I've had this wonderfully soft thick-and-thin yarn in my stash for ages now, and I hadn't thought of anything cool to do with it, but since it's really, really cold right now, I thought it was time I made myself a cowl.





I didn't use a pattern for this. I just used a large hook and the woven crochet stitch, and made a large rectangle. I didn't make an actual buttonhole either, the gaps in this are large enough for the button to comfortably slip through. I really like how warm and soft this is, and how it can look different depending on where I button it.

As always, more pictures on my blog.

I finished this project during the holidays, as the title implies, but I've been once again procrastinating and just now got around to posting about it. Christmas might be over, but that doesn't mean we can't still enjoy a nice holiday project



I spent all of December watching the Yogscast charity livestreams (any Yogscast fans out there?), and everyone kept wearing these adorable Christmas tree hats. I loved them so much that I couldn't resist trying to knit one for my very own.



I completely improvised the pattern, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm thinking about maybe writing it up, but it's still a while until next Christmas, so we'll see. What do you guys think?

As always, a bit more info and photos on my blog.

I had my birthday last week, and since the weather's thankfully getting cold enough for hats, I thought I'd make this as a birthday present to myself





The pattern I used is this one. I did the teen/adult size, which ended up being a little big for me (or maybe I just like my hats a little snug, I don't know). I also made a few modifications to the pattern. I'm really pleased with how it came out! I always wanted a hat with earflaps!

A bit more info on this project can be found on my blog.

Kourtney - haha, it's okay, sounds like you have good reason to be a bit distracted Yep, I just used the acrylic paint on the fabric, no stabiliser or anything. Here is a (not very good) picture of what it looks like after a few washings:



bethimusprime - I haven't tried anything other than the acrylic paint. I did start using fabric paint on the very first ones I did, but the color wouldn't show on black fabric, and it looked like it'd need two bottles of paint in the end, so I immediately moved on to acrylic, and with these I didn't even bother trying the fabric paint. If you have a light-colored fabric or dark paint, though, I'm pretty sure fabric paint would be better and more long-lasting.

I've been rewatching Batman Beyond, plus I just bought some plain undies, so I was inspired to stencil some of them, since my previous Batman panties are my absolute favourite and always put me in a better mood when I wear them.



And so, Nightwing and Batman Beyond-style undies were created \o/



I used acrylic paints, since those worked really well the last time - they get a little faded and grungy when washed a few times, and I love the effect. The Nightwing ones went without a hitch and were finished in twenty minutes flat, the other ones were a bit of a problem because it took a million layers for the color to show properly, and that creates a bit of a problem when lifting the cardboard stencil. But they turned out all right in the end, and now I have kickass panties!

The past few months have been really busy, as summer always is, what with exams and me starting to work on my thesis. So I haven't been crafting much, but I saw this link on Pinterest (as you do), and I just HAD to do something similar. I've been meaning to update my bedroom furniture for a while now, so I picked my night table to experiment on.



I used a completely different kind of sheet music for each drawer - pages from a hymnal that I got in a Craftster swap with the wonderful malmow, sheet music that I got from another swap with Sajona, and a couple pages from an old solfege book from my music-learning days.



I dismantled the drawers of my night table, then I tore up the sides of the pages and crumpled them up a little, glued them on the drawers, and when they dried, I used watercolors to make the pages look even more aged and yellowed.



Here is a close-up of the middle drawer, made with the pages from the hymnal.

I made this little guy for my friend's birthday that was a couple weeks ago. He uses this picture A LOT as his avatar:



so I thought I'd go about recreating it in reality. (I'm sorry that I have no credit for this icon, if you've made it or know who has, please let me know!) The first thing I got excited about knitting the little scarf (which is ironic because it ended up being the thing I hated making the most), and I contemplated various ways of making the body and violin. I was all prepared to make it all out of clay, but then it hit me. Paper mache!



I used newspaper and painter's tape for the basic silhouette, which took about three hours overall while I rewatched the Sound of Music with a friend, then I put on about four layers of PVA glue mixed with water, and paper towels, which took about three days to allow for drying time. I used pipe cleaners for the fingers and the violin's bow.



Why hello there. The little coat is hand-sewn using felt. The violin's strings are fishing line. I used gouache to paint and shade him, and then glazed him. I was a little nervous, because I had never shaded a 3D object before, but it turned out alright.



The little scarf was so tedious, and I ended up being frustrated and having loose ends poking all over the place because there were so many of them and I just had no patience. So the scarf is a little bit crap, but shhh, don't look too closely at it.



Overall, I think this entire thing took about... thirty hours of work, maybe, not counting waiting time. But it was worth it, and it was one of the most fun projects I've worked on in a while!

There are more pictures and more rambling about this project on my blog, check it out if you can handle a LOT of rambling indeed

I recently saw this blog post by Kira of Her New Leaf, and I was incredibly inspired. So I got some washi tape (amazing stuff, by the way, I'm in love) and decorated my own keyboard.





I didn't do all of the keys of mine, or use as many colors, but I like how subtle and clean it is.

It's the middle of my exam period right now, which, for me, is always an extremely productive time because I'm always looking for an excuse to not study >.> Combine that with the fact that my crafting space is a total mess, and my yarn stash especially was getting completely out of hand, and you have the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at sewing a basket.



I had some Ikea fabric lying around that I got a few years back (that doesn't seem to end, which is good because it's gorgeous, but I've seriously made so many things with it, I swear it multiplies or breeds or something because I recall only buying one yard of it) and I used a pillowcase for the lining (as one does, if one is me and has no fabric stash whatsoever).

I loved it so much, and it was so perfect for my yarn, that I made another one to keep the WIPs that are normally just strewn all over my desk.



More Ikea fabric. Ikea has the best fabric for these things, pretty and sturdy and fairly cheap. I also used interfacing for this one, and I love the results.

But I just couldn't stop! I had to keep making baskets! I love them so much that I want to make a hundred and keep all my things in them and possibly sleep in them too >.> So yesterday I made this one too, in a slightly different style:



This one has a piece of cork sheet inserted at the bottom between the lining and the shell so it's sturdier, but I wish I had used interfacing with this one too. I didn't have a specific use in mind for it, so for now I'm just keeping my fabrics in it (and yes, this is my entire fabric stash, told you it was pitiful).



I mostly did my own thing with them, but I was extremely inspired by this brilliant tutorial, as well as this one and this one.

There are a couple more pictures over at my blog, along with, as always, a lot of babbling about both my crafting and thought process

I had some yarn left over from the entrelac scarf I made, and I really wanted to make myself a warmer pair of gloves for me. I'd seen the awesome waffle stitch gloves pattern posted here on Craftster, so I decided to make those.





As you can see, I fiddled a lot with the pattern. I made the gloves smaller than the pattern said, because I have tiny hands, and I like my gloves on the tight side on top of that, and I added a thumb gusset. Overall, they were a very quick, easy project, and I absolutely love them. They needed surprisingly little yarn too.