

52 in 52 for 2014

There is a challenge I have taken part in the last few years, making/finishing 52 items in 52 weeks.  There have been times when I have succeeded, and times when success has been elusive.  

This time thought, I decided to start at the beginning of my Christmas crafting rather than on the first of January.  

1  Mat for the Christmas tree

A friend gave us two cushions that almost, almost matched the colour of our sofas.  Sadly the almost match did not look good on the sofas, but as long as the cushions were in another part of the room they looked good.  It wasn't terribly practical, so I used the fabric to make a mat for the Christmas tree.  I didn't want the top of the chest being scratched by the base of the stand.  The mat was then edged in a cream fabric with small circles of red, gold and green.

2 and 3  Minion Hat 1 and 2

Hats for my elder daughter and her boyfriend.  One of them is delighted to have a Minion Hat.  The other is not terribly impresssed.

4  Square Hat

This is the hat my elder daughter really wanted.  It doesn't look much when lying flat, but when worn, it looks like there are cat ears.  

5  Penny's  Hat

Penny is a character from "The Big Bang Theory", and she has a hat just like this.  This hat made my younger daughter very happy.

6  Shaun the Sheep Shirt

There’s a family tradition of ‘interesting sleeves’ for shirts. The men in my family are all kilt-wearers, and the kilts get worn at formal events. The shirts look very formal when worn with a jacket, but when the jacket comes off, the silliness is revealed. My husband’s wing collar shirt has Winnie the Pooh sleeves.

I bought a shirt for my elder daughter’s boyfriend, and then unpicked the sleeves. These were used as a template and new sleeves were produced in ‘Shaun the Sheep’ fabric. The sleeves were stitched into the armholes and cuffs.

7  Denim and fleece quilt

top

This quilt is unusual in that it has no batting between the top and bottom layer, but with the weight of the denim and the warmth of the fleece it isn't required.  It is made by taking a square of demin and one of fleece and stitching around the square 2 cm in from the edge.  The squares and ten joined together with a 1.5cm seam allowance.  

The central panel was made from jeans supplied by J and family members. Cutting squares from jeans takes a considerable amount of time, and it was getting harder to find jeans to use.  Therefore I bought denim, and that was so much easier to use!  

The instructions said to fray the edges of the denim squares.  I found it best to do this before stitching.  It made the work progress well.

This is a warm, snuggly quilt, the same size as the duvet underneath.  It is the underside of the quilt that I like best.  It looks so much tidier!  No fuzzy, frayed edges.

underside

However this quilt has been made for a guy who is now almost totally blind. It is very tactile, and so snuggly.  I'm sure he will love it. (He does.)