A Crafty Family Christmas

Christmas, a time for friends & family, peace on earth and a good bit of art & craft. It's not just me who's been busy this Christmas, art & craft runs in the family.

My Mum & Auntie made Christmas cards. 

Mum's embroidered card

Auntie's hand painted card

 I made my own Christmas cards by stenciling onto plain cards.
 I used the spirograph that my sister bought me last Christmas to make gift tags.

 My daughter made large paper stars of various sizes  to decorate the school hall for the Christmas Carol concert.  

This star was over a meter tall 

She also made pin cushions for her Mum & Grandma. Great presents - just what we need for our sewing projects.

I made presents for my loved ones.

Lavender bags

Padded coat hangers for Mum & aunties

A cross stitch cushion for Mum

Briony's Tea Cosy

My art & craft  friend at work, like me, enjoys a good cup of tea. She asked me to make a tea cosy. Due to the style of teapot she wanted a cosy with out any slits for the spout & handle. 

A hat pattern was the obvious choice I used a pattern that I found on Raverly - the knitting community website.

It was knitted on 5mm double pointed needles using 2 strand of DK wool. The needles were free with a copy of Let's Knit magazine and I love knitting with them.

A couple of evenings work and the tea cosy was complete.

Bea-Bea helps out

Charity Blanket for Refuge

Simply Knitting magazine had an appeal for knitted squares to make blankets for the domestic violence charity Refuge.  

http://simplyknitting.themakingspot.com/blog/refuge-comfort-blanket-campaign-the-details

I thought that as a knitting club we could make a contribution. It would also me a good way to use up some left over DK wool in my stash.

I knitted a few squares whilst I was on holiday. It took a couple of attempts to get the square the right size - 6x6 inches. I settled on a 5 knit 5 purl moss stitch over 6 rows on 5mm needles. A knitted a couple more squares and then & got a bit carried away. I had almost enough to make a child's blanket. 

My friend had made a few squares, but decided that they were too pale to fit my colour scheme. I lent her some blue wool and she made squares to match mine & help complete the blanket.

As usual, I finished sewing it all together at 11pm the night before I had to post it. It was worth the late night knowing that it will help to keep a child in a Refuge safe house warm.