Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2010.

I've been pretty quiet this holiday season. I didn't get a chance to share any of my holiday baking experiences, mostly because I did all of my holiday baking on Christmas Eve. I was so focused on my holiday knitting/sewing/crocheting that I couldn't even think about baking until I was finished. But I did finish! My final project was a crocheted afghan for Emma and I finished it at about 5:00 pm on December 23.


I knit a scarf, of my own design, for Ethan. It was made from yarn he picked out when we visited Diva Yarns in Port Townsend in August.


I made 2 pair of felted slippers, one for Cliff and one for my step-dad. They each
already had a pair, but Cliff completely wore his out.


I sewed 3 aprons... one for each of my nieces and one for Ethan. I found some great "Cars" fabric a couple months ago, and he'd been asking for a new apron just for the kitchen. Here is my oldest niece holding up her apron:


I also made 8 sets of potholders to give to other family members. I gave most of them away and forgot to take photos first, but here are two sets that I have left:


I also made 3 more ornaments for the kids, a piece of ribbon candy, a pair of mini mittens, and a Christmas light bulb. Cliff kept talking about coal in stockings so, this year he got some! Meet Grumpy the lump of coal:


And with that, I managed to complete 55 items for the 52 craft challenge! However, my New Year's Resolution for 2009 was to knit an adult-sized sweater, for me. I did start the sweater, and had hoped to have it done by Christmas, but had some issues with it. It is still a work in progress... I haven't abandoned it and hopefully I'll have it finished before the weather turns warm.

One of the gifts I received from my mom was 2 ounces of Merino Top from Nestucca Bay Yarns in a beautiful colorway called Riverstone. Its SOOO pretty, I almost don't want to try spinning it. My Christmas present to myself is a SPINNING WHEEL!!!!! My wonderful friend Deb has decided she prefers spinning on drop spindles to a wheel and has offered to sell me her wheel for a wonderful price, I just couldn't pass it up! I don't have it yet, but it is an Ashford Traveller and I can't wait to get it in my hot little hands and teach myself to spin on a wheel.

That pretty much wraps up the fiber-related holiday goodness around here. I found some amazing new recipes for holiday baking and I'll update you on the happenings in my kitchen in another post.

Holiday projects

Holiday knitting/sewing/crocheting is in full swing. I put everything on a list in order of priority so if there is not enough time, I don't have to panic. The list includes another apron for Ethan, an afghan for Emma and her new bed, knit/crocheted ornaments for all the kids, sewn potholders to go in gift baskets of home-canned goodies, a pair of felted clogs, a pair of socks, and a sweater for me!

I've started on the afghan, slippers, and sweater. I had other deadline knitting to contend with, so got a later start than I would've liked. One of the items I crocheted was this little guy:

He is a gift for Emma's birthday coming up. He is also #33 in the 52 craft challenge.

#34 is this little reindeer I was experimenting with as one of the ornaments to give away.


I also did a bit of work on Halloween costumes this year. Ethan decided to be a blue Lego. This was so easy, but fun to make and only cost me a can of spray paint. (#35) Basically it is a cardboard box with head and arm holes cut in it with cottage cheese containers glued on the front. There was one more cottage cheese container with elastic for him to wear as a hat. He LOVED it!


We went to a Halloween party this year and it finally pushed me to finish a costume that has been probably more than 5 years in the making. I had planned to make something for Cliff too, but ran out of time. Maybe next year.


The bodice was made a few years ago and the skirt was finished about this time last year. This year I finally finished the under dress (#36). Our friend and party hostess, Shaunna took the photo of us. Thanks Shaunna!


What are your holiday project plans? Have you already started?

Finished projects

I've managed to complete a couple more projects this week.

#31 is "Boo" a crocheted ghost by LionBrand.


#32 is my Spring Forward socks. I've been working on these for over a year now. I'm SO glad their done.

Depot Arts Center

For the month of September, I've been asked to be a guest artist for the Dewey Beach Artists Fall Collection. at the Depot Arts Center in Anacortes.

I chose five pieces, two of which I made specifically for this show, to represent my work. At the opening last night, I got to see the very talented company I was in and felt honored to be included in this group of artists.

Here are two of the pieces I knit for the show:

Beaded silk bag with Japanese seed beads.

Crocheted Scarf


Here are some examples of the work produced by other artists in the collection(I got a little artsy with the photos):
Woven scarves by Laure Brooks

Raku pottery by Pat Ball:

Turned vase by Jerry Holmes:

Steel salmon by John Sayre:


The bag and scarf are #29 & #30 for the 52-craft challenge. Once I finished knitting for the show, I lost the desire to knit for a little while. I am back at it now and hopefully will be catching up. The weather has definitely turned fall-like, which means less gardening and more knitting, sewing, and scrapbooking(I hope!)

Scrapbooks

I've been a scrapbooker for many years now. I really got into it when Ethan was born... I made small books for all the grandparents and great-grandparents chronicling his first year. Since then, I've done the occasional layout here and there, but found it difficult to have to put everything away half way through, just so the kid wouldn't get into it or so we could eat dinner.


I finally have a dedicated scrapbooking "corner" of my living room. Actually, it is an antique roll-top desk my mom gave me. It is perfect because I can just close the top when I'm done for the day, and not have to put all my stuff away. I actually got some scrapbooking done! The desk still is in need of some organization, but it is coming along nicely.

The layouts I finished are coming in at #26 and #27 in the 52 craft challenge. I know it sounds like I am WAY behind, but I have a few other finished projects that I just haven't posted yet.


Way back in 1993, when I was a senior in high school, I traveled to France with some class mates for spring break. Now, more than 15 years later, I finally get around to organizing and displaying the photos and things I brought home with me.

Knitting-wise, I did finish this cute little guy:

He is #28 in the 52 craft challenge.

The show at the Depot Arts Center opens tonight and I have 5 pieces on display. Now that I don't feel like I have to keep those projects under wraps, I'll photograph them and share them soon.

Artful Knitting

I'm quickly falling further and further behind on my 52 craft challenge, but I'm not stressing about that so much as the fact that a local artist's co-op has asked me to participate in a show that takes place in September. I have TWO months to come up with about 5 show-quality pieces of knitting. And here I thought the most exposure my knitting was going to get this year was at the Skagit County Fair. I might have to skip the fair this year, unless I can come up with a piece I don't plan to put in the art show. I'm excited about the opportunity to show off my knitting in a gallery setting, but I've only been knitting for a year and a half now... do they really think I'm good enough? I have one piece done, one bag that is knit and felted but needs lining and accessories, and a scarf that is almost half done. As the gallery prefers we display works that have not been displayed before, I kinda feel like I have to wait until the show starts to share the pieces I'm contributing. The pieces are in ravelry if you want to guess which ones they are.

Something I can share is item #25 in the 52 craft challenge. We're just wrapping up week #28, so that puts me on the verge of 4 weeks behind. My cousin is due to have a baby any day now, so I made her a hat and bootie set for the baby. I didn't know the gender, so I grabbed some fairly neutral yarn from my stash, found a couple of cute and easy patterns, and went for it.


I just sent it off in the mail yesterday, so I haven't heard from her yet... but I'm hoping she enjoys and appreciates them. Since I knit them as a set, I'm only counting them as one item for the challenge, but if I get too much further behind, I just might change my mind!

I've been wanting to do some scrapbooking lately, but keep getting distracted by the "prep work" that seems to go into it. Yesterday, I started to brainstorm ideas, go through photos, and figure out what I wanted to work on and ended up scanning a box of old photos into my computer. Yes, it needed to be done and its a project I've been procrastinating on, but it isn't scrapbooking. Since I don't have a dedicated workspace for my scrapbooking, its a major event to get out all the stuff and when I do, Ethan always wants to "help." I've given him his own scrapbook and stickers to play with and that helps some. This week he'll be visiting his dad, so I might take the opportunity to spread out in the school room and leave the stuff out all week. Maybe I'll get inspired and get caught up with my challenge, but I still have all that knitting to do...javascript:void(0)

Slacker

I've been a bit of a slacker lately when it comes to blogging and there is so much to blog about!

I finished Ethan's sweater. I made the largest size (10-12) rather than his own size (6-8) because I was afraid he would be a size 10 by the time I finished it and/or I wanted him to be able to wear it more than just a few times. Of course, it is wool so it has been too warm for him to wear it yet. He was very excited about receiving it and insisted on taking it camping with us, though it didn't get cold enough to wear it there either.

Ethan's sweater is #24 in the 52 craft challenge, and I'm now 3 weeks behind in my challenge. I have a couple of baby projects coming up, so hopefully that will help me catch up.

Next Post: Our camping trip

Summertime and some FOs

Summer is definitely underway in our neck of the woods. Our first camping trip of the year is planned for next weekend. I promised Ethan a ferry boat ride this summer, so we decided to combine it with camping and are headed off to Orcas Island.

The weather has been warm and dry (unusually dry for June actually) and Ethan has been participating in all kinds of activities. He just finished PeeWee Baseball and swimming. Next week he starts PeeWee Sports Camp and soon starts tumbling. I'm still trying to find that balance between what he wants to do without over scheduling him, and what our budget will allow. We don't stop school in the summer, but we are taking a slower pace. I also hope to make more time for field trips and special things as the summer weather cooperates, plus camping trips are great learning opportunities!

On to the FOs! The small monthly KAL/CAL I participate in has chosen the Wishy Washy Fishy Tawashi for our June project. This was a quick and easy knit. This is sort of a dish scrubby and I chose cotton rather than acrylic, because wet acrylic just feels gross to me, though it probably has better scrubbing power. This project is item #22 in my 52-craft challenge.


Item 23 in my 52-craft challenge was another apron for Ethan. This one he will use at home while helping me in the kitchen or working on art projects.

We broke it in on Friday while making Strawberry Ice Cream from The Book of Days, a wonderful book by Stefani at Blue Yonder. The Summer book 1, the first one I purchased, is more than 30 pages full of kid-friendly and family-friendly activities that encourage families to slow down and enjoy their time together. There are recipes, nature activities, art projects, science projects, games, and more. Stefani has done all the work for you, including supplemental resources and ways to expand each activity in the Parent's Field Guide, included in each issue. I can already tell that this book is going to be a great source of fun and adventure, because it is all right in front of me, with minimal planning.

By the way, Stefani hand-illustrates the book (and her website), and the pictures are adorable!

52 craft challenge #21 Booga Bag

I have a group of internet friends that I do a monthly knit-along or crochet-along with. Our project for May was the Booga Bag. I decided to modify mine because as the pattern was written, the finished bag is about 4 x 7 x 8 and this just seemed too small for me. So, I made it bigger. I used Plymouth Boku in color "4", which is purple, green, and orange, and just a gorgeous colorway. I had a big problem with this yarn; 4 out of the six skeins had knots. Two of the skeins even had multiple knots. For a 50 gram skein, that is just WAY to many.

Now that it is done, I still LOVE the colors, but I've decided that I like the look of this bag as originally written, taller than it is wide... mine was much wider than it was tall. I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn, and I bought 6 skeins.

The photo really doesn't do the bag justice... the colors are much more rich. I was having lighting issues when I took it.

52 in 52 #19 Socks

I finally finished these socks. I've been working on them since February. They are a gift for Cliff's birthday next week. I'm afraid they'll be too big, but I hope he likes them and will at least wear them for house socks if they don't fit. I CO 80 stitches because that is what was recommended in Sensational Knitted Socks for the pattern I was going to do. After I finished the cuff, I decided to knit them in stockinette instead because it was my first time knitting two at a time on Magic Loop, and I didn't want to complicate things further. Well, I didn't account for the negative ease that the pattern would have had to make the socks more fitted.

Anyway, here they are, on LARGE sock blockers:


It occurs to me that we are finishing up week 21 of the year (its Friday May 22) and I'm only on #19. Fortunately, I have another knitting project just about done, and have a couple of small/quick ones in the queue so hopefully I can get caught up.

I took Ethan to the fabric store last weekend so he could pick out his own fabric for his next apron and that should be another quick project.

52 in 52 item #18

I finished project #18 for my 52 in 52 craft challenge. It is a really cute apron for Ethan. The pattern is a freebie I found at Joann.com and the fabric was from my stash. He absolutely loves it. The day I gave it to him, he put it on and wore it for about 4 hours. We've decided this one is going to grandma's pottery studio so he has one his size to use and get dirty in. I learned from my mistakes on the first one, which were purely my fault and not the pattern. I plan on making at least one more of these. I even took Ethan to the fabric store with me to pick out fabric. Next time I think I'll use cord rather than making a 44" long tube that I have to try turning right-side out without tearing the fabric or losing my mind.

Here's a photo of the boy modeling his new apron: