Friday, December 3, 2010

Quiet Time

knitted acorn
We've had more time at home than usual and E and I are quite enjoying it (the poxy teenager W, not so much).  I've been catching up on some gift making and have one parcel almost ready to go (thankfully I made one of these button-tab hats much earlier this year in a short-lasted fit of organization) .
button-tab hat
This is the Regular Guy Beanie from Ravelry.  I've made five of these now and they're just an all around good toque - they fit well, the size is easily adjusted and you can add stripes or not.
regular guy beanie
I also made a tiny little gift for an acorn-loving little friend.  I started out trying to make it with mohair (in just the perfect shade of nut-brown) but alas, fine mohair yarn and I don't get on at the best of times and when I added in the four small needles needed AND knitting front and back of stitches...well, it just wasn't happening.  So...I chose another yarn and this little acorn (pattern from this website) came together very nicely. 
knitted acorn
I think she'll quite like it.
knitted acorn
And, even though we have plenty of snow outside the windows, I can never have a wintertime without handmade paper snowflakes ON the windows.  They are one of my favourite simple pleasures and I could happily cut them all day.
snowflake
And,  I've even had time to finally strain some of my neglected well-aged tinctures that have been sitting on my shelves waiting ever-so-patiently to be strained and bottled.  This one is wild rose-hip - I love the colour.
rosehip tincture

6 comments:

rhonda jean said...

Hello Heather. Your regular guy beanie is beautiful! Can you tell me what yarn you used? I love the colour and the texture of it. It looks really soft.

Enjoy your crafting.

Rhonda

Heather said...

Hi Rhonda,
Thank you for visiting, I really enjoy your blog and admire the way you inspire people with the way you share information.
The gray yarn is quite soft and even my son who doesn't like to wear wool can happily wear these toques. The gray is Patons Classic wool in dark grey mix, the wine colour yarn is thrifted Rowan Magpie wool and the natural colour is Bernat Lana wool that I had on hand for dyeing. Hope that helps.

rhonda jean said...

Lovely, I think we can get those here. And Heather, what is the light blue above the grey photo? That looks like a good baby weight.

Heather said...

The light blue yarn is the softest cotton I have ever come across - it almost feels like a cotton silk blend. I got it from a thrift store so I'm not sure if it is still available for sale in regular stores. The tag reads Welcomme L'akala 100% cotton. It really is a lovely yarn.

MargaretJ said...

I'm curious as to what you use the wild rose tincture for. Thank you

Heather said...

Hi Margaret, we made the wild rose tincture thinking that it would be a good one to have in our cupboard in case any of us felt a cold coming on. Rosehips are very high in vitamin C so we have some dried hips on hand for teas as well. Here is an interesting link on rosehip tincture if you are interested.
http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/September08/goddess.htm

Hope that helps. :-)