Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Many thanks to all of you who have bought markers helping to make this Crafty Cats best festive period to date! I hope Santa fills all your stockings with lots of lovely yarns for some fantastic projects in 2014.

Have a great time!
Debs

Autumn wallhanging

I'm having fun with felt currently and getting very excited about new possibilities it presents! So I have made a wallhanging as I ordered the autumn shades from World of Wool (do not visit website unless you have spare cash!).

Over stitched with a sparkly thread to bring out the leaves.

Work in progress 

This bag is made as one long piece so it will have a fold over top. I'm still debating whether to stitch this one as I like the fact that the leaves blend into the background.

This is a finished bag my mermaid green and blue in merino and tussah silk and lined with a batik fabric.

Blowing your own trumpet

I was really please to have two of my marker designs featured in two knitting magazines this month.

Tasty beans were in Simply Crochet

Mixed fruits were in The Knitter

Many thanks to all of you that saw them and ordered them!

Cats

It's been a tough time in the Crafty Cat household. First we lost Mishka to cancer, then a week later we came home to find his brother Fyodor had died. Then a week after that we had a phone call at 3am to say Mr Stripe had been hit by a car and despite all best efforts we had to let him go too. 

They're all much missed. 

Make sure you cuddle your cats every day as you never know what's around the corner.

 Mr Stripe June 2011- Sept 2013

Fyodorovich & Mishka June 1999- August 2013

New marker designs for Autumn

 Bonbons 20 for £4.99

 Hallowe'en skulls 10 for £4.99

 Lamp work Hallowe'en £5.99

 Autumn leaves in glass 8 for £4.99

Starry brights...5mm polymer stars 20 for £3.99

Finally somewhere to keep....

..........the stitch markers!

It's taken me a while to finally come up with the perfect marker pouch. Relatively easy to make and embellish and perfectly uniquely useful!

Made from eco felt which is in turn made from recycled plastic bottles, so not only are they good for the planet, but good for keeping your markers safe in your project bag. Plans afoot for a DPN case and circular case too.

Available on Etsy now.

Felting is soooo much fun!

 Stripe thought they were great!

A selection of wet felted flower bookmarks..highly attractive to cats!

Have your cake and eat it!

New fun beads arrived in little tiny cake shapes for calorie free knitting!

Or if you fancy something much more healthy, how about fruit?

Fantasy in felt

I've wanted to knit and felt a handbag for a while so I finally made time to do it.
Knitted in super chunky 100% wool and felted at 90 degrees in a front loader with a pair of jeans. This pattern is easily adaptable so feel free to change your colours of yarn, strap length or embellishments.

Materials
x2 50g balls of purple 100% super chunky yarn
x7 50g balls of green 100% super chunky yarn
size 9mm needles and 24" cable
wool roving for flowers
beads
needles for sewing etc

Pre felt size 18" tall by 16" long and 6" deep stap 80"
After felt 11" tall 12" long and 3" deep strap 42"

When knitting to felt always make your item taller than wider as felting shrinks more top to bottom than side to side.

Bag Pattern

Cast on 12 stitches in purple and knit for 8 inches in straight stitch then purl on the right side to make a ridge. Knit in st st for a further 2" in purple and then change to green on the purl side. Knit st st another 16" in green and cast off.
Pick up 12 stitches from your cast on in purple and repeat for other side panel.

Pick up 36 stitches along the bottom 16" evenly on wrong side and purl first row then st st. Continue in purple in st st until 2" high and then change to green. Continue in st st until 18" high and cast off. Repeat for other side of bag.

Sew sides of bag to the main panels with mattress stitch.

Strap

I must confess I didn't measure this before felting but I know it seemed huge! I think it was about 80".
Cast on 12 stitches and knit across.
Next row knit 3 purl 6 knit 3, repeat these 2 rows for about 6".
Then on wrong side knit 3 purl 3 knit 3 as this will give you a nice thick strap. Continue until 68" and go back to knit 3 purl 6 knit 3 for 6" as in the begininng  and cast off. Approx 80" strap.
I sewed my wrong side of straps together also making sure I stitched down the middle to make it flat.

Sew straps to side panels of bag and tidy up all ends.

Knitting finished! You are now wondering like me why you have knitted this bag that reaches to the floor and seems to be only suitable for a giant! Don't panic, the magic is yet to come!

I felted in my front loader machine on a quick 90 degree wash with a small amount of detergent and a pair of old jeans for agitation. In hindsight maybe a 60 would have made a bigger bag...it's up to you on that point. With front loaders there is no option to check on the felting so it's in the lap of the gods once you shut the door.

Shape if necessary although it should be quite thick and holding it's shape. Hang out to dry.

Now you can think about how you would like to decorate your bag. I used wet felted flowers that I made. But if you haven't time there are some great sellers on Etsy selling them ready made.

Or you could knit some flowers and felt them and attach, just use beads or whatever takes your fancy, the only limit is your imagination.

I made a lining for mine from in batik violet and green fabric and fitted a zip, but you could use a magnetic snap closure or any other inventive fastening you desire.

Charlie's butterflies buggy blanket

A new arrival in the world, my nephew Charlie! So to celebrate I knitted him a blanket which is more for winter as it's quite thick. Pattern free on Ravelry is Rainbows and Butterflies Afghan by Marilyn Clark.

 I made a few modifications to the pattern for the different thickness yarn and smaller size and it's lovely and snug to keep Charlie warm! Great pattern, easy knit and new stitch learnt!

Freyja shawl with beads

Made for me to wear this summer. Was an enjoyable knit apart from the beads which are a chore, but the pattern knits beautifully.

And we've actually had the weather to wear a light shawl. I love the colours and made a matching hair bun cover to go with it.

At least you can't see the grey hairs from the back!!

Alien eyes, bug eyes, evil eyes..take your pick!

New beads

which I find amusing, especially as they seem to be at various stages of pupil dilation!

Charmed

I'm currently having a fling with bag charms and my own handbag is testament to 3 of them as I love to jingle and jangle.

And then I thought about combining them with stitch markers, so my project bag could look good too....and this is my first creation.

Peacock ribbon stitch marker bag charm...all of the above available on Etsy now.

Ribbon bookmark

I still haven't upgraded to an E-book yet as I have too many loved and well read books on my shelves. I often have several books on the go and love my bookmarks..so I made some new ones!

I'm enjoying learning new skills working with charms and findings and lots of moaning about how fiddly it all is!

I'm currently knitting hedgehogs for a charity fundraiser in May and will post the pattern soon.

Retro day

I ordered a few bags of mixed beads as I love the anticipation of never quite knowing what you are going to get! I got retro colours!

Available now on Etsy.

What to do on a cold, grey Sunday afternoon? 

Light the fire and get the bead box out!
I had paid my local charity shop a visit on Saturday and had a damn good rummage through their jewellery box, and when I say box I mean a huge box! What a treasure trove! 

This was the best find, a vintage clay bead that for some reason had been put on an awful tiny brown plastic bead necklace that went straight in the bin!

So on Sunday after lighting the woodburner, making a hot cup of tea I set to work on a new venture for me scissor fobs! My friend Jo has made tassels for scissors for ages as she does a lot of quilting workshops and always likes to take her own scissors and know the right pair to take home!
  My first attempt was with an assortment of glass beads in green and blue. That reminded me of the sea so I dug out some seashell spacer beads I knew I had somewhere too. After a few mishaps with not making the final clasp tight enough and them all falling off the string, I succeeded!

www.etsy.com/listing/124669933/scissors-and-beaded-sea-blue-and-green

Then I dug out my little cat scissors.....

......what a find for Crafty cat!

Having learnt hard lessons from the first attempt, this set proceeded quite quickly. The hardest part was matching up lilac and yellow beads without it looking yukky...but I think I managed it. 

www.etsy.com/listing/124670209/cat-scissors-and-beaded-scissor-fob

Finally the one I had been excited about! I was going to get to use that lovely clay bead! I'd also found a couple of bracelets in the charity shop rummage and a little piece of this and that produced this!

It threaded like a dream, colours were heavenly and looked fab. In fact I liked it so much it took another cup of tea and a think on whether to actually try and sell it or keep it. When I make something I really love it's always tempting to keep, but it 's also nice to sell an item as it means it really must have appeal! I had some beads left over so made them into stitch markers and we'll see if anyone else likes my efforts! If they don't I'll have a great scissor fob and some matching markers. 

www.etsy.com/listing/124671050/stitch-marker-set-and-matching-beaded