Lebkuchen!

In my continuing efforts towards my 20 christmas ornaments, I made a super cute gingerbread man and another "fancy ornament" (this time with fancy, gold trimmed yarn!). 

Then I decided I absolutely must make a heart shaped German lebkuchen ornament.   I found the heart pattern, winged it on the chain stitch writing and used some of the techniques from Gingey above to finish it out.  I think its cute.   My Oma might also think its cute, but she also might not admit it came from her 37 yr old granddaughter (looks more like my 9yr old made it).

And here's the obligatory pic of my daughter with real Lebkuchen in real Germany during a real Weinachtsmarkt.  

My thoughts on Yarn Snobbery

You spend enough time in the fiber arts, you definitely come across the concept of Yarn Snobbery.  Those who will not even touch anything acryllic or GODFORBID something you can purchase at JoAnns!  

My first experience with it came early on.   I knew for my last birthday I wanted to take a crochet class.   So I told my husband that if he and the kids wanted to wrap something for me, they could go buy me a couple hooks and a skein of yarn.   He tells of walking by the yarn display at Walmart and my (then) 4yo daughter leaping over and grabbing this one skein and declaring "this beautiful yarn is for mama!"

Well, it sure was colorful.   Hot pink, sky blue and purple Red Heart super saver yarn...nice and scratchy to the touch!  I practiced a few rounds on it, made a few Barbie towels and went onto my class at the Local Yarn Shop.   When I pulled out my hooks, still tangled in the brightly colored yarn the instructor said "ew, definitely dont touch that stuff" in a way that made me think she expected I was planning on crocheting with fresh baby seal entrails.   Properly chastened, I moved onto wools and fancier yarns.   But as my craft led me to amigurumi, I learned that the cheaper, stiffer yarn worked so much better for dolls and toys (as a very floppy headed Blossom Powerpuff doll can attest).   So I now have a nice supply or pretty yarns, acryllic yarns, cotton yarn and Red Heart Super Saver yarns.

I recently stumbled up on this pattern that tweaked my interest and made me drop everything to start.   Puppet scarves!   My daughters must.have.these for Christmas.

And what better brightly colored yarn to use for my older daughters scarf than the one she picked out to start me on this journey.   So I have been crocheting with the pink/purple/blue mess and the more it comes together, the more I love it.   Woven into each stitch is the image of my daughter's smiling face, memories of her standing there proudly as I unwrapped it...now hopefully worked into something that will make her smile when she unwraps it.  This obnoxious, not soft, not wool, not expensive yarn has endeared itself to me.

(WIP, mixed with pink, since I didnt have enough of the original yarn to make the scarf long enough)

Down with Yarn Snobbery!  

More Christmas

Who knew, scarves can be fun!   For someone who cant stand blanket crocheting, I am shocked at how much I have enjoyed both the broomstick lace scarf and this latest creation.  I love this Spring Scarf because its a repeating series of 8? rows that all have their own interest and it goes fast!   Pic doesnt do the purple yarn justice, but it's very deep and has shades of reds and blues woven through.   Perfect for the recipient who loves purple. 

I decided to try to modify the fingerless mitts pattern from my last post to incorporate the "flower" design from the scarf and it was decidedly easy!    Now I just hope it fits someone with more delicate hands because they sure dont fit my giant paws.

Pretty, pretty, pretty!   I need to go make a dinosauer or something.   Too much pretty around here lately!

One gift for Gramma, one scarf missing

Well, I decided to try my hand at fingerless mittens.  Not being one who ever has cold hands, I was skeptical about their effectiveness, but I have been assured by cold handed moms in my "focus group" that these are awesome!   So with my daughters speech therapist and my mother in law in mid, I went to trying out a pattern.   It's a great, easy pattern that crochets up fast, as long as you get a handle on the front/back post stitch.  It's actually a fun stitch!   I wanted to make a matching hat for my MIL but didnt have enough pink yarn and wanted to use only from existing stash, so I made a white/pink stripey hat from this basic pattern, with a ribbed brim to match the mitts.   I added the flowers to the hat and the mitts just to spruce it all up.  I hope she likes them!

For a swap I was in,  I made this fabulous broomstick lace scarf and a matching hat.  The hat was a bit wonky, but the scarf was so pretty with the stitch and the fall colors, I had hoped it would make up for the hats' shortcomings.   Alas, by the time I finished the hat, the scarf went missing.  Gone.  Nowhere to be found.  I have torn every inch of this house apart and cannot find that scarf.   All I can think is that it ended up in a goodwill box and some lucky stiff is running around with my swap partners intended scarf for the low, low price of $2.92 (or half off on Wednesdays).   Sigh.   But here she is for posterity.

So for my ever patient swap partner, I decided to finish up the baby shells ear warmer.  I also love these colors and while its small and not as impressive as a scarf, it probably took me longer to make it, since it has so many color changes and eleventymillion ends to weave.   I hope she likes it. 

I'm also throwing in one of my snow dudes and a turkey butt for her.   :)

5 down, 15 to go!

After the Turkey Butt diversion, I got back into Christms ornaments.  I took another crack at a snowman ornament and, while this one is cute too, neither are ornament sized.  (I started with the Bo the Snowman pattern, but ended up going my own way again.)  One of these days I will make a snowman small enough to hang from a tree.   I used safety eyes instead of buttons and added a flower to his hat.  Not sure which eyes I like better.  Here are both snowdudes side by side for comparision.

Below the snowmen, is Fancy Ornament in Blue.   I added bells for a little flair because I wasn't sure Fancy Ornament was fancy enough.   But my daughter was thrilled with Fancy Ornament and declared that she wants it for her teacher and 2 more Fancy Ornaments for her other teachers.   Luckily, Fancy Ornament crochets up in record time, so I think I will knock one child's teachers' gifts out before the weekend!  

Finally, I made a gingerbread house ornament.  It wasn't too time consuming, I got the bulk of it done during our nightly pre-bed Little Bill episode, but its a bit picky with all of the small parts and the sewing.  I may do one more of these and attach all of the "candy" before I sew the two pieces of the house together.  I think that will make it go much smoother. 



What, what, Turkey Butt???

I stumbled across the Turkey Butt pattern early on in my crocheting "career" (like in March LOL) and knew I would be making them come November.   But much to my dismay, the link to the original pattern was broken everywhere I looked.   Thanks to the wonders of the Way Back Machine, I was able to find a cached version and voila...turkey butt magnets.  

I whipped up 4 during naptime and added the magnets with a glue gun after the kids were in bed.  Easy peasy!   I love these guys!