Christmas Knits; Part 2

It is after Christmas and I am still working on Christmas knits. :) I think it is pretty common among knitters.. especially disorganized ones such as myself. I am happy to say though that I only have two more to go! 

First I want to show you some that have already received their gifts :)

Mrs. Judy was really pleased with her zebra colored ruffle scarf :)

Both Aunt Frances and Cousin Karen seemed happy with their cowls. The white one is my own pattern that I made up; I will write up a post on it soon. The beige one is the Drop It! Cowl by Ellen Kapusniak; pattern can be purchased through her website Knitti Politi

Kerstin was also happy with her new Ninja Kitty hat. I didn't really follow a pattern here, just looked at a bunch of pictures for how to do cat ears and then went and knit it :)

Konrad was happy with this hat even though it wasn't exactly what he asked for.. I will have to make him another one soon, but for now he will be warm and stylish in this lovely hat.

These knits are all nestled in a bag waiting to be given out. We are having our Christmas party with mom on Thursday evening, so most will be going to their new homes then.

Black half ribbed hat, I made this for one of the guys on my list.

Sort of slouchy Camo hat, another for one of the guys on the list.

I knit this kitty hat for one of my little great-nieces. My daughter Korina crocheted the eyes for me :)

I created this pattern and it is named Midnight in Georgia.. mostly because that is when and where I thought of it ;) I am giving this one to one of my nieces and making another one in different colors for another niece. Pattern will be posted soon!

Another view of the Elliekit hat and the little cupcake amigurumi I knit based on my Cuppycake pattern.

Here we have two knits waiting on notions.. 

Please excuse my disheveled appearance.. we have been busy remodeling, painting, and wrapping up Christmas and 2012 so here I am in my work short modeling not quite done knits.. This headband/earwarmer is for my mom. It has a simple cable design. I just need a couple of buttons for the back so that she doesn't have to go around holding it on her head as I am doing.

I knit these for my grandma. I still need to add buttons to the top and puffy paint on the bottoms to make them slip proof. I  mostly followed the Parkspin slipper pattern. I meant to follow it exactly but got a bit sidetracked at our last knitting group.

These are my Christmas present to myself from me and my inlaws :) They gave me some money and one of the things I bought was this lovely alpaca/bamboo blend yarn. My hands have been really cold lately so I knit myself some handwarmers and these really do the trick! They are super soft and very warm. Now my mom-in-law wants a pair so I get to make them again ;)

Lovely yarn and a nice pattern.. what more could you ask for? :) This pattern is the Leftover Mitts pattern from Belatedly Tangled. And the yarn I used is Classic Elite Yarns Mountaintop Chalet in Chestnut.

Ornaments

We took down the Christmas tree yesterday. I enjoyed looking at all of our ornaments and decided to take some pictures of my favorite ones. We have loads of different ornaments; some handmade by the kids, some that we have had for years, some that we just got recently, some that mean something to us, some that are just pretty.. :) Some of my favorites are the ones that have been around as long as I have. 

These were on my mom's tree for as long as I can remember. She gave them to me  when I got my first Christmas tree. :)

These used to be on mom's tree also. The little mouse who is missing a pompom was one that I bought from my school as a child. Actually all of these were sold through school fundraisers when I was little. 

These are more of the ones that were sold through the school fundraisers back then :)

One of my favorite things about these bells is that their little feet are the clapper. The duck one has little webbed feet as her clapper. I also love how they hold their little babies in their arms. 

These worked out well as they are snowmen bells wearing knits ;) 3 of my favorite Christmas things!

More cute animal bells mom has found for me :)

These bells were made using small terracotta pots. One of these days I am going to make some myself :) 

The bear bell was bought for my first Christmas with Kerstin in 1998.  The other too my mom just bought me this year. I especially like Himself the Elf and his pleased little expression. :)

These are more that mom has bought for me :) The picture frame is in the same style as the ones sold from the schools.

I bought this tree topper for mine and Kerstin's first Christmas tree :) So he has been with us for 13 years now, since for Kerstin's first Christmas we were still living with my mom and shared her tree. 

 A lot of my bells and ornaments need some TLC. I hope that soon I will have a Craft Haus so that I can repair them and maybe make some more to add to our collection. :)

I hope each and everyone one of you out there had a wonderful holiday season and an even better New Year!

Cuppycake Hat

My nieces love the Cuppycake Song and used to sing it a lot. Cupcakes seem to be all the craze lately with cupcake shops opening everywhere. I decided I may as well join in the cupcake craze and make cupcake hats for my nieces. I looked through lots of patterns on Ravelry and online, but none were exactly what I was looking for so I decided to make my own. I released the pattern today on Ravelry. It is available for free in my Ravelry store: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cuppycake

Here are some of the hats I have made using this pattern:

Friendship Hat

August is Friendship month so our Knitting & Crochet group decided to have a Friendship Themed Design Challenge during the month of August. The rules were pretty simple. You would design or modify a pattern to make it your own, it had to have knitting or crochet in it, and it should represent friendship to you in some way.

I decided that I wanted to make a hat that showed the friendship that I had found online since I learned to knit and crochet. Being online means that we get to meet people from all over the world, of all walks of life, and I wanted to represent that in my design. I came up with this:

I have published this pattern for free on Ravelry in my Ravelry store: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/friendship-hat

Word Art

Last week I decided I wanted to make some Word Clouds or Word Art, also known as Subway Art. I was looking at Holiday ones on Google Images when I starting thinking about a Knitting and Crochet themed one. I couldn't find one. So I started looking at how to make my own, in the laziest easiest way possible. I came across Wordle and decided to give it a try. Below are what I came up with, feel free to use any that you like or go to Wordle and make your own. I did all of mine horizontal because I wanted them to fit above the Knitting & Crochet group page on Facebook. I may make more later.. I plan to print some of them in the future for my craft room when I get one ;)

Christmas colored :)

Christmas Knits

Most of the things on my Christmas Knit List are for kids. The kids range in all ages from 1 month to early 20s. I am part way through my Christmas Knit List now, but still a ways to go before I can start working on my own projects again. So far I have:

Scopes beret for my niece Debbie. She chose the yarn and pattern. The yarn used is Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton in Orangeade. The pattern is offered for free on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scopes
It is a beautiful and easy pattern. I only did 4 repeats of the chart and it still came out lovely. 

I knit this hat for my nephew Garrett. My son is modeling for me. :)  I didn't follow a pattern for this one, just made it up. The yarns in this one are all Red Heart worsted weight yarns.

I love the way the top came out. I will have to try this one again and then maybe write up the pattern, in case anyone else wants to try it.

Cuppycake hat for my niece Dessirae. My daughter is modeling for me. I created this pattern and am in the process of writing it up. Hope to have it published soon. I still need to add a cherry on top and then this one will be ready. Both of these yarns were Red Heart worsted weight.

This one is for Cheyenne. It reminds me of a gnome home :) My daughter says it looks like a cupcake though. The brown on this one is Red Heart worsted weight and the fluffy yarn is Hobby Lobby's Icing yarn.

A Cuppycake hat for my niece Kayleigh. My daughter is modeling for me again. My own pattern.  Red Heart worsted weight yarns.

These are one of my current WIPs (works in progress). I am making a pair of slippers for my daughter.  The yarn is Vanna's Choice in Lime. I am not really following a pattern, but it is similar to Parkspin slippers on Ravelry with some mods.

I still have many more to knit. I have another hat almost ready for another one of my nieces and have started a hat for one of my great-nieces. I am also making a mini cupcake, not sure who is getting that yet :)

Not very good at blogging..

Apparently I am not very good at this blogging thing. I thought it would be easy. A place to write all of my ideas and talk about the things that I have made or want to make. I figured this would be better than having ideas jotted down in multiple little notebooks all over the house. However, I have been forgetting to update. Life gets busy and 'poof!', next thing you know 6 months have went by.

On the crafty side of things.. I have published a pattern and am working on another one. I will be taking pictures today and hopefully posting the second pattern sometime this weekend. Both patterns are for knitted hats.

I have been working a lot lately on knitting Christmas gifts for the kids in my life, as well as for a few special adults. I goofed and put off the Christmas knitting until November though.. so not quite sure if I will get it all done by Christmas or not. So far I have 5 hats done, one hat waiting to have finishing touches, another hat just barely started on the needles, a pair of slippers on the needles, and a mini cupcake partly finished. Still many more to go.