Covered notebook.

 I am a bit of a notebook girl - and I don't mean the electronic type. I get quite a thrill from leafing through notepads and handling pencils - there's probably a name for this condition. It can be quite a struggle though to find a nice, reasonably-priced notebook with plain pages rather than cheap-looking lines. Ta da! - I found such an item. The drawback is the fake leather outer shell - easily remedied. I've been meaning to do a notebook cover for ages but haven't had time - but I'm ahead of schedule with my handmade Christmas presents ( to be posted after the big day! ) and thought I'd have a play.

Wool cover and cotton inner selected...

Selected felt pieces for cover design. I wanted a fairly limited palette...

Threads. Yum.

I made my cover design and then carefully folded the cotton lining inside the wool fabric. Neatly pinned and waiting to be stitched together...

Edges were folded and sewn in and then the notebook was slipped inside.....

The finished work. Lovely colours, great notepad to work with and I can feel some follow-ups coming on....

My obsession with hexagons knows no limits...

With Christmas hurtling towards us and quite a few handmade gifts on the go, the last thing I should be thinking about is farting about with beginning a new project. And yet here I am, doing just that. For most of the year I've had a real yen to knit a blanket and I've gathered a few lovely patterns from library books and Google searches.
I've previously written about my love of hexagons and how they seem such a perfect shape....and I started to wonder if I could produce acceptable versions in yarn.
A bit of online research threw up results of varying desirability. And then I found this beauty, for which photographic and knitting pattern credit goes to Knit, Shear Bliss! blogspot. I won't be knitting the child, just the blanket : )

A raid in my yarn collection ( ye gods, how did I acquire so much of the stuff? ) has got me off to a great start. I'm a bit funny, well, very funny actually about lots of different colours together, so my version is more muted. Here is what I've made so far - I may well add another colour or two, I'll see how it looks when I've made more hexagons.
Clearly, these are not sewn together yet, the photographs simply show the shapes in their 'just finished' state.

They will be joined together in a simple over-stitch I think - colour of yarn for this yet to be decided upon - a long way off in the future. Now, I really must get all these Christmas presents finished.....

It's a wrap!

It's a given that come September, I have to get my knitting needles out. I don't know if it's a primeval calling or simply a response to darker nights, colder weather and the downright need to feel cosy. Whatever prompts it, I give in to it.

Two years ago I started knitting what was to be an Aran poncho. It was no small undertaking - both sides were to be approximately a meter square in size. There were over 200 stitches on a needle and each row took about 5 minutes to knit. Unsurprisingly I lost heart. I managed about two-thirds of one side and then it got confined to the deepest depths of my knitting box.

This week it was time to face my demons, cut my losses and other such cliches - and deal with it. I decided to cast off and turn it into a lovely warm wrap. It's actually a great width and length, allowing for an array of folds and tucks. And a perfect excuse for wearing a beautiful brooch or shawl pin. Result!

It's a simple basket-weave pattern with garter stitch borders. And it's very warm.