yarn

This scarf is really quick to knit, I knitted it in a day, still time to knit one as a gift before Christmas.

I bought a lovely soft yarn called Ebba (70% merino 20% alpaca 10% silk) a bulky yarn 12ply, from Woolfish. I used 300 gms to knit the scarf.

Needle size should be 8.00 mm but to be honest I used the largest circular needles I had to hand, 6.5 mm, this gave me a close knit but because it's a scarf it didn't matter.

A couple of years ago I thought I would have a go at making felt beads, how hard could that be? Well disappointingly it proved to be more tricky than I anticipated and I failed miserably. Recently my friend Sue gave me what I can only call a couple of 'master classes' in felt bead making. It became clear where I had gone wrong, with my initial beading attempt, I was too quick to form a 'ball' and it separated. The secret is to take the initial forming of the 'ball' slowly then gather momentum.

When I made my bib necklaces (free pattern)  I incorporated fabric yo-yo puffs (Suffolk puffs) into the design, decorating and embellishing them with embroidery.

If you haven't tried crochet but would like to, this is the perfect project to begin with, it only uses two basic crochet stitches.

Chain, ch - Wrap the yarn over the hook and draw the yarn through to form a new loop.

Double Crochet, dc (US single crochet, sc) - Insert the hook into the work, yarn over the hook and draw the yarn through the work only, yarn over hook draw the yarn through both loops on the hook.

These flowers are so simple to make and look as fresh as spring!

Basic Flower 

I knitted a length of i-cord 25cm (10") long, you could make it from French knitting. From this I formed a five looped petal flower then attached a button for the centre, piece of cake!

Flower Hair Band

Another bead necklace. This time instead of knitting one of the beads, I purled it, in the round, to give a different texture to the bead. Basic knitted bead necklace here 

I thought I would try to make a pom pom scarf, how hard could it be?

At last I've finished my 'Bunch of Flowers' Necklace. I am not the world's fastest knitter so I get frustrated at the length of time it takes me to knit something, it's just a means to an end. Sewing on the other hand gives me a quick fix, the results are more instant. I like both crafts I just wish I was a bit more speedy with knitting needles.

These are nice ideas to make use of pom poms. These rugs look so cosy. The top rug is from a book called Craftivity  The rug below is a free pattern on the Lion Brand website