Tag Archives: Christmas stockings

30 Days of Blog 2016 – Day 1

13329332_1175303959168637_321286527743776729_oLAST June, I was working on Christmas stockings for my family during 30 Days of Blog. I just finished the last one the other day!

 

 

 

13323402_1175303592502007_5239829274076978314_oYesterday I finished the body of a Baby afghan that will be donated to Project Linus because they are in desperate need of blankets for hospitals right now. Over the next few days I will be putting an edging on it.

Tail

 

 

Once this afghan is done, I have an order for a newborn mermaid tail cocoon to complete.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I will be starting work on a Christmas tree skirt to go with my family’s stockings. Here’s hoping that I can get all of that done this month!

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2016 Crocheting Goals

I’m going to take a slightly different approach this year.  Last year was the first year that I created crocheting goals for myself. And although there was a lot that I did not complete, I think in the first half of the year I got a lot more done than I may have in previous years.

Instead of going quite as structured as I did last year with laying down what projects I was going to do in which month, I’m just going to make myself a project list of things I want to get done.  I will start this list out with some semblance of the order I want to complete these project in, however, I expect it to be more of a living, ongoing, occasionally changing list – especially with regards to when I get custom orders from my Etsy store. So here is the first draft of the…

Stitched In Love Crocheting 2016 Project List:

  1. DONE – Sweet 16 Afghan – This is started and needs to be done soon because it will need to be mailed out as soon as I can.  It’s already going to be late for her birthday.  There’s just so much going on right now!
  2. Buddy’s Afghan – I have designed an afghan pattern in honor of each one of my new babies.  As soon as the Sweet 16 Afghan is done, I need to get working on Baby #3’s.  I’ve already done quite a bit of R&D (i.e. Pinterest pinning) and I’m pretty sure I know what I want to do.  I even have the yarn. Now I just need to sit down and start work/writing the pattern.
  3. Christmas Stockings for Family – I think I’m just going to continue working on the Christmas items after the immediate projects are wrapped up so that they don’t just get put off until the end of the year and not get done again. I need to finish the stockings for the new baby and myself. Then I would like to do some embellishments on everyone’s stockings, including names and maybe some holly berries and leaves.
  4. Christmas Tree Skirt – I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to this one and have not yet decided what I want to do for this exactly. However, I might see if I can get a plain, solid tree skirt on sale after the holidays this year to use as a backing for mine to lend more durability to it and potentially act as a background depending on what design I settle on.
  5. Afghan Christmas Present #1 – I have three different afghans that I want to make family members for Christmas gifts.  Hopefully I can get them done in the first part of this year and then just block them and package them come Christmas next year.  These projects are going to be difficult to post about while maintaining the Christmas surprise. I might have to  come up with some creative pictures of extreme close ups and do some fun editing to disguise the true results.
  6. Afghan Christmas Present #2
  7. Afghan Christmas Present #3
  8. Curtains – We have  a great big bay window in the new house and instead of putting up some boring curtains or sheers, I really want to crochet some pretty lace-like curtains that I can just slip onto some tension rods for a sort of 3/4 cover.
  9. Rugs – We also have all hardwood floors in the new house which we have refinished with a beautiful dark stain. But we need several rugs in multiple areas of the house. I also want to do a “street and lawn” rug for the kids’ room
  10. Happypotamusses for kids – I thought about doing these for their birthdays or for another holiday through the year, but I think I’ll stick with making these and saving them for Christmas next year.  The designer of this very cute stuffed animal has actually designed quite a few others, so I’m actually thinking about making the Hippo for Bubba, an Elephant for Sephy because she loves them, and something else fun for Buddy instead of just doing 3 hippos in different colors.
  11. Mitten Ornaments – Another small gift for the family members to make and save for next year.
  12. Top for myself – Finally on to non-Christmas items! Hopefully by this time I will have been able to loose some baby weight and can make myself something pretty.
  13. Dress for Sephy – I’d like to try again in making a dress for Sephy, this time in a very light weight yarn, or even thread.
  14. Parasol – I would still like to try and get this thing made. I have two different umbrella frames ready to use for it.
  15. Masquerade Masques – My sister is having a Masquerade Ball for her Halloween party next year and I want to make the masks that my Husband and I wear. I also have a whole Pinterest board for this one!

It will be interesting to see how much of this I will actually be able to get done this year. Fifteen doesn’t sound like a lot on this list, but with 3 afghans plus a tree skirt that is basically a whole afghan itself, it is definitely going to be a challenge.

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Christmas Stockings

Stockings.png

I’ve got three down and two more left.  I’m trying to decide what colors to make.  The red ones are supposed to be for the kids. I think what I’ll do is let my daughter pick which one she wants to be hers, and then make a duplicate of the other one and have both the boys’ stockings be the same, except for their names. The green one is my husband’s, and I think I’m just going to make mine with green stripes like the red-striped one.  Although, I could do mine in solid green two.  Then I would be able to line them up on the mantel with the greens on the outside, the boys matching ones next in on each side, and then my daughter’s in the middle.  (I kind of hope she picks the striped one so I don’t have to make another striped.)

The names will be back-stitched in yarn on the cuffs at the top, and then I’d like to add a holly berries and leaves embellishment to each of them.

In any case, the new baby and my stockings will wait until next year (early in 2016) before I start them.

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2015 – A Dud for Crocheting

I got nowhere near to what I wanted to accomplish this year with my crocheting.  My work came to an abrupt halt in June when I got sick because I became pregnant with our third child. Three months later I was finally feeling a little better, but by then we were really trying to get our new house renovated and moved in.  We are moved in now, though not even close to being unpacked and settled. And of course, now we are preparing for the holidays and the arrival of little #3.

Obviously with a third on the way, living in a house that still needs a lot of work, and trying to get our old house ready to rent out, there is probably not going to be a lot of time to crochet in 2016 either.  BUT I will be pumping 2-3 times a day again after returning to work, which is when I was able to get a lot of of crocheting done last year and early this year. So I do still have some things planned.

Here is a rundown of things I am working on immediately, and where I ended up with the goals I had for 2015.  I’ll post again later with what I want to accomplish for 2016.  I did get a few custom orders completed through my Etsy shop along the way but not a whole lot else.

Current/Immediate Projects

  1. Christmas Stockings – Two done for the kids, working on Husband’s now.  Baby #3 and I may have to wait until next year.
  2. Christmas Gifts – Working on a few small/quick gifts for family.  Will post on this after all the family get-togethers are done for the holidays.
  3. Sweet 16 Afghan – This needs to be started as soon as the stocking and Christmas gifts are done because it will need to be mailed out very soon after the first of the year.
  4. Buddy’s Afghan – I have designed an afghan pattern in honor of each one of my new babies.  As soon as the Sweet 16 Afghan is done, I need to get working on Baby #3’s.  I’ve already done quite a bit of R&D (i.e. Pinteresting) and I’m pretty sure I know what I want to do.  I even have the yarn. Now I just need to sit down and start work/writing the pattern.

2015 Run-Down

  1. ADDED (Custom Order) – Baby Afghan Success! See June 6th 30 Days of Blog Post for this one.
  2. ADDED (Custom Order) – Second Baby Afghan Success! I’m sad about this one because I do not think that I took a picture before I delivered it.
  3. ADDED: Baby Gift #1 – This was the Strawberry Cocoon and Beanie Success!
  4. ADDED (Custom Order) – Baby Gift.  Surprise gift to be posted at a later time. Success! I’m sad about this one because I do not think that I took a picture before I delivered it.
  5. ADDED: Baby Gift #2 – Was in progress in May, but I don’t even remember what this was right now!
  6. Finish writing Cuffs and Monkey Patterns –  Cuffs done. Monkey on hold till Fall. I never did get back to the Monkey pattern.  But the boot Cuffs pattern did get finished and posted in my Ravelry store.  I even had a lady contact me about it because she is doing a class on cable stitches at a retreat and wanted to use my pattern for it.  So I have seen multiple pattern sales as a result of that.
  7. Christmas Stockings for Family (4) – On the immediate list.
  8. Baby Gift #2 – I’ve had this done for awhile and I’m sad to say I keep forgetting to mail the darn thing!
  9. Baby Gift #3 – This one has also been done, but never got delivered. (Facepalm.)
  10. Top for myself – (Laughing.) Not a chance. It wouldn’t fit me right now anyway.  Maybe this Spring or Summer.
  11. Christmas Tree Skirt – Sadly this one did not get done yet either.
  12. Afghan Christmas Present #1 – Nope.
  13. Afghan Christmas Present #2 – Nope.
  14. Afghan Christmas Present #3 – Nope. (Sorry family. Maybe next year.)
  15. Happypotamusses for Sephy and Greyson – This is another one I’m really sad about.  I really wanted to get these done for them.  Maybe I’ll make it a trilogy and give one to each of the three kids for Christmas next year.
  16. Sweet 16 Afghan – On the immediate list.
  17. Mitten Ornaments – Replaced with another quick project for Christmas gifts on the Immediate list.  I would still like to do these for next year.

So there we are. Here’s hoping that 2016 will leave me feeling more accomplished with the projects I want to do!

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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 22

I never got caught up from missing last weekend, and then I got sick this weekend. So it looks like I’m about four days down on the month.  I got the last of the red done on this stocking and started the cuff today.  I really should be able to finish this thing up tomorrow.

Day 22

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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 17

I’m getting close to finishing this one up. I should have the leg finished tomorrow though I’m not sure I will finish the cuff.  I did pick up green yarn today for the next stocking


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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 16

I did it again on this one.  I had problems in the heel area that slowed me down.  This time the problem was because I skipped a stitch on the last row before starting the heel.  I didn’t notice until I’d finished the heel and started back on the last row. So I had to rip the heel out and go back and fix my work.

Day 16
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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 15

day-15-aI’m finally back on the Christmas stockings.  I seem to have gotten past the learning curve on the pattern relatively well as I got through almost the whole foot on lunch today.  I expected once I finished the first, that the subsequent stockings would go much faster.  It is also going faster since I’m making this stocking in a solid color rather than changing colors every other row.

Iday-15-b‘m less confident that I can get all of the stockings done by the end of June now, but it’s still possible.
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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 14

20150615_145000-1So I mentioned that I had purchased myself a new crochet bag.  As I have started to use it, I have to say I have developed mixed feelings about it.

It’s like a carry on bag, with casters and a telescoping handle in the back, which is very handy.  It has grommets on the front to pull yarn though so you don’t have to open it when working.  There are three clear plastic pouches to go with these on the inside to hold yarn skeins.  There is a zipper pocket on the front with several storage options and compartments in side.  There are pockets on the outside on both sides where I can easily slide in patterns and other things.  And the biggest thing for me is  there is a nice large interior space, particularly helpful for when I am working on projects with large skeins of yarn (like the Caron one-pounders I am using for the stocking project right now) or when I am working on an afghan and it starts to get too large to carry around in my regular tote.  It will also be helpful for taking multiple projects with me on trips.  That was probably the biggest reason I got it.

Tote CollageBut there are several things that I really disappointed in.  The top only zips closed on the two sides.  The front just kind of hangs over. There are three zipper compartments on the inside walls, but when you open them up they’re just directly exposed to the cardboard supports for the case. The aren’t really meant to be separate storage.  Inside the front storage pocket, there are slots for crochet hook storage.  I don’t know about other crocheters, but this is really unnecessary for me because I just keep all of my hooks together in a soft zipper Boye hook case.  I would have liked this space to be used for another storage option.

Finally, the biggest frustration for me is that there really is not another way to carry the tote, especially one-handed, than the telescoping handle for rolling it.  There are straps on each side which really require using two hands, and are only useful for picking the case up from the floor to put up on the counter, bed, etc, not for carrying it.  This makes it very awkward when you are rolling the case along and come to a set of stairs.  Right now, I’m just picking it up by the extended handle and awkwardly carrying it up or down the stairs.  When the handle is retracted, there is not room to get your hand between it and the case to carry it that way.  So, I am currently in the process of crocheting a shoulder strap that utilizes the handles on each side.

I am still very excited to have this case, but I really wish that I had been part of the design team.
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30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 13

This stocking is just shy of officially done.  I’d forgotten to do the hanger and take a picture of it.  I’ll have to add a picture of that later.

Now I think I’ll start on my stocking which I’ll do in red with white toe and heel.

Day 13
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