A belated Valentine's present for my man...

Hubby's second pair of warm winter socks are done! The Rowan Magpie is thick and cozy, just right for the socks that hubby likes to wear around the house. Hubby washes all his socks in the machine(!) and the previous pair of Magpie socks I made him felted up ever so slightly, making them even thicker and warmer. The slight felting also strengthened the heel, making those the socks that lasted the longest. Here's hoping that these turn out to be as snuggly and as sturdy as the last pair!

Wee one has me watching a lot of Dora the Explorer these days. So when I finished hubby's winter socks last night (the first pair of socks I've knit in over a year), I was overcome with the desire to sing "lo hicimos! we did it!"

Hubby slipped them on for the photo and then, like when you've just bought a new pair of shoes, asked if he could just keep them on. Guess he likes 'em! And since he was so appreciative, not to mention patient in waiting for new socks, I immediately cast on for another pair for him.

no time to wind hanks - I've got socks to make!

More on these next week...

Progress on hubby's socks is embarrassingly slow (although, compared to last year's record of sock knitting, this much progress is literally an infinitesimal improvement!). Instead of knitting, I've been indulging in a little light reading, a little lazy websurfing, and a little extra sleep.

One and a quarter is also, not entirely coincidentally, the approximate temperature outside. Isn't that the reason why I started knitting these socks in the first place?! Once I started though, the cold left me wanting only to cuddle up under blankets or keep the warm computer on my lap. Luckily - har, har - this mean cold spell is supposed to last well into next week, so there should still be plenty of time for hubby to enjoy his warm socks in the cold nights to come.

I will make socks this year.

I didn't knit any socks last year! Not even a pair of worsted weight socks for hubby, who loves to wear thick socks in the house in the winter. I'm ashamed to say that all of his handmade socks have had holes in the heels for a year and I still haven't picked up the needles to knit him a few new pairs. Until last night. My new knit year's resolution was to make him some socks (and possibly bribe him into helping me get the sockapalooza database back in shape so we can finally get sockapalooza 5 up and running). A week into the new year and it's time to get going on that resolution!

The yarn is Yarn for Sox, a good sturdy wool/nylon blend. It's a bit scratchy, but hubby likes to wear his winter socks over thinner ones, so it's all about the warmth. I've made socks for hubby with this yarn before and he's liked them, so I picked this and another color up at a Wild & Wooly sale a couple of years ago when I spotted it. Pretty much all of hubby's socks are 3x1 rib - I can't even imagine making another pattern on his socks! - so all I needed was Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns for the numbers and I was off. The yarn knits up fast on US8's!

Here's to resolutions! Here's to socks! Here's to hubbys!

...let me present to you: twelve days worth of crafty christmas gifts all rolled into one... my new serger!

I set aside a couple of hours last night to figure out how to thread the thing and sew, er, serge a seam or two. I'd once watched a serger how-to video that made the whole threading thing seem shockingly complicated, but I had this lovely, delightful little machine threaded for the first time in mere minutes. And the test seam was like buttah!

And sooo fast. I'll be sewing up those dresses and tops for wee one in no time now. Wheeeeeee.....

The house hat is done! Soon it'll be on it's way to my contest winner. And I say, a year that starts with a house hat cannot fail to be a good year!

PS - The 12 days of Christmas go until the 6th, but this crafter was only making 6 gifts of Christmas this year and the last one hasn't even been started yet! So we may have to end this season's version of the song like this... For the fifth gift of Christmas, my crafter made for me: oooonnnnne hoooouuuuuse haaaaaat, a swingset tunic, three placemats, foods that you love, and a frame and a pair of booties!

This is the one I'm most proud of. A sweet little top (from Oliver & S's Swingset Tunic pattern) for Shannon's baby girl.

main fabric is "heat wave" from Marcus Brothers fabrics

This is an awesome pattern. Seriously, I can't imagine being disappointed by anything made from one of these Oliver & S patterns. I'm still pretty much of a novice garment sewer, so this one took some serious time for me, but even when I couldn't quite get my head around how something was supposed to work (like the lining and placket in this top, which are very cleverly constructed), I just followed the instructions and it came out looking perfect.

back button placket

I can't wait to make wee one some of these for the summer. And I can't wait to see it on baby Annabelle!

And since it is new year's eve, it seems fitting to reflect back on the crafting year just coming to an end. I began this year's craftiness with a baby hat for a wee cousin and am ending it with this precious baby dress. It was a year that included less sweater knitting, lots of hat knitting, more quilting classes and projects begun, and a surprising new passion, inspired by my girly girl, for sewing ruffly little girl clothes.

Here's to another year of making what you love and loving to make. Happy new year to you all!

Continuing my Twelve Gifts of Christmas theme, I present the third handmade gift of Christmas - placemats for best buddy, Shannon.

This Alexander Henry fabric reminded me of Shannon, who loves brown and has lots of lovely, lovely brown linens in her house. I only see Shannon in pictures these days since she moved away from Boston, and most of the pictures are of her darling girl on her brown and blue patterned playmat. This fabric looked like it would be right at home there near that playmat, and a little homemade something from me is as close as I can get to being there myself.

This fabric has a wonderful graphic pattern of squares, which I quilted over. Then I added the binding using the same chocolate brown fabric that's on the back. I opted for machine-applied binding (as described in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) because they're not really heirloom quilts (heck, they're for eating off of!) and I wanted to finish them this year (I'm still pretty slow with the hand-sewn binding). I made two regular sized placemats and one small one for her little girl. Awwww.

Sing it with me... the third gift of Christmas my crafter gave to me: three patterned placemats, two (well, four) foodie placemats, and a picture frame and a pair of booties!

Wee one's Tilli Tomas Flurries hat has become a crown. After knitting up a little swatch, I thought the yarn was so special that the hat had to be something special as well. With all the sparkly beads in the yarn, I decided it would make a delightful princess crown. I found a free crown hat pattern through Ravelry that I loved the look of. The crown points are easily constructed and the join between the crown brim and the hat body is nice and smooth. I'll be leaving out all the textured stitchwork on the main part of the hat since my yarn has plenty going on already with the beads.

I tried the brim on wee one this morning and she gave me a pretty little smile when I slipped it on her head. She likes the sparkles.

Like the ones in her new sparkly slippers from Johanna!

Eileen's Gryffindor house hat (from my Nikolaus giveaway) is almost done! It's been just like old times, knitting with those oh so familiar maroon and gold yarns again, following the very first pattern I wrote for the book. It's a shame that the sixth movie is coming out in the summer - no hats, no sweaters, no scarves. I'll have to come up with something new....

I totally forgot to photograph! Luckily the recipient, my mom, was kind enough to send some snapshots of my holiday handiwork.

Yummy placemats! These Farmer's Market fabrics were too delicious to pass up in the store. My mom loves good food, so I thought delectable placemats would make a great gift for her.

To make them, I layered the six fat quarters I'd bought on top of each other, placed a placemat of ours on top and cut out the overall placemat shape through all the fabrics. I wanted to mix and match the foods on each placemat, so I drew up a simple patchwork design and, keeping all the fabrics layered on top of one another, cut the large rectangle into smaller rectangles and squares according to my design. Then I shuffled up the layers, so that no fabric appeared twice on any one placemat. I pieced the individual parts together, sandwiched (hah, another food word!) the tops with batting and a neutral foodie backing and sewed them up pillowcase-style. Once I had them turned right-side out again, I quilted in the ditch of the pieced fronts and top-stitched around the edges.

They're bright, bold, and were lots of fun to make. Now mom can have fresh fruits and veggies all year round!

When B opened the big lego set from his wish list, he exclaimed, "yeah, baby! grandma, you got me the present I wanted! this is an awesome present!" And it only took one present for wee one to figure out this whole Christmas gift thing. After opening her first gift, she ran back to the tree saying, "mooooore."

Wishing you all a happy holiday filled with all the awesome gifts on your wish list and moooooore.

I'm not making that many holiday gifts this year and still I'm waaaay behind! This is the first handmade giftie - and it was only partially made by me. It's for a friend of the family, who became a first-time grandparent this year. (I made the itty bitty football hat for the grandbaby when he was born.) For Christmas, I'm sending the grandpa a pair of Kaya's Kloset booties to give to the baby (look, there's no way I could make those things as well as Johanna does, so I didn't even try!) and a store-bought picture frame (wait for it, I did do some crafting here...) with the inside mat covered in the same cute baby boy fabric as the shoes. Matching baby booties and grandpa brag photo frame - what could be merrier?

Instead of making gifts, I spent way too much time this weekend making Elf Yourself videos of the kids.

Too funny!

After finishing glove number one in a day, I've slowed down the pace a bit. Glove number two (now being knit directly from the unfinished clapotis!) only needs three more fingers. I don't think I could have made it through ten fingers at a "real" glove gauge, but with this worsted weight yarn, it's been just fine. I'm surprised to find how much I'm enjoying it. And I'm definitely looking forward to wearing new gloves this weekend.

While I was making hands, I got the boys to use their hands to make Christmas cards. (It's pretty late for Christmas cards, but we haven't managed to get ANY cards out for years, so I'm counting this as a huge success!)

I found a fun make-your-own-cards kit from made by hands, complete with blank cards, hundreds of punch out shapes and glue stick. The boys had a blast! They were very creative, making all sorts of snow scenes and Christmas trees. I made the little footprints card for wee one, since pop-outs and glue are a little too difficult for her. But she won't be left out of the fun - she and I will be making a few more cards with a sticker card kit from mudpuppy.com later today.

After making wee one's fun turtle top in the fall, I had enough of the aweseome Alexander Henry turtle fabric left over to make another. Wee one and I decided that a turtle top would be a great gift for her best buddy, Kaya's second birthday.

Wee one's version was all bright and ruffly, but Kaya's tastes are a little more muted and little less girly, so I did the sleeves in green and put elastic in at the neck and wrists instead of shirring them. It's still got a lot of the fullness and style of wee one's shirt, but it has a very different look overall. That Pink Fig Olivia Top is pretty darn versatile! I can't wait to try a version with shirring at the bottom.

The winner of a copy of my book and a hand knitted House Hat (from my Nikolaus giveaway this weekend) is.... Eileen! Eileen, send me an email (my email address is in the sidebar on the left) and let me know what style hat you'd like, what size, and what House colors you'd prefer. Also let me know if there are any allergy concerns or fiber preferences. Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone else for participating and sharing your holiday traditions in the comments! The boys shared their Nikolaus tradition by bringing in goodie bags to all their classmates today. We had so much fun packing them up this weekend with oranges, sweet treats and holiday pencils.

Today is Nikolaus in Germany, when German kids wake up to find treats and little gifts in the boots they left out overnight. It's such a nice little pre-Christmas celebration. Along with the advent calendar goodies, the boys have quite a pile of tiny gifties already! I have had so much fun selecting things for the advent calendar so far (I've been tweeting all the advent calendar goodies!). I even had fun jumping in as an emergency Nikolaus, since the package my mother-in-law sends every year, full of German treats, didn't arrive in time. So, inspired by all this fun gift-giving (and also by last week's giant blog Giveaway Day organized by Sew Mama Sew, with over 100 blogs giving away handmade items), I decided to have a little giveaway of my own.

Nikolaus would love to give you a copy of my book, Charmed Knits!

AND he'll also throw in a House Hat hand knitted by me. You choose the House, the style (beret or beanie), and the size, I'll knit it up and Nikolaus will take care of the delivery.

To enter, just leave a comment to this post (try to leave just one comment please - my comment function runs crazy slow, so give it a minute - no exaggeration - to let your comment load). Comment by the end of Sunday and I'll draw a name on Monday! Readers from outside the US are welcome to participate as well (if Nikolaus can get over to America to bring gifties to my German kiddos, he can send a book and hat to wherever you are!).

Good luck and happy Nikolaustag!

UPDATE: I've already selected a winner. You're still welcome to comment, but the giveaway has ended. Thanks for playing along and sharing all your traditions. :)

Wee one is also ready for the season with her new Santa hat! I picked up the pattern and the yarn at Morehouse Merino when I was at Rhinebeck last year. (So sad that they closed their "Sheep's Clothing" store there - definitely a factor in my last-minute decision not to go this year.) I spotted the kit in my stash a couple of weeks ago and promised myself I would get it done by December 1st, so wee one could have a whole month to wear it. Like all the Morehouse patterns, the hat was very simple to knit and yet totally adorable. The yarn is deliciously soft and snuggly too.

Now I've just got to work on getting her to say "ho, ho, ho!"

The advent calendar that I sewed up a couple of weeks ago is up and ready to go! The boys have divided up the days (B gets to pull out presents on the odd-numbered days, S gets the evens) and they can't wait to get their first little giftie in the morning. They could barely get to sleep!

Oh yes, the holiday music has arrived already. And we heard plenty of it this weekend.

The highlight of our trip to NYC was to see the big holiday show at Radio City Music Hall. The first weekend in November does seem a little early to start getting into the holiday spirit, but prices go up after next weekend, so Christmas just had to come early this year. The boys loved it!

They loved the 3-D sleigh ride and the wooden soldier Rockettes falling down in line, the snow falling in the theater and when confetti was shot out into the crowd from a toy canon. Wee one spent the show getting to know the ushers and sellers in the lobby with the other tots scared by the loud music. She enjoyed her official Radio City popcorn very much though!

Despite the fact that the holiday season seemed to start the day after Halloween this year, I haven't made any plans yet for holiday gifts. But I did make this advent calendar in a recent quilt class:

click the pic for the big version and click here to see the backing

Now I've got to figure out what to put in it! Hmmm... something else to add to my list.

So how far behind are you already?