Next Project: Hats

Or, toques, or tuques, if you prefer! 

I'm kind of combining two programs for making hats.  25,000 toques is an initiative to provide warm winter hats for new refugees arriving in Canada, which I thought was a nice idea.  I'm not sure yet if my toques will be donated there, or go directly to a local refugee family.  I've already started, so I suppose it will depend partly on whether the hats I make will fit local family members!

Sunset Family Living's 2015 Christmas Challenge is all about making hats for charities, too.   They provide the patterns. You can read more about it  HERE. I'm a little behind, as they are supposed to be finished by January 6th, and I'm supposed to make 12 for the 12 days of Christmas!

The first one made was very simple, the "Easy Sideways Hat" found HERE.  I made my rows longer, so that it could have a turned up brim, and added a pom-pom on top.

For the second one I chose a pattern from the Christmas Challenge, "X-Treme Beanie" from Blackstone Designs in a toddler/child size.

On to decide which pattern to use next!

Crocheted Wristers

Ta-da!  The last project in the Holiday Stashdown Crochet-a-Long 2015! The Basic Wristers pattern can be found HERE. I cut the number of rounds before the thumb to make the fit I wanted.  I might experiment with adding a few rounds on the thumb, too.  It's a good pattern for customizing.

This is the last project I need to enter here to link back to for my five extra draw entries for completing each of the 15 projects.  However, I can continue to make additional projects from the patterns, and get extra draw entries for those, too... if I have time to before the January 11 deadline.  AND they say the group will continue to post patterns once a month until next fall when they will do this all over again.  Will I continue to follow?  I don't know.  I've also committed to making hats for refugees... coming soon, so I need to get busy with those!  Another baby afghan is on the hook, too...

"Video" of the Week: Beethoven's birthday

December is a busy month for birthdays in our studio!  Did you know Beethoven's birthday is in December, too?

Did you get a chance to play the Google Doodle game on December 17?  It's fun!  If you are reading music, try it before listening.  If you don't read well yet, just click on the pieces and sort them out from there!  If you don't get it the first time, try again! 

Have fun!

https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-ludwig-van-beethovens-245th-year

Timing!

"Festive Bottle Cozy is this week's pattern, works up fast and makes a great gift." Ooh! Well, what timing!  I had a bottle to gift that very day.  Just how fast could I make it?  I only had one student coming, surely I could do it!  I knew the perfect yarn to use, too! Oh. Wait. Son number two was here for the weekend and sleeping in the room where said yarn was stashed.  I suppose thanks to his sleeping, I got the vacuuming done...

In the end, I think I had one hour before teaching and an hour after... finishing touches while waiting for my physio appointment!  I forgot both my phone and my camera, and the recipient's camera was also down, but another friend had her phone and took this shot.  The pattern can be found HERE (with much better pictures). In my haste, I actually did a "variation" on the pattern, but it all works in the end.

Video of the week: A Christmas favourite from the Piano Guys

Please enjoy this, one of my favourites for the season!  I tend to like things in minor keys, as well as ancient plainsong chants, which this is based on...and cello solo? Of course!

Students: Please send me a link to a favourite video of yours, and tell me why you like it, if you can!

Adelyn Earwarmer

We are in our last three weeks of the Holiday Stash-down Crochet-a-Long!  That makes this project number 13. 

I've enjoyed learning some new stitches through these free patterns, and this week the new stitch was a Tunisian treble crochet! Combined with the Tunisian simple stitch, this made for a very nice texture on this earwarmer.  If you're not familiar with Tunisian, aka Afghan stitches, these are made on a foot-long (more or less) hook.  The rows are worked forwards, as your hook works yarn on, then backwards, as it works it off, finishing the stitches.

The pattern for the earwarmer, and links for tutorials on Tunisian crochet, are HERE.

Christmas Crafties and Cello Too

Christmas... Between crafts and music I've been pretty busy!  Happy that the latest CAL projects have been small ones!  Here is my "Holly in the Snow Cup Cozy", and the white Christmas tree which I've been putting off finishing...  I have the beads which will serve as decorations, just not looking forward to sewing them on!  Don't be surprised if I decide an un-decorated tree, save the ribbons on top, will suffice for this year!  Sorry the top is chopped off - I was really focusing on the cup cozy, as that's the one I need to post to enter for the CAL giveaway.

The pattern for "Holly in the Snow" is HERE.

The tree was based on the pattern HERE, though I made the boughs more like the ruffles on the scarf pattern HERE.  And my tree did NOT reach 12 " as the pattern stated... In order to even get this size, I had to stretch it over a styrofoam cone.

After the dress rehearsal for Saturday's concert with Gratiela Friday evening (here we are minus the "voice of an angel" soloist)...

 ...I rushed over to our church to arrive in time for the craft portion of Ladies' Night (and too many goodies.. my November sugar fast is definitely over!).  I chose to make the mason jar luminary.  A small stemmed glass was already glued into the mason jars for us.  There were several options for decorating, and I chose the glittery frosted look achieved by painting the jar with Mod Podge and sprinkling with Epsom salts.  I chose my ribbons and do-dads to tie on, and then it was sprayed with a fixative to protect the salts.  Last step was to drop a battery operated "candle" in.  Voila!

Video of the week: Piano Guys... Silent Night with Placido Domingo

What a lovely new video from the Piano Guys and Placido Domingo!

Students: No questions, just enjoy!