A colourful pom pom garland

I've been hunting through my photo albums to share some crafty projects that I finished a while ago. This blog is intended as a catalogue of the things I make, so here is a quick project that I did for our lounge wall. It's simple but colourful and cheery.

I used cheap £1 per 100g Robin DK acrylic yarn. It's scratchy, and poor quality, but comes in lots of different colours, so it's ideal for projects like this. Never would I shell out for expensive yarn for something that is meant for decoration.

Tonight I've just finished a work-in-progress that I haven't worked on in almost 2 years... and I'm so excited to feature it here.

Miniature drawer unit from soap boxes

I have lots of small office supply items, and started looking at plastic drawer units with mini drawers to store all these items. Except, I don't have an income, and therefore making my own is preferable to spending money. Correction, making my own is always preferable. 

I looked up some tutorials and found these: cereal box chest of drawers and mini chest of drawers

C likes Dove bars, and I rescued a box from the bin, and realised we also had 6 more in the bathroom cabinet waiting to be opened. I took a total of 6 boxes, and got to work, making a bigger version of the matchbox chest of drawers. I love them, they are adorable. These didn't cost a penny to make, as I used materials I already had around the house. Win Win! 

To make your own, you will need:

6 soap boxes, or similar small cardboard boxes. 

Paper, card or fabric to cover your boxes.

Strips of cardboard to make the outers for the "matchboxes"

Scissors

Craft knife

Hole punch

Pen

PVA glue

Glue gun (optional)

Sticky tape

String, twine or beads for the drawer pulls. 

Here is a photo tutorial, taken with my phone camera:

Start by sealing the soap box on both ends. 

Then draw lines around the edges, as above, on to the back or front of the box. 

Cut along these lines with a craft knife. I left an edge so I could fold and stick it down to reinforce the edges (similar to the cereal box tutorial). I used the glue gun for the last box and found this worked better than sticky tape! 

Cut a strip of A4 (US letter size) card, 6cm wide (or big enough to cover your box)

Wrap the strip of card around the box and glue in place. 

Pinch the corners, and cut off the excess, and then glue down to secure to the inside of the box. 

Repeat for the bottom of the box.

Mark two dots halfway down and centred left-right to make holes for your drawer pulls. Punch with a single small hole. Take a length of twine, thread it through the holes and tie a knot at the back so you have a loop at the front. 

Tape over it to keep the loop in place. 

Repeat the above steps until you have as many drawers as you want. I made 6. 

Next, cut out 6 lengths of cardboard to make the outer part to your "matchboxes". They need to be slightly bigger than the soap box so the drawers can slide in/out easily. I made my strips 22cm long x 9cm wide. 

Wrap each strip of cardboard around a mini-drawer, and tape together at the join. Try to get a nice rectangle shape so your drawers will stack. 

Once you have made the outers for all 6 boxes, you can begin stacking them! I first glued sets of two together, and then stacked these sets on top of each other, to end up with this:

I used a glue gun to glue the "matchboxes" together. 

For the back, I cut two strips of cardboard and glued them to the middle, to stop the drawers dropping out the back! 

I then covered the whole lot in a piece of cereal box, and then contact paper. You could use fabric, or coloured card, or anything you fancy to make it pretty. 

Here is the end result, with a clearer photo!

A little red hat and mittens

My friend loves red (her favourite colour) and happens to like Scandinavian things, so when said friend requested a hat and mittens for her baby girl, I remembered this pattern. I've had the magazine for ages, and finally the perfect opportunity came up to try my hand at fair isle knitting. 

I started with the mittens, as a complete novice at fair isle. It took both mittens and the beginning of the hat to find a method of holding both yarns that was both comfortable and efficient, and maintained the tension in the knitting. I have a great book for all things knitting and crochet (The Knitting and Crochet Bible) and it showed me how to hold the yarn the English way (I'm a continental knitter, so I normally hold the yarn in my left hand). I never thought I'd be able to learn the English way, because I find it confusing, but now I've cracked it for fair isle. A whole new world has opened up to me, and I'm so excited about trying more fair isle designs. 

I'm happy to say that the hat fitted well, and has ample growing room. oh, and one very happy mum and super cute baby. 

As this blog is a journal for all things crafty, here are the details:

Pattern: Little Snowflake in Knit Now, issue 1, October 2011. I have the magazine, but here is the pattern on Ravelry.

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK, in Lipstick (1246) 100g (still have leftovers) and Stylecraft baby Stardust dk Wondersoft, in Snowdrift (1570) 50g (hardly touched it). The Snowdrift has a glittery strand running through it, which you can't see in the photo. It's a subtle effect, and I love it. 

Needles: I used my amazing Knitpro circular needles (knitting flat, not joining in the round). 3.5 mm for the brims, 4mm for the rest. 

Pattern amendments: I made this in the 6-12 months size, and having had troubles with previous patterns for beanie hats, I made this with a double brim, to fold up. I knitted 20 rows in k2p2 rib instead of the suggested 10. It worked, and now the hat has much more growth room. 

I normally knit hats and mittens in the round, but this pattern calls for knitting flat, which I'd never done before. I used mattress stitch to sew the seam, so I could match up the pattern on the right side. I'd be happy to use the seam method again, if a pattern calls for it, but I prefer knitting in the round. 

A fair isle success! 

Something new

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My short blogging career has been erratic of late. Unable to find a clear path, I stumble around until inspiration strikes, the muse takes off with me in tow, and I go where my creativity takes me. At this moment in time, I need a place to record or journal my crafting adventures. It's a way for me to find joy and peace in an otherwise uncertain time. Crafting has always been one of my favourite things to do, and so I appreciate the ability of the interwebs to provide me with a new blog in 10 minutes. This is a very exciting development!