More Christmas Crochet

Am I going to drive everyone crazy posting how many days until Christmas? I didn't think it was a big deal (thinking about all the Christmas things I wanted to crochet..) Then I googled how many days were left, yesterday...  🥴 And I "seized the day."

I finished cleaning in the morning, and I said "I'm going to crochet". I had an idea in my head. I was thinking, "What if you crocheted a toilet paper roll cover, but it looked like a Christmas candle?" 💡🕯🎄This is what I came up with. It fits over a small (what I call a "regular") roll of toilet paper. Measuring 4 inches across the top.  I think it's cute. I need to write all these things down. I want to do more in different color combinations, too. 

How Many Days Until Christmas?

I can't believe it, it's coming up fast... Only a month and a week-ish left??? 😕 How are you doing with your Christmas shopping? I used to have it all together. Okay maybe not. But I did start my shopping early in the year there for a while. The last few years (since we moved back here) I haven't; so much. I did get a snow globe for my daughter in law, early in October. So, technically I got started out okay. I have one thing for everyone so far (except my husband). I'm trying to get our middle son and his wife's gifts done first, because I have to mail them to them. So far I have:

The Stitch Snowglobe

I realized I don't have a picture of it. It's sooo cute.  I might even want one myself. 😝

~The Stitch Snowglobe

~Stitch socks

~Snow globe candy jar

~Stockings with their initials on them

That's what I have so far, for them. I need to get busy and fill their stockings and finish shopping for them. But... "Money"...  

And mostly what I have is all for my daughter in law. She is easy to shop for, because it's either "Stitch" or snow globes.  Our middle son has ALWAYS been hard to shop for. I asked him what he wants for Christmas, "I don't know". He doesn't like anything (except xbox/gaming-which I don't even know if he is into that still he's in his late 20's now). So I just get things he needs. I am knitting the hat for him. Oh yeah, I did get him a baseball hat too.   Okay I am rambling. 

I also have an idea of something to crochet for Christmas decorating. (Sigh...)  

Oh Christmas Tree

"Oh Christmas Tree You stand in splendid beauty.. Your branches green in summer's glow And evergreen in winter's snow Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree You stand in splendid beauty" 𝅘𝅥𝅰🎵🎄🎅  I was trying to unpack more decorations and see what else I would need out of the box (so my husband can put it back in the garage)..  And I found the miniature ornaments for my crocheted Christmas tree. So I started decorating it. At 6:30 in the morning... (Well when your cat wakes you up at 4 every morning demanding food...)  I only have the little ornaments and the gold bead string. I'm going to look and see what I decorated it with before when I first made it. Then I remembered, 
"I just bought all those little ornaments from Hobby Lobby for the snow globes, maybe I could use a couple of those." I want to crochet a little yellow star for the top, too.  This is how I get sidetracked and never finish anything... Sigh... LoL Maybe I can find a star at the dollar store or something.   Anyway, I was humming this song when I was decorating my little tree. 

I have a few that the little gold part on the top just disintegrated when I tried to attach the hanging loop onto. Sigh...   I should just throw them away. Seriously....  🙄 "Noooo, I can make something with them..."  They are too big to put into the snow globe jars. 

I started on the elongated ribbing part of the hat for our son that I am knitting.  😁 It's weird because the one I knitted for our youngest son was in my memories today. "Tis the season to be knitting fa la la la la la la la la" I'm turning into my mother and turning everything into a song. 😳

Red Trucks

This is not the best picture. The "snow globe" looks scratched and dirty, and it isn't? I showed my husband the snow globe I made for our DIL, and he said "I want one". I thought "Hmmmm... I could do that!" There's still a bunch of the cute little miniatures left, AND a snowman is in there. He loves snowmen. Then, I was thinking "I could do a 'Red Truck' one, too!" Our youngest son, when I was decorating the Christmas tree, pulled a red truck ornament (I got it at the dollar store) out, and said "This is mine". I mean, he has a red truck. But, I didn't think he would be into the red truck things....  Now I have a new mission. Red trucks. I even created a new Pinterest board. LoL. I'm not sure if I will use this red truck in the snow globe, though. I might try and see if I can find any smaller ones. This one, the tree fell off of. What do you think? Should I just use it? I can't fit much else in there. Unless I find some super tiny miniatures I can buy...    I found a Red Truck Crochet Gift Card Holder, too. I am definitely going to make that. 

Snow Globe Christmas Craft

I have had an idea for a Christmas craft to make for one of my daughters in law. (My other daughter in law does not celebrate Christmas, so...)  She LOVES snow globes, and is obsessed with them. (Honestly, she has gotten me a little obsessed with them, too). I saw a Mason Jar Snow globe craft (well, I have seen a few of them). And I went to different stores to get the stuff to make one. (Sigh...) First, I went to Dollar General. I went there for something else, actually. But I thought I would see if they had anything I could use. They had some of the clear Christmas ornaments that you can take apart. I didn't get them. Don't ask me why. Because I had to go back later and buy them. Hobby Lobby didn't even have any that you can take apart, and the only ones they even had were in packs of ten and too much money. A two pack at Dollar General cost $1. So, you could make four snow globe jars for 25 cents. 

They had the exact thing I was looking for, though at Hobby Lobby. AND, it was half off. Bonus. I literally NEVER want to pay full price at Hobby Lobby. (But, I have before..)  

Then, I went to the dollar store...  They had these adorable mini Christmas trees. 

And, I was going to go to Hobby Lobby to find some "fake snow". But I found this at the dollar store and I thought, "That would work..."  

This is my finished snow globe jar. I broke it all down, how much I spent making this. I couldn't believe it- over $15? (With tax)...  But, it's a Christmas present. If you had a wide mouth mason jar laying around, and if you bought your candy at the dollar store, it wouldn't cost so much. I didn't spend $92 but... I showed my husband this, and he texted me back, "I want one". I was checked in the cupboard above the fridge (I know our son sent us a jar with candy in it for Christmas one year), and I found two big wide mouth mason jars. I have ideas for both of them. And, now I have all the stuff to make them (I *might* have to go get more glue gun sticks, though- I will have to see if I can find glue sticks at the dollar store).  Let me tell you, it is not as "easy" as it looks to make one. And I hate how the glue gets all glopped up around the edges.

Close up top view. I still think it is pretty dang cute!!! Even with the glue glop. 😝 This is the tutorial I used to make it.

I had an idea to crochet a "Snow Globe Picture Frame Ornament", too. I wrote it all down, but my notes are a MESS....  I think it's okay. 

I started another hat, too. This one is the same as others I've made in the past. It's for a Christmas present. I wasn't going to knit or crochet anything for Christmas this year. HAAA... You know how that goes. One I knitted for our son. Another one I knitted for a gift. I am using a big 16 oz skein (from my stash- I used some of it in other projects) of Caron One Pound (obviously), "Midnight Blue" 294010. The wrapper is about falling off and irritating me so I'm posting here what the yarn and color is.

I realized I don't have a close up picture of my knitted Christmas bell. I took a picture of it to post on Facebook in a group I'm in..   I don't remember where I got the pattern from, but here is one very similar. I love knitting them in variegated Christmas yarn. I only have one for my tree, and since we got a bigger tree, we need more ornaments. I might have to dig that pattern out. *Don't get sidetracked*...  

Also, in other news... It snowed in the middle of the night. 😭😭😭   I know, it's November. But, I don't want winter to be here!!!! I HATE winter!!! It's so brutally cold. At least I don't have the cold sensitivity like I did last winter. I wasn't even supposed to "breathe" the cold air. 🥶🥶🥶 I will have to take a picture of the snow (it's just now getting light out) and upload it later.

I took a couple pictures...  😭 Not only is it snowing, but the sky is totally grey. Back porch.

Front porch. 

I saw a poem on a group I follow (and it was from Michigan):

"November skies are black and gray, Thanksgiving comes a happy day".

Merry Birthday Happy Christmas

I got my husbands' hat out to compare it to the one I just finished, so you can see what I was talking about in my last post. My husbands' hat, on the right; was done with one strand of worsted weight. I did the hat on the left with two strands held together, like the pattern says to. See how the top is all pointy? I do not like that. 

My husband got me a cake and some "sparkler" candles for my birthday. 😍 They were pretty cool. But you had to let them go out on their own (they wouldn't blow out-I tried), and it burned the top of the frosting in some parts. The cake is half chocolate and half vanilla. And, is almost gone! I only had one piece on my birthday, and I had a small piece today.  It's a lot of sugar, though; and it's too sweet for me, anyway.

One of the other things my husband got me was a new cup for my tea. 😊 I said a while ago, "I am going to need a winter cup to drink my tea out of". The one I was using all summer has strawberries on it. (First picture). This is the one he got me. I love it. 

I woke up the day before my birthday and thought "Happy Birthday to me, I can put up my tree"...  LoL  I always want to put the tree up early. My husband wants to wait until the day after Thanksgiving. Ughhh..   I sung my new birthday song to my husband and we (I should say, "he") put up the tree on my birthday. HA. He put it up, and put the angel on top and I decorated it. Cosmo went right to his spot under the tree. 😻  When I was trying to put some of the other Christmas decorations out (my crocheted tree), I was fixing the beaded rope on the tree, and I saw a purple thing sticking out of it. Why is there a crochet hook in the tree???????  Crazy. No it wasn't the one I lost that I just posted about. But obviously I did lose it at one time. I'll probably find the other one somewhere stupid like that. :P

Since I finished the hat, I was in the mood (rare for me, so I have to take advantage of it while it lasts) to finish more things. I got the dinosaur out which is all done being crocheted, but I had to sew all the parts on (which I hate). I started doing that yesterday. I got everything sewn on, then I had to crochet the spots still and sew them on. Which is almost done, too. I have one more spot to sew on. Now I have two more things I crocheted/knitted, that I don't know what to do with.....  (Sigh).  Both the reasons I started both projects I don't think are going to work out.  And now, since we put up the tree (I forgot to mention, it's a new Christmas tree! And, it's about a foot taller, and wider than our old tree)... I think we need more Christmas ornaments! I don't know. So maybe I will crochet some more, or knit a Christmas Bell.  I usually put candy canes on the tree, too. But, no one ever eats them any more and I actually just recently threw out some candy canes that were about (probably) four years old that were up in a cupboard.    If this mood to finish things lasts, maybe I can finish up some of the doll clothes.

~Until Next Time~ 

My Second Tychus Hat (20 years later....)

 

I got this out one day and I was knitting happily along on it. I put it down to get up for something. When I came back, I was looking at it and I thought "Something is not right here.." I had done a bunch of rows. UGGGHHHHH....  I was happy I was on the last wedge, almost done... 

This is what it's supposed to look like. I couldn't wrap my brain around what went wrong..  🙄So I just put it away for a few days.

I got it back out a couple days ago, and said "I'm just going to start ripping it back.." I undid all the stitches until I thought it was right. Then I realized what I did. Instead of knitting up until two stitches less than the rest of the row (36, 34, 32...); I had knitted all the way, and picked up the two green stitches on the end. As if I was finishing the second half of the wedge. Duhhh... Well now it's finished. I had started this with the infusion center in mind. To make some "team colors" hats for guys? But...   I don't know. It's really stiff. I remember the first hat I made for my husband was kind of stiff. Then I just used one strand, instead of two held together. And, it looked too small. But, it softened up, and it stretched out as time went on. And it fits him perfect now. I don't know. Sigh......   

Also, there's this. I pushed it all the way inside out and it has a pointy top. I don't like that. If it was for a girl, I could sew a pom-pom on the top to camouflage the pointy-ness. I don't like this team. So, now I don't know what to do with this hat. Maybe our son or my husband will want it, for work?...  🙍 I haven't sent a box to Pine Ridge in so long...   I don't know what to do.    I was thinking about doing another one, already though. In navy blue and off-white. For our middle son. 

Okay, I googled Tychus Hat, Images... And I don't feel so bad. There's a lot of them that are pointy. 💁 And I saw one girl who had a pom-pom on hers. 

Oh. And guess what I found this week? While I was trying to do something else (of course). The other bootie. (Now that I have two made-UGHHHH) I still haven't found that crochet hook, though. :P