My Christmas Flower Swap Contribution - Crocheted Poinsettias and Lollipops

Once again, I participated in a flower swap.  This swap's theme was Christmas, so I immediately went online in search of the perfect small poinsettia pattern.  There were so many nice ones, but my favorite (by far) was this one.

I thought that adding both rows of red would make the flowers too big, especially since these were being sent to people who might use them for scrapbooking, so I opted to make the smaller version (as well as some crocheted lollipop flowers, made by combining some cream yarn and gold thread):



Instead of a yellow crocheted bobble for the poinsettia's center, I used some gold beads I had purchased for another project and glued them down.  They seem to be hanging on pretty tightly:



I then attached them to some paper I had in a card stock book and created a lacy border using one of my Martha Stewart punches.  They're held on by sewing a piece of yarn through the back and tyring them to the card stock through two small holes I punched out:



I think they turned out pretty nicely, don't you?

My poinsettia-making is not done this holiday season, though!  After posting these photos to a craft album on my personal Facebook page, not only did I get some orders for flowers, but I got a TON of custom orders for my hats and headbands.  Pretty neat!  I also received some orders from my etsy shop, so the next few weeks are going to be crazy busy for me - but all worth it!

If you're interested in seeing what I have on my plate this holiday season, I created a custom order page so that we all can keep track of where I am with my projects.  I blew through some of the headbands this weekend and started a hat.  Right now, I think I'm doing well in keeping up with demand, but I suppose we'll see just how well I do as the holiday season progresses :)  Wish me luck!

Happy One Hundred - Some Wordle Fun!

Well, I've finally reached my 100th post.  Only took two years!  Oh, well.  I suppose that's okay because I didn't start blogging regularly up until this past year.

I wanted to do something fun for my 100th post, but nothing big.  I'm saving the big stuff for the holidays :)  That said, there's a super cute meme going around on CreatingTheHive.com - Arts & Crafts Community using a little widget called Wordle.  You enter your blog's feed into Wordle and it generates some art based on your blog's text.

So in honor of my three-digit milestone, here's what 100 entries about yarn look like:

I'm a little dismayed at my use of words like "like", "just", and "really", but it's pretty neat, huh?

What does your blog "look like"?!

And just so this entry has some project content, I've completed the first 3" of ribbing on my shrug and started the lace pattern.  I should finish the first row of lace this evening (after 3.5 hours of awfulness - I mean, Managerial Finance), so after that I should be able to tell how the rest of this pattern is gonna go down.  I hope it continues being friendly!

Knitting for Christmas Eve - A Cute Bolero and Knit Picks Haul!

Christmas Eve is always my chance to dress up during the holiday season.  As I've gotten older (and who's to say 27 is old, but now that my bones crack when I stand up and I go to bed at 10PM without complaint, I'm pretty sure I'm getting up there), there are more and more reasons to dress up in December.  There's always some kind of party.  But Christmas Eve has always been my night to really get dressed up, do my hair, go to the midnight service at the church I grew up in, and oh - celebrate my mom's birthday.

Shopping for dresses is probably one of the more horrific experiences I have.  I hate everything I try on, but it's something I need to do.  That's why this year, I'm going to recycle this sassy navy blue numer that I wore in a friend's wedding back in July:



I already know I love the dress and it fits well, so why put myself through the pain of shopping for clothes in the middle of Christmas?

However, the dress is not really church appropriate for a full-fledged holiday service.  At least not in my opinion.  So I need to get a cover up.  Again, I really hate shopping, especially during the holidays, and it always takes hours for me to find shrugs that I like.  Most of them are hideous, huge, and some of them have gross shoulder pads.  UGH!  It's awful.

But I'm crafty and determined enough to try my hand at making my own.  And that's why I purchased some of this Knit Pick Shine Worsted yarn to attempt knitting a shrug I actually like (ravelry link to pattern):



Originally I wanted to get a crazy bright color, but then I decided that the dress is navy blue and I wanted to wear my shiny red heels, so I'm toning it down with a safe, neutral cream color that I can match to any future ensemble I throw together.  And I'll look like a patriotic sailor, to boot.

And of course, it's not fun enough just starting a new project without treating myself to some Knit Picks Harmonies!  I drooled over the interchangeables when someone sent them with their traveling scarf, so I picked up some of my own in the sizes I'd need:



I'm finishing up some flowers for a Christmas swap I'm participating in, then I have a few custom hat orders to work on before the holidays.  But I think this will be my Thanksgiving break project.  You have no idea just how much I'm looking forward to that!  Classes will be done until January, then it's just me, my job, and coming home to knitting!

I suppose one of these days I should start working on my Christmas gifts.  I can't believe it's that time of year again already!