Keep Calm Craft On

Linking with Nicole at Frontier Dream's Keep Calm Craft On, here are a few photos of what I completed this week and what I have started.  I finished up Eoghan's Yule blanket.  

I am not sure why, but this blanket took me over a month to complete.  Its just a simple pattern: cast on 40 stitches, knit 80 rows bind off then whip stitch the squares together and trim with a blanket stitch around the edges. Easy peasy!  However it proved to be one of the slowest moving projects I have undertaken in knitting.  

As with most homemades the amount of time invested and the money for the materials far exceeded the investment of a store bought blanket.  However I love that I will be wrapping my sweet baby up in a blanket where each stitch is infused with Mama's love, warmth, and protection.  I had originally planned on doing 16 squares, but due to feeling the holiday crunch I opted for 9 squares, which I think worked out nicely as this yarn is actually quite heavy and I do want him to be able to carry the blanket around with him easily.

Here it is all wrapped up and ready to go under our Yule Tree.

Here are the beginings of the same pattern blanket in shades of pink for Kiera, i was able to almost complete two squares yesterday so I think this one will be a little faster going.



Now off to check out all the wonderful links at Frotnier Dreams to see what everyone else is working on.

Keep Calm Craft On

Linking with Nicole at Frontier Dream's "Keep Calm Craft On" linkup.  Here is what I am currently working on:

 A few little holiday gnomes to tuck inside little stockings.  I am thinking these will make cute little Saint Nicholas presents to tuck into the children's shoes on December 6th. 

One of the things I really enjoy about handmaking not only gifts but our seasonal decorations, is I tend to feel the spirit of the holiday or season longer, although my days are spent celebrating Fall, my favorite season of the year, and the house is decked out in Fall's beauty. Today we made leaf wands with fallen leaves tied to string on a stick and sang, " The Red Leaves are Falling Down" song Meanwhile my evening has been spent knitting by the fire thinking about decorations and gifts for our Winter Holidays.  

Here a few of the knitting projects I've been working at by the fire: the cream colored square will be added to a patchwork blanket I am making for Eoghan, after this square I only have two more to go, then I am going to whip stitch them all together with a blanket stitched border.  I had planned on making both of the littles a blanket for Yule this year, but I am already feeling the holiday crunch.  Kiera's might be a little late, luckily at 2 years old I doubt she will mind too terribly.

 The grey knitting is the body to a backpack for Madeline, that will match the little felted iPhone case I just finished for her.  At 17 she is less than thrilled about the idea of handmade gifts this year, but I think she will actually like and use these.

Slowly but surely I am marking things off of my list.  I am glad that I have figured out what to give everyone, I just need a few more hours in the day for handwork!  Perhaps next year will be the year I actually start early enough to not feel stressed about getting everything done in time.  Oh well, I do what I can do, and enjoy the process.

Homemade Holiday Toy Exchange

Although I am very tempted to do a 100% handmade holiday this year, there are simply a few things we need to replenish our supplies on such as stockmar beeswax block crayons and watercolors, and a few holiday books I would like to add to our collection, so sadly we won't be 100% handmade this year.  Although I do want to focus heavily on handmade items which inspired me to host my first Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange.   So far I have nine other Mamas signed up, we are going to split up into groups of 3.   Each Mama will craft 2 toys to exchange with their group mates.  

I started working on my toys today.  I needle felted some pine trees and made a little winter gnome.  I think I am going to either knit a snowflake pocket necklace or make one from felt for the little gnomes to hide in.  I'll post more pictures when I am done, but could not resist despite our 78 degrees today setting up a little winter scene for my gnome to play in.

Waiting for his dwarf friends to arrive

Enjoying the company of the dwarfs.  (and a back view)

Thank you Wee Folk Art for the pattern that inspired my wonderland gnomes.

A few more gnomes came to join the party

I wonder what the topic of conversation is....

Wednesday Work In Progress

My local craft store just started carrying Lion Brand Yarn's Natural Choice Organic Cotton Yarn, so I  wanted to give it a try, and I had a 50% off coupon which helps with the $8 a skein price.  I am making Eoghan a blanket for Yule, I am going to knit 9 squares in the natural and green striped yarn and then whipstitch them together with a dark brown yarn (I am still waiting for my store to fill in the bin for the Walnut but they have it labeled so I know it is coming).  I am only two squares and a few rows into the blanket but I really like the way the cotton feels.  I hope he will love it!