Just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the joys and blessings that this time of year brings. I’d also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may you all keep safe and find happiness.
God bless,
Karen
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Today is my granddaughter’s birthday and her mom phoned last night asking if I had any child-sized shirts that she could use (she knows I have stock from tie-dyeing). Unfortunately I don’t have much in the way of children’ shirts. Upon further inquiry it turned out what she really wanted were children’s aprons. It seems the company that she had ordered from messed up her order and instead of delivering her nine little aprons yesterday they sent her two tea balls. Say what?
Anyhow I went online to try and find a local store that carried small aprons and couldn’t find any at all and the long and short of it was that I ended up making nine wee aprons for the cookie decorating/birthday party. I was fortunate to find a tutorial online that had a free pattern so many thanks go out to Sew Much Ado for saving the day.
I didn’t have time to use binding, in fact I didn’t have any binding on hand for nine aprons but I did have a partial bolt of white left over from fabric dyeing so I cut out two aprons, made some ties and then sewed it all together and turned the apron inside-out and then sewed a 1/4 finishing seam around the whole thing. That way I didn’t have to sew the opening by hand that I’d left over from turning the apron inside-out.
Many, many hours later I’m done just in time for the party.
This is my artistic photo, I thought the ties hanging down looked cool.
Nine different aprons with children’s print fabric pockets.
Needless to say my daughter phoned just as I was putting on the last pockets to let me know that three of the children wouldn’t make it. Hmmm, that would have been about an hour’s work right there. Oh well, at least they are done.
Karen
Done at last after spending three days of six hours each I’ve finally finished. Amazing what a deadline will do I still can’t believe I managed to finish sewing the binding down in one day. I’m surprised my elbows and fingers didn’t fall off.
Anyway here it is, pardon the pictures but it was very overcast and then I just slapped the quilt overtop a queen size bed without making sure it was all straight and pretty. Hopefully it will make one little grandson very happy. He recently moved into a new room and the walls were painted with the light blue and green from this quilt and he picked out the fabric for the backing, (which I forgot to take a picture of), so hopefully he remembers all this.
Riding the Rails by Renae Lindgren for Wilmington Prints.
The backing is the same green that is around the center block. The quilting was mostly in the ditch using a walking foot. There was some free-motion quilting done in the blocks and banner. Nothing special but the quilt seem to call for a lot of straight quilting and it was the quickest way to get it done quickly as well. It’s a big relief to get it done on time.
Karen
Not much to blog about this time. I’ve been busy trying to get some stuff done for Christmas. I did finally get dad’s socks finished.
Ann Budd – “Knitting Socks, Getting Started” – Basic Socks pattern. The yarn is Paton’s Kroy FX – Clover.
It took me a couple of weeks to knit the socks (seemed like forever). Unfortunately I have developed quite a bad shoulder problem with rotator cuff pain so I have to knit for a bit then set the knitting aside and do something else. I’d had a sore shoulder for months but hadn’t gotten it checked out. The result was with the gear up for Christmas the pain got worse. I’ve been to the doctor and had x-rays and ultrasound done so now I have to wait and see what the results are and what can I do to help the shoulder heal (please don’t tell me no knitting).
I managed to get the quilt top for Chase pinned today and bought some matching thread so hopefully within a week’s time I’ll be able to show you a finished quilt. It’s got to be soon as I’m running out of time before Christmas. LOL, everything else has gone by the wayside, oh well “there’s always next year”.
It does occur to me as I type that I’m getting older and there may not “always be a next year”. Hmm, maybe I should have a goal of getting things done sooner rather than later.
Karen
Snagged some Lion Brand Homespun at a really good price at a Michael’s sale so decided to make dad a lap throw for Christmas. I found the pattern online through Ravelry but it’s actually a free pattern through the Lion Brand website Four-and-a-half-hour afghan.
Of course the afghan took me longer than four and a half hours and I ended up using not six balls of yarn but all eight that I had orignally bought. I needed the extra two balls to get to the same size of throw that the pattern stated but the afghan is really stretchy so it’s possible you’d get the same size using six balls of Homespun. The yarn is crocheted using a size Q hook and two strands of yarn held together. I set the two balls of Homespun side by side in front of me on a chair and pulled the yarn from the inside of the balls so they wouldn’t roll around.
It took between two to three hours to crochet up a ball of yarn but I was working with a bum shoulder and a crappy plastic hook. The acrylic yarn likes to catch on the plastic so it slows you down a bit. The pattern is crochet a single stitch then a double stitch in the same hole then skip a stitch and repeat, dead easy. I really like how the afghan felt using the two strands of yarn. Very heavy, soft and sprongy, nice to cuddle up in.
Yarn is Lion Brand Homespun in the colour Ocean. Picture taken at night so it’s hard to see. Actually the yarn is multi-coloured so it’s various green, teal, purple and turquoise colours.
John demoing the lap throw.
I’ve also crocheted up a couple more oven towels for Christmas. I have one here for display. There is a tutorial over under the tutorial side bar if anyone is interested.
Christmas oven towel.
Karen
I’ve been working on my grandson’s quilt the last few days and thought I’d share the progress so far. I still have some checkerboard borders to sew and attach and then of course the actual quilting so I guess I’m only about 1/3 done so far but it’s been an easy sew to date.
Riding the Rails by Renae Lindgren for Wilmington Prints.
I also worked on November’s CAL blocks for my afghan. I only have December to do up and then I have to sew the squares together, a job I’m not looking forward too. I still don’t know whether or not I’m going to keep this one or give it away. I’ve put a lot of work into it and I’m not sure anyone else will appreciate the effort that’s gone into the afghan so I’m inclined to keep this one. Besides it matches my bedroom colours.
African star designed by Edith Smith.
Shining Star designed by Amelian Beebe.
Karen
A couple of weeks ago I agree to do a test knit for ‘torirot designs’ for some fair isle mitts. Finally finished today and it’ll be a long while before I ever work on such a small project on double-point needles for a while. Talk about fiddly.
Dreaming of Provence. Pattern and copyright torirot designs. Once the pattern is fully tested it’ll be available to Ravelry members so look for it there.
John modelling the mittens. Had to colour adjust because of the light background. The real colours are in the first picture.
I mostly used Jamieson and Smith yarn for the mittens. The white was Knitpicks Palette and it is a smoother yarn to work with. The J&S is the best for knitting Fair Isle as it’s Shetland wool and Shetland yarn is more wiry so the fibres tend to stick together better and fill in the spaces between stitches for a more even look.
Now that I’ve gotten that project out of the way I’m starting in on my Christmas sewing projects namely a quilt I have planned for Chase. Once I get that done I’ll be happy, happy, happy (I’ve been watching a lot of Duck Dynasty lately, lol).
Karen
My DIL wanted to learn how to crochet so I set her up on Ravelry and we looked at some easy projects that she might try and she found a free pattern from A Crafty House that she liked.
Well she got quite a few favourable comments on her cowl scarf so I decided I’d try a few myself making them for our Blessings group. The group has a yarn stash and knits up various winter items for those who need them. I wanted to do something but I’m so bogged down with projects it had to be a quick item to make.
I’m happy to say these scarves only take about an hour to an hour and a half to crochet. They do use up the yarn quite quickly so make sure you have full balls of yarn to work with and depending on your gauge you might not get in the full six rows for a 100 gram ball of yarn. The Red Heart super saver balls would work quite nicely because they are a bigger ball.
Quick Circle Scarves. Knit with Vanna’s Choice 100 gram solids.
Bear doing his thing modelling for me again.
Hint for working the scarf, make sure you don’t twist the chain when joining and pull the yarn from the center of the balls.
Karen
Well the time is once again running down and the days are getting fewer until Christmas and it’s always a mad scramble to try and figure out exactly what I can get done before the big day.
Each year I promise myself that I’m going to start early and get things ready on time but each year I don’t. I have come to the conclusion that I’ll never be ready and even if I were then I’d always find that last minute item that I’d want to make anyhow and then run out of time.
I’ve been trying to come up with ideas that would be good for the grandkids but wouldn’t break the budget. Now that John is retired I have to think twice before going out and spending the retirement dollars. It suddenly occured to me that I could make some crayon rolls for the children. It’s been a few years since I last made these and I’ve always given them away for charity. This year I can finally give them to my grandchildren instead.
Crayon Rolls.
These are very easy to make and there is a good tutorial over at Skip to my Lou
Karen
I’ve been busy trying to catch up on my crochet blocks and I now have them all done except the extra bonus block for October. If I do the bonus block then I’ll have 25 squares by December and that would make a 5X5 afghan so I’ll probably do it but maybe in a few days as I’ve wrecked my shoulder by crocheting so much.
I need to work on some quilting anyhow so it’s time for a break. I also have some crayon rolls planned for the grandkids. Now that I have grandchildren I can make these for myself and not give them away for charity. Should be fun with lots of bright colours.
Anyhow here are the next five blocks of the series.
In Treble by Julie Yeager.
Winter’s Lace by Teresa Kohlhoff.
Sweet Peas by Rebecca Bisbing.
Embracing Variety by Aurora Suominen/Ivory Herman.
The Crocodile Flower by Joyce Lewis.
All the blocks can be found on Ravelry.
My favourite block so far and by far the most difficult is the Crocodile Flower. This block took what seemed like forever – around 8 to 9 hours to work up. I started with the middle and then crocheted a frame around it. After finishing the frame I started in on the petals so the result is a 3-D effect and it’s very pretty.
Hard to believe that we are halfway through October and Christmas is looming closer and closer, only a couple months worth of time left to try and get some goodies made. Last Christmas the kids decided not to trade presents so I only have to worry about the grandkids so we’ll see how that works out. Hopefully you’ll see me posting lots of finished items in the upcoming two months.
Karen
