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?

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 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:

52 in 52

So, Nicole over at Stash and Burn is challenging herself to do 52 craft projects in 52 weeks... not just knitting but sewing too. I've decided to do this too, hoping it will encourage me to sew and scrapbook along the way. I've created a flickr set with photos of each of my projects that I'm counting toward the 52. The trick is going to be not compromising on the projects out of a need to crank them out and stay on track. I've decided to include DIY projects that I take on that have a crafty spin, like my "photo studio" and the bookcase for the school room.

Yes, the bookcase is done. It took 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of red paint. I probably could have done another coat of red, but I ran out of paint. Red is HARD to paint with! I'm wishing I had the primer tinted to a darker color because painting red over white primer is NOT fun or easy. So, the bookcase only looks okay in my opinion, but I figure its going to get used and abused so it really doesn't matter. Here's a photo, in its permanent location, already all loaded up with books and school supplies (I say permanent because I had to screw it to the wall, it is a bit top heavy):


My first completed sewing project of the year is a clothespin bag. I decided to hang clothesline over the back deck so I can dry laundry. I had the clothespins but nothing to put them in, so I searched online for a pattern or tutorial and finally settled on this one. I used some flannel remnants from my fabric stash and came up with this:

The tutorial recommends a child's size plastic hanger and I can see how that might have been better size-wise but I didn't have one and wasn't going to go buy one... its all about making use of what I have. Of course ever since I finished it, it has been raining and I haven't gotten to use it but it will be helpful next laundry day.

I've been working on piecing a quilt-top style tablecloth. I actually started cutting the pieces about 5 years ago and didn't get very far. I've started assembling the blocks, so hopefully it'll go quickly.

My next sewing project is an easy apron for Ethan. He loves to help me in the kitchen and always asks to wear my apron when we bake. Of course it is too big for him and doesn't really do its job on a 5 year old, so this new one will be just his size. If they are as easy as the pattern makes them look, I might be making a bunch of them for Christmas presents. Wow, it is only May, am I really planning Christmas presents already?