Crafts

December 2, 2012 CRAFTY GIFTS

It’s three weeks ‘till Christmas! Do you have the presents wrapped or are you still trying to decide what to get that special someone? Here is my contribution to the Christmas gift idea list: Slippers! I have been knitting these slippers for weeks and now have a pair for the whole family. These patterns are free and pretty fast to knit. With limited knitting time, it is possible to get one pair finished in a week. If you have more time to spare they can be finished over the weekend. There is one that would be good for either sex and one that would be nice for girls and ladies. I buy the Lion Brand wool recommended in the pattern for around $12 a skein. One skein will make two or more pairs of slippers. You can also color the wool by dyeing it in Kool Aid. Here is the link to both patterns. http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/patternFinder.fcgi?search=Search&searchText=felt+slippers&craft=0&categoryKey=Any&subcategory=Any&size=Any&edition=Any&cost=Any&componentCategoryKey=Any&yarnClass=Any&searchType=0 I usually like to hand felt things as my washer tends to beat things up, but these came out lovely through the washing machine and saved me a lot of time. To dye your yarn in Kool Aid, measure out a small skein of yarn to use for your project. I usually measure it out until I have a ball as big as my hobbit sized fist and then make it into a loose skein. Next, wash the yarn gently. Dissolve one or two packets of Kool Aid in a large microwavable bowl. Place your wet yarn into the bowl and microwave for two minutes at a time until the yarn is colored and the water is mostly clear. Wring out your yarn and let it dry before knitting it into bright, beautiful slippers for yourself and the ones you love. Note: the guy’s slippers require two different kinds of yarn, one that does felt and one that doesn’t. I subsituted left over yarns I had lying around for the one you are supposed to buy. Synthetic yarns can be colored too if they are “natural” and haven’t been bleached or colored. You can also select a color to match or contrast your dyed yarn. -------------------------------------------------------------- Garage Sale Find This was a fun and rewarding craft. We found some stools at a garage sale and paid $5 for them both. One was painted green and the other one looked like someone had colored it black with a felt tip marker. But the wicker seats were in good condition. I finally got around to painting them this week since we took a week off school.

I had to use a lot of primer to cover the dark colors on the chairs. I used spray paint primer and a glossy red spray paint over that. We spent about $30 in paint. More than I would like, but it took a lot of paint to cover them. Then I painted some floral details with acrylic paint and finished with a layer of gloss, which I already had laying around from previous projects. The boys like to use the screw driver so I let them put the seats back on. Now we have a nice set of stools for the kitchen counter.

--------------------------------------------- Celtic Broach Today we are studying the early days of Britain, after the fall of the Roman Empire. We made Celtic dragon broaches to hold our capes. Gosh, wouldn't these be nice to have made out of metal?

We also read the story of Beowulf in "The Story of the World" Volume 2. They have a great, watered down, nicely rhyming poem that gives the gist of the story. It is one of the oldest stories in the English language and was retold for many years before that by the Anglo-Saxons who settled in England, pushing the Celts east and west into Ireland, Wales an Scotland. I found it translated in it's entirety here http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm. ------------------------------------- Baby Presents I have been knitting like mad for babies this year. It seems everyone I know is expecting right now and now that my kids are older, I’m having a lot of fun blessing some of my friends with a great handmade baby gift. A few people gave me really nice handmade baby clothes that I cherished as I had no time to knit cute things when my boys were small. They are still stored away in my closet since I can’t bear to part with them. I hope to pull them out when there are grand babies around and let them get used again. This first project is called the Tree of Life Baby Blanket. I got the pattern free from Lionbrand.com. It reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses Psalm 1 It says "1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." I gave this one to a Christian friend as a sort of a blessing for her baby.

When I got news that another friend was having a boy, I decided to make her what I loved putting on my little boys. She gets a chocolate brown sweater and matching baby bear hat. This I had no pattern for, but I had a baby sweater that I knew fit my babies really well and a cute bear hat my sister had made so I got them out and used them to help me size the new ones. I think these are going to look great while keeping warm a cute little boy. I have a little bit of yarn left so I may knit one of these hats for my etsy shop later.

Now it’s back to work on Texas’s Christmas socks while I’m waiting to find out if my third friend is going to have a boy or a girl. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Craft Explosion!
We are getting into some great craft projects as the summer progresses. I must say, summer is shorter than I remember it as a kid! First things first, the kids needed new pajama bottoms. I haven’t been able to find anything soft without an annoying super hero on it in our price range, so to the sewing machine I go. The boys picked their fabric. I would have chosen tiny air planes or pirates, but they wanted camo flannel, so we got that since they are the ones who will have to wear them. I got a great free pattern off the web that I can adjust to the size of my growing boys. http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=fisherman+pants+pattern&v_t=keyword_rollover&b=image%3Fquery%3Dfisherman%2Bpants%2Bpattern%26s_it%3Dkeyword_rollover%26oreq%3De7b1fed8da18477b8c957b2b975d54f2&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediatinker.com%2Fblog%2Fimages%2Fpants-comfy-pattern.jpg&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediatinker.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F008262.html&width=90&height=94&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSrAM1BuOUlgCAkPdbefNXzDJOIkTMEldVxH00Lb_lnxSZHu6cHUke981g&imgWidth=320&imgHeight=333&imgSize=24986&imgTitle=fisherman+pants+pattern It is the comfy pants pattern if you are interested. The fisherman pants are nice too. I will be making another pair of those for myself soon. I got so good at making the pattern,by the third pant I wasn’t even looking at the directions. The boys both made shirts for their stuffed animal friends. Once I was done with the pajamas, I looked around and found all our worn out pajamas. When I say worn out, that’s an understatement! We are home scholars so we wear our pajamas in the day time quite often. My boys wear them until they look like little orphans with large rips half way up the leg. We couldn’t hand them down to anyone, but we all love our pajamas so much since they have seen us through so many good times. We decided to make a memory rug with them. It took me the rest of the day to cut up all our worn out pajamas, but now I have a bucket full of fabric! And several buttons and yards of elastic to boot! (For future projects.) I’ll be crocheting the rug on our next road trip I think. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hats on Etsy
I have finally opened that Etsy shop that I've been dreaming about. You can now buy my hand made hats there as well as the open pollinated and heirloom seeds I gather from my garden. Check it out at hillsideminifarm@etsy.com.

NATIVITY
Mechanism made this lovely nativity scene for his father's Christmas present this year. It is made from bakers clay, and painted with craft paint. I like the stars in the sky and the way the edge of it is a little crooked and overlaps the stable.

ICE CASTLES
During Free time Mechanism has been freezing water in recycled milk and margarine cartons outdoors in the cold weather. They make great molds for ice building blocks. He even used some plastic bags and added food coloring to some.

Snow Forts

This is the latest snow fort the boys have built. It is also the biggest. They scooped snow into a long pile when it was fresh and let it sit over night to firm. The next day, they tunneled into it. A fresh dusting of snow makes it look smooth and landscape like. It reminds me of those underground houses that look like softly rolling hills.

Socks
What better way to warm up in the winter but to pull on your special pair of hand knitted socks.  This pair was designed by Mechanism.  we couldn't find varigated yarn that went in the correct rainbow order, so we bought some natural wool yarn and dyed small lots of it in Kool Aid.  It worked very well, but the socks wore out quickly and I found myself learning how to darn.  The next pair we knit will be of a synthetic sock yarn.  They are supposed to last a lot longer. 



Pillow Cases

As a little girl, I would sometimes get to sleep at my grandparent's house.  If I was lucky, I would get to sleep in a loft area that had two beds in it, and a window right next to one of the beds.  I remember waking up in that bed, with the fresh morning air coming in the open window.  And I remember the pillow case which had been hand emproiderd by either my grandmother or my great grandmother.  Years later, as I attempt to make my own house cozy, I remember that pillow case.  There was something extremely comforting about it.  So I've made some for my own house and I hope they have the same comforting effect on my children.  I hope they see it when they wake in the morning and know they are loved so much that I stitched that by hand for them. 



Mouse House
Here is my most recent creation. It is a felted mouse house for my niece.

The wool yarn was dyed in Kool Aid and knitted into squares that were then sewn into a house shape and felted. After the whole thing was felted, I sewed velcro onto the side that I didn't sew up.

This way, Olive can get inside and the mice can use their garden. Each vegetable has a pocket in the garden which it fits into.

finally, I sewed on this ribbon so she can cary it where ever she goes.