Since today is a blustery day, I thought I’d introduce my new blustery day outfit:

Tada

I made the hat over Martin-Luther-King-weekend and finished the scarf a view days later while glued to my monitor watching 34 episodes of Heroes. (No, I never display compulsive behavior, ever) For the hat I started out with the instructions for the Twirly-Top Toque out of One Skein Wonders. I couldn’t figure out the lace pattern for the bottom part and just used a different one that was easier to read.

After I finished the hat, I had one skein left for the scarf. I used the same lace pattern for the scarf, which ended up too short to tie. Out came the buttons. My grandmother had thrifted them from some goodwill clothes. The buttons push through the holes made by the lace and can close the scarf at whatever height and in whatever pattern strikes my mood.

I can display all four buttons, just the daisies, a combination of a triangle and a daisy, you get the idea.

So here I am ready to weather the weather.

During the last year, I frequently found myself turning to Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Embellishments for inspiration and instruction.

The book is filled with ideas on how to create those little details that take a simple knitted piece from “that’s nice” to “where did you get that.” Knitted Embellishments is divided into seven major chapters:

• The Heart of the Matter, a collection of different heart shaped patterns
• Applique
• Borders and Edgings
• Cords
• Embroidery
• Fringes, Tassels, Pom-Poms, and Ties
• Creative Combinations

For the vest above, I used an embossed heart and a ribbed edge with daisy stitch embroidery.

I embellished this baby jacket with i-cords to create the letters and the frogs and closures.

The book is not for beginning knitters. You have to be pretty comfortable with charts and basic knitting techniques. But it’s a great book when you’re ready to jazz it up a bit.

I grew up in Germany and advent calendars were always a big deal in my family. I remember this beautiful embroidered calendar my mother made for my aunt with all kinds of interesting little packages attached to it. My brother and I would discover calendars made out of matchboxes and walnut shells or just wrapped up little packages tied together with string. Last year, my mother even put together a calendar for my brother’s dog. So in the spirit of the season, I went online to browse for some inspiration for this year’s calendar.

Paper Calendars

Kids Craft Weekly explains how to put together a cute origami cup calendar. You could also make little origami boxes as explained by Lisa Lam from U-handblog, or just simple cones and fill them with goodies.

Another fun idea from Kinder Stadt is to use toilet paper rolls and to turn them into snowmen, Santa Clauses, or penguins.

If you have the space you could create a whole village of 24 houses. Marilyn Scott-Waters of The Toymaker has a great template for a house complete with chimney.

Fabric

Jenny B. Harris of Allsorts just reposted instructions for her felt pocket calendar. I think you could also re-purpose her elf shoes. You could make 12 pairs of shoes and hang them from a clothesline.

Last year, Susie of Susie’s Country Garden made a garland of little stockings.

Eldrid Røyset Førde from Bremanger, Norway has English instructions for a different stocking type calendar.

I also like this quick calendar by Shizzyknits.

Other Materials

Splitcoaststampers has a tutorial for a calendar using little favor tins.

Miniature terracotta pots are another popular starting point for advent calendars. Turn them upside down, add a Styrofoam ball for a head, and paint them to make Santas, elves, snowmen, etc. Then either glue them on top of the box that will contain the gift, or cover the bottom with felt and/or cardboard to hide the gift in the pot itself. Here is a German tutorial from Creadoo with pictures of “potty” creatures to give you some ideas.

I’ve finished my calendar what do I put inside?

If you are still recovering from a Halloween candy hangover and are worried about lead levels in gum ball machine toys, you may want to consider filling your calendar with different activities. Kiddley has a list of activities you could use. You could also put pictures of friends and family in your calendar and put together a progressive collage, or collect or make some ornaments to hide in the calendar and then hang off a branch or your tree.

For more inspiration, go to flicker and search for pictures in the adventcalendar cluster.

I thought I would gather up some ideas for our bookmark swap!

If you crochet, check out this page at Crochet Pattern Central.

A knitter? Then you’ll like this page at Knitting Pattern Central.

Martha Stewart has some beautiful ribbon bookmarks.

Michaels.com has some great ideas!

Have fun and please share any ideas or links you may have!

I just remembered that I didn’t post an update on the gift show we went to this weekend. Truth be told, there’s nothing to post. Vendors didn’t care about free press and links and why we were there – they were worried about people stealing their ideas, so as soon as they saw the camera (and neglected to see the press badge), they began giving us the third degree. We couldn’t even look without questions and disapproving glances being thrown our way. So unfortunately, nothing to show. Which is their loss, b/c there was some cuuuuuuute stuff we would’ve loved to show and thrown some business their way. Moving on…

I picked up more craft porn this weekend and got a copy of Sock and Glove by Miyako Kanamori. This book was originally written in Japanese, but what I love most about it is the ease at which the projects seem. Not only are the directions simple, but the pictures are as well. You’re not bombarded with a lot of type – just cute pictures that tell a story. And best of all, you don’t need any fancy crafting supplies – just needle, thread, scissors, stuffing and old socks and gloves.

The last time I ventured into this arena, I didn’t fare so well. But after seeing the adorable elephant on pg. 27, I decided to give it a go, and so without further ado, I give you Nigella

I made her with a certain little girl in mind, but truth be told I hate to part with her. Lucky for me, I have an extra set of socks identical to the ones I used, so I shall fashion another one for myself. While the project wasn’t super quick (three hours from start to finish), it was easy and was done while enjoying some evening down-time. Now, I have a pair of striped socks that are longing to become a zebra.

This post will begin as a shout-out to Amazon. I ordered these books Friday, qualified for the free super shipping (which usually takes 5-10 business days to arrive) and they arrived this morning. Woot woot! So what did I order? Let’s take a look, shall we?

I’m sure we’ve all seen this book around lately:

And the inside is just as pretty as the outside. The projects are beautiful and look relatively easy. I am a newbie at sewing, so the thought that I could make some of these things makes my heart flutter. And since everyone I know seems to be adding to the population, I’ll be making up some of these sweet baby bibs

Amy Karol, you’re a genius! If you haven’t purchased your copy yet, go here and get it.

Next up is, hands down, the best granny square book I have found. This book is brought to you by Jan Eaton, the same author who gave us 200 Ripple Stitches (that I own and also love). In my last post, I told you I’ve been so inspired lately and have been on the lookout everywhere for patterns, designs and color combinations. And if that’s what you’re looking for as well, then this book has it.

It starts out with three full-color pages of all the types of grannies available in the book. And it just gets better from there.

This is just one of my many favorites

I wish I could post pictures of all the blocks because they’re so beautiful, but I can’t. So you must buy it for yourself. Click here to purchase this gem of a book.

And as an end note, the crochet lesson will be post-poned until tomorrow, so if you’re following that, check back tomorrow to get lesson #7.