Merry Christmas Eve!

by Kelly

I'll let someone else post on the big day, if they want to. In the meantime, though, if anyone wants  to track Santa's flight, click here any time after midnight on December 23rd, EST. Find out why these guys track Santa here

And if you have a smart phone, make sure to download the free santa tracking app.. Yes Virginia, there's an app for that.


So, Merry Christmas Eve! Have a safe and happy holiday and try not to go overboard.

Noro Scarf - Northern Lights

by Kelly

Well, what I think of as 'long coat' weather has finally arrived here, so it was time to dig out the winter garments - gloves, boots and scarves.

I have too many scarves these days. Ever since I learned to knit and crochet, I seem to have a surplus. Here's one I don't think I showed off before...

That's Noro wool combined with some vintage Navy wool that I found in a great big bag of random yarn Donna scored for me. The pattern is knitted cartridge belt rib and the tasselled edging is crocheted.

Noro wool is really colorful and makes neat striped patterns, but the yarn itself is pretty irregular - thick and fluffy in some places, but thin and straggly in others. I thought at first it was just my skeins, since I bought them on sale, but Dawn had the same experience. Noro also seems a bit scratchy, but then, they don't advertise it as a supersoft Merino.

I like this scarf because it's long and colorful and warm. Also, that poisonous green color reminds me of the Northern Lights. And while I was looking for an image of that eerie green glow to share here, I stumbled upon a beautiful bit of weaving on the blog  Rurification. Check it out if you have a second.

Christmas Crochet and Knitting Books

by Kelly

Handknit Holidays - Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukah, and the Winter Solstice.

Amazon.com

 
 The Thread Crochet Christmas Village

Amazon.com

Our best Christmas Thread Crochet by Leisure Arts

Amazon.com

Twas the Knits before Christmas

Embroidery Contests 2012

by Kelly

Hand and Lock embroidery contest for 2012. Open to students worldwide, including graduate and part-time. Submission must be an original work based on their list of three fashion trends  predicted for 2012.

First prize is $5,000 USD plus some extras, including publicity on their site. There is an entry fee required to register.

I thought their predicted fashion trends were interesting. Here is a brief rundown:

Faded summers -
Use faded colors and fabrics reminiscent of old postcards. Some of the suggested inspirations include 'Vintage street parties, bunting and national flags.' When I read this I couldn't help but think of the tomato hurtling celebration held in Spain every year. Hey, that's a street party, isn't it?


Association D'ermites - 
(hermit inspired) This category sounds a bit rambling, which I suppose is appropriate for a hermit lost in a hot, waterless desert, but basically you're supposed to use metallic blues and silvery colors to imitate a desert sky, or the reds and sandy colors of a desert sunset.




open mind -
basically a hodgepodge of fabrics and colors that 'refuses all dictates', so if you wanted to empty your scrap bag, this would be the category to use. Just so long as you maintain a 'restrained liveliness'.


As usual, I came up with a ton of ideas that would be quite neat to try, including a waterfall of stars over a desert landscape, which would fit the second category very well. Unfortunately, I have about five thousand other ideas that I'm working on at the moment, and don't meet the qualifications to enter this contest anyway, so if anyone would like to steal that idea for their submission, feel free. It could be truly beautiful, and people do say that the starry sky over a desert is breathtaking.

If you have a little free time, check out the description of categories here. (scroll down towards the bottom of the page). It's sort of amusing, and goes a long way towards explaining the odd designs I've seen on fashion show runways, if these are the kind of guidelines that designers are expected to follow.

Eskimo Amigurumi

by Kelly

Christmas is funny. So many people stress the importance of 'decommercializing'  the holiday, yet we are continually bombarded by news stories about the importance of stimulating the economy, especially at this 'critical' time of the year.  I can hardly sleep at night for the terrible images in my mind of raggedly clad CEO's of major retail conglomerates selling matches on street corners, trying to raise the funds necessary to stay open for another financial quarter.

Well, my mom doesn't feel that commercializing Christmas is a bad thing. She has always been a big believer in cash for Christmas. To her mind, it's the one present that never disappoints.

Also, she does what I think of as a 'reverse guilt trip', by telling my husband and I that she doesn't need anything for Christmas because we do so much for her throughout the year. She likes 'simple gifts'  because she 'hates to be a bother'.

And so my mom is hard to shop for, because no matter what I buy for her, I am always plagued by doubt. I have this nagging feeling that a shoebox stuffed with the green stuff would have made her happier, especially if the only 'trouble' that I took with her gift was to take care that the numbers on the bills were non-sequential. Not that I've ever felt that my mother was just gathering resources so that she could flee the country. Well, almost never.

So when a  little birdie told me that my Mom wanted a couple of my amigurumi figures for Christmas, I was relieved. So I dug out one of my poor, unwanted bears, happy to be giving the little guy a better home than a plastic bag in my closet. I also made her this little Eskimo.

Now, I know that some might think that this Eskimo isn't especially politically correct, but I swear I was only trying to make him look like he's squinting into the blinding sunlight reflecting off a glacier. And this was my first amigurumi that I made from my own pattern, so I think I deserve credit that it's not a shapeless lump of fun fur.

Anyway, I have a vague childhood memory of owning a  Weeble that looked like an Eskimo that had this same expression on it's face, although a prolonged Internet search failed to turn anything up.

Does anyone else remember Weebles? And after viewing the commercial in the link above, I'd like to say that I had no idea there was so much Weeble swag available. I counted myself lucky to have a slightly cracked Weeble treehouse. Of course, having seen what that thing goes for on Amazon.com , I'd still count myself lucky to have one.

Some Christmas Shipping

by Kelly


I did a little shipping today:

In the next picture you can see my lovely assistant helping to package the goods.

I visited the SmoothFox  site recently and read the square totals that she has listed on the sidebar.  I couldn't believe it when I read that Christine Clyburn from Florida submitted enough squares to earn 500 points for the month of November. And she's competing as an individual. Christine, I bow down to you. Seriously.

And by the way, sorry for the darkness of the pictures, but that's how things are in Illinois in the winter, even with all the lights on. Gray. Gloomy. Depressing. Unlike sunny Florida.  Sigh.

MST3K Scarf for Christmas

by Kelly


Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I made this scarf for a friend for Christmas. I feel perfectly safe posting this before The Big Day, since the recipient doesn't read this blog, or in fact any crafting blog.

I found the free pattern chart on Ravelry, courtesy of sewgeeky.  Thank you, sewgeeky, whoever you are!  This chart was great - just look how perfect those figures are!

Here's another picture showing the shameful and ugly stranded back. I could have made this as an intarsia project, but it actually looked better less awful with stranded knitting on the back. Tip for others who want to do this - knit it in the round so that you have a tube scarf, and no one will ever see the ugly stranding process that goes on behind the scenes.

For those of you who don't know what MST3K is, check this link.
For those of you who now need an MST3K fix, see RiffTrax or Cinematic Titanic.


For those of you who don't care, happy holidays anyway!