Shawl

Made my mum's christmas present tonight, a Solomon's Knot Shawl. Took me about 5 episodes of Bones, with the mandatory cat interruptions, wool detanglements, and general absent-mindedness. Plus a little bit of time learning the Solomon's Knot in the first place.





I used Moda Vera's Burro in grey-blue with a 6.0 hook,and stopped the pattern three rows short, cos I'm not a fan of the point at the bottom. Easy beginner shawl! Hooray. :)

Solomon's knot tutorials : Here and a video one here

Futurama Brain Slug!

I love Futurama, and what better way to show that than making my very own brain slug?

Here's Hermes wearing his:

I can't remember where I first saw a crochet one, but I knew I had to make (at least) one asap. Pattern is well written and its simple to make. Hardest part was sewing on his eye, two buttons that fit so perfectly together you'd think they were designed for this exact purpose, I just didn't have a long enough needle!
I think I'm going to put him on a hair comb, one of those plastic thingies that you slide into your hair to hold it in place? I'll be all set if I ever need a costume!

Free Brain Slug Pattern, from Hookandneedles.com.

More hearts

Still making Christmas presents for everyone, I'm getting stuck now, I've made heaps, but still stuck on what to make my family!

The big heart is a pincushion. I used a 5.0 hook and some fancy slightly fluffy wool, which was hard to crochet! I trimmed it with some pink sequin trim I bought from Spotlight.

The small hearts I used some variegated crochet cotton, and a 2.25 hook. I attached some keyring chains to the top also.

The basic pattern I used is here at Pepika. For a couple of the small hearts I modified the pattern ending, I didn't end the heart so suddenly, I added an extra few sc stitches here and there to give the hearts a more pointy base. Sadly I can't remember exactly what I did with them, because I was just experimenting!





I recently reorganised my craft things, and made myself a sewing kit out of an old make up bag I bought years ago. These are my needle holders: where the mirror used to be. I've got magnetic strips running under the purple felt, and another stuck to the back of each of the needle collections, so they're easily removable. I separated the needles by type: wool, beading, general, cross stitch. I'm still finishing the pincushion and the rest, but these took so long to do, because I kept changing my mind!