Wednesday, December 31, 2014

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...the denim Christmas socks are progressing nicely...with all this free time around the holidays...all other projects finished...it's fun to be monogamous to one project for a while...
...I just turned the heel and you can see the beginning of the upside down 'princess' sole...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

...Vegan Sauce au Cari over at The Vegan Version...

...if you're getting tired of leftover tofurkey and ham seitan...this is a good light and different dish...
...all the details are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, December 29, 2014

...Christmas Knitting...

...I just love thoughtful gifts...don't you?...

...in our little family...I can almost always trace my pressies back to a certain time and conversation...where the menfolk were fishing for information...a Mama can just tell these things...you know...

...this yarn and these vintage needles were a product of just such a conversation I had with Scout...where I mentioned that I needed to make some new socks to wear with blue jeans...

..didn't he choose a perfect denim-y colour...and I absolutely love the plastic needles...perfection points...these old plastic needles have a lot of give and they're really light and comfy to knit with...

...so of course I cast on...on Christmas Day...another pair of my favorite simple anklets from a vintage pattern...with a princess sole...of course...

...are you already knitting with your Christmas presents?...

~Have a lovely day!

Saturday, December 27, 2014

...what to do when the frame quite doesn't fit...

...one of the things that I wanted to give the Man for Christmas...was a frame for this poster that was given to him by the Bishop...
...but of course it's not a standard size...so I bought the closest size... because...er...uhmmm...I had waited too late to get a custom frame before Christmas...

...and you can see here that the cardboard that came in the frame is about a half inch too wide on each side...
...so I just took some craft paint and painted the liner black...
...and now you can't tell that the frame doesn't quite fit...
...hanging in his office...

...a reminder that...

'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.' - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

~Have a lovely day!

Friday, December 26, 2014

...Christmas 2014...

...the stockings were stuffed...
...and Santa's gold presents appeared under the tree...
...and copious amounts of food were consumed...around a table filled with family...so it was all good...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

...Merry Christmas...

...the light through the front door...
...from our annual drive around looking at all the lights...
...wishing you a blessed...peaceful...joyous...and...Merry Christmas!...

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

...Really Last Minute Elving...a $2 Neck Warmer/Gaiter...

...the final set of book club gifts...for two sisters...

...and they're just a variation on the pink neck warmer that I made...and these two sisters were on an overnight shopping trip to Columbus...so I knew I had a little extra time...
...after my success with the pink neck warmer...I specifically went back to the dollar store to get more touques to turn into gaiters...and since I knew I wouldn't have time to knit any more neck warmers...I bought 2 for each warmer...and that makes them reversible too...I guess...technically Scout's and mine and the pink one are reversible too...but I don't think I'd ever wear it hand-knit side in...
...the same procedure as before...turn the touque inside out...
...and lop of the top...
...open them up and put one inside the other...it doesn't really matter which goes where...and I couldn't even tell that this knit tube had a right/wrong side...
...stitch one end together...
...flip it right side out...
...tuck one tube back inside the other...wrong sides together...
...turn under a seam on both tubes...this was easier with these knits than with the hand knit tube...
...and top stitch around...I was using white thread so I was trying to stay in the white stripe...

...more goofy bathroom mirror photos...
...as a neck warmer...
...as a face warmer...
...and folded in half...as an ear warmer...
...very versatile...
...now all of the bookclub handmades have been gifted...

...that was fun...but...kinda hoping no one suggests that again next year...

~Have a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

...Still Elving...a Kitchen Gift Basket...

...another item on my Bookclub Handmade list was a sunny yellow kitchen gift basket...for a sunny yellow loving person...
...first of all...I got a couple of saved onion bags from my stash...
...cut them open and stretched them out...
...and cut them into strips...
...and crocheted a little dishscrubber thingy...
...I love these little scrubbies...they do such a good job cleaning stuck on food without harming your pans...
...then I knit a Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth...in white Sugar and Cream...
...and purchased fancy bottle of hand soap...
...put it all into a sunny little basket and added a bow...

...and another little handmade is done...only a couple more to go...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, December 22, 2014

...Elving...continues...A Bright Pink Neck Warmer/Gaiter...

...these neckwarmer/gaiters were certainly more common in North Dakota...

...but there are certainly enough cold and windy winter days here in West Virginia to warrant wearing one...and I get so many compliments on this old one...and when one of my fellow bookclubbers mentioned that she wished she had one for skiing...I thought that would make the perfect little handmade gift for her...

...so I knit the tube...just 80 stitches of stockinette...but wondered what I would use for the lining...I thought of polarfleece...but didn't think I'd want that next to my mouth...
...and then when I was at the local dollar store searching for Santa's gold wrapping paper (remember that all of Santa's presents are wrapped in gold paper - and it's surprisingly difficult to find...oh well...I digress)...and I found this stretchy cotton double layered touque...for...you guessed it...$1...

...so I lopped off the top...
...and was left with a nice stretchy cotton tube...my old gaiter is also lined with a stretchy cotton tube...it was leftover from Scout's alien Halloween Costume...WOW...that was a long time ago...but again...I digress...
...her ski jacket and vest are pink...so I knitted the tube in pink...
...turned the handknit tube inside out so that I could stitch the two tubes together right sides together...
...pulled the inner cotton tube back out...here you see both right sides...
...and tucked the cotton tube back inside the knit tube...
...and really the only tricky part was dealing with the curling stockinette stitch as I turned it and the cotton tube under...
...and stitched them together...I stretched them as I went and it made a pretty little fluted edge...

...OK...get ready...goofy bathroom mirror pictures follow...
...gave it a quick try-on...funny...it matches my top...
...but it's cozy and warm...and should be perfect for skiing...

...my elving continues down to the wire...just like every other year...haha!

~Have a lovely day!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

...and another one...

...so during a Family Movie Night (Galaxy Quest - hilarious and very sweet)...I knit another Super Easy Headband/Earwarmer...
...a little close up of the loop at the bottom...
...here I switched to orange...
...and just single crocheted all the way around with orange...
...made another little contrasting flower...and added another homemade button...

~Are you still elving...or are you finished?

~Have a lovely day!