Two sided Christmas stocking

Yes finally! I finished my daughter's Christmas stocking.

Ok..... a little late but it's finished! It only took me a few days, but I had the idea of making a stocking ever since my daughter's first Christmas in 2012.
I still have my Christmas stocking which my mom made when I was a little girl and each Christmas I got to hang it by the fireplace. It brings back a lot of happy memories. Now we can hang our stockings together.........

When looking for some inspiration I came across a pattern for a distressed gingerbread man, which made me laugh. I thought it was cute but it did not fit my daughter's requirements; it has to be pink, pink, a little bling and oh yeah did I mention PINK!

So then I decided to make a stocking with two different sides to suit both our preferences.


Distressed Gingerbread man

 

Pink with a little bling



some details

Now all I have to do is make an advent calendar.  Hope I will be finished by Christmas next year!

All I want for Christmas.......art from ELIN

A few month ago I stumbled upon this wonderful artist Elin Thomas. If you are a lover of art and crochet you will love, love, love this.
ELINtm specialises in textile and crochet nature studies of lichen and mould to wear and admire. Elin Thomas is a professional artist with her work being exhibited in numerous galleries and published in textile books and magazines.

You could say I am an admirer of her work and have been wanting to purchase something from her Etsy shop. So I gave Santa a little hint and guess what I got for Christmas???

I was lucky enough to get not only one but two of her pieces. I guess Santa couldn't decide just like me......or I have been a really good girl this year.

Isn't it beautiful?

Be sure to check out some more of her work and she has a sale at the moment so now is a good time to purchase something.

 

......and thanks Santa ;-)

Tea towel with crochet edging - Quick Xmas gift

Looking for a last-minute gift for Christmas? Ok maybe it will take a little longer to make than 1 minute ;-) but if you have a few hours that's fine.

I bought a tea towel (for those of you who live in Holland or Belgium - it's from the HEMA) and pimped it up with a crochet edge. Nice and simple and it makes a great gift for Christmas or for the hostess if you have a dinner party.

What do you need?

• tea towel
• yarn (I used Phildar Coton 3)
• tapestry needle (or needle that is suitable for sewing through a towel)
• crochet needle size 3,5mm

This is how it's done.

First work a row of blanket stitch around the edges of your towel.
Here is a great video that show a slightly different way to make this stitch. Choose whichever way that suits you.

Tip; it's important to have even spaced stitches. Use a tape measure and make small pencil marks where to place each stitch. Or my method:
I cut out a piece of cardboard and made marks 1 cm apart from each other. Line it up with the edge of the towel and used this as a guide whilst stitching around.

Now it's time to start the crochet part. (US terms)
sc = single crochet
ch = chain
hdc = half double crochet
sl st = slip stitch

Start in any corner and work *5 sc stitches in the top part of the blanket stitches. (I worked 2 stitches in each space). Then ch 3, hdc in the first ch*, repeat all the way around. Try to end with a picot. You might have to fiddle around with the last stitches to make this happen. Then sl st into first sc, cut yarn and weave in ends.

It's as simple as that!

Celebrate with a .......

Yippie! I have my first registered followers. It's always nice to see that someone appreciates the projects you make and things you write about. So I thought it's time for a little celebration!

Last year (or maybe even the year before that), I bought this fabulous book "100 Snowflakes to Crochet" in the Dutch version "100 Sneeuwvlokken om te haken". As the title already hints, the book contains 100 different snowflake and ice crystal crochet patterns.








I finally sat down and made several different snowflakes. Using colors; ice blue, dark & light gray green, lilac, aubergine and purple.

They make a beautiful winter decoration if you hang them from a branch placed in a nice glass bottle. I still need to stiffen the snowflakes, but this picture gives you an idea of what the end result looks like.

Or you can hang them in your Christmas tree, use them to decorate your presents or Christmas cards.
The options are endless.....what would you do with them?

And this brings me to the giveaway part. I made two extra sets containing 6 snowflakes each.

I would like to give the first set to Gail Goodwin, because she was the first person to follow my blog. Congratulations and thanks Gail! Please send me an email with your address and I will send you your thank you gift.

If you want to win the second set all you have to do is follow my blog. I will randomly pick the winner in the beginning of January.

Good luck to you all and happy holidays!


Update:
Find out who won......