Christmas Recap, Part 2

Another Christmas project I enjoyed was this simple scarf. You need a TON of stitches on the needle, but they work up pretty quickly and they are pretty! I have already gotten requests for the pattern, which is a free one from Lion brand yarn! 

With this blue one (for my Nana, she loves this color), I followed the directions exactly, and used just a little bit more than one ball of yarn. That annoyed me, since it meant I had to buy two! I made a second one, in red, and just reduced the number of stitches (I think by 20 or so) and then it took exactly one ball. I think a little bit shorter looked fine - maybe better, since it was a little less bulky.

Not the best picture I've ever had taken of me...but I was in a hurry to get things photographed and wrapped!

Christmas Recap, Part 1

My brother is in the process of becoming an adult. This year, he bought his first condo...and the first time I visited, I felt like it was missing something. It was lacking a certain sophistication. And people were drinking wine out of coffee mugs.

So, of course, I bought him wine glasses for Christmas. But I felt like he needed something to go with them - cocktail napkins!

But of course, plain white wouldn't do. So I sought out this tutorial for a basic napkin, and then looked for some embroidery patterns to spice them up. I found the perfect patterns here.

And, voila!

Grownup (because they are cloth napkins) and still ridiculous. Perfect for my brother.

I love the way these turned out. I will definitely make more!

Back from neverneverland...

Dearly devoted blog readers (few though you may be...)...sorry for my recent absence :)

However, I have a good reason.

We bought a house!

This has been a long time in the making. I don't want to go into all the details...but to give the short version of the story, we put our first offer in last may and close on December 30th.

So, we have been busy painting and plastering and having the floors refinished. Be prepared for before and after pics!

I want to show you all some of the things I was working on for Christmas and couldn't post before the holidays for fear that the recipients would see their gifts. So, although the posts may be a little sparser in the weeks to come - stay tuned!