meet cute holiday edition

Mae Mae Christmas, our little garbage heap, she’s such a good bad girl, both frustrating and sweet, she really tries.

We sorted through our holiday totes earlier in the year, clearing out so much. The rules were if it was something we didn’t love or if it never made it out of the tote year after year, it got donated. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and I maybe only regret saying goodbye to one or two things and those irrational choices were made several hours in, when I was hot, covered in glitter and absolutely over the task. But it’s ok.

I didn’t think I was going to make anything this year, no handmade gifts were on my list, I just wasn’t into it. Then one day I was like I think I want to knit a giant stocking and felt it, so I did, and in fact it was so satisfying that I ended up making two. One for me (on the left) and one for Lex (on the right) you can’t really tell but hers is marled with cream and pink and while I made them exactly the same, the wool in hers shrunk up into a wide stubby baby sock, it made us laugh, we love it so much! I offered to knit Jason a green grouch colored one, but he said he really loves the granny square one I crocheted him years ago ..ok good, because my body struggled to comfortably knit with that thick yarn, but goodness the finished stocking is so wonderfully big and sturdy, it’s the most perfect thing I’ve knit in a while.

It took roughly 330yds, I shortened the leg and the foot just a smidge because I knew I didn’t have “extra” yarn and didn’t want to run out. It was big and sloppy straight off the needles and measured 27″ × 10″, it went into the washing machine on a small load/normal cycle, on hot with soap and a towel, it felted up so nicely. I laid it flat on a foam blocking mat and while still damp I pulled and tugged it into shape (there is zero stretch, but damp wool felt has some give) and put it in the basement by the heater, flipped it occasionally and once I was sure it wouldn’t distort, I hung it from the rafters, puffed it open a bit to allows for better air circulation. It took DAYS to dry. After felting it measures 18¾” x 7¾” and is ½” thick!

Stocking Pattern: Fritidsgarn felted stocking (Ravelry link)

A few pattern notes: I didn’t leave a long tail for making the hang loop on my second sock, because when I did that on my first one it ended up on the front ..weird. So instead I picked up 4 stitches at the back and knit a 20 round i-cord and joined it back to the top. The heel as written leaves holes because it doesn’t use wrap and turns, they might have disappeared when felted but I wasn’t sure they would, so I took some thin scrap wool and closed them up, you could also w&t. When working the toe decreases, once I hit 36 stitches I started decreasing on every round until I reached 20 stitches for a rounder tip shape, then grafted the toe.

In my head I was going to do some cute embroidery on it, maybe chain stitch my initials, a pompom or something like that, but I didn’t, maybe leaving a fun craft for next year?

P.S I almost f’d up my badge maker by trying to turn the foil candy wrappers from Lex’s advent into pinback buttons, at the time it seemed worth it though. ♡

Ok so I’ve had this little weird santa head ornament in my collection forever, I don’t even remember who it came from or how I got it, but Jason and Lex know I adore it so much and they always put it on the tree facing me, right at eye level, so I can look over and see it looking back at me from my seat. ♡

This year I decided I wanted to learn how to make them, I found a 1994 Trim A Tree kit from Bucilla second hand and got lost in the moment. ♡

It’s more sequined than I’d like and the pieces are printed with dots showing their placement so there’s no skipping them. I couldn’t help but add a little holly berry to his beard. I’m planning on taking my favorite parts from both and making myself a pattern, so I can make a million little adorable Santa heads out of soft pastel colored wool felt.

Some of my favorite seasonal brooches, I’m alright with having them do most of the holidaying for me this year, especially the butts.

We went to Costco, and this clearance illuminated glitter snow lantern has been the bookshelf joy of our December. It’s water filled and has a little motor that keeps the glitter moving, reflecting off the walls like a disco ball, we are enchanted.

The timers on these make it seem like the little people who live here come home at 5 and go to bed at 11. ♡

September – October – November

Future sweater in past yarn, this wool holds so many memories, I’m pretty sure I bought a skein of this Madelinetosh Merino Light almost every trip out to Boston back in those hauling Lex to school days, back when I was just a baby knitter, not knowing much about fibers, dye lots or useful quantities, back when I wasn’t sure what kind of a knitter I was.

Now, what feels like a million years later, I’ve finally caked up 3, that dirty sun bleached Seasalt colorway is still everything.

Casting on a Flores Pullover by Eri Shimizu.

( p.s a million years is 10 years :)

Slowly working through soft shoulders. This is my favorite part of top down sweaters, the absolute beginnings where everything grows so quickly and you can have your first try on for no other reason than there is now a place to stick your head.

My skeins don’t match, but they do kinda fade, so I’ve set them in order of brightest to lightest and I’m not going to worry about it.

September, a portrait of late summer skies from a girl whose interests include clouds.

I’m not sure why, but textured rib is so much more enjoyable to work than regular rib.

You can’t tell right now, but there are these cute little ladders hidden in the recessed purl columns.

A little pink, a little sparkle, I made a skein of yarn out of clay, but it could also be a doughnut twist of some sort.

Scenes from the slow grow.

(continued)

It generates rainbows. Rural/not so rural prarie life but make it kinda futuristic too.

You can see the subtle color shift between skeins. When I reached the bottom hem it had faded to almost pure white, kind of fitting for a sweater made with yarn representing a moment in time.

Everything in my house smells like Santal 33, including this merky wool water, my soap making supplier came out with a eo/fo blend of the original and it’s the closest dupe I’ve ever smelled.

The light this time of year is constantly changing, the upstairs has weird angles anyways but more so with the shift.

Our house was hand built in the late 1800s, plaster and lathe walls, crooked and solid. I keep telling my Jason we should raise the ceilings up through the attic, we have a pretty interesting roofline from the outside and I would love to see it from the inside. There are parts of it I just don’t understand, strange slopes of original house show up in closets, the false walls from additions throughout the years, I can only imagine if removed, all of it would add to its charming lowlight kaleidoscope angles.

He says no.

Blocked and cropped, with mid length sleeves. The only one who ever gets full sleeves is my husband, the burnout is real when knitting my own.

1344 yards used, just a pinch over 3 skeins, roughly 756 yards left for longer sleeves maybe?

October, across from the park.

November, sweater weather.

make it weird

They’re done, they’re weird, they’re everything I could ever want! I started these months ago and finally finished them up. I wish I could find the ball band for this yarn, it’s the perfect heathery rainbow, I also thought that these were going to magically match, I wasn’t trying, but when I started the second sock the cuffs matched and then somewhere along the way it stopped matching, oh well.

We are currently in the middle of no socks season, so I can’t tell you how they wear long term, but a quick slip on was effortless, the mood is cute and cozy worm!

They’re called Bananen-Socken /banana socks (p.s that’s a Ravelry link), I also chatted in this post about them.

I don’t share pictures of myself often, but I took this one and it was so weird and funny looking, but still kinda good looking ? and my favorite part is my nose giving Owen Wilson, while my eyes look like they’re ready to suck your soul out of your body in the most demonic haunted way, also this looks nothing like me.

This is what most of my selfies end up looking like, but this also looks nothing like me.

At some point there may be enough pens, but for now, more shakers, needle points and knock erasers, I bought blue lead for some reason.

Side table stuffs, a slow rise bun, squishy doh balls. This one time we went to the dollar store and they had weird flavor hi-chew, we lost our minds and bought several huge store counter display boxes, no regrets, but currently Jason is the only one still eating it.