Christmas Crafts

First up: A walnut shell advent wreath, idea stolen from Unikat. I painted mine silver, because that's the only color I had. Gold would have been a much better choice, but I didn't want to buy extra paint. The shells are hot glued on a cardboard circle covered in newspaper. I added tea light candles,and some mini red balls to jazz it up a bit. It was boring without it.
I also made some snowflakes, as Christmas tree decorations. The idea is from Martha Stewart.Yup, Martha Stewart made me buy glitter. My snowflakes look nothing like hers. Maybe it's because I'm too stingy to use two kinds of glitter. This was completely messy, there was glitter everywhere. Plus, it falls off from the snowflakes - I'm thinking it won't be long before they go totally bald.



Next: Fabric drawstring bags, big enough to fit a pair of socks. I did a terrible job sewing these. I guess I lost my sewing mojo. Not that I ever had all that much mojo to begin with. I stenciled them with silver fabric paint and,wait for it...stamping ink. From a stamp pad. Why buy green fabric paint, when you have a little stamp pad? Because the damn ink bleeds, that's why! Overall, using ink as stencil paint was a stupid idea.

On a more happier note, one that doesn't involve crafty disasters - it's snowing. Not much, but still, snow ;-)

I went on Jaywalking...

I finally finished the Jaywalkers for my friend Sandra. I made them for my foot size, or actually, a centimeter longer than a perfect fit for me. I really hope her foot is about the same size as mine. I think it is, but I don't know for sure. And it's not like I can go and ask her: Say, would you mind measuring your foot length? And while you're at it, how about the ankle width as well? That would totally ruin the surprise.
I'm pretty satisfied with how the Jaywalkers turned out. They leg part is a little tight, so it takes some stretching to pull them over the heel, but they do fit great around the ankles. At least for me.
I also finished the socks for Lea. I improvised the pattern for her,2x2 rib for the cuff, k4, p2 for the actual pattern. I messed up the pattern after I divided for the heel - I was left with purls on only one side of the instep. I improvised a bit on the other side, added stitches, purled where I should have knit, so it worked out in the end. They're not quite symmetrical, but it's not you notice at a first glance.
Again,these were also made to fit my foot, but they stretch a lot,so it shouldn't be a problem. For next year, I'm going to make all my friends fill out a scrapbook/memories book thingy. What's your favorite food? Color? What are the measurements of your bust? :-)

I also got my invitation to Raverly this Friday.Whooo! I spent the whole weekend adding projects, and taking pictures of my yarn.

Time for some knitting

Not to make this blog all about paper crafts, because it is, after all, a knitting blog. Says so in the title. I went and bought some yarn, featured in the extremely crappy out of focus picture on the left. It's 100% wool. Shrinkproof, the label proclaims. Lovely colorway, made for 4 mm needles. I don't have 4 mm needles, and I wanted to turn this yarn into socks. So what the hell, I went and made socks on 3,75 mm needles (at least I think they're 3,75. Could be 3,5 mm). I finally made socks following the Jaywalker pattern. I must be the last knitter on the planet to knit these. They're really easy too, I had no bigger problems with the pattern, except for the fact that my kfb increase is a little looser than I'd like. The sock below is for my friend, a gift for Christmas. I think that's what all my friends are going to be getting this Christmas - the gift of socks. I better get knitting!