The teacosy is finished - thank blooming goodness...

And here it is:



I am quite proud of it for my 1st knit plus crochet project. It looks pretty tidy & the curly crochet flowers on the top are such fun to do. I just hope it works as a gift!

I have also been working on my 'Secret Santa' gift for a virtual friend from the best parenting site on the web. It's nearly done too, but I can't really post it on here until after Christmas because there's always a chance that she might look at this. Which is a real shame because I am extremely pleased with it. Ugh, it's frustrating to not even be able to hint at what it is... Actually, I am so pleased with it that I am thinking of making a few more for other female family members.

One of my other big loves is baking & I have also been busy today coming up with a couple of recipes for bakes to do for St Nicholas' Eve & St Nicholas' Day next week. I think I have come up with a Speculaas recipe which will hit the spot (just wish I had a speculaasplank to cook them on!) and have invented some speculaas spice muffins that I am EXTREMELY pleased with. I'll be posting them on our Christmas website in the very near future, once my Christmas Matters colleague & I get organised.

Business at our Craft Matters shop is going quite well - although it has mostly been very lovely friends who have bought from us up to now. We are trying to work out ways of listing things that will come up in Ebay searches for people who don't tick the 'description' box. I know that Ebay isn't for us in the long term, but I wish we could get it to work to our advantage just now!

Hmmmmm...

Well, I was hoping to post today with a photo of the completed tea cosy, but I have 2 problems. 1) I need teapot measurements so I know where to leave a gap for the handle, and 2) I am not sure the wool I have chosen for the groovy topknot on the cosy really goes with the wool in the main body. Grrrrr at me!! It looked great as yarn but knitted up it looks a lot more green than I thought. Oh well, I will have a think & hopefully get the blimmin' thing finished before Christmas Eve.

I have, however, got the prototype of the cutsey bag all worked out so I am off to have a go at stitching a real one in a minute. So maybe I will be able to include a picture of that tomorrow. The other thing I have to do is update our Christmas website with some recipes for sweets to make for Christmas gifts, and because it is St Nicholas' day very soon, I want to add a recipe or 2 for some traditional Dutch biscuits like spekulaas (yum) or pepernoten. I only wish I had some beautiful wooden moulds to cook them in.

Yesterday we made our Christmas mincemeat for mincepies - I have made 6lb which should keep us going for a while! It is maturing at the moment & I will probably pot it up in sterilised jars on Sunday.

Tea cosy disaster..& some recent makes..

I knitted the tea cosy for the ILs last night using some gorgeous yarn (Baby Alpaca/Merino Chunky) from the Natural Dye Studio. But when I finished it looked really small... so I think my habit of knitting quite tightly has caught up with me again. I am going to try again tonight with some bigger needles. Fortunately it doesn't take long to knit up so I am not too irritated to have to do it again & it is a pleasure to work with the wool.

In fact it was not a particularly successful evening because I was also working on a prototype of a purse I want to make for Christmas gifts. The final result didn't really please me so it's back to the drawing board with with that one... I think I need to go for something a bit more cutsey (they are definitely your Princess girls) for the recipients to be really pleased with them. And I have to decide whether to include handles or not!

Something I am really enjoying making at the moment is brooches. This is the 1st I made -
using some gorgeous Liberty paisley fabric & 100% wool felt.

I'm not totally satisfied with it - it looks a bit apologetic I think but it isn't bad for a 1st go.

Here are some others I've done:

I like these better - especially the heart one - I love that fluffy wool! I've gone a bit crochet mad recently because I did a refresher course & discovered that I have been crocheting totally incorrectly forever - the perils of teaching yourself I guess.

I'd like to use some felt flowers to embellish the bags I want to make - just not sure how it's going to work out yet. I will try & have another go this evening.

One great thing about this blog is it helps me remember what I need to get on with. Just off to Ebay to see if I can find any cheap round tins for the Panforte.