Preparing and Minor Disasters

I got a funny message from a neighbour the other day: Could I knit or mend? So I replied yes and was told that the dog had been "playing" with her daughter's favourite hat. and they were hoping I could mend it.

This is what they brought me. Mudd offered to help.

The whole top of the hat was gone. To make it harder, the hat had a fleece lining. So, I took some double pointed needles and a crochet hook, and started trying to find the stitches.. Since I didn't want to disturb the fleece lining, I asked my young friend if she would settle for a knot on the top of her hat instead of the (now) sad looking pompom.  With Mudd's help we managed to get it fixed.

I didn't have any green yarn so I used grey instead.

We put up the Christmas tree and added lights.

Yesterday morning, we came down to this.

It is dark in the mornings, but if you click on the picture, you can see that Doug looks concerned. I think somebody jumped out of the tree and got tangled in the lights. She must have gone for a run to get free.

Though she is denying any knowledge of the light incident, we believe this is the suspect.

Now that the postal workers are back to work. I have started making cookies. I may have to make more before I can actually mail care parcels to the west.

These are hermit cookies made with the leftover fruit from the fruit cake.

I did some other knitting.

This is the finished Santa Hat using the pattern from the movie Red One. It is a quick and easy knit. The yarn is Brava from Knit Picks.

I also finished a mugmat that I found in my UFO bin. It has gone to a friend with a mug and hot chocolate bombs.

Last night I started knitting a hat with some gradient yarn, I finished the cast on only to find a knot, and the join was not in sequence. I cut the first piece off and started again, only to find a second splice out of sequence. 

Okay, this isn't going to work. I will find another ball and start again, hopefully with better results.

Preparing

 Advent is defined as the season of preparing. I find my days have been filled with preparing lately.

In our tradition, the Advent candles, lit on the four Sundays before Christmas, are green, blue, yellow and red. This year, I found some cat proof candles, since setting fire to the cat is generally a bad idea.

I have LED candles that I can set to the colours. For Christmas, I will set out real candles, but these are much safer when I don't have anyone to guard them.

Many gifts have been sent. I can show you a few.

Two pairs of little socks were commissioned by a friend for her great-granddaughters. They are now on their way in Great Grandma's suitcase.

 The dog bandanas for this Christmas are in some silly fabric I found in my stash. My Christmas stash has been greatly depleted in the last few years, since I haven't been doing in person shopping.

I made this lace scarf back in the summer, and finally got it blocked. It is on the way to its new home.

This is a closeup of the lace border. The yarn is alpaca and silk in a lace weight, that was in my stash.

I was asked for a red hat, so this week, I made a red hat.

It is my favourite hat pattern, Bankhead. The yarn is Knit Picks Brava.

I did lots of baking to send to family that don't bake. For my baking I go for taste over appearance, so the shortbread is just rolled into balls and squashed with a fork. Add sprinkles and they look sort of Christmas-y.

We put up the tree, and Emme helped.

She really gets into her work!

I had a birthday and a creative friend made me this card.

It is very fancy, and very non-Christmas-y. I have gotten a lot of Christmas cards with Happy Birthday written in them, over the years. The colours in this card are more my style.

i hope to get some knitting and sewing done this week, The sewing has been lost lately.

12 Days of Christmas In July Blog Hop - Decorating the Dog

 

Wow, its my day on the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop! Sarah, from Confessions of a Fabric Addict is celebrating all things Christmas for 12 days in July. After all, who has time to make handmade gifts or decorations in December.

I'll start with an introduction, in case you haven't been here before. I am Kate, a Canadian blogger, knitter, bag maker, sewist, and occasional quilter. I started knitting and sewing when I wasn't very old. I am also an engineer, with a specialization in process engineering. 

I live in a zoo. Well, not really but there have always been dogs in our home. For about 20 years, we fostered cats, preparing nearly 200 cats and kittens to become permanent members of someone else's family. We currently have a dog (Doug) and two cats (Mudd and Emme) who let us live with them. 

I'm a December baby, so I love decorating, and sometimes the decorating extends to the pets. 

Not every attempt is successful. You just know Doug is saying "You have got to be kidding."

Emme decided that she was so pretty that she would just be a decoration.

Dog bandanas turned out to be the most acceptable solution.

Last Christmas, it was cardinals.

Bandanas are quick and easy to make on the serger. If you don't have a serger, you can use a narrow hem or a machine overcast stitch. I make them from my stash fabric, large scraps and fat quarters. I made some Christmas ones this week, and I'll show you how I did it.

First thing to do, if you haven't done it for awhile, is to clean your serger.

I may have made a lot of bandanas lately. without cleaning it.

Next decide the size the the bandanas you are going to make. If you want ta perfect fit there is math involved. You will need to measure the dog's neck, add a bit extra so you can tie it, Then figure the length of the sides of the square using the Pythagorean Theorem. I have done the math to give you some general sizes (that engineering degree is handy sometimes.)

I usually cut a square in one of 4 sizes : 10" (XS), 14" (S), 18" (M) and 20" (L) . The square will give you two bandanas.

For these bandanas, I used 18" squares. This is a great way to use up a fat quarter somehow ended up in your stash. If you are worried about a one way print, I have found that the dogs don't seem to mind if it is askew (and the owner won't have a problem either).

I had a fat quarter of some vintage Debbie Mumm that volunteered for the job.

I squared it to 18". 

I cut the square into a triangle across the bias.

Then I chain feed all the edges through the serger, trimming off the width of the blade the make a nice clean edge. I use a balanced 4 thread stitch, usually using white thread. If the narrow points at the neck edge of the bandanas aren't feeding into the serger smoothly, I cut some 1" squares of stabilizer to help get the seam started. I cut a sheet of stabilizer into squares periodically and leave them in a box next to my serger.

In no time, you have a bandana made. I made 4 bandanas in about 45 minutes, from start to finish. This fabric is called Canadian Capers by Wilmington and it has lots of "iconic" images of Canadian winter. I had a scrap that was the right size for 2 bandanas.

The bandanas are quick and easy gift as well as fun accessory for your dog, or those dog owners on your gift list. Did you know that 95% of pet owners give gifts to their pets at Christmas.

Here is a picture of my granddog, Cassie, wearing her summer bandana, that I sent her this week. Cassie is a bit of a fashionista and asks for her bandana every morning.

I hope you enjoy making some dog bandanas. They look really cute on any dog, and cats like them, too.

Christmas is Coming - Ready or Not

 So I am baking and making, and decorating, and ... I have two deadlines, one to mail stuff across the country and one for those of us who are here. 

The tree is up.

Of course, the bins are not put away, because there are still some things that need to come out.

Emme would like you to know that she helped.

You can see what a great help she was. 

In the evenings, I knit and I managed to make a neck warmer in a couple of evenings of Hallmark movies. Neck warmers have replaced the long scarves of my youth, in the school yards. Safer and less likely to get lost.

I need to work on centering my pictures. Note the festive table covering.

I was asked for the "pattern" so I will share it with you, too. 

I had a 100 gm ball of worsted weight yarn (acrylic so it can go in the washer), and I cast on 88 stitches, loosely, on a 5mm 16" circular needle. I did a K2P2 rib until it looked long enough (about 6") and cast off using a stretchy cast off. The cast off caused the bottom to flare, and I liked it. It is done and it fits over an adult head, so it should fit somebody in early elementary. I used just over 40 gm of yarn, so you can get 2 from the ball. Presto, winter warmth. I suppose it needs a matching hat.

Mosaic Reindeer

 Every now and again, I need to remind myself of skills that I have learned. I was looking for an idea for a door decoration for a dear one with a new apartment. The Passport to Christmas give away came along last month and I saw the perfect pattern. 

Mosaic Reindeer was designed by Kristy of Quiet Play Designs. I starting pulling fabrics from my stash and came up with these.

I used the batiks and sadly put back the poinsettia fabric. After several hours and some frustration (trimming the wrong fabric or sewing the piece of fabric upside down), I finished this.

I think it came out rather well. I did machine tying instead of quilting, since it is not going to be very stressed. This morning, when the sun was out briefly, I found a bunch of jump stitches that I had missed on the back side.

Obviously, the bobbin thread was a good match for the backing fabric. The backing was a fat quarter, again from my stash, of unknown age, that was a perfect match for the front. I even got my poinsettias that I wanted.

I bound it by wrapping the backing fabric around to the front. I was reminded of this technique by Sandra of  MMM Quilts. Her tutorial is at the link.

I used the same stitch that I tied the quilt with to stitch down the binding and it went very well.

It is in the mail now, off to the "wet coast" . 

Your trivia for today: In Canada, reindeer are called caribou. The males shed their antlers in the fall, but the females shed theirs in the spring. So my reindeer must be Vixen!

 

Twas the Night...

 So, we are once again entering a very quiet Christmas celebration. The Covid cases in our area are again soaring, and I'm hiding! 

The church will be closed until the new year, and knowing this, last Sunday there was some tidying of things that won't be required when the building reopens. So, a friend brought me a wreath that had been hanging on the door. With no one using the door, she thought I would enjoy it, and I do.

It now graces the wall on the other side of my front door, where it can be seen from the street.

The Christmas tree is up and decorated, though there is only us to enjoy it.

My entirely cat friendly tree. It is just lacking garlands.

I made Christmas masks for people I want to keep safe. These are the grown up ones. There were kid ones as well.

I keep seeing advice to ditch your cloth masks. If you are following the rules for social distancing and your mask has three layers including a filter and provides a good close fit to your face, then go ahead and keep using it. The environment will thank you. 

I finished another Sesame Street hat. This one is Elmo.

I modified the pattern that came with the kit because apparently my favourite five year old has a bigger head then the pattern suggests. This is a much better fit.

When my kids were younger, I often made them pajamas for Christmas. I decided that I should make some pajama pants for the next generation.

When I bought the fabric, I forgot to add an extra fabric allowance for the fact that the fabric is one way and I can't turn one pattern piece around. Obviously, it has been awhile since I did this. However, I managed to squeak out a pair of pants out of my yard of fabric. The second pair isn't a one way design so it should be easier.

Holly Jolly Stockings

 Our Hibiscus spends the cold weather in the dining room and the warm weather either in the sun room, or out on the patio. It has moved back to the dining room, and continues to bloom. 

I think it has now been flowering for 10 months without a break. I smile every time I see it with a new bloom.

Meanwhile, my Christmas cactus decided to flower for Christmas, this year (it can be widely variable.)

I was asked to make two Christmas stockings. The request was for fun fabric, not Christmas. So I opened up the Laurel Burch vault and found two half yard pieces that seemed to fit the description.

Similar but enough different that they can be told apart. I made the labels inside into pockets for small items that might get lost in a big stocking. The pattern is "Holly Jolly Stocking" by Lindsay Connor. It was free a few years ago but is now available as a paid pattern.

My Laurel Burch stash is nearly gone. It is good it is being used up, but a little sad that there won't be new designs down the road.

I finished knitting my Joy cowl. 

Needs a bit of blocking to smooth out the stitches, I think.