After seeing the baskets/buckets I´ve already made my sister asked me if I would sew something like the bread basket for Gretas books. My little niece loves to watch books on carrides and so the books wouldn´t have a nice place to store in beside her carseat.

Oh I love it when my sister likes the things I make and wants me to make something :)

I had some cute pink fabric in my stash and everything worked out fine.

Just for the pics I´ve stuffed it with diapers. This would be nice too I think.

And best of all, my sister likes it!

Thank you for the nice comments to my last post. I very much appreciate
your feedback.

It is still sunny and very dry here (no snow in sight) but it is cold, so hat knitting is going on. One can never have to many hats :)


Because my daughter took the first Sirle hat I´ve knit I made another one, this time with one less pattern repeat, for me. As my hair is short these days the other one is a but too slouchy. This one has a little less coolness but fits nicer on my hat.

Pattern: Sirle by Suvi Simola
Yarn: Frankengarn Naturwolle 100% Merino (organic, nature grey yarn from Germany)
Needles: 3.5mm DPN

And again a Calorimetry headband. We already have some in different colours in our house. But no black one until now. I love this pattern. Simple and a nice result in one evening.

Pattern: Calorimetry
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino worsted in black (I´ve used about a half skein)
Needles: 4.5mm

My mods: I´ve casted on 88sts only
                knitted with 4.5mm needles
                9 or 10 times row 5 (I´m not sure)
                row 7 as long as only 2 stitches on each side are left
                finish as pattern says

Yarn for both projects from stash and also the button.

This weekend I plan to sew a little. I´d like to sew a quilt again, but I don´t really have a plan. I´ve started cutting on Saturday and maybe start to sew today. Wish me luck.

A nice Sunday to you!



My motto for the next time

will be :

Work with what you have

I know it sounds simple but it is not always so simple. Every day I receive new emails with yarn sales, book sales, "only today 20% off", fabric sale,.... and for me SALE is just a magic word. And ebay isn´t any better for me. But when I look around here, I already have lots of yarn, fabric, pattern,....I know there are always newer and shinier onces out there, but my plan for now is to work with what I have. Only buying crafting stuff for a special project or if needed to finish a project. Buying just because something is on sale ro in case I could use it one day is not planned.

Last weekends sewing projects and the stitching already were all "from stash". And I really plan to work on like this. To reduce the stashed things in my house and to reuse things I already have around.

I know, nothing new, but nevertheless a challenge for me.

Over the last weeks a lot of this crochet jar covers popped up on blogs. I wanted to try it out too and I think it looks cute.

pattern - my own - I love the little hearts :)
thats just a little trying and error crochet with mystery cotton yarn found in my stash
an empty (and clean) jam jar and a tea candle



here I´ve tried this pattern
I´ve made it for an other jar, but it became too loose and the yarn was finished
so now I´m using it to cover a bit of the clutter inside this glas

So two finished projects in no time. Cost 0 Euro as everything was at home already or reused and I´m happy.

What do you think about the "Work with what you have" plan and what type of person are you? The collecting and stashing type of or more the organised "only buy what you need" type of?

Enjoying the weekend

...and sewing colourful and easy things.

The bucket is after the Nesting Burlap Bucket Pattern by Maya*made. I´ve purchased the pattern last week and already made 4 different buckets. It is a very nice and easy pattern with endless possibilities.

this one is going to be a "project-bag" for knitting and crochet project (currently filled with Drops Alpaca)



and this little bucket (without handles) is a little bread basket now

 The pillow covers are from some IKEA fabric I had leftover from previous bag projects.



And because I needed to calm down a bit after all that sewing I´ve finished the little fairy. The motive is from "Rot" - kleine Stickereien.

Now I´m off to the kitchen to make a nice fire in the oven and prepair some homemade Pizza for tonight.

I wish you all a nice and calm Sunday :)

A little crafty update

A little crafty update about some of the projects that got finished recently.


I loved knitting this hat. The pattern is free and wonderful. It is charted and very easy to work. Suvi Simola did a great job again in designing this little cute slouchy hat.

Pattern: Sirle by Suvi Simola
Yarn: Frankengarn Merino Naturwolle in lightgrey
Needles: 3,5mm and 3,75mm DPN mixed (couldn´t find 5 from one lot)



Teresa with her new "Sirle" hat



Back in July 2011 I´ve started this blanket and now I call it finished. It is 1.50m x 1.50m, colourful, bright, heavy and warm and crochet only with yarn from stash. It´s in the livingroom now and warms the members of the family while watching tv in the evenings.

just a large granny square out of stashed yarn, measures 1,50m x 1,50m

   Some warm and heavy socks for me.


Pattern: Konnichiwa by Judi Sumner
Yarn: Drops Nepal in a really vibrant green

There are some other - secret - projects on the needles and hooks but one never knows who reads to blog so no pics until Christmas is over :)

I wish you all a nice rest of the week.

today I´m loving

Adele

...and not only today. She is asolutly gorgeous I think.

As some of you might know by now I´m a great fan of Pip of Meet me at Mikes. I just love her blog, her positiv style and  some of the funny retro inspired stuff she makes.

She´s a really great woman I think and does 1000 of creative things. Now she has a supercool and totally free Holiday Guide you should really check out. 

my Pip-book-collection :)

A hat for the husband

How about your men? Do they like handknitted stuff? Mine does not. He doesn´t want me to knit him any scarfs, sweaters, cardigans, cowls or even socks.The only handknitted things he agrees to wear are hats.
And his hats have to be black or darkgrey. 

I think I found a perfect hat pattern for men on ravelry. It´s the Arden hat. It is a free pattern by Mikka Tokuda-Hall.

 The pattern is for two sizes (I´ve knitted the larger one) and comes with written and charted instructions!

Although it looks a bit complicated with all that cables it is really much easier than it looks and works up really fast in worsted/aran weight yarn.

Pattern: Arden hat
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed Aran in soot (dark grey). I´ve used about 1.5 skeins
Needles: 4mm DPN

On the pictures the hat is unblocked and I think I´ll leave it like this. It has the perfect size for my husbands head and will keep him warm this winter.

Busy days

October was a busy month here for us. We had a lot to do in the garden and still are not finished.
Philipp renovated his room with help from us. So he has a youth room now and not a childrens room any more. He did a lot of work himself including painting his walls. The room looks cool boyish now and he likes his "new" room. We are proud of him  :)

Than the boys had autumn holidays and today all are back to school. We had a lot of family meetings and nice days together but today Felix and me enjoy some quite hours in the morning.

Inbetween there was always a bit of crafting time.

I´ve started a ripple blanket for Teresa out of Drops Alpaca (doubled)

some simple mittens for Greta

On a weak moment I´ve casted on for some Kai-Mai for me....but I only knit on them from time to time

And with my wonderful Noro Silk garden I´ve bought on ebay I´ve knit an Azzu Shawl for myself

I´m totally in love with this autumn colours

Shawl pattern: Azzu bei Emma Fassio (this is a free pattern and very nice and fast to knit) thank you Emma Fassio. Iused heavier yarn and 6mm needles and knitted only garter stitch to make it fast and mindless. I love it:)

As I´m not doing very much Christmas knitting/crocheting I´ll soon have time to knit something nice for me again. I love the new Look Book from Brooklyn Tweed!