divamccraftster

diva hasn't been much of a knitter but i did craft a bit this week.

i finished two christmas presents for the kiddos.  i made them no sew blankets.

the boy had a winnie the pooh blanket that a lady from hubby's church made for him when he was a baby. she has since passed away, but i still wanted a blanket for petunia and freddie beans too.

i did this project as a lark, actually.  last month when i was at joann's their polar fleece was on sale.  i admired the different prints and couldn't decide on what i wanted.  for freddie, i liked a "cow and moon" pattern but also a monkey pattern.  there were different flower prints for petunia, but i just wasn't wild on the colors.  i finally chose a bright pink and green daisy pattern.  i picked contrasting material and went to get the yardage.

at the castoffs table there was this adorable fleece with pink and brown dachshunds on it.  it was perfect!  so i grabbed the roll, returned the flowered fleece, then went to get my yardage.  as luck would have it, there was just enough on the roll for a blanket, although i had to find another contrasting pink becos the one i had chosen was a half yard too short.

the material sat on my crafting chair for more than a month until yesterday, when i decided i had to make the blankets now or else the holidays would be arriving and i wouldn't have time to make them.  it was hard to find floor space to lay out the material, pin it, trim it, then cut the fringes.  i suppose it took about 2 hours to cut and complete a blanket.

i made petunia's first.  the instructions were a bit ambiguous, so i didn't know if i was supposed to tie the fringe as i cut it, or tie them after they were all cut.  i chose to wait but got my fringes out of order!  it took about an hour to suss those all out.

last night i made freddie's blanket.  this went much quicker as i cut and tied the fringes at the same time.  the only problem i ran into was that i cut the corners as i got to them, then accidentally cut too much off the last corner (since it was the first corner cut!) so i was 6 inches short!  so i sewed the square back on, only to cut the fringe and the thread.  sigh.  so i sewed each fringe on praying that the knot will keep it together.  i can always go back and use fabric glue to fasten it better.




i can never do something simple, can i?

of course, no blanket is complete without a special handmade label:




i can't wait to see the kiddos open these gifts!




last year i got the boy these fusion beads that, when placed on a peg board and ironed, make the prettiest sun catchers and toys.  we made a couple things last year until his interest waned, and the container of beads was forgotten.

he found the container last week and wanted to make things for the grandparents.  he made these:




the flags are for MM and PP for veterans day.  he also made a smile and a face for his teachers, and faces for me and hubby.  he wanted to make numbers, so i when i went to michael's to buy more beads i found a numbers and alphabet board.  he made initials for all of us.

these are my contribution:




the last craft session, i made snowflakes and hung them in the window too.

this craft is so easy.  just make a design, or thing, then iron them for a couple of seconds, to meld the beads together.  i usually over or under iron the beads.

this craft would also make fabulous tree ornaments, or like me, hang them in the window as a sun catcher.

i couldn't find the beading kits on the michael's website, but this is the beads' official website.


oh yeah, and i did knit something.  i made a hat to match my mitties.



my apologies for such a shitty pic.  this is the pinch hat, knit with the same lovely malabrigo silky merino as my mitties.  the hat is a bit smaller than i'd like, but that's okay. and it looks very fetching on petunia.

did i tell you it has really cool buttons?



i chose these over a set of pretty iridescent cobalt buttons.  these buttons seem to reflect the colors of the hat.  i love them.

i still have minimal knitting mojo.  i have a scarf and a pair of socks to knit for xmas.  but since my doctor's appointment last week, i've been feeling a bit raw, so i cast on a pair of red mittens.  cos i really want a pair of kick ass red mittens.