Family slippers

Here they are.

Pleasing pile of alpaca

Half of them at least.

Imagine this picture with 7 pairs. *sigh

And you have to trust me that the other half were delivered because I handed them over, and then remembered to photograph them.

In a bad case of Absolutely not Learning My Lesson About Furry Yarn, I tried to make myself a pair in this.

Moda Vera Flurry. Feels nice around my toes, nasty on the hook.

 Once again, couldn't read the stitches and failed to count them accurately so I have no hope in hades of  replicating the one sad little slipperish shaped object that is slumped in a heap at the bottom of my crochet bag.

Sulky flurry rodent.

Turns out i can(dle)

Look what I made.

waxed faffage

Making christening candles is far out of my handmaking comfort zone, and frankly not anything I am the least bit interested in repeating (I don't think. However...)

It seems to me a bit odd and frankly a little grim to burn a picture of your loved one. But convention is as convention does, and I was darned if I was going to pay some other sucker to make the silly thing.

Basically, I went through a range of contortions and tricks to get the photo onto tissue paper, position it on the candle, wrap it in waxed paper, and apply heat. Easier said than done, much ink and wax everywhere.

How this actually works is that the surface of the wax melts, soaks into the tissue and then hardens again. There is no ink transfer as such, and the waxed paper is only there hold the tissue evenly and smoothly against the candle.

I wish one of the many many DIY tutorials I read had explained this, because I spent  a great deal of time searching for waxed paper, and eventually gave in and bought greaseproof on the the offchance.

I know the two are different, and can't often be substituted, but in this case they can. Just so you know...

I'm not entriely convinced it won't go up in a ball of flame if it burns down to the tissue (assuming the ribbon and sticky diamantes don't do the job), but I doubt I'll ever find out (see above: squeamishness as incinerating face of small child).

Simple little blanket

Well, not as simple as it could have been. The rick rack was frankly a bit of a faff, and is discouragingly wonky.

Simple little flannel blanket. Hah!

Discouragingly wonky

 But Boygoblin likes it, (more to do with the diggers than the handiwork, truth be told) and it keeps his splint safe, so, job done.

The racing boot. And a definite vehicle theme.

Too cute to survive

Because really, who can resist a teeny tiny pincushion that has a tendency to roll away, and is extremely attractive to toddlers?

Boygoblin called this "Mummy's yellow car".
Deeply unfair, because it is eerily similar to "'Goblin's yellow car."

Thats a strip of printed jersey rolled, handsewn and popped in the tray.

Babycrack. Right. there.

Too cute to live, and Boygoblin has car back now.

You know those slippers...

Well, there is progress being made, but these, these, have taken up more time that all of them put together.

Little doll slippers. Made of scraps of merino. And yes, that is knitters elastic you see worked into the top stitches... 

... and treble crochet detail in thee instep. don't tell the cousins...

He looked cold, ok? With his little bare plastic feet and shortie onesie...

So yes. there was a cardie too.

Note co-ordinating edging and toddler-easy popper fastening.

There now, doesn't that look nice?

 And honestly, Andy does sort of stick his arms out - his pose above has almost nothing to do with the construction of the garment. Almost. Nothing.

Oh, and worth noting that Andy came with socks and shoes, but they were lost within days. This had nothing to do with the construction of the socks, and everything to do with the apparently funnel-shaped feet on our favourite doll. Did i learn from this? Why no, I didn't even notice it. so, all round a good investment of time... (as in, its only a matter of...)

soul eaten.

The soul eater is finished. 

Did I mention finished?

 I made the final push this morning, as boy goblin and i were snuggled up on the couch with his snots.

Pretty, but tough going.

(The pattern is a good-un - its entirely my doing that its been such a long haul - see "soul eater" above.)

And this evening it was wrapped around the dear wife on the sofa. 

Not this sofa, but this one was in better light.

I think we have a winner.

Domestic creativity

Radio silence, because this is what has taken up much of my creative, as well as physical and mental energy.

Many, many packing boxes. Note they are all unpacked.

On the upside, the boxes revealed this:

I'm in here

Which contains this:

See?

and this:

And here?

This came through while we were on the move, so I'd not had a chance to properly dwell on it before.

Nothing like seeing your name in print to tide you over some creative doldrums.

And the best thing is, there's another in the pipeline.