Miss Aine

My favourite pattern from the recent toy issue of Petite Purls - Texture Bite , by Nancy Anderson. The pattern is well written and easy to follow. While stuffing it I thought the head looked smaller than in the photos but it looks okay once I added the ribbon around the neck. This little ted is heading to our next door neighbours who just had their first baby - a little boy called Nathan.

Lucy, from Si and Lu , is doing a little bric-a-brac stall at one of the parks in Dublin this Sunday so her sister in law, Tammy, who runs the Sallins knitting group asked if anyone could add some baked goods. Everyone came up trumps and Tammy met her today with a car-bootful of treats. My contribution: chocolate fudge cakes Of course I tasted one, just to be sure they were okay. Yum yum!

Thought these were too cute not to take a picture of!

Some sewing for me, from a dress that I bought in the charity shop last year but just never really liked how it sat on me. The Pretty Blouse , from the SewMamaSew blog. It was a really simple pattern to follow, and there aren't many pieces so you can make it up quick enough. Its nice on too. Although, I'm a little tried of floaty tops now as I don't want to look pregnant anymore! But it will be good for breastfeeding if I wear a little tank top underneath.

'Squirrel on Wheels' from the Knitting Mochimochi book Made for a two-year-old's birthday. Hopefully he likes it!

While playing on the CBeebies website one day I noticed that they had a pattern for how to make 'Same Smile' Panda. Emily loves the programme 'Same Smile' so it was a no brainer of a project. The shape of the pattern is a little simplistic, but she likes it all the same.

Forgot to add links to how to make dreamcatchers. There are loads on the web: Simple and intricate versions (the one on the right is like what we made, only I used a wooden hoop as I didn't have a yoghurt lid) Simple version Web-like version

Poor little Emily tends to have quite bad dreams, and will wake up screaming in the middle of the night. So when DH heard people talking about the same problem on the radio he took interest. One suggestion was to put up a dreamcatcher to catch the bad dreams and take them away. So myself and Emily had a crafty afternoon and made a little dreamcatcher. Its not maybe quite right as I just did a star in the middle of the circle, not a web. But I do like the notion that the one bead in the middle is the spider who catches the bad dreams. And so far it seems to have worked pretty well. The night-wakenings have lessened. Now she just tends to be woken up by Oliver when he cries for his night feed!

I bought 'Palm Sized Softies' at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year, but hadn't made anything from it. I was intimidated by the sheer tiny size of all the toys - the largest are only about 5-6 inches tall. But Emily was looking through the book recently and a doll with pink hair and pink clothes caught her eye - surprise, surprise! And so I tackled my first mini doll: Her face isn't the best - she looks a little bit evil. However she wasn't as hard to make as I feared and I got her body and hair done in one evening. I'll definitely be making more toys from that book. Here's the doll beside a coaster, just to show how small she is.

A knitter on Ravelry adapted my Little Red pattern from Petite Purls to make a kokeshi doll. Having spent 5 months in Japan when I was in college this little doll appealed to me and so I have finally found some time to make one for me. Had to take out my book on kimono to make sure I sewed her neckline right - didn't want to have the cross over on the wrong side, indicating she was dead! Will have to see if I can get the mods written up into a PDF as I think this doll should stand alone as her own pattern - congrats to Amberfyre (Rav name) on a brilliant set of mods, that were very easy to follow

Another little free pattern to keep all my followers going. This little guy is from the same basic shape as the hippo and lion. He's only about 2 inches long, and could easily be knit in an evening. download now from Ravelry