Christmas Traditions

So, I wrote this blog post about two weeks ago.  I've been having a lot of problems using my iPhone to do blog posts.  So many problems that I've composed and lost whole posts.  It was getting very frustrating and I had almost decided to give up the whole blogging business.  But, Kev gave me a laptop for Christmas.  So, now I can resume blogging.  I rather enjoyed blogging using the iPhone, but lately the apps that I had been using just weren't working and I couldn't even manage to get a post to the publish part.  Like I said, very frustrating, especially when you've done the work to get all your thoughts down to word form and all your pics organized only to be met with a road block in the publish phase.  Maybe it was my phone, and not the app itself.  That is entirely possible because my phone has been absolute and total rubbish lately tbh.  So, without further adieu - here is what is likely my last blog post of the wonderful (not) year of 2016!!

Yes!! I cant believe how fast this year has gone.  It's that time of year where start thinking about what ornaments I want to make for my four grandsons.  This is the third year that I've made handcrafted tree ornaments for my boys.  The first year I crocheted snowmen for them.  The second year, I knit the cutest snowball reindeer.  This year, I've decided to knit little elves!

The pattern was written by Susan B Anderson.  She is a wonderful designer - in particular she designs great toy patterns.  I've knit several of her toys in the past and always with great results! She does a fantastic job.

All four of the elves knit up very fast.  I couldn't be more pleased with them.  I'm pretty sure that my boys will like them too, and really that's what its all about, right?

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

Christmas

It's that time of year again. I'm not sure why but the people around me are all in panic mode. I've never been one to do this but every now and again I can feel the sense of panic welling up inside.

I can usually talk myself out of this panic. My children are grown so there doesn't seem to be the same sort of demands placed upon trying to have a perfect (whatever that means) Christmas. 

I do however have four little grandsons and I would like to start some Christmas traditions for them. I think if I made them each a handmade ornament every Christmas, that by the time they were grown they would have an armload of beautiful handcrafted Christmas ornaments.

So, with that in mind I crocheted this little beauty.

The pattern is called snowman lights. The design is by Deborah Arch. It is from the crochet magazine called crochet world.

I couldn't be happier with how he turned out. I love his goofy grin. I did make some mods to the pattern. Instead of black beads, I used safety eyes. And I didn't use beads on the mouth.  I embroidered the mouth with some black yarn. The next one I make I will have the earmuffs down over the face a little more. We shall see how they all turned out. One down and three to go.

Edited December 16

So, I finished all four of the snowman. I couldn't be happier with them I am tickled at how cute they turned out.

My embroidery however could use a little work. Look at this photo.

I'm not sure if the lettering is legible or not but I can read them. So, as long as the boys know who owns what it's all good.

I also wanted to share these mittens with you. They are from the self striping club that I was telling you about a couple of posts ago. I'm pretty sure I will be gifting these to my friend Flo. She has been not so subtly hinting for these. This girl professes not to be a yarn snob but she does recognize good yarn when she sees it and who am I to deny someone who has such great taste.