Santa Machine

I've morphed into Eco-Santa!

My Christmas theme this year is keeping it green, meaning at least the vast majority of the gifts I give are hand-made and that I am reusing materials or taking them from my crazy stash of quilting and knitting leftovers. It is SO MUCH FUN to see how far I can make everything stretch, and also great to see my stash clear out!

For starters, for the many teachers in our lives, I am making 8 Apple Cozies with my last year stocking project's bright red and green yarns. Here are the stockings that took me until 9:30pm on Christmas Eve 2008 to finish (with my tinier 30-yr-old stocking on the right):



And here is what the Apple Cozy is supposed to look like, pattern borrowed from 'I Think I'm Gonna Purl':




For a few of the women in my life, I went to the library and got a copy of Laura Irwin's 'Boutique Knits' to craft the lovely Side Slip Cloche (as seen on the cover). I already went to Baaad Anna's and let Keira play in their great kid's area while I petted and drooled over all their great yarns! I finally picked out some nice Angora, which was even on sale. This was a bit of rule-breaking, but I figured the book was from the library and the yarn was on sale...



Recently re-inspired by Vancouver's own Little Bird Designs, I created some larger felt/pencil/make-up brush/whatever holders with Japanese-patterned fabrics from three different quilts I've made. Using a similar design, I also decided to try making a knitting needle holder for the new knitter Michelle, using scraps from a Thai silk dress that I had tailored in Chiang Mai, since I decided to shorten the floor-length dress to knee-length.




I made a similar roll-up organizer for myself a few years ago and my mom has been bugging me to make one for her so this year she's also getting one for her long straight needles, and a matching one for her DPNs. After the third organizer, my pattern was perfected and as I complete each one, I keep thinking 'this is my favourite!' - very gratifying to use up all those teensy weensy pieces of gorgeous fabric! All together, I'll have made about 14 different bags, and right now I'm on number 9!



For some of the younger kiddos... a few months ago, a bunch of us from the Homespun Salon got together with some plain white silk scarves from Maiwa and used Koolaid to dye them a variety of shades. This year I'm putting together a few packages of play silks that I've dyed, along with cool streamer wrist-bands (inspired by Karen) made with different bright colours of ribbon. So much fun for encouraging imaginative play and dress-up! My daughters use theirs for superhero capes, princess skirts, baby blankets, butterfly wings, you name it!



A few years ago, when I was pregnant with Keira and battling with Carpal Tunnel (again), I started a sweater for Carmen... well two years later, I finished it and plan to give it to Keira and start a matching one for Carmen. Of course, I will have to make it in some shade of pink or purple to make sure she actually WEARS it! Sigh. I love these colours, and they seem to fit Keira better anyways:



I finally finished the socks I started for Jason THREE YEARS AGO. This is what happens when you start something (in a pregnancy-induced haze), put it down, and restart three years later...



Somehow one of the socks is wider than the other. Really I should frog the entire thing, but one of his feet is slightly bigger, and I hope this works to my advantage! Otherwise, there is always blocking and felting! Tee hee!

Right now the spare bedroom downstairs looks as though a bomb has gone off with thread and yarn everywhere - in the upcoming break I hope to convert the space into a sleepover-ready spare room/craft room... my mind is buzzing with possibilities!