"We all love figgy pudding

... so bring some right here!"

Christmas Pudding mini make

A ta-dah post for Pickle-Lily's latest mini make  - the Christmas Pudding decoration. In the mini make kit there is felt, ribbon, a button and some seriously glittery felt all cut ready for you to sew into a sparkly Christmas pudding to hang on your tree.
I am so pleased with these that I am going to have a mini giveaway for one.
How to enter

Follow my blog and then leave a comment to say you have done this. If you are already a follower (thank you) please just leave me a comment.

For extra chances to win you can....

'Like' me on my Facebook page and leave a comment on the post there.
Or leave a comment on my instagram post about the giveaway.

Please ensure that I am able to contact you. Pickle-Lily will pull all the names out of a hat on Friday 6th November.

Win me!

Good luck!

Mini Make - Candy Cane Mouse

Candy Cane Mice

This month I have been asked to do a Mini Make activity with the WI ladies on the theme of Cheese and Wine. When I was asked, I thought of cheese and mice, but since watching Winterwatch I discovered mice don't actually choose cheese! But I stuck with the mice idea anyway!
This is really more of a Christmas tutorial, but you can be prepared, or give one as an Easter gift to someone who doesn't like chocolate (is that even posssible?!!!)
To make a mouse you need a small amount of felt, a candy cane, some fabric glue and some eyes. For my eyes I used black brads from here, but you can use buttons or just felt pen them on.I have checked, and candy canes are available on ebay if you don't have any left from Christmas.

Cut out a body, an ear piece, two inner ears (if wanted) and a nose.

Fold the mouse and pattern in half together and use as a guide to cut the two sets of slits.

Roll the ear piece up

Carefully slide the ear through the two slits at the head end, stopping in the middle.

Glue or sew ear patches on if you want - don't forget a nose!

Add two eyes you can use buttons, brads or even draw them on

Slide the candy cane through the slits in the tail and the loop created by the ears.

A wobbly template with sizes!

Glittery Mittenry

Half term week has been busy with all the usual things like dentist appointments, hair cuts and a lot of washing - for some reason!!! I've also been busy making Christmas goodies and restocking my Folksy shop.

mini mittens with tinsel cuff

This year I have updated the mini mittens - you can find the pattern for knitting them here by making them in pastel colours and the cuffs in tinsel wool. I have to admit I don't like knitting with the tinsel wool it makes my hands itch and I certainly couldn't wear anything made in it, but it looks lovely as a Christmas decoration!

sparkle and shine

I've been using King Cole Tinsel Chunky and just followed my pattern - I didn't change the needle size. I did think the mittens would look cute as a pair on a longer twisted cord and then hung on the tree like that.

Men,men,menly,men

I have had the usual present struggle for the men on my present list again this year! Last year I made a chunky stocking which I filled with goodies. This year's presents also involve knitting.

stripes

This pile of stripes have been turned into pairs of fingerless gloves. Made from lovely merino yarn including a favourite rugby team colour scheme, and with a bag of homemade fudge, I'm hoping they will be practical and fun! You've still got time to knit a pair if you're looking for a quick gift idea.


fingerless gloves


Easy-Peasy Reindeer

This is my 200th Post - and by sheer coincidence I am taking part in Bugs and Fishes Blog link-up as part of it. Such fun! The link-up is all about Christmas and I am sharing my easy-peasy reindeer tutorial. Last year I created an easy-peasy robin for Pickle-Lily ( my crafty daughter ) and this year she asked for a reindeer to make and here he is.

Easy-Peasy Reindeer

You will need -

Two circles of medium brown felt - now these can be any size depending on how big you would like your reindeer to be.
A smaller circle of red glitter felt, or just red felt or even a red button for the nose.
Two black brads for eyes or appropriate sized buttons.
A length of ribbon to hang him from.
Some darker brown felt for the antlers.
A template for his antler - this I made by using the Kristen font in Word, enlarging it to the size I wanted, cutting it out and rounding it off to get what looks like this...

Or you could draw your own shape. The beauty is no two antlers look alike so you can make them as simple or as intricate as you like. Cut out two antlers from dark brown felt.

 

 

Place the nose where you like on one brown circle to be his face and stitch it on with running stitch.

At the same time - trap the folded piece of ribbon on the back of this circle.

Then ..

Place the two antlers in position and hold them in place with the eyes...

Now, put the other brown circle over the back and sew in place.
I use a cross between a running stitch and back stitch, this gives the effect of a simple running stitch on the front but is as strong as back stitch. To do this, sew as if it was back stitch making the top stitches shorter, so they don't touch each other and the under stitches longer.
The top stitching looks like this ..

The underside will look like this

You can add a little stuffing if you want to make him a little plumper.
If you prefer you could make him into a badge - leaving out the ribbon.
A tip for this is to add an extra little piece of felt onto the back of the back circle to strengthen your badge and to use double thread to sew it on. Sew the front and back together as before.

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is making and sharing their tutorials for! A big than-you to Laura for organising this.



Bags of fun

Hello again to Handmade Mondayers! It is half term this week, so I can join in with everyone.
My dear daughter has finally let me on the computer so I can blog, but I will have to be quick as there is a roast dinner to cook! Mind you, I showed her how to make origami gift bags earlier in the week and they are now taking over the house. I believe a tutorial on them will be appearing on her blog soon.

Baby Christmas Bunting kit

I have had fun creating a new kit for Christmas - Baby Christmas Bunting.
To to launch this new kit I am having a giveaway on Pickle-Lily of one the new kits. With it you can make two metres of felt and pom-pom bunting. Everything you need is in the kit, apart from scissors. I'm also including two gift bags with a surprise in them as well.

How to enter

Follow my blog and then leave a comment to say you have done this. If you are already a follower (thank you) please just leave me a comment.

For extra chances to win you can....

'Like' me on my Facebook page and leave a comment on my blog and on my facebook page to let me know you have done this.
If you already 'like' my FB page then please just leave a comment here to remind me!
If you would like to blog about my giveaway this will give you another entry. Again leave me another comment here on my blog.
I'd like to boost Pickle-Lily's own Facebook page, so for an extra entry, please 'like' her page and  leave another comment on here.
Please ensure that I am able to contact you. Pickle-Lily will pull all the names out of a hat next Monday 4th November.

Good luck!

All bunting out

This week-end I have been helping In a Pickle-Lily make bunting. Some of the bake sale bunting was used in a local shop window as part of the local food and drink festival, and it has generated orders for more! In fact the shop has asked for a selection of bunting to have as stock, so I have been helping her make bunting. This week-end we have made nine lengths of bunting, which is 22.5m or 99 flags.


lots of lovely bunting

I did distracted this week-end however, by turning my fox, squirrel and hedgehog into Christmas decorations! It wasn't part of the plan for this week-end, but my fingers sort of cut and stitched them by themselves and I am very pleased with them. In fact when I have finished this post I am going to put them on folksy, the first items in my Christmas shop for this year!

Pick on a penguin part 1

Penguin - pattern by Fuzzy Mittens

As many of you know Pickle-Lily's favourite animals are penguins, and this year we have decided to have a bit of a penguin theme for Christmas. I know it's only August, but most fellow crafters have made a start on preparations! With Mr P-L on a week's holiday, I roped him in with testing the new knitted toy - a penguin of course!

Toys now must be tested for safety, and I am saying here that I am not an expert, but have been using the excellent pack from Conformance. It takes me a while to complete each test but with Mr P-L's help it was much quicker this week, so I thought I'd share some of it.

Firstly, I will introduce the very cute penguin toy P chose. It is one of Barbara Prime's patterns from Fuzzy Mittens . She is very generous in allowing you to sell her designs, as long as you acknowledge her design. I did try and design my own pattern, but I was told it wasn't cute enough!




Choke testing cylinder

The first part of the EN-71 testing is based on mechanical and physical properties. That is how clean it is, how it must be washable, the labelling, testing it as a choke hazard and the torque testing. The pack is very clear on how to do all these things and provides a clear checklist for recording all your results. For all my teaching friends, it's like an early years profile or APP with all the paperwork to accompany it!
Choke testing is done using a cylinder made from card to exact measurements. I was originally surprised by how big the cylinder was, and it has since been a guide to my making.
The torque testing is testing all your seams by taking the toy and twisting it by 180 degrees. This is the part where P decided I was the cruellest mother, by torturing the poor penguin in a such way. We videoed this test as part of the evidence. She decided at this point she couldn't bear watching me and that's where Mr P-L had to help! You really do need two people to do this as one person needs to take pictures or film your evidence.

After the torque test, it was the tension test. This involved 7.2kg of weight hanging from a clamp to test the strength of the seams.

 

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

Pickle-Lily and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Little knitted robin

Thank-you to all our lovely followers and readers for your comments - and we are looking forward to 2013. I already have lots of ideas flying around in my head!

See you in the New Year!



Oh Christmas Tree

Paper strips tree

This week has been busy again - but amongst the organised chaos timetables, I have sat with the children and we have made tissue paper Christmas trees. It has been a delight sitting, chatting, cutting and sticking these. So easy, but so much care and taken by them in choosing colours and getting the right sizes. Very simply - tissue paper cut into strips and using a glue stick stuck on white paper.
I also thought ribbons or felt strips on a Christmas decoration, or why not use the paper hats from crackers to make multicoloured snowflakes, stars or just shapes on thank-you cards after Christmas.
Why not make one, these have been my oasis of calm in a week of plays, parties and pantomimes and still more to go!

90 cards

I know it doesn't look like 90!

This afternoon I made 90 Christmas cards for the children at school! I've always given the children homemade cards, and for my last 'full-time' class I knitted 30 little stockings. This year as I'm teaching three different classes I've made them all a card each. The pictures are from Dots and Spots wrapping paper, that I've cut out and stuck onto coloured card. I just love Becky's designs. Now I've just to write in the cards and do 90 envelopes!!!!

This morning Pickle-Lily and I visited our favourite garden centre - Cadburys, and it didn't let us down! Beautiful Christmas displays ...

Lovely things to buy - I loved the hyacinth basket.

And as a treat I'd booked an ice-skating session for P, which she loved!
This week has seen the last Christmas fair, and I have one order to post tomorrow. I've got a full week at school, but in between times I'm making Christmas gifts and reading all the lovely blogs on Handmade Monday. So now to write 90 envelopes!

Ice skating at Cadburys

Festive Friday

A few Fridays ago I blogged about mini Christmas cakes made in a baked bean tin, and I said to keep one empty tin back and this is why! It is now time to marzipan and ice your cakes. I usually have a few days between each stage, but for Festive Friday I have combined them.
So ...
Turn your little cakes uspside down, you may need to slice a little off the old top so they don't wobble. You will be left with a lovely smooth surface. In the photos Pickle-Lily forgot this step, but it really doesn't matter!
Then brush a little melted apricot (traditional) or raspberry seedless jam over the top of the cake to make it good and sticky.

Then using your clean tin as a cutter, you can cut a perfect sized circle of marzipan to put on the top of the cake. You can also use it to cut out a perfect matching circle of fondant icing to put on top of the marzipan.

The cakes can then be decorated with whatever you like!

We then wrapped our cakes in small clear presentation bags ready to give as Christmas gifts. You still have time to make some to give!
Have a good week-end!

From little to BIG

On Sunday I showed a sneak peek of my knitting work in progress.

With glittery red festive needles!

Now I can show you the finished products! I love them so much I'm now on my third one! What I did was to use the pattern for the mini stockings I knit as tree decorations, and using super chunky yarn  make super chunky stockings!

From small .....

. . . to big

I'm now filling them with small gifts for those awkward men in my life - socks, smellies, chocolates and a little torch so far! They are so quick to knit as well!
I've also found a lovely link party to join in with - Hookin on Hump Day hosted by My Merry Messy Life why not go and visit!