It's been a while since I've shared what I've been making for Christmas so I thought I should catch up on that. I've been knitting and sewing like a crazy woman! I'll start with the knitting.
I've made several hats for the men in my family. My latest hat is the Whitman Slouchy Hat designed by Danielle Morgan that I made for one of my brothers-in-law:
For a while I've been sharing pictures of the Eiffel Tower mittens I'm making for my sister. I still wasn't completely pleased with how they were going and time was running out, so I decided to put those aside for next year and instead knit the Riverfront Mitts designed by Amber Swim:
I really love how these turned out and I might have to make a pair for myself! I looked through the patterns on Ravelry and found the Mystic River Cowl designed by Tanja Luescher that I thought would be a perfect companion for the mitts:
I think they make a perfect set!
Finally, for my niece who just bought a new house, I'm knitting a set of dish towels using the Dish Towels pattern designed by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence. I've finished three of the towels and have started the last one in the set:
On the sewing side, I made this project bag for my niece:
My niece has a very strong Yoga practice so I searched online for Yoga symbols and found the Lotus image and the Om. I ironed two layers of freezer paper together to make the paper thicker, then traced the images and cut them out using an exacto knife:
I ironed the freezer paper onto some prewashed Duck canvas:
I'm not sure if I needed to prewash the canvas, but did it just to make sure that there weren't any chemicals, like sizing, on the fabric that would keep the paint from adhering. If you've ever prewashed canvas before, you know that it comes out of the dryer as a wrinkled mess. To avoid this, I prewashed the canvas but didn't put it in the dryer. Instead, I took the wet canvas to the pressing table and ironed it with a hot, dry iron to dry the fabric. While using the iron, I would also periodically stretch the canvas in the opposite direction from the folds from the washer. This worked well for me.
Once the freezer paper was adhered to the canvas, I started painting the symbols using Jacquard fabric paint and a medium stencil brush:
I was worried about the paint getting under the edges of the stencil, especially since I had to apply it rather thickly to get good coverage, but the freezer paper adhered to the canvas really well and I didn't have any trouble with leaks. Once the area was covered with paint, I carefully peeled off the freezer paper to reveal the images:
I did the lotus image first and didn't get full coverage because of my fears of messing up the edges, but I still like how it turned out. And the Om symbol turned out almost perfect! I then set the painted images aside to dry overnight (in a room where the cats aren't allowed, for obvious reasons....). The next day I also heat set the paint and sewed the bag without using a pattern. The bottom of the bag and handle are made out of a black micro-suede. I think my niece is going to really love this bag!
That's all of the Christmas crafting so far. I've also made progress on my niece's college graduation quilt. I had been calling the quilt Inclusivity, but that name was bothering me a little. I've changed it to Inclusion, which sounds less awkward to me. I got all of the background quilting finished on this quilt:
I also got the binding sewn on. I do the back of the binding by hand because I'm very picky about the binding on quilts that will be used, so that part alone took several full days of handwork. But now I feel confident that I will have the quilt finished on time since all I have to do now is quilt some fills in the hexagons and add a label. It feels so good to almost have this one off my plate!
I've also done some knitting for myself. I received the October installment of my Jimmy Beans Wool annual shawl project:
I took time out to knit this up:
But then I received the November installment and had to put that on the back burner:
I think I'll have time to knit this before Christmas because my Christmas knitting is going well.
I also received my 2019 Craftvent calendar from Jimmy Beans Wool. They offer a project each year that they divide into 24 pieces that you get to open each day as an advent calendar. Some days you get yarn and instructions for you project; other days you get a little gift. I got the knitting project that came in these cool containers that have magnets so they stick to a metal base that you can put on the wall:
I was able to keep up with the Craftvent project last year, but this year I've only been able to open the canister each day to see what I received. My niece's quilt really put me behind on everything! But I look forward to working on this shawl after Christmas....
That's everything that I've gotten done so far. Christmas is close, but I think I'll make it!
Nancy
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