Birthday, Harry Potter style

May brings the start of Birthdays in our family, including my eldest girl so my mind starts to whir into action to whip up the obligatory Birthday Badge!

As her present this year we planned to spend the day at the Harry Potter tour in London again, so as her chosen house via Pottermore is Hufflepuff, it seemed appropriate to make one that she could wear with pride on the trip!

I made a cardboard circle for the back structure and tacked the gathered ribbon around the edge. Then tacked on cut lengths to make the ends, then covered the front with a circle of black felt.

I was going to add felt numbers to it but then I had a cut out of the Hufflepuff badger left (I printed these out and stuck them onto yellow paper cups for the party tea!) so decided to use it up with a piece of yellow card.

I got a bit carried away though as this rosette turned out to be a bit large! So I quickly whipped up a smaller felt number badge, as I thought she might feel embarrassed to wear the rosette (which she did, but I put it on our bag instead!)

She did wear this one!

Me and my daughter share the same birthday so we did talk about how we would be able to be the lucky people who get to 'open THE door' into the tour but as it got closer to the day she was adamant that she wasn't going to do it! And sadly on the day she didn't want to do it :(

Have to be next year! We did get an awesome momento of the day though in that we all crammed into the Ford Anglia for a family photo!

I had then also worked on a pattern from the recently purchased Charmed Knits book, which details Harry Potter inspired knitting projects, such as jumpers, cloaks, owls and socks.

It's a really good book for knitting HP fans and I decided on a wand cozy, as I thought it would be useful to put her imitation wand in!

I used King Cole Galaxy yarn (Saturn colourway) which has little sequins in and it was really easy, my other daughter want's one and I'm tempted too!

We all had a fab magical day and we both got birthday badges from the staff!

My favourite item from the tour last time was this painting of some sort of knitted Hippogriff.

It didn't seem to make much sense but appeared in the concept art section and was by Adam Brockbank

Well this time I spotted an actual prop of it, so we asked one of the guides what it was from and got told that it was going to appear in a scene that got cut, it would have been an abandoned toy left in a campsite of destruction, well I'm determined to try and make a copy of it - just for personal use only of course! It really looks like a homemade toy a wizard child would have, if only they sold them in the shop!

Speaking of the shop, I was very restrained and only got a hoodie Hogwarts sweatshirt, it was £39 but it looks good quality and is not too OTT!

My only niggle about the day is that having been twice now, I'm not sure it would be as exciting to go again unless extra content was added, I would love to go at Christmas to see the decorations though.

Sewing Sunday

With two friends having babies recently I thought while I was in the sewing mood I could knock up another pair of trousers but this time in 0-3mths size.

I got the chambray fabric from The Village Haberdashery:

Interweave Chambray - Slate

Which had quick delivery and wasn't too heavy for lined trousers, the lining fabric is a Japanese 1/2 metre I picked up from The Eternal Maker at a previous show, it's very soft, a bit like a muslin/flannel mix- ah on the website, it says it's a double gauze fabric After sewing, I worried that it was too delicate for trousers as any heavy tugging at the seams may rip it but hopefully for a small baby it should be ok?!

I was quite pleased with these and I now need to do another pair but this time with different lining for a little boy.

Sewing sunday continued with me starting a fabric brooch kit I'd purchased last year from Makeve, I struggled a bit with the folding of the fabric petals at the end but have now finished so I'll have to update with a picture soon.

 

To round off I remembered all those pins on Pinterest about cleaning your sewing machine!

I got the screwdriver out and you really wouldn't believe the amount of fluff that was hiding at the back under the throat plate and under the bobbin race! I used a small art paint brush to gentle tease it all out.

It felt so nice to have time to myself while the children entertained themselves, may it happen more often!

Trousers

The weather must be turning as I've put down my knitting this week and cranked up the sewing machine.

Maybe it's the Great British Sewing Bee influence, or maybe it's necessity as small people will keep on growing, won't they!

Again I've turned to the fabulous quick change trouser pattern from Anna-Maria Horner. It's so easy, you can make them as jazzy or plain as you like, they can be reversible and the fit is great for cloth bums or disposable wearers.

The only sad point is that I'm making the last size - 24mths :(

And although I can slightly alter them to make them bigger it does lead me onto another problem I'm finding - patterns for older children.

I'm struggling to find anything nice for about 5 upwards, if you have any brands/shops you can recommend I'd love it if you left a comment.  I'm not even looking for anything fancy but there seems to be a real lack in this department, plenty for babies and toddlers but not much for the older kids, that isn't dated or party dresses.

The ones above were made out of some old men's black cord trousers and the lining is a thin cotton from Ikea.

I've already cut out another pair, this time in 0-3mths, which will hopefully be a gift if they turn out ok!

Feeling proud

A quick photo post of images that were taken on a sunny walk to the park last month, that I want to remember, not just because we had a nice time and I'm glad we all made the effort to get out of the house (!) but because these pictures are not mine, they were taken by my eldest when she wanted to try my SLR that I'd taken with me.

I thought they were great and even more heart-warming is that she loved the camera! 

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?!

I think a small camera of her very own for the next birthday might be in order!

Cooking with Mother

We seem to do a lot of 'cooking' together at the moment, Rowan likes to get involved and sit in her spot on the kitchen counter to 'help' make cups of tea or lunch!

So I'm trying to do more fun cooking, you know the sort, cakes, biscuits etc!

For ages I've been meaning to try out a new banana bread recipe I'd found while on Twitter, from 'Letters to Elliot'', we tried it and loved it! 

It's much lighter than my usual recipe, it has one less banana and some baking powder in, I'm definitely making it again!

Licking the spoon, it's the best bit, even for Mum's!

Spot the nibble mark?! I left it to cool and when I came back…!

I had to go with the obligatory glace icing and sprinkles, it's not banana bread without it for me!

Apologies for the none styled/harsh flash photos, winter is rubbish for indoor photos isn't it.

A Christmassy Weekend

I was in denial about Christmas coming up, but after this weekend there is no doubt, everywhere you looked there were signs!

First off on Saturday it was our annual pilgrimage to the Christmas Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury and I'm afraid to say I was disappointed. I spent a total of £3 on vintage baubles and that was all that tempted me. 

It wasn't very Christmassy, there was nothing to my liking and yet again no upstairs, which meant the tea area was again in a poor position and we were unable to sit, so we left. 

Knowing that they made £900 on entrance fee alone, seems a bit poor, you could have had more tea area upstairs and more stalls. The uniqueness and quality of items has been waning recently so I won't be rushing to the next one, I think I preferred the one at the Corn Exchange, Devizes this year.

Happily our long drive was not wasted as there was the rival vintage fair around the corner, which had more vintage items to my liking and then over the road at the church we happened across the Crib Festival.  I had no idea what this was but thanks to my Mum who ventured inside it was marvellous, lots of local people/groups had made their own versions of a nativity scene, they ranged from the artistic to pre-school groups and they were all wonderful, such a lovely idea. There were several knitted versions, and the large version below is a full life-size knitted display which is touring around to raise money for a hospice charity, you have to see it up close it's amazing, so much work and so much yarn!

There were even real donkeys in the church!

A visit to Chipping Sodbury isn't complete without a visit to Hobbs House Bakery, there's a great gift shop on the corner and now it also boasts a Waitrose (which made parking easier !) and it also had a cafe which we'll definitely use next time and the play park was loved by my girls, after being herded around shopping!

Saturday didn't stop there for me as no sooner had I got home then it was time for me to head out for a night out with a meal and music to see Deacon Blue at the New Theatre, Oxford.

It was definitely worth it, there's something about live music that makes you feel alive and energised.

Sunday brought more Christmas spirit, in the morning was our school fair full of chocolates, tombola and a visit to Father Christmas.

After lunch we walked over to Cogges Farm Museum for their Christmas Fair and enjoyed browsing the stalls, seeing the knitted nativity in the kitchen and the girls were itching to get to the play equipment. It was so busy and it was lovely to see so many people there all enjoying the atmosphere.

Walking home there was the most fabulous sunset to close out the weekend.

Sock knitting

I've finally done it!

I can knit on DPN's!!

It's a small thing but I've tried several times to do it and it's always felt like juggling skewers!

But thanks to the excellent course at Fibreworks, Chipping Norton, I can now, not only use them but also knit a sock!!

I love learning to do new things, I feel so accomplished and it opens up more knitting patterns that I like the look of!

So above is the materials and output of the 'Sock Knitting' class at Fibreworks, you get a pattern to work a small sampler sock, a pack of needles and a full ball of yarn.

It was a great class, good time length, nice and relaxed, tea and biscuits provided and in the four hours I very nearly finished my sock, I just had to finish the toe decreases and graft, which I had a go at in the class and then followed the instructions on the sheet at home and it was all fine.

It's so nice being able/allowed to be crafty away from home life, I hope to do more classes next year, I found it very relaxing but inspiring.

So then, about a week later, I thought I better make a start on a proper size one before I forgot the techniques and thus truly embed the process into my brain!  I'm happy to say I didn't have many problems, I think I lost a stitch somewhere as my numbers were out at one point but I'm so happy with it!

I never realised how comfy and warm they could be, I thought they'd be loose and fall down but they actually seem to grip to your leg slightly, so I'm looking forward to getting another ball and completing the pair.

The yarn is by Lang Yarns, Jawoll Color, quite woolly and knits up in a wondrous faux fair isle pattern.

Inspired by my new skill, I popped into the Oxford Yarn Store which I've only just discovered is not far from my work (and is full of fabulous yarn and accessories) and splurged on some DPN's in various sizes and a ball of Rowan tweed Aran to try on some wristlets. 

I'm hoping to use the KnitPro's to do the sleeves of two baby cardigan's I've got on the go for my best friend, to save on the sewing up stage.

I hope as they're so portable and great for when you've only got snatches of knitting time that I can attempt different styles, the heel we worked was a dutch heel flap but I've heard of other types so I'd love to have a bash and even do some cabling!

If you're a seasoned sock knitter, do leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you're making or if you have any ideas for easy patterns, or you can find me on Ravelry under 'HoldMyHand'.