Scrap Hat - Knitting

I didn't have a decent winter hat. I had a lot of scrap yarn which I couldn't use for much since it was itchy. I had Debbie Stoller Books. So, I made myself this hat based loosely on a Pattern in "Stitch 'n Bitch Nation" for a fiery hat, the name of which escapes me right now. Finished in time for my birthday and following holiday to Holland, I arrive in the pub for celebratory drinks with friends, when a guy sits down on the table next to ours wearing a shopmade, posh label hat in identical colours in almost the same order as my hat that I'd imagined up only that week! So fashionable, and I don't even know it!

Mobile Cosy - Knitting

This was a "Secret Santa" gift for a friend and former colleague at Battersea Park Children's Zoo. She loves stars, and got a new mobile shortly before Christmas. Most of all she loved watching me knit at work (during breaks and quiet periods, although the kids who visited the zoo were fascinated so I knit for their entertainment too!) and kept saying she should start again. So, for the Secret Santa I put together some yarn and needles for a homemade "Scarf in a Bag" kit, and made her this phone cosy!

The star is based on the intarsia pattern in Debbie Stoller's first "Stitch 'n Bitch" book, although the pattern is for a wrist band. Again I was using up essentially scrap yarn from my stash, and I found a lovely button in Smith Bros in Tooting. The whole gift was received with lots of thanks, although once she opened it the "Secret" of the "Santa" was instantly dispersed!!!