The Little Things

Hello everyone. I thought I would squeeze in one last blog post before Christmas. I find the extra work and change of routine involved with the festive season puts extra pressure on my already fragile health which, for someone who has always loved Christmas, is rather sad. The greatest pleasure I get at this time of year is from the quiet times when I don't have to deal with people or, in fact, do anything much so I thought I'd share some of the little things that are helping me at the moment.

I love all the decorations that I've collected over the years, many of them made by my children or myself. My daughter spent a day the other week putting them all up for me and I'm really enjoying them. The tree in the picture above is my 'special' tree which is in the latest room to be decorated. When I say the latest, the rugs arrived a day before the tree went up. It's basically a spare bedroom but, as you can see, I've saved a cosy reading corner complete with my Mum's rocking chair.

One of the most exciting things about finishing this room is that we've finally been able to get all my Mum's quilts out of the bin bags they were languishing in and on to the big set of shelves we bought to house them. I'll start showing them to you in the new year but, in the meantime, I've been able to put some of the Christmas ones up on the wall at last. This one, behind the rocking chair, is my favourite.

Opposite the reading corner, in the alcove by the fireplace, is the little stained glass robin quilt Mum made us years ago which I love.

The dolls house on the table below it is one I've had for many years but have never had time to decorate and furnish. I'm hoping to make a start on it next year now that I've got a space to work on it. For now, Father Christmas is trying to work out how to get down the chimney.

We have always had baskets of Christmas picture books out at Christmas. There are two more baskets of them under the piano downstairs but I have got one basket up in this room.

After a bit of a struggle, we managed to hang my Christmas Bunting above the fireplace and then Rose decorated the mantelpiece with pretty things and gingerbread men lights. I'm not sure what the lace knitted fairy thinks she's up to.

Tolly cat isn't a little thing and he's definitely not just for Christmas but he does make me smile. He loves the patchwork coverlet I've put over the bed (to keep cat hairs off the clean bedding underneath). Here he is in a quiet moment in between hunting all those little hexagons. And yes, he really does do that.

As well as the quilts, I have a lovely collection of Christmas stockings that my Mum made me - a new one every year. We hang these on doors around the house. This one is on the front room door this year.

It was one of the first ones Mum made and, as you can see, it's a collage of photos of the children at Christmas when they were small. I also have this beautiful cross stitch stocking which Rose gave me a while ago - this one's on the airing cupboard door.

There's another tree in the front room and more decorations. It was a bit dark to take good photos this morning (it's gloomy most of the day at this time of year) but here are an assortment of knitted things on the piano.

You might recognise some of them as old patterns of mine. The round candle quilt above the piano is another one of Mum's and the little knitted cone snowman was a present from my friend Pat a few years ago.

The front room mantelpiece is pretty too. It's a mixture of old, treasured things, some new and a bit of knitting.

That's my Christmas Wreath hanging between photos of my much-missed Granny as a toddler and on her wedding day.

I've been enjoying my cross stitch this year and there are two new ornaments on this mantelpiece. Here you can see my pyramid shaped Christmas tree; the tree is different on each of the four sides.

I also cross stitched what was called a Christmas pincushion but decided to use it as an ornament stand instead ...

The village scene continues round all four sides and then there's a big snowflake on the top. Again, my apologies for the bad light in these pictures. You get the general idea though. At the other end of the mantelpiece are my cherished tiny crib, a cross stitch gingerbread house and a very pretty old tin. The tiny quilt propped up by the radio is another one of Mum's. She made them into fabric postcards, complete with a terrible poem on the back.

Something else I'm really enjoying this year (as I do every year) is getting out my Christmas china to use. I've collected so many pretty festive mugs that they don't all fit on the shelves. You can see a few of them in this picture.

Choosing which one to use each time I put the kettle on makes a cup of tea a bit special. The teapots on the dresser have their Christmas cosies on too ...

... and I've knitted new ones for the smallest ones this year. Here they are on the tray I use every day which I've lined with one of Mum's Christmas placemats so it's ready for Christmas too.

As a family we really enjoy our advent calendars and, this year, we've each had three different ones. We share pictures of them every day which is nice as we are all in different places. Firstly, we have paper advent calendars. Mine this year was a Brambly Hedge one. Here it is on my bedroom fireplace.

There's a bit of a competition each day as to which of the three of us has the prettiest picture but with festive mice I think I'm winning this year. While we're in this room my little criss-cross shelves are Christmassy too.

My little beaded Christmas village has grown again this year. I think I need to make some stands though so that the houses and things can stand at different heights. New to it this year are (I think) another building, some trees, a post box and a couple of street lights. Next on the list will be a church I think. I'm also very fond of this book which I read again the other day ...

We always have an advent jigsaw each year too. The pieces are divided between 24 envelopes and put together one day at a time. There was much hilarity when Jack's first day consisted almost entirely of white snow pieces! This is how my puzzle is looking after nineteen days.

The third set of advent calendars is the result of my concentration this year on improving my tatting skills. Over many months I tatted three sets of 24 snowflakes, three in each pattern. We have one set each (they're different sizes) and we add one to our snowflake trees each day. I'll write about this project properly next year but here's how my tree is looking today.

So, I may not be able to do very much or celebrate with friends and family as I would have done before the Long Covid but, when I think about it, there are lots of little things around me that make me smile and give me comfort. I hope that wherever you are and whatever your situation you all have a Happy and peaceful Christmas.

Plodding On

Plodding on seems an apt title for my life at the moment. I'm trying to walk a little each day which adds to my general fatigue and the struggle to balance the little I am able to do without being ill and the things I would like to do. My current fun symptom is feeling sick. I have to do everything in half hour chunks or I start feeling sick and, if I ignore it, it just gets worse. Ah well ...

I find that the knitting I want to do at the moment involves lots of mindless repetition which means that I'm doing a lot of playing around with my basic Ten Stitch technique. 

This round cushion started life as a hat but was too big so it morphed into a cushion. I found a 30 cm diameter cushion pad in a charity shop that turned out to be just the right size. It's nearly but not quite knitted in one piece. The final circle is knitted separately and then sewn in place but the last round or so before that is worked with the pad in place which was rather strange. I ended up turning the cushion rather than the needles at the end of rows.

I thought how much easier it would be to knit a square ten stitch cushion cover so I've started one of those too.

The, of course, I had to have another go at the hat ...

Only time - and a lot of knitting and re-knitting - will tell if this one is going to work. I'm also plodding away at a ten stitch rug which is going to be one of the samples for my upcoming Ten Stitch Rectangle pattern.

I think I'm on the last round now. The idea is to show three different projects, each with different proportions to illustrate the formula for working any size rectangle. I've already knitted a long thin table runner.

Once the rug is finished I'll knit a table mat which will be much nearer a square and I think that'll be enough. Then I've just got to work out how to explain it all.

Once I've got the rectangle pattern done I want to get on with my Ten Stitch Oval. So far, I've only worked out the basic technique (which is fairly complicated) and knitted a sample.

I want to approach this in the same way as the rectangle, working a couple of different projects to illustrate the basic principle.

I've also been writing up a crochet shawl that I made last summer which, again, is a variation on a technique I've used before.

My Lazy Vee Shawl is worked  in a v stitch pattern from the top down using two colours, one plain and one variegated. The colours change every row but you don't need to cut the yarns which is why it's a 'lazy' technique. This is another good use for using King Cole Bramble which is my favourite variegated DK yarn.

My first project with this technique was my Lazy Vee Blanket which I crocheted again last year for a new baby, using Bramble as my coloured yarn.

I've also designed a Lazy Vee Scarf which turned out to be a very good way of toning down a somewhat bright variegated yarn.

I may have exhausted the possibilities of this particular technique now but who knows? The only other thing I've knitted lately is a pair of  Baby Boots for my new Great-Niece, Elsie Louise who was born at the end of January.

Another old pattern that I need to re-write and update.

I have been enjoying working slowly on some small cross stitch projects too. The first finish of the year was this lovely snowstorm beaded decoration kit which was in  my Christmas stocking.

It's one of a series of snowstorm kits by Mill Hill. It's worked on perforated paper; you do the cross stitch first and then add the beads with either half or full cross stitch depending on the size of the beads. I added a beaded chain to hang it by and then backed it with felt to hide all the messy ends.

Then, this week, I finished the first of the ornaments I'm making from this magazine which was also in my stocking at Christmas. Father Christmas did particularly well on the cross stitch front I think.

It took me ages to finish this one. The cross stitch was straightforward but putting it together was a pain. The only other stitching I've done is a little bit of Hardanger for a birthday card; I love Hardanger and plan to do more this year.

Oh yes, and I've started another one of my 3D beaded projects. Can you guess what it's going to be?

Obviously, it's going to be a little toadstool house, another pattern from ThreadABead. For anyone in Wales, ThreadABead are opening an actual, physical shop in Conwy this year. Can you imagine seeing those wonderful designs in real life? Which reminds me, Petite Properties, the designers of beautiful miniature dolls houses, are starting their own digital magazine this year, something I am eagerly awaiting. I wrote about my tiny house project here a few years ago. This year I'm determined to finish furnishing my little house and perhaps start another one.

One of the many things that I miss being able to do now is going to the theatre at Stratford with my son. We were gradually seeing all of Shakepeare's plays at the RSC but then Covid hit and I can no longer drive or cope with watching a long play in person. I can watch the plays on DVD because I can always stop them if I feel sick.

Anyway, I worked out the other week how many of the plays I didn't see and was surprised that, out of nearly 40 plays, I only missed eleven. My plan is to watch those on DVD when the RSC film those productions. I may have to wait a while for Henry VIII though which is rarely performed. My son has started going again on his own and, last week, I gave him a list of old programmes and books that I would like. He came back with four of the programmes I wanted and also got us each a copy of this book.

It's a very heavy book that the RSC published about ten years ago and which I thought was out of print. The RSC shop had a few copies reduced to £25 so we got a bargain. It has ten Elizabethan plays, most of which Shakespeare didn't have a hand in but it gives a good idea of what else was on the stage at the time. There are very good introductions to each play, extra essays and a really interesting section where actors or directors who have been involved in past productions talk about the plays.

Anyway, Jack and I were looking through our books together when we had the idea of reading them together. We're going to take one play a month, starting in March and read the play and all the essays about them and then talk about them together. The first one is Arden of Faversham which was inspired by a real life murder in Kent in 1551. If we stick to this, we should be ready to start reading through all the Shakespeare plays in 2025.

One more thing I've finished which may not look much but is a huge achievement for me is this 1,000 piece puzzle which I started over Christmas. For the past two months I've struggled with this. I've lost pieces (several times) and re-done the edge of the sky more times than I care to count but yesterday I put in the last piece.

It's an Otter House jigsaw; they have some lovely ones and they also come in smaller boxes than most puzzles, making them easier to store. Next I'm going to start on what will become my daughter's advent puzzle next Christmas. Let's hope it doesn't take me the rest of the year to finish it!

Year Lists

I've always been a great maker of lists - things to do, books to read, all sorts of things. I keep an ideas book which was originally intended to be ideas for knitting or crochet designs but over the years it's relaxed to include everything from quotations to plants for the garden and lots of other things besides.

For the last three or four years I've also kept yearly lists on the computer (or Mabel as she's known to me) to record things I've achieved each year. Now that there are so many things I can't do, it's good to see what I have managed over the previous twelve months. 

My 'miles walked' lists are a bit sad. The year before I got covid, I walked about 700 miles. It's surprising how it adds up; I use a very simple pedometer that goes in my pocket or bag, every time I leave the house so those 700 miles aren't just made up 'proper' walks but also lots of walks to the postbox or in to town. A couple of  years ago I'd managed to walk about 300 miles, all in very short, daily walks but last year my Long Covid was worse and I only did about half that. 

I also keep lists of books that I read, not as a target but just for fun so that I can look back and see what I was reading. Last year, I started listing how many crosswords I'd finished too. I do the daily cryptic crossword from The Guardian (I love being able to print it off) and, in 2023, I finished 109 of them. Given that they publish six a week, I've still got plenty of room for improvement. When he has time, my son also does the crossword and, over Christmas we did really well. Cryptic crosswords are easier to work on with someone else and we finished all but two in about two weeks.

My other big yearly list is the one you might be most interested in though and you'll be glad to hear that this one includes pictures. Every year I list all the things I've made, whatever the craft. Since I started doing this a couple of years ago it's encouraged me to make more stuff which is always good, right? It also gives me a great sense of achievement; I may not be able to do most of the things I could do before getting ill but I can still be creative.

I always start the year by knitting the mini stockings that go on my Christmas presents, filled with little chocolates. It gives me a good sense of getting ahead, even if it's all downhill from then on. These were the stockings I knitted last January.

They were knitted with a three colour slip stitch pattern and solid coloured toes and heels. Working out how to keep the pattern going round the shaping for the instep was very tricky. This year's stockings have a Fair Isle pattern but I decided to make life easier for myself and only use the pattern on the straight leg section.

As you can see, I'm getting on well with the next batch of stockings. One of my plans for this year is to go over all my old mini stocking patterns, re-write some and publish new ones.

So, what else did I knit in 2023? Four and a half pairs of socks (the half was the first of a pair for me, all the rest were for other people), several scarves and two sets of Pippi baby clothes for new babies. They also got a Lazy Vee Blanket and a Paddle Ball each.

A slightly older baby got a knitted Raggy Doll, another pattern that needs a complete re-write.

Knitted toys can be a pain to make, what with all those pieces but the finished results are always pleasing. Last year I knitted two Frog and Toads on tiny needles, at a tight tension - never again. Mind you, they look brilliant.

These are knitted with Shetland Wool which turned out to be ideal for small animals with a lot of shaping. I remembered this when it came to designing my Little Donkeys at the end of the year.

I knitted a fully dressed hedgehog for a friend's birthday in the summer from Louise Crowther's book Knitted Animal Friends which I can thoroughly recommend. I bought the yarn to knit myself the owl from the same book but haven't made it yet. Something to do this year.

I did though finally manage to knit myself a Kipper from the pattern by Alan Dart. The original pattern is for DK weight yarn and comes out too big for my tastes so I used thin 4 ply sock yarn and small needles to make a smaller dog.

The shading between colours is done with an ordinary pencil which I thought was a clever touch. I updated the shapings a bit as I went along but, otherwise, followed the pattern.

The rest of my knitting in 2023 was for published patterns, including two big ones: Summer Cottage and my Christmas Cheer wreath. I have been working on samples for two more Ten Stitch patterns as well, a rectangle and an oval. The rectangle is easy but I wanted to explain how to calculate how long the first strip needs to be for any finished size.

The oval was much more complicated to work out and I needed the help of my mathematician son to write me a formula to explain what I'd knitted. 

The obvious use for a Ten Stitch Oval pattern would be for a rug but it could also be used for placemats or a knitted basket base. Maybe I'll get round to designing this one later this year.

Most of my crochet in 2023 was, again, for published patterns. I've got one shawl waiting for me to write up which uses my Lazy Vee technique which I always enjoy working.

Towards the end of the year, I discovered the technique know as Corner to Corner crochet or C2C and had fun making this scarf for a Christmas present.

Again, this was fun to make and a great way to use self-striping yarn. I used King Cole Riot DK for my scarf. And I nearly forgot this little reindeer, crocheted from an old magazine pattern, again changing the weight of yarn to make it smaller. This one went in my daughter's Christmas stocking.

One more woolly finish from 2023 before I move on to other crafts. In May I finally finished this rainbow Tunisian Crochet blanket, worked in the round, which I started years ago. 

It looks nice now it's done but it was an absolute nightmare to get it to lay flat. I kept having to re-do the edging to hold it in shape and then it took a lot of serious blocking. 

In the first few months of the year I made quite a lot of things with felt, starting off with these two Christmas tree ornaments for my son and daughter.

These are copies of the one I made for my tree more than thirty years ago and which they irreverently refer to as the 'Hitler Santa'. I also made two sets of more traditional decorations. These were from the book Modern Folk Embroidery by Nancy Nicholson which has lots of great patterns.

As you can see, I got a bit carried away when it came to the embroidery. I kept one of each set for myself but then hid them away until Christmas. Only of course when Christmas came I couldn't remember where I'd hidden them. They finally came to light last week at the back of  my sock drawer. 

Using the same book, I also made a pastel coloured felt garland for my daughter - still adding lots of embroidery.

I had fun making some felt flowers too, all of which I gave away as presents. I'd like to make more of these at some point.

The big flowers are from the book Fabric Blooms by Megan Hunt but I worked out the pattern for the little rosebuds myself.

I borrowed a book from the library in the Spring called Stitch 50 Birds by Alison J Reid and used it to make four different bird ornaments as presents.

Some of the patterns have quite a lot of pieces but the instructions are clear. I particularly liked the use of cocktail sticks for legs. There are other books in the series if you fancy making some felt creatures.

I'm a big fan of Mandy Shaw of Dandelion Designs and, when I was well, used to enjoy visiting her stall at craft shows. This means I have quite a few of her patterns stashed away and, last year, I used a couple of them to make more presents. Three little redwork tree decorations (yes, mine was lost with the felt ones) and a little lampshade that goes over a wine glass with a battery tealight inside.

I always start off the year with plans to make all the birthday cards I need to send but people born in the first half of the year tend to fare better than those with later birthdays. I cross stitched six cards last year; this is one of my favourites. It's by the designers Lesley Teare; I love the way she combines cross stitch with blackwork.

I enjoyed working this cone shaped Father Christmas for a Christmas present too; it's cross stitch on plastic aida and came together well.

I did manage to make one card with hardanger embroidery. I must do more of this in 2024; it's quite a new craft for me and I enjoy it. It's quick to do and nowhere near as hard as it looks.

As ever, I made quite a few bags last year. I often make one of my Reversible Tote Bags to put presents in. They don't take long to make and it's fun choosing the fabrics.

I also made two bags using remnants bought at my local scrap store Orinoco. The first one used some pieces of vintage barkcloth fabric and the second is made up of velvet squares from a sample book. I actually kept the velvet one for myself.

I've still got lots of velvet squares left from the sample book so they might appear in this year's list of things made.

What else? I've made some more Dorset Buttons and woven a few bookmarks and I've done a little bit of needlepoint. I enjoyed making this little pincushion kit in April ...

... and I made two little needlepoint boxes with plastic canvas later in the year.

I only made two quilts in 2023, even if one of them was the biggest quilt I've ever made. I'd like to make more this next year. I'm going to start with this aptly named pack of charm squares that I got for Christmas (thank-you Rose).

The craft I've made most progress with over the last year though has been my 3D beading. ThreadABead have so many patterns that I want to make that I decided I needed to do more beading in order to speed up! So ... I finished the third building in the Christmas Village which is a barn for the reindeer ...

... and then I made two (yes, two) more of the Father Christmas Houses, one each for my son and daughter. They have little boxes on the Christmas tree with tiny presents in and these were just the right size.

Working the same pattern twice in a row really helped me concentrate on my technique (or lack of it) and, as well as getting quicker, I think I'm making less mistakes now too. I then decided to make these three Ornaments as Christmas presents which were a bit different as the patterns allow for a lot of creative decisions on the part of the beader. This was a challenge for me; I do enough creative thinking in my designing so I really prefer to be able to just follow a pattern when it comes to other crafts. I have to say though, I was really pleased with the results. One day, I shall make some more of these.

I think  my next 3D beading project will either be an Easter pattern or this little Toadstool House; there are just too many to choose from.

In 2024 I also want to do some more miniature building. Do you remember my little house?

After finishing this more than two years ago, I've been slowly adding furniture. I'd like to finish it this year and perhaps start a new project. Petite Properties are launching a magazine focusing on small scale miniatures this year - that could be just the prompt I need to get building again.

What about you? Does anybody else keep 'things made' lists? What are you hoping to make more of in 2024 - other than time, obviously. We could all do with more time to craft, couldn't we?