But Mummy, I want a Bear too....

Way back last year sometime, not sure if it was a birthday, Christmas or a Mother's Day, I bought my Mum a gift of a book - 'Knit-a-Bear'.

I also bought her bear coloured yarn, patterned yarn, stuffing, buttons so she could make herself a bear - nothing like a birthday gift that you have to make yourself is there ?  ;)

Anyway, she made herself a bear, beautiful it was, then she made my sister a bear.  Then she made my Granddaughter Hope (her Great-Granddaughter of course) a bear.  Then followed Granddaughter Ellie (still in the womb at this point) she got a bear too.

Shona had a bear, in fact the only person that didn't have a bear was me!!

I WANT A BEAR, I shouted rather loudly.

The making of said bear might have been a secret if it was not for the fact that she had not surreptitiously asked me for "bear coloured yarn" from my stash.  To be fair though, the glittery purple dress was a secret.

A little while later I was presented with my new bear, and how cute it was, with her lacy purple frock and matching hair (ear) bow.  She was just a bit too cute.

Someone else loves it too, but she's not having it - it's MY BEAR!!

(Seriously, could anyone love a bear as much as this?)

By the way, this bear book is a fab book if you are a knitter, so many very cute bears to choose from.  My sisters had dungarees on!!

You can find it over on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Applique Initial Purse

I have been making little purses of late, you know those things that you just get caught up in making, for no particular reason other than that they are fun to create?  That.

Anyway, it was my daughter-in-law's birthday and my son was taking her away for the day to the seaside. I was going to give her some pennies to spend during the day - I don't usually give money, but in this case money would be most useful.  I decided to make a little purse to pop the pennies in.

I used a royal blue fabric, as blue is her favourite colour, and I appliqued an "H" to the front - as her name begins with H - did you work that out ?  ;)

I lined it with the same red fabric and added the zip.

Then I filled it with 2p pieces as when you go to the seaside you have to go on the penny push machines, don't you?

Of course, I popped a note or two in as well.... for an ice-cream or a windmill   :)

She seemed to like it very much, which was good  :)

A supersized Rubber Duck.... made from felt!

A friend and colleague from work was leaving to go back to her home town after Uni and I wanted to send her on her way with a little gift.

I knew she collected Rubber Ducks so I had it in my head to make a rubber duck, of sorts, from a bag full of felt she had previously donated to my craft stash.

But could I find a pattern?   Could I heck as like.  Well, not a free one anyway, and I am a bit tight to go paying for things that with a bit of thought and planning I could manage myself.

So, with that in mind I dug out a proper vintage, think 1970's, soft toy book which had a puddle duck pattern in it.  Not quite a rubber duck, this duck was longer necked, with a slender body and feathery wings.  And it was about 4" big, so it would need some heavy adaptation.

With an A3 graph paper pad and a pencil I got to work, using the basic duck format, shortening the neck and the body and completely changing the wings, beak and feet.   I ended up with this fellow....

Which I have to say I was pretty pleased with. I mean he looks duckish doesn't he?

With those beady  (buttons actually) black eyes and squishy beak.

And rather dapper in his shiny red neck bow too.

As mentioned I changed the feet quite a lot as I had changed the shape of the body, so these feet needed to stop the duck being a rocking duck by stabilising him.

And for scale, you can see he is much larger than 4"   :)  Probably around 12".

She called him Charlie.

A crisp white crochet baby blanket

A colleague at work was leaving to have a baby and I wanted to make her a blanket.  Now I usually do my baby blankets in bright colours - perfect for hiding ground in rusk and baby puke, but I thought, for a change, I would do a nice crisp white one.

I decided to do a lovely textured pattern to make up for the whiteness, so did this one that I call "kisses".

A couple of rows of Trebles for edging left me some little holes in which I could thread a ribbon  (You didn't think I would actually leave it all white did you?)

And it was finished.   I am quite pleased with this one, I think it looks quite traditional with a twist.

Felt Crochet Case

As you might know I am away from home at the moment :). If course, I HAD to bring some projects with me, and crochet it was.

But this is not about the crochet, it's about the most amazing gift I was given before I left.

My old set of hooks are in their own case, but I've been treating myself to Clover Amour Hooks (one at a time) and I needed a new case to keep them all together in, along with my scissors - I usually manage to forget my scissors when I go away, luckily I have strong teeth :)

I was actually looking for a nice pencil case, but being incredibly fussy about it so Marie offered to make me one. 

And here it is.

It shouldn't have, as Marie always does the most amazing work, but it totally exceeded my expectations.  Isn't it beautiful?

Purple & Lime, my favourite colour way of all time.

It opens to reveal separated slots for my hooks and a space for my scissors too.

It has a flap that comes over to stop the hooks falling out, then the whole thing folds in half & ties with a cute little rose bud ribbon.

And it even has my name embroidered on the front!

I LOVE IT! Thanks Marie, you  can check out her other stuff HERE.

ps: The Amazon links are affiliated  if you click and buy I might get a few pennies.  Just so you know :)