Christmas Ornaments

Every year I make an ornament for myself and one for my mom. Here are this year's:

 

 

Aren't they just super cute? I picked up some cross-stitch kits from Michaels for $0.50. It came with the hoop, fabric and some thread. I didn't use the pattern they provided (I really didn't like them), but the kits were such a steal!

 

 

 

I don't know where the patterns are from, they were just saved on my computer and I found them by chance. Love them.



Christmas Ornaments

I started my own Christmas tradition last year. I hand-make a pair of ornaments and I keep one for myself and give one to my mom.

 

This year I found a great cross-stitch chart for a snowflake on Keeping Things Simple. I bought some 3" wood hoops from Michaels and painted them red. I used some twine instead of ribbon to hang them up.

 

 

I think they came out so cute. I love both color combinations but I think I like the blue and pink the best!

 

 

 

 

Cross-Stitching

A friend asked me to make her a Christmas present for her to give to her boyfriend. She then showed me the pattern for this:

 

I had no idea what it was, until she explained that it was her boyfriend's favorite TV show.

 

It was hard work finding the original pattern for this (she had sent me a photo of a finished project), but I persevered and eventually came across a Tumblr account she's a carnival that had the pattern. My friend wanted the words changed, but other then that, I followed the pattern.

Some Cross-Stitching

I got some lovely little colourful picture frames at Michaels and I have been trying to figure out what to put in them when I stumbled upon this great pattern for a blackwork strawberry.

The Blackwork Strawberry pattern is from The Making Spot blog and the post also includes an explanation of blackwork. Now I just have to find patterns for my 3 other picture frames!

Some Cross-Stitching

I am already starting to think about Christmas presents (yes Christmas!). I have to start early enough so I can get everything I want done. This year I am thinking of doing smaller projects and I already completed one. There is a big book lover in my family so I was thinking of making a set of bookmarks to give her. This is the first one that I have made, the pattern is mostly taken from the Kincavel Krosses blog. There are some brilliant patterns to be found there and this 'Hands Off My Book' bookmark is just perfect. I played around with the pattern a bit and I think it came out great!

I plan on making two more and I already have the designs ready to go, I just have to treck out to the store to buy more bookmarks!

Inner Driver Key Chain

Me and my boyfriend bought ourselves a Mazda 2 a few months ago. I love the car, it is a lovely lime green color and it's just amazing to drive. You have probably seen the commercials for it, it's the one with the little green alien guy (they call him Inner Driver). I wanted to make myself a key chain for my key, but it had to have the Inner Driver logo on it to match the car (I'm weird like that). So this weekend I managed to put together a little 'pillow' key chain for myself. I knew it had to be big enough so that I could easily find it at the bottom of my purse and this came out the perfect size. Sometimes things just work out the way you plan, this was one of those cases! 

The back view of the key chain is a simple key image that I found on Flickr. 

Home is where...

Finished this great cross-stitch pattern. I thought it was such a clever idea and since my boyfriend and I are such Xbox geeks, I thought it would be a great thing to have hanging on a wall! The free pattern is on The Domestic Scientist site, I love how it turned out!
These are the DMC colors that I used to make this:
Outline - Black
Yellow Button (Y) - 972
Red Button (B) - 321
Green Button (A) and the center button outline - 368
Blue Button (X) - 803
"DPad" and joysticks - 3799
Small Grey Buttons - 648

Now I just have to find the perfect frame for it!

Happy Father's Day!

I made my dad two cross-stitched hoops for father's day. The first is a gargoyle and the second is a tribal mask. I think they turned out great, and my dad loved them. So, SUCCESS!
I couldn't find any patterns online, so I took some images off of Google and put it through my cross-stitch software and this is what I came up with. I love them.

WIP/ FO

I want to try posting something on a regular basis; every week I would like to post a picture of one of my work's in progress, and a picture of something that I have finished (hopefully I will have finished something that week). I don't know if it will be every Sunday, but I will try to keep it on the same day.

My finished project today is something that I shared with you recently. I had not completed every block yet, but I finished the whole afghan now and I want to show you what it looks like finished! I absolutely love the colors and the yarn, it turned out better then I imagined. It's the perfect size to keep me warm when I'm curled up on the couch. In case you did not see the previous post about this project, the pattern is from Knitting Today magazine (they give the pattern for 4 blocks in each issue and at the end you have all 20 blocks that make up the afghan). They even have the first 4 blocks available on their website.


My work in project is actually 2 things. I have been working on these bookmarks for some time now, but never seem to have the time to finish them. The animals design is from the Cross-Stitch magazine from their motif library section. They are so adorable!! The second bookmark is a mishmash of different designs. I was just picking out some of my favorite designs and putting them on there. I'm almost done this one, I just haven't found the time to finish!

That's all I've got for you guys today, but later on this week I will be posting some links to some of my favorite free patterns!

Happy knitting!!

Christmas!

This Christmas I decided that I wanted to knit something special for the members of my family. I asked the people I was unsure of what they wanted, instead of knitting something that they may not want.



My mom got a pair of socks. "Bonsai" is from "Knitted Socks East and West". I highly recommend this book to any sock knitters. It has some lovely patterns in it, they are easy to follow and produce beautiful results. I have made a few pairs from this book and I am in love with them all. These were a bit tight when my mom put them on, so maybe going up a needle size would have been a better fit, but once she got them on, they looked amazing.



My sister asked for a cowl. Not just any cowl; it had to be "chunky and big enough to go around my head twice and I want it in light beige". At least she was specific... I found a great pattern online. Stockholm Scarf fit my sister's description perfectly. It was a great and easy knit, I was able to make it in just over 2 days and she was unbelievably happy with the results and I saw her wearing it every time she went out. Success!



My other sister asked for a pair of socks, a teddy bear and a marshmallow hat. I didn't know if I would be able to finish everything for her, but I managed it. I do not have a picture of the marshmallow hat (I'll try to get her to take a picture of it so I can post it... it's hot pink and looks great on her!). The socks were another pattern from "Knitted Socks East and West", this time I chose "Chouwa". They look amazing, the picture does not do them justice.



She also wanted a teddy bear, but I didn't feel like making another one, so I opted instead to make her a Hippo! The pattern is from "Itty-Bitty Toys", and it came out fantastic.



Next was my dad. He was the hardest person to make for by far! I knew I had to find something unique for him, but at the same time still be cute. Stone the Gargoyle provided me with the perfect solution. He looks absolutely fantastic while still having some charm!



I also knitted a pair of socks for a friend. The Horcrux socks can be found in the Six Sox Knitalong group on Ravelry. Another great easy knit pattern (and super stretchy too, so it will fit all sized feet!).



Another pair of socks for a friend. Again from "Knitted Socks East and West". These ones are called "Ninja". Another super stretchy socks for those of you who don't know the exact foot size of the person you are knitting for.



A pair of socks for my aunt (sorry about the poor picture quality). aFlame is available as a free Ravelry download. A great quick knit that isn't complicated enough to throw you off, but it keeps your interest.

I didn't get a picture of the socks that I knitted for my grandmother. Another free ravelry download; the Norfolk Ramblers pattern is excellent. The cross-stitch is a pattern that my grandmother gave me for Christmas last year and I completed it for her and gave it to her this Christmas. She seemed really pleased with it!



Writing everything down in a post like this makes it look like a lot less work then it actually was. I basically started knitting in June and have been making things on and off since then. I think I'm going to start even earlier next year!!

Finally some new finished projects to share!

School has been keeping me busy these past few months and I haven't had as much time as I would like to be crafting. I did manage to get some things done, including the Vespa shawl that I have had my eye on for some time. I loved the design of this and it was so easy and fast to knit up, I memorized the pattern after just a few repeats. I used Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends in "stone" and I needed just over 2 skeins to finish it. I did 17 repeats of the pattern and added two buttons to keep it secure around the neck. It's a great pattern and I love the look of the finished project! I was going to keep it, but because I already have so many scarves/shawls for myself I'm putting it up in my Etsy shop.

I also had a bit of time to do a great cross-stitch design: "Live Fast, Die Pretty". It was my first time following a charted pattern for a cross-stitch and I love the results!! It looks amazing.