Miss Aine

The joy of Christmas. Peace to you and yours!

A custom order for one of DH's friends.  Her little girl has a pink blanket with white spots so ted has a matching one. Download the pattern via Ravelry for $4

Its been a tough week and a half in our house.  The kidlets have not being sleeping well at night.  One or two nights of that is okay, but its starting to get to me now.  Plus my knitting time and energy has been cut big time so I think there will be some emergency Christmas shopping at the end of this week to cover the stuff I just can't get done. When did Christmas suddenly become so stressful? To lighten the mood, here's a few pics of what we've been up to. Oliver learned how to use his bouncer - he absolutely loves it!! Emily made a few little angels for our Christmas tree.  We got the template of the cBeebies website (love it!) And Emily was a bit under the weather last week with an earache, so we had a princess party (i.e. a picnic in front of the telly) while watching the cBeebies panto. We made pink princess buns and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and there was a bit of fruit as well. Yum, yum!

Have to take a break from knitting a custom white teddy bear as I stuck my darning needle into my finger and am bleeding - not good when knitting with white!! So on to the winner of the SewMamaSew Giveaway. I consulted the random number generator, and the winner is - Jennie.   She said 'How cute. Looks like something my Nanna would make - she's good at knitting too. Thanks for the giveaway!'  An email will be on the way to you tonight Jennie to get your address. Thank you so very much to everyone who entered my little giveaway.  Its always nice to get such lovely feedback - I really appreciate it. And for those of you who have just discovered my blog, check out the free patterns to the right.  Any questions just pop me an email.

Just in time for Christmas - the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Up for grabs is the beautiful Aliona, a vision in pink. This little gal is handknit by me, in acrylic yarn so she's easily washed.  Her hair is sewn on rather than knitted so she would not be suitable for kids under 3 years of age.  Her clothes cannot be removed. To win this lovely dolly just leave a comment with some form of contact detail.  A winner will be chosen at random on Dec 16th and I'll pop her in the post as soon as I can so you hopefully have her for Christmas (international entries are welcome). Click on the button below for a link back to the SMS website so you can check out all the other brilliant giveaways - and there are some lovely ones.

As well as selling some stuff yesterday, I also did a bit of Christmas shopping.  Doing my bit to shop local and support Irish artisans. First up is a lovely table mat by Louise Hillary of Stone Weavers (no website yet, but you can email stoneweavers@gmail.com for enquires).  They're basically just flat stones on a carpet base but they look so good.  They'd probably be a bit heavy for posting overseas but if you're in Ireland do look her up. Next up is a little pram toy by Sarah, of Sweensie .  I actually know her from knitting in Celbridge.  She has an Etsy shop with some box bags, snack bags and mug cozies.  Perfect for Christmas pressies! Last up is a gorgeous little glass ornament by Ruth Galvin (no dedicated website but you can see her profile on the Craft Council of Ireland's website )  Her pieces are beautiful and this little angel will be hanging up all year round, not just for Christmas.

From the market today.  The turnout wasn't as good as expected, but I still did okay. Should have taken a picture of the stall at the end of the day. Any left over toys will appear in my Etsy shop over the next few days.

Another dolly made with the Rosie the Ragdoll pattern.  I really like the colours of this one, she's a bit more traditional.  Maybe she won't sell and I'll get to keep her!

Meet Aliona - a version of my free pattern Lily .  I knit her in the round on dpns, did her legs 10 rows shorter and her arms just 36 rows in total.  Her dress is also shorter. She's called Aliona as she reminds of the dancer of the same name from 'Strictly Come Dancing' on the BBC - think its the hair colour!

I was sent a pattern by one of my regular customers a few months ago, and just got around to making up the doll - Rosie the Rag Doll .  Its a free pattern on the web so give it a go.  A really simple design and its really quick to put together.  A few hours and you have a complete doll - i'd say only 2-3 hours if you had no distractions. This one I think will be destined for the market on Sunday.  Might try make another 1 or 2 before then. 

These are from Little Cotton Rabbits .  A really fun and quick knit - each bear only took me about 1 hour to make.  They're also really easy to customise, and you could have great fun trying out new patterns for each bear (or rabbit).  These guys just need little hanging loops now to complete them. I may be making lots of these for all the last minute presents that I don't have organised yet!

The poor blog has suffered over the past week.  We've all been sick (boo!), and I'm using every free bit of time I have to get stuff made for the Christmas market I'm doing next weekend (11th at the Glenroyal in Maynooth, for any Irish readers). One of the ornaments I'm making this year are these felt trees.  Just two different colours of green, with silver seed beads and some glittery fabric stars I had in my stash, with a ribbon loop.  I think they look pretty cool - will have to wait and see if they sell!

From 'Palm Sized Softies'.

Finally the pattern is typed up - done in a hurry though so apologies if there are any mistakes. download now

At the last craft fair I realised I was nearly out business cards.  So I got on the 'puter and ordered myself some new Moo cards.  However this time I got them printed with photos of some of my knitted items on the back. I love them!

We're having Oliver baptised this coming Sunday and rather than make a whole new outfit he's just going to wear the gown that I made for Emily - back in the day! It is rather girly though so I knitted a simple cropped jacket to go over it and a matching bonnet, as it is November and it will be cold. The cardigan is the Baby Bunting Sweater , just done in one colour, and cropped. I also made the 12-24 month size and made it larger again to ensure it would fit him. This pattern does seem to knit very very small. The bonnet is from an old Patons book I have. It's supposed to have a lace border but I just went for plain garter stitch instead.

I made these gloves last Christmas for my sister and my mother loved them. So she asked me to knit a pair for her friend who's turning 50. I used Sublime extrafine merino so they're lovely and soft. La Princesse et le lapin

Click on the pic to be taken to see Mary's fantastic treasury on Etsy - Red Hot Irish Gifts

A little late, but here are some images from the local business market I did in our village last Sunday. Not a fantastically attended market, but I made enough to cover the cost of the stall and a little bit more so it wasn't a waste. I also got to talk to some lovely people.

The original pattern is Molly Monkey . I omitted the skirt and made a boy monkey instead. He kinda looks like he's wearing stripey pjs!

Lots of Santas, snowmen and stockings from my Mini Christmas Tree Trims pattern.

A little zombie made using my Little Red pattern by a very inventive Ravelry user. Thought it was so cool I just had to share it.

For a lovely lady in Canada. Hopefully she likes them, and I can pop them off in the post to her.

It felt like I was back in college on a field-trip, looking at the city. I definitely had my 'landscape architecture' hat on. There's just something about European cities! Mies Van De Roh pavillion:

DH was in Barcelona this past week for work, so as my parents kindly offered to look after the kids I flew over on Thursday evening and spent a few days there too. A few tourist-y images: