The Pressure is ON!

Well, got my little tree ornaments for the families almost done. Here are some more minis finished....sox, hat, and mittens...

I'm making these cardinal tags, (photo from the internet) cut from Christmas scrapbooking paper, decorated with rhinestones and glitter. They are a little too large for the miniature trees, but I might use them as gift tags or just to decorate the RV. I was going to buy some tags from a seller on Etsy, but the person making them didn't have any more for sale, (the ones pictured are the seller's) so I thought, heck, I'll make my own. I went looking for a cardinal tracing pattern by googling it. Success! 

Crocheted these little snowmen made of half double crochet.. Make a chain of 4, join with a slip stitch. Round 1, is 10 hdc in the ring joining with a slip stitch to the top of the first chain, round 2 is 1 hdc in the first stitch, then 2 hdc in the next stitch, 1 hdc in the next stitch, 2 hdc in the next stitch, repeat around, and you are done in two rounds! Used fabric paint for the eyes and nose, or use orange scrap pieces of felt for the nose to make them look a little better. And if you REALLY wanted to make them look even more polished, you could sew little black beads for the eyes and mouth. Too fussy and too little time for me to do that. But they sure look cute on a mini tree!

Made a little hanging Santa ornament that is too big for the miniature trees, but would be cute hanging on a doorknob of a cabinet. This pattern was called "Ho, Ho, Ho" by Mary Triplett and I got it off Ravelry, a great site for patterns, free and otherwise.

Time's a wastin'! Got to get back in gear....One of my daughters is coming Dec. 22, Eldy's kids are arriving the 23, and my new little grandson, now 6 months old, is arriving with his mommy Dec. 26th. He is already standing up in his crib at 6 months old! Yikes!

That boy is going to be a BUSY boy! Can't wait to see him and smooch him unmercifully. He's going to hide his face when he sees his grammy coming, I bet! :-)

Until next time.......

It's Just Sticks and Strings

Got a hot streak going....started making my little mini sweaters and then decided to tackle a mini sock. It took me an entire day of trying to find a pattern that I thought I could do and then to knit it up. There were lots of them out there, but some had a type of heel I didn't know how to do--wrap and turn. I watched quite a few Youtube videos on how to do those kind of heels, but had all kinds of trouble trying to do them on a little sock with so few stitches. I'd start another pattern, and run into problems with double pointed needles, which I hadn't worked with. I bet I started at least five times and ended up ripping it out five times. You almost need DPN's to do tiny little things like this, unless you use another method called "Magic Loop."

I didn't have the right needles to do the Magic Loop, so I kept telling myself, "Jeannie, these are just sticks and string, you can do this!" I ended up starting the mini sock with two circulars using some leftover Red Heart and Sole sock yarn, then switched over to double points, managed to get them under control, figured out how to pick up the heel stitches and finally turned out a little bitty three inch sock!

And here I am, a total of three little socks later...more ornaments for a mini Christmas tree! I'm gonna decorate a little tabletop Christmas tree at the little craft show and tell at the rally this coming week. I think it will look great! Might even make a few more mini knitted ornaments of another kind for the tree....Actually, I crocheted a little mini taco with catnip in it! I sewed a little pouch to put inside the taco, as I thought just putting some catnip straight into the taco, then sewing it shut might invite a little debris disaster if a cat played with it. The catnip might come out through the little crochet holes. I tested the kitty taco toy on a friend, Jan White. She didn't care for it much, lol. Neither did Mister, her cat. We think the catnip was too encased in fabric to get the aroma out to her cat. Phooey! Back to the drawing board or might just forget that one! It's kinda cute, though!

Wait, there's more! Crocheted a camera lens sock---not too happy with the type of yarn I used, even though the pattern recommended worsted...sometimes I get a yarn, think I know what I want to use it for, then when I work with it, or make it into something, it just doesn't quite turn out the way I hoped! It's a sturdy cover, and will do the job, but I wish it was a cooler color of yarn!

Time to go...craft show and sale is tomorrow afternoon...we'll see what might be a seller--dishcloths, knitted eggs, mini sweaters, mini socks, fabric jump drive holders, and a variety of knitted keychain holders and mini bags for storing things.....

Something New and Different!

This week I found some really cute patterns for little mini sweaters and socks for Christmas ornaments. The challenge is actually being able to follow the pattern! I've got the sweaters down, and have made three already. They are really fun to do! The socks, now that's another story! I have made two grownup pairs of sox, and to make teeny tiny little ones involves quite a bit of "fussing" with double pointed needles and new methods of making a little sock that I'm not familiar with, so the sox are going to have to wait till next week. Back to the sweaters for now.....

The first two are made from worsted weight...

Here's a little sweater I embellished with a snowflake of my own design..I think it would look cute with some "bling"...like little rhinestones at the tip of each snowflake branch?

And here's my favorite so far, made from leftover sock yarn....

I'm going to make little tiny wire coat hangers to hang this on a little tree in our RV if they don't sell at the craft show and tell......still debating on whether to do a little beaded design of some sort on each sweater to add a little "sparkle" to it, since they are ornaments. The jury is still out on this one...any votes one way or another?