one bed/couch-sock is finished! i didn't have enough of the green yarn, so i used dark blue for the toe. you need a little imagination since the sock isn't sewn together yet.

(the colors aren't great on these pictures, it was getting dark and i had to hurry to take a picture! but you get the idea...)

 

i started the second sock yesterday and i hope i can finish it before it's 2012, so it can go in my 2011-mosaic. (like i did last year) :)

it was also my 23th birthday last week, and as a gift for myself i ordered this handmade ring from fleurfatale. i also received a gift voucher for julija's shop (yaaaaayy!!), so i'm looking for a pretty scarf pattern so i can go and buy some yarn... tips, anyone? 

in the meantime... merry (late) christmas and a happy new year!! enjoy!

remember the "at-my-boyfriends-place-project"? well, now that i live together with my boyfriend i decided it was about time i finished it. so i did!

the crocheting-part was finished some time ago (september i guess) but i stil had to sew a lining for it. this week i finally found some time... so now it's oficially finished and in use. :)

ta-daaaaaaaaaah! after all those posts about christmas decoriations, finally, our christmas tree!!

filled with 8 knitted christmas balls, 4 handmade felt balls (tutorials here and here), pom-poms, lights (ofcourse) and tiny ornaments.

my mom gave me these cute wooden decorations, i think they are older than myself... 

they are all different (angels, snowmen, horses,...) but santa is my favorite:

 these ornaments were found in dille&kamille... loved those little felt hats.

 it's also christmas in london... see:

 and, since my boyfriend went way overboard with the pom-poms (he made almost 100 pom-poms!), they are all now over the place:

i still have to figure out where to put the crocheted snowflakes and felt balls... 

but i'm feeling quite christmassy already! :) have a nice sunday!!

two more weeks and we are setting up the christmas tree! we already bought the lights and also some cute decorations, although i know that's not what i planned, i just couldn't resist... :)

time keeps ticking so i'm knitting like crazy!

last weekend my boyfriend helped making these felt balls and pom-poms...which were fun and quick to make using a pom-pom-maker!

so, after this quick update i'm going back to my knitting.
doing the dishes and laundry will have to wait until tomorrow!

i'm having a very relaxed sunday today... not doing anything special, just drinking some coffee and documenting my latest crafty projects...

this week i started on a new knitting project; with the yarn i bought at the fleamarket. (apparently putting raw coffee in an envelope inside the bag with yarn helps getting rid of the smell!)

i'm going for a purely functional knit... bed/couch-socks! i hope i finish them soon cause i always have cold feet in the evening. :)

next to show is one of the crochet snowflakes i made. maybe i'll put them in the christmas tree, maybe i'll make a garland for the windows or mantle, don't know yet... :)

i also wanted to share these pictures i took. the sun was shining so beautifully in the park across the street, and made pretty shadows inside our living room... which makes me love living here even more!

that's it for now... have a nice sunday evening!

i finished my first christmas balls! they turn out quite big (note: i do have tiny hands) but that's a good thing, cause we're planning on having a big christmas tree. :)

 here are 2 finished christmas balls, one ball waiting for stuffing and one being knitted. i'm really getting the hang of it, each ball looks better and better!

i also went treasurehunting at the fleamarket this weekend, this is what i bought:

 buttons, as usual.i looove the pink and purple ones, so cute.

and yarn!! i definitely have enough yarn stocked up, but i couldn't resist buying some more skeins as the colors were extremely nice! now i only have to figure out how to get rid of the musty smell... :)

i always said that, when i have my own christmas tree, i'm gonna decorate it with only handmade things. (except for the lights ofcourse)

i'm going for the traditional red and white-theme and i'm making knitted and crochet ornaments... i'm quite curious about how it's gonna turn out in the tree! we'll see in a couple of months!

crocheting some hearts and snowflakes here...

and knitting christmas balls here... i might design a few myself, too... something with letters and fun patterns. :) are you already thinking about the holiday decorations, too?

today's post is not about me, i want to tell (and show) you about my mom. she truely is a knitting miracle! i can vividly remember myself as a child, wearing the knitted sweaters she made for us. she also got paid to knit examples of sweaters, scarves,... to show in yarn stores! 

it has been about ten years since she finished her last knitting project, a fuchsia sweater for the 13 year old me. she has been secretly stealing my knitting works since then (i ask her to fix a mistake and then find her ten minutes later, with half the scarf finished), but no actual knitting project was started again. until a few weeks ago, when i found the pattern and yarn for a gorgeous shawl that was way too difficult for me to knit. so i asked my mom to knit it for me! 

it's finished only two weeks later! and it's sooo pretty!

i really love it. so does my mom, she's very proud of it. she's already asking me about the next project, i think she really rediscovered her passion for knitting... so i couldn't be happier! :)

i used to have this blouse that i loved wearing; it had such a fun print and my boyfriend bought it for me years ago when we were just dating. after all that time was almost falling apart, and when a colleague commented on a huge hole under my arm, i decided it was about time to let it go. saying goodbye to it was quite hard (i'm sentimental like that)... so i had the idea to save the fabric and do something with it. make flower brooches, for example!

 the purple brooch was the hem from a dress i shortened, so nothing goes to waste!

 

 i followed this tutorial! all you need is a strip of fabric, a gluegun and hands that love to do fiddly work. so simple but i love the result. 

remember this sneak preview? your guesses came veeerrrry close.

 

but! it's not a penguin... no, also not a duck...

it's an owl!

 

i made this cuddly fellow for my colleague, who recently gave birth to a baby boy.
we (my colleagues and i) were late for a present of her birthlist, so we bought a giftcard and tied that around his ear instead. we gave our present today and guess what; she loved it!

the pattern comes from the same book as the little elephant i previously made.

his ears aren't as straight as they are supposed to be and there are some stitches sticking out here and there... but isn't that the beauty of handmade toys. :)

fridaynight we got together for the third episode of Studio Noppie (that's how we are referring to the crafty club now)!
there was knitting and crocheting......home made cookies... (yum!!)
...some brand new books...
... a 4 year-old playing with the hats for the innocent campaign...
...and some unsuccesfull attempts to create a scarf. better luck next time. :)

did you hear of the innocent smoothies knitting campaign yet? the concept is simple: you knit or crochet tiny hats, they put them on their bottles and sell them. for each bottle sold with hat 30 eurocents goes to charity! i thought it would be fun to participate so i knitted and crocheted some hats. it's quite addictive and fun trying something different for each hat. :) here's what i made so far:and a new one, started when i should have been working in the garden...

anyone who feels like joining me? :)

(PS: i had to repost this blogpost because i had some layout problems... - and i accidentally deleted my post - so the comments are lost. feel free to comment again!)

after all those granny squares, i couldn't resist crocheting some hexagons...

i love how they look and feel; going for a solid colored hexagon was a good idea! and the boyfriend likes it too (he's not a big fan of my granny square-blanket-to-be)!

i also finished the knitting project that included the intarsia knitting technique. it came out really well but i can't show it yet... so here's a sneak preview!! feel free to guess. :)

thursday night was the first get-together of our crafty club (still without a name, we're working on that). i taught 3 lovely ladies how to crochet a granny square. the end result should be a granny square pillow or granny square scarf. they did really well and it was lots of fun to teach them! (and quite hilarious at times too)

here are some snapshots of my students in action:

and yesterday i had a day off from work, and a friend came over. we did a baguette-and-cheese picknick in the park (lovely weather! finally!) and she brought her granny squares so i could show her how to join them. so that's what we did!

so you can see... the granny square virus has spread! and looking for more victims. ;)