I decided to look through a few old photos, and found one of me and my sister. In this photograph we are at the bottom of our garden, and I am the rather podgy one who has been squeezed into a doll's pram. I am not sure the pram can have survived much longer. I think this was when we lived in Birmingham, although she has a much better memory of this time than me.
My daughter has a bit of a craze on giraffes. Hence the giraffe onesie and numerous other giraffe stuff. So I thought you might like to see this giraffe that she has made. The giraffe is made from corks (can't think how those got into the house!), a drawing pin, glue and a marker pen. You also need a craft knife to cut the cork, and wire cutters to cut the wire. So this giraffe although very simple to make would need an adult to supervise. As she is old enough to do these things herself, and I had no hand in the giraffe-making, I am going to hand over to her to explain how to make a Corky Giraffe.
Step 1. First, I went and used a knife in the kitchen to cut a cork into pieces for the feet, head, horns and ears (you should ask someone to help you or you may get into trouble). Also keep one whole cork for the body.
Step 2. Then I got some thick black wire and cut four bits the same length and one longer one. Step 3. Using pointed pliers, I made holes and put the wire in them to make my basic giraffe. To make sure the wire stayed in place I put some glue on it. Step 4. To make the face I put a drawing pin in him to be a nose - I let it not go the whole way in so it sticks out a bit. And stuck the horns and ears on. Step 5. Then I used a sharpie to draw on the eyes and a tiny mouth. Step 6. I let him dry for a few hours and then he was done!
I think I mentioned that I was going a bit baby shoe crazy. Here is a second shoe design. I have been dithering about a name, as it would be nice to come up with something northern like my Tundra Shoe pattern. Everything I think of seems to have been already used. For now it is the Wrap Over Baby Shoe, but if I would welcome any better suggestions.
This time my pattern comes with two sizes (newborn-3 months and 3-6 months). Once again I have tried to keep the knitting simple. The shoes are made with doubleknit wool, and I think the simple shape just emphasises the loveliness of the wool.
There are only two pieces to knit, and once again the shaping of the top piece uses short rows. You can see my tutorial for this technique here.
I have tried to find fluffy doubleknit wools for my samples. I think this gives them such a cosy look, as if they are felted. The brown shoes below have alpaca in the wool, so are lovely and soft.
Some of these shoes are going to be gifts, though I have now put a few for sale in my Etsy Shop.
If you do make some of these I think that it is really important to find some lovely buttons. The button flap is functional, so you can really easily put the babies feet in. I wanted my buttons to look natural, so opted for wood or mother of pearl. What I really wanted to find was a tiny wooden toggle, but as yet could only find really enormous ones which just looked ridiculous.
So baby shoes are done for now, and I may finally have reached that time when I face a baby garment!
We went for a countryside walk on Bank Holiday Monday, partly because I wanted to take a stroll through a bluebell wood. You really have to catch the right time to do this. But one of the other flowers that we saw a lot of were stitchwort. Stitchwort is such an unassuming but pretty little flower.
I decided to have a go at knitting an adult sized version of my Baby Tundra Shoes. This was great fun, although harder than I imagined. Adult feet are not the same shape at all as baby feet, much longer and thinner. I worked with both shoes on the needle at the same time, which was rather fun.
Although I have jotted down what I did, I am not going to publish this as a pattern at the moment. One reason is I have no idea what this wool is. It was given to me as part of someone's stash that they no longer wanted. It is really, really thick. I have no idea if anything similar is available. So I may be off to my local wool shop to study the chunky wools.
My family think the shoes are extremely funny, and although I know they are not at all elegant, I do think they would be lovely to wear on a cold winter night. I have them in mind as a gift for someone who I know hates to have cold feet.
It has been quite a while since I have made one of my tiny icon dolls. Perhaps you remember Audrey, Marilyn and Lady Gaga. What made me think of Paloma Faith (apart from the fact I just think she is brilliant) was when I saw a photo of her in a wonderful cherry hat, which also reminded me of my Cherry Fairies.
So here is tiny Paloma wearing her Piers Atkinson cherry hat. What I love about Paloma's style is that her vintage look is so elegant, but she is also not afraid to wear some really whacky outfits, and completely change her look.
Unlike the other tiny icons I couldn't pick one outfit that sums her up. I had decided to make a 1950s style dress, but then I found the photo of her below in a beautiful blue (knitted!!) dress. I had to try to make a little version of this dress.
So my little knitted Paloma is a bit of a mix up, but I hope I have captured the essence of her.
Has Paloma made it in the States? If you don't know who she is check out Youtube. You are in for a treat.
P.S. I had lots of visitors to my blog this week, mostly from South Africa. To my Tundra Baby Shoe post. I can't quite work out if I have been featured somewhere, so I would be very grateful if anyone could let me know.
