Snow Day

Christmas card Parade

I’m just stopping by to do a little Christmas card parade before I head off into the chaos that is post Christmas gift exchange at the mall.

With the last batch of Pink Pines

I finally made it through all 37 of the little Christmas quilts in time for the holidays. My cards are not really cards as such, but I use them as cards. I have made them for several years; different sizes, different techniques, and different levels of success and/or misery.

2009, All is calm
2008, Christmas in Gropmarka
2007, One candle
2006, Christmas Peace
2005, Gabriel and his obo (did I say different levels of misery)
2004, The angel choir
2003, Juniper berry bush (from a Norwegian Christmas carol)
Now that I’ve shown you mine, I would like to see yours. If you have made Christmas cards (any kind of Christmas card, not just fabric ones) this year (or any other year for that matter), add your link to Mr Linky so we all can have a look. Have fun.-)

Merry Christmas

As I’m sitting here with my feet up and my living room only lit up by Christmas lights (not that good on the eyes I have to admit) I’m starting to feel the spirit of Christmas creeping up on me. I still have a few decorations to put up as grandson’s decorating interest did not last that long after all and I’d rather spend a few extra hours with him than finish up the decorating yesterday. We won’t have company over before tomorrow so there’s plenty of time. Daughter and grandson will be spending Christmas Day with us and there’s lots of snow so I’m thinking Snow Day. With new hand knitted hats. Yeah! When I grew up we never got to have fun on Christmas Day but fortunately things change, don’t they.
With the first member of our newest generation of (alien) toilet-paper-roll-santas I wish you and your loved ones a merry Christmas. I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a few days so I’ll see you when I’m tired of being peaceful and jolly, which might happen sooner than you’d think.

A Hat a Day Giveaway

You might or not have noticed that I’ve been bit by the knitting bug lately. That metallic rhythm that you have heard in the back of your mind at night has probably been the sound of my needles travelling around the world (travelling sound, not needles). My arms have finally said enough already after finishing all those socks and mittens and no less than 19 hats; yup 19 hats (probably more an obsession than a bug I guess).

The good thing about this gigantic amount of hats and only one non-gigantic head to put them on is that I get to share them with others, including you guys.

These 6 hand knitted hats made from chunky lovely (not machine washable) wool yarn are up for grabs. The style is very similar to the hat from Giveaway Day (you give it a little pat in the back of your neck so it droops a little back there; would that be beanie hat??), and the rib knitting makes them fit an adult or teen.
These colours are pretty accurate: off white, hot pink, warm yellow and off white w/yellow stripe. Now, you get to choose up to 3 hats, one for yourself and two for your friends and family, just tell me which hats you’d want and I’ll see what I can do. I will draw 2 winners on January 7th (when we have all managed to fight our way off the couch and back to our computers).

To enter
1) Leave a comment to this post. Make sure your blogger profile includes your email address or leave one here so I can get hold of you if you are the lucky winner

2) If you are one of my wonderful followers, or become one, leave a comment telling me so and you’ll get another chance in the drawing.

Good luck to you all; I’m off to building my non allergenic spider free Christmas tree for grandson and I to decorate tomorrow morning. No matter if it takes 3 minutes or 2 hours it will be anything but boring...

Pillow talk, Tall Trees

This is where the idea for the Pink Pine Christmas cards was born. I have been playing with different tree shapes, and this is one of my favorites. Super simple trees made from green scraps, variegated thread and a repurposed table cloth in 4 shades of green.
I was planning to make more of them for Christmas presents, but that did not happen. Nope. Maybe I’ll revisit next year, which is a thought I often have but rarely follow up on – too many ideas and not enough time or energy (I cannot really blame it on fabric shortage, can I). I did not get around to making the thrifty pillows from this post or finish Village No 2 either, but as far as I understand, time will still exist on the other side of Christmas Eve and while I’m waiting, I’ll be knitting hats. Probably.

Pillow talk, The Terrible Twos

The second Funky Fowl pillow from this post and third UFO for Finns’s challenge, “Clara & Fredrikke, The Terrible Twos”,
familiar ladies in unfamiliar colour combinations.

Looking at these Funky Fowl pillows, I’m thinking they would have worked well as little quilts too, just adding a binding instead of back side. Hm.

Yesterday was such a peaceful day and I spent it doing not what I was supposed to (like sewing). Instead I did silent things like sorting through parts of yarn stash, organizing my stash of knitting needles, and pairing odd socks. With the sound of no road work outside and white snow covering everything it was just the perfect day pottering about.

Now it’s Monday morning and the road work is back on; I hope they’ll take a break around the holidays…

Sew In #7

I spent most of Friday playing hooky with grandson wrapping up presents (child proof scissors and a loohoot of tape), dropping them off at the post office in the nick of time and shopping for a few more presents. It was very cold and both back doors of my car were frozen. Grandson happily climbed in between the front seats and found my attempts at getting his seat belt on (you know those 5 point ones where everything has to click at the same time or they won’t work) hilarious, squiggling like a worm from laughing while I was wrapped around the passenger seat with both arms and half a leg thinking we had to do it all over again on each stop on our way to the city. Oh yes, that was fun.

Anyway, after dropping him off it was time to spend a relaxing Friday Night Sew In on the couch tying ends, cutting threads and doing a little comfort knitting.

I finished 17 more Christmas cards which leaves only 10 to go
and knitted 2 more hats for my upcoming A Hat A Day Giveaway which leaves only one more hat to knit.

Not bad for the Procrastinator of all holiday procrastinators I’ll say.

Giveaway Day, Winners

Oh my, I had such a hard time choosing the winners of the Happy Holiday House quilt and the knitted hat as there were so many lovely comments that I wished I had at least five of each item to give away (I know, I know, you all feel sorry for me). At one point I almost went to one of those random number generators to do a random drawing, but I did say I would pick the winners and so I did.
The winners are
C+C, the soon to get married couple who won the little house quilt and
Claire, the pinkish hat lover who won the hat.

Congratulations to both of you and to the rest of you thank you for playing along!

I’m still knitting hats by the mile, so do pop by again in a couple of days or so because quite a few of them will want to fulfil their destinies and keep someone’s heads warm during the winter and one of these heads might as well be yours. Giveaways are so much fun!

Pillow talk, Darling Dorrit

I have finished a few pillows during the last few weeks between knitting hats. This one is a Christmas present and is hopefully on her merry way across the country as I write this.
“Darling Dorrit” is one of the Funky Fowl from this post. It has been lovely visiting with an old friend and finish one more of the pledged ufos for Finn's challenge. She looks kind of comfy on my couch, doesn’t she?
I’ll be back tonight for the drawing of Giveaway Day. It’s also Friday Night Sew In and I have plans. It’s always good to have a plan.

I will, December 16th

continue making Christmas card. I was supposed to make orange trees, but they are pink. It just looked better. Simple tree shapes, simple quilting, and simple dots of paint for ornaments.
The first batch of 10 was finished yesterday, just in time for the guild Christmas party, so only 27 left to go. Right. I’d better start working.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Happy Holiday Houses 2&3

2 more Happy Holiday Houses are ready for the holidays and their new homes with friends and family. I like to have a few little presents ready in case we’re going somewhere in December. I did not add much bling after all, just a little more yarn at the windows and doors and a piece of the same yarn for hanging.