Rustic Tree Ornaments

We live on a lovely little cul-de-sac with six neighbors, and every year at Christmas we exchange small gifts. This year we are gifting pint jars of locally produced jam, but I wanted a little something extra to tie onto the jars, and this pattern for Rustic Tree Ornaments by Regina P Designs was the perfect finishing touch.

Each tree requires only a small amount of yarn, and I can complete the crochet portion of the work in a mere 20 minutes or so, making it possible to whip up several of these in a single evening.

Each one also uses a small amount of 24-gauge floral wire and about 7 or 8 beads.

I'm using 10mm beads made of olive wood harvested in the holy land to add a layer of deeper meaning to the ornaments. I found the beads on Amazon. The "certificate of authenticity" was included with the beads. I scanned that into a digital file and then printed it onto Avery stickers that are 2 inches by 3 inches, so I could add the stickers to the reverse side of the gift tags (which are printed on Avery business cards).

Country Cottage Mini Stockings

I needed a gift-card holder for Chip and Renee's Christmas present, and this cute mini stocking is just right for that. The Country Cottage Mini Stocking pattern by The Turtle Trunk is free on their blog. After doing its duty to deliver the gift card to Chip and Renee, the stocking can become an ornament on their Christmas tree for many years to come.

The stocking works up fast and uses just a tiny amount of yarn. You can make these in all sorts of color combinations. They are addicting!

Because these are so fast and easy to make, I decided to go ahead and make one for each of my grandnieces and grandnephews to use as Christmas money-holders. I've been having fun making lots of the little mini stockings as well as a bunch of Rustic Tree Ornaments by Regina P Designs to tie onto the gifts we're giving to our neighbors. And I even made a couple of machine-knitted mini wreath ornaments by following this tutorial by Yay for Yarn on YouTube. (My wreaths are 40 rows.)

For a fun and personalized finishing touch, I got some silvertone alphabet beads and added a name to each ornament.

 

Circle Hot Pad pattern - totally giftable

I consider myself a tight crocheter, but I did have to go down two hook sizes to match the designer's gauge on this Circle Hot Pad by Esther Thompson. As she said, gauge isn't very important for this potholder/trivet, but you do want to have a nice firm fabric to protect surfaces or your hands from the heat. This was very quick to make and is so cute and totally giftable. The Hobby Lobby Crafter's Secret Cotton in the Desert Gold colorway looks modern and chic. There is a free version of this pattern on the designer's website.

I added a hanging loop by chaining 10 at the end of the last round, slip stitching the chain to the trivet next to where I started chaining, then turning and working 20 SC's back over the chain. A 1-inch wooden or metal ring sewn to the trivet would also look nice as a hanging loop. 

There was also just enough of the main color (Desert Gold) left to make a coordinating 4-inch-diameter coaster in 6 rounds. I made it double-layered like the trivet, but for the coaster I slip stitched it together with the ivory yarn for a bit of contrast on the colorful side. 

The multicolored balls of this Crafter's Secret cotton are 57 grams, whereas the solid color balls are 71 grams. So, using the solid color as the contrast color for this project, you have enough of the solid color to make two trivets (if you don't use any to make a coaster, the way I did).

I gifted the colorful trivet set to my niece Renee, and I made another set to give to my sister Juanita in the Hobby Lobby Crafter's Secret Cotton in the more neutral-looking colorway called The City.

Orbit the Magical, Mystical Dragon CAL free pattern

I haven't attempted much amigurumi, but when I saw the free crochet-a-long for Orbit the Dragon  that started in June, I knew I had to try to make him.

I had to do some sleuthing to figure out the color name of the variegated yarn I’m using for the main body of my dragon because the skein was gifted to me without a label on it. I figured it was probably something by Red Heart, so I clicked around on the Red Heart site until I found a match. This one works well as the main body color for this pattern because the color changes are very short - about every 2 inches - which contributes to the mystical body “scales” appearance.

I kept up with the CAL until the end when it was time to assemble the pieces. That was the part that scared me so I procrastinated doing the assembly for months. But I wanted to give Orbit to my daughter for Christmas, so when Dec. 20th rolled around I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. Aughhh! But I took my time and followed the instructions carefully and Orbit turned out just as cute as expected. Yay!

Week 1:

Week 2: 

Week 3:

Starting assembly:

Orbit assembled!

Color breakdown:

Head, body, nostrils: Red Heart in Monet Print
Eyes: Red Heart in Soft White and Black
Cheeks: Red Heart With Love in Bubble Gum
Horns: Red Heart in Soft White and Monet Print
Belly: Red Heart in Perfect Pink
Fins: Red Heart in Honeydew
Paws: Red Heart in Perfect Pik
Legs: Red Heart in Monet Print
Tail: Red Heart in Monet Print
Ears: Red Heart in Monet

Dragonscale Hat and Cowl

I have made this hat before (Lotus Hat), way back when I was brand new to knitting. I loved this pattern because it was super easy to work and a great introduction to following charts that produced an impressive finished product with gorgeous texture.

Last year when my daughter LadyU visited her dad over Christmas in snow country, she discovered that she could really use something like a balaclava to cover her head and face while out walking the dog. Pressed for time, I quickly crocheted up a Warm Winter Ski Mask and mailed it to her. That was good enough to tide her through that visit.

After she returned home, LadyU said she wanted something similar in design to the balaclava but perhaps a bit nicer looking, something along the line of the Valanar Cowl and Hat -- a set with a hat and snug-fitting cowl that can be pulled up over the hat to provide coverage similar to a balaclava.

Well, it took me some time to get back around to making her a set like that, but I finally did it using the Lotus Hat pattern. (My version doesn't provide as much chest protection as the Valanar Cowl, but I figured she could wear another scarf if she needed more coverage there.)

I made the hat following the main pattern instructions (4 mm needles with a CO of 96 stitches), repeating the lace chart three times before working the decrease chart.

I wanted the cowl to be a looser gauge and be about 12 inches long but still have about the same diameter as the hat, so for it I used the 5 mm needles with a CO of 84. (The lovely crosshatch lace will work over any multiple of 12.) I repeated the lace chart eight times, with about 1 inch of 1X1 ribbing (six rows) at each end.

New knitted socks pattern

My friend Ruthie shared this funny meme, saying that I should get the pattern and post it so we can all make these for xmas presents! 😂

I told Ruthie that these look pretty complicated, and I don't know if I'll be able to manage making them! 😃

Jessica's hat

Sarah's new daughter, Jessica, said her three favorite colors are green, blue and black. So I crocheted her an earflap hat using those colors, based on Britta Graham's Bumpy Earflap pattern.

Caleb's hats

For Caleb, I crocheted a Denver Broncos hat, based on Britta Graham's Easy Peasy Earflap pattern, and a Cookie Monster hat, based on Britta's Bumpy Earflap pattern. The eyeballs on Cookie Monster are based on the Froggy Hat pattern at Coats & Clark.

Hats for Xmas

Using Britta Graham's Easy Peasy Earflap Hat pattern, I crocheted matching hats for Charlotte Rose, Wendy and Jill in winter white/pink stripes; for Daniel in Superman colors; and for Breanna in Oregon State University colors.

Here's Daniel's hat finished with a Superman logo patch.

Little gifts

Jill got crocheted arm warmers and a little matching hat for her Barbie doll for Christmas. Here is a rather overexposed photo of the items before we sent them to Jill.

I made these by creating rectangles in rows of basic single crochet, with the ribbing designed to run lengthwise down Jill's arms. Once the rectangles were wide enough to wrap around her arms, I brought the long edges together and seamed them, leaving small openings for her thumbs a couple of inches from the hand end of each. Then I finished them by adding some pink pony beads for pizzazz.