Crafty Christmas - at Hogwarts

Dave loves the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, so I decided to give him a Harry Potter Christmas this year. The first item was a scarf made in the Gryffindor house colors. I know the colors of the yarn I picked aren't quite "right", but hopefully he won't mind. Below is the scarf as modeled by "Cindy" (Mom made her YEARS ago. She really needs her neck restuffed and to get some more clothes other than that one t-shirt):

The scarf "pattern" was just something I made up. It's just a single crochet stitch.
He'll also be receiving a bottle of "Butterbeer". Really it's a bottle of butterscotch Schnapps with a butterbeer label I found online. My sister's bringing cream soda to complete the "recipe" for butterbeer. [update - left"our" gifts at home, so he unwrapped the cream soda at my parents and of course was dumbfounded why he would get cream soda for Christmas! ]
The biggest present, and probably the most difficult to figure out was the shadowbox. I purchased a Marauder's Map (purchased here). The Bertie's Botts Everyflavor Beans I think we bought when the last/7th book was released (I'm sure they're stale and hard, so I figured they could go into the box). The glasses are an old pair of mine that I thought looked similar to Harry's. The house crests are something I found online and printed up. I also found a little bottle (JD?) and printed a Veritaserum label for it. The little round thing in the left corner is my polymer clay version of a Golden Snitch. The wand is a stick from our back yard, stripped of bark, varnished and with one coat of polyurethane. I also created a handle for it from polymer clay. You can't see, but it has a little serpent wrapped around the handle (also in black) - maybe I can get a better picture after he opens his gift.

I also made up a piece of "parchment" with his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. I hope he enjoys his gifts!

12/28 update: Here's Charlie modeling the scarf

Crafty Christmas - Hansons

Last year, I made my sister a pair of mittens. Looking back, I'm not all that happy with the way they turned, but it really was my first project beyond an afghan. She wanted a hat in the same charcoal grey as the mittens. She picked out the Peruvian Earflap Hat from Caron.com earlier this year. I was really fortunate to find that Caron Simply Soft which I used for the mittens had a blue that would work perfectly as an accent color to match her blue boots! My biggest struggle with this hat was trying to get the size right. I know I have a pretty large head (hold the comments please! ), but even the largest size of the pattern seemed to small, so I ended up improvising and adding more stitches until I thought it was big enough. Here's Cindy again to show how the hat looks:
If I knew how to knit, I would have added I-cord for "strings" from the earflaps. I tried braiding 3 strands of yarn together but it seemed too small. So, I ended up putting the three strands together and creating a chain of them. They could've been longer, but I'm not sure she'll use them to tie anyway.
[update 12/27 - the hat was too small, so I'll have to make another one ]

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Earlier this year I subscribed to the magazine Interweave Crochet. Mom was looking through the Summer 2008 edition and decided she liked the look of a cotton bath mat that was featured. When I asked if she was going to make it, it didn't sound like she thought it was worth the effort of getting the pattern and the yarn. So, I decided I'd make it FOR her!

The trick to this pattern is that every other row you're creating loops by wrapping the yarn around another crochet hook.

I'd made about 1/3 of the pattern and wasn't happy about how the loops kept pulling back to the other side. I was just about desperate in thinking I'd have to sew them so they would stay put or give up on the pattern altogether, when I ran across a link on Ravelry.com that pointed me in the right direction. Someone else made the pattern and realized that if you reversed the clockwise/counter-clockwise wrapping around the hooks, the loops were "locked" and wouldn't come undone. So, I "frogged" the whole thing and started over. Dave's response was "So, this is for your parents for NEXT year?". I wasn't sure at that point if I was going to get it done in time, but once the loops stayed where they were supposed to, the pattern actually made up quickly.
The original pattern was in a turquoise with a red border. Yuck! I picked the cream color because it was more neutral, and I'm pretty sure the denim blue will go in their bathroom.

Crafty Christmas - Nulands

Since Christmas is here, and (some) gifts have been distributed, I feel that I can now write about the presents I made this year. The Nuland Christmas was celebrated first, so this gift will be showcased first. I spotted this pattern over summer when my mother gave me some "old" crochet magazines she had. It immediately made me think of my mother-in-law.

First a "grid" of stitches was made in the various colors. Here's a picture of the afghan once the first stage was finished.


And a close up of the "grid" (click on the pictures to see a larger view).


Next, a whole bunch of "chains" needed to be made and those were woven into the grid to make the afghan look like plaid. Here's the finished product:

A closeup view of the completed afghan (hopefully without any visible fur! ) - actually, this is a sideways view, but I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I started the afghan back in either Sept or Oct, and boy am I glad I did! I finished it the first weekend in December. Not that the pattern was difficult - it was just very repetitious, so I often had to work on it a little bit and then put it aside and work on another project. But I'm very proud of the way it turned out. As I was working on it, I wasn't completely sure I liked it, but once the "plaid" look was finished, it looked awesome!

It definitely should keep them cozy - there are no "holes" in this afghan and in many places there's double-thickness of yarn, so it's quite warm. I'm normally snuggled under a blanket when I sit on the couch, but soon realized that I couldn't work on this AND have another blanket on me.

Technical details:
The pattern comes from Annie's Favorite Crochet, December 2004.
The grid is made in DC, ch stitches just like a filet crochet. The weaving strips are just made up of lots of chain stitches.
The pattern originally called for Red Heart yarn, but I like the softness of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! better. So, the yarn I used was mostly I Love This Yarn! - black, soft blue, red, yellow, and white. The one exception was the Paddy Green which is RH Super Saver. That was because I couldn't find a green in ILTY that was close to the RH green.

Crafty Christmas - wine bottles

Last night I made four more wine bottles. The pictures don't do them justice - I think they turned out really well. Now I just have to figure out who the recipients will be!

A little more detail on how these were made. One of the worst parts of the whole process was getting the labels off the bottles. Some came off easily and others had to be scraped and lots of goo-gone.

I purchased a special 1/2" glass drill bit from Fleet Farm ($10). You must keep the drill bit lubricated otherwise it gets too hot - Dave managed this by using a wallpaper tray filled with water and submerged the bottle so it was just under the water line. You can't apply a lot of pressure - just take your time and work the hole; Dave shattered one bottle in the trial-and-error period.

I used sandpaper to dull the sharp edges around the hole. When inserting the lights, I also temporarily taped the edges with masking tape to protect the lights and the plastic coating on the wires.

When purchasing lights, they need to be individual lights. The ones with the connectors to another set of lights won't fit into the hole that was drilled. I found I liked the white lights better than the colored ones (but then that's true for Christmas trees and outdoor lights too).

The best ribbon for making the bows is the kind with wired edges - they hold their shape better when you're trying to form the bow. The other decorations can be whatever you like. I found I really liked the "berries".

Oh, and be sure you have plenty of hot glue on hand!!

Busy for Christmas

I haven't posted recently because I've been trying to stay away from the computer so I keep working on Christmas gifts.
One of the few projects that I can actually show is I've been experimenting with making lighted wine bottles. I bought a drill bit for glass, and Dave tried it out a week ago. The trick is that you have to keep the bit lubricated, so he put it in a bin with water. I had already bought the lights and decorations last year and always have plenty of ribbon on hand. My friend Kathy showed me how to make the awesome ribbons. Here's the first one I made:

Here's an afghan I'm making ... but I can't say who it's for ... yet!

Another Christmas teaser...
And yet another Christmas project:
And a final present.



In addition to working on those, I've also been working on a couple of things to take a "break" from the presents. I volunteered to test these granny square patterns for Donna Mason-Svara. The pattern for each is for sale at http://SmoothFox.etsy.com. The first granny is called "Fox's Little Boxes".

This second one is called "Fox's Granny Square". I thought this one was more complex to make than the first one, even though it might not look it. Both were great pattern though.
Ok, enough playing ... back to work! I'll try and remember to post full pictures of the presents once the recipients have received them.