Another finished item and a bit of sewing

This is Wee Liesl, and was actually knitted in the summer, for my god-daughter's birthday in November, so I had to wait until now to post pictures. It took almost four skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn, which I love knitting with as it's so soft. And big daisy buttons, in the hope that they won't come undone too easily! I really enjoyed this pattern - there's enough going on for it to be interesting, but it's relatively straightforward. I now want to make a Liesl for me.

It fits!

I have another finished knitting project, but this one's a Christmas present, so I can't reveal it yet. I've been doing a lot of sewing in the last few weeks too - I've got my sewing machine all set up on a table so it can stay out instead of having to be put away every time we want to eat a meal, which has, funnily enough, dramatically increased the amount of time I spend sewing! I must take a picture of where I've got it set up. I've been referring to this as the "sewing room", but the OH is insisting on calling it the "small bedroom" still.

I've been working on a secret project (this is just a sneak preview), but I'm especially pleased with it because I've been watching videos of how to do things, and have done things like gathers for the first time on a sewing machine. At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a pain gathering on a machine, but it is so much simpler than that, and I'm really pleased with the finished results.

One project I can reveal is this little bag, which I made for my knitting group's secret santa exchange out of some cotton fabric I bought several years ago in Penrith. I've used the instructions on the Flossie Teacakes blog, which I've used before, but this version came out a lot better. I used lightweight interfacing this time, and the iron-in version rather than sewing it. I even managed to iron it on without attaching it to either the iron or the ironing board!

I was pleased with how it turned out, although the sewing machine struggled with the zip - I don't have a zipper foot for it.

Hopefully I'll get time for some more crafting over Christmas, as I only have two days left at work now.