A Handmade (and almost finished in time!) Christmas

Every year one or two of us seems to make a present for some member of the family. I usually knit at least one gift; Mike will take the time to build or turn something. But this year was an unusually handmade-gift-filled year. And we almost had them all finished in time for the big day!

To begin, I knit Mike the Dwarven Helmet hat that he's been wanting for a few years now. I had to give it to him unfelted because I needed his head to test size, so that wasn't done in time. Here it is today: felted, but no braids. Once he comes in this afternoon, I'll get some braids and mustashe on!

Then there were the hats I wanted to make for all the little cousins: my two girls and my neice and nephew. Three of the four were finished for Christmas (the neice and nephew got theirs--poor Kat's was still on the needles). Here's baby Emma modelling hers:

And Kat's was finished the next day. Warning, the next photo was of her an hour ago after being in the snow all morning and ready for a nap. She is currently asleep!

Hopefully tonight I'll get a picture of all four of them in their hats together! Fingers crossed.

And now on to Mike's projects! They're awesome!!!

First, he and Morgan made me a sign for the farm!!!!! Here's what I got on Christmas morning:

They worked hard cutting and carving the sign from scratch. The lamb was a hanging sign that my in-laws had given me a few years ago, but the hangers had broken. It was resting in my studio until it could be fixed, but Mike snatched it up without me noticing in order to incorporate it in the sign. I love it!!! I'm not sure if you can see "Glen"--it's right under the lamb. 

Since Christmas morning, Mike has stained it and just put a coat of polyurethane on it this morning. Here's how it looks right now, drying:

The words and lamb need to be reattached, and it's good to go! And did I mention that it's completely reversable so that passersby can read it going both ways down our street? AND there's a tiny little M + A in a heart on the tree trunk. Aaahhhhhh.

And the grand finale is . . . . . a clubhouse for the girls in their room! We presented them with a ladder and a bow on Christmas morning, then Mike worked at assembling it the rest of that and the next day. 

Christmas:

The next day (with, from L to R: Kat, Morgan and Brendan):

The girls have slept up there every night since! Left to do: Morgan and I are going to build a paper machet tree on the front right corner of the wall to look like the clubhouse is sitting in it. We're also going to paint the clubhouse white and re-paint the room.

I'll keep everyone posted as projects are completed!

From my family to yours, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!!!

Nerd Wars in ON!!!

Feb. 1 saw the kick-off of Nerd Wars on Ravelry, and as you all know by now, I'm on Team Browncoat, fans of the show Firefly.

Part of the fun is an optional 3-month long dissertation project, and I decided to jump in. I'm knitting the Pinwheel Sweater from Elann.com.

I'm using Noro's Cash Iroha, yum!!! I won over 2 pounds of it at a charity event quite a few years ago. Because Noro donated the yarn for the event, it was in giant hanks of mill ends, and all different colors.

The colors are beautiful (a bright purple isn't shown), but a little bright for me, and I didn't really like the flow. So I worked at over-dyeing them with a dark brown and here are my results:

I'm pleased as punch!!

I've cast-on and am making good progress, but shop, home and continued recovery are slowing me down just a bit.

And I did manage to get a skein of yarn spun. Here's the original batt:

And the finished yarn (it's going in the shop!)

It's Fiber Arts Friday over at Wonder Why Alpaca, so go check out all the other fun there!!

It's Been A Rough Week

Last week, while I was posting on Friday, I was ignoring a terrible pain in my stomach. Long story short, I had my appendix removed on Saturday. Recuperation is not as fast as I'd like, but I was able to get a lot of knitting done!!

I finished a 1X1 rib neck warmer for my daughter. I didn't decrease as I went up, I just changed needle sizes. And striped at random.

In the hospital, the log cabin squares came in handy as they were mindless, garter stitch knitting. I finished the one I started last week, then made another and got going on a third:

Then, with the large ball of handspun that I made with Phat Fiber samples, I made (along with the majority of that darker block up there) a cowl. It's call the Switchback Cowl from Kira K Designs. I worked it until I ran out of yarn--it's much shorter than what she calls for, but I tried it on and it works great for me.

The original yarn:

I'm off to lay in bed some more. I can't wait to get back to my dye pots and spinning wheel!!!

It's Fiber Arts Friday, so check out what's happening at Wonder Why Gal's blog!!

Showing off

I have some stuff to show off:

Captain Malcom Reynolds

Kaylee:

Inara:

River:

Wash:

These are the fibers and yarns I have up in the shop that are "Firefly" inspired. More are coming soon!

The items are great, but what I'm really showing off is my new-found toy: Picasa! It makes great collages and is so simple to use! Aren't they shiny?!

Happy New Year!

So, I think, like all other bloggers out there, my New Year's resolution is to be better about consistant blogging! OK, so I can't be too hard on myself. I really fell off the wagon during Christmas, and it is a really busy time of year: between activities, shopping and it being peak sales time, I just couldn't get to it. Maybe next year I should have some stock stories saved up to publish!

But it's a new year! And I'm kicking it off strong! I have an FO (finished object) to share:

Kat's Hat!!I was tying on pom poms on the way to our Christmas dinner party. She got to show it off to the whole family. To recap: I participated in The Critter Ranch's birthstone spin-a-long, and got a tourmaline batt; I spun up the yarn, knit the hat, and got a great picture of Kat!

Be looking for a Kat's Hat worksheet in the shop to make your own in any gauge for any size!

I have quite a few busy customers that have been kind enough to send along pictures of their FOs, so throughout this week, I'll be highlighting them and their work!

And here's a gratuitous shot of my kids on Christmas Eve at church. Kat NEVER sits still long enough for a good shot, so this is a rare and elusive photo.

Love to hear how adorable you think Kat is in her hat, or how cute the kiddos are! ;) (yup, shamelessly looking for comments!)