Christmas Stockings!

I love holiday crafting.  Like LOVE love it.  There is the excitement of picking the *perfect* pattern with the *perfect* yarn.  I also love that I'm working towards a goal--need to get it all done before Christmas!  But then...bam...it hits.  That mad rush to finish the holiday items!  Because not only do I end up with things I want to make for gifts, but I also go into super Craftini mode for items for my Etsy store.  This year I decided things will be different.  All summer I'll be working to stock my store and will have new rules for custom holiday items.

What would be the biggest help for a Craftini like me?  Getting custom requests in early.  Like months early.  Custom items take time to make.  I put my entire heart and soul into what I make--so when you get a Craftini Marini item it is always made with love and with the best craftsmanship!  So, I was thrilled when I got a custom order in January for a holiday item!  It was an order for four Christmas stockings and I had a BLAST working with this client.  She wanted stockings for herself, her husband, and their two cats--the best part was that I got to match the cats' stockings to their fur color!

She wanted something fun and stripey for herself.  I worked with two different greens, two different reds, and white to create this fun, whimsical stocking!

For her husband she wanted something that looked like a candy cane with a green toe and heel.  I used the darker green and red from her stocking for his so that they would coordinate.  Love the way this came out!

 And for the cats she wanted a chevron pattern using each of their fur colors (silver gray and black) with white.  I LOVE the way these came out.

This was such a fun project!  These were actually my first time knitting Christmas stockings and my first time doing stranded color work.  I know that there will be more of these in my future!  Keep and eye out on my Etsy shop to see if any show up there for the holidays!

Christmas gift recap! [FINALLY!]

Ahhhh, finally I have the time to present all of my finished Christmas gifts!  This past Christmas I decided to make as many presents as I could.  I get such enjoyment out of making gifts and it's also a good way to save some money!  I believe that I made something for each person on my list--definitely a successful holiday!

I knit a cowl with carved wood buttons for each of my bosses.

For Sean, I knit a scarf and hat set and also made a Sheldon the Turtle in Giant's colors!

I added the year to to bottom of Sheldon's shell so that Sean will always remember which Christmas I gave him Sheldon.

For my cousin Kyle, I crocheted a rocket pillow.  He told me and my mom that this was one of his favorite Christmas gifts--which means a lot to me, coming from a 6 year old, especially when he got different video games and electronics from Santa and our family!

For my mom, I finally finished the ripple crochet blanket that I started 2 years ago!  It was worth the wait--she loved it!

I also made a vest for my mom....but it came out a little large and looked like armor on me!  I think she ended up giving it to a friend who it fit better.

And as usual I edged a couple of dishtowels for my mom and even monogrammed one too!

I also made my mom a snowflake fridge towel and one for Sean's mom as well.

I also made another fridge towel for Sean's mom as well as two crochet-edged towels!

And....I made a bunch of crocheted ornaments for Sean's mom as well. She loved them all.

For my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dan's cats I crocheted 3 cat toys and stuffed them with catnip!  They were a big hit.

And last, but certainly not least, I finished Matt's sweater!!  It looks so good on him and he loved it!  I'm happy I was able to finish it and give it to him this year!

It was definitely a busy holiday craft season, as I'm sure you can tell, but it was wonderful!  I love giving handmade gifts to my loved ones!  I'm already thinking about next Christmas--because, you know, it's never too early to start!

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve and my family and I will be celebrating later.  I have been so busy crafting projects lately!  I will have a post showing them, once I give most of them away :).  Yesterday I gave Matt his Christmas gift...the sweater I had been working on since before LAST CHRISTMAS and a few other things.  It made my heart melt when he totally fell in love with it when he opened it!  :).  I'm so happy he liked it and I'm so thankful for a best friend like him!

Whether or not you are celebrating today or tomorrow I still wish you all the best of the season!

Tis the season!

Somehow this yearn has FLOWN by!  It seems as if it was just the beginning of September...and now here we are approaching December!  I do have to say that I had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving :), the best I've had in a long time!  I have such a wonderful family and it meant the world to me that Sean could spend the day with me and my family :).

When I was little we never put the Christmas tree up RIGHT after Thanksgiving...we sort of waited a week or two (?) or maybe even more depending on schedules!  However, since I started grad school I've learned that if I don't get the tree up on Black Friday it might not even get up! Sooo...that's exactly what Sean and I did on Friday :).  We put the tree up! It really was a lovely time....Christmas music playing as we fluffed up the branches of the tree that was in the attic for a year.  I was highly amused every time Sean said "wow you have more ornaments to go up?" :).  What can I say...I like my tree with lots of ornaments on it!  The bow I made back in...um..2008 I think, still looks pretty good atop my tree!

What do you think?

We also have an "Our 1st Christmas" ornament this year :).  Sean bought it for me at a Holiday Boutique we went to two weeks ago....he's so thoughtful.

I have a crocheted nativity under the tree.  I bought this a few years back before I ever tried to make an amigurumi.  I'd love to make myself a nativity one day.  For now, I adore this set!

This year, I also decided to make myself a holiday bunting.  Last year I had participated in an Attic24 themed swap on Ravelry and I had received 4 little granny trees as part of my package.  I had them hanging in my office last year, but I knew that they needed a better way to be displayed! (Especially since I have only been in my school office 1 time a week lately.)  So....I made 3 others (the yellow, orange, and dark purple ones) using the same pattern--Grandma Tree by the Royal Sisters.  I attached them all together using a glitter eyelash yarn from Martha Stewart. Then I hung glittery snowflake ornaments that I found at Target (2 for $1! can't beat that!).  I'm in love with my sweet garland bunting!!

Decorating for the holidays just makes me so happy :).

Christmas 2011

Yesterday was Christmas.  As you all know I've been knitting, crocheting, and other sorts of hand crafting most of the gifts that I was giving for Christmas.  I was so excited to give my mom the vest that I had knit for her!  Our family has a nice dinner and celebration for Christmas Eve, then I sleep at my mom's house in my childhood room, and then Christmas morning my mom and I open our gifts to each other and the ones that Santa brought.

So without further ado, here is my Christmas 2011 recap (and yes, my mom might not be so happy with the "Christmas Morning" pictures of her I'm posting...)

Here we have my mom's Christmas tree and the presents on Christmas morning! Yep, it's just my mom and I.....we really love each other :) (not that material items = love...just saying).

My stocking was packed from Santa!  He even wrapped these gifts in a very special way....

A lovely mirror picture of me before present time :).  I figure that if I put a picture of my mom up, I might as well include myself in my pjs :).  I love them! All of my favorite colors!!!  (Note the Christmas tree in the background....).

I just love pictures of presents up close....I love to wrap!  I wonder if you can tell which ones my mom wrapped and which ones I did.... here's a hint, I get more creative with my bows than my mom does :). I also like owls....and sparkly things :).

 

And here is my favorite picture of the day!  This is the moment when my mom opened the vest :).  As you can see, she is sooooooo excited.  (Mom, if you ever read this, I'm sorry that I posted a picture of you on the internet on Christmas morning...I love you!!)

After my mom opened my vest, I got to open my stocking.  As you can see, Santa decided to wrap my stocking stuffers with a new material this year...aluminum foil, the heavy duty kind.  While very ingenious....aluminum foil DOES NOT make for good wrapping material.  The large gash on my index finger is proof ;).

After all of the unwrapping was over, we were left with a GIANT pile of papers and other packaging materials.  (Of course we recycled what we could!)

Nothing could make Christmas better than my mom's excitement to wear her new vest!  I was thrilled when she said that she wanted to wear it for Christmas!! She even asked me to make her another one this summer in a different color!  My mom's so cute :).  She made me so happy!

After visiting family after Christmas breakfast and gift opening, my mom and I headed back to my apartment to make our traditional Christmas Day dinner.  We've been having this for years and years....I can remember how much my Baba (grandma) loved it!  What was it, you ask?  Well, we had cornish hens baked over seasoned (cream of chicken soup and italian seasoning) rice, with green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, and an amazing jello mold that my mom made!

2011 was really a nice Christmas!  I'm super thankful for my amazing family, a mother that loves me more than I can ever understand, and great friends!  OH...and the Knit Picks harmony wood interchangeable knitting needle set that I got from Santa!

Christmas gifts part 1

Tomorrow is Christmas eve.  This year I set out to make most of my holiday gifts, unfortunately I've not been able to complete all of them yet....but I will get them done!  I'm setting a second goal of January 7th, which is technically the Christmas that I celebrate.

Anywho, since I've given out a few of my gifts, I no longer have to worry about posting about them and ruining the surprise! (And I'll freely post about my mom's gifts because she does not use the internet!)

First, I knit my friend Stephanie a "Honey Cowl" in Madelinetosk DK in "Fragrant."  It is a mixture of different pinks (her favorite color) and really came out nice!  I made the one skein version and you can wrap it around your neck twice--when you do this it is snug on your neck (which honestly I found to be very nice). [Steph really liked the cowl!]

For my bosses at my internship, knit them each a coffee cup/mug cozy and crocheted a coaster.  Each got really excited when I gave them their presents--that's always nice to experience :).

Finally, one of my mom's gifts is a set of two towels for the kitchen.  In 2009 I started making her two kitchen towels....she got them in 2010 as well and now again in 2011.  I learned a new technique of embroidering a chain stitch along the edge of the towel and then crocheting on to that.  It really saved time when making these.  (Yes, I made these today....Christmas eve eve!).

My mom is also getting the knit vest I made, which I posted about here.  I'll get some pictures of her in it once I give it to her.  I really hope she likes it....

We Love Lucy Christmas Swap 2011

This year I participated in my first "We Love Lucy" swap...which was also my first swap ever :).  This swap was part of the "We Love Lucy" group on Ravelry...we all **really** love Lucy and her Attic24 blog.  The theme of the swap was "Christmas!"--what Christmas means to you, what it's like in your area, etc.  It's an international group so you could swap with someone internationally if you chose to go that route.  My wonderful swap partner, Shanti, lives in Indiana and is originally from Mexico :).

For my package, which I posted all wrapped, I tried to get things that represented Christmas by me and also spoil my partner.  Cause really, what's better than being spoiled during the holidays? (Note that these photos are borrowed from my swap partner, I really hope she doesn't mind :)).  The package had to include yarn and something hand-made.

The item that I made were dragonflies and butterflies.  My partner makes wire jewelry and really likes butterflies and dragonflies, so I figured she could maybe use these as part of a larger project.

Here is the entire unwrapped swap package: a jewelry holder, some Christmas balls, a book I love and kind of figured she wanted, a Christmas tree ice cube tray, some socks, the hand-made goodies, a whole bunch of yarn, hot cocoa, gummy bears, beads, pom-poms....annnnnnd a letter with some recipes in it that my mom and I make for the holidays :).

Now, on to the package I got!

Every object was wrapped up in colorful tissue paper!! HOW CUTE!

And here we have all of the goodies!  Yarn, a hand-made cowl, crochet hooks, patterns, little Christmas trees, things for decorating cookies, a coaster, pens, hand-made earrings, and a lovely hand made note!  I was so spoiled!

Here is some new yarn that I've never tried or even heard of! I'm so excited! The colors are so so so vibrant!

These lovely Christmas trees found their way onto the bulletin board in my office :).

She also made me these AWESOME wire earrings! She is just so talented :).

Thank you Shanti!! I love everything!!!!