The Presents!

This is what has kept me busy this holiday season.

This is the free pattern that I post earlier. I made this purse for my Hairdresser? Stylist? Not sure what the PC term is, but that is who this was for.
Here is a cowl that I made for my friend Em. This was a quick and easy project and best of all... a free pattern! Found here
I couldn't get a great picture of this for some reason (the lighting was bad no matter what I did) but this is the Princess and the Pea doll that I made for my niece. I also bought her a Princess and the Pea book to go with it. I got this knitting pattern from this book.
Here is a scarf that I crocheted. I "made up" this pattern, which was just rows of color, each in a row of single crochet and a row of double crochet. I got a little carried away with this one and the finished measurement was something like 10' from end to end. It was fun to make, though! :-)
I look like a dork in this picture :-) My hair looks strange and I have a weird smirk on my face but it is the headband that matters. I made this for my son's Kindergarten teacher for Christmas. I sort-of made up this pattern too.
And some hand warmers to match for the same Kindergarten teacher.
Here is the frog/turtle flip toy that I made for my nephew. I got the pattern out of this book.
The magic.
The other side.

I already have a list of projects to make in the new year. First up... cleaning house :-)

The card

Every year for the past 3 years, I have made my Christmas cards. It gets a little tricky if I don't have any ideas and for the sheer fact that I make 120 each year, but I enjoy doing it. This year's card turned out nice. I made snow globe hang-tags for the front that can be removed and hung as an ornament on a Christmas tree. I sewed each of the hangtags with my sewing machine and used the excess thread as the tie. I sandwiched sequence in between the photo and a piece of acetate so that they moved like snow, similar to a real snow globe. I made and hand stamped the design for the base and added a red card stock backing before I sewed them all together. The background on the front I stamped with acrylic snowflake stamps with a silver metallic stamp pad. On the inside of the card I sewed a silver card stock circle that read, "Merry Christmas". Because of lighting and that the card stock had a shimmer to it, I was unable to get a good/un-blurry picture of the inside, but there is a close up detail below. I have already started brain storming ideas for my 2011 Christmas cards. :-)

Have a safe and Merry Christmas and my next post will be all of the Christmas presents that I made this year :-)

Inspiration

Here are some things that are inspiring me this holiday season!

Cardigan
I know that this is a little late for pumpkins, but this Dog Cowl is adorable!
Skirt
Scull mittens
Crocheted Scarf
Wall Art
Knitted Cowl
Anthropologie Necklace
Anthropologie necklace

Anthropologie necklace

Tis the Season....

.... to be Jolly? Giving? Knitting? I say: ALL 3!!! So here is a free pattern! I wanted to make a cable knit purse for a friend for Christmas and couldn't find a pattern that I liked... so I made my own. Hope you all enjoy this and please e-mail me with any questions. Happy Holidays!

Cable Knit Purse

Materials

2 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn in the color Grey Marble.

2- 8" circular bamboo handles

Size 13 needles

darning needle

thread and fabric for lining (optional)

Pattern

(the following two rows is the repeat pattern. These are the 2 rows you will knit unless you are on a cable row. All cable rows are knit on the right size, so all wrong side rows are knitted in the pattern labeled 'Wrong Side row' shown below).

Right Side row: p4, k6, p k p k p k p, k12, p k p k p k p, k6, p4 (46 sts)

Wrong Side row: k4, p6, p k p k p k p, p12, p k p k p k p, p6, k4 (46 sts)

Cable Row A: (always knit on a right side): p4, slide next 3 sts onto a cable needle and lay needle on front side of work, k next 3 sts, k the sts on the cable needle. p k p k p k p, slide the next 6 sts onto cable needle and lay on front side of work. k6, k the sts on cable needle. p k p k p k p , slide the next 3 sts onto a cable needle and lay needle on front side of work. k next 3 sts, k sts on cable needle, p4. (46 sts)

Cable Row B: (always knit on a right side): p4, slide next 3 sts onto a cable needle and lay needle on front size of work. k next 3 sts, k sts on cable needle. p k p k p k p, k12, p k p k p k p, slide next 3 sts onto a cable needle and lay needle on the front size of work. k next 3 sts, k sts on cable needle, p4. (46 sts)

Cast on 46 sts. Start repeat pattern RS row, WS row until piece measures 5 1/2" ending a WS row.

next row: Cable Row A

starting with a WS row, repeat pattern for next 7 rows ending on a WS row

next row: Cable Row B

starting with a WS row, repeat pattern for next 7 rows ending on a WS row.

next row: Cable Row A

(continue this pattern until piece measures 26" or so, which will be after you knit the 5th Cable row A)

starting with a WS row, continue repeat pattern (WS row, RS row) until piece measures 5 1/2" from last cable row, ending on a RS row.

Bind off.

With right sides together, using a darning needle and the leftover tails or leftover yarn, sew up the sides 9" using a whip stitch. Turn work right side out. Wrap the top of the front side or back side of purse (the cast on or bind off row) around one of the bambo handles toward the inside of purse, just enough to cover and using the same yarn, whip stitch along the entire edge. Repeat with other side. Tuck in ends.

At this point you can line the purse, which is optional. I always recommend lining a knitted purse to give it stability. I cut a rectangle of fabric 22"x30". I folded it in half lengthwise so that that the folded measurement was 22"x15". With the right sides together and using my sewing machine and a 2" seam allowance, I sewed up the sides about 9 1/2". I leave 2" on each side so that I have plenty to work with. I then place the lining into the purse and pin into place with the right side of the fabric showing. I turned the fabric edges toward the wrong side of the fabric and I hand sew it into place using a matching sewing thread. When I sew the top portions, I will cover the whip stitched edge (around the handle), which makes a cleaner look. This part sounds pretty complicated, but it is much easier than it sounds and become pretty self explanatory as you go.

Again, e-mail me with any questions and Happy Holidays!!!

Say What?

This is the conversation that my husband and I had this morning:

Me: Hey, Babe.... can you fix my super-duper-big-circle-paper-punch? There is one edge that just doesn't cut well. Technically it works, but I really have to push hard and my arm starts to hurt. This is for my Christmas cards and so I have to have this done ASAP.

Hubby: I can, but wouldn't it be easier if you just had me cut them out for you?

Me: If you would prefer, that would be great. Here is the stack of card stock, 2 circles per page please.

Hubby: How many circles do you need me to cut out?

Me: 60

Hubby: WHAAAAAA?????? You send out 60 Christmas cards EVERY YEAR?!?!?!?!?!

Me: No. Geeze!.... I send out 120, I already cut out the 1st 60 circles and now my arm is tired.

That's right!!!! This week is Christmas-Card-Crunch-Time!!!!! I have 120 Christmas cards to make and my deadline is Wednesday the 24th. And to throw in a real kink... we are going to be out of town this weekend and I will be unable to work on them at all from Friday to Sunday afternoon. I hope to get a lot accomplished this week but since my youngest has hit the terrible twos almost instantly this week, I might be setting the bar a little high. :-)

Oh AND this is my 100th blog post!!!! YAY for me!

Copy a Sweater?

I was on the website full of almost all of my inspiration... Anthropologie, and I found this sweater and fell in love. It is knitted with what looks like worsted weight yarn so I think I am going to try my hand at creating a pattern for this baby..... as if I don't already have enough to do. :-)

Costume

So, I cheated this year. My oldest wanted to be Darth Vader and a friend had given us a costume that her son wore last year. I planned on embellishing it a little but then I figured that it would be a hassle for him to dress himself at school for his party if there was all kinds of extra things on his costume. So he had a store bought costume this year... and he didn't care, it worked out.

Since my youngest is too young to pick his own costume, we made him into Yoda. I had to make his entire costume which turned out to be a piece of cake. I used a pattern for his pants and made them out of brown linen. I cut apart one of his long sleeve t-shirts that I was willing to sacrifice and used it as a pattern for the shirt, which I also made out of brown linen. I made a few alterations to the shirt to make it more "Yoda-ish". At times Yoda wears a cream colored cloak, so I also used the t-shirt for that pattern. When I made the hood I didn't allot for size so it didn't fit, but really Yoda's hood isn't big enough to fit those big ears anyway so I think it was fine. I also sewed the brown linen scraps together and created 3 long pieces of double fold biased tape that I sewed together and braided for the belt

The "hat" I made out of green polar fleece. I cut out a square that was bigger than his head, I draped it on his head and pinched each of the sides so that it cupped his head. I cut out 4 ear shapes, sewed them together, stuffed them and then sewed them on top of the gathered sides. I used a machine to sew the front and back of the ears together but the gathers on the hat and attaching the ears had to be done by hand. I think if I had it to do over, I would have sewed some details into the ears but all in all I think it tuned out just fine.

As a bonus, the glow stick that I bought for "little Yoda" just happened to be green so he had his own mini light saber in the appropriate Yoda green. I had a toy light saber for him but it didn't light up and was frankly too big for him to carry around anyway.

My oldest wants to be Indiana Jones next year, so I better get started on that! :-) But 1st, my Christmas cards need to be made BY Thanksgiving!

NYC!!!

I never did get a chance to share the pictures that I took in August when I was in NYC. So here are some of my favorites:

Necklace

It has been CRAZY around here! Right now I am trying to get the sketches put together and plans made for the Halloween Costumes for this year. I also have most of the products purchased to make my Christmas cards and I have some other projects in the works, mostly Christmas presents.


I took time out of my busy schedule to make this necklace for my friend, Jenny's, birthday. I saw a necklace that was near identical to this one on Anthropologie.com recently and I decided to make one. I am calling this my "up-cycled" necklace since I used an old t-shirt for the flower petals. I think it turned out nice and I have a bunch of other jewelry ideas floating around in my head that will go into my sketch book until I become less swamped with craziness.


I hope to post soon on some projects that are in the works, but I can't make any promises! eek!

Self Portrait

I have tons to post but no time to do it in!!! I am compiling and working on posting some crafty things but it is taking longer than expected. So with the limited time that I had today, I decided to post my new favorite picture!!! This is a self portrait that I did while in New York. This is when we first arrived at night in a cab. I am completely smitten.... with New York and this picture!

Quilt

My latest venture: quilting. Here is the 1st one, it took me about a week to piece together and quilt. I kept the pieces simple and rectangular and I only quilted a few of the pieces just for function. I used old sheets for the batting so that it would be "green" and also washable. I enjoyed doing this and I am definitely going to make more!