What I've Been Knitting

For the longest time now I've been wanting a pair of hand warmers. The only thing holding me back was that I thought I was too old for them. I know this might sound strange but for some reason I associate handwarmers with teenagers. I really have no explanation for this. Maybe it's because I've never seen an adult wearing them. Come to think of it, I've never seen anyone wearing them. I'm sure our California weather has something to do with that. Anyways, I decided to get over the whole age appropriate dilemma and knit a pair. Let me just say, I'm so happy I did! They are cozy and warm and will be perfect for when I walk the kids to school. I even find myself wanting to wear them in the house.

There are so many patterns out there for hand warmers, fingerless gloves, fingerless mittens or any other name they go by. I found the pattern for these on the Purl Bee. I made mine two inches shorter than the pattern called for. The pattern is very easy to follow. If anyone is curious, I used Debbie Bliss aran tweed 100% wool to knit them.

While searching for patterns, I stumbled across a pattern on CRAFT for the handwarmers Alice wore in New Moon. Since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn just recently came out, I thought these might be fun to knit for a Twilight fan. Might make a nice Christmas present too. Just thought I would share.

Photo credits go to my six year old daughter. I had her take the pictures since I obviously couldn't use my hands. I had to do some editing but I think they came out quite nice. Plus, she had fun using mommy's camera.

For The Kids Table

Photo Credit: Fiskars

Lately I've been seeing a lot of great kid ideas for Thanksgiving. If you need some last minute inspiration, here are a few of my favorites. The directions for making the table setting above can be found on the Fiskars site.

One Charming Party shows you how to make this adorable faux pumpkin pie filled with small toys. Too clever!

Printable Paper Crafts is offering up this Thanksgiving printable set to download for free. Stop by their site to see what else it includes.

Find the how-to for these finger puppets on the Martha Stewart site.

Have any crafty ideas up your sleeves for Thanksgiving? Please share.

Book Review: Make and Takes for Kids

Make and Takes for Kids by Marie LeBaron

I'm so excited to be sharing with you today Make and Takes for Kids by Marie LeBaron. For those not familiar with Marie, she owns the craft blog Make and Takes. I've been visiting her site for years now so I was pretty excited to find out she published a kids craft book.

Make and Takes for Kids includes fifty projects to make crafts and food with kids. The crafts and recipes are tailored for each month of the year. The crafts are easy enough for preschoolers but also engaging enough for a 9 year old. What I like about the book is that most of the projects can be created out of things you already have in your house. I could probably make at least half of the projects now without having to run to the store.

Below are a few of our favorite projects from the book. Photo credit: Nicole Gerulat

Spring Banner made with egg shells.

When you want to have a camp fire inside.

Mini Umbrella - I asked my 6 year old daughter which projects she liked best and this was one of them.

This is a fan my daughter made from the book. She made it on her own except for me tying the ribbon on it. It came out a little different than the book's fan because I let her do it on her own. I try not to be too controlling when it comes to kid crafts. It is art after all.

Craft: Denim Pom Poms

Give me a D!
Give me an E!
Give me a N!
Give me an I!
Give me an M!
What does that spell? Denim!

I had an old pair of worn out jeans to play with and decided to make some pom poms with them. I really like how you can see the wrong side of the denim. I think it gives the pom poms some added depth and texture. I deiced to use them to adorn a gift. They're the perfect replacement for a bow.

Supplies:
piece of denim 4" x 12"
String - I used twine
Scissors

1. Cut denim on black lines like the picture above. This will give you one continuous piece of denim string. I recommend making the width just a little less than 1/4 inch and about 3 yards in length.

2. Wrap the denim string around three of your fingers. Keeping the loops intact, slide it off your hand.

3. Tie a piece of string around the center as tight as you can. You don't want your pom pom falling apart. Cut the loops (refer to picture).

4. Fan out edges. Trim pom pom if necessary. The more you trim it, the fuller it will look.

Your pom pom should now look something like this.

I have another tutorial for how to make pom poms with photos if that's more helpful. Click here, if you want to see it.

Craft: Inkblot Ornaments

This inkblot ornament was inspired by an episode of Project Runway of all things. If you kept up with last season's show, then you're probably familiar with episode 7 that featured an inkblot dress. Now where I translated that into Christmas ornaments, I'm not too sure. But in some strange way I was able to make it work (sorry, couldn't resist slipping that in). Directions below.

Supplies:
White cotton fabric cut into 4" x 4" squares
White thread
Thick felt
Beads
Acrylic Paint
Wax Paper
Ribbon

(Click on images for a larger view)

1. Place paint in center of fabric and fold fabric. Spread paint out while the fabric is still folded by pressing on it. Unfold. Let dry on wax paper.

2. Once dry, cut around the edge leaving a 1/4" seam. If necessary, iron.

3. Sew on beads however you want. I played on the reflective qualities of the ink blots and had the beads mirror each other.

4. Sew on a thick piece of felt to the back of the ornament. This will cover up all the stitching from the beads and make the ornament more sturdier. While sewing the felt on, sew in a piece of ribbon to the top of the ornament. Last, trim felt to the shape of the cotton fabric. Done

Other ideas - make an inkblot Christmas tree with green paint and sew on round beads as ornaments. I also think adding some glitter to the paint would be a nice effect.