Another hat and sun blush tomatoes.

Went visiting today and made another of those little hats from the last post. This one is for a little boy. I think its cute!

Mum and Dad have  a lot of tomatoes right now and I took a few to try sun blush tomatoes. Put them in a low oven - 100 degrees, for a long time - maybe 8 hours. Had drizzled in olive oil first and put some oregano, salt, sugar and thyme on too. I could eat them all night - they are delicious. They may very well be my first official craving :)

Little crochet (knit lookalike) hat

I made this little hat for some new friends of ours. I loved the hat - got the basic pattern here. I didn't reduce it down once the square was made, just slip-stitched it up and then made little ears by tying them and then sewing in the ends so it was really secure. It was fairly fast, though I am very unmotivated and tired - it was great having a deadline though to get it finished. The child is already 6 weeks old so maybe I should have had a sooner deadline!

Here is the final product:

My rose blanket

I made this blanket for a very special little girl, I've been working on it for what felt like ages - mianly on holidays and in the bible study though! I didn't use a pattern which was a bit silly and even stupidly forgot to count rows so all the squares were uneven - but still I was happy with the way it turned out.

It was lidl wool for the background and then some lovely roses I got from my friend Linda's library book! The leaves are from this brilliant website that I also follow on FB

 As Lucy Attic 24 says - TA DA!

Rabbit Hutch

 This is a blog entry by dd1.

 First Daddy got loads of timber and shelves. He starting working but it took a very long time, I went down for a while and then I came back up again Mummy got us icepops. Daddy used a saw and he cut loads of timber. I thought he was mad cos I couldn't tidy up all of that but in the end I had to.

 I took the pictures.

 And this one is a hammer and a saw, i thought it looked cool and it kind of did. It was a lot of work making it.

 The bottom is on it now.

 Daddy had to get a snack in the middle.

 Daddy put mesh all around the hutch. He was nearly finished.

 Daddy put mesh on the door.

 Daddy put bits of timber around the outside of the mesh.

Then it was finished and it looked great

A post script by Mummy: the shelves, tin, timber and mesh were all from our knocked down cottage. We had some screws and staples and we reused the bolts off our old broken hutch. So the grand total of the cost of making this was a few hours of time. A lovely new home for Robbie and Rachel2. Thank you my talented husband.

A sling.

I have made quite  a lot of slings but haven't had any orders for a few months now - then last week I got 4 orders! Well one definite one, two promises and a good friend of mine told her friend about me and she dropped up and just bought one there and then. Thank you!

So here is my latest creation all wrapped up and ready to go:

I have the straps sewn on here:

The cosy layer next to the baby is pinned into place

 All sewn up

 The waist strap going on - this is my most challenging part to get looking well.

 Almost the last seam - getting excited now that it is almost finished!

 Cutting the last thread

 Ta da!

 All folded up - I love this fabric.

I'm going to pop it down to my friend - I can't wait to see her lovely little baby in it.

A birthday Gift

I haven't been crafting much but the bug suddenly hit me the other day!

I made a lovely little dishcloth for my friend's birthday gift, I think its nearly too nice to use on dishes so maybe a facecloth!?

I followed this pattern dish cloth

It is in American (which I am now fluent in- took me a while!)

Foundation:
Chain 29, SC in second chain from hook, and in each chain across, Ch 1, turn (28 SC)
 
Row 1) *SC in first stitch, CH 2 (skip the 2 stitches beneath the Ch 2), SC in next stitch* to end, Ch 1 turn
 
Row 2) *SC in first stitch, working behind the Ch space, DC into stitch below, twice, SC in next SC* to end, chain 1 turn
 
repeat these 2 rows until cloth is nearly square.
 
End with a row of SC., and hide ends

I crocheted a teeny tiny heart from Attic 24 and sewed it on.

Then I popped it into a little bag I got with my sil in Brazil

My dh has been making us the most fabulous bed. Our old one was not comfortable and as he has some extra time at the moment he began making a bed. The designing alone took days. The finished product is amazing. So we are now having our nightly coffee in bed and watching the Good Wife. But some new coasters were needed to protect the cherry on the bed surround. I gladly obliged. 

Am am off to make a duvet cover for the new bed now. 

Teacher Easter Gift

I made this quickly on Thursday night for an Easter gift for LC1's teacher. I thought everyone gave gifts at Easter, Christmas and Summer but seemingly no one else gave her a gift this time. Maybe the recession is hitting everyone. LC was very happy to give her a gift though and I was pleased with the way it turned out. I got the pattern on raverly crochet daffodil. I'm happy with it but if I was to do it again I think I would use finer cotton and hook.

Rhu-bina and Sweet Chilli Jelly

I spotted chillis reduced to 30 cent a packet in Tescos one day and thought I would make some sweet chilli jelly,  I hadn't realised it uses peppers too in it. So it took me a couple of weeks to get around to making it but when I went to make it I had forgotten to get apple cider vinegar. Google came up with mixing half and half apple juice and malt vinegar and off I went again.

 Look at all the lovely red flecks in that

While I was making that I turned my hand to some Rhubena which I had spotted over here 

I love her blog, partly I think because I am the proud owner of a quince bush myself :) which had one measley little unripe quince on it last year but is absolutely full of bloom this year.

I love the ruby pink colour, it smelled so good.

We were going to a friend's house for  dinner so I brought it to them after trying out a glass first!

Another couple of things crossed off the fun to do list.

And here is the sweet chilli jelly which I got from Nigella. It is really nice, quite chilli -y but think that's ok, I didn't use jam sugar so it is  a bit runny but sure no harm in that.

Mum and Daughter Crafting

My friend was to come up the other day and when her car broke down we found ourselves at a loose end - house tidy in visitor anticipation and decided to make something.

I scattered the pile of clothes that I have saved on the craft room floor and LC1 decided on what to make.

She did all the ripping to take the elastic out and then I sewed them together

Then she did a picture of me wearing a dress that she had seen on the internet while we were looking for inspiration.

While she was ripping I cut up an old favourite jumper and sewed it together

This is what we came up with....

Afterwards I crocheted this little edge on. With Attic 24's granny blanket edging (I adore her blog)

 

Ta Da

We had so much fun and LC1 is getting quite nifty at crafting, I must remember to do more stuff like this with her - this is what memories are made of. And we up-cycled clothes that otherwise would (eventually) be thrown out. She is delighted with her new outfit and I must say I am too because I loved that skirt so much. I bought it in a charity shop in wexford 2 summers ago for 50 cent but it quickly got too tight for her.