Pudding anyone?

I feel like I've been making this thing forever, but it's actually the felting that has taken so long.

My washing machine just does not use boiling water. I have had this thing going through the wash at least 25 times. I did try some of it manually as well. In the end I resorted to painting it with watered down PVA glue.
And at the last minute yellow spots started appearing on the lid!!!!! I was going mad, I had hours to go until I needed this for my competition - ahhh! the one saving grace was that it was a 40 degree day and I stuck it out on our brick path to dry, the path had to be about 50 degrees.
Finished and pretty much dry.

The only thing I used a pattern for (and I say used very loosely as I had to change the pattern for the yarn I was using) were the leaves. The holly + berries were dyed using food colouring. The leaves are knitted the rest is crocheted.
It's a bowl and the lid is the custard.
It goes with the felted Christmas tree I made last year.

It really is a Christmas bag

I organised a Christmas Competition with my local knitting group.
The rules were that there really no rules, it just needed to be something Christmassy (I've got photos and I'll post those later) and yarny.

I had been collecting things for a prize - a ball of Opal, some handspun Alpaca, Mum put in some Jo Sharp tweed and I had planned to make a bag.
I should have added this to my big weekend of making bags, instead I thought I'd have plenty of time to do it (read I had three days before it was due). Well one night was unexpectedly written off with a movie night at school that went on 2 hours longer than I'd anticipated due to technical difficulties. I did sort of have something cut out - so I was one step closer and I sat up at midnight the night before (or close to midnight my eyes were too blurry to tell the time) overlocking the edges - actually to tell the truth I had 2 bags cut out and yes I was trying to do two at once.

Anyway.... I did go to bed and got up early the next morning (at the risk of waking the children) and tried to get it sewn. It did wake the children and I had to spend most of the day sneaking moments to get it finished (abandoned the second bag).

But I did - with at least a few hours to spare.
It's a very pretty pale pink and has a pale pink lining.
It was one of those fabrics that looked ho-hum on the bolt but I thought might make a nice bag, maybe, and if not would be 'swappable'. Once I started sewing it up I really really liked it.
It's a very soft, pretty bag. I might have to keep the other one (which isn't a draw string bag, I don't seem to find draw string bags that easy, but maybe I'm trying to make them too complicated) and hopefully I'll get it finished soon.
This bag has all the yarn in it - so it's nice and roomy even though I thought it might not have been.

I also like my bags with handles - not just using the draw string to lug it round, so this bag kind of resembles a bucked when open, but I think that it's functional.

Three bags full

You are going to notice by the end of this post that there are actually only 2 bags here.
I made a lovely bag for Miss5's teacher - white material with black 'line' cat drawings, lined with purple. It was softly padded and I really liked it. I was in such a rush to wrap it and to make sure it got to school that I forgot to photograph it. You would have liked it.

Anyway, while I was making that bag I decided to do two more at the same time - hey, why not, I'm working to a deadline with very little time, a zillion things to do before Christmas and I'm busy making 3 bags, not just one.

I like this first one - yes similar to the one I made for my friend's birthday, but I liked hers too ;o).
Pocket on the outside so we can tell the difference if we're together (and to see whether an outside pocket works. I could make these truly reversible using this method).

It's actually a little bigger than hers too, just to see if that size is a good one.
This one's holding another project bag with 3 and a bit skeins of wool in it (one a big ball of Opal and one a large skein of handspun).
This is also similar to another model, but a little larger. The shape is not so pleasant to photograph at this size, but it will hold a lot. It has the above bag in it.
I haven't sewed down the blue ribbon and there are buttons to go on too. Maybe over the Christmas break.
The inside fabric. Cute isn't it?