Friday, January 9, 2009

Holiday Craftiness

So this year, I decided to have a totally handmade Christmas. My goal was to make gifts for everyone, and I mostly succeeded. I did end up buying a gift for my parents, but it wasn't an object -- I bought them a night at Indian Springs Resort in Calistoga, including 2 mud baths, for while they're here visiting in February.

Anyway, here's a sampling of what I spent most of November and December working on (uh, instead of posting here).

I made a purse for each of my sisters.

Here's Dana's:
Isn't the fabric for the body absolutely lovely? I almost didn't want to give this one away because I loved it so much. It's the Birdie Sling pattern, from Amy Butler. The body fabric is from the Garden Party Line by Anna Maria Horner. The handle is a brown and white polka dot. I'm not sure what fabric line that was from. And I lined it in either pink or brown cotton. Can't remember now.

And here's Ryan's:

The body fabric is Mocca, by Alexander Henry, and the handle is also an Alexander Henry fabric, I think, but I can't figure out what line it's from right now.

My mom got flannel PJs, which were actually for her birthday (right around Thanksgiving). I'm sorry this picture sucks so much. I wish you could see the adorable yellow buttons better!

There are pants that go with this pajama top, by the way, you just can't see them on the hanger underneath the top, which is long-ish. I would not make my mom go pantsless on her birthday :-)

And for Dan, a cabled scarf, knit in a lovely soft green yard. He wasn't sure he was a scarf person, but it looks great on him!

And also a hat, which looks kind of boring in this picture, but is quite cute on. I love, love, love the flap and wooden button:

I also made felt-lined fabric coffee cup cozies and peppermint bark for everyone at work, jars of caramel-pear butter, and a few other miscellaneous things. I couldn't get a good picture of the coffee cup cozies, but they turned out great. So great, in fact, that I get compliments on the one I saved for myself everywhere I go. I'm seriously considering setting up shop and selling them!

Oh yeah, and I also found time to squeeze in a couple things for myself. A red cabled hat with a pom pom on top:

This is totally why I learned to knit, by the way -- so I could make exactly what I wanted instead of searching fruitlessly for it at stores. And what I really, really wanted this year was a thick, warm, red hat with cables and a pom pom. Voila :-)

And, finally, a pair of fingerless mittens, which I learned to make in a class I took at Knitterly in Petaluma.


So anyway, now that the holiday craft frenzy is over, I'll hopefully find more time to post here. Of course, my camera is currently kaput (the third one in three years! What am I doing wrong????), so I need to get that fixed, first. Does anyone have any advice on how to fix a stuck lenscover. It's just a little point-and-shoot digital camera, and the little lens shutters that open when you turn the camera on are jammed. They open partway, but then get stuck, and they don't close all the way, either. Grrr.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, your knitting is so much more complex than mine! Those are beautiful! I want to make that same hat you're wearing and the greeen scarf, too.

I made a lot of baby hats for Christmas presents (just a roll brim with a knit stitch and a pom-pom; some with stripes) and am ready to do some gloves or something else now. I did do a striped scarf with Manos del Uruguay and it took FOREVER.

Am going to attempt to "sneak" my knitting on my flight tonight (apparently, Qantas does not allow it).

ChrisC said...

Thanks! The cables in the hat and scarf are actually much easier to do than they look. If you're ever up in Sonoma, I'm happy to meet you at a coffee shop for a cable teaching session :-)

As for knitting needles on planes, I've never flown Qantas. However, even though I've heard plenty of stories of people having their needles taken away, I've never had mine confiscated at security. In fact, I've taken them on every flight I've flown for years. My recommendation is to bring bamboo needles instead of metal, since they're perceived as being less dangerous. I usually slide them into the pen pocket on my carry-on backpack for when I go through security, figuring that they look pretty much like pencils when you see them on the x-ray screen. I also bring either a stitch holder or some loose yarn to move my knitting on to, just in case they DO take my needles away - it would suck to lose your work, too!