Twenty fourth day of December

This Christmas tree carpet is made of terry fabric that has plastic lining. The plastic lining is useful if you have wooden floors. Xmas tree carpet is easy to sew. I sew a decoration band around it. At the same time this band neatens the edges. This carpet is already old but Christmas is full of traditions. I think we should never hold on the traditions if they feel stupid, insane or anything like that. But this Xmas tree carpet with plastic lining is such a tradition I will hold on. Very practical one.

Twenty third day of December

To make a gift with a child is a good creative idea. It also makes you to spend some time together. This cat figure is a brooch. It is made of craft felt. Let the child draw the figure on a paper to become a pattern. Let the child cut it out from a paper -each detail- and draw them on the felt. The child can also cut the figures from the felt. The details are glued on the face and a child can do also that. The brooch needs also a background -which in this case is white like the face part.  There's cottonwool between the front and background. In that way the face look more soft. Sew the edges in the way that the background, front part and the cottonwool will be fastened to each others. Trim the edges and fasten a safety pin on the background.

Twenty second day of December

To make children happy build an animal of snow with them. Snow man is more traditional but kids won't play with it for a very long time. Build a pony, dog or monster that they can ride on. That fun will last as long as the snow. You can also suprise a friend by building a snow man in her/his garden when nobody is at home. Smiles guaranteed!

Twenty first day of December

This tube shawl is my own design and knitted like a scarf and after that stitched from both ends together to become a tube. Front of the tube shawl is a yarn flower decoration. It is made by using Novita's Pitsikukka -kehikko. Novita's frame for yarn flower making is excellent help and I am more than satisfied to it. You can use loose end yarns for this shawl. Because it is a short tube, not twisted, you need less yarn for knitting it.

Twentieth day of December

Every craft shop sell these paper boxes. You can decorate them with many different techniques. You can for example paint them, use decoupage or other paper craft. You don't need to cover all the surface if you don't want to. Just think who is going to get it and where it is going to be used so you easily can discover how to decorate it. Don't forget to think what's going to be inside.



Nineteenth day of December

It is always a challenge to make a perfect tassel for your projet. Prym's Pompon-Set doesn't help if you desire tassel making to be faster, easier and more practical. The instructions are poor and by following them you end up in the middle of mess.

To make it better use more yarn and layers of yarns so the yarn won't slip away through the hole after cutting before finishing.

These tassels are both made by the same size frame. Right sided is made according the instructions and the left sided is made by more layers. At the end the only benefit to use this set is that spinning the yarn around the frame is easier than using the old traditional paper frame which has a hole in the middle of it.

I am not satisfied with this Pompon-Set but the fact is tassels are pretty and useful. You can do many kind of them with many colors -also mixing different colors together.

Eighteenth day of Decemebr

This is designed and made by a small bead addict. It is a Christmas gift for her grandmother. As you can see bead work is fun and easy -even a child can do it! To make your or someone else's bead work easier and not so frustrating buy locks and knot holders. In that way everything will stay all right without breaking in use.

Seventeenth day of December

A little girl asked me if I could help her to make a Christmas gift for her mother. I asked what does her mother like. After thinking a little bit she said she likes to write her diary. So we decided to make a small diary. I included thick paper between the writing pages. The idea is that the girl decorates the thick papers and her mom can write on white empty pages. Unfortunately I can't publish the decorated diary because it is very personalized. :) But the idea is what I wanted to show you. :) You need only card making papers and copy papers. For sure some office can attach the pages together with a small fee.

Sixteenth day of December

If you like to have new curtains but you can't sew well you can still make it. Buy pretty pritend fabric and sew simple styled curtains. They will look pretty for sure! Sale baskets can hide treasures at the fabric shop so waste your time discovering them.

First sew the sides, then the bottom hem and the upper hem for the last. Simple and fast.

Fifteenth day of December

Very easy idea to decorate your home is to sew something from a fabric that is especially designed for some purpose. I bought this bench cloth for sauna from a local fabric shop. They sell the similar fabric. The width is the exact for the sauna bench. You just buy as long as you wish it to be and then sew the side edges. The same idea is easy to use for a table cloth too. Just buy a fabric designed for a table cloth. Remember ask them to cut it to the size you want. If you need to make two buy them in two pieces. At fabric shop they have better possibilities to cut big fabrics than many people have at home.

Fourteenth day of December

I designed and knit this easy seat cover and warmer from 100% woollen loose end  yarns. If you knit one make sure it will be big enough for your purposes. Then wash it in a washing machine with 40-60 Celsius degrees. The cover shrinks approximately 40% and felts too so it will be thicker and warmer.

Thirteenth day of December St.Lucia (free chart)

It is St.Lucia Day and I designed for you a small cross stitch chart with the theme. Notice the shades of the chart are not real -I for example pictured the white shade as light blue- because I wanted the chart to be easy to read. Just follow the chart key made for DMC threads to code the real shades of the color symbols.

Have fun and remember the copyrights! To get familiar with the copy rights see Free charts site.

Twelfth day of December

Easy way to make some Christmas decoration is to cut snowflakes out of the paper. You can use white copy paper. It is interesting to try out some other colored papers too. These paper snowflakes look pretty in the window, but also at walls or doors. You can also hang them from a thin yarn to the ceiling so that they seem to levitate in the air. This kind of craft making is easy to do with children too. Just fold the paper and show them how to cut it.

Eleventh day of December

Simply Sparkling Christmas Beading by Dorothy Wood is a book full of ideas to make bead works. If you are not interested don't skip this book. See it through at your library to find out few interesting ideas to make bead projects. I like especially about the snowflakes and the Christmas cards. For sure I will try them out!

Tenth day of December

This scarf has been made with the same idea I knit the luxurous black shawl I had designed. This looks different because of the colours and yarns. The idea to make it is the same. First knit and then crochet the edges. Simple and also a beginner can do it.

Ninth day of December

These candles are made of beeswax sheets. It is easy way to make candles with natural wonderful scent. These candles can be made also with the children. No hot stuff is needed. Just roll the sheets. If the sheets feel dry and crumbles, just warm them a bit by a hair dryer for example and then it all goes better. You can also use the hair dryer to warm the bottom of the candle to smooth the bottom and make it stand better against the surface. Also the side seam can be warmed a bit and smooth gently to stay in better fit.

Eight day of December

One simple gift idea also for small children to make is to twist an easy keyring from yarn. Only little bit of material is needed.

First put the yarns through the ring. Then start to twist the yarn from both ends. When there's enough twist (you can feel the yarns get tighter) make sure the ring is in the middle of it. Then fold the twisted yarn and hold the ends all the time. Let the key hang free so the yarn will get double twisted (both ends get twisted around each others). Make a knot at the end so the keyring is finished.

Seventh day of December

If you need a gift idea for a craft friend, why not to buy some luxurous yarn. You know, it's difficult to buy special yarns for yourself. You consider them too fancy, too expencive -too everything. But if you give some for your friend it feels ok. So why not swap luxurous yarns by the Xmas! You know how wonderful it is to have such a gift! This yarn is Wetterhoff's Sivilla yarn. It consists of 30% silk and 70% wool, it includes Aloe vera, Jojoba oil and vitamin E.

Sixth day of December

I designed something special for the indoor horse stable Christmas. Also toy horses need blankets for the winter. These blankets are easy to knit, need only little mount of yarn and just a little bit of time. The front can be cord like under the stomach so the button is not necessary needed. Only your imagination limits what kind of blanket you can knit. This is just a simple example for you to see how it is done. The edges have a crochet decorations to keep it all shaped up. Let your imagination flow and have some fun!

Fifth day of December

More light is needed into the dark so here's another easy, lovely and cheap idea to decorate your home. You need an empty jar made of glass and decorative electric lights. No one says the lights have to be yellow, if you prefer red -just try it out!

Fourth day of December

Winter season is so dark that it is nice to put up some extra light inside and outside. These lanterns have been made of old tins and wire. They are for outdoor use only. In the darkness none sees from which they have been made of. Only thing you see is beautiful light that shines around and forms pretty figures around the lanterns. You just need to pick up the tins which have no plastic inside covering. Remove the top lid and make the holes.

Third day of December

This is an excellent guide book to all kind of stitching. It is Stitch Dictionary by Lucinda Ganderton. More words are not needed to praise its collection. If anything else into it is needed it is the tranlations of the stitch names to several languages! Proper colour pictures and instructions are great. Even a novise will survive with this book in the jungle of stitching.

Second day of December

This cute reindeer is from Cross Stitch Favourites magazine. It is a special issue and I was not able to find the year or any date from it but I foud advert of The Stitch and Creative Crafts Shows for the autumn 2007 from it. So, it has to be published before that.

This reindeer is one of three reindeers designed by Jenny Barton and you can find the charts for each from the page 78. In the magazine the reindeers are stitched for mounting them in the same frame. I decided to stitch them on palstic canvas to get cute Christmas tree decorations. I used loose end threads instead of the ones marked with the chart. But the basic idea with the colours is the same. (I have added some metallic thread to the wrapping paper.)

In the magazine is also other series of designs that fit well together. I noticed it is a good idea to stitch one at every Christmas for yourself or to give at someone special. It is also a proper small gift to be sent away with a Christmas card. Postages are low but the gift itself is valuable because stitched with love. 

First day of December

These mittens are the ones I mentioned before. Very proper ones because knitted in three times. The yarn is Fabel superwash I used also with the furry green hat and scarf. This yarn can't be seen so well with the hat and scarf but here you see how does it look.

The problems I had with knitting was that first the mittens were too short, so I had to add more until my Fabel Superwash yarn ran out. It didn't help. They were still too short. So, I went to my yarn box and found very well matching, a bit thicker yarn, which is Novita's Nalle Colori. (Fabel Superwash has 205m / 50g and Nalle Colori has 130m / 50g.) The difference with outlook is so small that you can't notice it if you don't know about it. Nalle Colori begins at the top of the mittens right after the last white-grey stripe. At the end it was actually good I ran out of the yarn because in this way the mittens warm up the fingertips better.

These mittens are for horse riding use. They come under leather mittens with teddy lining. Riding in the frost is cool job to do. I knitted these mittens for tiny hands to give extra protection against frostbittens. It is good idea to use yarn that has different kind of shades so you don't need to change the yarn to get lively and colourful surface on your work. These are my own design but I bet anyone who can knit a bit can create something similar.

Proper work

Lately I've been busy with the Advent Calendar. Only few more gifts are missing. This year it will be more like an Advent bag. The reason is the calendar includes 7 books. I bought these books from the second hand and they all are horse books. See, this year someone wished to have horse themed calendar. I told it won't include alive horse but I got the reply "that's ok". Well, it won't include death one either. But some horse stuff. It is not a coincidence the books are for the weekends. Otherwise someone would refuse to go to the school before reading.

The calendar include also mittens which I have knit three times so they are very proper now. I think best ever. I usually knit mittens only once... Sometimes people ask how come I am so skillfull. I always tell it is not up to it how well you do it all, it's up to it how well you can fix your mistakes! If the mittens need to be knit three times then I just do it.

Advent calendar can also be in a bag. The bag I used is old. This bag includes different kind of things and is horse themed. The horse books are from the second hand shop. There's also some other horse stuff and something sweet too. I have included also three cards -each have a poem. The wrapping paper I used is just white and enviromental friendly. You can decorate white paper with stamping or drawing and add pretty ribbon with card.

Card ideas

On the other day a card factory was started in the house. It is a good refressing thing to remind us all about it that all you get in Christmas time -or any other season- is not trash. Pay attention on wrapping papers, tags and other stuff you see around. You will find excellent materials for the next year craft making form the stuff people usually just throw away.

Left: Pictures from an old Advent Calendar

Right: Picture from an old post card pack

Left: Picture from an old chocolate bar wrap

Middle: Picture from an old chocolate box

Right: Picture from an old post card pack

Left:Picture from an old chocolate box

Middle and right: Picture from an old chocolate bar wrap

Middle: Recycled card

Left & right: new

All new materials

Baking and sewing

Christmas season is always up to bringing joy to someone. Easy idea is to bake some biscuits and put them into a pretty jar decorated by self made cloth. I baked ginger biscuits.

It is my own design but easy to do. You can use left over fabric and lace. You don't need much materials to be able to sew this cloth or bake some biscuits. The best thing is -if we don't count the biscuits now- the jar and cloth will be saved and reused again and again. You can give something permanent and useable.

So close but so far

I am still trying to tame the polar bear. It is a huge project. At this point I feel it will never be finished. Two more shades left to stitch but it feels I never reach the goal. I am so close to finish it but so far away to be able to make it true. At this point I always realize why designing and making it true are two different things. It is so easy to draw, choose shades, fabric etc. But at the end you need just hard work to make it all to come real. Stitch after stitch.

At the same time I have been thinking more about the door decoration. Its size is 42cm. Today I found the wool I am going to use for it. Nature white shade. Then I need to find my cinnamons and cones. Perhaps some paper and wool yarn too. It all comes more clear now when we finally have got the first snow.

I saw a small display today at the library. It was put up by a local yarn shop. It of course caused the feeling I need to go shopping there. But I must hold my horses. I still have a lot yarn left which I inherited over a year ago. Heritage is connected to sad things too but it is a wonderful gift to have a huge pack of all kind of craft stuff...

Materials

Reading a craft catalogue is fun and interesting. Unfortunately you often notice all those beautiful staff are expencive. It is also difficult to trace from where they have got started, how much they pollute the world, from where the wood they use for the paper stuff has come from etc. But we all earth lovers are lucky. World is full of useable trash. I -again- made two cards from "trash" I have collected; they are free recycled materials.

This card has got its monkey picture from used note book cover. The paper behind the monkeys is from a women's magazine.

This card has got its picture from a free magazine that represents wall papers. By using recycled material you get very unique cards.

 This Hello Kitty is a tag from a brand cloth. It decorates the card and is cute.

 

 These cats for the card have been cut out from an old note book covering.

Christmas door decoration

Today I was at the town centre and I ended up to a craft shop. It was not any kind of surprise. I have visited the same store several times. And still there was the same old background frame for a door decoration in the sale. This time I bought it and my fingers are already wishing to get on it.

This is a frame I am going to create to turn out to be a Christmas door decoration. The color is a bit weird. I guess that's why it was on the sale for months until I bought it.

For years I have wanted to create a Christmas wreath door decoration. But now it finally seems to come true. I have an idea to use some wool and cones. But we'll see, at the end we may see it docorated with sparkling silver spray only.

Green as her eyes

Is there any bigger pleasure than the moment when someone takes you to yarn shop and tells you to pick up anything you want and promises to knit something from them for you? And pays it all! Well, some time ago I took a girl to the local yarn shop and she chose green shades of yarn to get new woolly hat and scarf. I must tell we spent few intensive moments to pick up right yarns. And later on she needed to think did she pick up the right shades or not. When she saw it all finished she was so happy because of the shades. They fit so well to her green eyes! She doesn't know yet she's going to get woollen mittens too with her Advent calendar... It is always so nice to make someone happy.

These woolly hat and scarf are very easy to stitch. These ones are my own design but you don't even need an instruction for it. Just keep on knitting. :) The woolly hat has tiny ears which appear more and bigger during the time. The hat is rectangular shape and at the end you just seam the left and right sides. The width of this rectangular is half of the head size. If you want make sure the hat won't get too big after using it for a while, make the width to be few centimeters too small. Woolly hat is flexible so it won't be too tiny easily.

The scarf is a very long rectangular -as long as you wish. Both hat and scarf can be knitted with basic right loops or using right and reverse (right on right side and reverse on left side). If your climate is not so cold you can use only furry yarn. I wanted these items to be more warm so I included woollen yarn with the furry one. I also knit woollen lining inside the hat. I used smc Brazilia from Coats for the furry look. It is 100% polyester with spruce green shade. The woollen yarn is from Garn Studio's Drops Fabel Superwash collection. It includes 25% polyamid and 75% wool. The shade is forrest green with different variagated shades.

Bearloom Teddies

This time I want to share with you some teddy bears. They come from Nova Scotia, Canada. It is wonderful idea to let Carol make a teddy bear from an important piece of fabric. It was perhaps your grandfather's furcoat which none has heart to throw away but it keeps on hiding in the wardrobe. Now it can have a new life as a Memory Bear sitting on a special place in the living room.

This may sound as a commersial advert but it is not. I was not paid and I won't get any profit to link you to Bearloom Teddies. I just think it is wonderful idea to recycle your special piece of clothes or fabrics. So, take a look at Bearloom Teddies.

Cold hands - warm heart

Knitting is a funny hobby because it keeps your hands warm. No matter what you knit it warms enough to melt your frozen fingers. My fingers and toes are always cold -no matter what I wear. But they say persons who have cold fingers have warm heart. At least my blood cycle seems to run somewhere else than in my arms and legs.

I seriously start to think that I am one of those persons who can't sit down without doing something with my hands. I have found out, that sitting down is impossible if I don't stitch, knit or do something else. Sitting is boring. And I must confess television is boring company without a craft to make.

This is a knitted mobile phone case. Also this is my own design. During the year I have made several of these, a bit different design for each and a bit different -or a lot different- yarn. You can use this case also as a purse -what ever fits best on your purposes. Easy to make and nice little gift. Best in these little ideas is that you can use your loose end yarns. You can use the idea to knit nice little gifts for the Christmas to your love ones.

I feel the cold arriving

Lately I have been doing a lot Christmas stuff. Card making was a bit... hmmm, the result is I could sell 90% of the cards or will keep them and have the cards ready for the comming years... for the rest of my life.

I also sew a seat covering for a pulka keeping eye on comming winter. Long time ago I crashed at 100% sheep wool teddy fabric and bought the whole pack of it with a friend and then we shared it. I still have a bit left and I already miss more of it. So warm and useful! I have made several baby blankets of it for example.

Here is seat covering for a pulka. It is made of 100% sheep wool teddy fabric. The lining is 100% sheep wool too. It is made for arctic outdooring for a little boy. There's also woollen socks for the same little man. You see often seat coverings made of animal skin -like sheep or reindeer- but this 100% sheep wool teddy fabric is good option also for those people who don't wan't to use anyone else's but their own skin & fur. :) Seat covering and socks are both my own design but you don't need to be a genius to be able to design and sew a seat covering -not to mention about woollen socks. :)

How to tat?

Recently I found interesting book I've been missing for years. At the college I leart to tat and have only basic instructions for it. I have made laces around embroidered table cloths etc. But I have been seeking a book or ideas for other projects. Now I just had to buy this book immediately when I saw it. It is Lear to Tat by Janette Baker. It has wonderful ideas. Later on I will -for sure- make something from it.

Janette Baker has also website. I have not get familiar it with it a lot yet, but here's a link for it
http://learnhowtotat.com/

More animals on the planet

Because polar bear taming is a hard job to do I found myself at a library. There's so many books and few of them are treasures. I found excellent cross stitch book which I want to share with you. It is Picture Your Pet in Cross Stitch by Claire Crompton. It includes incredible over 400 animal potraits and motifs. And believe me, these ones are not crap. The designs are so lively and animals look natural. Only few legs or positions are weird but really only few of these over 400! You rarely find treasures of animal designs like this. Especially if you seek something so common but rare like guineapig designs!

I have stitched again one more bookmark.This bookmark is made by using Agnes Delage-Calvet, Anne Sohier-Fournel, Muriel Brunet and Francoise Ritz chart from their book Made in France. Some variegated shade would look pretty too on the seahorse.

 

This is my own design. It is a credit card holder for a special friend. I used loose end materials from Granny's old tapestry project.

Taming a polar bear

I have been so busy with taming a polar bear that I am almost ashamed of not to update this blog in a month! I must tell you the polar bear don't want to learn to sit and it is very unwilling to cooperate with me. But I am doing all my best and at least I have been able to catch the shape of it already. Later on, hopefully at the end of August I will share the polar bear with you.

But, before starting this polar bear taming, I did two smaller projets which pictures you can see at Stitching site. At the moment they both are at the exhibition with some other designs of mine. In four weeks I will get them all back home.

This "My English Garden" is my own design -inspired by a holiday in UK. It includes variegated DMC threads. I have used double running stitches, back stitches, French knots and one blue bead. To be honest I am not sure yet what this project will be. Will it turn out to be a seed bag for my gardening purposes or something else...

This is my own design. It is tiny hardanger project. I just wanted to see how metallic threads will turn out with hardanger embroidery. It was very interesting to stitch this work. I courage everyone to try it out! A bit complicated but able to be done. :)