Mother's Day Gifts

If you're looking for something besides a scarf or blanket for Mother's Day, here are a few ideas.

My bestie asked for some soup bowl cozies.  You know, something to hold under a hot bowl of soup instead of a tea towel.  This is what I came up with.....crochet a basket with cotton yarn and line it with fabric.  Now, you don't need to line it with fabric.  It works just fine without it.

Here's what I did:

Crochet a circle and start increasing using a soup bowl as a guide.  Keep doing that until you you get the size you want.  Just keep checking the fit after a few rows.

I cut the fabric in a circle, including a 1" hem.  I then just whip stitched it to the yarn basket.  

They're reversible too!

I really like them and so did my bestie!  As I said, you don't need to add fabric and they work just fine at keeping the heat off your hand using just yarn.  Also, the yarn has just enough stretch to fit many a bowl size.

Socks are a great gift too!  There's plenty of time until Mother's Day to whip up some in her favorite color.  I use a free pattern from Susan B Anderson.  Great "how I knit my socks" pattern can be found on her Rav page.

I love this pillow I crocheted for our couch. It's from Lucy of Attic 24,  You can use any weight yarn and she has the free pattern on her lovely blog.  In the above photo, I used Knit Picks Chroma in a fingering weight.  No need to change colors as you go if you have some long run yarn in your stash.  Again, another great gift for Mom.

If you know how to crochet some edging, just add it to some pillow cases as a gift.  Get out your crochet edging books and pick a pattern.  I like to do this using fingering weight or finer.

Crochet up a few little baskets for her to hold bits and bobs or place a little potted plant inside of one.  You might want to cover the bottom of the plant with plastic wrap or foil to protect the basket.

I used this pattern with whatever yarn I had and added fabric.

I'd love to hear about ideas you have for Mother's Day gift giving!

Best,

Sheila

Factoid:

In the 1950's, 75% of American households had sewing machines.  Now it's less than 5%.

NO TIME!

Luscious Yarn and a Custom Knitting Mug

I've been so very tardy in posting.......I don't know how some bloggers get it all done!  I think I just love to knit/crochet more than anything else.  Well, except traveling!  

My hubby and I took a little break from the frigid cold of the midwest, the day after Thanksgiving, to drive to Arizona where it was in the upper 70's the whole week!  A visit to a local yarn shop in Scottsdale was one of MY highlights.  The shop had a lovely staff, coffee, cookies and chairs for bored husbands!  You have to love them taking the time to "cake" your skeins too.  

Just look at the gorgeous deal I found!  Jessica Knits....and crochets had this Mango Moon in the sale bin.  It is hand dyed in Napal and provides safe shelter, health care and education to the women there.

150 yards for $11.00 is a good price, but, in the sale bin for $6.00 is a GREAT price.  I snatched them all up.  I bought one in Bluebell, three in Butter and two in Carnation.  Aren't they just gorgeous?  I've worked with this yarn before to make a giant rectangular shawl in a multi and it turned out lovely. I might do the same here.

We also had a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright winter home there....Taliesin West.  For those of you who don't know who Wright is, I snapped this off of Wikipedia:

We took a wonderful tour of this home, which is now a school of architecture with the students living there.  He built this in the late 1900's and was extremely cutting edge when everything was so victorian in nature.  

If any of you remember this flower pillow post, I had the photo transferred to coffee mugs for a few Christmas prezzies!  

Walgreens had all their photo products half off, so I thought I'd see how they turned out.  I made four.  Keeping one for myself, giving one to my Scottish mom filled with tea bags and a gift card and one to one of my best girlfriends with a chocolate candle inside.  That leaves one extra for a future gift to someone.  I like how they turned out.

Super easy to do online and they came out to $6.00 each.

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by!

Best,

Sheila

Yarn tip:

When you purchase skeins from a yarn shop, ask them to wind them into cakes for you.  Then, they are ready to start your project when you are.

Yarny Goodness and a Kitchen Makeover

I just LOVE this needlepoint stained glass poppy!  It looks even more gorgeous in person.  It's been in the closet for years, just waiting to be framed or upholstered on to something.  Cover a pillow?  Maybe a little footstool.  What about a pad for a dining room chair?  Framed on the wall?

 I have been a crafter all my life.  Everything from glue to paint.   Cross stitch to knitting.  Fabric to pottery.  Needlepoint was my craft of choice in the 80's. I have tons of framed pieces all over the house.  I burned out right after that, but when I saw this in a craft store about 5 years ago, I just had to have it! This really needs out and seen everyday.  It's far to glorious to be put back in the cupboard.

                                      

Color in a little more subdued form.  My living room couch is in a soft turquoise, perfectly matching the color in the 5th row from the center.  I know many of you follow Attic24, as I do.  Don't you just adore her?  All that color, baking, shopping trips and English wit all from one attic!  I have made a few of her Blooming Flower Pillows for gifts.  One for a wedding shower gift in their wedding colors, one in matching nursery colors for the rocking chair.  

Lucy has the best photo tutorials for her yarny goodness.  This is a simple pattern with spectacular results!  If you use variegated yarn, as I did, there is no adding a new color for far less weaving in at the end.  The back is in a solid cream, worsted weight.  

Affordable fingerling from Knit Picks does all the work here.  Two skeins of Chroma in Soft Rock and a D (3.25) hook is what I used.

Christmas is around the corner.  We are having 8 around the table this year.  Prime rib, spanakopita, Mykonos cheese dip, roasted veggies, kalamata olives with feta cheese and baklava!  Did I mention that we are big foodies over here?  We had our dream kitchen put in a couple years ago....  

 before...

 .....after!  

Someone was remodeling their kitchen, so we bought the whole thing!  Everything from the light fixtures to the floor!  Can you believe they were getting rid of all this?  (If you look close, you can see little white bits on the floor.  We had the contractor put in some stones we collected from our trip to Greece a few years ago.)

 Maple cabinets and pulls, all the appliances, granite counter top, stone floor....we bought the WHOLE kitchen!  That pantry cupboard on the left was made over the chimney stack bump out (look at the 2nd picture above to see the before)

A working hood that vents to the outside.....awesome!  I don't have a pic of the backsplash that was installed.  Cream subway tiles with some green glass tiles here and there. 

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings!  

Merry Christmas to you all and a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!

Sheila

Yarn tip:

Ribbing (k3 or more) will sit better and pull in tighter if you work the first knit stitch by knitting in the back of the stitch!