My sister in law is a relatively new Phlebotomist (the person who comes to draw your blood at the doctor’s ofice), so I made her this tote bag for Christmas.

All of my nieces are in dance classes, so this year for Christmas, I decided to make them things that might be useful for their classes. I decided to start with knit legwarmers for two of the girls. Quick, easy, and useful. Each of these projects were about 4 days, all told. And woot!! That’s at least a start on the Christmas crafting!!

The top pair (the brown ones) were knit with Lion Brand Wool-Ease. It’s washable, and it’s at least part wool. The pattern is “Flared Legwarmers” by Desiree Pelletier. The bottom pair (the purple ones) were knit with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Superwash. The pattern is Winter Legs by Rebecca Velasquez.

Again this year, I have taken the Handmade Pledge, and I encourage each of you to do so as well. Why?

•  Handmade goods are (usually) unique. There aren’t 100 of them on the shelf at each of 200 stores around the nation.
•  Handmade goods are (usually) really high quality.
•  Most makers of handmade goods do so in their homes, as a way to help support their families. Many are work at home moms who want to contribute to the family income while also raising their children themselves.
•  Handmade goods are (usually) safer than their mass-produced counterparts. (Consider who’s been busted for lead paint in toys… the small mom-and-pop makers of toys? Nope. Mattell and the like.)

And from the Handmade Pledge website:

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left people all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect. We created the pledge as a call to action for consumers to be conscious of how they spend their money this holiday season. We want people, whenever possible, to support independent creators and shop outside the big boxes.

Goodness, we’re coming up on Christmas, aren’t we?

Well, OK, the answer is NO. But it’s getting to be time to start planning for what I’m going to make for Christmas presents. And this year, I have, well, pretty much no ideas.

I’m thinking maybe knitted, felted slippers. For the kids? For the grownups? Hm.

I think it would be awesome to figure out how to use my screenprint kit and use it for Christmas gifts, but unless I want everyone to have the same design, um, that’s a different screen for every person. Not really practical. So maybe some upscale, modern freezer paper stencil designs for adult Tshirts? I don’t really see the men in the family wearing those, though. I know Randy would, but my brothers in law and my father in law aren’t really the, um, Design-On-Tshirt type.

Hm. I’m never too impressed with my ideas for the guys, you know?

Star Trek, Triforce (Legend of Zelda), Stargate, and the Alliance Symbol (Star Wars)

I don’t know, man, one day I got a gumption to knit some geeky washcloths. And here you go. They’re all gifts. The Star Trek and Star Gate are already off to my brother in law, and the Star Wars and Triforce are headed to a friend.

The X-Man cloth and the W cloth, I made for Wally. He actually completely loves them. The G is for Genna, obviously. She doesn’t care that much.

Some of these were patterns I improvised from charts I found online, some were patterns I found on Ravelry. All details at Ravelry.

As you might be aware, I have a slight book problem. As in, I buy them obsessively. In the last few years, I’ve started buying (or rescuing from the garbage) those pathetic, scribbled on, falling apart children’s books left at the end of used book sales. Then I make new things out of them.

Bubble magnets are apparently the world’s easiest craft project, but I’ve never made them. They were pretty simple to make, and super fun, too. The ones pictured here are spoken for, but I have some listed over at Etsy if they strike your fancy. (Jungle Book, Sesame Street. more to come.)

And you can read more about who these magnets are headed to over at An Epic Journey (my 101 in 1001 project).

These are a gift for a friend who might read this blog, but who doesn’t know I’m making something for her. The mitts look freakishly thin, but they’re 2×2 ribbing so they stretch nicely and give the mitts a nice hug. I made them with stash yarn, as I’m making most of my projects these days. This was yarn I got from my mom’s house when she died. More on pattern and yarn here at Ravelry.

Trying to finish Genevieve’s stocking by Christmas. Ha.

This was last week, after 2.5 weeks of work. In the past week, I’ve completed all of the stitching except about 3 square inches. Plus the backstitching. Plus adding her name. And then sewing it. Not gonna happen by tomorrow.

And my second sock. About 2/3 done. I’ve largely stopped working on this in favor of the stocking above. Seen here in its native habitat, my bed. (Though now that I think of it, I do most of my work on it in the car.)

Wally’s pants, and I happen to know he loves them. LOL. I had to have him try them on. I just traced around the pants he happened to be wearing at the time I was ready to cut these out (he took them off first, though he really didn’t believe me when I told him WHY I wanted him to undress in the basement in the middle of the day). They also have a back pocket in the dinosaur print.

Joey’s skirt. I asked my sister to give me an idea of waist and length, and she never did, so I hope this fits, but if not, too bad. I’m only part kidding there…of course, I’ll fix it if it doesn’t fit! I ended up finding a child’s sizing chart online and based the measurement off of that. I really just eyeballed everything, but used essentially the same technique as in my Super Easy Patternless A-Line Skirt Tutorial.

 Nephew’s shirt. Nephew is a Guitar Hero fan, as are many teenage boys. I made him this shirt. I first dyed the bottom with yellow and then red, using a tub dyeing technique. Then I drew flames on the bottom and covered them with soy wax (for batik) before tub dying the whole thing in black. I was in labor during this batik and black dye process, and didn’t stir as much as I should have - it was really hard to bend over the tub during contractions - resulting in some light patches. After a lot of consideration, I decided I actually rather liked the way it looked, so rather than re-dying, I decided to leave it.

 Wee Sweaters. These are actually Christmas ornaments. I made one for each family member. This pattern is so easy to make - you can find it in my Projects at Ravelry (link at right).

 There will continue to be Christmas-related crafting going on around here, mostly with Wally, but I am done with my gift Crafting. Feels good.

I have been knitting washcloths these last few weeks! I’m digging them for their instant gratification and relative ease in putting down and picking up. I’ve been reluctant to start on any longer projects lest I go into labor and never pick it back up again, and hesitant to start anything too complex, imagining I will want to knit through early labor but will definitely lack the mental energy to focus on much.

I’ve also been finding washcloths a really stress-free and nearly foolproof way to work on my knitting pattern-making skills. I mean, if something starts to go really south, ripping out and starting over isn’t nearly as traumatic on a small washcloth as it is on, say, a pair of longies. I started out only knitting from patterns I found online, but now I’m largely working on designs from my own head. It’s really amazing how two basic stitches - knit and purl - and a few basic techniques - slip, knit together, knit front and back - can turn into a stunning array of unique cloths.

And - if you’ve never used a hand-knit washcloth, you really should. They are just luxurious. We use them both in the bathtub/shower as well as for dishes.

I started out making these for Christmas. I’m planning to give each woman in the family (only four this year) a set of two or three cloths along with five or six soaps and a small bag of bath melts. I’m going to give a few to other people as gifts, as well. And then I’ll sell the rest in the shop!