Here's my package from Vanessa_Nichole - I was very spoilt!!

A hand-embroidered calico bag which contained the yarn ball:


Here's the yarn ball, a couple of extra goodies and a post card:


The pattern is KnitPicks cathedral purse, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Andes, an alpaca/silk blend in a beautiful purple - it is so soft - I love it! In the photo: 3 buttons, 2 sets of labels ('handmade by _____' and 'made with love by ______'), a yarn needle, gorgeous embroidery scissors, and 2 sets of mandmade beaded stitch markers:


A close up of one of each of the stitch markers (they are so cute ):


Then, after I'd unwrapped the rest, a set of needle protectors for dpns, a purse by vanessa (it's really lovely fabric, with satin lining in a rich yellow), a set of wooden dpns (falling out of the photo), coffee, Amaretto hot chocolate, tissues, a little tin with a mini sewing set and a mini-iron:

The tin has the Opera House on it, which is very cool cause I grew up in Sydney and I couldn't take a picture of the mini sewing set inside cause my camera couldn't focus, it was so small. 

The iron was a bit hard to see, so here is another pic - see how tiny it is! 


Thanks so much vanessa_nichole - everything is so great. I wish my photos were better and did it all justice!

I made this last weekend for my workmates (we were wrapping our teapot in a teatowel to keep it hot, and I decided enough was enough).



It's using half a ball of wool from my stash and a scrap of ribbon I had left over from a gift. I made up two halves, basically rectangles, with just a little bit of shaping at the top, then sewed it together, picked up stitches around the side openings and knitted a few rows of rib, and added a button opening at one side, so it can be adjusted to fit another teapot in the future.

This scarf is the first of my christmas gift knits. The pattern used was the Annis shawl from Knitty (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEss10/PATTannis.php), but I only had one skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock, so I had to modify it to be more of a scarf than a shawl.

This was the first time I've used Noro yarn cause it's so expensive, but I loved working with it.

Finished:


Finished, draped over the back of the sofa:


Work in progress (the pattern starts with the lace, then uses short rows of stockinette stitch to create the curved shape:

After a friend and I shared an obsession with Paul, the psychic octopus who successfully predicted all of Germany's matches in the World Cup and the final, i decided to knit her an octopus of her own. The pattern came from a book, Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh, and it was so great I can't wait to knit more of her patterns. The octopus' legs have pipe cleaners inside them so that they can be twisted however you want.

A while back our microwave died, so this winter I've had to go back to a hot water bottle instead of a wheat bag. Perfect chance for a very quick project - It is a really simple design, using some leftover Cleckheaton vintage hues yarn, big needles (7mm I think) and only took a bit under two hours. I made it just a little two short, so there are 3 rounds of crochet around the top.



Close up of the crochet at the top:

I made this a while back, most of the fabric is from some fat quarters I picked up on special, but I decided to use a triangle of japanese silk ( I think it's actually a silk/synthetic blend) which came from my grandmother's stash box. I added the embroidery after a workmate told me about sashiko embroidery.

It's a really simple construction, but I'm happy with it.