Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Teacher gifts (and a pattern!)

So the end of the school year is nigh and I feel this compulsion to make something handmade for my kid's teachers as a Thank You for putting up with them all year.  Which doesnt exactly jive with my complete lack of free time...

My son has 3 teachers, a bus driver, a bus aide and 2 therapists.  There are probably at least 6-8 others who interact with him at school regularly, but I had to draw a line somewhere (the joys of special ed!)  My daughter is actually in an integrated pre-K classroom, so they have an extra teacher, bringing it to 3.   Ten handmade, not too expensive gifts needed to be thrown together in <4 days.
 
So I decided on $5 Starbucks gift cards and thought it would be cute to whip up a little pouch for each of the gift cards.   I also picked up some handmade beeswax lip balms from a local farm at the Dunwoody Green Market and added some chocolates to fill the pouches.   I couldnt find a pattern that met my needs, so I did a little trial and error and came up with something workable, that I will share, but just so you know...I am not a pattern maker!   Mine are all different sizes and shapes and I do a lot by eyeballing.  So follow if you dare....




In the end, they were super quick and a great stash buster!  It took approx 10 mins to make the pouch and maybe another 5 for the drawstring and 5 for weaving in the 2 ends and assembly.    The kids enjoyed decorating the cards and picking the color combinations for each recipient.   







And if I was smart...I would get started on Christmas presents yesterday, but I am not.  So expect a frantic blog post of a similar nature in 6.5 months.  







The Easy-Peasy Gift Card Pouch
Hook:  H
Yarn:  Peaches and Creme cotton

Ch 9
SC in 2nd ch from hook and the 7 more times.   (8sc)
2 sc in last ch.  
working around other side, SC 8
join with first sc and from here, work in the round.

18 HDC around for 9 rows.
1 sc, 1 slip stitch

Ch 4 (equals 1 DC + 1 ch)
sk 1 stich, DC (reapeat around and slip stich to 3rd ch of first ch 4)

Then ch 60 or so for the drawstring.  Weave drawstring into the top row between DCs and weave in ends.  

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Commissioned work!

A photographer friend asked me to make her an owl baby hat.  So we looked around and found a pattern for something close to what she wanted.   She did not want sleepy eyes, so I winged it on the open eyes.  



Visually, its super cute.   But I think the hat may be a bit too tall?  Or I just need a real 0-6m baby to test it on.   Not sure about the two-tone look.   And the cheap bulky yarn I picked up at Walmart today for my test run crocheted up a bit stiff.  I think I will take the hat to the local yarn store and ask them to help me pick a natural fiber yarn that will crochet up soft and fluffy, since I kinda have Teh Yarn Dumb.  



Now to see if the friend who commissioned the work likes it.