Monkey Wrap

Long time no blogpost, for which I apologise. However Mum has been busy knitting up a storm with her lovely new yarn from her recent visit to the Shetland Islands. This project is a cosy wrap, perfect for an added layer for the Autumn months. The olive/russet tones are the perfect for the season too!

This beautiful yarn is hand-dyed and hand spun by resident Shetland textile designer and wool expert, Niela Nell. Comprised mainly of olive green wool, with a middle section made of rich silky wool, interlaced with multi-coloured ribbon. The edging has been knitted using  a gorgeous silk and alpaca wool.

The pattern is available on Ravelry.com for £4.00 (or $6.00).

The blue colour in the images appear a deeper, more royal blue in real life.

Bunting!

While I've been away at university, Woolly Mum Moth has been super-busy with lots of crafty knitting and crochet projects. This lovely bunting is very easy to make and can be customised to suit your own taste. Once crocheted, you can add little bows, buttons, beads or adhesive shapes (WMM has added little floral cats). 

The pattern for these are:

Ch. 24 

S. Cr into second chain from the right

S. Cr to the end of the row. 23 sts.

Turn 

S. Cr in second chain from the right

S. Cr to the end. 22 sts.

Turn

Continue like this until no stitches left 

S. Cr around two sides of each flag in a contrasting colour. 

To make top ribbon: 

Ch. 60

S. Cr across the top of all flags

Ch. 60

A second row of single crochet across the top of all of the flags tends to make it more stable (and less twizzly!). Another contrasting colour looks nice for that. 

Woolly Mum Moth fixing her bunting!

Scrumptious!

 Sweet little floral cats!

This bunting is perfect for lots of different occasions. It's great to hang up for events and parties, and completes the look of a vintage-themed setting, for example, with pretty teacups and decorative cakestands. It also looks great hanging up anywhere in the house or makes a lovely handmade present for somebody. Try soft, pastel colours for bunting perfect for a baby's bedroom!   

WMM found this lovely ribbon on eBay (John Lewis do a similar here) which she loops and sews onto all her homemade things. When making presents to give to people, a little touch like this can give the finished piece an extra little personal, yet rather professional-looking touch. Lovely!

WMM's daughter!

x

Sheep Treats

Mum purchased this fantastic sheep mould from Doncaster Antiques and Vintage fair. The sheep is made from cast aluminium and Mum estimates it dates from the 50s and is of European origin.

We found Ruth from MidCenturyMenu's blogpost which gives 10 top tips to have yourself a fantastic "Lambie Cake". As this was our first time using the mould, we followed her wise words carefully, but not before scrubbing the crevices and drying it in the oven (this is an essential step when buying cake tins or moulds which are not bought from new). 

We "greased the HECK" out of the pan (Ruth's words!), making sure every single part of it was covered. We then filled the face-side of the lamb pan with a Betty Crocker lemon drizzle cake mix (gasp!). This is obviously a cardinal sin in the baking world, but we did it because we wanted to try out the mould for the first time, and wanted to use a reliable mix to do this.  At this point it essential to remember to fill in the ears of the mould (a sheep without ears is obviously going to look stupid, as Ruth points out)! The idea is that the cake-mix will rise from the face-half of the tin and fills the rest of it.

One the face-side was filled, we attached the back-side with string. Annoyingly, we forgot one of Ruth's essential tips - to add cocktail (or lollypop) sticks into the cake mix in certain areas, as the structural integrity of the cake without these can be an issue (mostly around the head and neck area). So rather adding these into the raw cake mix, we inserted them once the cake had cooked (it's essential to wait until the cake has cooled before you release it from the tin). Luckily, this seemed to have worked as the cake didn't crumble when we took it out of the mould. 

Mum made the lemon drizzle for the cake et voila, the finished product looked like this: 

We were pleased with outcome of the cake, although perhaps next time we make it we'll ice the cake with some fluffy white frosting for some sheep-authenticity! 

WWM's daughter, Harriet x

Who the devil is Woolly Mum Moth?

Hello blogosphere, 

I (that is the daughter of Woolly Mum Moth), Harriet, and the authoress of this blog, am writing on behalf of my mother to keep you up to date you her ongoing creative endeavours. Why is she ("who's she, the cat's mother!?") not writing this blog herself, I hear you say. There's one simple answer, and that is that she's far too busy knitting! 

If I am to write about Mum's creative successes I feel I must first introduce her properly. Mum lives a busy life and has many roles; she is primarily (to me, at least) a mother; she's a businesswoman running her own law firm; a gardener; a cook; a knitter (is that a thing?). Somehow, she manages to fulfil each of these roles to the absolute best of her ability, leaving only a little time to be a proficient cat-admirer, a church-warden and sit on the board of governers for the local primary school.

This blog is a way of documenting all the clever and fabulous things Mum makes. 

Enjoy!

WMM's daughter, Harriet x