Monster Chunks, Chubby Chirps, and Sock Ornaments

And some more gifts! These were the gifts I gave to my friends and to my friend's kids.


Pattern: Monster Chunks
Needles: US 2 - 2.75 mm
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Muffin in White/Turquoise/Grey, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Brown, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Light Green



I made these for Eddie, who's about 2 and half, now. He was pretty thrilled with these little guys. I made them small enough that he could stick them in toy tractors and trucks and things. Or just chuck 'em around. Whatever. He's two.




Pattern: Chubby-Chirps
Needles: US 5 - 3.75 mm
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Muffin in White/Turquoise/Grey, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Brown, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Light Green



And I made this for Elliot, who is now 9-ish months old. This guy's about as big as a fat pear, which big enough for Elliot to grab and squish. He was a bit preoccupied with chewing on the box I wrapped it in because he's teething, but Brandy thought it was fun, so that's enough for me.




And these are the little gift boxes I made up for some of my friends:




1 mini-sock ornament, 1 paper ruler, and 1 card to be redeemed for a pair of custom socks. I really enjoyed making those little sock ornaments, so I'm thinking about making those throughout the year to put up on the Etsy shop next season.



BONUS:

I almost forgot about this! I wasn't quite sure what to give my mom for Christmas, but I worked on some handspun in August that turned out to be in some of my mom's favourite colours.


I call it "Night Bus" because my mom's a huge Harry Potter nerd.

Java Socks and Rudy Got Sole

Alright, folks.Time to post the things that I made for people for Christmas. Nearly everything was sock-themed, so here's the first two pairs.


Pattern: Java Socks
Needles: US 0 - 2.0 mm
Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks FX - Clover Colors

This is the pair of socks that I dragged down to Florida on the Disney world trip. I think I knit a whole 10 rows on one sock the whole time, even travelling, but it made me feel like I had a head start on Christmas present making. That was a lie.




Pattern: Rudy Got Sole
Needles: US 0 - 2.0 mm
Yarn: Premier Yarns Serenity Garden Twilight

I might be the luckiest knitter in the world when it comes to sibling gifts. We're all within the same 4 inches in height, we're all within one shoe size of the others, and we're paired off in terms of hand sized (Pickleface and The Gabbers have the same sized hands, and Stovetop and I have the same sized hands). We're probably paired off-ish in terms of sweater sizes, too, if I was willing to make sweaters for my family members. If you've read the blog for a while, you'll notice that I have made both of these sock patterns before. Definitely planned because socks for my feet would fit all of my siblings. 

Christmas 2013 - Christmas Cards

I meant to post this during the week. My bad. I have to start setting up posts in advance again. I’ll play around with that.

But yes! Christmas cards. I bought these cards during the post-2012 Christmas clearance season at Jo-Ann’s. I brought them out for Christmas 2013 and felt that I needed to get my crafty mitts involved.

(Side note, I do realize that I am a ridiculous Jo-Ann’s customer. I stop there all the time. There are two of equal distance from my house - one on my way home from work and one out in the neighborhood of my weekend errands. Unfortunately, this will change because the smaller Jo-Ann’s on my way home from work is closing down and moving to another town, which would add at least another half hour to my commute home. It makes me very sad. I mean, I’ve been going there since I was three and there’s a lot of memory in that little hole in the wall. But anyway….)

Here’s the box of cards:



And here’s the embroidery stuff I used to play with the cards:



So I took a push pin, poked some strategic holes, and embroidered some stuff.

   

 

 

 

But then, of course, you end up with something like this on inside of the card:



The Christmas stuff at Michaels (which might be my on-my-way-home-from-work craft shop soon) went on clearance by the time December rolled around, so I got a great deal on this Christmassy card stock.



So I measured some stuff, cut, folded, and clued as shown below so that the back side of the stitching wasn’t quite so visible:

 

 

 

It makes the cards a bit thicker than they should be and I was a little worried that it would cost more than a stamp to send them, but a stamp on each was fine. And that was how I did my Christmas cards!

Goblin Hunting and Christmas Things

Look out, folks. This is going to be an image heavy post. Be warned.

1. Goblin Hunting Update
Remember when my dad and I went goblin hunting in my ceiling? Here’s an update before I forget about it!

The smell hasn’t come back at all, so we have successfully chased off the goblins for the time being. We’ll see what happens next winter. Dad and I put up sheet rock before Christmas, but didn’t get the ceiling mudded and painting until last weekend. So last weekend I was finally able to put all my junk back into the door corner.

 

As you can see, some of the wallpaper above my door didn’t make it through the hunt, but I turned the vinyl part into vinyl wall sticker key art. Or something. And the ceiling paint/popcorn doesn’t really match the rest of the ceiling, but that’s really the best place for something to not match. And the marionettes moved from behind my door to the opposite corner of the room.

It’s so nice to have everything in the right place. It’s a lot easier to remember a scarf when I don’t have to climb around the junk in the dining room.

2. Christmas Crafts

I guess I should post about my Christmassy Christmas things before I have to take them down. I’ll get to the stuff I made folks later. This is the stuff I made for decorations and stuff.

So, shock and awe, I love Christmas craft kits. I bought most of these back after Halloween because these things sell out so quickly, so I grabbed a whole bunch and made them. Some of these don’t have final decorations, but you can see those later in the post.

 

 

 

  

I also got a new mini-Christmas tree and my little bulbs couldn’t hang properly on it, so I made some felt ornaments.

  

I bought some felt shapes from Jo-Anns. I think they were hidden over by the needle felting stuff and not, actually, by the felt, which is where I would have put them. And I embroidered some stuff on the blank shapes because I have a lot of small amounts of embroidery floss left over from sampler kits as a small child.

And now you can see this stuff up and around my room!

3. Christmas Decorations
I know I posted those three photos of my room back before Christmas, but here’s a closer look at the new stuff and crafty things around the room.

 

 

   

Some little things around the room, including the little green felt wreath and the penguin. Almost all the others are crafts from last year.

 

There’s my little TV corner. The weird felt tree pillow ended up behind the TV because I ran out of places due to goblin hunting. But look at my little tree! And all my little felt ornaments! I am still ridiculously pleased by this little tree.

 

    

Banners, garland, displays, ornaments over the windows, Christmas cards… all the things.

Most of the display on the shelf is new and I bought each new thing for at least half price pretty close to Christmas. Santa, the deer, and the lantern snow globe were all from Jo-Anns. The snowman is from Walgreens. I’m pretty sure that candle was a gift last year, but it’s hard to remember that far back.

A couple of the ornaments hanging above the windows are new. The spools in the windows were bought in January 2013 from Christmas clearance at Jo-Anns. The little village houses (which light up!) are also from Jo-Anns that I picked up for 70% off. Those are really cool. My mom’s had a proper Christmas village with large houses for ages, but I just don’t have the space for something like that and I’m already looking to not kill my December electric bill when I move out.

The jar of Legos is from a 2012 Lego Star Wars Advent calendar I bought. If you want to check those out, I have them all posted on my Instagram.

And there’s Zip, helping. And boy did he help. I mean, you guys have seen my bedroom. He had to climb over my bedside table thing, the cabinet with the Lego ships (knocking over the big TIE fighter), and jump up onto the dresser in order to get at those hooks. He was determined to play with those. But yeah. He was pretty unimpressed with how I was organizing all of the Christmas stuff.

And that’s it for now. I was going to post my Christmas cards, but I have a sort of tutorial for how I modified them, so that’s a load more photos. I’ll do those separately. So that’s it!

(And yes, everything’s still up. We keep this stuff up for as long as possible. We only really start considering taking this stuff down when it’s getting close to my birthday on January 26th or if the trees are more dead than alive.)