Toe Tapping Tilly

another embroidery pattern from weewonderfuls.

new hat

I finished up my first hat last night. I found a pattern for an easy hat here and then adjusted it for my yarn. I used Red Heart Soft Yarn from Joanns and cast on 104 stitches on size 6 16" circular needles. From there I followed the pattern until the end. I ran into a few problems at the end when I realized how useful double pointed needles would have been. The ends of my adjustable circular needles just weren't cutting it, but I made it work and was able to finish the hat without

having to purchase a new tool.

I wanted Shinji to model the hat for me, but he was clearly not a fan!

Don't worry...he forgave me two minutes later after I gave him a nice head scratch and belly rub!

Finn's Friend

Here's another stitchette for my collection. I've got five more to go and then I can get started on the patchwork quilt. My mom and I have a date on Thursday to check out the quilt shop by her house, so hopefully I can get some new fabric to use on the quilt then!

first big snow

Other than shoveling our driveway and sidewalks, we enjoyed our first big winter storm inside today. Catching up on some Battlestar Galactica episodes (Jon is very proud of getting me hooked on a sci fi show), making Thai Chicken Pizza, knitting and embroidering. A wonderfully lazy Sunday!

our wood pile for next summer's bonfires

ornaments!

One of my new favorite Christmas traditions is participating in the Holiday Ornament Swap hosted by cake+pie and freshly{blended}. Last year I made little felt button tree ornaments and this year I just finished up these patchwork star ornaments. I really enjoy receiving little packages filled with new handmade ornaments for our tree throughout the month of December.

I first saw the concept for these patchwork stars in the holiday issue of Marie Claire Idées online and spent an evening driving around town trying to find a copy at the bookstore so that I could copy the pattern. When the new issue didn't show up, I had to lean back on my trusty geometry skills and figure out some angles. (did you know that they now make flexible protractors? I have broken many a plastic protractor in my day).

I picked a few red and green fabrics from my stash, cut the pieces into diamonds and did a couple trial runs to work out the kinks in the design. The stars were finished up on Sunday night and photographed and mailed yesterday afternoon. I received my first ornament from the swap yesterday and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the ornaments soon.

Handel's Messiah

Jon and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon concert at Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit this afternoon. Our friend, Jodi, bravely joined the chorus this fall (yes, she would be the one who refuses to hum in front of her classical guitar teacher) and made her concert debut last night and this afternoon.

The church was stunning and hearing the verses come to life through the singers and instrumentalists was an amazing way to hear the Christmas story come to life. Jon and I both agree that we felt chills and heavy waves of emotion throughout the piece.

My favorite part is definitely the chorus: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9 : 6)" Oh, to be able to play the trumpet for this chorus! I'm still bumming that the flute was not invented in time for Handel to include it in his score. I would have loved the chance to play in the accompaniment!

And, how can you not go through a Christmas season without hearing the Hallelujah chorus at least once?

Thanks, Jodi, for letting us share in this special day with you!

no more granny squares

I have finally finished this never-ending granny square afghan! I'm so glad to be able to cross another project off my to-do list. Plus, I've been wanting to make an afghan like this for at least 8 years and have had just about everyone under the sun try to teach me basic square construction, so it feels great to have a finished project that can actually be used!

I had originally intended to make this 8 blocks by 10 blocks, but after lining the blocks up side by side I realized that I'd need to make some extra blocks to increase it to 9 x 12. Well, after starting the additional blocks, I ran out of yarn and was only able to finish an additional 18, so the final size is 9 blocks by 11 blocks (52 in x 64 in). The sizing is a little wonky because my gauge change about halfway through the project. Actually, I had to re-crochet the outer round of about 20 squares because they were way too big in comparison with the other squares. This helped to make the square sizes more uniform but contributed to the crookedness of the whole project In Jon's words: Aren't afghans supposed to be crooked? Thanks, Jon!

This is my first and probably only crochet project for quite a while. I've found crochet to one of the only craft projects that really agitates my left wrist, and I had to limit my time on this due to pain, so I'm not sure I'll be able to do another large scale project any time soon. Because of this, I ended up sewing the squares together instead of using the single crochet method. I'm happy with how the afghan came together and the sewing was much easier on my wrists!

I used Vanna's choic acrylic yarn on this. Unfortunately, about halfway through the project I discovered my preference to merino wool, so at times it was just a bear to work with. On the whole, it's a great acrylic yarn, though and was great to work with...very soft, not too much splitting and no knots within the ball of yarn. I used about 19 balls of yarn (170 yards each). 2 each of the 6 colors included and 7 of the main color, so the project cost about $50 total. A great price considering how long this project helped to occupy me.

Our little kitties have taken a liking to this afghan, so they've been kneading away at it and in turn pulling out all of my sewn in ends. Oh, well! I guess they get to enjoy it too.

Now it's back to the regularly scheduled knitting and stitchette-making!