Back pack phone cases - foxes and bunnies

So, I love making my little back packs. They started off as mini bag charms which were not only decorative but also functional as well as they could be untied so that you could put something small in them. It could be change for a parking meter or some mints, whatever is needed and small enough.

Although they were very cute I wanted to see if I could develop them. This meant deciding on what there new function would be. The obvious choice was to make them larger which would then mean that they would no longer be classed as a bag charm. They would still have the same function, that you could undo the button and out something inside of the back pack. I liked the idea that they could possibly be used as a phone case so set about seeing if I could scale up the pattern that I had written for the mini back packs. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, to increase the round and also the number of stitch increases. I then tried to enlarge the pattern again so that larger phones, or small tablets, could fit into them.

Now the basic pattern was completed I wanted to add character to them. I have made several plain versions but want to do an animal range and what better place to start than foxes and bunnies. The basic shape stays the same but I needed to work out how to do ears. They are both worked in the rounds but the fox ones are worked from the point down to the base which then gets stitched to the face flap. The bunny ones are done in the opposite direction starting from the base and ending up at the tip. I guess they both could be done in the same direction but that was just the way I chose to do it. I can now, if I want to make several different animals that use these basic ear shapes. They could also be adapted slightly to make different styles for example different dog breeds.

I really love my fox and bunny phone cases and cant wait now to try and see what other animals that I can make.

Mandala Madness - parts 17-18

So, the white and colour change mandala Madness blankets are done. This has been such an amazing pattern to do. I love how they have both turned out. I still do need to complete the black one so that all four will be completed up to the end of Helen Shrimpton's pattern. I can then square off all four of them. I have started to do that on the last blanket that I made. The white blanket is on my Mums bed and I have told her that I will do a bit of the squaring off when I come over and see her now that I know how it works.

The final parts of this amazing mandala madness pattern use quite a number of treble clusters. I can remember when I first did them all those months ago and thinking that I would never get the hang of them or that they wouldn't look neat enough. I am pleased to say that I really do enjoy them. They are not my favourite stitch in the pattern, but they are certainly up there near the top as they add such detail. I love how the "petals" (that is what I call them) are finished off and the treble clusters go in between so that that blanket becomes a beautiful circle. The final round introduced me to a new stitch, the crab stitch. This certainly took some getting used to. It felt alien to be going the wrong way around my work but again, I love the effect that it has achieved.

The burgundy colours of the slice o cherry pie Scheepjes whirl really come through and I cannot believe how well it went as I ended up with a very small amount of the whirl left (approx. 2 metres!) I really thought that would run out and that I would have to start the next whirl, the one that I was going to use to square off with. Talk about close!

So the journey on these b Mandala Madness blankets may have ended with the first part but I cant wait to start squaring them off and seeing how the circle becomes a square.