Warmth in the North

made by other hands

    I'd love to give everyone on my list items that I've made but it's not reasonably possible.  To a certain extent this is due to time constraints and a wish to not be a stressed mess at Christmas.  However the main reason is that I'd like the gifts I give to be reflections of the receiver rather than the giver.  Sometimes what I can create isn't the perfect gift so I go searching and Etsy is always my first stop.     The ornaments I found for my aunt are beautiful hand painted glass.  They come from Sarah John Afana of Schemata in small little gift boxes all ready to go to a new home.  I was a little bit nervous about something so delicate arriving intact but she packages them really well and they arrived safe and sound. 

   I played it safe with traditional round balls but she has hearts,  teardrops, and cubes if you're looking for something different.  Everything is unique so just like making something myself I know it won't be repeated.  If you're in search of something special I can't recommend these ornaments enough.

~ Sarah was nice enough to allow me to use her images for this post but the content isn't sponsored.

gail

    My mother's present is finished right on schedule and it's rather nice, if I do say so myself.  I don't have a picture of the entire shawl since I'm waiting until she's seen it.  Hopefully when I go home I'll be able to take a few.      I didn't modify the pattern at all and followed the chart exactly.  Quite a few people get rid of the double yarn over in the center but it adds to the airiness.  I knit the whole chart once and then rows 23-38 twelve times.  The shawl is really large and could lose a few repeats without any harm but I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible.     The one addition I made to the pattern was a small amount of beading.  I added pink beads to the edging chart as an accent.  Then on the last row every stitch but a yarn over has a gold bead.  It took almost 12oz of beads and that last row was rather slow but worth it, I hope.     The beads aren't overpowering, they're more of a special touch of sparkle.  I thought about adding them to the whole shawl but this option seemed better for my mother.  Now I just need to pack it up and send if off for Christmas.

just in case...

pattern ~ Gail (aka Nightsongs) by Jane Araujo

yarn ~ Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace in colour #29

needles ~ 3.5mm (US 4)

sometimes

    Normally I don't mind when it's looked like this outside for days and days.  Everything is sort of dreamy and otherworldly if you can look past the snowmobile tracks and power lines.  On occasion it is nice to brighten and warm things up a bit.     So I made apple crisp with a few sad looking, about to be rejected apples.  It's amazing what ten minutes and a few spices can do for less than appealing fruit.  A little while longer in the oven and the whole place smelled wonderful and a little less cold.     Sometimes the world just needs a pick me up, hot out of the oven, in a bright red dish.

kim is having a contest

    Kim is having another contest, this time for a skein of Sundara - she does have great prizes.  If you'd like to enter click on the link and let her know which holiday sweet (candy) is your favorite.  Good luck!

progress

    I know this doesn't look like much but trust me the sweater is inches longer than it was last week.  It's hard to tell if there is any movement sometimes when knitting stockinette for miles and miles.  A bell that dings every time another inch is finished would be great like a lap counter at the races.

    The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport in Shadow (one of the Raven colourways) and has been fantastic to work with so far.  There's been no splitting, the blue faced leicester is really soft and it almost seems lighter than merino.  Hopefully it will be just as good a yarn for wearing as for knitting.

details abound

    The sun finally came out today, after a week of snow and cloud it's a happy day.  Yesterday while the snow continued to fall I sewed up this bag.  After taking a few more pictures to explain a tricky bit of the tutorial I felt like playing a bit more with fabric.
    I've got a small obsession with  Moda charm packs but have no idea what to make with them.  The windows in the pillows are from a charm pack but I wanted to use another before I put away the sewing machine.  I have to admit these fabrics wouldn't be ones I'd pick out individually but together they work and push me out of my comfort zone.     Out of one pack I got a medium size market bag and had to cut hardly anything which is always a bonus.  I did use some plain pink fabric I had in my stash to line the inside and a bit of interfacing for the straps as well as the body.  The straps are my favorite part... they look harder than they were.     The tiny pocket for keys or a cell phone was a quick last minute addition.  It was a great snowy day project and left me with a bag for giving a Christmas present.  It's not traditional holiday fabric but that way it can be used all year and since the bag is on the smaller side it'll fit easily into a purse for last minute shopping.

cathedral window x 2

    The tutorial for making a cathedral window pillow is finally finished but I decided to make it into a page instead of a post.  It's really, really long and filled with pictures so it just seemed mean put it in with the regular posts.  To get to it just click on the link or you can permanently find it in the sidebar.

    Pillow number two took longer mostly due to the need to take pictures.  Four hours of decent sunlight isn't nearly enough so I had to keep stopping.  I finally finished after church this morning and got a few decent pictures before the sun gave up the ghost. 

    Most of the pictures were taken on a glass table but I didn't realize you could see reflections of all sorts of things until I was done.  I don't think it's too distracting but it is sort of funny.  If you do end up using the tutorial let me know if anything needs to be fixed or clarified.

a plan

    Since a few of you asked for one I'm hoping to make a tutorial for the cathedral window pillow today.  I did a search but all I could find was a tutorial for making a blanket.  The principal is the same but the pillow takes a few special steps.  I figure it's just as easy to make a tutorial from scratch as add on to another one and this way I get to fiddle around with fabric again. 

    Now all I need is for the light to co-operate.  I wouldn't be surprised if this pillow takes me a bit longer since I'm going to need at least a hint of daylight for the photos.  But I'm more than happy to have an excuse to take a day off from Christmas knitting and play with something else.

a little bit of lace

    Here is another one of the many Christmas presents I've got to start working on.  The triangle lace scarf is a position of comfort for me so I knew that I'd end up knitting at least one this season.  So far they've always been fairly easy while giving me an impressive end product.  My mother already has a few but I thought I'd add to her collection this Christmas.

     I decided on Gail (rav link) for my mother but in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace instead of fingering weight.  The pattern is really interesting, it's written for a confident and experienced lace knitter and the Ravelry comments reflect that.  You need to be able to read your knitting if you're going to understand the pattern at all. 

    I just downloaded the pattern and started but upon reflection I'd recommend reading all the stuff on Ravelry before jumping in.  There are some really helpful notes attached to project pages but some things contradict each other so you need to be prepared to interpret.  I'm happy with the pattern but it's truly a think for yourself project.

losing control

    This is the beginning of my only big Christmas knit.  Over 2000 yards of sport weight yarn is really intimidating so I kept putting it off.  Christmas is really a self imposed deadline since my father isn't expecting it but I want to have it finished for my trip home in case I need to make adjustments

    It's hard to knit something for a person halfway across the continent.  My father has a very specific type of sweater that he wears so style is not the difficult part.  Fit is where I get a bit muddled.  I forced one of my sisters to measure all his sweaters and him so that I'd have an idea of the amount of ease he likes.  Even though I trust her completely it's still hard to hand over that all important step to someone else. 

    I've let go the smallest amount and I'm just knitting with faith that it will fit.  Worse comes to worse I'll have enough extra yarn to change the size if need be.  At least it will be a style and colour he likes and unlike people affected by the sweater curse my daddy is suck with me no matter what he thinks of the finished product.