Christmas Recycling

Dad spotted this in today's Eastern Daily Press - many a true word is spoken in jest!

My first and second hats

It's been a bit quiet here on Stitchin' Bints! In my case, that's because I turned my attention away from the fishnets (which, in turn, had distracted me from the Shapely Tee) in order to start two hats. I couldn't post because they were to be a surprise for my Mum and Sister. The pattern is Asminah's Hat from Kody May. (Now listed in the 'free patterns' to the right.) It looked effective and doable within the few weeks that I had. The wool is absolutely beautiful - Allegra from Wendy - a fluffy alpaca mix.

The hat is knitted in the round from aperture up. You're supposed to start knitting the lace pattern, then pick up stitches and crochet the lower border. Instead I started by knitting a few rounds of garter stitch and just continued up. This worked very well, and the resulting hats look the same size and shape as the pictures in the pattern. They both looked a bit small, though when tried on, so I'm adding some rows to both.

Belts, bags and bellies (or, thank god its finished at long last).

At long last I've finished the glitter belt, well it was done a couple of weeks ago now, but I've been waiting to get a picture of me in it (O.k so its Helen not me and as it turned out I needn't have made it quite so long as half of it was tucked down the back of her trousers to make it look right!)
I have picked out a few of Helen's ceramic buttons to embellish the bag and double wool belt, which I think set them off nicely. We seem to be having a bit of a run on buttons on the blogg with Robyn's last entry. Helen tells me she is about to show you all the buttons she has made recently. They are quite lovely.

A Little Something Extra

I have finished another project, a wrap very similar to the green one I knitted awhile ago only twice as long at least and striped in two shades of purple. I can't post a full picture of it because it will be a Christmas gift, and I wouldn't want the recipient to see it before hand.

I can show some embellishment, though. Inspired by a table runner that decorates my dining table, I added silk flowers, beads, and shell buttons in various sizes and shapes in four different random spots. Seriously, I was having dinner one evening and thought something similar would look nice on the wrap. What do you think?