Another Maddox the Mischievous Monster

I received this knitting pattern last Christmas and enjoyed making him.  But then I started to wonder what he would look like if he was made from fluffy wool?

Only one way to find out!

He was slightly harder to knit using the Sirdar Snuggly Snowflake DK wool, (if you drop a stitch you won't be able to find it again) but he's come out so well.

Milo thinks he's lovely, but he's actually for my dad who loves a knitted critter.  It was so nice to see his grin when he opened up his present and found this inside!

More Face Masks

In May I made myself a couple of face masks in case we had to start wearing them in public.  Which actually became a thing.  I was quite pleased with them, and I have been wearing them when out and about, but I have to say they are a little annoying when you need to pop in somewhere quickly as you have to stop to tie them on (and you need both hands), and they are a little hard to breath in.

So I had a look for a different sort of pattern and came across the Olson face mask pattern. The beauty of this design is it uses hair bands round the ears so I didn't have to find/buy any elastic or make more ties for round the head.

Also the pattern and video are so easy to follow it took no time as all to make both masks.

I've spent most of the morning wearing mine - so many errands!  And it was really comfortable and easy to breath in, although my ears did get tired after a while.

So now I have even more choice about what mask to wear depending on what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Plus this is such an easy design to make I can easily make myself more, if I need to wear one more often than I am at the moment.

Mine is made from old pyjama bottoms while 'im outdoors' is made from off cuts from the t-shirt I made a while ago. (and yes I've had a hair cut - love it so short!)

Dog Bells

We're finally working on our kitchen which is really exciting.  I can't wait to have it finished!  However we have come to the conclusion that we won't be able to have a dog flap in the new kitchen. 

Milo has a trick of opening doors, which is fine in the summer, but less good in the winter as he's not very good at closing them after himself.  So we put in a dog flap for him which meant he could come and go as he pleased and we didn't have to keep getting up to close the door after him.

Talking to a colleague they told me they were training their dog to ring a bell when it wanted to go outside.  I did a bit of research and found this is a thing!  So I bought some bells from the local wool shop, and attached them to a broken lead (he chewed through it) to create a set of bells that can be hung from a door.

The idea is that he will then ring the bells when he wants to go out and won't scratch the new doors.  It also has the added benefit of being able to take it with us when we visit people and hanging it on their door.

So the only thing to do now is to teach him how to use it.  Fingers crossed.