My legion of minions....

 

Ha!  The monsters are finally done!  If you haven't alreasy, go check out Danger Crafts.  I think I want to knit one of everything.  In the meantime, meet Holly, Ivy, and Steve.

Holly is the easist to knit.  She comes together pretty  quickly.

Holly #3

Holly #3

Ivy takes a bit more time and she has more accessories.  She is the biggest too.

Ivy #3

Ivy #1

Ivy #2

Steve is a fiddly guy.  Between the color changes and his itty bitty parts there were moments where I was hanging onto the dpns for dear life.  I do like him as a cyclops though.

Steve

China Needed a Scarf

Kiddo and I made it together.  It is ten stitches in garter stitch.  Occasionally we would find 11 or 9 stitches, but mostly it's 10.  We cheered each time Sweet Pea got through a row.  I think China Cow looks sharp.

Two more weeks until winter...

The view up the street. 

It started snowing on Sunday.  It did not stop for 98 hours.  The official snow tally is 42".  The kid had two snow days.  I had to go to work each day.  We are in the short winter days when I leave for work and come home from work in darkness, so I had to wait until today to take pictures.

Snow drifting off the garage roof.

The view down the street.  Our neighbors are having their roof replaced today...

The view off the back deck.

 

 

Oreo is happy to be inside.

The Annual Christmas Tree Expedition

Every year the Farmer asks me if we can get an artificial tree.   Every year I tell him that he can get one when I am dead.  It's become a traditional conversation.

When I was a kid, the Christmas tree would not go up until late in December.  I remember tree hunting in the fields with my dad.  People would actually reserve their tree by tying a ribbon around them.  So, you would find the perfect tree and then not be able to have it because of some silly ribbon.  We never "stole" a tree.  I know I was short at the time, but they always seemed so incredibly tall.  

I like to have a tree up for most of December and on some years I have cajoled the farmer into going the weekend after Thanksgiving.   We have always had a real tree and have learned the hard way that if you want the needles to stay on, you have to cut it down yourself. 

This is the tradition that has evolved…

I make everyone get up early on a weekend morning, because I want to get there right as they open.  We have a hard time getting out the door because someone cannot find their gloves.  We drive out to the farm and are the first or second people there.  We pick up the tarp and saw and head into the fields.  I cannot even look at prospective trees until we are out of sight of the barn and I really don't want to see other people.  I want to pretend that we are the only ones in the woods.  

Typically, I have to look at at least eight different trees.  Often times, I decide that the first one we found is the best.  But, then we cannot find it again, so we have to go look some more.   Realizing this, I agreed to the first tree the farmer suggested this year.  I thought he was going to faint.  Usually, it has either snowed or is muddy as hell and the kid manages to get covered in all of it.  This year it was snow.

Once the perfect tree has been chosen, the farmer gets to lie on the tarp and cut it down.  I take gratuitous photos of his bum until it is time for me to hold onto the tree so it does not fall on him.  The kid insists on helping drag it back to the barn.  I love that.  I take more pictures.  They wrap it up for us and we take it home.  We usually buy trees that will fit into the wagon.  The one year we had it tied to the roof, it came off on the highway.  That was not fun.  What was worse was that the farmer gave the kid who tied it on a big tip.   On the way home, we stop at a diner for breakfast.  It is one of my favorite mornings of the whole year.

The setting up of the tree is a whole different story…..

Can you see the snow angel?

Traveler Socks

I found the pattern on Ravelry.  It's Traveler Socks on D-Made.  I started them Monday night and finished them Saturday.  Worsted weight yarn on size 5 needles helped.  A lot.  

I have never done a crochet provisional cast on before.  The first sock I did it wrong because I had to cut the crochet chain out of there.  For the second, I went to You Tube and looked at some tutorials.  It is amazing to me the "how to" videos you can find on there.  Really cool.  I followed this one and the second cast on was a breeze.

The other thing I like about this pattern is that the cable patten is written out.  I have a really hard time following charted cables. 

Kiddo picked out the yarn color.  I wanted Lion Brande Wool-ease because I thought that it would not be too hot and the inclusion of the poly might help them wear better.

These are really ugly until you put them on your feet.  Then they are amazing.

Chef Hats

Skiptomylou is a really neat website with tutorials on how to make all sorts of kid related stuff.  Her chef hat tutorial is excellent.  I made two to go with the aprons.  One for the the little boy who is getting the cookie mixes in jars.  The other, of course, is for kiddo.  But I admit, I sort of want one now too.  When I was a kid I wanted to be a pastry chef.   I bet I would have had some cool hats...

Because I already had the fabric from the shirts, the total cost was about $9 for interfacing and velcro.   But, I have enough of both left over to make four more hats if  I wanted.  I also had to improvise a compass to make a 18" diameter circle.  i took a piece of yarn and tied it to two pencils with 9" of string between them.  Then I put one in the middle of a piece of newspaper and drew a big circle around with the other.  It's not a perfect circle, but it works.  Gathering the circle fabric was not as easy as you might thing, but it all got in there. 

It probably took me about 3 hours total to make the two hats.  I'm really happy with them.

Little Kid Aprons

I did it.  I made aprons all by myself!  No pattern, directions, or anything.  I used kiddo's apron as a template and three old denim shirts that I had saved for the fabric.  They were free!  

Kiddos's template apron measured approx 16"x23."  

Step 1: Cut out the fabric leaving 2 extra inches on each of the sides and the top.  If you are using regular fabric, the square would be 20"x27".  I admit, I free-handed it.  I figure no one is going to check to make sure that the bottom hem is perfectly straight.

Step 2:  I used the backs of the shirts, so the shirt hem serves as the bottom hem of the apron.  I turned under the sides and top and hemmed them with the raw edges tucked under.

Step 3: Then I folded the apron in half longways and cut the slanted sides at a 60 degree angle from the top.  I wish that the top was not quite so narrow on mine, but they work.  A quilters ruler and a rotary cutter came in really handy. here.

Step 4: This is where it gets cool.  I turned the raw edge under and stitched it.  Then I turned and sewed it again with a 1.25" gap so that the angle edge acts like a sleeve.

Step 5: I cut leftover material from the shirts into 2.5" strips and mitered them together to become very long (7 feet-ish).   I pinned them so that they were folded around the raw edges and stitched them, so that they became long, somewhat stiff ties.

Step 6: I tied the thread tails to a pencil.  I pushed the pencil through each sleeve and drew the tie through.  The long tie goes up one side sleeve, around the neck, and back down the other sleeve.  That way it is fully adjustable.  I hate aprons where the neck loop is too big. 

Step 7: The little boy apron seemed kind of plain so I picked the pocket off one of the shirts and sewed it onto the apron.  Much better.

I kept making kiddo try one on to make sure it was the right size.  She was a little bit a annoyed because it was not for her.  Little does she know that I made the one from the embroidered shirt for her.  She will find out Christmas morning.

Tomorrow, I will make the chef hats.