Hat for Mara

With the holiday socks finished for my husband, I had some time on my hands and dipped my toe back into stranded color work. This gorgeous pattern and kit came from Ysolda. It knit up in no time. 

Once it was blocked I put it in the mail to my friend in Seattle. I love the holidays!

Stormy Sky Socks - "They look just like his other ones," she said.

Here are the holiday socks for my husband for 2019. Each year I knit him a pair and tuck them in his stocking. This year I went with Felici yarn from KnitPicks in Stormy Sky. They turned out great! These were done in late October, but the photos were added in early 2020.

When I showed them to one of my daughters she remarked, "they look just like his other ones." True, true (but not really). He does love brown, navy and gray and all of his socks have been one of those colors, so she has a point.

Cross Stitch Projects

Midsummer sprigs by Posie gets Cozy,

and a completed Halloween sampler by The Prairie Schooler.

This is the first time that I washed my stitching after it was done. I like how it softened the fabric and the iron took care of the wrinkles. Now to get them both framed...

Holiday Quilt (quilted)

Just in time for the holidays! I got my quilt back from Heather and hand stitched the binding down. What a fun addition to our living room this winter. And as my daughter says, "Quilts are in heavy rotation in our house during the winter - we can always use another one!"

Holiday Quilt

During some vacation time from work I was finally able to do the assembly for this whimsical holiday quilt. I purchased the kit last year and did most of the cutting. Then it sat until this year when I was able to assemble the blocks and put the whole top together.

I dropped off the quilt top, batting, backing, and binding strip with Heather of Blue Turtle Quilting. I am really looking forward to having this one around the house for the winter holidays!

Sweet Home and Six Completed Sets!

I think I can probably admit myself to the Alicia Paulson fan club.  Just yesterday I put the last stitch in the 18th of her 18 holiday ornaments when I completed her "Sweet Home" kit.

[Even though we don't have a blue door, or stone archway, my youngest daughter suggested putting our house numbers above the door.  I love this special touch!]

I have process photos here, here and here, but I don't have full photos of each of the ornaments.  There are three that slipped by without being photographed (snowflake, deer and cabin w/red door)

Instead, I have the following photos of the 18 completed ornaments below. They run up our banister and hang from some fake garland with safety pins.  I know that someday - when the kids all move out and on to having their own trees - our tree will feel bare.  And we'll be able to put these ornaments on our tree when those years arrive.  Until then, they can hang in the hallway for us to enjoy all season long.

They are a bit out of order since the kids help hang them up, but you can see all the kits and/or pattern sets here:

Snowy Day

Night Before Christmas

Winter Cabin

Sweet Home

Ice Skating Afternoon

Walk in the Woods

Father and Godfather Socks

Then there were these two pair - bringing the grand total for the holiday season up to 12 socks! - that went to my Dad and my Godfather.

The pair above are a lovely blue and the ones below are a mellow grey tweed.  Both are superwash yarns and should hold up well to some hard wearing.

Handmade Halloween

This years Halloween was pretty fun.  I returned to my favorite mask designer, Oxeyedaisey, on Etsy and purchased her fox and skull mask patterns and went to town.  I made all the masks from wool felt this year, and purchased pieces from Prairie Woolens - what an amazing selection they provide!

I stayed with a traditional skull for my husband but worked embroidery into my mask and turned it into a Catrina theme with flowers and a veil.

The pirate designed and developed her own costume from the (sadly) increasingly neglected dress-up box.  My three woodland creatures took a bit of help from me.

The fox was straightforward and we added an improvised tail from flannel and fake fur.  The hedgehog mask was purchased from on The Masked Menagerie on Etsy.  I self-designed the body suit with lots of inspiration and a tutorial from Alida Makes.  The whitetail deer was improvised off the base pattern from the fox, with inspiration for coloration and details from Magical Attic on Etsy.

Overall the costumes turned out great and the masks will be heirlooms in our costume closet.  Indeed, this holiday I loaned out our wolf, rooster and hen masks to friends for Halloween fun!

"Who" knows what next year will bring...maybe a family of wise owls?!

Handmade Holidays

The first handmade gift of the holiday season is for myself - a new double-pointed knitting needle roll.  Using fabrics from our trip to Japan last February I put this sweet little roll together in about an hour.  It replaces my much larger needle case crafted in 2008.  That one was made to accommodate 10 to 14-inch straight needles.  In the years since I made that case I have gravitated towards using circular needles and my little double points kept falling out of the over sized roll. 

I am just in love with this little case - it is perfectly sized and the fabrics make me so happy.

This next gift is a whimsical tree ornament from the Posie Gets Cozy collection that I have been working through.  When I was working the most recent set of three ornaments I made a rookie mistake by crafting two identical trees when I should have made mirror images!  I even make this mistake TWICE - on the snowflake ornament too - just goes to show that crafting and mothering at the same time don't always work out the way that you expect.  Yikes.  At first I was disappointed/frustrated by my silly error, but quickly realized that with a little more effort I could turn it into a second ornament.  This second tree will go to my Mother-in-Law for Christmas.

The kit was actually sold out for this set of ornaments so I purchased the pattern and then ordered felt and matching floss from Prairie Woolens.    

This cowl, completed a couple months ago, will head to my Sister-in-Law.

This next needle case will go to my niece who has recently learned to knit.  I purchased sets of aluminum straight needles (which she seems to prefer) from Ebay and crafted the case to fit them.  Paired with some skeins of yarn it will make a great starter knitting kit for her.  And since I am partial to them, I put in a couple circular needles and double-points to round out the collection for her too.

Speaking of knitting, we have THREE new knitters under our roof!  This past month I taught my three older daughters to knit and they just took off.  The scarves they are creating are incredible and they couldn't be more excited to watch their own progress.  Abby (below) is wearing the first thing she ever knit - a red scarf for her favorite 5th grade teacher.  We had to google 'average length for a men's scarf' which came back about about 6 feet.  Abby decided to cut this one off at 5 feet.

My eight year old is part of a Girl Scout Troop that is focused heavily on the arts.  This past month they went to a local pottery studio that also carries a great selection of beads.  She was so into it!  In that short afternoon she made earrings for her older sisters.

The following week she and I took a separate trip to a local beading store and made more earrings for older sisters and a necklace for her younger sister.

I am so excited the crafting and creating is becoming a part of what we can do together as a family and that they are all excited to make things for others.  While I didn't 'make' as much this year as I have in years past I am finding so much joy in seeing my girls make for others.

Just before Thanksgiving

On the day before our Thanksgiving the house is humming - the sound of the washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, the hot oven, kids laughing/arguing and dog barking.  I swear the house is vibrating in its foundation.

I have to humbly admit that these are the years that I have been yearning for - no more infants or diapers, just a few little kid tantrums and no teenage angst (just yet).  I can actually bake a pie from scratch without interruption.

This humming is the sound of what I am thankful for this day, and every day.

pumpkin waiting to be baked, pureed and turned into pie

I also realized that the winter holidays are just around the corner and I pulled out the unfinished ornament kits from Alicia Paulson that I stowed last year.  I surprised myself by re-discovering that I had cut out all the pattern pieces and felt last winter for the remaining ornaments - this fall I spent time assembling and detailing them.  Here is the next set of 5 that I finished.  You can see the first six here.  I just have to complete the snowflake and I will have completed all the kits that I have. (I admit, however, that I just ordered a pattern and one more kit...that will complete everything that she has available.)  I just adore her designs - they fit in our home really well.  All told I will have 18 ornaments when I finish.

I know that might seem intense or over-the-top - but I am practical.  With four daughters that will one day have their own homes and families it will mean that I will, eventually, only get to keep two or three anyway.