Another crochet hat!!

After I made the other hats for my husband and his youngest brother, his middle brother requested one too.  He wanted a yellow and black hat, with ear flaps, and with a mohawk!
Here's the finished result:

he looks pretty pleased with his new hat eh!

And yes, that is a normal height door in the background, and yes, he is really that tall.  He's going to stand out even more with his new hat on!!

My current projects on the go now are a crocheted rag pouf/floor pillow/footstool, and a rag dog bed mattress (coz said dog chews anything with stuffing in it!)

More Crochet Projects!

I've made a few more crochet projects since my last post on here!

First I made a purple cowl for myself (no photo tho, the dog ate it [the cowl] - literally!!).

Then I thought I'd make a wee hat for my friend's six month old baby, since it's coming into winter.  I used a pattern to fit a 6-12 month old, and it's too small for him!  :-(  My friend will stash it away for her next baby though :-)

Earlier this week my husband told me that he wanted a hat with ear flaps too, a lime green and black hat in fact!  YIKES!  

So yesterday I went and bought some cheap acrylic (who knows how much the hat will be worn...), found a pattern on Pinterest and whipped it up last night.  

I changed the pattern slightly, I added a black stripe in, did continuous dc once I stopped increasing, and added an extra three rows at the bottom to make it longer (on hubby's request).  I also made the ear flaps slightly wider and less triangle shaped, the pattern calls for decreasing each row with a sl st, though I did three rows the same width, then three rows with dc2tog, which I thought made the edges neater and left the flaps a better size and shape.

He loves his hat, here he is grinning like a silly person just after I plopped it on his head:

 I also made a cowl for my SIL for her birthday, out of natural wool - it hasn't been dyed or anything.  The cowl is just a hdc continuous round, and I added some ruffles on one side, just coz!

My Pinterest Crochet board is full of more things I want to make!  I'm currently working on a ripple blanket, and very close to finishing it! yay!

Sewing for the Dogs

Two posts in one day!!!
Snoopy needed a new collar and, and I had a couple of metres of this pretty purple/pink webbing left, as well as this cute ribbon that I'd bought.  So I decided to make her a new collar and lead, and recycle the metal hardware from the old ones.
Above is a photo of Snoopy modelling her new collar and lead (begrudgingly, she didnt' want to get off the new bed)
That evening I also made two new dog beds, for their crates.  Snoopy is lying on Rocky's one, and her one (the pink flowery one) is in the background.  They love them, and rush into their crates at night to sleep in their cosy new beds!

Learning to Crochet!

I've wanted to learn to crochet for a while, so I bought a book which came with a selection of crochet hooks and other things, and I bought some wool.
I attempted to start, but the book was very confusing, so I didn't get very far!
Thankfully, I have a friend who is an amazing crochet-er (is that even a word?!), who got me started on the right track.

I wanted to make a simple project to begin with, and as I get sore ears when I walk the dogs in the cold, I thought I'd make a warm headband/ear warmer.
it looked a bit plain, so I found an video on YouTube which showed me how to make the flower.

Here's the finished project.  The colour isn't very accurate, it is a lovely deep purple colour, and no, it isn't wonky, it's just the way I overlapped it when I took the photo

Baby shower presents for a friend

I've got a friend's baby shower to go to tomorrow afternoon, so I thought I would make her a selection of wee things for her little boy (first baby) who's due to be born in May.

A taggy blanket, polarfleece one side, and cotton the other side

two towelling backed bibs

three merino hats

a change mat (with waterproof fabric inside it) to match the taggy

All ready to wrap and go!

I've been baking

I like to try new recipes, I'm brave like that. Sometimes, they don't turn out very well.

On Saturday, my parents were coming over for dinner and I was trying to figure out what to make for dessert, and came across this recipe for Orange Syrup Cakes in a book I've got at home.
For some reason, my book at home said 1/2 cup of mixture, in muffin tins (then I read after I'd put them in the oven, that the muffin tins should hold 1 cup when full - that's not correct!)... so I did as it said, my cakes flowed over the edges, and were a mammoth mission to remove from the tin!

That aside, they didn't turn out toooo badly, and they tasted amazing, with lightly whipped sweetened cream on the side, they were delicious.

My first upholstery project

Our house has a bay window seat, it had a gross cushion on it that I've just left, as hunting for the perfect fabric takes time!

Last week I finally managed to find that perfect fabric! yay!

We've recently redecorated the main parts of our home, including the lounge - where said window seat is, so it was looking rather sad compared to the rest of the redecorated lounge.

SO, on Saturday afternoon I took the old cover off the cushion, (and I then realised how dirty, faded and perished it was!), I unpicked the 3.3m long zip off it, to save some money I thought I'd re-use it. I then cut up the old cushion cover to make a pattern for the new one.
I managed to get the whole thing completed on Saturday afternoon, and worked out that I sewed 31 metres!

I'm really stoked with how it turned out.
a close up, showing the beige fleck in the fabric and the fleck in the curtains


And I even had enough fabric left to reupholster our old foot stool, which took all of about 10 minutes: