Tag: Ball

Wedding Gifts

Making two cute gifts for a wedding where the participants are just supposed to have fun!

One of my colleagues went to Portugal to get married, and to celebrate the occasion, gifts were in order! The only thing I really knew was that I wanted to make something. I just initially didn’t have a clue what the something would be. So I stared considering the options. Since I really like words, I thought about recreating some sort of pun.

I first thought making a set of stuffed peas for ‘two peas in a pod’ but apparently that saying means something different than I thought. It’s about people being alike and not about people liking each other, so even though there is a similar saying in Portuguese, it was out. Since my brain was letting me down, I went the google route to look for sayings that meant to ‘have fun’. I settled on two: ‘Let the good times roll’ and ‘Have a whale of a time’.

The first one was easy, just make a ball and embroider the saying on it. Google translate indicated that it is ‘deixe os bons tempos rolarem’ in Portuguese (no guarantees whether that’s valid though..), which is also five words. Happy coincidences! I settled on a 6 panel ball and to celebrate the union added the word ‘together’ (juntos) to the end of the saying. I chose some of my 10×10 pre-cut quilting squares and added some interfacing to the back. All but one seam were completely sewn and then made extra neat at the joins. For fun, I added a bell in with the stuffing before closing it up. I think it’s very cute!

The second one made me trawl through what felt like the entirety of Pinterest to find a cute whale pouch. The full idea was to make an object that could hold suggestions to have a whale of a time. Basically ideas for dates within the local area. In the end, I settled on using the pattern from this pin, but enlarging it slightly. I chose three coordinating quilting fabrics and fluffy interfacing for the outside and some whale patterned fabric for the lining.

I found a coordinating zipper and sewed it all together. The lining was mostly attached on a train journey because I had a hard time manouvering under the sewing machine. I left a hole in the lining so I could stitch one some cute felt eyes. I also added a felt heart to the tail. I really like how this one turned out. I asked some of my other colleagues for date suggestions, printed those on paper, added some of the discount cards from tourist destinations and put it all in the whale.

In any case, I’ve heard that the wedding was a great time!

Yellow – Turquoise – Orange

Made some baby gifts from self-dyed yarn and other happy fabric.

Baby gift time again! First up, dyeing. On the last day of 2022, the second dye project was a single skein of Chester Wool DK 115 (Worsted) 50s. It is 100% merino and has 50 grams in a skein for around 100 meters of yarn. Since I still had soft yellow dye stock left from the other dyeing I did that day, I put 20 ml of the stock in my pot. Then I added several resists around the skein and dropped the thing into the pot. When it had simmered for long enough, I took it out and dyed the resists turquoise. I couldn’t resist adding some speckles and chose orange. All in all this meant that the skein turned out extremely bright and cheerful. If you ask me, perfect for a baby.

Since there was going to be a new baby, I set out to make some baby things and settled on these two patterns: Easy Peasy Baby Ball by A la Sascha and Tiny Tot by Kristen Rettig. One is a rectangle hat with tassels or pompoms and the other is a ball. I used up the entire skein in the making of these projects, so no leftovers!

I’ve also had a bit of flannel in the stash with a similar colour scheme. There’s also some additional red and green, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. The flannel was bought to make some poppies, so I set out to do exactly that. I tried to make these somewhat symmetrical with the plaid, so the scale was based on that. There’s some difference between these two poppies, one has a green stripe near the head, the other green. One has larger hands, the other smaller, but they are still very similar.

Both knitting patterns were quick, easy to knit and went smoothly. Of course the hat is way too big for the recipient, but I guess my track record stays intact on that score. The last item for the little baby was a spit scarf. Now with skateboarders, rope jumpers and a terry cloth back. It feels very soft even if the snap is on the wrong edge.

I hope the little one will have a marvelous and colourful life!

Christmas Ornament

Yes, I am aware of the fact that it is August, I haven’t skipped four months in my head. What I am aware of, though, is that fact that making things takes time. If you want to have a nice Christmas tree full of hand-made ornaments, it’s better to start in time right!

So what did I make? I knit a ball, in a yarn that varies between light silver and black, that’s why the colours aren’t even in the pictures. It’s supposed to be put in the tree, but it’s a little overly large I’m afraid. It’s bigger than my hand..

Ornament Ornament comparison

So for the next one I’m going to adapt the pattern to make it a little (lot) smaller. You’re supposed to knit it on 4 needles, but I’m incapable of doing that. I also don’t have four small needles anyway. So I decided to use a needle for knitting in the round, and this worked just as well. Started with 12 stitches in provisional cast on and in the middle it was 64 stitches, knit on 4.5mm needles. The next one will be more black, as that’s where the yarn’s at now.