MDO throws me right into the middle of a bunch of things I haven’t thought about before – bringing treats for birthdays, celebrating holidays, packing lunches . . . and Vday is right around the corner and the kiddos are required to bring a card for each kid in their class! That got me thinking because I think most Vday candy is gross and low quality (not that the kids know that), why shouldn’t I just use the Yummy Earth lollypops that I already had left over from Halloween? And that reminded me of a Vday card I have seen done on several blogs. To be honest, I can’t remember the original place that I saw this, but it’s easy enough to recreate on your own.

We snapped some photos with my phone and thankfully one of them turned out just right! It’s difficult to get a toddler to hold a specific pose for a picture. . . Then Jason edited it and added the text on his phone and I printed them out on the multitude of photo paper we somehow have in our paper stash. So cute. Then it’s as easy as using an exacto to cut two little holes in the appropriate positions.

Love it when a project comes together without having to buy anything! And not bad for the first celebratory school item for Jude!

Alright so there’s the backstory. I very much wanted to make some leg warmers, especially these that I found on pinterest. The pattern rated them as easy so surely I could make them. I bought the necessary tools and set to work.  And set to work again. And again. And once more.

Sigh. Here is my latest effort. Looks a little wonky to me. Such tiny needles! And tiny yarn! Looks like I’ll be starting over again.

Since I didn’t want to give up, (I am DETERMINED to become a knitter) I decided to try another pattern, the honey cowl, which I saw on a friend’s blog (the same friend that has been advising me on knitting this whole time). I’ve only knit a couple of rows but it is going so much smoother and I can SEE my progress! Could be the bigger needles, or the thicker yarn. . . But I feel like this is something I may actually be able to complete! Of course, I can already see some of the weird spots, but that’s part of the charm of the first thing you knit yourself – the mistakes.

I really want to learn how to knit socks (I know, totally ridiculous) but I have a feeling that’s a ways off.

If you knit, what was your first completed knitting project? And any recommendations for me?

Anyways. I fell in love with this little pin and couldn’t get the idea of having a beautiful crocheted granny hex blanket in my house. Something about the hex shape just pulled me in. Nothing against the squares or anything. . . Now that pin talks about joining as you crochet but I wasn’t dead set on only doing coral, cream and grey so I decided against that. I think I’ll join with a flat crochet seam, when the time comes.

I love these.

They are a quick little things to crochet up if you don’t have time to invest in a huge project. The pattern is easily memorized so you can do it anywhere without having to reference a pattern. And they are small! You could use up little bits of leftover yarn making these guys. I used Vickie Howell’s Sheep(ish) line in coral(ish) and white(ish) and Caron’s simply soft in grey heather. It’s going to be so soft when it’s all done!

Now, as you can see, I’ve only made six of these, but I’m thinking this is an ongoing project that I can happily live with!

And to go with the little hat, I had to make some easy on baby loafers from Two Girls Patterns. It’s not often I see crochet items and think – wow, those are boyish! So this were a definite win. There was a bit of a learning curve for me in crocheting these up – it’s a much tighter weave than I typically do so there were some bumps along the way (and maybe a few bumps in the stitching), but I learned a lot and I think they turned out pretty cute. Who knew you could crochet to look like knitting!

I used Vicki Howell’s new yarn – Sheep(ish) in gun metal(ish) and robin egg(ish). So very soft. Cute little set for a cute little man.

And then last year my word was belief. I know I didn’t talk much about it on the blog, but I did reflect on it quite a bit. And I must say that it was quite an appropriate word for me. My belief was challenged and restored in so many areas of life – marriage, friendships, parenting, faith. It’s been a hard year but it’s also been incredibly healing in so many ways. It closed with clarity in so many areas that I had been scrambling to find. Here’s last year’s dresden plate quilt block.

This year I have been thinking and praying about what my word should be for the year. It hasn’t been as clear as it has been in past years. One of my resolutions for this year (if you can call it that), is to be kinder to myself. My internal voice is quite vicious to me while giving much grace to others – not healthy, I know. 2 Corinthians 10:5 talks about taking every thought captive and obedient for Christ and I strive to exercise this in many areas of my life but not in my view of myself. So that lead me to the word gratitude – thankfulness, appreciation, gratefulness.

Gratitude destroys those voices in my head. It creates a happier heart, better relationships, relinquishes control. There are a lot of changes coming up for our family in this next year and they will need to be navigated with a grateful heart. We have so much more than we deserve even through the difficult times because of our faith in God.

My quilt block this year is the modular cathedral block. I love the clean modern look of this and it reminds me so much of cathedral window quilt blocks that I just adore. The fabrics are Sandi Henderson’s Meadowsweet Meadowdot, Amy Butler’s Love Sunspots in Mint, Patricia Bravo’s Oval Elements in Green Apple, and Joel Dewberry’s Modern Meadow Herringbone in Maple and of course Kona cotton in white.

What about you? Any words that you are going to meditate on as you go through 2010?

And I love it even better on! A perfect cold weather addition to my closet.

And I can’t seem to put my hooks away – I have several other projects that I will be showing you, but don’t worry, I have been working on my knitting too!

Any fun crochet projects in your life?

We then stamped the ornaments with a regular old stamp and regular old stamp pad and baked them in the oven for 5 hours at 200 degrees.

I used some twine to string them up and wrote ‘Jude 2011′ on the back in sharpie. Coat in some polyurethane and we were all done! We kept one to hang on our tree and gave the rest to family as part of our Christmas gift.

I’ve already seen some that I like for next year’s salt dough ornament!

Something else we typically lack on our door is a wreath. Our door is already pretty so I haven’t felt like it really had to be dressed up! But I have really been loving all the yarn wreaths I’ve been seeing. After some inspiration from pinterest, I decided to make one of my own. I didn’t use a wreath form though, you want to know what’s under all that yarn? A $1 pool noodle from this summer. Wreath forms are $8 or so! Why spend that when you already have something in the house that works?

And I know, in my previous post, I said we weren’t red and green Christmas folks. . . well my door is already red so I just had to go with it! I still feel like this wreath has a pretty modern feel to it! And this felt dahlia. So. Much. Work. But it has been on my ‘to make’ list for quite some time now, so I was happy to utilize it on this wreath. It’s reminiscent of another flower that is way too popular during this time of year that I happen to dislike quite strongly but much prettier. (Read: don’t ever give me a poinsettia.)

Then I made a quick fringe felt flower and a couple little rosettes to round out the wreath.

I’m really happy with how it turned out! It is a little light weight so it doesn’t hang quite how I envisions (I love asymmetry!) but we will work on that in years to come. Right now, it will just hang how it is on our door!

I didn’t take many pictures worth sharing while I was there, I was just too busy working on my little projects. My first project that I finished was a quick little ornament for Jude. Bacon!! He was a free tutorial that I found on pinterest.

While I was making him, I just kept saying ‘bacon face’ over and over again. He’s too cute and a great addition to the other two ornaments that I’ve made each year since Jude has been born (see 2009, 2010).

After that successful project, I felt ready to tackle a project I have had on my mind for several Christmas seasons. A tree skirt. Although after some discussion with the girls, this may really be called tree ‘pants’ because they’re square. . . Who knew? I used a wonky star tutorial that I sized down a bit to fit the scale of our small tree. We’re just not big Christmas tree people.

I used Kona Cotton grass and Michael Miller’s Candy Dot in Spa. Not only are we not big Christmas tree people, we’re not red and green Christmas people. Blue and green Christmas motifs make me much happier than red and green.

And with a little encouragement from the girls, I added some star quilting to the regular loops that I typically do. Pretty fun!

I also had a bit of time to get some crochet done. This is a gift for my step-sis-in-law after she saw this hat that I made for myself. She really likes pink. It’s a free tutorial that I found on pinterest (sensing a trend here?). This is that same yarn that I’ve been using. Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller ‘washable ewe’ in kitten, icing and zinnia.

I also finished up a birthday scarf for a friend that loves yellow (it’s ‘full o’ sheep’ in honeycomb). It’s the Catherine’s wheel stitch and man, this stitch eats up yarn quickly! It’s quite nice to look at though.

And here it is all rolled up, ready to be gifted.

Such a wonderful weekend with such lovely, creative ladies (you can see I’m modeling the yellow scarf below and holding the tree skirt)! It was so much fun to see what everyone was capable of making. I must say I am inspired to try some new things now, including knitting! Can’t wait to do it again!

And then I decided that I wanted a hat that would keep my ears warm that was a little more stylish than a beanie so I found this free crochet hat pattern on pinterest! I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s a bit boho but I think that’s kinda why I love it. I’ve been wearing it almost everyday.

Here’s a side view so you can see the slouch.

And I have so many more good things in the works to share with you guys. Oh the holiday season overflows with ideas . . . What crafty items have you been working on lately?