Baby Bunny Boots

Hello! Just thought I would show some of my latest creations. At the moment I am actually trying really hard to finish the Weekend in Stockholm blanket, but before I picked that project up again I made a couple more pairs of my favourite baby booties. 

I hope you liked the baby bear boots as much as I do! I've decided that they are a really good baby shower gift. They're quick and easy to make and now I've found a couple ways to customise them, I see endless possibilities! This pair I gifted recently to a friend who is having a baby girl. I wanted to make them a little more girly but not over the top, so went for my old favourite colour (grey) and my second favourite- a peachy pink. They turned out super cute and I'm really pleased with them. If you want to see other colours check out this post. 

In other makings, I also made these really sweet baby bunny boots! 

I made them just for fun but now have a home for them. It always makes me so happy when I can give things away instead of them sitting in my cupboard getting covered in dust! (Well actually stored securely in my hot water cupboard if you really want to know, I would not let my beautiful creations get dusty ;0) hehe!) I'm also hoping they're not super girly, but with pink faces it's kind of unmistakeable who would wear them! 

I can just imagine tiny little feet all toasty warm in these boots. What winter warmers are you making at the moment??

Baby Bear Boots

So lately with the weather being a bit cooler and wetter I've felt like getting out my knitting needles. That and having a lot of friends having babies or due to have babies in the next few months. Is there anything cuter than a newborn all snuggled up in hand knits?? 

You may remember (if you've been reading my blog for a little while) that I made a LOT of stuff for the Thorndon Fair which was almost a complete disaster. Anyway, you live and learn...One of the things I really loved making which did get snaffled up by a dear friend was these ridiculously cute Baby Bear Boots. You might remember seeing these as I have previously posted about them. I had another pair half finished in my project bag, the intention was two have more than one pair to sell at the fair. A week or so ago after feeling a bit over my Weekend in Stockholm Blanket, I got the unfinished boots out and finished them off. I had forgotten how quick and easy these boots are to make up. I posted a pic on my Facebook page and within a couple of hours I had sold them, plus requests for 2 more! This kind of confirms the fact that they are totally a genius idea! 

I'm happy to share the idea for the bear face, but as I am not the designer of the pattern you will need to source your own copy here or here. I think the pattern is around $5USD, which is totally affordable and honestly the best pattern I have used. I'm sure if you google baby boots pattern you'd be able to find a free pattern, but this is the one I have used, so I know it works. The best guide for size is a measurement of the baby's foot, the pattern supplies Newborn, 3 month and 6 month size. I have quite tight tension but use a bigger size needle than suggested. 

Baby Bear Boots

You will need 3 colours of yarn (I generally use 8ply wool or acrylic)

- The main boot colour;

- The face and ears colour &;

- A small amount for eyes and mouth (note I would not recommend using beads for eyes due to choking hazard)

-4.5mm crochet hook

-4mm knitting needles 

Face

Following the original pattern, when you are up to the instep part which requires you to knit on the 10 centre stitches, join the face colour and knit the rows in this colour. Once you have done this, switch back to the main boot colour. Continue with the boot as per the pattern until the end, leave the final stitches on the needle until the ears and eyes and mouth are done. 

Ears

Once the boot is finished, and Using the same colour of yarn as the face colour, make a magic circle, chain 3 and make 8 double crochet into the circle. Tighten circle and slip stitch into the ch3 to make a circular ear shape. Leave a longish tail to attach to ears. Make 2 ears. To sew the ears onto the face and working on the right side, thread both tail ends from the ears to the wrong side. Secure the ears firmly by sewing through a couple of the loops at the bottom of the ear circle. Weave in yarn tails on the wrong side of your work. 

Eyes and Mouth

Using the third colour, sew eyes onto the face and a small 'X' shape for a mouth. Be careful not to leave big loops of yarn at the back which little toes could get caught on!

Now you are ready to finish of your boot. There are several ways to cast off the stitches, but I like to use a three needle cast off as its very neat, or a weaving style. There is a very good tutorial on casting off here, along with the one linked above. 

I would so love to see if anyone makes these, so please tag me on Facebook or Instagram (@itsmariemade) or post a link to your blog in the comments! 

Happy Making :D

Finished Projects: Bucilla Felt Christmas Stocking

I did it! I finished my first Bucilla Felt Christmas Stocking Kit! And just in the nick of time! I really enjoyed this project. It was quite a challenged and I needed to learn quite a few new sewing and embroidery techniques, but overall, the instructions were fairly straightforward and I didn't have too many problems. 

Thorndon Fair Experience and Gallery of work

***Warning photo heavy post*** Hello poor neglected blog!! I am still here! If you have been reading along for the last few months you would know I have been otherwise occupied! This past 6 weeks I was just too busy making for the Thorndon Fair which was on Sunday 7th December. With all the best intentions, unfortunately the Wellington weather did not play ball, so the fair itself was almost a complete washout. It didn't start very well when at our original stall site we were literally blowing away. We ended up moving across the road to an empty site which was slightly more sheltered but not really. I spent the majority of the time standing with my umbrella trying to shelter the table at the same time trying not to let the drips from the umbrella fall on the table! While I did manage to sell a few things, it was definitely disappointing. Especially considering this is something I have been working towards for the past 4 months or so! AND for the other people I shared the stall with as well as only one of the others managed to sell a few things. (Check out Lara Dawn and Meghan Maloney Photography). But, as I like to say, you live and learn, and I will take away a lot from the overall experience. The most important thing I think was that stall location is everything! We were at the distant end of the route, which meant we either got the last stragglers, or people just starting who wanted to wait until they'd seen other stalls before purchasing. As it was just soooo dismal, we ended up packing up our stall early and going home. The majority of stall holders around us were doing the same thing too. 

Work in Progress: Felt Christmas Stocking Part 3

Just a minute update re: the Felt Christmas Stocking. It's on the back burner due to my crazy knitting for the Thorndon Fair. I thought I would just show you where I'm up to though. I did get a bit further than the last update here. If you can't be bothered to go to the other post though, this may refresh your memory:

What it looked like previously:

Chocolate Pink Crochet Granny Blanket

As you know if you've been reading along for a little bit, I'm currently trying to make a few things to sell at the Thorndon Fair. So far I've made a few hats, several pairs of booties and a blanket. I really wanted to do another blanket and was pretty set on doing a ripple blanket. I had a few goes at the pattern over at Attic24 blog (brilliant tutorial worth checking out if you want to do a ripple blanket!), but I didn't really have enough of the right yarn to get the hang of the zigzag ripple pattern. The yarn I was using is (I think) a cotton blend, which seems to crochet up quite loosely. This made making the ripples quite tricky... 

Finished Projects: Mellow Yellow Crochet Blanket

You may have noticed if you're following me on Instagram, that I'm working on building up some stock for the Thorndon Fair in December. My goal is to try and use yarn only from my stash. I've got quite a haul of wool now, the 45 balls I won at Spotlight, and also a HUGE box of mixed yarns gifted to me from an old work colleague. I can't really justify buying new stuff when my yarn storage box is literally bursting at the seams! (Although I confess I did have to get extra white yarn to finish joining and the border!)

Work in Progress: Felt Christmas Stocking Part 2

Since the last update I've really been getting into the groove with this stocking. I really think that the lettering/name was the hardest part! I'm  now up to step 33, whereas last time I was only up to step 4! And that was 10 days ago! The numbers actually correlate to the piece that you're working on. At the moment I'm working on Santa's arm, which uses pieces 31-33. I've really enjoyed seeing Santa's face take shape, going from just the face to the whole puffy beard and moustache!

I'm enjoying learning and using all the different kinds of embroidery stitches. It's also a good lesson for me in following instructions, as I usually like to deviate from a pattern. But in this particular craft, you have to be quite careful and more of a perfectionist. 

D.I.Y Paper Heart Garland Tutorial

Two things I need to say before this post: 1. I realise not everyone will like Wiggles Themed ideas (please use your imagination to think of something you would like) 2. This is home handicraft idea and therefore it has that certain homemade "je ne sais quoi" (looks like a 5 year old made it) to it! Just go with it...

Finished Projects: Square Circle Granny Blanket

I shared a sneak peek of this blanket a while ago here. I meant to do an update but I thought I would rather just do a proper post once it was all completed. You might notice that the original squares changed! I dropped out the purple squares as I didn't like the way they looked once I was arranging them altogether. So this is the new and updated version!

Finished Projects: Stripes and Bows

Another quick check in to show off a couple things I finished off this past week. These were meant to be part of my Just Create June challenge, but I couldn't quite get them done before the end of the month!

Firstly a neat stripy hat off to a friend in Auckland. She sent me a picture of him wearing it yesterday, and the colours are just perfect on him. It's so lovely to see someone using and wearing something you've made isn't it?!

Just Create June: What I've Been Making

I have been a bit absent from this space for the last few weeks! I have been doing quite a bit of making, and my "To Do" list seems to be growing daily! I am the classic procrastinator where by I always find something new today instead of finishing what I started and seeing it through to completion.

At the end of last month I read this post on Sugar Crumbs blog, which was a bit of a challenge to create as much as you can during the month of June. For me, I decided I would like to crochet and knit through  my "To Do" list. 

Stripey Crochet Granny Monkey Blanket + Pattern and Border Tutorial

As soon as I found out my brother-in-law and his wife were having a baby, I knew I wanted to make a blanket for the new addition. I was already working on the Crochet Baby Granny Blanket and also the Granny Square Scrap Blanket but I had a few ideas floating around in my head. I really liked the way that the Baby Granny Blanket turned out in the random stripes, so I was thinking about something along those lines but different colours. 

Granny Scrap Blanket: Part Two- Joining Up

Hopefully you will have seen the previous post here in which I showed you how I started making a granny square blanket from a whole bunch of scrap yarn I had lying around. The next thing to do once you have all your squares, is to join them up!

I had in my mind, an idea of how I might like to join them. I didn't want to just sew them directly together for two reasons 1- because they looked too bright right next to each other; and 2- I am not a great sewer, and my poor skills would have been exposed in this type of project. What I was thinking about was some kind of border that linked all the squares but also created a border around the whole thing while being flat, even and uniform. 

Granny Square Scrap Blanket: Part One- The Squares

After finishing my Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket I am totally hooked (excuse the pun) on crochet, and in particular, the granny stitch. I can't believe how easy it is (once you know how). I had heard this before but I wasn't sure until I decided to have a go at making granny squares myself. I found it a bit tricky to find instructions that were confusing until I came across this tutorial with PHOTOS (Hallelujah- you know how much I LOVE photo tutorials!) by Little Tin Bird. It was so straight forward and simple, before you know it I had knocked out four granny squares just like *that* (bearing in mind I had to read the instructions three times and redo my first square three times because I didn't follow the pattern correctly the first time!). I used a few scrap yarns I had lying around from last years hat and bootie projects (check out here, here and here). I am notoriously bad at buying one ball of yarn for a small project, and so I had quite a build up of bits and pieces. Then I remembered these stupid kits I had lying around. 

Completed Project: Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket

I am so proud of myself for persevering with this blanket and finishing it off (See previous post here about my failed attempts!) While it may not be perfect, it's still very usable and (I think) looks pretty great!

If you would like to have a go at this blanket, visit Maybe Matilda and check out the pattern here. The very BEST thing about this pattern is that there are step by step photos.  I don't know how many times I had to go back and refer to the pictures to see if I was doing it right. So helpful. I really don't think I would have attempted it without the pictures (so Rachel if you read this, here is one very grateful fan!)

How to: Simple Beaded Earrings Part 2

This tutorial will show you how to make another pair of beaded earrings using slightly different materials. Hopefully you had a look at this post on basic technique and materials. If you haven't, click here to review. 

For these earrings I recycled some beads from a green necklace. I didn't like the necklace, it was too short and not really my colour, but the green glass beads individually are really beautiful!

How to: Simple Beaded Earrings

Here's a tutorial on how to make some gorgeous but deceptively simple earrings! The key is having all the materials and tools you need to create them. The other important factor is having some beautiful beads to work with! This will hide any imperfections in the finished result. You don't need to be an expert to create these, and they make really good gifts!
All the supplies can be found at The Warehouse, Spotlight or your local craft store. There are also numerous specialist bead shops around, however I have not found them to be the most cost effective way of getting beads. 

How to: Make a T-Shirt Yarn Necklace

In my last post, I showed you a picture of a giant ball of stripy yarn. Just to refresh your memory, look below:

Would you believe I have TWO of these?? Each skein is approximately 200 metres! It's a stretchy type of fabric known as t-shirt yarn or "tarn". (You can google how to make t-shirt yarn and there are lots of intructionals about how to make it from old t-shirts. I'm more of a ready-made kind of girl!) 

I've been wanting to make SOMETHING with it for ages, but the only patterns and projects I've seen have been for crochet. So I decided to bite the bullet and teach myself to crochet, I didn't think it would be too hard, given I more or less taught myself to knit. I found this pattern for a fabulous chunky knit basket which I thought would be perfect for this type of yarn. Also, it is fairly large so I figured a I would use up most of the yarn. 

Things I'm Loving: Christmas 2013

Everyone loves Christmas! Here are a few things I'm loving about Christmas this year.