Christmas Rush

I have had to put a halt to sewing all things sale-able to make way for the seemingly endless list of gifts to make before Christmas  Not that I haven't given myself PLENTY of time to do all the crafts up, however I forgot that my family will be celebrating Christmas in Ohio with my in-laws for thanksgiving instead.

I made my mother in law a very soft cranberry shawl. Shes a avid church goer and could use something nice for the chilly Sunday mornings. The yarn was a bit more than I prefer to spend on crochet stuffs. 12.99 a skein and I used 2.

For my step mom, I got Bernat soft boucle' and made her a large soft scarf with fringe on the ends. I just did double crochets and started with a chain of 27, then started DCs with the 3rd chain from the hook. It turned out very well. Took me a combined time of about 8 or 9 hours for the scarf and another hour to painstakingly attach the fringe. I am making my sister a scarf of the same nature, just a different color of Boucle'. I really like the "teal twist" color. I love heather grey and the shade of blue is perfect.

For my new sister in law, brother in law and their soon to be born son, hats. Because I have no ability to buy things for people, and handmade is the way to go. I have yet to start on them but his will be a simple beanie, as will the hat for the bebe, and hers will be more of a slouchy beanie/beret.

For my dad and brother I am making large pillows. Dads of course, the colors of U of M, and my 26 year old brother? Pfft, Spongebob! I have already made a pillow for my nephew from camouflage that is actually made up of ton of dinosaurs. I need to get some good coupons because I am going to need about 10 pounds or so of good polyfil.

My husband I will actually purchase a gift for because I just need to not make EVERYTHING. And for my lovely 14 month old baby girl, Im debating. I do not have the time for a quilt. So I thought a granny square blanket out of the softest crochet-able yarn I can find. I say "crochet-able" because some of the yarns I am working with on these scarfs are so poofy that I have a hard time finding my spots to make my stitches.

Aside from all that, I'm excited for this holiday to be over so life can resume and I can go back to trying to get my small hobby/business off the ground. I would love to be able to supplement my income.

Here is a easy pattern for quick christmas gifts: (from college craft)
http://collegecraft.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/simple-scarf-with-fringe/

This is basically what I did above. However, I used double crochet, and made it a bit wider. Her fringe tutorial is great as well.


Thanks for stopping by to check up on me, and rolling me on to my side. 'Preciate it.

What.... I don't even...

I keep falling off the blogosphere and reappearing when I have time. That is a precious commodity of which I do not get to enjoy nearly enough.

I have taken up sewing. I still continue to crochet at work, since I am not going to be toting the sewing machine to work any time soon to kill time between unloading trucks.

I have opened a Etsy store finally with some of my projects. I have found time to make things after putting my daughter to bed on the weekends. I can usually churn out a couple items every night if I stick to burp cloths and bibs. However I also have been making large over-sized floor pillows with zippers.

I enjoy using the zipper closure more than just stitching it up after stuffing it. Because my daughter has already beaten the crap out of her pillow and it is already in need of more polyfil.

Oh, not to mention I found a great way to kill a ton of yarn. You know, the yarn you say you won't add to until you use what you already have? I wasted about 10 skeins of yarn with a very large hook making my daughter a floor pillow. It is not pretty by any means because halfway through I ran out of complimenting colors and just used whatever I had in my crochet bag. I ran 4 strands of worsted weight yarn at the same time and a larger hook.

Basically just made a slouchy beanie, increased until it looked round enough for me, then stabilized the rows for about 8 inches or so, then started decreasing until I had a tiny hole left, packed it with fiberfil and kind of just stitched the small hole shut and knotted it, leaving a tassel on the end. I think its pretty hideous. My daughter loves it as a bumper when shes running full tilt at her large cloth pillow and bounces off on to the crochet pillow.

This is the large cloth pillow I made with the zipper closure. Its about 38x38. Massive. 

This is the crochet floor pouf I cranked out in about 4 hours. It works up super fast and is effective. It would also look good if you, unlike me, got nice matching yarns to use. 

Now if you will excuse me I have to go wrangle my animals away from my child. Every time she has a snack, apparently its their snack time too. Go figure.