Socks and blanket

I've relearnt crochet thanks to my new craft group and been inspired by Nicki to tackle my first pair of socks and am pleased with the results of both.

Here are the socks. From a pattern by Cookie A, they are called Monkey. I used a Marathon sock yarn.

The pattern was easy to follow and worked out well. I am still a little amazed how well they came out, turning the heel seems so mysterious.

The crochet blanket started as an experiment to see what would happen if I made crochet squares using sock yarn. I used a crochet square starting with a circle which I found on Ravelry. The pattern is called Flowers in the Snow by Solveig Grimstad. I joined six of these squares as I crocheted and ended up with six patterned rectangles. It wasn't big enough for anything sensible and I had run out of sock yarn so I matched up a deep purple sock yarn to make some plain versions of the flower squares and to add in the final borders. I put a little picot edge on and I'm please with the end result.

12 day swap

I realised that I'd forgotten to post the photos of the items I made for the 12 day swap at Christmas. It is a closely guarded secret until everyone has opened their parcels so as not to spoil the surprise. Of course I then forgot to post the photo.

So I made a little needle case for everyone which I hope will come in handy.

All wrapped up in some tissue paper decorated with spray inks and a little stamped tag.

Quick catch up

I've not posted much on here for a while so thought I'd just have a quick catch up post for those projects that I've missed.

Firstly I made a polymer clay pendant and some buttons and charms using a mokume gane type technique. This involved making thin layers of coloured clay and then pressing a rubber stamp into the stack. I sliced off the top section revealing a pattern of colours underneath. I cut it into shapes and pressed some into a button mould.

I made a couple of pincushions, one for a swap and one which now lives next to my sewing machine to save me rummaging around for pins.

And finally a fabric postcard for the theme lace and buttons

Book with patterned pages

I joined a swap for using Distress Inks and thought I'd try to make a project that used a few techniques with them. I used two colours for most of the project, Mustard Seed and Broken China.

Firstly I made some pages with the wrinkle free technique where you wipe a couple of ink pads over a non stick sheet, spray them with a little water and then dip the paper into it. Dry with a heat gun and dip a few more times to build up the textures. I then used some stencils with some of the two ink colours using  a blending tool to add some more interest to the pages.

I then made some covers with some mount board and using some duct tape as the hinge. I used the blending tool to add some of the two ink colours to make a blended background. I then stamped some images using Weathered Wood and an india ink black inkpad, the only non-distress ink in the project.

I sewed the pages in using a pamphlet stitch.

Christmas

I decided to make a Christmas tree skirt after seeing a friend's one. I searched for inspiration and finally found some in a blog here which is broadly based on a book I have called Scandinavian Stitches .

Here it is all finished

And some pictures of the detail

Bags

I have finally finshed making a couple of bags I've been working on for quite a while. I am happy with the way they both turned out. The beach hut bag was a very simple design with a lining. The spotty bag was a little more complicated but I like the interesting shape.

Notebook

I joined in with a swap where I made some paper following some instructions. I used the paper to make a notebook cover by backing it with felt and sewing around the edges with zigzag stitch. I then used some watercolour pages as the signatures and used a sewn binding with beads. A ribbon attached to the book keeps it closed.