Wednesday 28 December 2016

Catching up for Christmas

Hello my lovelies, Christmas has come and gone, I've had some wonderful days with family and friends, lots of great food and great gifts, and lots of giving gifts which I love even more, especially when those gifts are handmade and the recipients really really like them. Last time we spoke, a few of these gifts were still to be finished, so let me catch you up on those - I'm happy to report that everything that needed doing by Christmas has been done!


 I finish-finished the two little Mill Hill kits, Polar Bear and Panda. They were originally supposed to be fridge magnets, but I decided to give them both hangers and finish them as ornaments. My two coworkers called me 'crazy' and grinned from ear to ear when receiving them ^_^


Lestrona has been successfully blocked, and I couldn't be happier with it! My grandma couldn't as well, she just complained that she had dressed in the wrong colours for Christmas Eve so it wouldn't match and she couldn't wear it right away. Something pulling through with older projects *really* can be worth it...






Grandpa's hat was also finished and loved. I still need to do Felix' hat, but he says he doesn't mind if it takes a bit longer. I'm still trying to get it done while it is still winter!


Not a Christmas gift, but I still managed to make some progress on the Hobbits Meal Plan before we left to spend time with Felix' parents (I can't take it with me because a) it's on the floor stand and b) his brother is here as well). I kind of wanted to finish the whole 'Afternoon Tea' instead of just the 'Afternoon', but I'll still have two more weeks to work on this once we get home.





Last but not least, I also finished the socks for Felix' dad - on the car ride there, with minutes to spare before we arrived! I didn't even have time to take a proper picture before giving them and had to snatch them back for a minute later to take this shot. I'm really pleased with how these turned out, maybe I'm slowly getting the hang of knitting socks.

I realize I still owe you guys the final WIPocalpyse post for the year, but as it's meant to be a recap of 2016 and the year is not over yet - I still have a few days with nothing much but crafting to do! - you'll have to wait a bit longer. There are still some more things I want to get done and show you before then :D

Sunday 18 December 2016

December Gifted Gorgeousness

The third post in one weekend - I'm on fire here! In fact, I was just shocked how long ago my last update has been. I kind of lost momentum with plowing through my list, which isn't very suprising, it's more suprising how long I stayed focused on my target. Recently, I'm craving gaming more than crafting, and while I still intend to finish a few things before Christmas (and I still think I can do so too!) I'm giving myself a bit of a break, so things have been slower. Still, progress has been made, so let's talk about progress!

First, I corcheted this little purse for the now big sister of one of the babies I knitted booties for earlier this year. It was a fun little pattern from ravelry, although I picked my own colours. I had originally ordered some prett cottons, but seeing them in real life I didn't really like them together, so I used the same yarn I used for that owl purse I did a few years back since I really enjoyed those. As usual, the actual crocheting went fairly quickly, but it took me ages to get everything sewn up and finished. It's pretty cute though, that base circle is a little less than 5".


Next, I started the third of my four hats - this one is all blue and for my grandpa, and it's almost done! Well okay, not quite done, but I'm almost ready to start the decreases, and once I get to those I will be nearly done, so it counts!





I also stitched up the next of my Mill Hill ornaments - a cute little polar bear and a gift for one of my favourite coworkers. I'm just in the process of finish-finishing this one and his brother the panda into ornaments.


Of course I did not forget about my corchet a week thing. Here are week 3 and 4...actually, the second take on week 3, as the first time around I somehow completely missed one of the petals and made the think five sided instead of six. But it came out nicely the second time around, and so did week 4. I almost finished week 5 too, which is a shame as I just remembered I should have uploaded week 6 today...so I have some catching up to do here!




Next on my list was working on these basket socks...no idea why these have been going so slowly all this time, because once I sat down, I got the toes of the first one done really quickly, and the start of the second one as well. I think I'm about 1/3rd done with that one, so hopefully, I'll get the heel done this weekend.


Lastely, this weekend I finally got around to blocking Lestrona, and I think it looks really nice spread out like this, so I wanted to show you. Just a bit of waiting and it will be finish-finished for real!



So...I kind of wanted to have all my Christmas crafting done by this post, and I haven't, but it's fine. The only thing I really need to do before Christmas is finish that hat and that sock, and that should be very managable. Everything else, I can work on in my time off after Christmas in peace and quiet. Here is the current state of my list:

  1. Two toddler-scarfes 'Sharky-Pie' - beginning of one is pictures in blue - as christmas presents for a friend's twins
  2. Two One more small Mill Hill kits as christmas presents for friends/coworkers of ours
  3. Shawl Lestrona for my grandma
  4. One pair of socks for Felix' dad - one sock and a third of a sock done
  5. One BSJ for a soon-to-be-a-dad coworkers of mine - due in December
  6. One pair of Baby Booties and one Toddler sized purse for the kids of a friend - due in December
  7. One pair of Baby Booties for a coworker - due in October
  8. Two gifts for the kids of another coworker - plans are being made - due in January
  9. Cut Thru' Cottage as a housewarming gift for Felix sister- two more pages to go! - due whenever
  10. Four Three Two more hats for my grandparents, Felix and myself
  11. 'Elevenses' by fiddlesticksau as a birthday present for Felix' brother - Due in January - 4/7 done 
Of course I already have more planned by now, but I will add that next year. For now I'll just focus on getting those last few finishes I need to do, and being proud of myself!

Saturday 17 December 2016

Alphabet Club Catch Up - H

Still trying to catch up with the catch up :D But I think things are finally getting a bit quieter around here, so maybe I'll make it. We'll see!






Here are some 'Hasen' - rabbits! 'Häschen' if you want the cutsey form.

I really liked the idea of in-translatable words for this series, but I couldn't find any starting with 'H', so I'm going to cheat a little today. You all know 'Heimweh' - the feeling of being homesick. But in German, we also know 'Fernweh', which is kind of the opposite - the longing to travel and see new places.

Another short entry, but I still hope you like it!

Jo's Advent Calendar - Day 17

As every year, the amazing Jo is hosting an amazing advent calendar, and as always I have to be a part of it! I got lucky and got assigned a date on the weekend, because during the week I'm terribly busy lately and would have been hard pressed to get the post out on time!

I haven't done a ton of Christmas stitching so far, and I'm showing Angel of Frost around all the time, so this time I'll pick the other one I did - Peter Polar Bear, stitched for an ornament exchange a few years ago ^_^


Now Jo has asked us to write about our favourite ornaments, the ones that are/or have some kind of history attached to them. Felix and I don't have a lot in terms of Christmas decoration yet...I know traditions differ, but in Germany (or among the people I know here, at least) it's common to only put the tree up on Christmas day (or maybe the day before), and it's only out until January 6th (although some people do middle of February). And since we spend the 24th with my grandparents and then visit Felix' parents until New Years Eve, there's not much sense in putting up a tree we will never really see. This will probably change once we have children of our own, but for now, I'll be telling you about a few of my grandma's ornaments - the ones I grew up with and love deeply :D


The left of these glass birds was a gift my mum got for my grandma many years ago, when she was still a child. The one of the right I got for her when I was a child, kind of to continue the tradition.


 These two birds don't have any special history, I just really like them because the are really pretty. They are also super heavy, so it's not really easy to find a good place for them on the tree.


 When I was a kid, grandma would always do some crafts for me every year to make Christmas presents for all the relatives and friends I wanted to give something to. One of my favourites were these ornaments, made from half a walnut shell, a wooden bead and some fabric and really pretty ribbon.


Those are some of the first ornaments my grandma bought when she and grandpa were newlyweds. They are made from painted wax, but I think they still look very pretty!

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Alphabet Club Catch Up - G

I'm super behind with my being behind! But hopefully, I'll get teo TAC posts out as well as a regular post this week to be kind of up to date again. So without further ado, here comes 'G'!


For this letter's word, I was searching the internet for German words that don't have a proper English translation, and one word I came across was 'Geborgenheit'. Geborgenheit is, generally speaking, a feeling of safety, but more than that - it's also feeling warm and cozy and protected. Like you felt as a child when your mum or dad held you tight and you knew that nothing in the world was going to hurt you - that kind of feeling. I can't think of a good translation off the top of my head, but is there actually none?