Handmade Holidays

I took a break from knitting again - I had started on a pair of socks that I thought might be a gift for the holidays but my wrist really started to act up and I was having trouble doing yoga and pilates so I thought I would pull back from knitting for awhile.

Instead I turned to some mittens from up cycled sweaters, a new quilt block pattern and some lingering cross stitch patterns to help craft up the holidays.

The mittens went to some special people that have been helping me out with a volunteer project over the past year.  I even used some felted handknit sock legs for the cuffs - they were dropped off by a sad neighbor that had felted her own socks and didn't want to look at them anymore.  I told her I had been there myself and gladly took them from her.  I am really happy that I was able to put them to good use in two new pair of mittens!  Each pair of mittens is lined with cashmere - a lovely addition that I discovered really makes the mittens enjoyable to wear.  I mean fleece liners are nice, but cashmere?  Wow.  I also got around to making cashmere liners for my tree mittens and have been wearing them most days this winter.  They are perfect.

I made these three coordinating tree wall quilts for myself, my Mom and my Mother-in-law for Christmas.  I was inspired by the patchwork forest tree tutorial by Diary of a Quilter and once I started making the blocks I couldn't stop!  I wound up with over 100 blocks after one weekend of sewing and from there it was just a matter of organizing the blocks into sets that were well coordinated.  I kept the one of the far right (next photo).

Each has a nice hanging pocket on the back and all were quilted with straight lines.















I also have never framed any of my small cross stitch patterns from over the years.  This Santa had been sitting in a box for a couple years and it was time to take it out and get it up on the wall.  I went to a big box store to get some custom mats cut that would fit off-the-shelf frames.  I then mounted the linen fabric on all natural cotton quilt batting (a recommendation from a local framing shop) and placed it in the frame for the wall.  Success!

I did the same with the Winterwoods ABC's from Alicia Paulson which finally got it's proper place in our hallway.

Next up for framing are the Peace on Earth cross stitch, our family pixel portrait and a recent color pencil drawing by my 7yo which she made during a recent trip to our local art museum.

And next up?  After gazing at my Winterwoods ABC's I logged back onto Alicia's blog/website to see what else she might have available...and the ornament kits are amazing.  Can I say that again?  They are a-maz-ing.  I just ordered Snow Day and can't wait to dive into making them after the craziness of the holidays subsides.

FO: In Threes for my 9yo

A simple little cardigan for my increasingly fashion-enthusiastic daughter.  She picked out the color and buttons with me at the store and I knit away until I had something long enough to fit her.

She loves it - but is also becoming more and more interested in sewing and design - it is really fun to see how she interprets her world and what is 'cool' and what is 'unique'.  So far she has worked almost exclusively in animal (cheetah) prints in bright colors.  Hmmm...

Icelandic Sweater Repair

Late this year I had the privledge of repairing another important sweater - this one from Iceland from a friend of a friend.

It is a lovely sweater - one that she purchased in Iceland from the Handknitting Association of Iceland.  Unfortunately her sweet dog got a hold of it one day many years later and put a hole in the yoke.  Luckily for me the hole was restricted to only the cream color yarn!

We worked together to order some more yarn and I did my best to repair the hole.  There were some other areas that were weakening so I also did my best to reinforce them in hopes the sweater will last for many more years.

I currently have a friend and her family living in Iceland for a year and at about the same time as I was working on this sweater her parents went for a visit.  She offered to bring back yarn for all of us and I put in an order for a women's sweater. 

I settled on Grettir by Jared Flood, but am following the schematic laid out for a standard pullover by Custom Fit to get (what I hope to be) a nicely proportioned sweater.  I have completed 1.25 arms so far (no pictures yet.  The body will be light gray with white, black and green accents in the yoke.  I  am excited to see where the designing/knitting process takes me next.

I think that my friend was happy with the repair - I should check in with her to see how it is holding up.  She called it her house sweater and since we've have many days in the negative degrees (F) I am sure that it is getting quite a bit of wear.

FO: Happy Halloween

Three newly made costumes this year and one vintage.

One of my 9yo's went as a Tootsie Roll.  While we freestyle-sewed the 'roll' we spent some time making a lovely headband and ensuring that we had the right lettering.  My daughter cut the letters from a pattern (did you know that the Tootsie Roll font is really close to Cooper Black?), traced them onto fabric, cut them again and then glued them to her costume?  I am proud of my little DIY-er in training.  We also put together a cute headband with red ribbons and a real Tootsie Roll on top.

My other 9yo went as a cat - her favorite cat from the Warrior Book Series (by Erin Hunter), hence the yellow color.  I think the cats name is LionBlaze.

My 7yo wore a leopard costume that must have been sewn by my Mom in the very early 1980's.  I am amazed at how well it is holding up.  She wore a similar costume - also made by my Mom - last year too.

My 3.5yo is a snowy owl, inspired by her favorite animal and an article in Family Fun magazine.

The body suits for the owl and cat are from the patterns that are annually available by McCall's or Butterick for various Halloween costumes (lion, frog, dragon, cat, bear, etc.).  It is so easy to use that pattern as a base and then build off with details from there.  The cat really didn't have any additional details, but the snowy owl needed wings and the headpiece, both of which I borrowed on heavily from the Family Fun October 2014 issue.