Book of the Week: Jean Greenhowe Christmas Special

Happy Friday everyone!!! Hope you are all well. Today I am definitely feeling that getting out of bed is grossly overrated. So I'm going festive in a bid to cheer me up!! I am sure some of you will moan about the fact that I am about to review a Christmas book, but for all of you who, like me, love Christmas and also really want to knit a nativity then you will probably want to start early. I started mine around this time of the year, and it was finished and ready for Christmas. If you are bah humbug, then fine!!!

The book has 16 patterns, but  there are much more than that because the nativity has many parts, as has many of the others. I have knit so many patterns from this book, and I love all of them. There are a few of the patterns below that I have knit, and they are all so cute. I love the basic patterns that Jean Greenhowe creates that can be customised. The stockings below really show this customisation. I have added a pocket to each of them, and used the little dolls from the book for each one too. The Blattman's stocking is the really cute Tardis one and has a K-9 in the pocket.

Another favourite has to be the nativity- I just love it so much, and it is sure to be a family heirloom as well as one of my favourite patterns.

This is a great book for all you christmas lovers out there, and want to decorate your house with knits, as well as gift a lot too. Other patterns include the last minute dolls that I've put in the stockings, a bear and reindeer, a large Santa and Mrs Claus, Robins and a Cinderella topsy turvy doll. There are also tea cosies and tree decorations. I love this book so much and cannot recommend it enough. Imagine all the fun you can have knitting for yourself and your family.

Happy Christmas!!!

So this is Christmas!!!! Well its Christmas Eve anyway, and this post, as I am sure there are many others around the web, is to say thankyou to all my followers and my readers this season and a very Happy Christmas to you all!! Relax and enjoy, and keep those fingers crossed that they like all the things I have spent all year knitting!!

Happy Christmas from

Christmas Fairies

I have successfully finished my christmas list. They are all knitted, blocked, stuffed and sewn and ready to be shipped around the country at this very festive time. Father Christmas will be very happy with me, I met all my targets! Now comes that wonderful time of the year when there is 12 months till the big day and I have no list to hang over me needing to be knit.

I have spent lots of time this week browsing all those patterns trying to make me procrastinate. And happily knitting away and not worrying that it is 2 days to go, the mince pies need to be baked and I cant find the sellotape. This week I have found a wonderful website full of lovely patterns and I wanted to share it with you.

The Flutterby Patch is a wonderful Blog by a fellow Brit, with some amazing patterns both bought and free. This week I have knit the topsy turvey doll (which is so perfect for new knitters and works amazingly- I am so so pleased) which is two dolls in one, and if you have ever seen Jean Greenhowe's cinderella topsy turvey doll but dont want to do ALL that knitting, please knit this one, so so cute and perfect size.
I have also knit the snowman and a sheep this week too, but my favourite pattern so far has to be the Autumn Fairy, so much so that I started knitting these yesterday, and there are now four little ladies in my living room

So visit the Flutterby Patch, read the most wonderful stories, be inspired and knit away to your hearts content!!
Sleigh safe everyone- only three more sleeps!!

Mini Hot Water Bottle Pattern

These little Hot Water Bottle covers are brilliant for lots of different things. Firstly, they make a really fun little decoration alond with the mini mittens and sweaters of the season. Secondly, they fit those little mini hot water bottles that you can get that you click and heat your hands up. In my version, I made little mini rice bags that go inside. Basically, cut two small squares of fabric. Sew together on three sides, leaving one side open. Fill will dry uncooked rice. Sew up the fourth side. These can then be microwaved in 10 second bursts until snuggly and warm. Put inside the cosy and you are done!

They take small amounts of DK yarn, whatever you have left over, and I can knit one in less than 30 minutes.

 You will need:
Small amounts of DK yarn
3.75mm needles
Tapestry needle

Tension isn't important for this project.

Abbreviations
sts- Stitchs
K- Knit
P-Purl
K2tog- knit two stitches together
P2tog- Purl 2 stitches together
Kfb- knit into the front and the back of the stitch
Pfb- Purl into the front and the back of the stitch
St St- stocking stitch

Cast on 20 sts
Row 1: Purl
Row 2: K4, (kfb) twice, K8, (Kfb) twice, K4
Row 3: P5, (pfb) twice, P10, (pfb) twice, P5
Starting with a K row, st st  22 rows
Next Row: K5, (K2tog) twice, K10, (K2tog) twice, K5
Next Row: P4, (P2tog) twice, P8, (P2tog) twice, P4

Next Row: (K2,P2) to end
Repeat the last row 5 more times (6 rows of Rib in total)
Cast off in Rib.

Sew the side seam at the centre back, and sew the bottom up. The seam should be up the centre at the back of the work
Fill with stuffing, pot pourri, rice bag, mini hot water bottle, in fact anything you like. Ive knit quite a few of these now, in all sorts of colours, even a fair isle version. Let your imagination go wild and go for it



Guess who's coming to town?

Thats right, Father Christmas of course!!! Well he is as you can imagine pretty busy this time of year, so he has to employ a lot of elves to give him a hand. I just happen to be one of those elves. To be honest, the pay is rubbish and there is no health insurance or pension to speak of, but as they say, I dont do it for the money! It is this time of year I am knitting away like a demon to finish off all those orders and wrapping and writing like a mad woman to get it all done! But I can safely say, as of yesterday afternoon I am done. Now I am a bit of a procrastinating elf rather than a get it all done with a smug smile by November elf. I have in fact procrastinated so much I wrote a whole new pattern just to prevent me knitting up the things that needed knitting!! But I have sat down these last two days to finish.

This pesky little sponge was the last thing I had to knit. As always, he was easier than I had imagined to finish, and with the help of felt and the Blattman, he was finished up, and even if I do say so myself, he actually looks like Spongebob. All together now... He lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea....

Deck the Halls

So we have already made the Blog a little more Christmassy by this spangly new background, but the Bricks and Mortar Blattcave takes a little longer. We normally decorate early December, and then bits and pieces get added over the month in our advent parcels, our family and us picking bits up as we go along. So here are the festive highlights from our house to yours.

 This beautiful nativity was bought for us by my Granny when we went to the Friars in Aylesford for their christmas fair. It was a lovely day, and they had a huge animatronic polar bear that walked and growled and responded to the audience. Granny thought it was real, in fact she still does. Bless. We put a candle in front of this and the light from the candle makes it even more magical!

Another Granny buy, again from the Christmas Fair. She said it reminded her of us! They are actually sparkly too and textured and they sit under our TV with the light up nativity from before.

This is our first nativity we bought together. It is actually a candle holder too, and all the cutouts behind the holy family light up when the candle is lit inside. Next to it is also one of my favourite Christmas cards from this season, from Fr Brian, and it is just so lovely it got upgraded from the card holder to the side!!

These are my special cards. The big one at the front is from my lovely Mum and StepDad who always buy such lovely cards. The Snowman was a present for the Blattman from me, and he loves him!! He is a bit in the way of the lovely card the BlattGrandparents bought us this year, but he isnt in real life in the way. Also, one of our Christmas traditions is that the Blattman always buys me a poinsettia, and I never know when he is going to buy it, it is always a surprise.

Here is our lovely Christmas tree!! It is black with white lights, and has only our special christmas decorations on, ones we have picked up or people have bought us. The knitted nativity sits underneath, along with a totally awesome glittery blue camel!!!

This has to be my favourite bauble. We bought it in Florida on our honeymoon back in 2009 and it is so beautiful. It has pride of place on our tree, right at the front, as well as the picture being my phone screensaver this time of year, along with Cliff as a ringtone. What more can you want!!

Sleigh safe everyone during this very special time of year, and many christmas wishes to you all. Coming very soon (hopefully this afternoon) is a brand new quick gift pattern too made in about half an hour- great last minute idea.

O Holy Night

Now one thing my house would not be complete without at Christmas is my nativity collection. I call it a collection now because I have so many and every year we buy a new little one. We have a T light holder one, we have a beautiful wooden one and a little olive wood one made in the Holy Land. And of course, how could I forget my first knitted one? (and my Husband, who I forgot was faffing about at the back of this one!!!)

This year, we decided to buy another from the Aylesford Priory. We had our eye on a small porcelain one that had sold out by the time we got there. But never fear, this one caught our eye. When I got to it, and saw how lovely it was, I was surprised to find a switch on the back. It lit up. Frankly it was coming home anyway but that sold it even more. It had to be ours!! Here is is. I love it so much.

 And for all of you waiting with baited breath for this pattern, here is a sneak peek of the newest pattern from the Blattcave, available on Ravelry soon. I am so pleased with how it has turned out. The photo is rubbish, I know, but its a secret sneak peek so you shouldnt expect david bailey!!

Let me know what you think of the new nativity!!

Holidays are Coming

I have been pretty quiet of late, and this is because I have a project on the go. Not just a small daily project like normal, and not a project with a pattern I have found myself. This time it is my own pattern. All my own, from the deep recesses of the brain, and it is pretty epic, even if I do say so myself. And, it is nearly finished, all bar a couple of animals. I promise the pattern will be here soon, so watch this space and get those needles at the ready!

Ive also been knitting stockings. Lots of stockings. So here is a picture of my latest advent that I have knit, and I am really pleased with it, and never knitting another one. I have knit so many of these stockings that I have finally had enough.

It is also nearly Halloween!! Last year (and this year) I made some great decorations for christmas using card and recycled carrier bags. So this year, I decided to branch out into halloween versions as well. These Boo signs below are made from Sainsbury's Orange carrier bags and some leftover cardboard. They are great decorations and I love them.

Take care everyone, and keep knitting!!!

Needles and Books

After a great trip up to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, I was lucky to get some brilliant books and patterns, and this inspired me to share some of these with all of you, as well as some of my favourtie books already in my bookcase. Knitting is one of the biggest parts of my life, I love to share my knits with my family and friends all over the world and it has brought me endless hours of fun and peace and destressing.So here are my hot picks for the christmas list of any knitter.

Now most of you probably know me as a toy knitter, and that would be accurate. I love to knit toys, and create a character every time, from my little frogs to the biggest Ark!! So at the show, I couldnt resist this book of Dinosaurs.

Tina Barrett has created this brilliant collection of fun dinosaurs to knit. They are all knit flat too and are so fun and cute. Each dinosaur comes with facts too so the book is great to use with children, learning about their dinosaurs. The first ones I have knit will also be off to Year 2, with special cards so they can learn all about their new friends. I love this book, great pictures and very easy to follow and knit patterns. I even learnt something new about jointing toys from this book.

I personally cannot live without Jean Greenhowe, and I know many toy knitters feel the same. She has been designing for many years, and toys from my childhood were knit from her patterns, and now I am knitting those same patterns. I love the christmas ones, especially this one as I have knitted the nativity from this one.

I have nearly all the books she has published, and her website is a great resource too, with some brilliant free patterns to get you started.

The 'twenty to make' series of books from Search Press are a brilliant series of craft books from all over the crafting world, including sugarcraft, papercraft, crochet and knitting of course, sewing and jewellery making. I have a few of these books and I love them. My favourites include the christmas knitting and knitted flowers, but there are so many to choose from, baby booties, egg cosies, mug cosies, aliens, food, cake and many more.

So here are just a few of my favourite books for knitting, and ones refer to for a lot of my toy knitting needs. They have taught me so much along with the amazing Ravelry so I am forever in debt!!!

Shawl we dance?

Here in the Blattcave, as I am sure you can see, we like to get ahead on our christmas knitting. I am also stash busting, so what can you do with all those odd balls left over from projects and those that were just too much of a bargain to miss out on? Well if you are here, you make shawls/shrugs/scarves with them. With the help of Ravelry of course this is so blooming easy. I have now knit 8 of them, and the mass shawl-a-thon doesnt seem to be stopping any time soon!  So here we go, ill show you what Ive been working on, with the pattern links so you can shawl along with me!!! Here are 6 of the 8, as the shrug im knitting Falling Leaves, still needs to be sewn up and the last Gedifra Samina Impossibly big needs casting off.

Number 1: Lace Triangle Scarf- knit in Tivoli Ocean I got on holiday in Shropshire in February in colour number 164 (i think) Beautiful wool yarn and so so pretty colourway

Number 2: Snap Knit in another yarn I bought in Shropshire. It is white, and has glitter running through it. It is called Pearl. Looks fab now I have blocked it

Number 3: A Chinook Scarf, knit in a yarn I bought in Wilkinsons for £1 a ball. (this is a normal line not on offer and so good to knit with) I think it is called Stripes. The pattern is amazing, the straight edge is an I-cord knit into the pattern and then the other side is a lovely lace edge. loved this pattern so much!!

Number 4: This is a Lacy Baktus, made in Sirdar Juicy in orange (which was on sale in Hobbycraft-this particular yarn was a leftover from my mum when she made a top). this is a great pattern if you have a couple of balls of yarn because you increase for one ball then decrease for the second which makes sure you use up all those old balls but also creates a fab scarf/shawl

These last two are called impossible large, impossibly easy- and i promise this is exactly right. Although the pattern calls for 10mm needles, I chose 7mm circulars (and my first time on circulars and Im converted) and created these amazing shawls. So good and so pretty, and im about to finish my third of these and probably cast on the fourth!!
This blue one is made from some yarn from the Roof, ie my grannys loft. It is a beautiful wool with a gold thread running through which makes it shine.

This white one is made from Picasso. As you can see it is white, but actually has shades of colour in the stripes. It is so pretty and so soft, which probably comes down to the fact that it is baby wool. I love it so so much and it reminds me of a pretty crystal rainbow.

So thats what Ive been up to!!!