Heat clouds

Lately I have been obsessed with clouds, so I wanted to sew something "cloudy". I had this really dreamy linen fabric that was just waiting to be transformed to little clouds, so I used that, and I also had some barley and oat grains that were too old to eat. I just had to make cloud-shaped heat packs! We use heat packs all the time: I need them for my sore neck when I have sewn, knitted or crocheted in a bad position for hours and Emma needs them to ease stomach aches that she sometimes has. We had a very plain linen heat pack but I think these clouds are much nicer.

 I had enough grains to two clouds and one bigger rectangle-shaped heat pack.

To use these, you need a microwave oven and a mug of water. Just put the heat pack and the mug of water to the microwave and let them be there for 2-3 minutes. The water helps to keep the grains from burning, so it is important. I've never had any problems with any kind of heat packs, but still, I would never leave heat packs to the microwave without supervision, just in case.

Gloves

I made these ages ago. I think I showed you a glimpse of these before they were finished but then something happened and I never remembered to show the end result. The yarn in 7 veljestä by Novita but the pattern I have lost. Might have been Novita pattern, cannot remember. I like these! No holes between the fingers! Next time I need to use some nicer yarn for these, 7 veljestä itches so much. If there is a next time, I need to find the pattern first...

Sweet things

Look what I found from my parents house! No, there are no chocolates inside anymore (sadly) but something just as sweet. 

My old seed bead crafts! I think these are so cute, although quite pointless. I remember spending hours with my friends making these. It was always very hard to find new instructions and nice-coloured  beads, since there was only one store in my hometown that sold these. Great that my mum saved these. Anyway, I just had to take pictures...

To make these, you'll need thin metallic wire, seed beads and lot's of imagination (or clear instructions, like I had...). My beads and instructions are Japanese, made by Kutsuwa. I don't know if they sell these anymore, I hope so! The bead bottles are so cute.

Emma thought that these were really nice and wanted to try by herself. It seems that the one-dimensional figures are easy enough for a six-year-old but the three dimensional ones require more patience. She made an apple and half of an ice-cream and then she got bored.

I tried as well.

This was so much fun and a great craft for these freezing winter days (-25degrees Celcius...).

If you want to try these by yourselves, here are two patterns for you to try: a piece of cake and a butterfly.

Christmas presents

Pattern: Darrin by Drops Design

Yarn: Drops Alpaca in Dark Grey eco (0506m)

Needles: 3 dpns (forgot to use smaller needles for the ribbing)

I had to force him to pose! I made this simple hat for my husband as a Christmas present, and he has actually been wearing it ever since. I like the shape of the hat, a bit slouchy but not too much. Alpaca yarn is so soft and nice, and I am so happy that he likes it (even though it does not look like that in the picture...).

I also made hats for my mother and mother-in-law for Christmas but forgot to take photos. Hope I'll get a chance to do that later.

Happy New Year to everyone! I am planning to make some kind of overview of all the crafts I made last year but first I have to organise my photos - tough job!

Baby blue for my baby

I had an old cashmere sweater that unfortunately did not fit me anymore. I decided to chop it in pieces and make a hat and a cowl. After I had made those, I still had enough leftovers for fingerless gloves but then I got lazy and got rid of the sweater remnants.

 

The pattern for the hat is taken from an old Me&I hat my daughter has. It has the perfect shape and fits both me and my girl. Emma loves this set, but I think this super soft kit is for me - everyday luxury, free of charge!

Merry Christmas!

Last year I made this Finnish flag garland and almost finished another one with all the Nordic flags. I vowed to finish it by this Christmas but did not even remember it before Christmas Eve and then it was too late. Nevermind, our Christmas was lovely even without it! The Santa came by and brought me a brand new sewing machine - quite a surprise! I'll show you the details later, it is quite lovely :)

Waiting for the real winter...

Pattern: Knitted accessories by Novita (in Finnish)
Yarn: Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran by Debbie Bliss
Needles: 3,5 dpns (should have used smaller needles...)

Wow. It has been a while since I posted anything here. Sorry about that. I have been too busy to photograph anything even though I have made all sorts of crafts. And then when I finally managed to photograph something (over a month ago...) it took me quite a while to blog about it. Sorry again :)

Enough apologies, I hope! It is over midnight and I am exhausted, so I'll just let these pictures show off my work. One thing I have to mention, though: The whole set is a bit big for Emma, but that does not matter. I am planning to add a lining to the hat, it would make the hat warmer and tighter.

A month ago, there was at least some promise of a white Christmas, since the ground was frozen in these pics. Now, it's just hopelessly wet everywhere. I'll try to post once more before Christmas and after the holidays are over I can hopefully start posting about all the Christmas presents I knitted.

One more picture of my darling girl!

 

Summer sewing

Remember the linens I bought this summer? I actually used some of them to make a tunic for Emma and she liked it a lot. It has been worn a lot already and I am hoping it will still fit her next summer! The pattern is from this Japanese sewing book, it is a very popular pattern in the blogosphere. 

Originally there was a casing in the waist with same pale blue silk ribbon as the sleeves have but I got tired of re-attaching the ribbon (my girl likes to climb a lot and the bow just kept getting stuck to tree branches and such. Now there is elastic in the casing and I am considering adding just a small pale blue bow to the side. Chances are that it will get ripped off just as easily as the whole ribbon did but it would be pretty...

Black!

Pattern: Mario beret
Yarn: Peru Wool by Grønhøj Garn
Needles: 5 dpns

Last year I made my mum this Mario beret and thought the pattern was excellent. I wanted one for myself as well and bought black wool to make it. I finally made it this week and to my disappointment, it is too small for me! Or it does fit, but it is not as slouchy as I would want it to be. Perhaps it will stretch when used. Also, I do not think black hats suit me! Perhaps I need to buy some grey yarn and try again. Also, I do not recommend this yarn, it is quite coarse and the surface of the finished hat is not nice and smooth. Serves me right, it was very very cheap...

My lovely girl promised to model for me so I could get at least a few decent outdoor pictures of it. As you can see, the hat fits her perfectly. Just guess whether she likes it or not? Yep, she hates it (and she's playing tigers, LOL).

Fall socks

Basic socks, cannot even remember the yarn. Like the colours separately but the combination of these yarns is not working IRL for some reason. And the ribbing is not long enough, I like longer sock cuffs.

Sorry for these long absences from my blog, somehow this year it seems that I am just too busy. Or actually, I don't have time to take photos of my creations, since I am never home when there would be enough light! Don't go away, I'll figure something out and start posting more regularly sometime soon(ish).