Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! This is a bit of a nothing post: I just wanted to pop my head in to say that I hope everyone had a very merry christmas and that 2009 is safe, happy and full of plenty of crafting. I've been really busy with preparing gifts (even though I said that I probably wouldn't make any this year!), celebrating with loved ones and hitting the shops for post-christmas sales (no, not clothes shops, craft shops!).

I'll take some photos of everything and show them to you after I've gone and had a lie down :)

Beautiful things from Norma W

I really do love all of these things from Norma W. And any would make fabulous Christmas presents.

I really wanted to share some photos of what I've been up to lately but the weather has been so rotten that good pictures have been hard to find. Next post I'll show you my latest projects!

Finished!

I completed my first commission!

They took so long to make because I had to figure out the pattern for the medium and small babushkas as I was crocheting them and I kept making mistakes. Also, I was halfway through making the large blue one when I found out that I had been using a crochet hook one size too small. These are the tags that went with them:

hurrah for craft shopping!

The other day I visited Spotlight the other day and these are the goodies that I picked up:

Grey felt, calico and some gorgeous mushroom fabric,

two balls of Yarn Bee Down to Earth (55% acrylic and 45% cotton)

which I have already started knitting up into a new project,

(more when it is finished),

and some buttons.

Love love love craft shopping :)

enfant terrible

Gaaah! The cuteness! These are all for the littlies from enfant terrible.

No elves, but there's a shoemaker!

Okay, that was a little corney. But I really have been making shoes!

This pair is made from acrylic felt in grey and greyish blue, embroidery thread and pink ribbon.

And this pair is made from blue wool felt, white acrylic felt, embroidery thread and two red buttons.

My mum requested them for a colleague who had not had her baby at the time, but who is now about two months old! Thank the lord I made the larger size. The pattern I used was Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties. This is a great and easy to follow pattern, and I would recommend visiting Heather's blog. It's pretty. Also, if you want to learn how to make yo-yos, she has a great tutorial for you to follow.

La Pomme

I don't know if you've checked out the La Pomme shop at Etsy yet...

...but what can I say. It's very nice.

just a bit of fun

Ooooh! This is what Jessie looks like vintage style. You can try turning your new photos into old ones like this here.

ahaha!

I've found another uber cute shop

All but the bag are sold items, but aren't they adorable? These are all from mpatrizio

I found something!

Have you checked out this shop?

Its oliviaew at etsy. These dolls are so gorgeous it makes me cry.

Hurrah!

Yesss! I've finished all my exams! Thank the lord. So now there will be a whole lot more time for crafting. Although it is getting quite hot, making it a bit more uncomfortable. Does anyone have any ideas on how to counteract this? As in, how to make your hands less sticky and sweaty? I think moisturiser is supposed to help, but its not foolproof. Oh, and guess what? I now have Ravelry! I'm stil figuring out how to use it, but you can visit me as jessiebear. I'll try and find some pictures to post soon...

Christmas is looming...

I swear that the silly season begins sooner and sooner each year. I think some of you would probably agree with me on that one. Yes, the shops have already brought out their stock and the streets are already lined with Christmas decorations. I'm sure there are plenty of people who plan to get all their shopping done in November, but despite these good intentions I think there's only a slim chance of this actually occuring. And please, if you crafters are planning on making all or some of your gifts, it's probably a good idea to have started already. Last year I made all my friend's presents and there was a mad dash at the end to have them completed on time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can speak from experience.

I don't know if I'll make any presents this year. I think it's a lovely thought but not always appreciated for the time and effort involved. Also I haven't been struck by inspiration yet. I did consider making a pair of fingerless gloves for one of my girlfriends, but I gave up on that one due to the current 35 degrees celsius weather.

So anyways, if you are stuck for ideas, this may help you out a bit. Etsy is a great place to visit- you can still give a handmade gift but it will take you considerably less time to have it organised. This rabbit and fawn are from alberto's family

A: Don't be silly, a rabbit and a gorilla look nothing alike!

Hahaha.

Just a word of warning that I may not be around a whole lot over the next couple of weeks. It's exam period again when everything goes insane and nothing runs to plan. But I'll try to include some updates.

I was trawling Etsy for ages trying to find something to share but I had difficulty finding anything that really took my fancy. So instead I decided to include this picture of some yo-yos that I made...

They don't have a purpose- I just think they look pretty.

I hope all that makes sense. It's late and I'm tired. More soon!

.....and this is fair isle attempt #2!

Fair isle attempt #2
Originally uploaded by jessie + bear

This one is my favourite- it's a Scandinavian design worked in black and white yarn. I actually inverted the colour order that the pattern specified so that the black was predominant instead of the white. How much do you love this blogging thing on flickr by the way? I love how easy it is to upload your photos and then blog about them too. I've only figured out how to do one at a time though- does anyone know how to blog about more than one photo in the same post?

As well as trying desperately to finish that order of three sets of Babushka dolls before Christmas, (I'm not very good at going fast), I've also been trying out a new pattern. What I have discovered is that if you make a yo-yo and then stuff it, it makes a good circle sort of shape, useful for heads and bodies. I'll share some pictures when my little critter is complete.

And I'll leave you with a joke today just because I think it is hilarious (really, it is)

Q: How do you tell the difference between a rabbit and a gorilla?

I'll let you know next time!

Fair isle attempt- #1

Fair isle attempt- #1
Originally uploaded by jessie + bear

So I've always avoided fair isle like the plague because I thought it was too hard. It didn't help that I also had a pretty bad experience trying to fair isle something that should have been done in intarsia. That made me think that it was impossible to create a smooth, neat piece of knitting in more than one colour. But, thanks to some online tutorials, I was willing to give it another go....

....and here are the results! Still not as neat as it could have been, but definately an improvement. It's just a simple checkered pattern using purple and white yarn.

I can't remember the names of the blogs that I used tutorials from, but just type "fair isle tutorial" into Google if you want to find them too.

More coming soon

Sorry that there hasn't been any communication for...gosh a couple of weeks now. It's kinda because I've been really busy and kinda because really, nothing interesting has happened. There's been a bit of crochet, a bit of knitting, a bit of sewing and a bit of a certain disaster that I don't care to mention but haven't given up on yet. I will take photos of everything soon. I'm still lusting after a better camera, anything would be better than what I'm stuck with at the moment. Anyway, I can't leave you with a pictureless post, so here's a very cute portly hedgehog from Marjji

CHECK THIS SHOP OUT NOW! abigailbrown at Etsy

These are absolutely too cute. I want the fox! All from abigailbrown