Christmas Balls

Now that Christmas gifts have been given, I can post about a few of them. First up, Christmas balls.

I don't remember how or where, but two years ago I saw the work of "The Ornament Girl" and signed up for her free tutorial. The ornaments are all made by folding fabric and pinning it to a foam ball.

Then I got emails every week with new examples of the same design or new designs. (She has an ornament of the month club so there are always new ones.) I deleted the ones I didn't like and collected the ones that I did like.

This year was finally the year when I was going to put the tutorial to good use.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I spent some time at my sister's. We always talk about doing "craft days" together and that's what I decided to make it. I gathered and brought all the supplies to make some ornaments. (At first the only fabric I packed was a strip set of Christmas fabric that I got as a gift but by the time I left I had three gallon bags full of red, green, and blue Christmas or winter fabric!)

I didn't take any progress pics, so the rest of this post consists of pictures of finished ornaments. The first ornament strictly follows the instructions of the tutorial.

The tutorial even shows how to do the ribbon on the top, which is good because I am not great at those fussy embellishments. I used a bunch of leftover ribbon so none of them match!

This is the same eight-pointed star design with different fabrics:

Then I decided to try one of the other designs that I had collected:

I didn't have a tutorial for it and tried to figure out how to adapt the other technique on my own. I don't think I did it the same way, but the final effect is pretty much the same.

Another eight-pointed star:

Later, I added the beads to the ornaments.

Where I put beads was influenced by the pictures from the Ornament Girl and also determined by what colours of beads I had! The beads are applied with a pin through them so that is why they all have a silver "head".

I think I got three done at my sister's in an afternoon and the next morning. They took a lot more time than I anticipated!! (Picking and cutting the fabric takes quite a bit of the time.)

When I got home, I kept the supplies out and made a few more over the next week or so. I made a few where the center was a scene cut from a fabric.

(These "double pictures" show the two sides of the same ornament.)

Look at those sweet bunnies!!

And I had to make a pink one for my sister who does her tree up in pink. (When she does a tree; this year she didn't have one.)

Then I tried a little fussy cutting. Lucy Boston having her influence on me!

Here, the center pieces are fussy cut and folded to line up.

The center and outer pieces in this one

are fussy cut as well. The center lines up holly leaves on the fold and dotted lines where fabric pieces meet. The outer pieces are folded so a solid green line forms at the fold.

Here's a top view of the ribbon.

Some got single bows; some double. It just depended what I had to match and what I felt like the ornament needed.

And the final ornament was made with a collection of black and white holiday fabric I had.

I really liked this one!

There was one more ornament I made with a spiral design but I gave it away without getting a picture!! It was my attempt at this style:

Picture by the Ornament Girl

in red, green, and gold. (It looked a little like this but not so nice...this was one I really could have used instructions for!!)

A few other people got ornaments, but here's a picture with my sisters after I gave them theirs:

This was a really fun project and the results came out better than I expected. (It's hard to cover the raw edges of the fabric and to "finish" it when there's no place to hide the ends.) I don't naturally trust things that aren't fastened together somehow (pins pushed into foam can be pulled out!), but it seemed to work well.

It's a fun way to use up some small amounts of fabric and adding beads or other embellishments (sequins, charms, rhinestones, etc.) can make them sparkle in the tree lights.

Not Short on Shortie Socks

Ready for one more pair of shortie socks? It's been a summer full of them!

The very day I cast off the last pair, I cast on a new pair! I found one ball of self-striping yarn in the stash, and got started. I quickly realized that my usual short-row toe was not going to give the best results with the stripes. (If by "quickly" you understand that I knit the toe and then had to take it out.)

So I tried a more common toe that starts at the tip and increases to the full width of the sock. I started with 12 sts (on each needle, 24 total), and quickly increased to 22 (44 total) by increasing one stitch on the right and left of the sole and top every row. Then I increased every other row to 32 (64 total) stitches.

Six days later, I was casting off the first sock. Or almost casting it off. I had started the sock right where the yarn changed from blue to grey and wanted to start the second sock in the same place. Well, I only had five stitches left on the bind off and only had about 2 inches left of blue. Not enough to cast off five stitches and leave an end to start the next sock.

I was stumped for a minute, but then noticed the other end of the ball was dark blue so I used it for the last five stitches. Makes a couple more ends to work in, but I had preserved the colours. Later I noticed that I could have used the tail at the beginning of the sock too. It was longer than normal (and of course blue).

I then cast on the second sock starting at the same grey/blue colour change and hoped it would match the first. This would depend on knitting it the same as the first sock, keeping my tension the same, and the yarn being dyed consistently over six repeats (three for each sock).

And guess what! It worked!

I think I had to make a slight adjustment when I went around the heel to keep the colours the same but it's hardly noticeable.

I made the heel turn a little different, making the short rows from short to long instead of long to short and I didn't like it.

There are little bumps from the short rows and they end up on the bottom of the sole instead of at the edge of the heel. I can't feel it while I'm wearing them but I prefer the look of how I normally do them. Now I know.

I finished with a 1x1 rib. It's a little shorter than I would have done but, as noted, I was constricted by the yarn stripes.

Totally worth it!

I love the muted colours of this stripe. This was a ball of yarn my sister found at a second hand store and passed on to me because she wasn't knitting socks at the time. Then later when she got into socks again, she knit a pair with the same yarn!

These are a little small for me which is a good sign that they will fit the person I'm giving them to. :) At first I was confused about why they were small because I did the usual number of rows before doing the heel, but then realized the new way I did the toe is fewer rows than my usual toe. That would do it!

Project Stats
Started: 22 July '19
Finished: 5 Aug '19
Pattern: none (improvised); toe-up, gusset, heel flap
Materials: Patons North America Kroy Socks Ragg Shades (in Blue Stripe Ragg), 45 g
Ravelry project page: Grey self striping shortie socks

Scott Pilgrim vs the Cold

More Christmas knitting to catch up on.

I asked my sister if she had any suggestions of gifts for her daughter. She gave a few ideas and made a comment that her daughter was completely into this little quirky movie "Scott Pilgrim vs the World".

While on Ravelry one day soon after, I thought I'd just search "Scott Pilgrim" because you never know what may turn up. It's amazing what kind of "tributes" knitters can come up with when they love something.

Well, what turned up was the pattern for the hat that the title character wears in the movie.

Picture from Ravelry pattern page.

The pattern was written by the person who knit all the hats for the movie (all six of them). That's pretty cool, right?

I had some brown in the right shade left over from the dress I knit another niece. And I had some blue that was pretty close left over from a sweater.

I got worried that I was going to run out of the brown yarn, so I found some in a Ravelry stash and bought it. I figured I should get two skeins but since there were three in the stash, I just bought all three. I ended up using one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The hat is worked in the round and is a pretty simple pattern of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch stripes. What makes it stand out is the rolled brim and long length and pouchiness at the back.

I didn't think about it when I started, but I have a history of knitting things for this niece. (In a previous year I knit her some Tardis socks.) She got a Dobby sock bookmark too. After the gifts were wrapped but before she opened them, I got a little worried that she would prefer something from a store and not more stuff made by her crazy knitting aunt.

But it doesn't look like she minded! :)
Project Stats
Started: 10 Nov ‘18
Finished: 2 Dec ‘18
Pattern: Scott Pilgrim Hat (The Original Costume Pattern) by Lulu Bee
Materials: Knit Picks Swish DK, 24633 Bark (90 g) and 24053 Dusk (don't know how much...I didn't weigh the hat before I wrapped it!), mostly leftovers from other projects.


Special thanks to my niece who not only let her mom take pictures but let me post them here!

Dobby Sock Bookmarks

Catching up with Christmas knitting, here are some cute gifts I knit up through the last few months of the year.

I used the A Bookmark for Dobby pattern by Kay Jones of the Bakery Bears podcast and I knit lots of little bookmarks.

I immediately connected with the idea of a sock bookmark since Dobby the elf received a sock (and his freedom) in a book. I just love that story line of the Harry Potter books.

Two socks knit on the drive to a birthday party in September
and a third started that was finished during the party!

Each sock took a couple hours -- it helped that I didn't have to make a pair! :) The pattern was easy to memorize and it's not the end of the world if you miscount a row for two.

Once I had a bunch of socks, I made little tags to insert in the sock to give them a crisp finished look and to drive home the point.

I gave them to several children of friends and my niece, who all seemed to enjoy them.

A great project to use up a lot of my scraps and very fun to do!

Snips Baskets

I mentioned in my last post that I made some snips baskets (or thread catchers if you prefer) to give away at the craft retreat. I have for you a little tutorial in case you would like to make your own.


Cut out two triangles that are 9 inches on each side. 9 inches with the seam allowance or without, you ask? It doesn't really matter. One choice will result in a little smaller basket than the other but either will work.

One triangle is your "outside" fabric and one is the inside. Put them right sides together and sew 1/4" seam all around the outside, keeping 2-3 inches unsewn on one side, but making sure to sew all three corners. Trim the seam allowance around the corners and flip it inside right. Press.

Ok, I am seriously lacking in pictures so far but hopefully you get it.

Here is my triangle after it has been sewn and flipped:

There is still an opening that is not sewn on one side. The seam allowance should be pressed to the inside along the same line as the seam.

If you are planning to do the rest of the sewing with a machine, you can top stitch around the triangle close to the edge and that will close up the hole. Specific instructions below are for hand stitching, which is what I did.

Now fold one edge in half with the inside fabric on the inside. Just make sure it is not the edge with the opening. (You can use the opening to get inside and hide your knots.) Mark half-way with a pin.

Then mark half the half way with another pin.

You can double check that the second pin is in a good place by folding over both corners and making sure they just reach the corner and are even.

If they aren't even, adjust the second pin (yellow above) until they are.

Now sew the two sides together along the edge between the two pins, either starting or ending at the fold. (I prefer to end at the fold because things are less likely to get misaligned.)

You can do it by machine (sewing right on top of the top stitching) or by hand, which is what I did, sitting by the wood stove. Mmmm, cozy.

Here the seam is sewn and you can see that the top half of the edge is left unsewn:

Now do it again to the second side (the remaining side without the opening):

Now it's time to close the opening.

The basic idea is to sew the opening closed and then sew the folded seam as on the other two sides.

More details: I folded the edge in half as with the other sides so I could check which end of the opening was furthest from the halfway pin.

Sew the opening shut starting at the end furthest from half way. When you get to the other end, tie off with a knot but do not cut the thread. Then insert the needle next to the knot and move it between the fabric layers to the halfway point. Pull the needle through, sew a knot to anchor your thread and then sew the seam.

Finger press from each sewn corner to its neighbours to shape the bottom. and now you have a triangle pyramid with loose flaps on top.

What you do with those is anchor them down with a button, bow, yarn, or just a stitch - whatever you want.

Fold each side down so the point is just above the folded edge of the bottom and centered between the sewn corners. Secure with your doo-dad of choice.

And when you want to make some gifts to take to a craft retreat, you do it all a few more times!

I had fun going through my button collection and finding some to complement each fabric combination.

The thing I liked about this little basket is that if you're working away from home, you can just fold up the basket and throw it in your project bag. The threads or yarn ends won't fall out.

I will find this very handy as I bring my knitting or hand sewing with me to plenty of places and am always making little piles of cut offs that I hope I will remember to throw out when I leave.

Compelling little shapes, aren't they!