Birthday Socks

My birthday socks, that is. No, my birthday wasn't recent. No, these aren't early. I am terribly, terribly late is taking a picture of the super comfy socks my closest girlfriend, Sarah, knit for me last December. So, Sarah, here they are! I love them. I keep thinking I am going to start another pair, for myself, but I have giant feet, and knitting socks is fun until your foot measures more an average woman's. Then it gets tedious, and you dread finishing, no matter how much you love knitting, because you are ready to move on to another project. I have sock yarn from Knit Picks I ordered last January, I think, just waiting for motivation. Maybe a birthday gift to myself this year...

Newborn Soaker

Hand knit with a soy-wool blend for a friend's newest addition.

Homemade Gift Giving

We have been progressing towards as close as possible to all homemade gifts for gift giving occasions (wow that was an awful sentence!). I know several of my friends have been shooting for this goal as well. We have done fairly well the last couple Christmas's and this year will serve as one of the first years that I am making birthdays very much homemade as well. In the past I would save up and order toys from natural toy companies like Nova and Magic Cabin. This year I found that much of what I wanted was sold out, and after looking at it a bit longer, that I could probably make what I wanted with just a little more effort on my part. I am thinking about Christmas at this point, and working like mad on Pony Gal's birthday stuff. Right now I am knitting a dress she chose the yarn for. That, along with getting her ears pierced (something I don't feel comfortable doing, so we'll just buy that one ;) )are her major gifts. I also found several small projects I really liked in Living Crafts magazine. I hadn't ever seen it until I was reading at SouleMama's blog and saw one of her contests for it. I switched my paper Mothering subscription to digital to save about $20 and put that toward a year of Living Crafts, which focuses on crafts to make for kids, mostly organic/naturally focused. I am also trying to make more of the kids' clothes. Some crazy things have happened lately, and some of the hand me downs we usually get may not be coming. That means I will focus a lot on clothes for gifts, as well. I have found some nice patterns for simple clothing that is made cute by the fabric choices. I, of course, am always on the hunt at garage sales, as well. I think we pick up too much clothing, so I am trying to keep it to one storage bin, and just make a point to watch and make sure there is a good selection. That's another post, though. So, Pony Gal's birthday thus far is the ear piercing, the knitted dress, a crocheted crown, a horse hood and tail belt that I have yet to make, but doesn't look too hard, crocheted reins, and if I have time (the crocheted stuff will all be fairly simple), some knitted fingerless mitts to use while riding her bike. Superboy's birthday isn't until October, with a few friends' birthdays and births in between, so I should be able to get a start on Christmas, soon. I know everyone is getting knitted socks, mittens and hat, but beyond that I am waiting to see. I liked picking up good condition plain tees, either on clearance or at g sales and thrift stores, and painting on them. There were a lot of those last year. I am also thinking of making little notebooks for the kids. They love to write and color, and Papa H left us with a lot of paper. That idea is stolen from Amy at the angry chicken blog. I must say, blogs serve as a huge inspiration. If someone is looking to start going homemade, for just about anything, not just gifts, get yourself a nice collection of blogs. Many post tutorials, many are just inspiration. Once you start, though, it is hard to go back. I love giving things I've made. I may not always get the thrilled expression that kids get when they get a fancy toy, but I love simplicity and necessity, and I can better facilitate that through giving what I've made. I also think those items mean so much more when the person is older looking back, or an adult who understands the time it takes to make an item. There are those who still don't, but I am finding more and more that I am surrounding myself with fewer and fewer of them. Not on purpose, we just don't have that much in common anymore. I will try to update with each individual project as I finish it. The picture above is me working on the dress at my mom's house. Thanks, Num, for stealing the camera and actually catching me doing something:)

Crocheting Behind the Scenes: Earflap Hat

I haven't been a very good craft poster or Raveler as of late. I forget to load pictures, then I forget that I have loaded the pictures, then I run out of time to post pictures, and on and on. But, I have nano seconds this morning, so I am catching up. This is Pony Gal modeling a hat I crocheting for my cousin's daughter's birthday. It is in Yarn Love wool yarn that a good friend, Sarah D. gave me recently. It came together superfast, though, the pattern had the hat coming out all wavy-too many increases-so I fixed that. It is super soft and tres cute.

Christmas 08

This year went pretty well. I must admit without a little help from some recently built craftiness, there wouldn't have been much. We celebrated our family holiday on Christmas, as usual, opening stockings in the morning, then inviting the grandparents over to watch the kids open their actual gifts in the evening. For the first time in several years we did not go to a Christmas Eve service. I love old, small church services like the one I grew up in, but Dad is very into contemporary and cannot really find somewhere that fits ALL of his criteria, and probably never will, so we just make a point to recognize Jesus at home. Christmas day we loaded up and dropped a loaf of bread and card at the new (okay so they moved in the beginning of summer, but I have not gotten over there with all the craziness of last year) neighbors, then over to my mom's. Most the gifts there homemade as well,and I have to say that I agree with my sister's stance on really enjoying the gifts this year more than I have in some time. I get tired of the "okay I had to buy you something because we get something everyone, so here" gifts that I end up giving away to charity anyway. I went so far to make a list at Target so there were plenty of ideas, and no one had a good excuse to just buy crap-for me or the kids. And yet, crap it was. Now, I didn't expect (and let everyone know this) them to buy at Target necessarily, but the lists are available online. Look at it. Get an idea. Go to whatever store you want. Heck, I don't care if it is second hand if it was something that we thought we needed. Otherwise, don't bother. I wouldn't be hurt. Or just give me the $5. I'll go get coffee. I know that may sound crass, but if someone put thought into something, I can tell, and that is fine. I can tell the "I had to gifts". And I only really got a couple. If someone makes me something, it rarely matters what it is, I keep it and love it, because I know the time it takes to do something like that. Anyway, in the afternoon we went to Dad's mom's and was there until the evening. I managed to not completely gorge on food, and enjoyed coming home and putting most of our goodies away. It was a nice Christmas, and I am already making plans on next year's gifts so I can be done earlier than I was this year.

Christmas gifts

My husband always agonizes over what to get me each year. I have had no clue what I want (besides my tattoo which was shot down, birthday maybe?;)) Anyway, thanks to the great csa Blue Gate Farm drawing it to my attention, I know what I want. A neighbor of theirs recently started a yarn/roving csa. Oh. my. goodness. That's what I want. Beautiful, local yarn delivered to my door every 6-8 weeks for a year. Yup. I'm in. I am giddy at the thought. Check it out!

Crochet vs knitting

I bought a book the other day on how to teach yourself to knit. I went through, and think I pretty much was getting the hang of it. I love the way knit things look when you are done. But, as it turns out, I don't like to knit. My wrists hurt sooo bad. So, I will stick with my crocheting. I think I will probably look into a Tunisian stitch, though, as it looks a lot like knitting. I will have to track down some hooks and instructions, though. In the meantime, I love to crochet, and continue to try new things all the time. I am in the process of looking for ideas for next year's Christmas gifts. Crochet comes together a lot faster than knitting, from my experience, so far, but it still takes a while to finish some projects. And I like to collect yarn during the year. My fiber stash is starting to look like my fabric stash;)