somewhat homemade holidays, after the holiday. *ahem*

grr, my computer powered down and my draft wasn’t saved! Why is it when you try to re-write something it never seems better than the last. Anyway…

Merry after Christmas! It went by fast this year, faster than it has in previous years. Granted it might have been because of all the things we had to do, Corra was sick for a bit. Which made for some good crafting time, not so much for secret shopping time. There where lots of things that I finished off my list, still some that didn’t get done. But that’s ok.

I said that I wanted to make 12 of these wire votive sleeves from Handknit holidays, but after the 9th one I coulda died. It almost killed me to knit the 10th, after that I couldn’t knit anymore. I used 26 gauge wire in silver, green and gold some beads from my stash and some purchased. Made a few using US8’s but after a while decided to switch to US10’s. I gifted off 9 of them and kept one for myself
raveled.
Now these cute little sweater ornaments seem so innocent in the beginning, I made one for a old friend of Mike’s who works at my kids school. She commented me on the kids lovely sweaters and asked for her own.

raveled.
I don’t think its quite what she meant, but she got her handknit sweater! There was a lady that I told about the cute little sweater ornament, she asked to see it, so I made one for her. They are so quick and cute I couldn’t help it!

raveled.
Once I got started on them I couldn’t stop and knit a swarm for the kids, Mike and I. I thought it would be best to make them ornaments this year instead of purchasing them, since we made ornaments for our tree.

raveled.
pattern: Cheers! By Cheryl Niamath linky here
needle: US 3’s (3.25mm)
yarns: light green is leftover Cascade 220, white is Lionbrand fisherman’s wool and the rest is Knitpicks swish.
Used pipe cleaners for the hangers, and for the ones I gifted a way clicky here to see how I packaged them.

There was a touch of sewing done too which is quite unusual for me. My machine and I don’t always see eye to eye and the bobbin loves the taste of fabric. Corra had a gift exchange and I picked up a pack of chapstick but felt like there should be more to the gift. I made 2 bags from bend the rules sewing (just what I needed to get back into sewing, fab book!) and let Corra choose which bag she wanted to gift away.

click on the pics for more info, Corra ended up gifting the bag with handles to one of her friends, so I’ll have to make her another one.
Finished the stupid sock creature for Corra’s teacher

along with another mini-sweater ornament to go with it. Click on the pick to read what was on Irving’s tag. Irving was well received and has to be my fav creature to date. I inadvertently made another sock monster to keep,

Astare was intended for Corra’s teach, but Astare is a little, well.. lets just leave it at that. He was meant to live with us.
Well now, this post is long enough. There are still a few things that I made but am going to save for another post. Hopefully my next update will be tomorrow not in 3 weeks!

Holiday sock swap

I’m a sahm so I don’t get to go to too many holiday party’s that don’t involve people I’m related too. So I find myself looking forward to my GS leader Christmas party, because its not too often I find myself having conversations with people that I’m not related too.  For the past two years we’ve exchanged Christmas socks, which I have to say is a swap I can get behind. We don’t get assigned names and don’t know who our gift will end up going too, so knitting a pair of socks wouldn’t quite work.  The crafter in me couldn’t just give a pair of store bought socks like I did last year. There was no real fun in it, there wasn’t much excitement in it for me. So, I thought it would be great fun to make a sock monster to give for the exchange. *eg* Well, the person planning the party  just said purchase a pair of Christmas socks…. she wasn’t quite specific…

Petunia was my first sock creature, and she will continue to live with us. She came out a bit bigger than I had intended, and I do love her so. Even with her unintentional tummy tuck due to a misplaced tail hole. (I have a problem reading directions.) She has a nice long neck that gets a bit cold, so a scarf was in order. She wears it with pride, even though the green doesn’t quite match.  She was created using the Owlsley pattern in the stupid sock creature book by john murphy.

Harold was my second creature. And he went for the sock exchange His tag reads:

Hello, my name is Harold. I’m a stupid sock creature made special for you. I like to watch a wonderful life over and over. Candy canes are my fav treat. Don’t let me eat chocolate or I’ll eat your tree. If I ever, ever need a bath remember I’m dainty. Wash me in a bag on gentle cycle in the machine or handwash.
Give me lots of love, and please don’t let me play with the dog. He’ll eat my eyes.

The scotty dog pattern came from allsorts. Harold’s a bit of mutant. A smidge of Owlsley mixed with red wetty. (doesn’t that sound dirty!) He was very well recieved and passed around the room, I packaged him up with a pair of store bought holiday socks, the scotty dog ornament and some pepermint hershey kisses. I can see many more stupid sock creatures in my future!  One for Corra’s teach and more for the kids. But they just might be getting theirs for valentines day…

Random FO’s

This week is the epitome of crazy. Really, no kidding. I’ll spare you the page long story, ok? I’m just stoked cause I’m going to camp! Ok, Corra is going too. I’m talking about GS camp its only 2 days. But its long enough. I’m super excited even though its what is making my week crazy. But its ok, when I’m busy like this I don’t have time to think. And that’s ok right now. So since my brain feels like toast and I have a few FO’s that I haven’t even talked about started I’m going to throw them right at you and then hopefully catch up on some emails. (Ha. I hear you laughing!)

1. Yurdel *the* turtle

click here to see more photo’s on flickr
pattern: Sheldon by Ruth Homrighaus published in Knitty Winter 2006
yarn: light green: Red Heart acrylic in apple green?
dark green some unknown green acrylic
needles: US 3 (3.25mm) and US 4 (3.50mm)
extra’s? 2 safety eyes
time? uhhh.. I think I knit this in April… or May…
for? Mike’s cousin’s baby if I ever find a cute book for a 1 year old about turtles. (I realize that I also have to part with the cuteness that is this turtle.)
ravelry link here

Bauble

click here to see another photo on flickr
pattern: bauble by Rosemary Hill published in Knitty Spring 2007
materials: stretch magic cord. Seed beads, white and pink beads that I had and wanted to use up.
needles: US 6 (4.0mm)
time: I might have knit this in January… but I can’t remember!
for? A friend
ravlery link here

Marshmellow

click here to see more photo’s on flickr
pattern: marshmallow bonnet from itty bitty hats (ravelry link)
size: 6-12m
yarn: Jo-ann sensations bellezza collection tesoro (from the stash) 100% wool
MC 8000 (white) lot 99
CC 954 (pink) lot 56
needles: US 7 (4.50mm)
hook: H (for the loopies)
gauge: 5sts/inch
mods: I crocheted a chain of pink and weaved it in the turning row. Completely inspired by sunshineyarn’s bonnet.
notes: We accidentally left Kailey’s hat at Grandmie C’s house after Thanksgiving dinner. Her dog was a little hungry and chewed off the chin strap. Instead of dipping into another ball of white I used some leftover pink to repair the chin strap on 1/14/08.
Damned dog.
ravlery link here

4 more dishcloths

pattern: Abigail’s fabulous pinwheel dishcloth pattern (lookie in the sidebar)
yarn: Sugar n’ cream or peaches and cream…. (I’m hitting the pitches tonight aren’t I?)
needle: US 8
mods: I CO15 sts to make a smaller dishcloth that fits right into my hand. And by casting on 2 less sts you can get 2 cloths from 1 ball.

That’s it for tonight, I have to hurry up and pack for camp. And my brain is toast!

I ment to post this yesterday…

really I did.. but the camera was missing. I couldn’t remember where I put it, and I can’t even remember where I found it this morning. Anyway… thats the Mom brain.
I hope everyone had a lovely Sunday, and if you celebrate it I hope you had a lovely Easter. The kids and I did. Mike is still out at work, and if they don’t change the date for break he will be home this week. Saturday the kids and I egg-perimented (caution, there are going to be a few horrible puns rolling around this blog today!) with different egg dying techniques. (I should probably also warn you there are quite a bit of pictures hiding behind this page break!)

Happy 1st day of Spring!

I love Spring. Its my absolute favorite season. Fall is my second fav. Hearing the birds sing, the leaves start to come out. The beautiful spring green, and the sunshine! Spring hurry up!

To celebrate today I knit a few bluebirds, ok.. 3 bluebirds and a duckling… using the free bluebird pattern from berroco. I used knit picks wish in deep ocean knit at a very tight gauge using US 3 (3.25mm)dpns.

I started stuffing the little guys before I started the decreases for the head. I found it was a little easier to stuff them this way before the decreases where all done. The pattern doesn’t say where to attach everything. So I just winged it (ha ha). I gave the birds a little squish down so they would stand better and sewed the tail where the increases on the bottom stopped. I also made the beaks smaller so they would be less toucan-ish. I casted on 4 sts instead of 8. Folded the beak in half (cast on edge to the cast off edge) and then sewed it on. I found the directions for the yarn nest here on family fun’s website. It is a little flopsy. But that might be because of the yarn I used.

This little guy is on its way to someone special. I hope it brightens up her month. Found the nest at Jo-ann’s today. And do you have any idea how hard it is to find plain grape vine birds nests? I’ll be experimenting in making some birds nests this weekend. Bryce was watching me knit up the birds and made his own request for a duck

I used some unknown acrylic that someone gave me and the same US 3 (3.25mm) dpns. Before he asked me he said “you haven’t knitted me anything for awhile.” boy, he is one smart kid! And in true fashion its snowing here! Happy First day of Spring everyone!