all the Christmas crochet...

Christmas is over! How was yours, I hope you all had a great holiday with your families. Ours was good, loud and fun, as it always is. I'm happy to be done with the chaos for another year though. I thought I would finally get a post up about what I crocheted this season, since I seem to have completely forgotten to get it done before!


I crocheted a fun Christmas Nelson Owl. I've been using a G hook for my amigurumi lately and I'm finding everything turns out so much more adorable! Maybe it's the tighter fabric or the smaller size of it but I love it, I think I may be sticking with the G hook from now on! This cutie stayed perched on our Christmas tree.



I loved the big owl so much that I decided I would make tiny Christmas Nel's for my kid's yearly ornaments. I finished crocheting all the pieces with plently of time to get them done before Christmas Eve when I give out the new ornaments every year, but I didn't actually sew them together until that day. I am a major procrastinator! I finished them with just enough time to get them wrapped up for the kids to open before we went out to look at Christmas lights. These are probably my favorite ornaments that I have ever given to the kids!


Another project I crocheted for Christmas is this adorable snowflake! It's a new FreshStitches pattern called Sally the Snowflake. I loved making this piece! She'll be up for the duration of winter, I love her so much!

That's all I have in pictures this year. I didn't crochet any gifts this year, I thought I would make toys for the kids but I never sat down to make real plans, so it never happene. I did knit a coffee cozy but forgot to get a picture of it. I really loved knitting it, so I'll probably knit a few more eventually! That's all I've got for today, I'll probably be back soon, probably before the new year, to share my December socks! I know I wasn't going to knit any this month, but the itch got the better of me!

Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree - review & giveaway!

Today, I'm really excited to take part in a fun blog tour for a new Christmas crochet book, Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree by Edie Eckmen! I was thrilled to be asked to take part because I love crocheting for Christmas and this book is full of great projects to crochet for the season.

I flipped through the book the minute I got my hands on it, it's put together so well, it's one I know I will flip through many more times. The patterns in this book are divided into three sections; for the Hearth, for the Home and for the Tree. Each pattern is written very clearly and there are easy to read charts as well for those who like to follow charts.

There are so many great projects to choose from in all skill levels, I think every crocheter would find something to crochet! You have stockings to fit in with every style, they're all easy to customize to your Christmas decor. There's also great ornaments to crochet and there are a lot of snowflake patterns, I think any of them would look great on the tree or even as gift toppers. There's even a fun advent garland with mini stockings and mittens, included is also a great guide to crochet many different styled stockings and mitts. You can see all the patterns on the ravelry page here.

I knew that I was going to crochet something from the book to show off and I had a hard time deciding what that project would be! I finally decided to crochet a stocking, I've been thinking of adding in a new stocking or two for a couple years now. There are 9 different patterns for stockings to choose from, I decided to go with the Mix-and-Match stockings. It was such a quick project to crochet and I'm so happy with the outcome, I still have a letter to add once I figure out who gets this one!


Want to win a copy of Christmas Crochet? Storey Publishing is offering up a copy to one of my readers! Just fill out the rafflecopter to be entered to win, the only manditory entry is to comment here on this blog post answering this question: What is your favorite thing to crochet at Christmas time? I've added a few extra ways to get entries as well, those are all optional! The giveaway is open to US & Canada and ends on November 17th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks for stopping by today, make sure to stop by and visit all the other blogs on the tour as well! You'll have more chances to win a copy of the book!

3-Nov Don't Eat the Paste
4-Nov Moogly Blog
5-Nov Liberty's Yarn
7-Nov Rambling Designs
10-Nov Plus 3 Crochet
11-Nov Crochet Dynamite
12-Nov Jenn Likes Yarn
13-Nov Crochet Nirvana
14-Nov Yarning4aSmile

Christmas is coming!

Last year, I crocheted a snowman to send as a swap gift and I really wanted one for my own home but I never seemed to find time to crochet it. This year, I have one! I finished my own extra early and I'm so happy with him! The pattern is by FreshStitches, it's a build your own snowman pattern, so you can custom crochet him to your liking. It's a great pattern!


For his scarf, I thought it would be fun to knit it since I am much more comfortable with knitting now. I also knit the band around his top hat. All the yarn I used is Loops & Threads Impeccable, my go to for amigurumi! He stands at 11 inches with his top hat on.


I put up a listing for a Made to Order Snowman in my etsy shop, so I crocheted a toque to show as another option. I love a top hat on a snowman, so that's what I sewed onto mine!

Now that I have this cutie finished up, I am in a Christmas mood! All I want to crochet is Christmas fun! Too early??

2012 Christmas ornaments

I managed to sort of finish the ornaments for my kids this year. Every Christmas Eve, I give my kids a new ornament for the Christmas tree. After I finished up the Christmas gifts, I lost a lot of my crochet mojo, so these really felt like a job to make even though they're so easy!

I used this free pattern, Amigurumi Teddy Ornaments. They're supposed to have scarves, I made each one but I don't like how they looked. I'm going to knit up one for each, that will get done next year probably but hopefully I manage to do it before everything gets packed up!

KNIT dishtowel!

Now that Christmas is done and all the gifts have been given, I can share the last gift I made. I knit a dishtowel for my mom!


I started it in October and finished it earlier this month. I really enjoyed knitting this towel! It says "Grandma's Kitchen; Kids Eat Free", the design is mirrored on the other side as well.

I used this pattern and plan to do a couple more from the same designer next year.

Christmas gift making

I gave myself a deadline to get all my gift making finished by this Saturday and I beat the deadline! I've got instagram pictures again, I planned on getting better pictures with a real camera once the sun was better but I went crazy wrapping presents and they're already wrapped.


This Daphne doll is for my oldest. I made up a flower headband for her. She turned out adorable! I love her!


For this Daphne doll, I made up a purple granny hat for her to wear. The hat looks so good on the doll, I'm happy I made it! And the style is very much like my youngest daughter would wear, I think she'll be happy with her.


For my son, I made a penguin using this free pattern. I used Loops & Threads Charisma yarn and a 6.5 hook to make him bigger, he's 11 inches tall. He turned out so huggable, I am freaking loving this guy!

Those are the only presents I can share right now! I'm finishing up the 2012 ornaments for my kids today and will be sharing those here next week.

Have a great weekend!

The Christmas Pickle

I have seen the Christmas pickle for a few years now and had no idea that it was part of a fun tradition! I just thought it was some strange, quirky thing people liked on Christmas. Pickles are good.

I finally looked it up to find out what the craze was about and I liked it, so I made one for my tree (and one for my sister's tree too). The tradition is that you hide this pickle on your tree on Christmas Eve and the first child to find it gets a special gift. People use glass blown pickles usually but our tree has to have a crocheted one!

I used this free pattern from FreshStitches, it's a super quick project, easily done before Christmas!

I haven't figured out exactly what the gift will be yet but I do know that I will be putting whatever it is into one of these yarn embroidered gift bags that Meredith shared on her blog recently.

Christmas gift making

This year for Christmas I decided to do a little crocheting for a few gifts. I don't have a huge list, I didn't want to go too crazy and not get anything finished. Here's what I've got that I can share without ruining any surprises (one has to be kept secret!)

Howie the Holiday Penguin for my son, he constantly talks about a penguin he received for Christmas a few years ago. The penguin is gone now so I'm going to give him a new one. I'll be making him in the soft Charisma yarn.

Daphne Doll X2! I'm making both my girls one of these. I've already got them mostly finished, they just need some accessorizing. I'll share some better pictures once I have them completed.


Lastly, for the Christmas Eve ornament my kids get every year, I'll be making these adorable teddy ornaments. I haven't decided yet whether I'll be making them all teddies or making the koala and panda too. They're all super cute, it's hard to make a decision.

It's a small, very manageable list! Are you crocheting for anyone this Christmas?

Christmas wreath

Christmas decorations started going up in our home over the weekend, it's not all up yet but it's getting there. I don't have too many crafts planned this year but there are a couple that I'm working on. I'm trying not to overload myself with too much since I'm making so many gifts this year. I'll try to share all that I've got planned for gifts soon!


I got my wreath up on the door yesterday, I made it last year and I am still absolutely in love it! I love the green stripes! I decided to add a little to it this year though.

Instead of using a wreath hanger, I crocheted a ribbon in red to hang it over the door. On the back of the door I have a Command hook upside down and the crocheted ribbon is hooked onto it. The ribbon is just a 55" strip of hdc's. I also added the word "Merry" to it, I picked it up at Michaels last month when they first started putting out their Christmas stuff. I really like how it looks now! It feels a lot warmer than the way it was last year.

Have you started decorating for Christmas already?

reindeer hat

I finished this cute reindeer hat over the weekend for an order. I love it, it's super cute! I used some new yarn (might not actually be new but it was the first time I saw it!) that I spotted not too long ago, Bernat Premium, it's so incredibly soft, perfect for a child's hat.

I bought the pattern as a set from Sweet Kiwi Crochet. The pattern wasn't that great unfortunately, there were some things missing and no construction explanation at all. Luckily, I figured it out easily (with slight changes) but I wouldn't recommend a beginner try to get through it.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great Wednesday!

Merry Christmas!

Every year I give my kids a new Christmas ornament, they open it Christmas Eve before going to bed and hang it on the tree. I've done this every year for them since they were born, last year I decided to start making handmade ornaments, I made cute gingerbread men last year.


This year, I made cute little snowmen (pattern is here). They turned out pretty cute, I decided not to embroider arms on them. They are very easy and fast to make, so if you wanted to make some of your own, you definitely still have time!

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope your holiday is great!

noel

Another Christmas cross stitch is finished. I used a letter chart in the Christmas 2011 Issue 244 of Cross Stitcher. I used evenweave to stitch on again, I really like the evenweave now.

I was going to paint the hoop red but I kept forgetting to buy some red paint and now I don't want to deal with that Christmas crowd, so I wrapped some red ribbon around the hoop instead.

This is most likely the last cross stitch for the year, I'm so glad that I discovered my love for cross stitch again, I hope to do more next year!

Christmas chair socks

So, did you figure out what they were? Not an octopus or gloveless fingers, which was my favorite guess by the way! After all the octopus guesses, I really want to make one. They were actually chair socks!


I've seen these on pinterest a lot and decided to make myself a crocheted version. I think they are so fun and cute! I'm even going to make some for after the Christmas season. They're a much cuter alternative to those ugly things you stick to the bottoms of the chairs.

For mine I used Bernat Handicrafter cottons in red sparkle, mod green and white.


Want to make some? They're actually super easy to make, this is how I did it;

materials needed: 3.75mm (F)
worsted cotton yarn in 2 colors (about 50g of each color for a set of 4 socks)

Take your first color and make a magic circle
Round 1: sc 6 times into circle, join to the first sc (6)
Round 2: ch1, 2sc in each stitch, join to the first sc (12)
Round 3: ch1, *1sc in the first stitch, 2sc in the next* repeat until you reach the first sc and join (18)
Round 4: ch1, 1sc in each stitch, join to the first sc (18)
Round 5: switch colors and repeat round 4 (18)
Round 6-22: repeat round 5 (18)
Round 23-25: repeat last 3 rounds with just one color. Join last stitch to the first sc, fasten off and weave in your ends.

If you need help with making a magic circle, there's a really cute illustration that can help right here.
To get a clean color change, this tutorial is very helpful.

I hope I wrote out the pattern clearly, let me know if any of it doesn't make sense. If you make some of your own chair socks, I'd love to see them!

holiday swap potholders

Last month, I joined a holiday swap at Freshly Picked. I decided to make potholders to send to my partners. I made them all the same, so it was some assembly line crochet! I made six hexagon potholders.

I used Bernat Handicrafter cotton in country red and off white. I decided to go with the less bright colors to make them, I think they look a bit more vintage with the toned down red.

I will be sharing what these are in a couple days! I am camera-less right now, thanks to my forgetfulness. I shared another color of them on my facebook page this weekend, go on over there if you want to see more!

Christmas finishing

I showed you this in progress weeks ago but never got around to sharing it finished. I painted an embroidery hoop white before I put this cross-stitch in and then added some red ribbon. Maybe not the prettiest finish ever but I like it.

I found this pattern in The Cross Stitcher, Issue 244. This magazine is becoming a new favorite of mine, I've got 3 issues so far and I love pretty much every pattern in each issue.

I've got another Christmas cross-stitch in need of being framed, I really like it and will hopefully get it done and shared soon!

my creative space...

Happy December! Seriously, where did this year go? Christmas is coming up fast, so I've still got Christmas crafts happening. Here's the latest:


I don't think this really tells you what it is I'm working on exactly but I'm hoping to be all finished by next week! It's nothing dirty, like someone in this house believed... It's actually something so, so cute! Can you guess what it is? (remember not dirty!) I'm working with some green now too. I'm going to try very hard to have it ready to share next week.

See more creative spaces over here.

a Christmas wreath

I was going to make this wreath for my door this year, I bought all the felt needed for it even but I decided to do something different. I still used felt to make it, only a little of what I bought though, I have a lot of felt left over!


I used three shades of green, I cut each piece 4 times width wise and then I wrapped the strips around my 20" foam wreath until no wreath form was showing. I wasn't sure whether I was going to like the look or not but I really do love the stripes!


Once I wrapped the wreath, I cut a piece of red felt lengthwise a few times, each strip was about 2" wide. I then folded the strips in half and rolled. Once they were rolled, I stitched the bottoms to hold the roll together and then I hot glued everything into place. After rolling just these three pieces, I was glad I decided to make a different wreath! I don't think rolling so many pieces would have been much fun.

I'm pretty happy with my wreath this year, it's simple and pretty.

sharing at:
Get Your Craft On
The Inspiration Board
Anything Goes at Eye Heart

simple statement ornament

I joined a Christmas ornament swap over at Creative Collective and this is the ornament I mailed off to my partner. It's a mini version of the Simple Statement Wreath, you can find out how to make this ornament right here.

I love how this ornament looks! The photo isn't so great, getting pictures on a Christmas tree isn't easy (for me anyway).

I used Bernat Handicrafter Holidays in red sparkle. Which I am now running out of with another Christmas project, hopefully I can find more so I can share what I'm up to soon! I really cannot wait to get it finished and share, it is cute!

friday favorites?

We're going to pretend it's still Friday for this post, okay? Yesterday, I felt pretty blah and didn't do a whole lot, including getting a post ready. Today's a different story, it snowed more last night and it's feeling a lot more Christmas-y around here! We have a tree up already, gasp! I don't usually like to do that before the girls' birthdays but I gave in this year, I'm liking Christmas this year.

So, I'm sharing some favorite wreaths from my Christmas pinterest board. I need to make a new wreath for our door this year but I don't know which to make, I really would like to make all of these!

I actually bought all the felt for this one already, so it will end up somewhere around here.

Source: joann.com via casey on Pinterest

I made a candy cane wreath a couple years ago that I really liked, I like the round peppermints a little more though.

Source: fudgeripple.blogspot.com via casey on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via casey on Pinterest

I think this would be super cute! I might be able to squeeze this between my two front windows outside.

Source: pinterest.com via casey on Pinterest

And I love this pom pom one, so snowy!

Source: bhg.com via casey on Pinterest

Have a great weekend!