lace memento

Hidden along a trail in the middle of Somerset woods, we placed these webs as we farewell England.

poppy blanket

My sister had her baby this week. A perfect, beautiful little girl... Poppy Annamarie. Born on Mum's birthday she was the best 60th birthday present Mum could ever want.

I had been working on this crochet baby blanket for Poppy for months and finished it the morning she was born. Talk about good timing!

kleintje

I opened my Etsy shop this month. Kleintje. It has been a long time coming, but I finally got there. I've had so many ideas but so little time to realise them.

All the products so far are screen printed children's clothing, handmade dresses and crocheted slippers. There is lots more to come...

www.kleintjehandmade.etsy.com

happy birthday alli

Crocheted, felted wool slippers for my cousin. I'm starting to get the hang of the felting now. It can be a bit hit and miss. Throwing a pair of wool slippers in the washing machine always seems a bit risky, and often they shrink more than I intend them to. Like Cinderella and the glass slipper, who ever the slipper fits best... Luckily these ones I crocheted for Alli fitted her perfectly. Happy Birthday.

new shoes

Crocheted Slippers... warm toes. I think she will grow out of them very soon though... will have to start making a larger pair.

felt slippers

I found the cutest pattern for crochet felted slippers and they reminded me of Mariska. So I had to make them for her. I had no idea how they would turn out. When I finished crocheting them, they seemed so huge, about twice the size they should have been. I crocheted a little sample piece and felted it by hand in a bowl of hot water. It seemed to work ok, so I thought if I put the slippers in a pot of hot water on the stove they should shrink and felt. After an hour standing stirring the pot they were only a fraction smaller and hardly felted at all. I could still see all the crochet stitches. So I stuck them in the washing machine on the hottest program for an hour. A little scary. It brought back memories of when I put my Dad's woollen scarf in the wash when I was a teenager. When I took the slippers out of the machine I had that same feeling of oh no I shrank them! But this time it was a good thing. They were the perfect size, and better than I thought they would turn out. The perfect birthday pressie for a sister with a winter birthday.

flowers and granny's

I'm gradually getting the hang of this! I've been looking through a crochet book I've had for a while now, and watching tutorials on YouTube trying to teach myself how, but with quite a few failure. So I started going along to a craft group at my Nanna's retirement village. There is no better way to learn than sitting around a table with a combined 400 years experience in crocheting and knitting. These are my first attempts. I'm hoping to crochet a blanket for our bedroom made up from flowery granny squares.