Chanel Beanie

a beanie called "Chanel"

Winter may be toying with us, giving bright, sunny skies the colour of periwinkles and the chance to go barefeet, but I'm not falling for winter's capricious charms! Along with a sleeveless top and barefeet, I will also be wearing my new beanie Chanel, just in case Winter decides to resume its rightful dominance at this time of year.

The addition of a fuschia silk pompom guarantees Chanel will not be borrowed to cheer Queensland along at the next state of origin football game, nor go skateboarding at the local skate park.
Chanel is mine ....... all m.i.n.e !!!

The Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran is so soft and very, very light to wear. 
The 90% wool and 10% Angora blend was an absolute treat for my hands while knitting. I used 5mm needles as was suggested on the label. Using a size 4.0 mm crochet hook and some hoarded pink silk, I made one row of double crochet along the bottom edge to match the pompom. 
The pattern for the beanie is a freebie I found on the Debbie Bliss website here . It was very easy, with just a little simple decreasing.

Now that my head is warm and oh so stylish, I've turned my attention to a new cushion cover for my bed. I want something soft and pretty and Tanya Whelan's "Slipper Roses" range fits the bill perfectly. It's Pretty with a capital P in fact.

Hexagons are one of my very favourite shapes, the others being squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, diamonds, kites ...................

For me, hexagons have an old world, comforting charm. But not fancying the old world practice of hand piecing them together, I choose to machine piece them. The process is a bit more fiddly than sewing squares together, but the rush of self-congratulation makes it all worthwhile ;) It's very similar to feeling one gets when one uses a bias tape maker for the first time- you want to tell simply everyone! 

Free-motion quilting is definitely my fave, but in keeping with the soft feel I'm going for, I've been hand quilting on the inside of each hexagon. My stitches are not perfectly spaced by any means, but I think that adds to the comfortable look.

.... so this is what I'll be busy working on till we next meet.

I hope you get some creating time to yourself as well,

bye for now,

x