Threads of Love

My Tasha Tudor Shawl!

My Tasha Tudor Shawl is officially finished!!  I managed to eek out the last of the lace edging yesterday morning before breakfast.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out as this is the very first thing I have ever knit for myself!  The yarn is so soft and yet weighty so it's not flimsy at all.  I'm very happy with the buttery color I found as well, yummy comes close, but it is truly delish!

I think I just may have to make a matching one for Violet now, shh!

Sorry this is a little blurry...

   

A Close-up of the edging...

And the bottom point...

And one more for good measure :)

It feels so good to have a completed project other than a hat under my belt and Violet and I are off on several new projects as well.  I promise I'll get a work in progress (WIP) album up soon...In the meantime, I'll just entice you!  I'm knitting a Pastel Argyle sweater set for Violet from Vogue's Ultimate Knitting book and a Cabled Shoulder Bag I saw in the Knit Simple Holiday magazine 2007 edition.

Violet is trying her hand at some leg warmers in a luscious periwinkle blue, a ballet sweater in pink and a darling little drawstring purse in kelly green!

We'll be busy for a while that's for sure!!  I hope you're wrapping your hands around something creative to ease your soul and feed your spirit!! 

Please nt in the side-bar a new list for Creativity in Action!  Be sure to check out the first one I've added, it's a delightful project to do with your children!!  I'd love to link to any fun projects you have to share, it's a great way to spread ideas for others to try as well!!

Many blessings in your day!

Knitting Samplers

Violet and I have been experimenting with different knitting stitches and we've knit up a few samplers that we wanted to share.  There are so many great knitting technique books available that it's sometimes hard to know where to start, or where to go once you've mastered the basics.  I will add our new favorite books we're enjoying right now for knitting and please share yours in the comments too! 

Here is Violet's sampler starting at the needle and going down:

• Purl 2 Knit 2 Ribbing
• Seed Stitch (she really likes this one, isn't it beautiful)
• Stockinette Stitch (her current favorite)

Her sampler was knit with Size 6 Bamboo Circular needles.  This is a size she's using to create afgahan squares for a blanket she's creating!  We need a work in progress (WIP) side bar next!!

I was inspired by the many different stitches at StitchGuide.com and the Lion Brand site Stitch Finder!My sampler from top to bottom:

• Seed Stitch
• Knit 1 Purl 1 Rib
• Mock Cable (I LOVE this one)
• Knit 2 Purl 2 Rib
• Double Moss Stitch (another of my new faves)

I knit my sampler with a Size 4 Bamboo Circular needle which I love.  It's the size I'm using for my almost finished Tasha Tudor Shawl!!

Thanks for stopping in today and please share your WIP if you care!!

Some of Our Homemade Christmas Highlights

We had a joyous Christmas and the kiddos have recovered from their viruses, thankfully.  Here's a little tour of some of our favorite homemade gift items this year.  We all delighted in giving and receiving each other's creations that were heavily laden with much love and goodness.  No words can really describe the joy one receives from giving a homemade creation:

An adorable and thoughtful stool cover for my computer desk from Violet to me :)

I have been working on this American Girl style dress for two years and never had a minute to finish it for Violet between a newborn and moving twice, but alas, I got it done!

Violet knit this spunky Gingerbread Boy for Seamus, he adores it (and his sister)!  His favorite Jan Brett story is Gingerbread Baby which of course we read numerous times throughout the holidays!

Here is a snapshot of the "Quiltie" blanket I made for Sean-Paul.  I have made a similar blanket for each of my toddlers with fun cotton fabric and some Warm & Natural fill sewn in between.  Then I just tie off to "quilt" the fabric together with cotton embroidery floss or yarn!  He loves it and always asks to be wrapped up before naps and bedtime, very sweet!

More beautiful knitting by Violet, here are two eyeglass cases, one for her father (shh, he's still in denial) and the other for Matthias.  They love them!  (The pattern is in Kids Knitting as is the Gingerbread Boy above!)

The cupcake pincushion I knit for Violet, fashioned after this adorable one and here's the pattern, but I didn't follow it to a "T"!  Have fun it's fast and easy and SO CUTE!!

Guess what these are???  They're Coasters handily crafted by my so very sweet Violet!  She got the idea from her Samantha Christmas Crafts book.  It's filled with delightful crafts and activities from the Victorian period in which Samantha lived.

A little "lace" knit hat I made for Violet between Christmas and New Years.  It's a wonderful pattern and fun detail, really a beginner project, but proved challenging enough pour moi!  As you can see we had a pink theme running here :)

And here's the three "football team" inspired knitted hats I made for my three boys!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our creations, it was a joy to make them and to give them!

Violet and I decided that it would be a good idea to plan projects all throughout the year that we can stash away for Christmas giving and then not be so bogged down with last minute finishing during this blessed time of year!  We hope your year is off to a crafty start!!  Many blessings!

A Crocheted Bakery by Violet!

Violet was so excited the other day when I showed her the positvely delightful and scrumptious Crocheted Pastries and Bakery Goods at Kimberlee's Pondered in My Heart!!  Kimberlee being the most generous and sweet lady that she is quickly sent extra directions and help when needed for us amatuer Crocheters (thanks K.) and we so appreciated her expertise!  Not to be missed are the delectables at Waltzing Matilda's, she's ever so clever at crocheting, go see!!

Here is the adorable and possibly edible bakery that Violet is making for her littlest brother for Christmas, shhh, don't tell him!!!

These are the pieces she's finished already, and there will be quite the patisserie by Christmas Eve!!

Cherry Turnover and Cinnamon Bun.

Blueberry Turnover and Jelly Filled Donut.

We are so excited to be able to share our creations with you, and thank you again Kimberlee not only for the inspiration but the much need directions, you're an Advent Angel for sure :)

Happy Creating!!

Gift Idea: Origami Popcorn Box ~ Tutorial by Violet

Violet wanted to share a lovely little gift idea by creating some Origami Pocorn Boxes to fill with gifts of love.  These are very simple to create with 12 x 12 inch Scrapbooking Paper.  The sky's the limit for ideas here, so use your imagination!!  Here is her tutorial, Happy folding!!

Begin by choosing your paper, themed to match your gift if you want.

Step 1)  Turn paper over.

Step 2)  Fold in half, points matching and crease tightly.

Step 3)  Open and re-fold on opposite points, creasing again.

Step 4)  Unfold completely with print side of paper up.

Step 5) Push two of the small triangle sides back in to the center point and squish together, creasing tightly.

Step 6)  Here's how the inside of the box should look at this point.

Step 7)  Turn paper so that point is facing you, wide part at the top.

Step 8)  Fold top flap with point a little over the center and crease tightly.

Step 9)  Repeat with opposite flap.

Step 10)  Turn over and repeat Steps 8 & 9, again creasing tightly.

Step 11)  Below shows the finsished folds on both sides.  Make sure your points are all matching precisely.

Step 12)  Stand box on end and fold one side of points into the pocket between the center of the box and the outside flaps.  Make sure your tuck and fold is even with the top of the box opening.

Step 13) Repeat Step 12 on opposite side.

Step 14)  Place hand into the center pocket of the box and gently flatten the bottom to make the base of the box.

Step 15)  This is how the box should look on the bottom.

And here it is finished and filled with some yummy goodies for knitters!  The pattern for the little Gnome Baby can be found at Natural Earth Farms. 

Violet had some other fun gift ideas to show you:

For the Little Sticker Lovers in your life!

And for a special Girl's Movie Night, we liked this fun one quite a bit!  (You can of course make one with a "manly" theme as well)

We hope you like our Tutorial for the Origami Popcorn Boxes, have fun trying them and let us know if you make one, we'd love to showcase it for you here at Threads of Love!!  Havea great day making fun things for your loved ones!

Activity Kits for Sewing, Embroider, Knitting, Crochet, and Crafting

Violet recieved this lovely little Embroidery and Beading Kit from her Grnadparents a few year's back and she still has so many little animals to work on.  These are delightful gift ideas for your older needleworkers, but a younger child could certainly do these with assistance and guidance.  Here is the beloved Lion she's been working on for a while!  His sweet yellow and orange face is made of all French Knots!!

Other Kits we have worked on in the past and are still enjoying:

Fairies You Can Make Yourself

Twirled Paper Crafts

Friendship Bracelets

Bead Rings

I Taught Myself to Crochet (see this post)

There are SO many out there, but these are our favorites so far!!  I know these are all geared mainly for girls, but we've enjoyed many building kits from Klutz too!!

What are your favorites??  Violet wants to put together some of he own special craft kits for her friends this Christmas, any favorites of yours you can share??

Have a blessed day!

Well, This is Pretty Cool...Weekend Project Anyone??

Please go check this out, it's lovely!!  Have the BEST weekend, we'll be busy little knitters me thinks!!

Embroidery Bliss!

Embroidery is one of my loves!  Violet, as you know learned this as a first handicraft and mastered her beautiful Sunbonnet Sue blocks for her beloved quilt.  Since then she has made progress in her stiching and has found real joy in doing this type of needle work.  Here is a pillowcase that she has started working on and I am going to do the pair to match ;-)

Her French Knots are exquisite and her stitches for the daisies turned out so beautifully! The pattern is Pansies trailing across with stems and the daisies as accents.  Should be quite pretty upon completion!!

We have also discovered some really fun sites that offer beautiful iron-on patterns that are very affordable.  Wee Wonderfuls is a site we've been checking out for quite a while for inspiration and we just had to have her little "Stitchette".  Here is the postcard that came with our packet:

Then we couldn't resist the darling Redwork Embroidery patterns at Pattern Bee.  Vicki, is SO nice and sent a personal note with our order! We are so excited about the Redwork Doll Quilt blocks and the very exciting Flower Fairies iron-ons!! Our order was shipped almost the same day we ordered, she has great customer service AND we received these adorable FREE iron-ons from her, thank you Vicki!!

We're going to dive into these ones right away!!  Happy embroidering!

Crochet Anyone?

Okay, let me just preface this with, I-MADE-ALOT-OF-POT-HOLDERS-AS-A-KID!!  So, naturally, one would think that I could whip out any piece of crochet, pas de problem.  Well, let's just say, it's not as easy as I remember.  But I am the persevering sort, so here we have the new kit:

I should also mention (cause I know she reads my blogs ;-) that Sean-Paul's dear Godmother (who helped with Violet's quilt construction) gave us a preliminary Crochet lesson one delightful afternoon, and then we kind of forgot, hence the Kit.  We needed hooks and such anyhoo, so it was nice to have an instruction book with pictures in a hard copy, not just internet prinouts all over the place, IYKWIM.

In between knitting Sunday afternoon I also tried my hand at a few different crochet stitches as you can see above.  Here is a little closer look at alternating rows of the Slipstich and Half-Double Crochet:

 

It's not very neat and tidy, but it's a start.  I seem to recall being able to just crochet around in circles to create flowers and other such niceties, any idea what that might be called???

Here is a little of Violet's work from our Warm and Cozy day Monday.

She's just getting the hang of it too, it looks pretty cool with the multicolored yarn don't you think?

Okay, so tell me, what is there beyond potholders???  Happy Crochetting!!

Rekindling the Knitting Fire

During the weekend Violet and I sharpened and renewed our knitting skills and rekindled that dim lit flame that we had left idle last year (or was it the year before)?  Both of us naturally picked it right back up and I'm now in the midst of a little project to get my hands back into the swing of it.  We visited Michaels and chose some nice yarns with the thoughts of using it for our beginning Crochet work (see post) and instead I am using mine for the knitting.  Violet picked a yummy lavendar and she will try working with hers this week.  Her comment to me was, "Mommy, I'd really like to try something besides little scarves for my animals."  I replied, "Well of course sweetie, you're ready for a nice project like a little lap blanket or something for your AG dollies!"  Keep you posted...

Here is my start from Sunday evening:

I am also so thankful to Rebecca for posting the delicious Tasha Tuder Shawl from The Wooly Knitster, check it out if you haven't visited she has lovely site, and so that's going to be my next knitting adventure, a shawl pour moi!! 

Do you like to knit, what have you knit and do your sweeties like to do it as well??  Happy knitting to you!