Bean Bag Chair

I've been pretty rubbish at writing on here recently. Mainly because I feel a bit like noone really reads it any more and also because I haven't made much I care to share. However here is the bean bag chair I sewed from a 2nd hand pair of curtains a couple of weeks ago. I'm really quite proud of it. I made up the pattern to match Jacob's measurements and it turned out to be a good fit. I had real trouble getting the beans and ended up ordering them from the web.

Jacob seems happy with the results, although he refused to look directly at the camera for me to take a photo. Lesson learned from this project - filling a bean bag is a 2 person job, unless you want to spend your evening picking polystyrene balls off the floor.

Christmas

Happy Twelth Night everyone. Tomorrow is the official end of Christmas and so it's time to take down the tree and pack everything up. A bit sad really. We've had a good Christmas in Aberdeenshire and at home. Poor Jacob was a bit ill for Christmas Day with a fever (we think from his MMR jab 2 weeks before) so I don't have many photos of actual Christmas. But here's a taster of what the snow was like up there (look how far it comes up the gate). Getting through the boreders was fun (NOT).

Jacob wasn't really interested in his presents on the day so it was nice to see him having a good time when we had our second Christmas at home. Granny and Grandad enjoyed playing too.

On New Years Day we made it up to Whitley Bay to see all the crazy people swimming in the sea. It was fairly rough and freezing cold, though it could have been worse.

Back to normal now. Just need to find somewhere to put all the new toys.

Explore, Rescue, Protect!

Amigurumi Captain Barnacle of Octonauts fame. Improvised from a bear pattern in Amigurumi Two by Ana Paula Rimoli. Made for my friend to give to her son who is obsessed with the TV series. There isn't any official merchandising available yet. It's a mixture of washed haze and Rowan hand knit cotton. Whatever I had to hand really.

Here's the 'real' version. I'm sure Graeme will be glad it's finished as I got a little obsessed with the detail and spent ages watching an episode I'd recorded over and over again and then pausing to study further.

If I made him again I'd probably made the head wider to match the image. It looked pretty massive when I first made it.

Great T-shirt

Not sure about the colour.

Woof woof!

This weeks FO is doggy mittens for Jacob. Finished them yesterday at knitting (yes I finally made it there). This morning they had their first outing. He spent a while saying 'woff woff' and waving them around. I'd write some details but the yarn was something random from my stash without a ball band. The ears are in some BFL handspun of mine.

Here is Jacob also sporting his new big boys shoes.

May the hat be with you

Time for a crafty post. Here is a hat I recently knitted for my nephew Jamie for his 7th birthday. Happy birthday Jamie. I was a bit worried about the size but apparently it fits perfectly. It's a little stretched on my head so the colourwork doesn't look so good.

I've recently been making a few things to sell at craft fairs. These keyrings were made out of left over sock yarn. Anne kindly aggreed to stock these at The Knit Studio and suggested I package them in a more professional way. I'm really happy with the way they look and have started making more.

Christmas is 76 days away (so the man who runs the village post office told me) so I thought I'd try something seasonal. I've used various crochet patterns, crochet cotton and a 2.5mm hook to make these snowflakes. I tried stiffening them with starch, but I found that the larger ones needed something stronger, so I had to resort to PVA glue. Should be fine as long as they don't get wet. I thought they'd make good christmas decorations.

A visit to Robin Hood country

Last week we had a little holiday in Sherwood Forest, at this small holiday park (not Centre Parcs). It was a bit of last minute booking. We thought we should take advantage of the week between the end of resit exams and the start of term. G won't be able to take any more holiday till Christmas now. Despite the cold weather we had a really nice time. The cabin wasn't the most luxurious, but it was fine for what we wanted and had central heating, which we definitely needed. The park also had a little pool, a play area and some animals (sheep, chickens, rabbits etc.).

We had a day in Lincoln, visiting the cathedral and castle, a visit to Sherwood Forest visitors centre and the Major Oak, and a trip to a Sherwood Forest Farm Park which Jacob loved.

We also went round Rufford Abbey, which was a short walk from where we were staying. All in all a fun holiday. It all reminded me of various school trips and childhood family visits as it was an easy distance from my parents house.

On the way back north we stopped at my parents for a couple of nights and Jacob got to have his birthday all over again. He's really getting into the presents now, getting excited when he sees them. He's still not sure whether he's allowed to rip the paper off or not.