Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday (and if you don't celebrate, have a fantastic day anyway!)

I put this photo in our Christmas cards. Not bad for a self-timer shot on the front porch. :-)

Stockings (finally)

These are about 2 years in the making, and I finally finished them last night. I did all of the embroidery with my mom's machine during visits. All the embroidery designs are from Designs by Juju, which are very nice quality and incredibly reasonably priced when you consider the frequent special offers.


I didn't use a pattern but free-handed the stocking design about the size I wanted. They have a layer of batting between the stocking and lining. The fold down cuffs are separate pieces attached last with little hanging loops at the back (which I almost forgot to add!).

I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I may even have time to knock out 4 pairs of PJ pants tonight. :-)

Knitting

Before Christmas, I must:
1. construct lining for the stockings I made my family
2. make matching jammy pants for the four members of my family
3. embellish t shirts to coordinate with #2 (although this is optional, I guess)
4. make a fabric bolt worth of devil costumes (not sure why I was better suited to making the devil costumes than the angel costumes...). Actually, I need these done by Saturday afternoon...

SO...... I'm knitting.

Essential Cardigan

I finished up this sweater a couple of days ago. It is the Essential Cardigan from Interweave Knits summer 2010. I just started it around July, which must be some kind of record for me for speed knitting. The pattern page on Ravelry is here.

It came out a bit big so I made the edging bands a bit narrower than the pattern suggests. I also left off the buttons. I can't decide whether I want them or just to leave it hanging open with the option of belting it closed. I think I'll leave it like this for now. I can always add buttons and (machine) buttonholes latter if the trends change. :-)

Without further stalling, here is the sweater, which I am very happy with! I tried it out with two different belts and also left loose.






A bonus is that this sweater will go well with the dress I am working on right now. Here's a peek:


Here's my Cleo kitty, in her new favorite spot, on my kitchen island. You can see the bright green kitchen walls in the background. I still haven't done anything about them. :-) I do have a lighter shade of green and some glaze in the garage to try a little spongeing technique, maybe even this weekend!

Ode to Striped Tees

I owe a pic of my finished silk jammies. They turned out ok. Not the jammies I reach for, but they're ok. I'll elaborate more when I have photos.

So... while decorating for Christmas, I stumbled across a cash present for moi that I had misplaced a couple of years ago (the find of the century!) And yes, I know it was cash for ME, because it was still in the envelope with my name on it! So, while out and about, I decided to see what I could find that I couldn't live without. I didn't have a lot of time, so I took the little guy (big guy was at pre-school) in to Banana Republic. In the end, all I found that I couldn't live without were two (yes, TWO) striped tee shirts. I was gonna go crazy and buy a $120 sweater or something, but I just didn't see one that I had to have. I tried on a bunch of things...

The knits were all chunky and I said "hey, I could knit this!... in the color I want and with the perfect length." (yeah, right. That'll happen. I would have bought one if it was perfect and I loved it, but none were that perfect)

I tried on a $70 wool skirt. Um, lovely but no. Not when I could sew it for $10.

I tried on two striped tee shirts. I said "yeah, I could make something similar, but I couldn't find this matching ribbed trim or put on this binding so nicely." Plus they were on sale, so they came home with me, only eating up half of my mad money.

Here is one of my new tees, but mine is black and white. I can't find a pic of the other one. It's long sleeved, gray and white striped, good for layering.


I have a serious love of striped tops. For some reason, they are the epitome of effortless chic to me. I think it all stems back to my best friend in elementary school's mom, who was always chic and often wearing stripes.

The past few days, I've been working on Christmas stockings, and I really can't wait to whip up this knit dress for something quick and new! I'm going to include the sleeves if I have enough fabric. I think I will.