Super Scary Crochet

My mum got me Super Scary Crochet by Nicki Trench for my Birthday last year. It is awesome! I really enjoyed making the ones I've done so far! The book has patterns for so many hilarious characters, from 'Walter the Werewolf' and 'Bernard Bigfoot', to 'Dr Death' and 'Natty the Batty'.

Above you can see Baby Jane and Blanche from the film 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane'. I made these for a colleague of mine to give to someone for Christmas (I hope they liked them!). I made the characters before I'd seen the film, and now that I have seen it I understand why they both look quite deranged and why Baby Jane is holding a rat!

Next up is 'Colin the Cannibal Cockerel'. Apparently, Colin is a lovely cockerel... until there's a full moon. Finally we have Mr Pumpkin Head, a great guy to have around at Halloween.

Owl Mug Cozy

This owl mug cozy was a Christmas gift for my good friend Amy of Movie Writing. I knitted the owls and ribbed edging, then used double crochet to lengthen the sides for a snug fit around the mug. I finished with some pearlescent buttons to fasten and some black sequins for owl eyes.

I'm afraid I'm unable to share a pattern as I didn't make a note of what I did. I just went with the flow and made it up as I went along! I occasionally do the same thing when baking. I get so wrapped up in the creative moment that I forget to make a note of ingredients, quantities and methods. Since starting this blog I've definitely been better at recording what I do when I bake. I'll endeavor to do the same when I next go on a freestyle knitting and crochet adventure!

December

I thought it would be nice to share some highlights from December. As you'd expect, a fair bit of baking went on! I also finished off my hot water bottle cover. I made it following this loose pattern by Coco Rose and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Most of the Christmas break was spent up in the North East where we had a great time seeing family and friends. We had a lovely trip to Whitby for some tasty fish and chips. It was bloomin' cold though and Mr Makes said my head looked like a giant fondant fancie with my pink woolly hat on.

From top: sherry, mince pies, sour cherry chocolate brownies, cherry and vanilla cupcakes with more mince pies, me in Whitby, snowmen meringues, more meringues, my finished hot water bottle cover, key lime pie (or lime lime pie as we called it, because I have no idea where to find key limes).

Christmas Cake

Happy New Year :-) I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

I started writing this post before Christmas, but there was so much going on that I just couldn't get it finished. In the run up to December 25^th I was in a bit of a knitting/crochet/cake decorating/present finishing/packing frenzy! So I had to keep the designs for my Christmas cakes as simple (and quick) as I possibly could.

I was really pleased with how they looked. I went for pale blue with a snowflake for the big cake. It doesn't show up in the photo, but I used some pearlescent edible lustre dust on the snowflake for a shimmer effect. The cake was a gift for our office Secret Santa (turned out to be not so secret really!).

The two smaller 11cm cakes were decorated with simple blue fondant stars and a Christmas tree, finished with lovely ribbon. These were also gifts, but unfortunately in all the Christmas chaos I forgot to give one of them to the intended recipient, and discovered it, all boxed up, on my craft desk (which needless to say was abandoned throughout the festivities) a couple of days ago! Oops.

As for my own Christmas cake, well it’s sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe, all wrapped up since the last time I fed it with sherry in mid-December! I thought about making it into a Happy New Year cake, but my heart just isn't in it. Perhaps it will become a Valentine Fruitcake! I think I’ll mull it over.