Happy New Year

Well the month of December, as always, has been incredibly busy. With 6 birthdays, 1 anniversary, Christmas and new years. So glad to be getting back to normal and looking forward to starting the gym soon.

Well Christmas and my Birthday were very fruitful for craft related things. After talking about needle felting so much I ended up getting two needle felting sets for Christmas. I'm really please as it means I won't run out any time soon. The kits are awesome, lots of cool colours and instructions of how to use the needles. On Christmas eve (as I got one set early) I had a play and made this bunny. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this later :)

 For my Birthday I received these amazing iron in labels for my crafty goods.

My sister in law Claire knows me very well as I love the fabric and the font. So excited to use them.
I also received some lovely buttons and yarn so I have some exciting new projects to start soon and a candle making kit.

As this festive season has been so busy I have been very organised with meal planning. I raided Pinterest for slow cooker meals, bought all the ingredients, put them in pre-prepared zip lock bags and froze them, so all I had to do was take them out of the freezer and into the slow cooker in the morning and dinner would be sorted.

I made a weeks worth of meals including:
Philly Cheese Steak *
Chilli Shredded Chicken
7up Chicken
Mustard Maple Chicken *
Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ones with Stars next to them we have tried and are Boyfriend approved. I also froze my normal Beef stew and Turkey Burgers. Last night we tried Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes They were lovely though a strange effect was that the flesh of the potato turned a golden colour. I'm looking forward to doing this more as it was only an hour of prep for a really easy and delicious week of food. Just need to find more recipes!

Blog Makeover

Just so y'all don't get confused, I have changed the name, address, design etc of the blog as A Crochet Ninja was set up a long time ago and I find myself blogging about more than just crochet now a days. I hope you like the change. I feel the new name is more accurate to what I do :)

THE CHRISTMAS CRAFT IS DONE!!!!!

Yay, I knew I could do it. I'm so glad it's all done. True I still have tonnes of wrapping to do but it seems a small task after the almost 30 projects I have made. So the last few projects worked up nicely. I made a disguise kit with felt and elastic to make some hilarious beards and mustaches. I feel the parents will be using it more than the kids though.

For my nieces I knitted some cute fingerless gloves. I used the Jazz Fingers by Misty Wade from Ravelry. I ended up using the 1 year old size as the larger size fitted me. That's what I get for not checking the gauge. I crocheted some flower to decorate them and added some beads for extra glam.

And the last project was this crocheted abomination. It is for a friend who drew a picture of a monster and I did my best to make it into an Amigurumi. (note the empty bottle of wine in the background, I was celebrating the end of the Christmas Craft)

So there is lots of craft that  have been considering now the marathon is done. I did whip up a few hexipuffs and I think I might attempt doing a few with pictures in them, just for something different. I am looking forward to getting some progress done on the hexagon patchwork. This is it so far...

and I've been looking at options for how I will quilt it and I think machine quilting  diamond pattern is the best for me. I did get a little excited and started making hexagons for a cushion as well. I like to arrange it in a rainbow as I love rainbows. This is my hexagon kit so far :)

Well I hope you have enjoyed my crafty rantings
Tata!

The end IS in sight!

After my very pessimistic last update I have made some considerable progress with the Christmas craft and I am now into single figures of projects left to be made. I am very happy about this and I can't wait to get back to work on projects for me once it's all done. So the completed projects for this week are...

This lovely crocheted cowl I have made for my sister in law. The yarn is a lovely chunky merino. Merino is defiantly in the top 5 of Maggie's favorite fibers. Its so very soft and warm and the pattern is just a simple dc1, ch1 around then on the next round you dc1 into the 1 ch space.

 I had some of this lovely merino left over so I knitted a headband/ear warmer. The pattern is the Blue Leaf Headband from Ravelry by Adrienne Krey. It knits up pretty quickly and looks awesome. I don't want to take it off the dummy because it looks so good. it's a shame it doesn't suit me.

I also made up some chocolate sugar scrub for bath sets that I have made for a few people. Yesterday I finished a reusable lunch set with leopard print sandwich wrap and snack bag, very glam.

Well hopefully next week I will be able to announce tat all of the Christmas craft is done *fingers crossed*

The end is not in sight

I'm starting to feel the pressure of the Christmas crafting. I think following Santa on twitter was not a good idea as he counts down the days to Christmas like he is taunting me. I still feel like I have so much to do, hopefully I can get a few things ticked off the list in the next week. I'm still working on the socks for my brother which I hope to get done tonight.

I finished knitting a cowl for a secret santa gift in work. The person I made this for looks really good in blue so I hope they like it. It was curling lots while a was knitting so I crocheted an edging but it still curled but thankfully after blocking it is nice and flat now.

So with all of this crafting for other people at the moment I have not had much time to make stuff for myself so instead I have been keeping a creative journal.

I have combined two journals that I had made to make one super journal. The cover is crocheted from banana silk, it has the most amazing sheen and is very soft and strong.

I've been having lots of fun doing what the hell  want on each page. It's so much more fun than just writing about what you have done each day, it's more like playing than journaling.

The Christmas Craft Continues

Hello friends,

Well it's been very busy recently and shows no sign of slowing but at least there has been some progress.
I have finished some chunky knitted bags which turned out very well. My favorite is this striped one as it was a stash busting project and the stripes look pretty cool and makes me want to make other striped things.

I've also been knitting socks for the men folk in the family. Though for some stupid reason I have ended making socks for the men with the biggest feet, Sigh! Thankfully I have found a pattern that is very quick to knit. This pattern from corn flower blue studio uses aran/10ply yarn and as they are ankle socks they really don't take much time at all. They are a bit big for me but you get the idea.

Today I have been working with the sewing machine making presents for the kids. I love making crayon rolls. They are so easy and kids really love them. I have adapted this pattern from The Pleated Poppy to make it fit the chubby pencils I got. Despite falling out with the sewing machine over tension issues I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Well I hope you are enjoying the Christmas craft updates,

TTFN

Back on Track

Hello Friends,

Well the Christmas crafting is back on track now, but I still feel like I'm not doing enough, Sigh, I guess I'll feel better once I know it's all done. So this week I have been working on presents for my nieces.

These tutus are going to go down a storm. I made them by sewing some elastic together then tying strips of netting to the elastic, I ended up using 2 meters of netting per tutu and I like being able to change colour to make them more fun. I posted a picture n twitter and some of my friends have fallen in love with them so I may have to make some adult sizes soon.

And to match the tutus the girls are getting a crocheted crown each. I love this pattern for the princess crown. it turned out so well I am tempted to make one for myself

Well it's a short one this week but i hope you enjoy my crafty updates :) see you next week