W.I.P. Wednesday

Lots to share, so I’ll just get to it.

Now that these gifts are safely in the hands of their new owners… two tag blankets and matching newborn hats that I finished up last week. I just love these blankets. They are uncomplicated to make and the colors are fun. The hat is made from a pattern I drafted myself. I made several of these hats for Ember and she used them from birth until about 3.5 months. They are the only hats I could get to actually stay on her.

And from this week:

Another recycled wool glass straw cozy. I gave my mom one of my straws and of course she had to have a cozy for it. I love the sophisticated colors of this one. Her favorite colors are black, white and red. The snap was also a nice improvement to my pattern I think.

New slippers for me! Yipee. It is starting to get cooler here which means our floors are already freezing since we don’t have carpet. My feet are ALWAYS cold, so slippers are a must. I needed some new ones for this winter so I made these from the Sewing Green pattern. They are not quite done. I am going to add a decorative blanket stitch around the seams when I get a chance. They are made from recycled wool and recycled leather.

A new dish mat. After seeing Heather’s here, I knew I needed one too. We don’t use a drying rack because our sink is positioned at an angle and the rack wouldn’t be able to drain into the sink. So, I have always just used any old towel under the dishes. This is sooo much cuter. I love it. The only problem is that I need a second one to use while this is in the wash.This is made from an old towel we already owned and a thrifted 100% cotton shower curtain.

Some new flannel pants for Kage. I pulled out all his winter clothes and realize that not only are most of his pants too short on him, but he doesn’t have any comfy lounge pants. Since I am enjoying my new pants so much I decided to make him a pair too. These are made from a pair of thrifted mens flannel p.j.s. The pattern I drafted myself using a pair of pants that currently fits him. You might recognize these from yesterday’s post. I finished them while he was sleeping and of course had to put them on him as soon as he woke up.

I have two neices who have birthdays at the end of the month. For my niece turning six, I am making a quilted pencil roll case. Here is the fabric all washed and ready to cut. I love the rainbow colors here.

And finally, the felted balls for Ember. Here is what they looked like after the first wash.

Next, I took the scrap yarn and started wrapping. Don’t worry if some of the strands are sticking out. They will all get felted in the wash. I used scraps that were as short as two inches long. I would just add a few short strands and then wrap a long strand around them to hold them on to the ball.

Once they are wrapped, toss them into an old nylon stocking and separate them by tying with a piece of non-wool yarn.

Once they have been washed and dried one time, they will be felted enough that you can cut them out of the nylon and just toss them in with the rest of the clothes if you would like to felt them more.

There isn’t a whole lot you can do with such short bits of yarn, but I couldn’t bear to throw out any of the beautiful yarn I have used to make the kids longies and shorties. These felted balls are a great way to use up those tiny scraps. I tried to make them small enough that her little hands will be able to grasp them.

There are a few more projects I am working on, but they are all gifts for Yule and since my family does check out my blog I won’t be able to post about them until after the holidays. I guess I will just have to have a big, post-holiday share.