Recyled Christmas Birds

These were my first go for the Advent Challenge. Three little birds made from an abandoned cardigan back that I was making, felted in the washing machine and left over scraps from my material and button box. They were not quite Christmas Robins, not quite Three French Hens:

Amazingly they won, which was such a lovely start to the New Year.

Fused Bag Christmas Decoration

There was an advent recycling competition in Ravelry, each person creating some kind of ornament from recycled materials during the advent period and putting it up on the allotted day. There was a really brilliant innovative response from everyone- some great uses of materials and ideas.
I made this out of left over fused plastic bags (see how to here), which were cut into chunky strips and then sewn together.

After fusing I cut the strips so that there was one small strip, then three pairs of strips that were progressively longer than the last pair.

Using a thimble I sewed them together at the top ordered large to small and then out to large again. I secured them with large, odd buttons.

Holding the bottom all together produced the curved shapes which were then all sewn together in a similar fashion.

I then added a string of beads made from broken necklaces/ bracelets and hung it up with a long loop and button on the end.

The Annual Gingerbread House

Each year my daughter and I make a gingerbread house in the few days leading up to Christmas with the final decorations on Christmas Eve. The one above was the first one that she actually participated in as she got old enough. It always proves good fun, with me under general instruction with the icing bag and her being in charge of what goes where and sticking on/ eating leftovers.

These are versions from past years:

The playmobil santa making its first appearance, along with the discovery of battery powered lights.

Last year ambitions were high as she decided that she wanted a castle.

This year we made Santa's grotto with an interior filled with a tree, fire, parcels and decorations, outside Santa was waiting just about to set off on his sleigh:

Of course one of the best parts is breaking it up on Christmas Day and eating it.

Yarn to Dye For

I've also been playing with the microwave and dying wool with vinegar, water and food colouring. All good fun with my daughter:

This was our first attempt using a nice chunky wool, then came:

 

which was more of an adjustment of the knit love bonus yarn, a lovely mix of 65% Cashmere 35% Silk bravely microwaved to suit my taste.

This one was given away as part of the sock club swap.

Christmas Leftovers

Continuing the theme, I also made this tree as part of a Ravelry Christmas Swap:

It's knitted and felted and was quick to do: the pattern is here.

This was the content of the parcel I sent out, which I'm pleased to say went down well.

Catching Up

I have been rather slack on this blog recently, many apologies, work and life have got the better of me. I am going to attempt to do some quick catching up on the 'makes' I've not got around to putting up, so expect lots of pictures in the next little while.

I'll start with the left overs from Christmas, before it seems too unseasonal to mention them:

I made a lot of these knitted and felted mistletoe pieces and added pins to the back to make broaches. The pattern can be found here, but I did do a bit of tweeking as I went along to get the leaves to be more of the shape that I think of as mistletoe like.

 They made cute little stocking fillers along with a nice lip gloss.