This and That and Christmas

The sampler is finished! Just needs a good pressing and framing. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'll post a photo when it's framed up.

Will asked me to make him a scarf "for skiing", so that's what I'm working on now. I'll probably end up making a matching hat, too, if there's enough of this yarn left. He is very excited, which makes making things for him really fun. It's nice being thought of as magical. :D

I've also figured out 85% of the Christmas gifts out. Now I just have to actually make them. Some knitting, some sewing, some concocting. I'm getting excited...

Hurray For...

Sheena! You're the big winner! A little package will be sent on its way to you on Monday. Thanks for playing, everyone! I will have another give-away by the end of the month. Can't wait!

Happy February -- Get Free Stuff!

This is a somewhat silly photo taken before Christmas on our front porch wearing a twisted-drop-stitch scarf. This particular scarf was a little something that I sort of just did without really thinking it out. And it ended up super-wide. It can double as a hood, a shawl and probably a picnic blanket.

The yarn is natural wool that I purchased mass quantities of in Argentina in 2006, hauled home, wound into balls and then looked at for 2.5 years trying to decide what to do with it.

That's where you come in. I have so much of this yarn, and this stitch is so easy-fast, I have made a second scarf (normal scarf-sized, not blanket-sized) and want to give it to someone!

Please leave me a comment and I'll have Willaby draw a name on Saturday Feb 6!

Victoria Fingerless Mittens

I tried no less than 3 times to make some fingerless mittens/mitts/wrist warmers for my mom for Christmas. She had mentioned that she wanted a pair and I thought I'd be able to just whip them up quick and not even need patten. This was not the case. It took me weeks of trying over and over to finally admit I had no idea what I was doing and just get the correct yarn and use a pattern. Psh.



And I'm so glad I did. I am happy with how they turned out. This pattern is Victoria Fingerless Mittens from Knitting Little Luxuries. I've had this book for several years, and love a lot of the patterns, but this is the first one I've actually tried. One weird thing I noticed is that all of the mittens and mitts in this book are knit flat and then seamed. For some reason I couldn't figure out how to just knit it in the round so I did it the hard way. Also, even though the pattern only called for one ball of yarn, and I got a ball that was more yardage than the pattern called for, and I had the correct gauge, I still ran out of yarn about 3/4 through the second mitten. Annoying. But it was all worth it.

Pink Elephant

My friend Adelyn asked me to make this sweet elephant for her daughter. It was fun and pretty fast to make and I even learned a couple new things. It's far from perfect but I hope it's ok! I get so nervous when I make anything for anyone.



The pattern can be found here.

A Tale of Two Mittens

Once upon a time (last Christmas), a Brother asked a Sister to make him some mittens like hers. "Of course," said Sister and she promptly began to knit them.


She knit and knit, trying to finish them before leaving Brother's town for Her town. Soon it became obvious that the mittens were going to be much too small for Brother. They were too small for Sister, who was just a medium-sized girl. There was no way they would fit a large-sized Brother.


Sister got bummed out and put the mittens away. She worked on them on and off (mostly off) for many months. Then, Sister decided to finish them. After all, Sister-in-Law was a small-sized girl -- surely they will fit her!

And so now they are finally finished. And everyone will be happy. Well, except for Brother, who will still not have any mittens.



Pattern by Hello Yarn .
This is my 3rd pair of these mittens I've made and I really love them. They were my first experience doing color work and were a great introduction! Plus, cute as cute and free pattern! Why this pair turned out so much smaller than the others is still a mystery.

The Felting of the Fox

So, last August while I was on bed rest with nothing but crafting to do, I ordered all of these little critters from Crafty Alien. For one reason or another, it took two months for her to send them to me which meant that my plan of getting them all done before the babe showed up didn't happen. And now here we are a year later and I'm just now finishing a couple of them (I did get the owl done before Will was born).

I was going to do a tutorial on felting but...I forgot and only took a couple of pics. So, it's probably not terribly helpful, but I'll post the pics anyway.

All the pieces knit up and ready to go.

Soak for 5 minutes in hot, soapy water. Then roll and squeeze each piece around in your hand until the individual stitches disappear.

All of the pieces are now felted. Stuff with batting and shape as desired. Allow to dry overnight.

Attach parts and applique face, etc. Allow to roam free.

Will loves the owl but it took him a few minutes to warm up to the fox. He seems to like it here.

Ok, so I'm pretty bad at following directions and have to read things a million times to understand what they're telling me. And even though I read the instructions many times, I still missed a step or two. Haha. So, this fox has plenty of mistakes. The white belly was supposed to be appliqued onto the body pre-felting, which I did not do. And the tail wasn't supposed to be stuffed. Haha. So the tail is like...as big as the body and the fox can't stand up at all. It's pretty comical.

I still have kits for a squirrel and a raccoon but felting the fox and the deer in the same night kind of burned me out. So we'll see when I get to those. However, the raccoon kit has gone MIA. Typical.

Jaune Boutons Numéro Deux

Remember this sweater that I made while on bed rest back in September/October? Well here it is on the babe! It's still quite a bit too big, which is hilarious since I made the 3-6 month size. Oh well.

Actually, I'm glad it doesn't fit right now because he wouldn't be wearing it anyway in this 90+ degree heat. I'm hoping it'll fit perfect in November or whenever it's going to get cool again. We'll see.

Anyway, love it on him! He's such a vintage car coat kind of guy.

Yellow Buttons

As promised, here are photos of the Vintage Car Coat that I finished last night. It still needs to be blocked a bit to even things out, but I'm really happy with it!

The pattern and yarn are from the package that Lisa sent me several weeks ago. I got the entire thing done except for the collar and the seaming and then of course ran out of yarn. I ended up having to order another ball from the UK but luckily it was neither too expensive nor did it take too long to show up in my mail.

So, that's all the excitement around here. Had a doctor's appointment this morning but no news. We're just patiently waiting! Time to lie down...

Almost Jacket Weather -- Praise Be!

Today was incredible.
Fluffy clouds!? No way!
1) We had weather. That's right. Here in Southern California. The air actually FELT and the sunlight actually LOOKED like autumn. It was almost disorienting. And apparently, we're supposed to experience things like cloudy skies and MAYBE rain for the rest of the week! These past two days we have done such unlikely things as turning off the air conditioning, opening windows and I actually wore a jacket this morning. Craziness I tell you. 67 degrees what?


A baby lemon!
2) My lemon tree is growing a lemon. This is an event I thought would never take place. I'm not known for my plant raising abilities and for a tree under my care to actually grow something is nothing short of a miracle. Keep it up champ!

And finally...
3) I have two finished projects to show off plus I'll have another tomorrow once the happy sun comes back up and I'm able to take some pictures. I'm a sewing/knitting fool over here, I tell ya. Of course, I was very naughty today for being up so much and now my poor feet are paying the price. I'll have to spend all day tomorrow on the couch to make up for it -- but what is one to do when motivation strikes? That's not something easily ignored.


Pillow covers!
A) You may recall our pillow conundrum (here and here). Well, after seriously months of searching and discussing, I finally ended up making these - a variation on John's vision that I made come to life. I like them, but if left to my own devices, they aren't what I would have come up with. Which may be a good thing? However, I am relieved to finally have something on the naked, pokey inserts. And I'm very happy that John likes them.


Don't look at these too carefully!
B) And here we've got some little booties I knit up. They are from the Sublime pattern book and yarn that Lisa gave me. I actually finished them a couple days ago and hated them (I do, however, love the buttons. They were salvaged from a vintage sweater that fell apart). I have a problem with rarely being satisfied with things I make because I know all of the flaws they have. However, being a couple days removed from these booties, I am happier with them now. Time heals all memory of imperfections, I suppose. :)

See ya'll tomorrow!

Most Excellent

So I've determined that bed rest is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. For example, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm sitting on the couch, eating dark chocolate and watching Pride & Prejudice (in my Top 3 Movies Ever). I mean really now. What more could one ask for?

But really the best part about not working is that I finally have time to do the things I love and want to do...pretty much whenever I want to do them! It's a dream come true. I will always look back fondly on these several weeks between not working and the baby showing up.

I've got lots of pictures to share since it's been so long since I last wrote. So...

First thank-you gifts for the lovely ladies who hosted and helped with my baby shower. I didn't get a photo of the sleeping masks I made but that's them sticking out of the mugs. The pattern is another from Amy Butler's In Stitches and the fabric is just a sweet cherry pattern for the front with a green-blue on the back and ivory ribbon ties. Kind of silly, but fun. All girls love just pretty little things, right?


Next is the Debbie Bliss garter-stitch blanket (from Baby Knits for Beginners) that I've been working on since like, oh, last Christmas. I've actually had all the squares done for a couple months but was dreading the seaming. Luckily, I brought everything with me when we spent the weekend at our good friends' house and I had no choice but work on it. It's not perfect and I almost wish I could do it all over but I guess it's alright. I added a single crochet border to try to even everything out. I like all the colors anyway. Thank goodness that's over with.


And last for this post, a Christmas stocking. These felt stocking kits are something from my childhood -- my mom made all 7 of her kids a stocking and they've always been one of my favorite Christmas memories. When we got married, I made stockings for both John and I and they've hung from our mantel each Christmas. I'm so excited to add another this year. Name has been blurred out since we haven't yet announced the name to anyone.


And hey, what is up with it being so hot still? Dang Southern California. This time every year I get really homesick for good ol' Utah seasons. It's called AUTUMN, California. Perhaps you've heard of it? *sigh*

Hurray! It's done!

The cradle is done! It turned out better than I could have hoped for, considering my lack of painting skills, but thanks to lots of help from my little bro Ivan we got it done. The green turned out to be the exact color I wanted -- and now that this is done I feel like I'm pretty much ready for this baby to show up. Only 7-ish more weeks (hopefully)! I'm so so so happy!


Oh, hey what's that little critter?


It's a felted owl that I started yesterday and finished this morning. Isn't he adorable? Ruth sent me a kit from Crafty Alien on Etsy to entertain me while laying around. It was so much fun that I'm planning on getting a couple others -- I'm thinking the raccoon, the deer and the beaver. Adorable, no?

P.S. The quilt in the cradle is from Pottery Barn Kids -- Cottontail Friends.

My Favorite Weather : Overcast and Humid.

Okay, I am loving the weather this morning and hope that it stays this way for awhile. According to Google, rain is predicted for today. Please! Rain!

And because it's so deliciously gloomy and almost Autumn-like outside, I figured I'd show you this project.

Pattern : Endpaper Mitts from Eunny Jang Pretty simple pattern, once I re-read it several times.

Yarn : Sorry, I can't remember! Some fingering weight cashmere blend type, in purple and cream. It's SO soft!

Needles : US 0 and 3 bamboo DPNs

Modifications : Nothing on purpose. And no, of course I didn't swatch. So they ended up like, 4 inches longer then they were "supposed" to. But that's okay!

Start to Finish : Several months. They were a birthday present and ended up being 2 months late. Oops! This was due mostly to my laziness.

For : My beautiful younger sister.

****

Ok, next on the programme. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I picked up my copy on Friday night and only let myself read the first chapter that night. I'm trying to drag it out as long as possible cause I'll be so sad when it's over. I spent all day yesterday in bed sick though and read way more than I was going to allow myself, so, I might be taking a break from it today. It's so hard though!! I have a couple friends who have finished and are re-reading it already. Crazy kids. :)

And finally, you've got to see this vintage apron that Christen found over the weekend. I'm am so in love and wrought with jealousy. It's perhaps the most darling thing I've ever laid my eyes upon



I mean, hello. Just look at it.