I wasn’t lucky enough to have been taught to knit or crochet as a child, my only crocheting Grandmother died when I was 6. I didn’t learn to crochet or knit until I was alot older and I had to teach myself (from a book) gasp! Even still, the idyllic romance and satifaction of anything handmade calls to my inner grandma, making something so beautifully simple, useful and amazing with just your two hands.
I love a beautiful bed, I see them at stores and in magazines and imagine falling onto a big billowy pile of fluffy cotton wonderful. Crisp eyelet lace, white on white antique iron beds, piled high with grandmas quilts, a ridiculous amount of squishy pillows, a fantastic high bed you have to crawl up onto, a bed that makes me feel tiny, like I have just been swallowed up.
But bedding is outrageously expensive. So to get everything I want, I sometimes make my own.
Goodness, a vintage LIBERTY OF LONDON fitted sheet! When I first came across these at an auction I was smitten, I paid more than my usual few dollars to get them in my hands.
I have been collecting vintage sheets & linens for a long time. Sometimes I use them as intended, sometimes I make them into bags or aprons and sometimes I turn them into other bedish things like quilts & pillows. Sheets are such a great deal, you can find amazing patterns & colors, you get tons of yardage for the money (shop the clearance section or look at thrift shops). I live 100% cotton, because of how it feels, the crumply look it gets with use and how it sounds when it’s rustled.
In addition to collecting linens I have a habit of picking up cotton or wool blankets if they are inexpensive, they make perfect guts for tie quilts they are often much cheaper than cotton or wool batting. I wouldn’t recommend using another blanket for the innards of a quilt that you want to actually quilt on but if you tie your layers, its perfect. You wont have the worries of the batting bunching up or separating and it will give you the weight of a good solid blanket. There is nothing is better in the dead of winter than a cozy heavy blanket.
My very first pillow case made, I really loved that Elizabeth rose fabric by Westminster ..also in that photo is one of my very favorite quilts. ♥
On my quest to the lovely bed I have made many pillows all shapes and sizes, what I have learned is, I’m not an accent throw pillow kind of person. I don’t want pillows around that are just constantly being moved out of the way. I want a pillow to wrap my arms around and snuggle into, a pillow that mushes down to become an excellent cushion. So to add lovely splashes of delight to our bed, the couch, that chair over there, I have been making happy little pillowcases using this pillowcase tutorial. It creates a pocket pillow cover in any gorgeous fabric or sheeting you like, trimmed out with a romantic crochet lace edging or if you don’t crochet you could trim it out by sewing on a bit of fancy lace or leave it plain. I’ve been using standard size bed pillows (in place of throw pillows) and they look just as charming on my couch as they do on my bed.
While impatiently waiting for my copy of 55 Christmas Balls to Knit, I stumbled onto The NRK Norwegian Broadcasting website they had hosted a show featuring the authors of the book.
They had kindly given the basic directions for making a julekuler, along with a simple snowflake chart. THANKS Arne & Carlos! Now I can get my julekuler fix & so can you!
I can’t wait to get the actual book, it’s the same ball knitting recipe that they share on the site but I love the traditional look of Norwegian fair isle charts thought. What a perfect holiday knit and a perfect little gift.
I went for an untraditional look & using sock yarn, it turned out right around 3” tall. I am thinking a good worsted wool would be perfect or some thick & bulky for a jumbo one! It was wicked fast even with the fair isle colorwork. I am in the midst of working up another one with no colorwork just letting the lush yarn be the decoration.
I wanted this to smell so I stuffed it with a small cinnamon pinecone wrapped in wool roving. I liked the weight the roving gave it (even with out the pincone) I also thought the roving would absorb the smell better and radiate the scent, more so than poly-fill. Next time I might just add a few drops of cinnamon or pepermint oil to the wool roving and skip the cone, it was a little bit of a beast to knit around that cone wad!
I tried a few different hang loop styles, just a few knotted strands, then crochet, but I finally settled on an I-cord hang loop and just before I finished stitching it on I slipped on two tiny jingle bells for sweetness!
Update : Schachenmayr released a Downloadable Arne & Carlos Julekuler pamphlet with complete instructions HERE!
chalklegs.com 