Just add a bit of thread and some fabric (and a little direction from a sewing book) and you can turn those into these.


Six nifty little bean bags perfect for a magician learning to juggle.

These were fun to make up. They are quite small so they go quickly and the construction is so weird that you just sort of have to trust that it will turn out. I found the instructions in The Classic Quilting of Sashiko. The shapes are a kind of twisted cube made up of four little rectangles. The directions say to sew with a machine but I thought that would be too fiddly and did them by hand; the three dimensional shape is made by sewing straight lines to square corners. I was really happy to be using the black fabric; I've had it for ages but never quite found the right project for it. What could be better than something for a magician.

Happy birthday Dad.

Pattern: Zara from The Bigger Picture by Rowan
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool
Size: 34 inch
Yardage: 5 skeins
Needles: 8 mm and 12 mm wooden straights

This yarn is so cozy. The big needles can be a bit cumbersome but the yarn is so fat and squashy it totally makes up for it. This pattern was easy to follow and quick to do. The seaming up takes a bit of time but I think it gives the sweater some much needed stability; the thick, bulky yarn produces a rather heavy sweater that I think would quickly stretch out of shape if done in the round.

My sweater is also very cozy. Even with my neck and shoulders completely bare I feel nice and warm. Like most off-the-shoulder sweaters this one wants to ride-up but it isn't too bad and I expect it will relax a bit after a few more wears. Unfortunately the collar (my favourite feature of the sweater) means that it doesn't fit under a coat very well so I probably wont be wearing it out until it is warm enough to get away with not wearing my coat.

What is it?


The Coloured Pencil Roll from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts made for Jessica who's birthday is just before mine. This project was so much fun to put together (except for some of the quilting where my machine didn't want to co-operate). I spend almost a whole evening last week matching coloured pencils to fabrics from my stash. I made sure there would be a few Jessica would recognize too. I like the contrast between the slightly nubbly wool blend that makes the outside and the pocket and the very smooth colourful quilting cottons that make the rainbow. In order to make sure I kept the fabrics in the right order as I was sewing I took a picture and kept it open on my computer screen as I was working - every time I was unsure about a pair I just glanced at my screen.