Origami light shade

After seeing some interesting light shades that looked DIYable, I hit Pintrest and found one that looked simple enough to make but complicated enough to have a bit of a wow factor. There are various tutorials out there resulting in a similar light shade, here's just one of them to get you started if you're interested.

Briefly, I used 5 A2 sheets of drawing paper (lengthwise), folding each one first, punching holes in the top & bottom, then using clear tape on the inside to attach them to one another into the round. Next, I threaded a piece of string through the holes in the top, and similarly another one for the bottom. This construction was then hung over an existing spherical light shade and the strings tightened to form an origami sphere covering the existing shade.

While it took a bit longer than it sounds, it wasn't particularly hard and it's definitely worth it in my opinion. Much better than the bare bulb that was there the previous couple of months! It gives a lovely indirect light, though you could get more light by not tightening the bottom string. For comparison, here's Habitat's £20 version & £35 version. I know which one's my favourite!

Fingerless gloves

Bye bye sunny holidays and hello cold winds! Time to crochet a set of fingerless gloves for my favourite computer geek...

The pattern is really easy and you can adapt it to fit any hand size. I used 2 strands of DK yarn held together and a 5 mm crochet hook, but really, anything goes. The pattern starts from the wrist up. 

First chain an even number of stitches large enough to fit around the/your hand and join in a circle (careful not to twist the chain). For the pictured gloves, that was 36 chains. 

Chain 3 to serve as the first double crochet (dc, American terms), then dc into each of the following stitches (36 stitches)

Repeat the line above till you're happy with the length. This is the portion from the arm/wrist up till the hand. The increases in the next few rows will create the extra space for the thumb. Increase as many times as you like, I used 4 rows:

17 dc (first one being a chain 3), increase (2 dc in same stitch), increase, 17 dc (38 stitches)

18 dc (first one being a chain 3, you got it by now...), increase, increase, 18 dc (40 stitches)

19 dc, increase, increase, 19 dc (42 stitches)

20 dc, increase, increase, 20 dc (44 stitches)

In the next row, we do chain 3, 17 dc, skip 8 stitches and another 18 dc (back to the original 36 stitches). This creates the thumb hole.

Keep adding rows of chain 3, 36 dc until you're happy with the length of the top of the glove (to the knuckles, halfway up the fingers, your choice)

Et voila, superquick fingerless gloves! You can add a contrasting colour trim (here in red) or other embellishments to your liking.