Tiny Owls, and Santa faces in two media

Here are the customary pictures of Sam's and my ornaments for the party this year, which pictures I always take to ease the pain of having to part with the ornaments themselves!

I have always wanted to crochet something really, really tiny, and I found the pattern for these owls here. It was hard to make, which is why I made three of them…I got a little better each time. (Still not as good as the pictures in the pattern, though!) I think the one on the left (the third one I made) looked the most owlish of the bunch…the others seem more like maybe…hawks? or falcons?

One part that was hard was just attaching the tiny beads for eyes, and getting them in the right spot—it's hard to find a place to secure the thread without it showing in such a tiny head, and then the slightest variation in their placement can totally change the expression and aspect of the bird. It was also hard doing the stitching for the feathers above the eyes (to make them look angry, like owls do), for the same reasons.

Well, anyway, it was a learning experience and perhaps next time I will do better. I have a cute tiny elf pattern I'd like to try!

Malachi loved these tiny owls, so he got the one I didn't give away.

And here is the wonderful wooden Santa that Sam carved, which was wildly popular at the party, as his creations always are, and rightly so. I am always very sad to see them go, and I always hope that he will make some for ME as well. Which he has sometimes done (see my favorite ornament ever, here).

And lastly, here is one more Santa whom we DID get to keep! Thank goodness. I love him so much! Abe wore this Santa suit when he was a baby, too, and I still think it's the cutest thing ever. (Especially with a happy baby in it.)

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This year's ornaments

This is the ornament Sam made for our ornament party this year. We go to this party with a bunch of awesome, creative people and everyone makes an ornament. It's so fun, and we love it, but since we have to give our ornaments away, I always feel like I have to take pictures so we have a record of all our work in SOME form at least!

I love Sam's fishy ornament. My favorite part is all the bubbles (you can't quite tell in the picture, but those are holes in the wood).

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Matching animal hats for girls and dolls, crocheted snowflakes, etc.

I'm not really sure why I always feel a need to document things I crochet. Maybe it's because once I've taken a picture of it, I feel like I can relax if it gets lost or ruined (as everything eventually seems to around here) because I at least have a record that I did it. And these little dolly hats are some of my favorite things I've made for a long time. They went so fast, and they just looked so…miniature and matching and cute! Because I made up the patterns for two of the girls' hats (that sounds more impressive than it is: they are just basic HATS, with simple ears and noses and such figured out as I went along, and I followed a pattern for Daisy's) I had to make up the dolls' hats too. It mostly involved doing the same thing, but…less of it. I tried to write down what I was doing so I could give someone a pattern (lots of people asked me for patterns for my Angry Birds Hats, and I felt bad I hadn't written anything down at the time) but I'm afraid I still wasn't wholly complete in my instructions. Maybe at some point I'll sit down and write them better. I do at least have notes.

Anyway, I had already made the penguin and piggy hats for the girls, and I made their little matching doll hats for Christmas. And then after Christmas, Goldie was saying, "I wish I had a ow-funt hat!" so I made a set for her and her dolly too, which might be my favorite of all.

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Ornamental

Sam and I always have so much fun choosing what Christmas tree ornaments (or "ordaments," as about 50% of the children in this family call them) to make, and then making them, for the ornament party we go to every year. I guess it's becoming my tradition to crochet a little set of amigurumi characters every year. I did the Wizard of Oz last year, and Star Wars the year before that. And this year I decided on Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't able to find a pattern this year, so I just sort of fumbled my way through it, not knowing exactly what I was doing. I used some ideas from this pattern, and looked at this darling set for inspiration.

Alice

Mad Hatter

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A hamburger

It was General Conference a couple weekends ago, and I know there are all kinds of good things my fellow Latter-day Saints are doing at this time of year—making goals, reevaluating habits, improving themselves. One friend said her mother was always embroidering temple clothes for her children during conference, and another friend said she likes to keep a conference journal. I also like to have something to work on, and I often crochet hats or some other project while I listen, but this time I felt I ought to add something of real value to the world. Something that will stand as a testament to the lasting and worthwhile in this tawdry, disposable world of ours.

So I crocheted this hamburger.

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Ornaments

For the last few years Sam and I have had been going to an ornament exchange party. I have to say, though I don't wish to boast, that it's a coveted invitation to get, and the guest list is made up of all sorts of cool people—artists and musicians and various other luminaries—so we always feel lucky that we get to go. And we always feel like we want to make something really good to bring. Last year I made the tiny Star Wars people, and this year I decided to crochet these tiny Wizard of Oz characters. I got the (adorable, right?) pattern here.

I think Dorothy and Toto (in his basket) are the cutest. But it wasn't all fun and games:

Gaaaaaaa!! Scary Dorothy! I don't know why my first try always turns out so horrifying. I guess it just takes me awhile to figure out what I'm doing? Daisy has adopted all these poor little orphaned misfits. She loves them, and they deserve someone to love them, but still…one hates to come suddenly upon them in the night…

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Hats and leaves

I made hats this year during General Conference, as is my custom when I'm not currently working on some other crocheting project. Not this Daisy hat above---I made that ages ago for Daisy---though I suppose it works for a Marigold too. I want to make Goldie a new one that's red and orange and yellow at some point.

Anyway---the hats I did make were a pink penguin for Daisy:

(I got a pattern here.)

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Yellow blanket

I liked the pattern for these baby blankets so much, I wanted to make a big one for myself. It's really only impressive in size---it's not any harder to make than the little ones. I changed the pattern slightly, so the bobbles are offset vertically instead of in vertical and horizontal rows, but other than that it was just mindless row after mindless row. It's almost the biggest thing I've ever made, as my usual métier is the realm of baby things, or at least tiny things that can be finished in a week or two. :) It didn't take as long as I thought it might (a few months, though---I think I started at the end of April?). It's still too hot, really, to have it on the bed, but I put it on there just to see how it looked.

I used my favorite colors of yellow (that browner-looking one is, in fact, more of a wheat color) and made random-sized stripes across the blanket. I love how soft and snuggly, and yet heavy, the little bubble stitches make it!

It's pretty on the back, too.

I wonder what I should make next?

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Tiny blankets

Lately I've had the happy situation of having lots of friends having babies, which means lots of my favorite kind of crocheting projects! I made these bubble blankets for my new little twin nephews:

(Super-easy free pattern here; I love it!)

My children loved these blankets SO much that they all begged for one of their own. Maybe that will happen someday . . . but for now I told them they could each choose some colors and I'd make a blanket for one of their stuffed animals. They have SO many animals they love that it turned into more than one each, but since they were so tiny I didn't mind. :)

I like these little twins

I am now working on a blanket for myself, which I've never done before, and it will probably take me eons. (Actual person-sized blankets are so BIG!)

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Gift ideas, ages 0-11 years

I can't post these before Christmas, as my kids are avid readers of my blog (and some of the only ones who comment these days . . . hi, Abe!), but I found I really liked having a record of what kinds of things we got for the kids last year, so I'm doing this again. I hope it's useful.

Have I mentioned on this blog how much of a Rubik's Cube whiz Abe has become? He learned how to do the cube from his cousin Andy, and now you rarely see him without one in his hands. He can do it with his eyes closed . . . at least for a few of the steps! It's quite amazing. For his birthday in October, we got him the speed cube, which is way more fun to use, apparently. Easier to turn and so forth. But he couldn't fit it in his pocket for on-the-go cubing (I know!), so for Christmas I got him the cute tiny version so he can take it everywhere with him. He also got this triangle version, which I hoped would keep him challenged for more than . . . an hour . . . but I hoped in vain. He looked up a tutorial online and had it down by lunchtime. He still likes it, though, he says. (Although he is the soul of politeness, so he would say that even if he didn't.)

Abe would also like to show you how magically his shirt changes color in the sun. Abracadabra!

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Small things

I've been crocheting like a madwoman the last few months. I love to have something relatively mindless to work on while I'm doing something else! And these are especially fun because they are small and come together quickly. I made these little Star Wars people into Christmas ornaments and gave them away. It was quite hard to part with them, especially Yoda (whom Junie calls "Yota"). I got the adorable patterns on Etsy. I have the jawa too, but I haven't made him yet.

I made a nativity set too, which was really fun. I love the kings holding their ball-y gifts! My friend Rachael said she couldn't even conceive of what a crocheted nativity set would look like. Now you know!

The kids love playing with them, especially Daisy, who also has the failed Princess Leia and the strange-looking thumb-Baby that I made. She loves them, poor misshapen things that they are.

I'm learning a lot by making these, too, and getting better as I go. It's interesting how whenever you start doing a lot of something, you realize how much you still have to learn about it. I'm so grateful for online tutorials! They help fill the void left by my dear departed grandmother, who died before she could teach me to crochet. Of course, my mother taught me to knit when I was young and I've pretty much forgotten that, so I suppose even a live grandmother would be no guarantee of proficiency . . . :) I would like to re-learn knitting someday, but it seems so complicated . . . TWO needles??!

I'm not sure about Mary's mouth. I might take it out and do it with a lighter pink. All the mouths have given me no end of trouble! It's hard to hide the ends and to get the placement right.

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Good things about Christmas Break

Little Eskimo in her furry hood

I've loved our Christmas Break this year. It was fun to be busy with preparations, and then it was just as much fun to be DONE with everything and just rest for a few days. Ahhh. It has been SO nice to sit around doing (practically) nothing.

Happy train-riders

Worried Santa

Sam got a wood-burner earlier this month and has been going around the house burning designs into any wood object he can find. I love the things he makes.

Penguins

I crocheted a mama penguin. She has an egg tucked inside her, which turns inside-out to become a penguin chick. Because I was making up the pattern as I went, these penguins went through some very interesting iterations.

This is my first attempt. The poor sad baby!  But Daisy loves him anyway (this one went to her), so it's okay.

Here is Malachi coming in all rosy-cheeked to tell me about his adventures sledding---while I sit tucked warm in my bed. Oh how I love having older boys that can take the younger ones out into the freezing world so I don't have to!

Junie gets in on the picture

"FBI warning: if the athority is prospected you can coppy this movie but, if it isint you will be cot! thanks!"

Sebby was making a movie (out of paper . . . yes, it had many pages) and this was the FBI warning "screen."  I love it so much. It has just the right type of meaningless bureaucrat-speak, combined with appropriately dire threats. And the falsely bright "thanks!" at the end for good measure.

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