TV knitwear!

As you know I like to give home made gifts to my friends and family...but the males sometimes prove a little tricky, and usually their only handmade item is a card. 

I had a flash of inspiration for my husband's birthday card.....we have been completely engrossed in 'The Killing' the recently concluded subtitled Danish Detective series...it was amazing, the best programme we have watched for a considerable time!

The female detective, whilst brilliant at her job, had only two items of upper body clothing...a white-with-brown-pattern-knitted-nordic jumper... and a brown-with-white-pattern-knitted-nordic jumper.

From a small picture in the Radio Times I have tried to recreate one of the patterns seen so regularly during the 20 episodes!

It is needledelted with spun St Kilda yarn given to me by a friend who spun it! It felted so well with very few punctures needed from a coarse needle. The texture of the pattern recreates what I imagine the jumper felt like...I presume it is what kept Detective Sarah Lund awake during the long nights of the investigation!

As my husband likes neat edges I have put a border round it!!
Happy Birthday!

Blooming beautiful!

There have been lots of special occasions for present creating  giving and receiving recently...

 My friend gave me these beautiful blooms as an early Easter present...they are so colourful and smell fabulous. Every day they look different...and the colours look much more vibrant than I can capture on camera.

I gave the same friend this little collection for her birthday...I have been brave enough to use some of the photos of my creations on cards. 

The flowers have been appearing as pressies  for a while.... I am saving them for another post!

The wool on the mug cozy might be familiar to a certain blog reader!

 I am pleased to say that an idea I have had has worked.........shhhh.......Mothering Sunday surprise!!

Throwing in (with) the towel!

As all our washing in usually done at 30 degrees I have been reluctant to felt woolly items in the washer, it seems such a lot of energy for little bits of knitting!.  I have had some cool felting results with a boiling water technique but thats for another post...

Some 'wash and filtz it'  wool had been sitting in my stash for a while so I knitted a strip, tied it securely in a pillowcase and chucked it in with some towels at 60 degrees ( they are treated to a hot wash every now and then!)

It has felted well and you can still see some of the stitching which gives more texture..... I'm looking forward to exploring this technique a bit more and will be kniting bits to throw in with the towels in the future!

Whilst I'm airing laundry in public..... I use liquitabs which probably are not the most environmentally friendly of soapiness but I do try to re-use the packaging . My favourite re-use is my home made card stash. I have been making my own cards for about 11 years and have recently started storing them in the perfectly sized liquitab container. The real bonus is the wonderful smell that greets you as you open the box....I like to think it permeates the cards but by the time they reach their destination its probably been substitued for another aroma!

I keep my needle felting needles in an old clear glasses case.....where do you store your tools?