Vacation Starts!

Tonight marks the beginning of two weeks of vacation. I'm so thankful to have this break - the winter holidays are one of my favourite times of year - spending time with family, knitting to take the chill off, Christmas music and twinkly lights. It has been an immensely complicated year with amazing moments and  profoundly sad ones. Life marches on, but I am glad at this time of year to take a rare second to pause and reflect.


That said I'm not going to sit here for hours thinking of something interesting to say, but will leave you with a short story and these photos of our Christmas tree. It is not "real" as I had planned, and it is much smaller than I wanted, but I love it all the same.


The first knitted monster I ever made was a Rebecca Danger's Dot the Dress-up monster. Once he was finished I had him proudly displayed on the sofa where Lola and him would cuddle up for naps. Then my mom came for a visit. Within 30 seconds she had scooped the monster off the sofa and didn’t put him down all day. I relented and told her she could have him. Completely enamoured and excited by her new knitted prize mom went off to show my grandmother. When she came back upstairs empty handed it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened. My Nan had also fallen in love with this little monster, had immediately named him Sheldon Sinclair, the Avocado Monster and found a place for him in her home. Mom didn’t have the heart to take him away. So she came back to tell me that I not only needed to knit myself another monster, but she wanted one too. So for Christmas I made her this Dot, With Stripes! who is waiting patiently under the tree for her new mommy to come and take him home.

Chilling with the Nutcracker my grandfather made me when I was a little girl,

This picture is several years old, from Lola's first Christmas, when mom bought her the dorkiest elf costume. She was forever immortalized in this photo as the Grinch! It makes me laugh every year

Back to holiday knitting!


msi

Photo Tutorial: Felt Gnomes

Every winter my grandmother and I have gone to the Gardiner Museum's "12 Trees of Christmas". If you have never been, or even heard of this event, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art showcases 12 different Holiday trees decorated by local designers. Each one has a theme, and they range from traditional to abstract. It is a great tradition for my family and if you are in the Toronto area around the holidays I would highly recommend a visit.

Since I decided that I wanted to make all the ornaments for my tree this year I decided that I wanted a theme to help me decide on the ornaments I would craft. I choose "Winter Woodland" and have been happily "pinning" ideas on Pinterest ever since. The decision to have a woodsy theme - combined with the fact that I recently watched Gnomeo and Juliet - inspired me to look for gnome patterns.

For last weekend's ornament craft, I was inspired by this Ravelry pattern. I decided that instead of knitting these little guys I would re-create them with felt. Me, NOT knit something? Shocking I know! Not to worry though, I have lots of knitting Christmas ideas :) I hope you enjoy this Felted Gnome recipe!

Materials:

Toilet Paper Rolls
Felt in assorted colours
Yarn in beardy colours: white, grey and tan
Polyfill Stuffing
Optional: Embellishments, such as buttons

You will also need sharp scissors, a glue gun and a medium circle shaped object to trace (I used a bowl)

Instructions: 

1. Make the body: Cut your toilet paper roll so that it is about 3" long. Mark a piece of felt in desired colour at the rolls height and cut out a long strip. Put a line of glue down one of the short edges of the felt strip. Attach the TP roll. Adding more glue, roll the TP roll along until completely covered in felt. Snip felt to the correct size and glue down. Trim the felt if there is excess along the top or bottom.

2: Make and attach the beard: Take the yarn and wrap it around the span of your hand loosely until you have enough to make a busy beard. Then cut at the top and bottom of the yarn loop. Use a longer piece of pre-cut yarn to tie the beard strands together near the top. Make sure to knot this tightly and multiple times so that your beard doesn't fall apart.

Next, put a large dollop of hot glue on the inside of the TP roll on the opposite side of the roll from the felt seam. This will ensure that the seam is on the back of your gnome. Quickly press the top end of your beard (where it is knotted) into the glue. Hold in place until completely dry. At this point your beard will look rather long and shaggy. Don't worry, you will give him a trim later on.

3. Make the nose: Take a small circular piece of felt in a skin tone for the nose of your gnome. Put a tiny bit of polyfill stuffing in the centre. At this point you can either fiddle with the glue gun to close the nose, or you can sew it shut so that it makes a small felt ball. Don't worry about making this perfect. As long as it looks roughly like the one in the picture it will be a good gnome nose.

4. Make the gnome hat: Trace a medium sized bowl onto your felt. I used a bowl that is approximately 6" in diameter. From your circle cut out 1/4. Cut the remaining 3/4 into 2 roughly equal pieces. This will make 2 gnome hats.

Once you have your hat piece run a line of glue along one of the straight edges and then fold the hat in towards the middle. Do the same with the other side to create a cone shape. 

5. Attach the gnome's hat: The first place you want to attach the gnome's hat is at the back. Line up the seam on the body with the seam on the hat and glue them together. Next run a line of glue along the top of the roll on the right or left side and attach the hat, then repeat for the other side. Make sure the glue dries before you move to the next area or the hat will slide around.

Once you have attached the back and sides of the gnome's hat, its time to add the nose. Spread the gnome's beard in the middle, put a dollop of glue on the back of the nose and push it into the beard, so that it will be partially obscured by the hat. You may also want to add a small dab of glue to the top of the nose to affix the hat at the front.

To finish the hat, stuff it will polyfill stuffing to get the desired shape. You can use the blunt end of a pen or pencil to help you move the stuffing up into the top of the hat and to make sure it is stuffed evenly.

6. Finishing you gnome: At this point you will want to trim your gnome's beard. I suggest doing this over a bowl so that you don't get little yarny bits everywhere. You can stop here if you like, or you can add embellishments, such as buttons, or small stars or snowflakes to give your gnome a fancier look.

Repeat this process and before you know it, you will have an entire Gnome army to take over any holiday gathering. You can use these gnomes as a table decoration, or you can string yarn through the top if their hats to make ornaments for the tree. Enjoy your new gnome friends!

Happy Crafting!

msi.

Photo Tutorial: DIY Beaded Star Ornaments

As promised here is the photo tutorial for my first holiday ornament, Beaded Stars. I was inspired by this post on Crafty Mummy, but I was unable to find pre-made wire shapes so I decided to make my own.

If you are in Toronto, the best deal on beads I have found is Chaton Beads near Queen West and Palmerston. It is on the south side of Queen just east of Palmerston. They also have shops in Quebec and I believe you might be able to order online. If you get on their email list, they will send you coupons for great deals. Occasionally they will have a coupon for 50% off everything in store. I went on one such day and got enough materials to make at least 30 stars for $20. What a steal!

Supplies:

1.0 mm aluminium wire
A selection of beads (ensure that the wire will fit through the hole of your bead, I used beads in the 4-8 mm range)
Hot glue gun and glue
A variety of sequins

In addition you will need a measuring tape or ruler, a pair of wire cutters and round-nose jewelry pliers.

Instructions:

1. Straighten out a section of your wire and cut roughly even lengths. I used 4", 5" and 6" to get three different sizes of star. You might find it helpful to use a spare piece of fabric to run along the wire as you straighten it out.

2. Decide how you want your star to look. Lay the pieces down in a shape that is pleasing to you and make sure that the angles are wide enough to make a relatively even looking star.

Once you know how you want the finished product to look lay one of your wire pieces on a surface you don't mind getting glue on and put a drop of hot glue in the center. Quickly press in another piece of wire into the glue spot at the predetermined angle. I am a bit fearless about burning my fingers, but do exercise caution. You want the glue to wrap around the second piece of wire. Also, be careful not to glue the pieces to the surface of the table. Lift the star off the surface before it dries. Once this dries, repeat with the third piece of wire. I tend to make a bunch of the star forms first and let them dry completely before beading. Don't worry at this stage, they will look ugly, but the magic is about to happen.

3. Slide the beads onto the spokes of the stars. Because the lengths are unlikely to be perfect, slide beads onto the shortest spoke first. It is also a good idea to use smaller beads for the center. Make sure you bead one spoke at a time or the beads will fall off and you will have a huge mess. Play with colour combinations until you find one you like. Leave at least a half centimeter at the end of the spoke unbeaded. With the round nose pliers, gently bend and loop the end so the beads will not fall off. If you have excess, trim with the wire cutters. This loop will also provide a place that you can slip a ribbon or string through for hanging. Repeat on the other spokes.

4. Once all of the spokes are beaded, choose a sequin for the middle of your star. Put a drop of glue in the middle and attach the sequin. Repeat for both sides. This not only finishes the star by hiding the ugly glue spot, but will also help to strengthen the connection. For a less sparkly look you could also use a button,or a more dimensional look you could use a bead, but I liked the combination of the flatness and bling provided by the sequins.

Voila!  A beautiful ornament for the tree or for a gift topper.

Happy Crafting!

msi.