So what did I do with the chewed hat? Well here he is…I don’t know why I came up with the idea of making Little S a cat, but there you go. Once I had decided that I couldn’t bear to throw the hat away, I bunged it into the wash to felt it up a little bit more. Then taking hold of the trusty sewing machine I made some zig-zag lines where I wanted to cut the knitting. This made sure I could avoid fraying. I then sewed the edge together along the back. I then cut the top to form two ears and the top of the head and sewed again using the machine.
At this point I attached some safety eyes and used embroidery thread to make the nose, mouth and whiskers. I then made a small tail.
Finally I drew round a tin with a marker pen and then zig -zagged over the shape and cut outside the zig-zag circle.
It wasn’t too difficult to sew round the base leaving a small hole. Just to make sure the cat sat up straight, I filled a old pop-sock with some beads and then filled the rest of the cat with stuffing. Finally sewed the turned hole together making sure I secured the tail at the same time.
There he is Tatty Hat Cat -
Bernard was quite intrigued by him.
Lets hope he is as loved as the original hat.
There are a number of unfortunate children in my life who have been forced to endure knitted hats for Christmas/birthdays. I have said it before, but I feel there will soon be a cry of, ‘Give us cold hard cash woman and none of your knitted goods!’ Well you can never know how your knitted offerings are really received and whether they have a joyous life in the wind and rain. So it was a wonderful feeling to get one of these pressies returned to me.
My dear friend Mrs J had sent me a text to say she was sending her son’s hat in the post for a bit of emergency TLC. The hat had an unfortunate incident with their puppy dog. So the hat arrived – I came to two conclusions. Firstly I felt that the situation was fatal for the hat. In my head I thought it would be quicker for me to knit a new one then struggle on with rather intensive re-constructive surgery. Secondly I was so encouraged to see how much it was loved and used. A bit like a piece of furniture it had taken on its own worn patina. It was soft, a little bit furry, quite a bit larger. It was a rather heart warming experience.
So I set to work. Look at the difference, exactly the same yarn, exactly the same pattern. Of course with a yarn like this you can never predict where the stripes would be. Finally it seemed a shame to just throw away a much loved if holey hat. So it got me thinking. How could little S get his hat back, but with a new lease of life. Tune in tomorrow to see the solution!
With the run up to the Olympics and Jubilee, the shops are going what can only be described as ‘Blighty-tastic’. I think there is some real humour mixed in with it all. Currently I am finding it all a bit cheery. In the very British store, Marks and Spencer even the packaging for cakes and biscuits are making me smile. I had to buy this blue biscuit tin. I love the illustrations.
A friend of mine bought the pink one, so pretty. Little B then benefited from his Mother’s madness when she was compelled to buy these cakes.
I wonder if any of these will become collector’s items in the future? Well, I’m afraid the contents have already disappeared.
I had to show you this wonderful book by Jane Bull. Jane Bull creates the most wonderful craft and cooking books for young people. I think if you have a young person in your life who is showing some crafty interest, they will be inspired by the majority of the projects.
I particularly think the knitting and crochet pages are very good. I think you could probably leave a little person to look at how it is done and allow them to work it out themselves. Brilliant. So utterly gorgeous and the designs are very ‘of the moment’.
I actually want to make these Little Dude dolls. So I can give now higher recommendation than that.
If you have not come across the beautiful blog of Sweet Paul and fancy a little photographic and culinary inspiration, then please do visit. It was this post which made me want to make Cake Bunting. Then I wondered if I had gone completely mad. I had a bunch ladies for supper on Thursday and thought it would be a fun table decoration – but it does make me think – surely I need to harness my madness for a greater good. Oh I don’t know perhaps world peace, or even a tidy house. Never mind. Anyway the mini bunting made me smile.
Some of my friends have commented on that the blog is a bit ‘cheery’. Yes sorry about that. People who know me well know that we have certainly faced and continue to stare at a number of rather ‘challenging’ issues in daily life. But this space is about the joy of making, sharing, looking and the things which make me smile. So to those who cry out for a reality check, here is a wee demonstration that Varnam towers is really a family home of random objects left in strange places and constant struggle against the tide abandoned objects. This is the photo of the other side of the kitchen on Thursday. It probably makes me smile the widest smile.
Why is it that a traditional birthday party with jelly, cut sandwiches and cake appeals to my generation as a proper party? Nostalgia probably. For the children in my life – give them soft play and chips any time, oh and obviously pass the parcel. A gorgeous friend of mine had a birthday last week. We decided to have a mini birthday tea to get the celebrations going. Little B and I really wanted to use our new cat jelly mould. I will be honest with you, it was not easy to extract this baby from its plastic home. There was much dunking of the mould in hot water and a little bit of frantic stabbing with a knife.
We had a couple of strawberries in the fridge and I have no idea how we came up with the idea, but little man wanted to make them in the mice. Within a moment we were giving the whiskers and little button ears. There was so much hilarity between us that we nearly ran out of time.
Well actually we did run out of time and couldn’t find birthday candles for the cakes. Never mind, we resorted to sparklers. I always wondered why I have never used sparklers on cakes. I now know. It takes about 6 people to light 6 sparklers. Not easy. We gave up in the end. It didn’t matter though, because cake and jelly tastes just the same with or without sparklers. Yummy x
It is really nice when a design has a new life. I designed a knitted Union Jack cushion back in 2009. Surely head of the curve on that one! I wanted to make a design which was full of colour and general joy and over the last few years I have had photos sent to me from across the world which is really fantastic! The wonderful new Editor of Making magazine, Emma Kennedy asked if they could use the design in their June edition. I totally love this picture. I have to say the magazine has so many good ideas to get us in the festive spirit for the Jubilee and any street parties that you might have during the Olympics. There is also a really pretty pattern for crochet bunting which I love. So if you get a chance – check it out.
Thursday was a very good day. A dream which I had for about 30 years came true. Most of my childhood I wanted to be on Blue Peter which is a children’s programme here in Britain. (I am not alone in this, I estimate that of my generation 1 in 4 people might say the same thing). By happy co-incidence on Thursday I watched this programme being filmed. Many of the people working on that programme were substantially younger than me. But at one point I looked at my friend who was there with me – we smirked a smile which made us feel about 6 years old and said ‘This is SO cool!’ Isn’t it funny that we sometimes forget our childhood dreams, when this one caught me up, I felt more giddy than I can express. Basically it was so cool, I behaved in a way that was totally uncool – great!
When I got home there was a magazine waiting for me.It is the wonderful brand new Handmade Fashion. I had almost forgotten that I had a pattern in this magazine. It is very trendy and has some very nice ‘looks’. A total Zeitgeist approach to ‘make-do-and mend’. Right at the back is my pattern. I was so thrilled with the styling of this photo and really honoured to be in the magazine. I am looking forward to spending a bit more time leafing through it. So after a day like that, I must confess I did a little jig in the kitchen!
This scene just made me laugh. Bernard and mini Bernard watching the world outside. Who knows what adventures they are planning together. I had to move VERY fast with the camera to capture it. You can spot mini Bernard from this post x
What a strange thing it is that you can be frustrated about something, and then suddenly a solution comes to you and you wonder how you never thought of it before. I have a number of pairs of cheap sunglasses. I am very naughty. I tend to take them off, chuck them un-covered in my handbag, or leave them in random places throughout the house.
I know this is not good. But I can’t bear those little fabric cases which have a drawstring, as the sunglasses seem to just wheedle themselves out of the case. Large hard cases seem so cumbersome and far too big in my handbag. But it came to me only the other day, why don’t I make one? Something to protect the lenses from scratches, but not the size of large canoe.
So here we are, a couple of hours work. I’ll tell you how I get on. I was in two minds, do I go with a dark colour to hide the general nasty grime which seems to afflict things in my handbag. Or go zesty, so that I can actually spot my glasses in the gloomy cavernous depths of my bag. When I have completed a number of chores hanging over me I’ll have a go at version two and decide which is best.
