A new use for quilts

As I am right in the middle of making a new quilt with nothing much to show you at present, I thought I would catch up on a couple of little projects I finished around Christmas time (better late than never!).

This first one is a tiny mini quilt for my eldest son Felix, the orange-clad travelling hippy (as we call him).
Felix wasn’t meant to be home for Christmas as he is travelling until next summer, but he surprised us by turning up at the door unannounced a few weeks before (one of the loveliest days of my life so far).
Of course I hadn’t bought him a Christmas present and when I asked him what he wanted he said, “can you make me a tiny quilt like the one you gave Jacob. I need it for re-charging my crystals”.
Well I bet you didn’t know you could use quilts to do that!!

This is the tiny quilt I gave his brother. I made a few different versions of these about 5 years ago and mounted them in box frames and sold them in the shop. But I could never bear to part with this little Amish one.
Jacob should have had a full-sized quilt for his 21st birthday last August, but due to my tardiness and to his inability to give up control of even the simplest thing *sigh* I have not even started it yet. So for his birthday I gave him this tiny quilt instead, just until I had made the large one. Though actually he says he is not going to give it back now anyway, as it’s ‘cool’!!

So for Felix’s ‘crystal re-charger’ I made a tiny rainbow Dresden Plate and sewed it to a piece of Hometown fabric which featured quite a few places he had visited. The eye fabric came from one of my remaining pieces of Alexander Henry, Frida Kahlo fabric I have been hoarding for years. Some hand quilting, blanket stitches and French knots finished it off.
Here is the quilt at work…

…and here is the back – some Essex Yarn-dyed in black.
He is off again now and this is travelling with him. Well, you mustn’t forget your re-charger when you are travelling 😉

Last Christmas I had great fun knitting my first pair of socks and I was looking forward to another go this year.

I found this Regia sock yarn amongst my wool stash, I had bought a 100g ball years ago to crochet mini owls (remember them anyone?) and still had plenty left.
It is the most amazing wool, which makes you look like you are a really good knitter who knows how to do fairisle and such like. When actually the wool just does it all for you!
And look at my heel – I totally worked out how to do it properly this time!

I don’t think I can really express how much fun it is to knit socks. It is like magical 3D engineering with wool. I just love it!! And I wear the socks all the time (and last year’s pair), they just go through the washing machine and the tumble dryer over and over again. They fit me perfectly and are so warm. I would encourage anyone to give it a try, they really aren’t that hard, especially with this fantastic book, Getting Started Knitting Socks by Anne Budd, which I thoroughly recommend.

I am desperate to knit more but I have been suffering with tendonitis in my left hand due to knitting that Noro jacket (too heavy apparently), so I have had to give up all knitting and crocheting for a bit.
Hopefully I will be back spending quality time with my 5 DPN’s very, very soon! That’s double pointed needles for your non-sock knitters, and really why wouldn’t you just become a sock knitter after everything I’ve just said!