What's in Those Gift Bags? - Part 2

Continuing my Christmas show and tell, here are 2 more gifts I made to fill those gift bags I put near my mom's tree.

My sister, Sharon, requested a fleece quillow to replace one she's been using for a few years. I purchased about 2½ yards of fleece to make an nice large one. Hans' Sewing and Vacuum's website has fleece quillow instructions.

In case you don't know, a quillow is a quilt with an attached pocket and it folds into a pillow. I think the family members I've given them to could care less about folding the quilt, or fleece blanket, into a pillow. They like to put their feet in the pocket to keep their toes warm.

I finished the edge of the fleece with a faux braided edge that is a lot easier to do than it looks like. I learned this technique at our Project Linus Make a Difference Day gathering last October.

I made these potholders for Sharon's mother-in-law. Earlier in the year, she admired some I had made for my mom, so I made her some of her own.

A Crafty Christmas

I was on the receiving end of some Christmas crafting. My (step)sister, Susie, handcrafts most of the gifts she gives. She made me a whimsical pillow with Christmas themed fabric featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang and some ball fringe. The back of the pillow is a fuzzy neon green fabric.

Susie also slipcovered this hassock or ottoman. I'm not sure what to call it. It's an upholstered wood box with a hinged lid and 4 casters. It could be used as a seat. There are little horses embroidered on the navy fabric. I love horses and I love the Peanuts gang.

My other (step)sister, Sharon, doesn't do much crafting, but is willing to feed my obsessions. She got me this blue/grey skein of Fortissima Socka because she thought it would look good with blue jeans. I think she's right. She also got me a gift certificate to a yarn shop near my mom's house. My niece and her hubby gave me a Hobby Lobby gift card.

My Albuquerque friends, Wanda and Roger, got me a Sidewinder, a portable bobbin winder that runs on AC power or batteries. Coincidently, the bobbin winder on my primary sewing machine is currently on the injured list. What timing!

Wanda's mom put her computerized embroidery machine to work. This picture isn't the best, but you can see the white T-shirt with embroidered lavender flowers. On the left is a holiday themed fleece blanket with blanket stitch edge. Underneath is a large pink towel monogrammed with my initials. For good measure, she included a sewing tool set containing a seam gauge, thread snips and a seam ripper. You can never have too many of those.

What's in Those Gift Bags? - Part 1

Christmas is past and most gifts are open. I say most, because the package I mailed to my Albuquerque friends on December 13 just arrived today, 16 days later! I can start sharing those secret projects I worked on the last couple of months. The photo above is the gifts given to family. Ignore the box wrapped in green paper. The fabric gift bags are what I traditionally give Christmas gifts in. This was my contribution to the rather large assortment of gift packages at my mom's.

I made these Christmas stockings for my niece and nephew-in-law in honor of their first Christmas as a married couple. The pattern is Star Brocade from the book Knit Christmas Stockings edited by Gwen Steege. The wine and white yarn is Red Heart Soft. The green yarn is "I Love This Yarn" bought at Hobby Lobby.

This photo of the leg of the wine stocking shows the detail of the white seed stitch band and the 5-pointed star design.

The stockings have a round toe formed by decreasing 12 stitches per round alternated with 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 rounds with no decreases.

I made this keyhole scarflet for my mom. It was a gift for her December 23rd birthday. The pattern is a slightly modified version of the keyhole scarflet pattern on the Berroco website. I used Moda Dea Dream yarn in Raspberry (color 3773).

More to come!

Finished Socks

It's been a while since I shared any knitted socks. I have 2 finished pairs of socks to share.

I knitted these royal blue socks with contrasting stripes in September. The self-striping yarn is Swizzle from Reynold's Yarns. It's 75% merino superwash and 25% nylon. They've softened up nicely after 3 or 4 washings. The pattern is the Fingering Weight Toe-Up Socks with Gusset and Slip-Stitch Heel available on Wendy Knits' Free Patterns, Help, and Other Stuff page. I used the magic cast-on and added a knit 2, purl 2 rib pattern and made the gusset bigger for my foot. I used a sewn cast-off for a stretchy top edge.

I started these blue and grey socks shortly before my niece's October 6 wedding. I had to have something to do during all the waiting to preserve my sanity. I finished them this week. I needed to get them off the needles so I can start my mom's birthday socks.

The blue and grey yarn is Regia Bamboo, color number 1061. I haven't worn them yet, but I really like the feel of the 45% bamboo, 40% superwash wool and 15% polymide yarn. The pattern is Eagle's Flight by designer Megan Humphrey and available on the PT Yarn website. I added 3 rows of garter stitch at the top of the leg and substituted an eye of partridge heel instead of the the plain stockinette stitch.

I learned about all of these patterns and techniques from people on the Socknitters Yahoo group. If you're interested in knitting socks, it is a good group to join. Lots of helpful, knowledgeable people.

Christmas Crunch

I'm not talking about something edible when I say Christmas Crunch. I mean that last week before Christmas when reality sets in and I'm anxiously trying to finish making gifts so I have something to wrap and put under my mom's Christmas tree for everyone. Over the last decade, it has become my normal mode of operation to work to the last minute, desperately trying to finish gifts on Christmas eve and morn. Sometimes, I fail to finish before gifts are opened. I got gifts finished much sooner when I lived half a continent away from everyone.

This year, I think I'm actually going to finish all the Christmas gifts before I go to my mom's. Now there is the matter of my mom's birthday on December 23rd. The socks I'm knitting from the Trekking XXL she picked out on Black Friday will not be done. I'm looking forward to 3 or 4 days of sock knitting in my mom's living room. This will allow me to try the first sock on my mom as it progresses, so I can make it fit well. All in all, I feel pretty good about the state of the gifts I'm making this holiday season.

My friends and family occasionally read this blog, so I can't say much about what I'm making. I've been quilting, sewing, crocheting and knitting. I found a pattern in a quilt shop that I thought was a great idea for gifts for everyone. I wasn't Christmas shopping when I found the pattern, but jumped on the idea and bought fabric to go with the pattern.

One item on the pattern's materials list was shoestrings and the pattern cover showed lovely colored shoestrings that matched the fabric. After a fruitless search for shoestrings that remotely matched my fabric, I wound up searching aisle by aisle at Michael's (craft and hobby store) for another solution. The pattern designer must have dyed white shoestrings to her fabric.

My solution? I bought some size 5 pearle cotton and I'm braiding 6 strands. It makes a nice cord.

That's all for now. Back to gift making.

Yarn Acquistions on Black Friday

Fighting crowds of shoppers on Black Friday is not my kind of fun. However, this year JoAnns had yarn on sale at a price that is not likely to happen again anytime soon. And this was the yarn that I always buy for Dolores. At 10:00 am, my mom and I headed to JoAnns. I thought that the crowds would be smaller and the lines shorter by then. Maybe they were, but we still stood in the checkout line over 45 minutes.

But look what I got. Sixteen pounds of yarn at $4 a pound and 2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver at $1.89, less 20% off of everything. The pound skeins were less than half their regular $6.99 price. In retrospect, the checkout line might have been shorter if we'd got there at 9:30 instead of 10:30. I think we were in the secondary rush of people shopping before the 20% off coupon expired at noon.

After JoAnns, we avoided crowded shopping centers. I coerced my mom into visiting Simply Fibers. I needed different needles to knit a Christmas stocking. The ones I'd found at Hobby Lobby were a drag to knit with. I went straight to the knitting needle display and picked out Addi Turbo needles.

I can't be in a yarn shop without looking at sock yarn. I did have an ulterior motive. I got my mom to pick out yarn for me to make her a pair of socks. The gift won't be a surprise, but I know she'll like it. She picked out the blue and green Trekking XXL on the right.

I selected some Jawoll to make a pair of knee socks and just couldn't resist the wine colored Tofusies. I've knit socks with Tofutsies and like the feel and I love red. I almost put the Tofutsies back, but was glad I kept it. When I checked out, I discovered the yarn was 25% off, but only if you bought at least $50 worth. Without the Tofutsies, I wouldn't have got the discount and would have paid more for my purchases.