gifts – Page 2

So close

December 19, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

knitting dye-runoff

After a long, emotionally exhausting week I can officially say that we are near the end of the husband’s Christmas sweater. I spent several hours on the road, going back and forth between home and the funeral home, and managed to get the bulk of the 2nd sleeve knit (don’t worry, the husband was driving). And then, yesterday, I spent the majority of my day standing and knitting in an attempt to finish the last portion. Because, of course, you can’t sit down and knit with a toddler – there’s apparently some unwritten rule in toddlerdom that if mama sits down that’s your sign to pester her. (Seriously, I’m kneeling at the computer right now rather than sitting in the chair because as soon as I do that his independent play is over.)

This morning I set about to washing each of the pieces and blocking them in hopes that I can spend Sunday stitching it all together and Monday-Wednesday working like crazy on the collar and button band to have it done in time for Friday. I’m not impressed with the amount of dye runoff that came out of the individual pieces. The yarn was the basic Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, so it wasn’t like I spent a ton of money on the yarn (wasn’t my choice, however – I offered to knit it in nicer wool but husband is cheap and insisted the cheaper yarn would be fine). I laid towels down on my bed to keep it from getting stained as well. Oh well. Next time I’ll persuade him to go with a nicer yarn. Either that, or I’ll just pick it out myself and not tell him what I bought or how much it cost.

Quilting lessons

October 19, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

Last night I started a two-part sewing class at a shop in Columbus, which is kind of a haul for me but no one around here does classes (oh, if I were rich…I’d run a store of my own!)

I’ve never learned to quilt proper, so I’m learning some new things as I go. I can’t wait to show you all the finished quilt! And I can’t wait to start planning quilts of my own design now that I have a bit more technique down :)

Giftmas presents, round 2

October 17, 2015 Marie 1 Comment

It’s cold and grey and dreary outside, and my trip to Joanns today revealed that the holiday decor is quickly pushing out the fall themed stuff. I might have started to panic a bit about all the things I’m planning on making.

So I came home and, after lunch, hopped on my machine. Two more bags down. Both are with some German-themed fabric on Spoonflower since one of my friends is from Germany and the other is a German teacher.

I have at least one more bag to go, and I’m trying to work on that one today so I can call that round of gifts complete. Tomorrow I start taking a quilting class to make an adorable winter fox quilt for the Little Mr, so I’m pretty excited to start in on that.

I made progress this week on the baby gift knit, too, so hopefully I’ll have that to share with you soon, too!

The full gift list

October 8, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

The husband told me I should probably make a list of all my projects so I don’t lose track. So this is exactly what this post is. Allow me to present my epic to do list of holiday crafts and gifts:

5 knitting bags (3 done. Also, I may end up making more than 5 depending on what random holiday gift needs come up)
1 cardigan for the husband
1 quilt for the Little Mr
2 holiday ornaments
1 holiday countdown/advent piece, though I’m undecided on what, exactly, it will be.
3 flannel shirts for the Little Mr
1 holiday stocking for the husband (I’ve given up on knitting mine this year so it’s just the one unless I suddenly get though my projects in a hurry)

Missing from this list is a lot of gifts for a lot of people. I can’t decide what to make for everyone on my list, and the niece and nephew will probably just want money. So I might make them an ornament and that’ll be my handmade contribution to their ornament boxes. Same with the stepson and his girlfriend.

Also, I’m not sure that I really want to spend time making something for someone and it not be appreciated. So there’s that. Not everyone is knit worthy, I’ve learned, and my time is more precious these days.

I also have a baby gift to knit, which hasn’t even been started yet. It’s not a sweater, at least, but I can’t ever do something easy like a knit ball. So I really should get on that, too.

Giftmas presents, round 1

October 5, 2015 Marie 2 Comments

Two bags down, 3 to go. I actually just finished the dog one this morning really quickly – all that was left was to stitch the corners and flip it right-side out. The inside lining needs hand sewn to finish where I turned it right-side out but I’m waiting to do that until I get them all done so I can just do it all at once. Bags 3 & 4 are in the cutting process but shouldn’t take too long to finish – the first bag is always the slowest, but once you get the process down it speeds up and, before long, you’re making them without looking at the directions anymore.

They’re too small, honestly. I thought maybe they’d be a perfect sock project bag but I tried putting in a skein of unwound sock yarn and it’s snug. A wound ball of yarn is less bad, but you have to factor in trying to get your sock WIP in the bag with the ball and then that makes it tight. So these might end up being knitting accessory bags more than project bags. Oh well. I’ll just have to remember this next time I decide to make knitting bags and upsize the pattern a few inches each direction. It’s too late, now, and it would look weird if certain knitting friends ended up with a larger bag than the others.

Now that it’s October, it’s time to start counting down to my annual cabin trip weekend with the girls. This means not only deciding on what I’m taking to knit (and, hopefully, finish since I have quite the WIP list right now), but also packing/planning yarn dyeing. This year I have a sock blank, which I’ve never tried before, and I ordered some grey Full Circle roving from Knit Picks. Most of my fiber dyeing has been on white, so I want to play with the dyeing of the grey and see how pretty that comes out once spun. As far as the knitting that weekend… Ugh. I have no idea. I have too many projects going right now. I feel like, with a solid weekend of distraction-free (well, kid-free) knitting I need to pick projects that I don’t generally get to work on at home. Things that require more focus and attention than a sock project. That pretty much means the Husband’s holiday stocking, since it’s stranded and requires a lot of focus to stay on the right pattern row.

But, for now, the focus needs to stay on holiday gifts. I have about 32 days until that trip. I think I can hammer out quite a bit in 32 days, now that I think about it. If I can get the holiday gifts done (or most of them, at least) between now and November, then I can sail smoothly into the holidays and enjoy them as I’m hoping to.