Crocodile Planning

At Christmas Rachel showed this book she bought. We decided to make the crocodile. We decided we need to dye some towelling. Months later we are finally ready and so next weekend we shall make our creatures in her new studio. In preparation, I experimented by making (an completely botching) a mini crocodile.





Now I feel I am ready for the real deal and I have all my material ready and primed for action.

Pin Cushions

I went a bit overboard, but they're so easy to make and I can never decide whether yo make them using bright colours or muted greens and browns so I made some of each. My favourite is the one above. I used my all time favourite button which you can't quite see the colour of, but it's a tiny robin egg blue button. Why didn't I buy more of them? I have no idea. Life is a mystery.

Something Green

I am making something green with sharp teeth. All the greens need to be limey and the same so I dyed some material in the washing machine with mixed results. I am now ready to create my green sharp-toothed monster.

Knitting part deux

So I started off practising with 10 stitches. I dropped about 3, then gained 3. Rachel had to unpick it and fix it along the way as I can't gp backwards, but eventually I made this: my new neck scarf. I am very pleased with myself and have bought a new ball to wool to celebrate.

Pins and Their Cushions

Time to make some more of these I thought. The last ones I made were given away very quickly so I thought I'd do a few more as they're so easy.

New Pin Cushion

Sometimes simple is good.

Baby Quilt

This is an old quilt I made for my best friend's baby and is the hardest, longest project I ever did. There was a lot of work involved in that and I didn't really know what I was doing. I think I watched a whole season of 24 whilst stitching this. It's a traditional Durham baby quilt and I just thought I'd put it up for posterity.

Rock Sock Monster

The only item I bought in the January sales was this pair of black stripey glitter socks for £2 in Oasis. Behold, here is Queequeg. He likes soft rock, tattoos and studded belts. His badge reads: "I'm Lazy" which is probably quite true. Queequeg spends a large portion of his time time sleeping. When he is not asleep, he is awake until he is asleep again. He eats until he is not hungry, then waits until he is hungry again. When not being lazy, Queequeg spends the little time he has left thinking about Boethius and ACDC. This probably accounts for constant snoozing. I am considering making him a sweatband with a streak of lightening on it. Decisions decisions… I best be quick though as this monster is winging its way to the big U S of A on monday. He's going on tour.

To the Dogs

I had a problem with moths a while a go. Luckily I'm far too cheap to go natural fibre, but poor Simon's jumpers took the fall instead - 100% cashmere ones. Even the all time favourite cardigan was shot down in its prime. His love for it was so great that he couldn't bear to throw it away so I found it hidden at the back of the cupboard the other day and decided to immortalise it by making it into a dog. I couldn't decide how big to do it to I made two. They a beautifully soft. but I didn't quite manage to avoid all the moth holes hence the stripey patch on the paw. I don't mind much. I reckon a dogs life is a down and dirty experience so I quite like their rugged edge.

New Year Knit

Resolution - To Knit

I learned to knit when I was quite young, but apart from a few scarfs, never really got very far with it, but after looking in the Japanese zakka books at how they use small knitted squares in their designs I have decided to get back into it and see if I can remember it all. I dreamt last night I was knitting and when I woke up this morning I felt as if I remembered it all. Time will tell. Here is the test wool I bought in the great John Lewis wool bargain bucket for £1.40

Wrapping

So here are the final presents wrapped with labels. Another year done.

Christmas Wish

What I want for Christmas. Every year for a few years my sister bought me a church chair from the expensive castle Gibson shop in Islington. Then I had the inspiration to ask for a cushion for each year on ever subsequent year. This year I asked for another, but she is sighs whenever I mention it. Here is the last one I got, it's ace.

Christmas Wrapping

Finally blogger has upgraded my blog. It looks exactly the same to me. I hope it all works okay.

Anyhow i've been thinking about how to wrap my presents this year. I like wrapping. In fact it's one of the few things I can honestly say I am not bad at. I think it's a combination of having a mother who taught me the indepth skill of sticky back plasticing all my school books from an early age, being a virgo and studying packaging design at college.

People in my family can get quite into the whole Christmas wrapping thing. It started with my mum using her crazy thick multicoloured wools to wrap presents then kicked up a gear when my sister did hers in brown paper and gold thread one year. And everyone remembers the year she had these huge pink furry pipecleaners she twisted into cork screws, it was a hard act to follow.

So this year I decided to do some white flowers to put round my presents which will be wrapped in white tissue paper. I'll see if I can dig out some pictures of previous years to show you the 'Themes'. Last year was purple thick ribbon, purple glittery humming birds, black shiny paper and ornate long labels with white writing. Here's a bad photo, you can't see much though.

Another Monkey

I saw these fancy Burlington Socks in john Lewis when I should have been Christmas shopping and after making the yellow monkey out of posh socks, wanted to try it again so I could improve on my last attempt. I wanted him to be less rigid with less of a slaphead, so here are the results. This time I made the forehead smaller, didn't stuff him too much and weighted him a lot more as he is needed more help loosening up. Behold Fritz, the newest member of the growing sock kingdom.

I have four monkeys watching me as I type now. Two are soon to depart for exotic new homes, but Fritz and Fleabas are staying here to keep me company. The only thing I would change with Fritz is the colour thread I used on his forehead surgery. I guess I didn't think green would show but now he has a very thin green scar, Poor Fritz, he doesn't mind. All he wants to do is eat wieners and impress everybody with his posh voice. He likes to stay up late talking about 'The State of the World' with which he draws many parallels between the Die Hard movies in order to support his arguments.

Simplicity and Ornament

Sometimes you have to go overboard and let loose, just so you can reign it in again and do something simple. I purged the colour and complexity with the former so I could create the simple bottlecap pin cushion afterwards. It could well be my favourite one. But enough of pin cushions I am moving onwards and upwards.

Why I Should Learn To Knit

Donna Wilson is ace, just ace.

Tailored Monsters Unveiled

I like to think that Snitcher lives an international life of crime and high intrigue. He never reveals the identity behind his mask. He always keeps his back against the wall, makes 'The Lamb' taste his crumpet before it is ingested, and makes a point of probing the butter for listening devices which makes a dreadful mess I can tell you. Such drama over tea and cake. Snitcher likes to end all his sentences with '10-4', 'Roger that', 'You are clear' and always whispers into the cuff of his duffle coat. Sometimes I think he doesn't work in the large print section of the local library after all…


Muggins is pure brawn. He does whatever Snitcher tells him. 'Drive the pretty car fast as soon as we jump in', 'give the man the big black round thing then run away'. Muggins thinks the best of everybody, particularly if they offer him chocolate Bourbons and Barley sweets to suck on.


The Lamb doesn't say much. When he does share rare tidbits about himself and his salubrious life, his voice startles you with it's quiet gravelly depth, much resembling someone with a 50 a day Lambert and Butler Kingsize habit. He will only address himself in the third person starting every sentence with 'The Lamb…' He thinks nothing of stealing Muggins' Sherbet Dibdabs, making him whimper and cry. It is therefore not surprising that he always carries a shiner on his left eye.


Here they are in all their glory. The international crime ring. The henchmen. The Ateam of felt toys. Renegades from good, wholesome toyshops.

They were incredibly easy to make. I love my new little monsters. They are bigger, beefier and ready for a fight. I am not sure who they are going to go to. I thought they would make good Christmas presents but I have no idea who would like one.

Things I learned:
If you don't fiddle with that funny tension knob on the sowing machine then thick material will rip your thread

Tailored Monsters

I discovered that in tailoring, collars linings are made from a really think stout felt. It's beautiful. So I decided to make some monsters with it. I thought the dark grey would go nicely with the village fete neon thread I bought. In an effort to learn new things I went back home for an intensive mum-wisdom session where I was taught the beginnings of machine embroidery. Of course I did everything wrong, trying to sow circles that came out looking like a 3 year olds first attempts to draw. Then the mistress of sowing herself - she of the 5 year City and Guilds Hall of fame - took over and showed me how it's really done. It's amazing how much easier it is when you can observe a pro at work. So I have been sowing faces and making some new monsters. They are shifty.

Bigger and Brighter

Why stick to bottlecap size when you can do bigger? She says after sowing it all wrong and having to unpick it. At least it is a learning curve. It's the BigJen pincushion number two. In honour of being more technicolour I have cracked open the neon thread I bought in a village hall deep in the fens not long since.