not a lazy suzen

I am in craft mode. As soon as my final critique for the semester was done and over with on December 9, I embarked on a bit of my own personal Christmas Craft Marathon. Holy moly, I’ve been making a lot and there seems to be no end in sight! How about a tiny run down on some of the things I’ve made in the past 11 days.

A super red doily that’s destined for a friend on the Pacific Coast. I used a vintage pattern that was really addictive to crochet. I only made it to round 14 before running out of yarn but the doily itself is quite large given I used a 3mm hook. I think the finished measurements was over 12″ in diameter. I really loved making this and plan on doing another in random sock wool I’ve got kicking around, y’know…just for fun.

This is another doily bound for the West Coast but to another friend. The pattern is from Berroco and is probably the nicest contemporary doily pattern I’ve found. It’s not frilly and more hippie than old lady. I used about 1.2 balls of Regia sock wool, the colourway from the Kaffe Fasset collection that came out a few years ago. This is such a great use for this kind of yarn! Since finishing this, I’ve started (and finished) another version in random colours of worsted weight wools using a 4.50mm hook. The result is a little chunkier but totally charming. I have yet to block it (which explains why there’s no photograph yet) but if you look closely at the first picture in this post, you can see it flung over something on the back end of the table.

Another fun thing I did last week were these stiffened string ornaments from Martha Stewart. They required a little bit of trial and error but with the help of a friend we managed to get the technique down. If you plan on doing this yourself, I suggest dragging the string through the glue solution as you wrap around the balloon since this will guarantee a stiff result. We added glitter to it while it was still wet rather than using a spray adhesive afterward, as directed in the original pattern. It also helps to have a fan or vent close by while these babies are drying because it cuts the wait time down to fractions of what’s predicted by the original instructions. We were popping them 30-60mins after initially hanging the to dry with no problems at all (as long as we wrapped very few times around the balloon).

While I’m not going to be giving these to anyone this year, they definitely have the potential to become cute decorative ideas for future wintery occasions.

And while I’ve been sitting with my feet up watching tons of television, I knit two fluffy-fuzzy shawlettes for two of my favourite ladies in Calgary (I know I’m spoiling the surprise, girls, but you’ll have to guess who is getting which one!). Dana sent me a totally outrageous box of random bits of wool a few weeks ago and I’ve been busy making use of it, these shawlettes being some of the product. They’re made from some lovely textured acrylic-mohair-alpaca blend yarn that make me think fondly of the now defunct Canadian craft haven, Lewiscraft. These are essentially designed to be simple garter stitch triangular shawls but I’ve sewn buttons on them so the ends can be snapped into place when worn bandit-style. They’re bulky but not heavy and will prove to be pretty darn useful on those -50ºC mornings when you’ve gotta scrape the ice off the windshield–just push it up over your nose and you’re breathin’ easy!

(An aside note: I almost kept both of them because they’re so soft. Luckily, there is more lovely textured Patons in that mystery box of yarn!)

Hmm….what else have I completed?

Quilted coasters! Woo! Loosely following another pattern over at Miss. Stewart’s, these coasters are a little irregular but super cute. I used recycled fabric and some fat quarters I picked up at Fabricville on sale. They’ll be split up into groups of four to accompany a gift package we’re sending to my boyfriend’s parents (and giving the same thing to mine!). These were really easy to make and very gratifying. I made 8 in about an hour and have deemed it an excellent way to use up random fabric bits!

Earlier this evening, I worked on a bunch of little plush trees. I made twelve of them, eight having letters spelling out NOEL. I got the template from littlebirds, unfortunately I can’t find the direct link anywhere which has lead me to believe that it was put in my download folder by elves. The template is for a cone that stands about 4.5″ high, but I altered it a little to make a skinnier tree. I still have yet to put weights in the bottom of each tree so they don’t flop around and I still have to decorate them (pompoms and such). They’ll be super cute and a fun addition to both our parents’ Christmas home decor.

I’ll post more photos once I have them all finished so you can get the full idea.

Other things I’ve done in the last 11 days that I don’t have pictures of? Why, here’s a list!

1. Finished sock #1 in a pair for my mother.
2. Made a little crochet version of the cork ornaments so popular on Ravelry.
3. Crocheted a teeny green wreath ornament.
4. Baked cookies: sugar cookies and cranberry noels, both I highly recommend because they are so simple and delicious.
5. I also made cupcakes but the icing kind of flopped. (They were still good, though!)
6. Oh, and a cherry pie.

Yes, it’s good to be out of school and filled with random chores that have nothing to do with art but everything to do with Christmas. I still have a bunch more to do before we head to Nova Scotia on Christmas Eve, mostly wrapping and labelling. This is the first time that we’ll be heading home for Christmas this late in the year and I’ve gotta say that I’m digging it. It’s been so great to have two weeks off between the end of term and holiday madness. I feel way more ready to charge into Christmas head-on with gifts in arm, relatively stress-free!

In the next few days, I’ll update you with my end-of-term work once I feel like writing about it. I have a few photos I want to share but they’ll have to wait until all this Christmas gets out of my system