Mini crochet project

I have been working on a little toy blanket to go in a lovely wooden dolls pram that Bea got for christmas. I love crochet blankets and would love to make a full size one one day but thought this teeny one would be good practice for now!

I used Attic 24's granny stripe pattern and made up a border. I have used cheapy acrylic toy yarn and the colours are a lot more garish than they appear in the photos but I quite like that - it looks like its come straight out of the 70's! I have finished the crochet now so just need to block it before I post photos of the final article!

The birthday dress in action

I finally took a quick snap today of Bea wearing the red dress I made her for her birthday. She's not the most cooperative of models and wouldn't stand up but you get the idea! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and the yarn has become lovely and soft after a few washes. I am planning to make this again as a top.

A personal Christmas gift

This Christmas we put a bit of extra thought and effort into a present for my Mum and her husband and came up with a design for some labels featuring a drawing I did of their house. They like to grow their own vegetables and enjoy making things with them, even entering the village produce show so we thought they might like their very own brand!

We made them a hamper including stickers and tags as well as jars such as the above, a book on making preserves and a few ingredients to get them started. Unfortunately I didn't get to photograph the finished hamper as it wasn't ready until about 10pm the night before we went to stay with them for Christmas!

I would love to have time to make more homemade gifts at Christmas but never get organised in time. Maybe that should be my new year's resolution!

Get out the violins

Happy new year!

Lets start this year with a couple of illustrations I did at the end of the last for US magazine Strings.

I certainly now know more about violins that I ever did before!