Halloween on a smaller scale

I like to mark the seasons. Since I was a child I've celebrated Halloween by making a pumpkin lantern. But that's it, I don't festoon the house with cobwebs, and spend hours crafting hardboiled eggs into eyeballs.

This year, I've written features on easy ideas for Halloween decorations and how to carve a Halloween pumpkin lantern (with alternatives that don't require the use of a sharp knife). Among the alternatives to pumpkins are turnips (traditional but hard work to cut), and tangerines (not hollowed out, just decorated).

Because I can be trusted with a sharp knife, I have a large and small pumpkin, which I'll be carving with faces in the usual way.

But this year I've got a new idea: the tiniest-ever Halloween lantern.

It's made from a physalis, or Cape gooseberry (beloved of so many Come Dine with Me contestants as a dessert decoration), decorated with a black felt-tip face.

It would be great for places where you can't leave a candle burning, like the office. You could also decorate several physalis on a stem to put it in a vase.

Behind the profile: how to make a ribbon and button brooch

Seven years ago, in October 2009, I joined Twitter. At the time I was working as deputy editor of Allaboutyou.com, in charge of the craft section, bringing hundreds of free knitting, sewing and crochet patterns and craft tutorials to our eager readers. My boss told me to get a Twitter account, and I thought it would be a useful way to connect with our craft fans, so I called it AAYCraftEditor.

For my profile pic, I chose the ribbon and button brooch I'd designed, made and written about a couple of months earlier, because it was the first craft feature I wrote on Allaboutyou.com's craft channel.

Seven years on, I've just changed my Twitter username, because Allaboutyou.com no longer exists, and I no longer tweet only about craft.

So I thought it was time I blogged on the brooch that's still my profile pic.

I made it while I was fiddling around with my sewing box and haberdashery supplies, and the two-tone wired ribbon (which I'd previously used to make bag handles, by stitching it on top of the originals) and the buttons just came together in my hand, and I admired how they complemented each other.

How to make a ribbon and button brooch
(as originally published on Allaboutyou.com)

You will need
● length of wired ribbon, measuring around 15cm
● two buttons, one large, one small
● brooch pin
● scrap of felt or other non-fraying fabric
Time taken: around 20 minutes

How to make
Pull the wire out of one side of the ribbon. Now hold one end of the wire on the other side and ease the fabric of the ribbon along it so that it bunches up. Continue until you can bend the ribbon round to make a circle. The hole in the middle should be slightly smaller than your biggest button.
Sew the edges of the ribbon together to form a circle. Cut the felt to a circle slightly smaller than your bigger button. Stitch the felt to the ribbon to cover the hole.
Sew on the bigger button in the centre of the brooch. Sew the smaller button on top. Now sew the brooch pin to the back. (You can use a safety pin if you want; no one's going to see it!)
You could make two overlapping ribbon circles to give a fuller effect.

How about?
Make a felt anemone brooch

Autumn leaves: what I rustled up

This week I've been writing about seasonal crafts, like how to carve a Halloween pumpkin lantern, and some other decorating options kids can do without using knives. I was also writing about craft ideas for autumn leaves for kids.

I love celebrating the changing of the seasons like this, being aware of and admiring what's around you (sycamore 'propellers', beech nuts, chestnuts – horse and human, leaves), and it makes great stuff to mess about with and make something from.

In the past I've made an autumn leaf wreath from the maple leaves from my own garden but this year they all got frazzled because I was away on holiday for the two hottest weeks of the year, so no autumn show!

This morning we went for a walk, and the leaves are just beginning to change colour. Having been looking at gorgeous images of leaves to go with my kids' activity ideas, I was inspired to make something with them myself. So I brought back sprigs of oak leaves, just turning golden with still-green veining, yellow beech leaves, and reddish-purple leaves from a tree I can't identify. (If anyone knows what they're from, please leave a comment!)

I made a very rough-and-ready leaf wreath, essentially just a couple of twined stems pulled from my neighbour's wall (thanks, Fergus) twisted into a circle, with leaves tucked in. It looks messy, but I like its naturalistic form. (And if I wanted, I could make something symmetrical and more polished.)

At the very least, it brightens up a bare patch of fence.

And brightening up a length of bare wall are these leaves-on-a-line. To make them, thread a needle with the desired length of thread, and tie the other end of the thread around a tiny twig, to weigh down your lines. Pass the needle through the leaf, near the top, alongside the spine, and back through the other side. This stops it sliding to the bottom. Stitch on more leaves until your thread is full.

How you hold them in place spends on their location. Mine are weighted down with a pebble from a high windowsill, but you could tie a hanging loop on the end of the tree to suspend from a nail, or tie the thread end around, for example, the bottom of a hanging basket. These lines of leaves twirl mesmerisingly in the breeze, and although they may only last a couple of days, they only take a couple of minutes to make.

How to knit a triangle (that's a neckerchief, or a Hilda-Ogden-homage headscarf)

As a knitter, I'm a bit crap. I like instant gratification and get confused following complicated patterns. (Having said that, I haven't yet followed one that's that complicated.) It's safe to say, I like to keep it simple when it comes to knitting.

So I'm happy to report that I have new creative inspiration for a manageable project for me. It came via the That's Not My Age blog, where Alyson posted on a knitted neckerchief range by knitwear designer Jo Gordon. She's a Scottish designer who produces gorgeous machine-knitted items – including her neckerchief/headscarf.

It's gorgeous and as I looked at it, I thought: 'what a brilliant shape, and a new headgear idea...and a simple shape...a simple shape that I could knit...a simple triangle to wear around the neck or on my head.'

So, five minutes later, I've cast on. Fuchsia-pink fine angora yarn from my stash, so it's label-less, and 7.5mm needles. A quick online check reveals how to knit a triangle from the wide end: cast on stitches to reach your desired width (I wrapped my tape measure around my head and pretended to tie it in front: 70cm - I have a big head). Then k1, k2 tog at each end of every row, to decrease the piece to a triangle shape.

I'm sure I'll wear my scarf around my neck tied at the back, but surely the headscarf is due for a revival, as an alternative to the ubiquitous beanie-with-big-pompom? How about in homage to Hilda Ogden? (I won't be sporting rollers with mine, though.)

Three days later, it's finished. As I predicted, I won't be wearing it headscarf style... Unless it's really cold...

Wool Week 2016: new yarn resolutions

I will learn (again) how to crochet. I went on a one-day course a few years ago, didn't practise enough and the knowledge unwound, like stitches from a hook. And I'm desperate to crochet granny squares!

I will make myself a knitting bag to store my supplies, whether it’s knitted, sewn – whatever.Work will start within the week on my OH's long, navy scarf.

I'll give finger-knitting another go. I tried it with this Craftsy finger-knitting tutorial, then went on holiday and kept fiddling away with my handmade T-shirt yarn, but couldn't remember how to cast off!

And talking of my handmade T-shirt yarn, I need to use it somehow.

There's a guerilla weaving idea I have for a dark corner down the road. It'll take (me) too long to knit something for the spot, but weaving some bright, maybe white, wool would look great, and make a point to the local council about streetlamp repair!

And until this afternoon, also on this list would have been finishing my dad’s cowl. He was convinced he’d lost the first one I knitted him, and was gutted, so I'd started a replacement, but he texted today – so happy – to say he’d found it.

Wool Week 2016: knitting for charity

These are the first two hats I ever knitted, and they're now on their way to an unknown recipient.
I made them for my OH and he was kind enough to wear them a couple of times (sizing is a bit of an issue!), but we're having a bit of a clear-out and I agreed – eventually – that he needn't hold on to them.
Obviously, I wanted them to go to a good home, and I knew just where that was, having had previous positive dealings: Knit for Peace UK.
This charity receives knitted items and distributes them to hospitals, refuges, drop-in centres, and to developing countries. They'll also take gifts of unwanted yarn and needles (great way of getting rid of an out-of-control yarn stash).
Knit for Peace also came up with the idea of the Good Gifts Catalogue, where you 'give a goat' (or seeds for crops, bikes for midwives and so on) as a present, and someone who needs it is the actual recipient of the gift.
If you want to knit for charity, there are free patterns available on the Knit for Peace website. At the moment, they're looking for knits for adults, like hats. I like the idea of my two helping to keep someone warm, wherever and whoever they may be.

Wool Week 2016: renewing the knitted graffiti

I've decided to do some form of 'wool work' – and blog about it – every day this week, for my own personal celebration of Wool Week.

Today I've updated the knitted graffiti on my local lamppost.
The previous pieces have been out there for over a year and it was impressive to see just how robustly they'd withstood the weather. Slight fading on the grey/blue big wool, crispiness on the red eyelash yarn, and a couple of leaves tucked in.
And on a more personal note, I've pinned down exactly what set of scarf my OH would like me to knit for him: about 6ft long, quite narrow, in garter-stitch welt, navy blue. I'll be casting on soon...

Before and after pix

As seen on screen: Yarn – the Movie review

Tonight, for one night only, Yarn – the Movie is being screened in cinemas nationwide.  Some showings, at Showcase cinemas,  are 'knit-alongs' which sounds like fun. I've just had my own private screening and to be honest, although the film really made me want to start knitting, and to create all kinds of projects out in the world, I'd have difficulty doing it in the dark, and I'd want to concentrate on watching the film.

Yarn – the Movie is an award-winning Icelandic documentary that also takes us to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Hawaii, Cuba, USA and Canada on a journey that explores the endless possibilities of yarn, with artists who work with yarn through knitting, crochet and other modes of creative expression.

It's cosy and comfortable on one level, covering how women pass on their skills to each other, wand how women all over the world are connected by them, and how yarn can be connected in oh so many beautiful, thought-provoking and meaningful forms.

The film features the work of Polish crochet artist Olek, known for camouflage-pattern crochet, Japanese artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam of Net Play Works who creates giant three-dimensional knitted, knotted playgrounds, Tilde Björfors, the founder of the contemporary Swedish circus company Cirkus Cikör and Tinna Þórudóttir Þorvaldar, yarn graffiti artist from Iceland. (Reykjavik was the first place I ever saw graffiti knitting – I wonder if it was by Tinna.)

Watch the Yarn – the Movie trailer and find your nearest screening. Obviously, this film deserves a wider audience; I hope to see it on TV soon.

Finding free knitting patterns

We all like something for nothing, and that includes craft necessities like knitting patterns. I've blogged on some of my favourite places to find free knitting patterns over on my work portfolio and I've just written a feature on free baby knitting patterns for Saga. I'm not one to go gooey over babies, puppies or kittens but even I have to admit that these ribbon-tie baby bootees designed by Susie Johns are so cute!

The sites I've included in the Saga feature cover knitting designers, knitting shops and yarn manufacturers. They all offer more free patterns than I could include. Here's the list:

Erika Knight

Debbie Bliss

LoveKnitting.com

Let's Knit magazine

KnitRowan.com

McAree Brothers

and a couple of extras:

Hobbycraft

WoolandtheGang.com

Laughing Hens

One of my other favourite sources is the local library. I love it for the extended choice. You can take the books out on loan – books you'd never consider buying (who has an unlimited budget?), browse at your leisure, take a photo of the patterns you want, or scan the page, then return the book – all for free. Even the fastest knitter – who certainly isn't me – would struggle to knit the pattern before the end of the loan period!