Happy New Year!

Happy belated new year to you.

I feel very positive about starting the new year and had a blissful day yesterday (officially the last day of the UK holiday season). I've always admired homemade tea cosies for their uniqueness and eccentricity - the wackier the better I say! Pure 'granny chic'. So, over the break I decided it was about time I created one of these mini marvels for myself. In virtually no time at all I knitted up the base of my new Spring Explosion Tea Cosy as featured on Ravelry and blogspot Crochet with Raymond. It fits really snugly and I can't believe how quick it took me to knit it.

The next stage will be knitting and crocheting the leaves and flowers and stitching them on to this little piece of heaven. I've never made flowers or leaves before so it will be a learning curve, but worth it I'm sure.

...More tea vicar?

United Knitdom in Amigurumi Today

Jostling for a position amongst the edited selection of Japanese crochet news from across the blogosphere, my Making Miffy post has been featured in Amigurumi Today! I do enjoy networking with fellow crafters from around the world and this added exposure gives me increased impetus to crack on with more projects.

Before I go, I also wanted to draw readers' attention to this spectacular kaleidoscope blanket by Meme Rose as highlighted on Crochet with Raymond, one of my favourite crochet blogs. Isn't it stunning? It has definitely inspired me to produce something similar and reminds me a lot of the Muse album cover.

Kaleidoscope blanket by Meme Rose.

Knitting machines & vintage pattern books

Sadly I've been too busy to knit or blog this week. I'm dying to get going again at the weekend. So many projects, so little time! I've also been toying with the idea of buying a knitting machine as I spotted some fab vintage '60s and '70s Brother machine pattern books online. I suspect the only decent machines I could buy would be secondhand. If anyone has one they want to sell, please comment on the blog.