Christmas Tags

For many Christmases, we have been using hand-made tags on our gifts.  Steve, the boys, and my mom always return their tags to me, and I use them again and again.  Still, I do run out of them eventually, so every few years, I make more.  This year I added 22 more to our tin of tags (the image is missing one)  I'll be happy about it next Christmas.

Foiling on Cards

 

For the past month, I've been using a laminator to do foiling on cards.  For these, I used pieces of acetate printed with toner along with foil.  I like the way they look.

2021 Crafty Goals

Years and years ago - maybe in 2004 - I made a New Year's Resolution to learn how to knit.  I had crocheted since I was in elementary school, learning how to do it in Girl Scouts.  In fifth grade, I asked my teacher to teach me how to knit.  She did - but she really didn't know how to cast on, so that didn't last long.

Anyway, new year's resolution 17 years ago was to learn how to knit.  I started researching on the internet, and I bought a book or two and taught myself.  And I've been knitting ever since. And in some years following, I made new crafting resolutions.

So what about this year?  Here are my crafty goals:

• Plan and begin the Yarn Harlot striping cowl - This is a project from her Patreon page.
• Spend some time playing with card making supplies with no outcome goals.
• Choose a few underused craft supplies for card making and use them
• Make some Christmas cards before the end of the year.
• Attempt to create a watercolor painting for the dining room.

By the way, the image on this page is Bald Head Island Lighthouse from our vacation in 2020.

Watercolor Christmas Cards

At the end of last year, I participated in an Online Card Class called Simply Watercolor Christmas.  It was lead by Kristina Werner, and it was great.  Many of our cards this year were projects I made from this class. Here are five of my favorites.  The pictures aren't great - I took them at night right before we addresses and signed cards to send them out.  Maybe next year, the images will be better!

 

System for sending Birthday and Anniversary cards

So, this is a boring bullet journal spread, but it is the key to how I remember and plan to send out birthday and anniversary cards.  This is my process:

• I have a one-page spread in my journal for each month.  On those spreads, I list each person who has a birthday or anniversary in the month in chronological order.  So, if a person was born on the 10th of January, I list 10-person's name.
• I try to work at least a month ahead (sometimes two).  As I plan the cards I will send, I match cards to each person on the list.
• Working in month blocks, I sign the cards, address the envelope, and seal the card in the envelope.  I add a sticky note to the envelope with the birthdate / anniversary date.
• I then grab the stack of cards for the month and a calendar. I add the "mail date" to each sticky note, estimating how much time it will take for the card to arrive at the recipient. I add the stamp to the card.
• I leave this stack of cards on my desk at work.  I mark in my work planner on each day I need to mail a card.
• As I plan my day, I pull the cards that need mailed.  All I have to do is rip off the sticky note and drop the card in the mail.

All that said, I was late sending out my first card of the year. Oh, well. It works most of the time.

Masks

What have I been up to, craft wise?  Many things, but this is one.  My mom picked up a mask for me at her beauty shop (the beautician's neighber makes them, and she sells them in her shop).  I like then way it was made, and finally bit the bullet, dug out fabric, made a pattern, and started sewing.  I'm not a person who sews, but, apparently, I can make a mask.  Or a dozen.  Here are a few of them.

Camaleon Yarn

My closest local yarn store is this one: Kanahwa City Yarn Company.  Yesterday, I saw a post on their facebook page to this pattern: Hurricane Hat, with a suggested yarn of Malabrigo Worsted yarn.

We went for a hike at Coonskin Park, and, finishing a little earlier than expected, we went to the yarn store, and I bought three skiens of Malabrio Rios yarn in the color Camaleon.

I think it will become a hat and a scarf.  Looking forward to knitting it.

Doggie Birthday Card

The top picture is of a friend's dog.  The second one is my attempt to create a birthday card for said friend, featuring said dog.

Hard to be creative?

Have you noticed that during the pandemic, your normal urge to stretch and test your creativity is gone?  Or at least stunted?

I love to make cards, and yet, it took a month of pandemic to sit down and make a card.  The experience was joyful, and I wanted to make cards (even when I couldn't) but I didn't until that day.  Now, I'm making them, but not as often.  I miss it. 

I actually have two blogs, and while this one is lucky to see a post a month, I usually post about four times a week on the other one.  But from the middle of March until now, there is only a single post.

I hope I can settle into a new routine of posting and creating.  I'm working on it.  But if you are experiencing the same thing, I think we can both take comfort in the idea that this is a normal reaction to an abnormal time. 

Forest Green and Navy Tweed Scarf

I finished a scarf tonight.  The truth is, I should have finished it months ago - all that was left was the bind off.  I'm not sure why I didn't do the last row ages ago. but there you go.

Steve and I purchased the yarn at a store called Cast On Yarn Studio in Vermillion, Ohio.  We were taking a quick trip along Lake Erie in Ohio to look at lighthouses.  We turned the corner in Vermillion, and there was the store.  I hadn't even looked for one.

The yarn is from Cestari Sheep and Wool Company in Churchville, Virginia.  It is from their Traditional Collection, 100% Wool, Forest Green and Navy Tweed.  It is a worsted weight wool, but a little thicker than what I usually use as worsted weight.  I bought three skeins - you can read about the stash addition here.  I only used two of them for the scarf.

There is no pattern.  It is a 2x2 rib, 34 stitches wide.  It is over 5 feet long - taller than me, so maybe 5.5 feet?  I used Knitpicks needes, US number 8 - that is larger than usual, because of the thicker wool.
There are errors in the knitting.  I did some of it in movies theaters (back when we weren't avoiding a virus and went to movies.  I didn't always notice the errors and by the time I did, it was too late to fix them.

I'm sure with its squishy ribbing, and thick wool, it will be a very warm scarf next winter, made of my two favorite colors.

Christmas gift spread

This is a spread in my Bullet Journal from 2018 - I did a similar spread this year.  .  It is how I organize gift giving for Christmas. Each box or stocking is dedicated to one person (or a pair of people).  Names are written on the gift tags or on top of the stockings, As gifts are planned or purchased, they are added to that person's gift on the page

I could do exactly the same thing using a list, but I like creating this spread and filling it in.  Plus, I don't really know how many gifts each person will receive when I start, and that would be a drawback to a simple list.

Vermillion yarn

While we were traveling through Ohio, visiting Lake Erie Lighthouses, (see previous post), we walked through the town of Vermillion.  It was lovely - I recommend it.  As we turned the corner, we walked right up to a local yarn store.

It is the Cast On Yarn Studio, and you can read about it at this link.

I looked at lots of yarn there, and bought three skeins of Cestari Yarn.  It is a two-ply worsted weight in blue and green.  Each skein is 170 yards.

Go visit Vermillion.  Buy yarn and ice cream, visit the shore, and see the lighthouse.

Ohio Lighthouses

A  few weeks ago, Steve and I took a trip to Ohoi to look at Lake Erie Lighthouses. It was a great trip - here are the six we visited.  All photos except the first were taken with my Nikon 5100.  The first one is an iPhone 7 photo,

Fairport Harbor Lighthouse

Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse

Lorain Lighthouse

Vermillion Lighthouse

Marblehead Lighthouse

Port Clinton Lighthouse

Seattle Scarf, Finished

This scarf is finished.  I started it on a trip to Alabama in February and I finished it on a trip back from Alabama in July.

Pattern:  Farrow Rib, done in a stripe pattern I designed.  See this post

Yarn: Marvelous Merino by Raven Frog Fibers, made in Sitka Alaska, but purchased in Seattle (So Much Yarn local yarn store).  It was one skein of blue and one of green.  The colors are Seattle Seahawks colors, dyed specifically for the store where I purchased it.'

Needles: Size US 6

Hawaiian Linen Stitch Scarf

I finished this scarf.  That is about all I can tell you about it.  I don't remember the yarn I used - Koigu, maybe? I don't remember the needle size.

As for the pattern, I learned it from the Koigu Linen Stitch scarf from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.

I don't remember much about its knitting, but I know that I like it.  And that I should keep better records.

Edited later:  Today I found a note about this scarf.  The yarn is Socks that Rock, mediumweight (Koigu, indeed, ha).  The color is Oceana, and I used 2 skeins.  I used a size 6 needle.  

I started this scarf when we were in Hawaii.

Stained glass

I love to craft.  One of my joys in this hobby is playing with color.  That may be why these windows appealed to me.  Aren't the colors beautiful?  They are located at Blenko Glass in Milton, WV, on the second floor of the shop.  (taken with iPhone 7)

Seattle Scarf

In April of last year, I bought this yarn in Seattle.  It was a hank of two skeins of Raven Frog yarn from Sitka, Alaska.  It is the colors of the Seattle Seahawks, but I don't care - I love the navy blue and lime green together.

I wanted to figure out a way to combine the two colors, letting each one shine, without using any intarsia or fair isle.  I don't like them.  So I settled on stripes.  You can see the beginnig of that journey in this post.  It took several tries to get the scarf going.

Eventually, I planned the pattern in my bullet journal - another nice use for the journal.

I'm using Farrow rib as the stitch pattern. Cast on stitches in a multiple of 3 + 1.  *Row 1 is Knit 2, Purl 1* Repeat until there is one stitch left in the row. Knit the final stitch.  Row 2 is a Purl 1 *Knit 2, Purl 1* to end of row.

The striping pattern is as follows (Color A is blue, Color B is Lime):

1. Color A - four inches
2. Color B - four rows
3. Color A - four rows
4. Repeat 2 and 3 two more times for three sets of stripes
5. Color B - eight inches
6. Three sets of stripes as above (2-4), reversing colors A and B.
7. Color A - eight inches
8. Three sets of stripes as above (2-4)
9. Repeat 5-8.
10. Repeat 5-6
11. End with 4 inches of Color A.

I'm using a US Size 6 needle, and this is the progress so far.  There will be lots of ends to weave in, although I am carrying the yarn up the side of the piece as I knit the stripes.

Northern Lights Scarf

Back in March of 2018, I posted about a scarf I was knitting.  It had been years in the planning because the two skeins of yarn I bought didn't match - they were the same colorway, but handpainted, and not purchased at the same time.  I couldn't decide how to knit the scarf without giving up the beautiful patterning this yarn does when knit.  I finally decided the scarf would have two fraternal ends, and I started knitting.  Back in March.

It did take a while to finish it - not as long as it has taken to post about it - but a while.

Here it is - the Northern Light Scarf (in one post called Aurora Borealis), finished.  Can you see the two different halves? I don't care. I love the patterning.

Yarn: Mountain Color 4/8s wool in Northern Lights (colorway no longer available) - two skeins

Needles: Size US 7

Pattern: Yarn Harlot One Row Scarf

Other Posts: March 2018 and November 2018

Bullet Journalling pen case for April

My bullet journalling pen bag changes each month - and some of it stays the same.  I keep them in a Delde pen case.  It zips at the top, but when you open it, you can pull the sides down and it becomes  a pencil cup. Great invention.

Items that don't change each month

• Factis BM2 eraser.  Looks like a pencil.  Push the top and eraser pushes out
• Pilot Precise V5 in blue
• Pentel Energel 0.35 in black
• Staedtler fineliners in light gray, gray, and black
• Pencil
• Wescott 6 inch metal ruler
• Dear Lily Designs ruler that counts grid and dots
• Compact scissors
• Faber-Castell Pitt Artists pen, S

Items that are unique for April

• Tombow dual brush markers in 055, 761, 873, 451
• Tombow Twin tone markers - dark bluen and teal (from the rainbow pack

Two birthday cards

The two cards above were made for a friend's birthday.  The top one is all dogs - all from different stamp sets.  She is a volunteers with animals and is an advocate of rescue, so the dogs are all wishing her a happy birthday

The second card is hand-drawn and painted. No stamps. 

Both fun to make.