RECAP: 12 PROJECTS OF 2018

So here we are in 2019! I set a goal for myself last year to do 12 DIY projects, and so thought I'd do a little recap of how that went. I'm quite happy to say that I ended up completing eight projects. Well, I technically completed a few more than that, but I never did a blog post on them so I'm not counting them. Either way, I didn't make it to twelve, but I'm still pretty happy about how this goal went, as I feel it did wonders to reboot my creativity. So here's a rundown of the projects I made:

My first project was this wool roving wall hanging (above) that I made in January. I'd never made anything like it before, but I had such a good time making it and loved the result! It's currently hanging in our living room and love it so much. Might make a similar one in a bigger size in the future?

The second project was a fox costume for Oscar. I made a simple tail and ear set out of yarn that I brushed with a comb to get a faux fur effect. Such an easy technique, and so fun to make. Oscar wore this as part of his outfit for a dress-up event in his daycare when he went as Mikkel Rev, a beloved Norwegian children's character.

For my third project, I made these matching bib and teether baby shower gift sets for some friends who were expecting babies. They were so easy to make and I loved how they turned out. Such a perfect way to use up scrap bits of fabric, too. Would love to make more of these in different fabrics.

For my fourth and fifth projects, I went on a bit of a macrame spree, and made two macrame plant hangers as well as some macrame teethers. Both were made out of materials I already owned, which was also pretty satisfying, and I discovered a new (to me!) craft that I ended up absolutely loving.

For my sixth project, I decided to step away from the textiles for a little bit and made some gilded tea light holders for autumn out of some old glasses and a bit of gold leaf.

For my seventh project, I got my sewing machine out and made these plushies based on Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's kid's books Triangle and Square. Oscar was a huge fan!

For my eight project, I made a couple of ghost tea light holders out of clay for Halloween. We don't have a whole lot of Halloween decorations, so these were a pretty fun addition.

Honorable mentions: I also knitted quite a few things this year (not sure why I decided not to include knitting projects in this?), and completed the following knitting projects in 2018: matching hats for Oscar and Graeme, the Homestead shawl, 2 x Tjukklua hats, and this sweater (though I technically started that one in 2017), the No Frills sweater, the Skappel sweater, another Anker sweater, the Tiril sweater, the Tjukklendar sweater, another No frills sweater, two Christmas stockings and even more hats, hats, and five more hats. 2018 was probably the biggest knitting year for me to date, so much so that I decided in 2019 to start a new instagram account for my knitting, so if you'd like to follow along you can find me on @hildeandherknitting. Looking forward to another creative year!

THE TIRIL SWEATER

I have a pretty long to-do list of knitting projects I plan on making, but every now and then something comes along and I get so excited about it that it ends up getting pushed ahead of everything else. This sweater was one of those. I usually take a while in deciding wether or not to knit something and which yarn to use, but the same day I came across this pattern I went straight to my favorite yarn shop, bought the yarn and started knitting. The whole sweater came together in less than two weeks, and that's even though I was knitting other stuff at the same time too!

The pattern is from Sandnes Garn, designed by Tiril Eckhoff, and I knitted it in Sandnes Garn's børstet alpakka yarn in white on 6 mm needles.

BABY CABLE HAT

I promised cable knitted projects earlier, and here we are with another one! I've got friend who is due at the end of the month, so thought I'd knit her a little something. Baby and kid stuff is so fun and quick to knit. I've been pretty into knitting cables recently, and since this will be an autumn baby, I thought a little cozy cable hat would be appropriate.

I used this pattern for Veslestrikk's Gullklumplue that I found on ravelry, and knitted it in Drops Baby Merino in off white on 3.5mm needles and finished it off with a faux fur bobble. I don't usually knit with such small needles, but it wasn't as fiddly as I thought and the cables turned out so lovely and defined. I used just over half a ball of wool, so this is an excellent way to use up some leftover yarn for sure.

I'll be gifting it together with either one of the macrame teethers or the fabric teethers I made earlier this year. Hopefully little baby Amanda will approve!

ANKER II

Earlier this year, I shared this sweater that I knitted for Oscar last year. I love this sweater so much, but it turns out toddlers grow incredibly fast and before not long came the day he had grown out of it. So what's a knitting mamma to do? Knit him another one, obviously.

This time around, I chose a more green-y tone, and knitted it in Sandnes Garn Merinoull (the colorway is 7572 petrol). It's actually a bit of a funny color that kind of changes depending on the light, ranging from a dark sagey green to a dark grey. I actually messed up and only knitted three rows of the pattern at the yoke and had to unravel quite a bit to go back and fix it (though no one on instagram noticed or pointed it out haha).

Also, funny story: I thought it'd might be a good idea to get a couple of photos of Oscar in this sweater, but he was not up for it in the slightest haha. He downright refused and a had a giant tantrum instead. As we were on our way outside and he needed a warmer sweater anyway, I gave up and reached for a basic H&M hoodie instead, to which he cried out "JAAA!!" in excitement! Haha. That's it, that's the last time I'm knitting you anything! I thought to myself. But then the next day Graeme sent me this little video:

Oscar's new sweater from Hilde McMillan on Vimeo.

In other words, it's definitely not the last time I'm knitting Oscar something. :)

CABLE HAT X2

I've been on a bit of a cable knitting kick recently. These two are just the first of several knitting projects involving cables that I've recently finished (stay tuned! September turned into a pretty big knitting month for me haha). These are both going to be Christmas presents and, that's right--I just used the C-word. But we're in October now, so that's ok, isn't it?

Both of the patterns are by Strikkelisa. The hat with the straight lines is the Tykkrillestripelue, and the diamond cabled one is the appropriately named Hat with Diamond Cables. I wanted the hats to be similar but different, so I decided to use the same yarn and color and bobbles for both: Gjesdal Cortina Soft and 8 mm needles. It's a super cozy and chunky yarn, perfect for some cozy and chunky hats.

So that's me officially started on my Christmas presents of 2018! Maybe this year I'll actually be organized enough to not have to stress about it in December? Just kidding, I say that every year. It never actually happens haha.

DIY TRIANGLE & SQUARE PLUSHIES

Oscar has been requesting we read Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's Triangle and Square (he calls them "Tralung" and "Quare") every night at bedtime for I don't know how many weeks now, so for my seventh project of 2018 I decided to get my sewing machine out and sew a couple of Triangle and Square plushies. Jon Klassen's illustrations are so cute, so I pretty much had a giant smile on my face the whole time I was making these. :)

They were super simple to make, too. To make them, I googled the images and edited them in photshop so that they were the right size. I had no problems finding a front and back picture of Square, but for some reason I could only find the front of Triangle, so I made my own back in photoshop based on the image of his front. It turned out pretty good. I printed everything on unbleached cotton using this technique (ooold post! It's the same I used to make this printed banner), and then sewed them together and stuffed them. One thing that might be an issue with this later, is that the ink bleeds pretty much straight away if it's in contact with water (as you can see on square's back below, where a couple of drops of water dripped from my iron). So if I were to make them again, I might get the files printed via Spoonflower rather than use my home printer, just so it'd be a bit more durable/toddler proof.

Oscar was so excited when he saw them, and in retrospect we probably shouldn't have given them to him half an hour before his bedtime haha. But it was so fun seeing his reaction. There's nothing like seeing the things you make actually get used and appreciated!

GILDED TEALIGHT HOLDERS

Guys, I am so ready for fall and for cozy nights in with warm cups of tea, blankets and candle light! I don't usually get excited about autumn, but I think the fact that our summer has been so fantastic this year has really helped. I struggle to get excited about autumn when it sometimes feels like it starts in June haha.

I have a tendancy to turn into a bit of a candle addict though, and easily go through one of those 100-packs of tealights from IKEA during the autumn and winter months, so I decided to make a couple of tealight holders. I also had some gold leaf lying around in my craft supplies closet that I'd bought by mistake earlier (I thought it was just shiny paper, it just said "metal sheet" on it haha), so wanted to play around with that. They ended up being a little more rustic looking than I had in mind, but I love the golden glow they add, and how they reflect and kinda bounce around the light. Cozy autumn vibes—check!

To make them, I used some old candle holders from IKEA, some gold leaf from Søstrene Grene, and some glue I found in my stash (I don't really think I used the right glue, which probably contributed to the results haha). Gold leaf isn't the easiest to work with, but i'm still encouraged to try other projects with it. I've also been thinking about making something out of clay, and I reckon some gold leafing might look nice with that?

WOODEN TRUCK MAKEOVER

So, whats really cool about this wooden truck is that it was my brothers when he was a little kid (almost 40 years ago!). I actually remember playing with it myself too, so I got pretty nostalgic when I came across this little treasure in our attic. Oscar is in a massive car phase and has been for quite some time now (when he was about 8 months old we used to be able to just go to our living room window and point at my boring old Yaris when he was upset and he'd stop crying haha), so I thought I'd give the truck a lick of paint and a bit of new life.

Here's the before:

My mom last painted this truck in 1992 with a floral motif, and I actually remember her doing it. I even remember the name of that blue shade, bondeblå or farmer's blue, and I guess she quite liked it as she went on a bit of a spree and painted all sorts of stuff in our house in this same shade, everything from baskets to the broom to the shutters on the outside of our house haha. I actually really like the color too, but I kind wanted to get rid of the flowers and just give it a bit of a refresh. The shade I ended up with is pretty close to the original color, just a little dustier and less saturated, which I like. And by the looks of it, Oscar seems to be loving his new truck too! "Wow, big truck!" says Oscar.

(Sidenote: When I was done with this truck, I obviously had quite a bit of paint left. So far I've only painted the stool we keep in the bathroom, but I can see how this could easily escalate to brooms and baskets and shutters in no time haha)

HOMESTEAD SHAWL

I remember once as a child, I was in town with my mother, when she ran into someone she knew and stopped to talk to them. I guess I was pretty ready to go home, as at one point she turned to me and said, "you're so impatient!" I didn't know what impatient meant, but I thought it sounded absolutely fantastic.

Anyway, while I was trying my best to wait for my yarn order so that I could finish my No Frills sweater, my fantastic impatience got the better of me and I ended up starting a new knitting project: the Homestead Shawl. Ironically enough, I received my yarn the next day, but by then I was already knee deep in making eyelets and braid stitches and basically unable to put my new knitting project down. I was really close to finishing this before I finished the No Frills sweater (I have finished it, I just felt like posting this one first, for no apparent reason at all).

Anyway, here we are: my first shawl! I really enjoyed knitting this and absolutely love the finished product. It's made up by mostly knit stitch and a few rows of structured knit to break it up, which made it both quick to knit and also kind of addicting. The braid stitch was a new one for me, and now I kinda want to knit horizontal braids on everything. I used Pickles' Angora yarn for this (which I think might be discontinued) in 7283 Dyp Skog, a lovely shade of green. It's so soft and fuzzy, and it's getting me all excited about cozying up in this on a chilly autumn day!

MACRAME TEETHERS

Yay, another macrame project! Told you this stuff was addicting. As I mentioned in my bibs and teethers post, I have a lot of wooden rings left over (still do!), and as I have a lot of friends having babies right now, it seemed like a good idea to make some more teethers. I love giving away homemade gifts, and I think these turned out pretty cute, too!

I used the same t-shirt yarn I used for the macrame plant hangers, so I didn't end up buying any new materials for this project either. I did some simple techniques I found on pinterest, tied them off and then trimmed the ends. Pretty happy with the result!

MACRAME PLANT HANGERS

I love knitting and crochet, and I really enjoyed my weaving project, so is anyone surprised that I tried macrame and loved that too?

Honestly, I don't know why i haven't tried macrame before haha. It's such a satisfying craft. So much so that in pretty much the same sitting, I ended up making another project too (which I'll probably share later), and I have so many ideas for other macrame projects I want to try. I mean, I literally went to bed that night and ended up dreaming about macrame. I'm also a little bit sad that I already own a hammock--what an amazing macrame project that could have been! I want to macrame everything.

To make these, I used wooden rings leftover from my fabric teethers, some old t-shirt yarn and tutorials and techniques I found on pinterest. The t-shirt yarn is actually leftovers from an abandoned project years ago. Anyone remember this knitted poof project? Yeah, it ended up as a bit of a ufo, just lying around waiting for me to get the motivation to finish it, before I eventually admitted to myself that it just wasn't happening and that it was time to unravel it. And by then, Graeme had actually bought a very similar poof for Oscar's nursery anyway. But yay for reusing old materials in new projects, and not just going out to get more craft supplies every time a creative whim strikes! That might be my goal for next year actually, to only do projects using stuff I already have. Should be doable with all the craft materials I'm hoarding!

Here they are hanging in their natural habitat. Have you tried any new crafts that you've ended up absolutely loving recently?