Toys For Christmas!

***If you are thinking of making toys for a baby or child to play with, please make sure that they are supervised at all times. To prevent from any accidents from happening, don't leave a toy in their cots/beds overnight. If you are planning on creating your own toys, please look into safety guidelines for each age range.*** 

As it's soon to be my nieces first Christmas, I wanted to make her some toys that she can play with, but that she can also learn with, have bright colours, and most importantly; be safe. I was racking my brain for ages trying to think about what I could make, when I realised that a small ring and some little balls would be perfect. They would be washable, have no small parts, and be small enough for her little hands. 

I tried to find a pattern online, but nothing was quite what I was looking for. So I decided to make it up myself! I started with the toy balls. I chose a bright, colourful yarn - Robin Paintbox DK, and set to work! I'd never crocheted a sphere before, so it was a bit of a learning curve, but it didn't have to be perfectly round, so it was fine! 

I worked in Amigurumi style, again something that I hadn't really experimented with before, but I love a challenge! It turned out to be a breeze! I kept taking it into work, to work on in my breaks, so that I knew I would have enough time to finish everything before the big day! 

I was so pleased with the end result! I love how this yarn works up too, its so bright, and really is just like a paintbox full of colours! I decided that I wanted to make three balls altogether, as a little set, but for them all to be different. The next ball that I chose to do was in three colours.

As I wasn't really planning out how many rows to crochet, I found it rather difficult to make the stripes of colour even! I think that the fuchsia definitely dominates this ball, but I quite like it! 

Another successful toy ball made! I realised after that I must've somehow changed my crochet technique, because the first colour change has a straight line, but the second one is all jagged. I'm not too sure how I managed to do it, but I wasn't aiming for perfection, and I kind of like little mistakes, it makes the item unique!

The third toy ball I decided to make was in two colours, and I wanted to try to make a smaller stripey effect. This one went a little bit better than the first one, but some stripes were still bigger than others! If I was writing this pattern down, I would keep more of a track on how many rows were being worked between the increases and decreases.

I still think that it turned out rather well though! After making the three toy balls, I decided to try to make a toy ring. My niece has one on her play gym that she loves to grab, and I wanted to make one that was nice and squishy, and that could be moved around too. 

I started to crochet a long rectangle, and thought that I would be able to sew it together whilst stuffing it at the same time. I was a bit nervous at how this would turn out, but I wasn't to sure of how to make increases/decreases, and where they would be located to make it turn into a circle.

This is how it turned out! I think that crocheting a rectangle worked rather well, it's not a perfect circle, but there was no increasing or decreasing required, making it perfect for taking to work! 

Overall, I'm so pleased with how these all turned out, and I know that my niece will love playing with them. 

***If you are thinking of making toys for a baby or child to play with, please make sure that they are supervised at all times. To prevent from any accidents from happening, don't leave a toy in their cots/beds overnight. If you are planning on creating your own toys, please look into safety guidelines for each age range.*** 

Being In The Audience of Strictly Come Dancing!

Taking a slight detour from my usual posts, away from the world of knitting, crochet and all kinds of yarny goodness! But, this is about something just as exciting and way more sparkly! Everyone knows the theme tune, most people will have watched at least one episode, I myself watch it every single week and have done ever since it started. Strictly Come Dancing is a show that I love for so many different reasons, but I think the main thing that I love is the costumes. I used to ballroom dance, I finished about 10 years ago, and I loved it. Every Saturday we were learning different steps and so many different styles of Ballroom and Latin American dances, it was so fabulous! The one thing that I missed out on was the fancy costumes! Where I learnt to dance, we never entered any competitions, we only took exams, so we would never wear the fabulous dresses, although we did have the beautiful high heels.

Going back to Strictly though, I had never applied for tickets before, which may annoy some people because I know that many people have applied for years and never got any, and I applied for the first time and got some. It's definitely luck of the draw though, and there is no way to buy your way in, which I do love though, as it makes it so much more accessible. I applied via the BBC tickets website, it's free to do so, you can apply for as many or as few dates as you want to. I'm not sure how many tickets you can apply for at once, I think it might be 6 but don't quote me on that! I saw an article about it online, which is why it reminded me to enter, I think it was around August time. I applied for every date, trying to maximize my chances as much as possible! I got the email about 2.5 weeks before the show, and our date was 28th October 2017! I didn't even realise it at the time, but my tickets were for the Halloween show! Which for me, made it even better (if that's possible!)

The Halloween show is by far my absolute favourite themed show of the series, so I just could not wait! There's a few websites and blogs out there which advice from people about what to expect when you get there, which is so helpful, and I'm going to write down what we experienced as I think it may be a little bit different for everyone.

I had read online that tickets are issued from 9am (maybe 9:30am) but people start to queue up hours before this. We woke up at around 4am and got to the queue for around 4:45am (yes there is two of them in one day!) and there were quite a few people already there! I have to say that it was one of the more bizarre experiences of my life, walking down to a field, lit by only a few street lights, and seeing people queuing up. We were about 82 and 83 when we finally got our tickets, and I think the people at the very front of the queue got there about 11pm the night before, so it does take some dedication and determination to get in! 

Most people had chairs to sit on, but as we had come by train we just had to stand there, and it was freezing! I can't imagine what it's like for the shows in December, but definitely wrap up warm! 

Once you get your tickets, you can go off and have to be back at the studios for 3pm, so basically go back to your hotel room, sleep, eat, and get ready! Once you're inside, you have to give your coats and mobiles in, and then it's about an hour and a half before it's time to go into the studios. I have to say that the Strictly experience is definitely the best one I've been to, as I've been to TV recordings before, but you were just waiting around for ages with nothing to do. There was a photo section so you got to have a photo taken by a Strictly board and got the copies to take home, there was an MC doing little competitions getting people involved. Also, a merchandise shop with lots of little goodies to take home. You also got to go outside, and see the Stage Door, and there was all the props outside waiting to be used in the show. 

Finally, we got to go inside, let in by number order, and it was so surreal being inside the studio. We were sat 7 rows back (the first 5 rows are kept for all the celebrity friends and family and TV execs). We were in the middle, with the band to our right and pretty much facing the judges table, so it was an excellent view. The chairs are not comfy at all, and have the thinnest seat cover ever, but seriously it's Strictly so no one cares. 

They have a comedy guy to warm everyone up ready for the show, and run through what to do at certain points. The professional dancers came out with the celebrities, and they all started rehearsing for the opening number. Tess and Claudia then came out and had a practice of their lines, and a bit of a chat with the audience. Then it was time to go live! And it really is actually live, there's no pretending, so if some one misses a step they can't go back and change it. When the judges all came out, I think that's what made it all feel real to me, they all have such fabulous careers, but seeing Darcey Bussell made me tear up a little bit! She is every bit as glamorous and elegant in real life as on television, and just a dancing legend. 

It was an amazing night, and we got to see so many amazing dances, I think for me Aston and Janette's Pasodoble to Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit", and Debbie and Giovanni's Charleston to Sister Sledges "Frankie" were my favourites. Joe & Katya's Foxtrot to Coldplays "Trouble" was again amazing, and Susan Calman dressed as Khaleesi was brilliant. The Strictly band and singers were just phenomenal, all of the music and songs are performed live, and it must be quite a bit of pressure knowing that if you make a mistake it could put the dancers off, and it may all go wrong! Also, we got to watch Steps perform, which made 10 year old me so happy! 

We left the studios just after 11pm, so it was a super long and very tiring day, but just so incredibly amazing! I think I've overused that word too much, but there's nothing else to describe it! I think that I will definitely apply for tickets again for next season, but there's a very good chance that we won't be so lucky next time. If you get the opportunity to go and watch Strictly being recorded, I recommend it so highly. You do have to have a lot of stamina and be prepared to be very tired for the next few days afterwards, but it is an experience that you will never forget. 

Seeing the amount of work and incredible skill by all of the dancers made me love the show even more, and it all felt very surreal when we were sat back at home watching it on television again. And yes, the costumes were even more fabulous in real life, it definitely made me very jealous that I'm not working in the costume industry at the moment! I'm going to link to some YouTube videos below of some of my favourite dances, mainly so I can come back to this post in the future and remember how amazing the experience was! The videos are all from the BBC's YouTube channel, and they own the copyright to all images. 

Knitting Forgetfulness!

Has anyone ever seen a knitting or crochet stitch that they really liked, made a mental note of what it looks like and its name, and then never gotten around to actually trying it out?! Because I have - many a time! It's so frustrating as well because I'm always on the lookout for new things to try with my knitting, but it seems that I get stuck always doing just simple stitches; knit & purl, maybe a cable from time to time. These are of course the most basic knitting stitches, and the bread and butter of knitting, but I always find myself wanting to try something a little more adventurous! 

It's the same with projects that I start, I see a pattern or yarn that I like the look of, and start to knit it, then a couple of weeks later I see something I like again that I want to try out! I have so many projects on the go at the moment, I really need to get motivated to try and finish at least one of them! 

One thing I did manage to finish in only a few weeks (huzzahhh!) is a giraffe toy I have knitted! I used Debbie Bliss Rialto DK yarn, Stylecraft Eskimo DK yarn, and a pattern I found on the Knitables website. Choosing which one to knit was I think the hardest choice, as every pattern on the website is so cute, I wanted to knit them all! The pattern was fairly easy to follow, and adding the spots of colour turned out to be a breeze! I am so happy with how the giraffe turned out, the Debbie Bliss yarn is perfect on a toy, it makes it so soft and cuddly! 

I had never knitted with a furry yarn before, and wasn't so sure of what to expect, but I didn't have any problems using this one. It is perfect to create a very fluffy mane, and knits into such a nice effect that would be hard to replicate otherwise. 

I also bought the pattern for the Fox and Hippo, so these are in my folder for future projects!

How many projects are on your needles at the moment? I think mine currently stands at five! I'll be running out of needles soon!

(Look how snuggly and cuddly the giraffe looks!)

WCW!

Hello!

As it is Wednesday today, I thought I'd pick my WCW for this week (Wool Crush Wednesday of course!) I have posted a couple this week on my Instagram page, but for me this one really stands out. The Sirdar Wild range is one that I have only recently discovered, but I am in love with them all already! The colours are so bright and vivid, and the texture is just fabulous! It's a bit like a cross between a funky fur and a dressing gown type of wool. I am still yet to decide what to use this wool for, there's so many options! It comes with a free snood pattern, but I think I want to try something a little bit different with it! Feel free to give me suggestions! The colours on this one remind me of coral and it has a bit of an 'under the sea' vibe for me, so that might influence my decision! 

It's been such beautiful weather this week, I have been enjoying my walk to and from work, and then getting to sit in the office with the air con on! I took this photo the other morning, hardly a cloud in the sky, definitely no filter needed!

I hope that you've all been enjoying the weather this week, and have all got a WCW for this week! 

Jen

Hello!

Welcome to my new blog! My name is Jen, and this is my blog on all things knitting, crochet, design, patterns and everything else yarntastic! Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @knitteddaydreams
There is a good chance that I will post more frequently on Instagram than on here, but there will be activity on both!
I hope to make this blog full of interesting items; fun, colourful & intriguing! Please bear with me while I get this blog started, but feel free to follow and comment!