Holiday Madness

The Christmas crafting got away from me. Again. As it always does. I don't learn (well, I sort of do - I started knitting in July this year) I've got the knitting almost done, but the sewing, oh the sewing. I'm so busy with gift crafting, real life obligations, and holiday fun that I'm probably going to be away from the blog until after Christmas. In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the festive photos I've taken this month! If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen most of them already. You should follow me on Instagram by the way, it's my fave social network.

I put up absurd amounts of lights

The tree looks fab, even if it doesn't stand completely straight

Christmas knitting yarn! All fingering and lace weight, of course. I need to get with the bulky yarns next year

It snowed! All of a centimetre, but still.

Snow necessitates hot chocolate

 

Halloween Sewing: Pete the Cat Costume

I know Halloween is long over, but I had to share Rei's costume. I whipped it up from some polar fleece, with appliquéd felt accents and a bit of fabric paint. My rule for toddler costumes is that any store bought elements need to either come from her regular wardrobe, or be added to it after the event. The rest becomes year-round dress-up!

Rei wanted to be her favourite picture book character, Pete the Cat. Using her stuffed Pete toy as a model I made her a hoodie based on a shirt that fits, and painted up a pair of old shoes. A pair of blue leggings from Target and a handmade tail (stuffed with Rambouillet fleece because I'm fancy like that and also I ran out of polyfill) completed the outfit. Cute!

The best part is she can totally wear the hoodie as a regular sweater!

 

Witchy Socks

I'm not really a Halloween person. I mean, I like it - I like costumes and I put way too much love into my pumpkin carving, but some people just go nuts for Halloween. I don't decorate, I really don't care for most candies (if anyone steals my mini Coffee Crisps though, I'll cut a bitch - that is my seasonal gluttony-fest). That said, I'm sure as shooting going to be wearing stripy Halloween socks this year!

I won a gorgeous skein of Vesper in Witchy Woman in the spring, knit it up over the summer, and these have been my go-to socks as the weather has attempted to cool. I improvised a slipped stitch pinstripe pattern, which was fun to knit, but honestly didn't improve the look of the socks. Next time I do stripeys they'll be plain vanilla. Aren't they cute though! They match!

To be completely honest, I'm not terribly happy with the yarn. Vesper is so popular, but it's really not great for socks. It's a lighter fingering weight 100% merino, and my socks are already looking pretty fuzzy and sad. There are amazing dyers of striping yarns out there that work with brawnier yarn bases, so I'll likely be going to them for my next fancy stripy skein. Still, I love the way these look and I'll wear them til they're ragged!

Post Halloween Sale and Pumpkin Sharing!

First - use the code SUGARCRASH to save 20% in the shop today!

But also - my pumpkin! I carved a Batman pumpkin for Rei this year, because she dressed as the most adorable Batman ever and needed a matching gourd (obviously...)

One side:

The other side (not my best work, but whatevs):

The best part? It's hard to photograph, but you can see it a bit here: the pumpkin casts a batsignal on the wall behind it!!

The Best of Christmas Knitting: 2011

I've been meaning to show you guys these since like 8:45 pm on Boxing Day (when they were given to their very sweet owner, my sister in law). They are, at this point, my proudest achievement in knitting.

The photos are a bit sub-par (I didn't get a chance to take pictures until we were visiting family; I forgot my real camera at home and had to use my phone) but I think you can get the gist. The reason they are such a source of pride is in the yarn - I dyed the fibre, then spun it exactly to the grist I needed (this is a big deal for me) in multiple skeins of equal length. It knit up perfectly.

The pattern is "La Joie du Printemps" by Heather Desserud and it was worth every cent of the $5 I paid for it. I am in love with these mittens. I can't wait to make a pair for myself. They are soft, cozy, well sized, and insanely warm.

My only regret is not doing the thumbs at the point in the gradient where they join the hand. Well, that and running out of the cream with about 10 yards still needed and having to spin more. However, I'm exceedingly proud that I got all the yardage I needed, both of the main colour and the contrast colour, using less than 4 ounces of wool. I'm really getting better at spinning less densely.

Want to see the yarn? Of course you do.

All ready to begin knitting in cute little sushi balls

Half the spinning complete

I took the mitten photos in the elementary school library where my sister-in-law works, and this pic makes me happy:

So what are your proudest knitterly achievements? How about crochet? Spinning? Weaving? I'd love to hear about them!

I'm BACK!

Hi everyone, it's nice to see you! Happy new year, happy holidays, and all that good stuff.

Greetings from Rei, the sugar-fueled Christmas Fairy

...and festive Darth Vader, courtesy of my sister and brother in law

I've taken a bit of an absence from the internet lately, and I've missed it. The holidays are always stressful for crafters, and I tend to really go overboard. I knitted 8 presents this year, sewed 3 (plus and advent calendar and tree skirt), and baked and spun 2 more. I only had one breakdown late in the game, which is an improvement! I aim for none next year (maybe not leaving all my Christmas baking to 2pm on Christmas eve again would be a good idea? Yeah... I tripped at the finish line there). I had to cut back on time somewhere, and unfortunately my shop and blog took the biggest hits. But now, I'm BACK!

I've decided 2012 is going to be an awesome year. I'm going to change a few things in the shop to streamline things with my other lives and improve the store.

• Updates are now going to be on Fridays - generally in the mid-morning. 
• I'll still be keeping the shipping days flexible, so your purchases always go out within 2 business days, but generally less. 
• I'm going to be dyeing with some new colours and fibres - maybe even a new yarn base if I feel like there's a demand. 
• I'm also going to be focusing a bit more on pattern design - look for a free pattern by the end of the month! 
• I plan on keeping the blog updated more regularly, which will be fun - I feel like a jerk when I'm only posting my shop updates!
• I'm going to be selling my yarns, fibres, and accessories at as many festivals as I can manage this year - Fibres West is the first one I have planned, and Fibrations here in Victoria, of course! Come see me in person OK?
• I am now accepting wholesale customers! If you are a buyer for an online or brick-and-mortar (or cement and steel, or log cabin, I don't care) yarn store, please contact me for my list of wholesale policies and prices!

January is one of my favourite months - not least because it's my birthday month! Expect a sale and giveaway as we get closer to the 29th... Yay!

On New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year. Resolution time. I hate New Years Resolutions and, as a rule, don't make them. I feel like all it amounts to is hopping on a big sad bandwagon of broken promises. We say we'll do something, we persist in whatever good habit until about January 22nd, and then we forget. Every time we think about it we feel guilty. To make matters worse, according to the flyers that come stuffed in my biweekly free newspaper, we, the little people with the high hopes for self improvement, are being taken advantage of. Ever resolved to lose weight or get organized? Ever noticed which two categories of crap-we-don't-need go on sale during the first two weeks of January?

So, in that cheerful, hopeful, positive spirit, I decided to make a few goals for the year. Not resolutions, because those never work out, and I'd be breaking my own rules. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. I'm not a huge hypocrite. I'm not.

• Double our savings. This is not an unrealistic goal, as we had none at the beginning of last year. I handle the finances in our home, and I have squirrelled away a modest but impressive sum. It's our future house down payment money. Theoretically.
• Write something that isn't a blog post or status update.
• Set a list of craft goals (soon to be appearing in the sidebar of the Everything Old blog). Follow it. Knit and sew almost exclusively from my copious stash of supplies - I'll post a picture soon, you'll see why.
• Read. Often. Try for one nonfiction to every three fiction.
  
• Improve my physical, emotional, and mental health. I've started exercising (I'm using Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. With the Kinect, physical activity is only a bit horrific.) and I'm trying to improve the quality and health benefits of my family's food. One thing needs to be said, because I believe it, and I want you to as well; I'm fat, and there isn't a damn thing wrong with that. However, my energy and fitness levels need improvement. I also want to disengage from activities and people that piss me off and cause me mental anguish
• Lay the groundwork for a crafty business of some sort.

 I'll check back in a year and see how I've done. I'm not expecting miracles, but I'm hoping for the best. 

Do you have goals for 2011? Can you believe it's 2011? I'm feeling a weird mix of "We're in the future! Where are all the flying cars?" and "I think I'm finally hitting the point where I should start to wonder if I'm getting old."

Happy new year Internet. May the next twelve months bring you joy.

Star Wreath Tutorial

Do you (or someone you know) get a real Christmas tree each year? Mmmmm that smell...
Do you buy one that is much too tall for your ceiling?
Do you have to cut part of the top off to make it fit, and then manicure what's left of the top so it doesn't end in an unspectacular tree-plateau?

This happens EVERY YEAR at my parents' house. I took the manicure trimmings home to see if they could be put to some use, and I came up with a simple, practically free wreath that I just love. Look at it! Don't you want one?

Isn't it sad that I don't even have an available door to hang this on?

Foolproof Perfect Shortbread Recipe

Shortbread is THE festive treat. It's extremely easy to make and this recipe is tried, tested, much loved, and much requested.

1 cup icing sugar
1 cup cornstarch
1 lb butter (room temperature)
4 cups flour

Cream together sugar, cornstarch and butter.
Add 3 3/4 cups flour and mix well.
Place on floured counter, knead until dough cracks.
Cut it up however you like.
Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake at 325º until cookies begin to turn golden brown.

THAT'S IT!

Drooling yet?

This recipe is perfect - the cookies are delish and the recipe makes about eleventy million (about 50, in layman's terms) of them. It doubles and halves well. My favourite way to decorate them is to dip them in dark chocolate and then sprinkle them with candy cane bits.

Get baking!

Happiness and Cheer

I love the Christmas season - I start looking forward to it around July. That might have something to do with starting my Christmas gift-making in the summer, but all the same, I'm glad December is here. J and I decided we would give ourselves a new fake tree this year (we haven't given each other Christmas gifts since we first met, so it was exciting to do something this year). It's up. It's festive. I love it!

Creeepy

I am immensely pleased with this year's pumpkin carving. J and I agreed - the creepiest video game related thing of all time with the possible exception of Pyramid Head has to be Limbo (on XBox Live Arcade). I mean... good God.

So, of course, It needed to be a pumpkin. What do you think?

As usual, I am immensely pleased with myself.

Foxy Baby

We wanted R to have a nerdy costume for her first Halloween, but I didn't want to spend hours on an outfit for a kid who doesn't even have teeth to chew her trick-or-treating stash. I also wanted a costume warm and simple enough that she could wear it over her clothes in the car seat and stroller this winter. We though and we thought and we thought and we thought and I browsed the interwebs profusely. Nothing. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I looked to the top left corner of my browser window. FIREFOX FTW!

Here she is, my little Firefox (sans fire, of course, because people get all het up about flammable kids' costumes, and I'm no rabble rouser).

I used a New Look baby sleeper pattern, with a hood and tail of my own design. The globe is just appliquéd felt stuffed with polyfil.

Christmas Time is (almost) Here

Do you like to make gifts rather than buy them? I do - not only do I feel I can inject a bit more love and personalization into gifts I make, I also get to justify the expenditures that go into my creative pursuits throughout the year. I really couldn't afford to spend as much time and money as I do on my crafty endeavours if I were to keep all the finished products for myself. I also love forcing myself to learn new skills so I can make gifts that people might actually appreciate. This isn't to say that I think the things I make are universally loved or appreciated, but I hope, at least, that people don't mind them.

Unfortunately, it is already August and I am only just starting this year's gifty goodness. Add several babies due in the fall (who obviously need presents) to the mix, and I think I can fairly accurately sum up my craft schedule for the next few months in two words. I'm Screwed.

Because I need to spend all my free time making presents, I am blogging (wait... what?). My favourite project in last year's Christmas haul went to my brother in law. I think you need to see it.

I hadn't cross stitched in years (not since the saccharine sweet teddy bear and pony motifs of the summer of '91) and I had a blast making this.

The pattern was shared ages ago by The Domestic Scientist. Isn't it the cutest bit of gamer kitsch you've seen in ages? I still can't get over all the adorable-ness of it all.

Happy Yesterday!!

Yesterday was the ever awesome Canada Day. I'm not terribly fond of patriotism, I tend to think people go overboard with it, using it in an us vs. them or even pro-war context (which, frankly, terrifies me). It irritates me that Canadian patriotism tends to manifest itself in bashing the USA, as if we have nothing more to recommend us than our non-American-ness.

Well guess what. Canada is an amazing place to be. Not because it isn't somewhere else, but because of what we, as Canadians, collectively are. I think on the whole we are a good people. We embrace our diversity. We care for each other. We allow people to be who they are. We really are polite. We create inspiring art, awesome music, and mind blowing literature. We do our best to get along. We can read the French side of the cereal box. I think most of us who were born here even recognize how damn lucky we are. Canada feels like home, no matter where you are. Oh, and the Olympic gold medal in hockey thing too...
:D

Around here the way to celebrate Canada Day is to drink a little more Canadian beer than than perhaps is wise, wrap yourself in a flag (and sometimes little else) and head downtown for fireworks, music, and a freaking enormous street party. I didn't think that would be the best course of action, what with the baby and being a grownup and having responsibility and all, so we had a fun day at home, and I made Canadian cupcakes.

Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and raspberries. Yum. And Hurrah for the true north, strong and free.