Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Nothing like a rousing round of Muppet Christmas songs to get you in the mood to decorate. Or your In-laws bringing a bunch of presents with them. It didn't seem right to just stack them in the corner, so the tree went up.

I love this tree soooo much. Growing up, we always had the "Martha Stewart" trees. Although beautiful and homey because we got to help, they never had the touch of the homemade, kitchy, random ornaments. (It is ok Mom, I loved our trees, you did a very good job) But Zach's parents brought us a tote filled with his ornaments. Ones from when he was little. Some handmade looking ones. All beautiful. And I cried seeing all these things that were part of his childhood. But I particularly loved the Star Wars ornaments. So much in fact that I stole the little ones and put them on my tree at work.




















Couldn't resist adding a pic of the Hubby and Puppy giving me the look. Awwww...You would never know the dog is being pinned down so that she doesn't come lick the camera.

Felting

I finally got my invite to RAVELRY!!!!!!!! http://www.ravelry.com/ is a knitter/crocheter's dream. My handle on there is CSIcrafter. Look me up. This place is amazing. I can add all of my projects in there and keep track of them and how far along they are and when they need to be finished. And I spent most of last Wednesday (the day I got my invite) entering in all of my yarn and needles. It keeps track of your stash and what needles you have for you. I can peruse other peoples projects to get ideas, add them to my queue of things to make. And I can add and share all my projects I am working on. And I know the people I am making these for are not in Ravelry so I can put pictures and everything. Yay!!! I even joined my first Knit-a-long to make a pair of felted ballet slippers. The second one just needs felted. Speaking of which, since they aren't for anyone but me I can put up the picture.
I was soooooo worried making the first one. I have never felted anything and it was huge. Almost 1.5 feet long. But I felted it and it came out great. Still a bit long. So I took off a couple rows for the second slipper. Being able to felt stuff is awesome. It creates a much sturdier item. And AC Moore just got roving and felting needles. Roving=non-spun yarn. The needles have small barbs on them. You use the needles to punch through the roving and the felt and it locks the roving into the felt. You can make patterns, they have it in all sorts of colors. I was thinking a nice pink flower would look really cute on the slippers. Then to use up the rest of the black wool and some of my Kool-aid dyed wool, I knitted up a little purse. Gonna felt it tonight with the slipper. I hope it turns out alright. I still love that blue color. I had two balls of black wool left over (one from each slipper). I threw it on e-wrap flat panel on the green long Knifty Knitter. One ball was smaller so when I ran out of it, I joined on the blue and went until I ran out of the second bit of black. Then I did an I-cord on the KK spool knitter in the blue. I think I might have found a new stitch. I need to do a bit of searching to find out.

Oh, the slipper pattern is from http://www.decoraccentsinc.com/. She was offering it at 50% off for those who wanted to KAL (knit-a-long). The perfect time to pick up that pattern and several others I had been wanting for a while.

Thanksgiving and the day after

It ended up that Thanksgiving was at my house this year. My In-laws came over from Washington D.C. to spend it with us. They brought pies and the cranberry-orange relish that Zach adores SO much. We had maple syrup and cider glazed turkey (courtesy of my Hubby), roast garlic mashed potatoes, Stovetop stuffing, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts (I love these SO much, I look forward to them all year) and the Hawaiian bread rolls. For dessert we had spiced spiked apple cider (add amaretto), no-bake cheesecake (but not the Jello kind, it is cream cheese, sour cream, cool whip and sugar), Pumpkin and apple pie (MIL brought the last two). It was so very tasty.

That evening I left for Clarksburg, WV. Where my bestest friend, Becca, had come home for Thanksgiving. We were at the mall by 4:30 a.m. the next morning. And I think we finally got home around dinner time. But I only have Zach and Brian left to get Christmas presents for. And Brian is the only one I don't know what to buy for him. I think my mom should know. Essentially all I have left is a butt-ton of crocheting and looming. Hopefully I can get them all done in time.

It has arrived

My ESG Wonder loom from http://www.decoraccentsinc.com/ has arrived. Hooray!!! And of course my pact to not make anything non-gift related went right out the window. It is a bit top secret right now. I am working on making a glove on the looms. I haven't seen a pattern for anything like this yet. Hopefully it works out. Hoping to submit it to http://www.loomknitterscircle.com/ if I can get the details worked out. So far it is going good, but I've hit a snag with the fingers as I don't have a thumb loom. Decor Accents takes 5 weeks to deliver and I don't really have that kind of time. Might have to resort to making my own or knitting them flat for now.

A non-looming project. Actually this is going to be a baby present, hopefully, we'll see about getting it done. It might have to go to a certain biology nerd. It is the crochet version of http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/knit-patterns-dna.html that I was talking about in an earlier post. She gave me permission to adapt it to crochet. Yippee. Look at it curving all on its own. Makes me proud.

I am very proud of these. While acquiring Knifty Knitters, each one comes with one of their hooks. Even my Decor accents loom came with a Knifty Knitter hook. I don't like them because the rubber handle (which is like 1/2 an inch thick, which causes my wrist to hurt) comes loose and starts twisting. That doesn't really work when trying to lift some often tight yarn. So I took some Polymer clay I had sitting around the house from a previous craft project and dreamed these babies up. I wonder if Loom Knitter's Circle would accept these as a pattern. I love them because each pack of clay is like 2 dollars and the extra hooks are 97 cents. And I can shape them to my hand. Hmmm...runs off to write up the pattern to send in.

sorry there is no anything

ummm...yeah...so pretty much everything I am making right now is secret. Christmas presents, baby shower gifts, craft swap. The craft swap is over on December 3rd, so I can put up those pics and patterns after I get it sent out. The baby showers are December 6th (two of them together) so I can put up those pictures and patterns then. And Christmas...well, hopefully I can get some reaction shots. Those are my favorite. But I am not allowed to make anything for non-Christmas/baby shower/swap until all those are done. I think I need to sit down and make a list of every item that needs made and the date it needs made by. That way I'm not picking up and working on projects willy nilly. Indeed, I think I'll go do that when I am done blogging.

But never fear, there will be things to blog about. Zach and my one year anniversary is Sunday (dear God, what am I going to get him), I should be getting my Decor Accents Wonderloom by Saturday, Thanksgiving (wherever we may end up), Black Friday shopping with Becca (where she should finally get her scarf, so I'll have pictures of that, but she's seen it already). So I won't dissapear completely.

What yarn am I?

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
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SQUEEEEEEE

So...It hasn't shipped yet, but my card has been charged for my new DA Loom. Hopefully it ships tomorrow and I should have it by the end of the week. My brand new extra small gauge wonderloom from http://www.decoraccentsinc.com/ That is why this update is short. Bouncing around like a kid waiting for Santa to get here. Can't stand the waiting...!!!!!

GTA donation

I have finished my Christmas donation for God's Tiny Angel's. Have I mentioned them before? It is a group, based out of Huntington, that donates to maternity wards and NICU's around the country. They have a YahooGroup and a website. Both are linked on my page. At final count (I gave a blanket and hat to Lisa) I have 15 hats, 5 blankets, 2 sets of booties and a sweater/hat set. Yay. The reason I like this group is I don't have to mail my stuff anywhere. I can just drive it to the coordinators house. She is about 15 minutes from where I work. So if you have absolutely no idea what to get me for Christmas, a nice skein of fluffy, soft, baby yarn would be nice. And you can feel good that eventually it will be made into something for a preemie and their family.

But speaking of Christmas and lists, I have discovered Wists. It is a website that allows you to construct wish lists from anything on the web, even if it isn't for sale. The RSS feed is to the right down towards the bottom. If you click on one of the listings it will take you to the Wists site. I am very excited. Now I can list all the stuff I want that isn't on Amazon. Must work on transfering over Amazon wish list.

Michael's yarn event tomorrow. Woot!!! I know what I'll be doing all day

I wish Christmas was over. I have sooooo many projects I want to do that are in no way related to anyone's Christmas presents. I know those have to come first, but http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/knit-patterns-dna.html I must make one of these for a co-worker. Plus, my felted ballerina shoes, my gloves (I have a cool idea for these), my Hogwart's house illusion blanket, so many projects, not enough hands.

Harry Potter Christmas Swap update:
1 Gryffindor knit hat- completed
1 pair Gryffindor Mittens -not started
1 Gryffindor Christmas Stocking- not started
HP Christmas tree ornaments- 4 done, 2 just need detailing
Hot cocoa mix- done
HP mug- no idea where I am gonna find this. Might have to resort to painting it myself.

Been a while

A little something extra to add to the growing pile of crafts for God's Tiny Angels. Found the sweater pattern at Bev's country crafts. And had enough left over to make a matching hat. I used left over cream yarn from Angela's baby's blanket set along with a pastel skein of eyelash yarn I got from Big Lots for one dollar. The other hat (I got three total from the skein) was made with 1 strand of another Big Lots dollar skein and 1 strand of some random worsted weight white yarn I had left over.

Speaking of one dollar a skein yarn and adding to my never shrinking but always growing stash, the AC Moore here has placed all their discontinued and previously 1/2 priced yarn on sale for 1 dollar. I went in with my coupon, intending to be good and just pick up one skein of Christmas yarn to make more baby hats for my donation box and walked out with $20 worth of yarn. And considering they were all $1...well let's just say I have a lot more yarn now. And Michael's yarn even is coming up this Saturday. So even more yarn on sale. Oh Noes!


Besides using yarn and other craftiness, I love to bake. Seeing as how it is apple season, our Wal-mart (I know, why go to walmart to get apples, well I never carry cash to stop at the one roadside stand we have that might carry apples) had lots of apples very cheap. So we got a bunch, and I made a pie. I think I have enough left over for one more apple pie and then a pumpkin pie. I was inspired by watching Paula's Party on the Food Network. She had a lady on there who made pies that weighed 6 pounds and were almost a foot tall. Mine wasn't quite that big, but it did turn out pretty.

I have started keeping track of all my ideas. Normally they end up getting scribbled on a small scrap of paper and lost. Now they have a notebook to be written in. If I remember to date my entries, it will be interesting to look back. This way I won't have to rush to start designing a pattern when I first think of it. I can enter it in the book and come back to it when I have more time. Example: I just thought of a way to do gloves on a loom. But with all the Christmas/Baby/Swap stuff I have going right now, I don't have time to start them. So they are safely tucked away in the book (instead of on a post-it not I will lose) until I have more time for them. Three cheers for organization. And speaking of organization. I saw a method you can use to rewind balls of yarn into center pull skeins. There is a nice turn the handle version (but it is 30-40 dollars) but for this all you need is a smooth wooden dowel about 1 inch in diameter. I found a miniature rolling pin at AC Moore I am going to try. I will post my results. It does take longer than just winding it into a ball, but it looks so much nicer and it won't bounce around all over the place while I'm using it.

Costumes and Craftiness

Yay for Halloween. A perfectly legitimate reason for me to wear my Hogwart's School Uniform. I made the robe and the "sweater" and the pin. I am wearing a black skirt, white dress shirt, and a tie I found that was red and white that I colored in with a gold Sharpie. The robe is lined with maroon cloth. it looks good when I walk. The sweater is actually a dark grey sweatshirt that I cut the neck into a "v" shape and sewed on red and gold ribbon. The prefect pin, I used the Crayola modeling clay/foamy stuff and made it sheild shaped with a "P" on it then painted it red and gold and hot glued a pin back on it. I even have a wand. But I don't have a holster for it so it is a bit unwieldly to carry around.




In cool crafty news, I am a member of the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo Group. Their Christmas swap starts 11/3/07. And I signed up for it. This will be my first craft swap ever. I am so excited, I've started already. I am making Christmas ornaments, see some examples I've finished. They are crocheted. I am sort of winging it, but I am writing up the pattern as I go along so I will post those when I get them all finished. I am working on a Hedwig ornament. And plan to do a wand. Not sure what I will do from there. Maybe a dragon, or pygmy puff, or perhaps even Harry himself. Along with the ornaments, I plan to add in some homemade hot chocolate mix. And depending on what the person likes and what house they are in (see I'm so excited, I've started and I have no idea if I'm really in or who my person is or what they like) I am considering mittens or, even better for a Christmas swap, a Christmas stocking in their favorite house colors. So excited I want to find out who they are and get started.