evermore

Over the Christmas Holiday the family and I went North to visit family and friends.  All and all we traveled 2300 miles round trip!  This translated into a ton of time spent in the car.  Knowing this I prepared a large bag of yarn and crochet hooks to keep me busy.

I crocheted these cute Sock Monkey hats for my niece and nephew. While visiting in Ohio a friend helped Me start these little cuties. She shared the pattern she used over at Repeat Crafter Me.  The hats were a simple project for my beginner crochet skills.

Speaking of beginner crochet.  While in Pittsburgh, Mom and I taught my younger sister to crochet.  Here is her first wash cloth.  TA-DA! She did great considering she is does not have any previous yarn working skills.  I think she was inspired to learn after a trip to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh with her youngest.  The day she was there with him they were doing a project with yarn.  The instructor asked her son to add a piece of yarn to the project.  When the instructor started to explain yarn he said, "Yea, I know.  My whole family knits." He was so proud of us.  Aren't 7 year old great!

I also crocheted several wash cloths.  Here is a small sample. Many were left with the people we stayed with on our trip as a smallish.  Thank You for having us in over the holidays.  These are the few I remembered to take pictures. The two circle wash cloths Kitchen Lovelies are from Fiber Flux.

I also made two granny square wash cloths using a combination of several different patterns.

While staying with friends in Michigan I worked up this cute little hot cocoa ornament.  I found this pattern over at I'm Frayed Knot.  It is sooooo Cute! This was the home of the friend who started me on my knitting journey.  While there we learned that we were both picking up crochet.  How Crazy it that!  We hadn't even talked about it.  She made a hot cocoa ornament also which I brought home and promptly hung on my tree to enjoy.

Multi Item Long Arm Quilting

Have you ever tried to quilt multiple things at once? The idea intrigued me. Usually the idea pops into my head after I have already loaded one item onto my Long-arm machine.  One of those, 'I should have" moments.   This year when I decided to make 6 stockings it became the perfect situation to try it out.

I pieced together all 6 stocking fronts and used fat quarters for the backing.  I used a large sheet of muslin for the lining.

I loaded the muslin as I would the backing.  Then pinned each of the 6 stocking fronts to to the Long-arm machine leaders.  The biggest difference from quilting a larger quilt was the pinning.  I had to be very careful to pin down all the edges of each stocking carefully.  Each stocking front and back had to be basted down around all edges.  It was very easy to catch the foot of the machine on the raw edge of the pieced tops.

Once the stocking tops were loaded I moved on to the back.  I quilted a different pattern on each stocking front but on the backs I just quilted a simple meander pattern.

Once each pieced was quilted.  I simply cut the stockings out using my own pattern. I think this was a wonderful way to quickly machine quilt all the stockings at once.  

quilted stockings for all...

There is no doubt that Christmas is a busy season here, as it is everywhere.  Why then do I make it busier by taking on extra projects?  Every year it's the same story.  I decide to make extra teacher gifts or gifts for family or friends all right before Christmas in the midst of all the Christmas chaos.  This year was not an exception.

I stared this project all the way back in October.  In October I had plenty of time, Christmas was after all 2 months away.  Then it was November and the pressure started but not so much as to be unbearable. Then before I knew it, Thanksgiving was upon me. I finished up this project with just minutes before St. Nicolas was due to arrive.  Now here it is January already and I am just now posting this!  Crazy Busy.

My inspiration came from Amanda Murphy's Book Modern Holiday.  I loosely followed her pattern for most 5 of the 6 stockings.  My stockings were not as large, did not have a lining and I left out the trim between the cuff and the body of the stocking.  I have to admit my assembly veered far from Amanda's method, mostly due to time constraints.  I had every intention of binding the raw edges within the stocking body, but again time was not on my side.

I made the stockings for John and me from Amanda's hexagon pattern found in her book.  I also used the her pattern for the half triangle pattern for Mark's stocking.  I took the triangles cut from Amanda's templet and arranged them into a pinwheel design for Martin's stocking.  Jack's stocking was made using a triangle die from  my AccuQuilt Go! Baby

Emma's Stocking pattern was was my favorite.  Again the templet was from the Modern Holiday but the construction was all me. Each stocking was made using fabric from Moda, Folk Art Holiday. Each stocking was backed with a different print. I don't know what it was that attracted me to this pattern but I suspect it was the Chickens. LOL.

-A sock cowl?

Does it annoy you? Or is it just me?  You knit up a pair of socks, which you love and adore.  But then you have this smallish amount of leftover sock yarn.  It is never enough to make a third sock.  It just sits there in my yarn bin.  Occasionally I think about tossing it, giving it away or finding something to use it for but mostly it just takes up space.  Annoying.

Gusto pattern by Laura Nelkin

I was searching for knitting patterns, for what?? I have NO idea. Suddenly I found myself on Knitty.com. with this beautiful cowl pattern staring at me.  Gusto is a pattern by Laura Nelkin.  While I have never made one of her patterns before I have seen her on Craftsy.com.  This pattern was just what I didn't know I was looking for.  In the pattern she uses the Magic knot to make one continuous ball of yarn from all of the partial sock yarn balls you have left.  Brilliant!  From that yarn ball you knit up a beautiful and useful cowl!  

The pattern is full of fun stitches that keep the pattern rolling without getting boring.  Which I have to tell you will keep you on your toes if you happen to be someone who likes knitting in front of the TV.   Yet, it is easy enough to knit in on a hallway bench, (with a finger you may or may not have sewn through,) while you wait for your son to finish saxophone lessons. There are two versions of the pattern.  One that uses beads on the cast-on and bind-off round for extra sparkle, and one that does not.  I chose the one that does not use beads.  Mostly because I did not have beads on hand and I was to impatient to start knitting.  Next time I'm trying the beads!

I was going to save this as a possible Christmas gift but now that the polar vortex has brought colder air our way I am in desperate need of a cozy cowl.  If you happen to have a few extra yards of miscellaneous sock yarn laying around you should check out Laura's Gusto pattern it's the perfect fit.

I was sad that I did not have a large selection of sock yarn leftovers to choose from.  I haven't knit socks in over 6 years!  Fortunately I did have some.  While it is all one color way it is variegated and does give contrast to the beautiful stitching.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Yep, it is that time again.  If you have been out of the house in the last two weeks, I am sure you have seen more than one worker unloading boxes of Christmas decorations.  It seems to me that Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year. Even my daughter has been listening to Christmas carols!  Over the past few weeks I have been slowly (and I emphasize s-l-o-w-l-y) working on Christmas gifts.  I always think I have plenty of time, and then WHAM!  It's Christmas.

Sew4home.com

When I saw this Shorter StyleTriple-Flounce apron pattern on Sew4home I knew instantly who I needed to have this under their tree.   I have made several patterns from the Sew4home site and always find them easy to read and complete.

This apron, as the name implies is a shorter style apron just perfect for a sassy and sweet teen or college student in your life.  Using mostly Christmas fabrics I stitched up my version in just one afternoon.  I had my daughter model it for pictures. When she saw how cute it was she immediately wanted one for herself and for a couple of her friends. (always a good sign that it is teen appropriate.) While I may get around to making one for her, I doubt it will be for Christmas.  My list to-make items is growing ever longer. There are just too many cute patterns out there.

Quilty goodness

Okay, I hinted at quilting projects in process, now here is a visual sneak peak...

This is a custom quilt job of mine.  Believe it or not all of these squares used to be clothes!?! Still sashing this beauty more picts to come soon.

I also have been piecing hexes.  Inspiration struck about a month or two ago and now I have a pattern for all of these pieced flowers.  We shall see if they ever become an actual quilt. 

Last but certainly not least I'm working on several new Christmas stockings.  My inspiration pieces came from the book Modern Holiday by Amanda Murphy.  

Modern Holiday Stocking by Amanda Murphy

While I am not following her patterns to the letter. Her Hexi stocking pattern is sure to show up hanging on my mantle. Amanda Murphy had a blog tour last year if you're interested in checking out more projects from her book check out  Amanda Murphy Design for all the links.