Twin Elf Hats

My Daughter Miranda has a friend/employee who had twin boys earlier this year. Gia, the boys momma, asked if I would make them some hats for Christmas. Of course I can. I don't remember if Gia asked for the long stocking caps or I just decided the boys would be adorable in stocking caps but that's what I went with. They are the Not Only Christmas Hat which is a free pattern I found on Ravelry a few years ago. I was going to make Santa hats but then I figured the boys would only be able to wear them for a couple weeks before Christmas was here and gone. Down here in my part of Florida it does randomly get cold in December but our colder months tend to be January and February. This way the boys can get their Christmas pics done because they are elf hats and then after Christmas they can just be fun striped hats. Perfect. Plus, they have a nice amount of stretch so they might even be able to wear them next Winter. If not, I can make more.

Robbie's bumble bee socks

I finished my last Christmas present. I don't make as many hand made gifts anymore but I try to always have at least one pair of socks for Robbie because he really loves hand knit socks. This makes pair number three for this Christmas. They are just a basic toe up vanilla socks. I knit them on size 1 needles and I use 76 stitches for Robbie's size 14 feet. This pair has a heel flap and gusset and the heel is a simple slip stitch heel. Now I am free to work on whatever I want. I don't know what I want to work on so until I figure it out I will probably work on my many bags of WiPs.

TTMT #22 The Christmas rush is over

December's UFO

Over on Quilting Around the World  I've been participating in a year long UFO quilt along. This grey half square triangle (HST) is my December project. It's been a top for a few years at least but by the end of the year it will be a finished wall hanging or doll quilt or stroller quilt or whatever. Once this quilt is finished then I will have finished at least 12 old UFO's. I'll have to go through the forum and see how many projects I did get done this year. I don't normally keep up with BOMs so I'm very pleased that I've kept up with this UFO along this year. Stay tuned for the finished quilt before the end of the year.

TTMT #21 Twin elf hats and Advent knitting

TTMT #20 Hoodies and Christmas Decorations

I finished Justin's hoodie and also added a zipper to one of my old hoodies. I also take you on a little tour of how I decorated my craft room for Christmas.

November 2017 WiP Parade

It might come as a shock but I only worked on three knitting projects this past month. My main focus was Robbie's socks because they will be another pair of Christmas socks for him. I've turned both heels and now I just need to knit the legs and cuffs. I try to make the legs/cuffs the same length as the foot so when you fold the sock in half the toe and heel match up. Know what I mean?

My daughter Miranda has a co-worker/friend, Gia, that had twin boys earlier this year. Gia asked if I could make a pair of knit hats for the boys for their pictures with Santa. I didn't want to just make Red Santa hats because then after Christmas the boys really couldn't wear them. Although Gia said she would put the Santa hats on the boys in February lol. January and February are our coldest months in my area of Florida so I with a design and color scheme that would work for both Christmas and into the Winter months.

I thought green and white striped stocking hats would be cute on the boys. I was surprised to find a pattern on Ravelry called Not Only Christmas Hat. I actually had it in my library for a few years just waiting for it's turn to be made.  These hats will now become my main focus.

Since I couldn't or didn't want to bring Robbie's socks to the kid's house I of course started a new project. I started this scarf instead of the twin hats because I was waiting on Gia to measure the boys heads for me. I used the Redheart Americana yarn and it has a blue section with white to represent the stars and then it changes from red and white for the stripes of the flag. I looked on Redheart's pattern page and Ravelry and couldn't find a simple scarf pattern so I just cast on somewhere around 28-30 stitches and I'm knitting it in garter stitch which is just knit every row. I'm slipping the first stitch as if to purl with the yarn in front and I'm knitting through the back loop of the last stitch so that the borders are nice and straight. I have another skein and if I don't need it for this scarf I might try a scarf with a big cable up the center. I think that would look nice with this yarn.

TTMT #19 It's all about the Christmas stockings

November UFO finishes

After dealing with all the preparations for Thanksgiving I knew I wanted to spend a little time sewing yesterday. I haven't had much time to just sit and sew this month. I was going to play with some scraps until I remembered I still needed to work on my November WIP from the Quilting Around the World quilt along. This month I chose 6 small stockings that I started a couple years ago. I had the fronts done but I still needed to finish the rest.

As you can see I went totally scrappy. I used Elanor Burn's Quilt in a Day Strip stocking pattern. I linked to the free pattern page. Scroll down about 3/4s of the page and you'll find the pattern. It opens up as a pdf.  I normally struggle with the cuff and little hanger placement but this time everything worked out well. It made for a very relaxing morning in the sewing room. The hum of the sewing machine is a relaxing sound for me. I do believe I have finished a UFO or at least made progress on one each month this year. My UFO bin is starting to empty out a bit.

TTMT # 18 a little JoAnn's haul

The week and a half leading up to Thanksgiving is always a busy one for as I'm sure it is for most people. I always have to do several runs to a few different grocery stores. I try to buy some things ahead of time but I also like to wait for the sales the week of Thanksgiving. I also prefer to wait until Tuesday to buy the veggies like sweet taters, butternut squash, broccoli, etc. because I don't like them sitting around too long in the house. We are having Thanksgiving at the kid's house this year but of course Mom still gets to do most of the work lol. I'm cooking twice this year because we also want to have left overs for our house. The kid's are having store bought pies but I have a few to make today for my house.  I'll try to sneak in a little knitting time too. ;)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!

TTMT # 17 Small goals and waiting room knitting

Talk To Me Tuesday # 16 DREAM BIG

Not much accomplished this past week but I have sky high hopes for this week. In reality I know I won't get even half of my list worked on but if you're going to dream then dream BIG, right?

TTMT # 15 - October WiP Parade

You can find my Talk To Me Tuesday video over on my YouTube channel RsIslandCrafts or see all the TTMT episodes here.

My goal for October was to add 31 blocks to my mitre square blanket. I did add all 31 and even had them finished I think 5 days early. The problem I ran into was there wasn't much time left in the day after all my other chores and knitting a square or two. I didn't realize how much time this afghan would monopolize during the month. Whenever I wanted to work on something I always felt that I needed to work on the mitre squares instead. That being said I don't think I will try for another 30 squares in November. I need to find a routine that works with my other routines lol.

Miter Square Afghan

Vanilla socks 

I'm writing this post a day or two before the first of the November but by the first I will have cast on another pair of hand knit socks for Robbie.  I think he will love this colorway.

Mini madness shawl

I enjoy knitting shawls and just felt drawn to cast on another shawl. I believe this is referred to as a boomerang shawl?? Basically it starts really small as you can see in the picture and then it gradually gets wider. You can just follow the pattern until you run out of yarn or steam. Whichever comes first ;)  This style is worn similar to a scarf - wrapped around your neck.

Knotty gloves

I made it to the cables on my first glove and then stopped. I need to concentrate a little when working these cables because they criss cross over each other.

HocusPocusVille quilt

I managed to add in two lengths of floss this month. 

Grandmother's favorite

I put a little time into another dishcloth. I'm hoping to get it finished in November because I want to try out this new scrubby yarn. I'm pretty sure you hold the cotton yarn and scrubby yarn together but I'll check a couple patterns before I cast on.

Playdate 

I spent some quality time knitting on my sweater and manged to get it to 8 inches in length. Unfortunately when I tried it on it was a size too small. Boo. The pattern I was using called for worsted weight yarn and I had sport weight yarn. From what I read on ravelry you just go up 2 or 3 sizes and it should work out fine. I guess my gauge is too tight because after going up 3 sizes it still wasn't large enough. I found a pattern that matches my gauge so I should be good to go. My goal is to have it finished in November because November is Nakniswemo month. National knit a sweater in a month. Nanowrimo is write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November so knitters decided to have their own version. You need to knit a sweater that has 50,000 stitches in the month of November. Basically any adult size sweater will work. I only have a couple rows done and I'm pretty sure there will be more than 50,000 stitches past this point so I'm fine.

That's it for me. What are ya'll working on this month?

Knit Worthy

Cold weather has come early for us this year. I was up a bit before 6 am this morning and the temperature was 50 degrees. Now I get that 50 isn't really cold to many areas of the country but down here in Southwest Florida it's pretty chilly especially with the strong winds out of the North. Even at 2 pm it's only 66 degrees.

My youngest Robbie (18) loves my knit hats. He's also a huge fan of my hand knit socks too which is why he's getting three pairs for Christmas. With the cold weather I thought he might like a new hat. He loves a simple black hat so it's not very easy to get a good picture. I made some alterations to a pattern I found on Ravelry but it no longer exists because it was on a blog that no longer exists.  It seems many people are no longer blogging and I find that a bit sad but I totally understand. We all go through our phases in life.

Talk To Me Tuesday # 14 October 24, 2017

Another week has come and gone in the blink of an eye yet again. We've reached that time of the year when time just flies. Another Tuesday has arrived on the calendar which means I have a new Talk To Me Tuesday video up on my RsIslandCrafts - Robin  Youtube channel. You can find the TTMT playlist here.

 This week I decided to play with some kitchen towels. Like most people we hang a drying towel from the oven door handle. And like most houses our towels are plain and boring. We're ready for some new towels and I thought it would be fun to gussy them up a bit. I did make a Sew with me video that you can find over here.

This one is from the new pumpkin fabric I found at Walmart last week. I didn't waste any time cutting into this fat quarter. I actually chose some Autumn type fabrics just for this purpose.

This turkey fabric is cute but I chopped the poor turkey's heads off lol. Well, Thanksgiving is coming soon, right?  I made the pumpkins first and then just carried over the same measurements to the turkey fabric without taking into consideration of the overall design. No worries, this towel will now become a Thanksgiving gift for my kids ;) We are celebrating the first Thanksgiving in their house this year.  They'll be so happy to have another clean towel that they won't even notice the headless turkeys. Sssshhh.

I made this towel using the same plaid shirt fabric from Robbie's quilt. The red plaid border is from the leftover binding from the plaid quilt. This will be part of Robbie's Christmas gifts. I'm not too sure he will even notice it came from his shirts.

We like to use hand/kitchen towels to protect the arms of our recliners and couch. I made NY Giants covers for Hubby several years ago and he was ready for some new covers. He basically had quilted placemats previously but they had a habit of sliding off the arms of his chair so I decided some towels would be a better option for him. I put a strip of Giants fabric on the top of both sides of the towel but on the reverse side it's at the opposite end and sort of upside down but not really. Clear as mud, right? To keep the wear even i thought that when hubby flips the towel to the second side he can also rotate it so the top where he puts his hand can now be the bottom where he puts his elbow. Wow, that was a lot of words to describe something so simple.   By the way, my recliner just has hand towels the same color as the chair. 

My oldest is a manager at Tijuana Flats and he is currently in charge of the dining room area of his store. Another manager is in charge of the kitchen area. When he inherited his area there were several chairs with torn or worn out seats. The seats are covered in vinyl. We spent a couple hours on Sunday and recovered 7 seats. WooHoo!! We can now add reupholstering to our resume. lol Not really but they did turn out really well. I've reupholstered a seat once before but it's so very easy that anyone can do it. I do think it's easier with two people though. Plus, it's  more fun. We have another 10 more to reupholster this upcoming weekend.  

I taught my kids well. My son went to Joann's for the vinyl and went right to the red tag section and found this bolt of vinyl and because I've taught him how to shop well he also used a 20% coupon from his phone that also worked on sale and clearance items. He bought all that was on the bolt so he also got the end of the bolt less than a yard discount that Joann's offers. I believe he said he bought 5.75 yards of vinyl, a staple remover, and a pack of 1,000 staples for less than $20!!  Great job Justin! Momma's proud!

A little retail therapy

There is a large thrift store in the next town over that I used to love going to. The building they are in used to be a Publix supermarket so you can imagine how large it is. They have a holiday room, furniture section, clothing section, and a quite large craft room. I used to go and shop in the craft room every few weeks. I haven't been in a long time though so I asked my daughter if she wanted to go out and about with me. Of course she said yes. We always have a good time when we go out. 

This time I wasn't impressed. Yes, they had a lot of craft supplies like ribbons, beads, cross stitch, and tables of fabric but the prices were not very good. I know it's for a charity and I'm fine paying a reasonable price but when they have things from Dollar Tree and are charging $1.50 I'm not impressed. I'm not going to pay $2.50 for an old looking maybe partial skein of Redheart yarn. 

There was a lot of little girl bow making supplies like ribbons and iron on decorations. I did find these cute mustache and Hello Kitty ribbons. I haven't opened them to see how long the ribbons are but there are 3 packs of ribbon in each bundle for $1. 

What made it totally worth the trip was these three Smurf glasses I stumbled upon. I have always LOVED the Smurfs. I used to watch the cartoons every week and I've seen the movies a few times each. I believe these glasses were from a Hardee's promotion back in the 80's. I know we had a full set when I lived at home but they weren't mine so I wasn't able to take them when I moved out after high school. No matter. I have these now. Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, and Clumsy were my favorite. I remember there was one that had Gargamel and Azrael on it too. I loved the 80's lol. I now have Papa, Clumsy, and Baker Smurf. I'll just have to keep an eye out for the rest. With a little Google research I see that there were 8 glasses in total (1983) and they had Papa, Gargamel/Azrael, Jokey (another fave), Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy, Lazy, and Hefty. I guess I can say that those 8/9 were all favorite characters of mine. I do think there were a few others from 1982 but maybe they were from somewhere other than Hardee's.  I have a few little figurines and I used to have a stuffed toy at one point too. I've been slowly collecting Smurf memorabilia. While the new movies are wonderful to watch I prefer the way the original Smurfs looked. The new ones are still recognizable as Smurfs but with modern technology they have changed a bit but that's okay. 

McDonald's, Hardee's, and Burger King among others have done several glass promotions over the years. I came across this site that shows the 13 best novelty glasses from the 80's. Or so they say. Either way it was fun to see the list. We had many of them lol.

After thrift shopping we hit the stores. I didn't buy anything exciting (cleaning supplies, chips, etc.) from the first two stores but I did find somethings at Walmart. I wanted to get back into knitting stuffed animals but I wanted some of the new crazy yarn from Redheart. This yarn stripes nicely for hats so I think they will be fun for stuffies.

I also found some fat quarters to add to the stash. This is how they are packaged.

 They're pretty nice when opened up too.

I don't have much Fall fabrics so these were a nice find.

This is the one that surprised me. The picture on the label of the folded fat quarter was a bit small and my eyes are bit old so I didn't realize that it would be this one large picture. I thought it maybe had a bunch of the "S" symbol all over the blues. Nope. I'm not sure what I will make from this. Maybe a pillow? The center of a wall hanging?  I guess it will rest in the stash until I figure out what to do with it.

What was your best thrift store garage sale find?

Talk To Me Tuesday (TTMT #13) October 17, 2017

Tuesday has come around once again in the blink of an eye. I have a new TTMT video up on my RsIslandCrafts YouTube channel.  If you want to see what the rest of the Tuesday bunch is up to you can see their videos on the TTMT blog.

I finally have a fully finished Halloween Hop wall hanging!!!  WooHoo!  I don't remember when I bought this kit but it has been a few years. I cut out the bones and fused them down last year or maybe the year before. This year I was determined to get him finished. I guess making videos for TTMT and YouTube have given me that extra push that I need. 

I did a basic free motion meander for the quilting using black thread in the center and green in the borders. The binding is the same fabric as the borders because I liked the way the piece flowed. The pattern recommended black binding but I felt that it made an abrupt stop like a picture in a frame. This way felt like it flowed better but that just might be me and since it's mine I get to choose, right? lol

It's hard to get a picture of something glowing but you can kinda see how it glows. The bones aren't just straight up white. They have what I think of as a jungle leaf print which is why the glowing picture looks a bit mottled. Trust me, he looks awesome in person.

I had so much fun making this wall hanging. I think Bartie needs a girlfriend but that might be for another year. Now to dig in the wip bin and see what I can finish next.

Key Fobs

I've been fighting trying to get pictures from my phone to either the desktop or Chromebook. While going through some of the pics that did get transferred I found this picture. I don't think I showed you these. A few weeks ago I went on a normal for me sewing session and made a bunch of key fobs. I made wrist straps and finger straps. I like the shorter finger straps for all those discount cards the stores hand out nowadays. I don't like keeping them in my wallet and they tend to disappear in the bottom of my purse. I like to keep a basket of these on hand for quick gifts or little tuck ins. Some of these have already been given away so I see another sewing session in my near future.

Halloween Hexi Table Toppers

While wandering on around Pinterest recently I came across some hexagon table toppers. I thought they looked really neat so I had to make one... or four lol. I had so much fun making these that I could make a dozen more and probably will.

This one is for my house but you can find the rest in my RsIslandCrafts ArtFire shop. I can't keep them all especially since we don't have any tables lol. I will hang ours on the wall probably.

I like this back but I wish it glowed in the dark. That would be fun even it is on a table and you wouldn't be able to see it. I would know it's there and peek all the time.

I used one Halloween jelly roll that I've had for quite some time for all the Halloween fabric hexie toppers. I really like the lime green, purple, orange combo. I really think these toppers would look great with a big chunky candle in the center. I can picture an orange chunky candle on this one.

I think this is my favorite backing fabric out of all the Halloween hexie toppers. I love pumpkins and so cute with purple witch's hats.

I wasn't sure how a striped hexie topper  would look but I like this one too. This one reminds me of witch's hats. I think it's the stripes messing with my eyes but it's fun

  I've also been hoarding this backing fabric for awhile. Little Halloween badges with cats, bats, and pumpkins oh my!

I had a mini jelly roll sampler from Connecting Threads that I purchased in 2009/2010. I've told y'all I had some old stash to work through before I could restock the stash. lol I love how bright this Springtime topper turned out. Wouldn't this one look sweet with a little Easter bunny and basket in the center? I chose the green backing because it reminds me of grass.

If you're interested in knowing how I made these hexagon table toppers I did do a Sew With Me video over on my YouTube channel. I stitched what I like to call the With's Hat topper in that video.

Ornament a long

I love making ornaments so of course when I saw on Instagram that there is an ornament along going on I just had to join.  I don't know if Tara and Mathew will alternate who hosts that weeks ornament but the first one is located on Tara's blog right here.

This was my first try at the hexie wreath using Christmas music fabric. The fabric is doubled and it just feels a bit bulky to me.

So I made another version using just one layer of fabric. This is actually Christmas fabric that I bought at Jo-Ann's several years ago. It's one of my favorite fabrics. I added lime green buttons and a couple red jingle bells to this one. Hubby and I like this one.

This is what it looks like from the back. It's also how this wreath would look if you just used regular hexies. You would need to make 12 hexies though so both the front and back are clean looking.

I'm looking forward to see what ornament is up next.

October WiPs

Another month has come and gone in the blink of an eye again. October is a favorite time of year for me. It holds so many promises of what's to come. The most important is cooler weather. In my area of Florida, October means less humidity and temps in the low 90's. On rainy days we can even see the low 80's. Some mornings I can even open the windows for an hour or so. Just long enough to air the house out and tease of cooler days. During the Summer I have blinds and heat blocking curtains on all the windows which makes the house a bit dark so anytime I can open the curtains and windows is a good day.  I also look forward to the leaves changing to golden yellow and fire red. Our leaves stay green year long but I do love seeing videos and pictures from up North.

I finished my basic vanilla socks. I use this pattern but I knit them concurrently on two sets of needles magic loop style.  I was given this yarn and I have no clue what it is or what colorway. The purple is Michael's woolike sock weight yarn.

This is my Hurricane Irma project. I cast it on just before Irma hit so I would have a project to work on while sitting and waiting. It is the Antler Cardigan by TinCan Knits. I know it looks like candy corn right now but I will be adding the pink yarn next followed by the blue. This is my first time knitting a sweater bottom up and so far I like it better than top down but that may change when I get to the sleeves. Actually, I think I might prefer knitting sweaters in pieces and sewing them together instead of all in one piece like this sweater and others I have made. I am using some Knit Picks sport weight instead of the suggested worsted weight yarn so I went up a size. Looks like it should fit okay.

I finished another two dishcloths. I use the Grandmother's favorite dishcloth pattern but I adjust the increases so there is no hole along the edges. I feel that this looks just a little cleaner.

As usual I always have another dishcloth on the needles.

Instead of casting on another pair of socks I've decided to make some fingerless gloves for myself. I am using the Knotty gloves pattern but I won't be making the full fingers. I'm thinking about stopping around the first knuckle, just enough to hold the gloves in place but still allow my fingers freedom. I don't have the tag in front of me but the yarn is something psychedelic sounding lol.

My poor mitre square blanket only had four lonely squares added in September. There are several KALs starting for this blanket. I knew I would be joining the Advent-a-long in December but I found out there is also at least one KAL in October. Same principle-knit a square a day all month so by the end you have added 31 new squares to your blanket. Whether you do one a day or 7 on Sunday doesn't really matter. My plan is do 1 a day (or it's equivalent) for October, November, and December. Maybe by then it will become a habit and I can get this blanket finished and start something new.

Yesterday was the first day I picked up my HocusPocusville project. I managed to get a whole "row" stitched though so that was good. I love to sit in my chair, watch a movie, and stitch but by the end of the day I am always nodding off. While I can knit a little in my sleep, I am horrible at sleep embroidery ;)