One for Me, One for You

It feels like someone, somewhere has hit the switch to turn on the cold weather. All of a sudden the days are terribly short and the sun seems to really struggle to get high in the sky. Without warning I have had to swap my light waterproof jacket for a warm woollen coat and I find myself wanting to spend more time indoors than out. Winter is well and truly here and having some of my favourite home-made chocolate treats, Tiffin slice, is becoming a must!

It is not all bad news though, as I have also taken all of my blankets out of their boxes for us to snuggle under. It makes me so happy to see all of their happy colours spread around the house, and to wrap myself in the soft woolliness of them when the evenings draw in and the cold nips at my toes. Little T is also slowly starting to come round to liking blankets. He has never really liked being covered with anything while he sleeps and still prefers to have just a light cover over him, but he does like to play with the blankets very much.

I love my blankets a little bit too much to have them dragged along the floor, have toy cars driving along their stripes and sticky hands grabbing at them all day. This is why I decided to make Little T his very own blankie. I still had a fair amount of yarn left over from our big rainbow blanket and just got a few more balls of darker colours from my local yarn shop to fill in the gaps.

I went with a granny stripe as it is so quick to make, requires very little concentration or counting and feels like the perfect blanket for a toddler to play on. I also did a bit of interlocking colour work to make it that little bit more bright and colourful.

As always, the border was the hardest part for me. After quite some frustration and several failed attempts, I finally worked up something that I am very happy with :)

While I am on the subject of putting left over yarn to good use, I thought I will finally share my little owl bag with you. While my mum was here, I asked her to help me make a tote bag from some of the great unbleached cotton fabric I had found in a local haberdashery. With her being an expert at using a sewing machine, it was a matter of minutes to finish the bag itself. Next came the fun bit...

Using the left over cotton yarn from the African Flower blanket, I crocheted first one, then a second little owl to decorate the bag. I didn't use any particular pattern, I just made it up as I went along, and if I may say so myself, I am quite proud of these two little guys :)

I made some of Lucy's little hearts to give them a place to perch, sewing them on with cute little wooden buttons and added the final flourish of colour by crocheting some stripy straps and attaching them with big, bold buttons.

I do love this bag for being so cute and for the fact that I made it with my mum, but knowing that it used up all of the little scraps of yarn that I just didn't have the heart to throw away, makes me love this bag even more. It is a very happy bag, perfect for keeping those Winter Blues at bay :)