I generally make a bowl full of these balls leading up to Christmas.  They sit around looking decorative and then disappear into the toes of Christmas stockings.  Because they are great for using up scrap yarn and I stuff them with fabric scraps from making things in the studio the whole making of the Amusing Christmas Balls project is extremely appealing to my obsessive frugality.  They are appealing to Joe for different reasons.  How do I say this?  Boys love these balls.  They can juggle them, toss them and even loft them at their wife's head during idle moments.  I have to stash the bowl of balls in the Studio because otherwise Joe will take liberties, and although it is not dangerous, what with the fabric stuffing, it does interfere with my concentration when I'm knitting.  There is a Pattern for them in the Pattern section if you would like to make your own.

This is a picture of Maisy the doll.  She is wearing her Christmas outfit and she was actually given to her little girl last Christmas.  Both the doll and the doll mother are named Maisy, and evidently when Maisy the little girl is not looking, Maisy the doll sometimes gets up to naughty behavior that her doll mother (Maisy the girl) cannot really be held responsible for.  They also bear a striking physical resemblance as well as sharing a name.  And evidently changing the clothes around is one of the things that they most like to do together.  This is probably the reason that Maisy's grand mother got in touch with me to see if I could create another outfit so that they could add a little variety to their lives.

And here is a photograph of the new outfit.  It is being modeled by one of the dolls that still lives with me and consists of a pair of linen overalls, a hand knit cardigan and a winter hat.  I am also going to be posting on the website, and on Ravelry, the pattern for the sweater and hat in case some other doll mother, or grandmother, wants to make them for their own doll children.  These are soft bodied dolls that are approximately 15 inches tall and 10 inches around if you want to make comparisons to your own favored doll child.  And do e-mail me if you would like advice on scaling up the pattern to fit a child as well as a doll.

If you look at the entry below you will see that I saw my friend Berta's Pinterest posting for an afghan design that she wanted to try....if she could only find the pattern.  I took a look....it was a slow rainy Sunday afternoon with lots of sitting around watching movies in the plan, so I grabbed some scrap yarn and gave it a shot.  This is what I came up with, and the pattern to make these little squares is available to you in the entry that I made just prior to this one.

I ran out of the variegated yarn after I had completed 6 squares, although there was still plenty of purple left.  So I left it laying around for a bit on the table in the studio, which is my favorite spot to leave things that I want to think about for a while.  It occurred to me while I was watching a Netflix movie and knitting that the size of the knitting sample was almost perfect for the side and fold over section of the I-pad.  So I knit an I-cord border around the whole thing and then used some of my ENORMOUS stash of rug wool to make an I-Pad cover sleeve which I then sewed the knitting sample to as a kind of decorative cover/extra padding.

As you can see here, I also added a little pocket at the base so that you can roll up the whole shebang, tie it off with the green ties and have your I-Pad at the perfect level of Prop for reading or viewing.  Plus I find that when I sit down to read a nice novel with my cup of tea the customary I-Pad covers are a little....technical in feel.  This knitted, wool backed cover gives the whole experience a nice, cozy, nestling in feel that is more conducive to maximum relaxation...at least for me.

My friend Roberta posted a picture to Pinterest under Things I Want to Try.  I looked at the picture and shot her an e-mail offering to write up the pattern so that she could try it.  This is a photo of my version, using the scrap yarn that I had on hand.  I used a worsted weight yarn and a size 5 needle.  This would be a great pattern to use as your Carrying Around Knitting, particularly if you do the Bow Ties in Stash Scrap Colors (or hand dyes, or handspun) and use a unifying color like black, or white, or grey, or brown in the place of the purple.   I recommend that you just carry around the directions for the Bowties and wait until you are sitting down at home to knit up the little quadrilateral Inserts and do the sewing up while you are comfortable.

Bowtie Pattern:  Cast on 20 stitches using a flexible cast on method.  I Knit On myself, but any method that doesn't result in a hard stiff edge is fine.  Knit one row.  At the beginning of the next 12 rows Slip 1, Knit 1, Pass the Slip stitch over, Knit to the end of the row.  You should have 8 stitches on your needle.  Slip the first stitch and knit to the end of the row for the next 16 rows.  Now to do the last increasing bit.  Knit into the front and back of the first stitch and then knit to the end of the row for the next 12 rows or until you have 20 stitches on your needle.  Bind off with a flexible bind off method.  This is a good one.  Knit 2 stitches then insert the tip of your left hand needle back into the 2 on the right hand needle and knit them together.  Knit another stitch.  Repeat.

Quadrilateral Insert Pattern:  Once you get a few of the Bowties done load up a movie or your favorite music and start to knit the Inserts and assemble your squares.  Cast on 20 stitches and knit one row.  Knit 2 together at the beginning of the next 12 rows.  You should have 8 live stitches left on your needle.  Break off the yarn leaving about a 20 inch tail which you thread onto a darning needle.  Sew the live stitches down, one at a time, to the straight edge at the narrow part of the Bowtie.  Use a mattress stitch to join the angles of the Bowtie and the Insert together.  Use the bit of yarn left from when you cast on to sew up the other angle.  Repeat for the other side, and then over and over as many times as you have little Bowties.  Sew the squares together using a mattress stitch as well.  The mattress stitch keeps things flexible....you don't want hard edges....everything should be kind of stretchy.

Pat Dunn made four pair of these fingerless mitts for her daughters and daughters-in-law for Christmas.  Much to my chagrin, it has been a very long time since I took these pictures and I have been very delinquent in posting them.  I particularly like that she spread her sock yarn colors around, mixing and matching and adding a few yards of a couple of her stash colors to make each one individual.  They are photographed in the kitchen on top of the old butcher block table that I inherited from my Dad.  If you would like to make some of these yourself the pattern is available under Patterns as Seasons Greetings Gloves and Mitts and on Ravelry, along with a pattern for long Greta Garbo style gloves that you can make to wear either separately or underneath the fingerless mitts.

Here I am sitting at Bintliff's which is, according to my son Blake and me, the very best breakfast place in Portland.  My arms are adorned with Stulpin, which are European knitting garb intended for either your forearms or your legs.  We had two guests from Germany staying over in our Airbnb room and I was knitting knee socks as we chatted over the breakfast scones in the studio.  One of the ladies wondered if I could make the socks without feet.  It took us a while to figure each other out, what with her not so good English and my much, much worse German, but we managed.  The results are these Stulpin, which are now with her in Munich keeping her forearms, or her legs, warm through the cold European winter.

This is a closer view of them showing the little mock cables that I put on my particular version.  I will post a pattern on Ravelry and on my Etsy site if you want to make them exactly like mine but if you are a sock knitter almost any rib like pattern that you would use on socks will work nicely.  Color work might not be stretchy enough for arms and legs, particularly if you have working class calves like mine.

This is Samahra's Doll.  Her parents Tiffani and Yuri came to see us at the Airbnb room that we have here at the top of the stairs and saw one of my dolls while we were having breakfast in the studio.   After they returned home Yuri sent me some wonderful photos that he had taken of my studio and also a request that I make a doll for Samahra.  He sent me some photos of Samahra herself so that I could do justice to her lovely face and cornrow braids and this is the finished product....just in time for Christmas.  This photo is taken in the kitchen in my pot of sage and parsley, which seemed like a good idea at the time but has resulted in some flare on the lens.  Nevertheless it is a good shot of the dolls little face.

And here is a beautiful picture that Samahra's parents sent to me of her pretty face after she had opened her Christmas present.  It was a wonderful post-holiday surprise for me to receive the e-mail from Yuri and Tiffani with these pictures attached.  As you can see Samahra knew exactly what a Christmas doll needs most, which is a loving welcome to the family hug.  I really focus on creating dolls that feel at least as good as they look and it appears that for Samahra it was a successful effort.

Tiffani and Yuri also sent me some pictures of Samahra before I started her doll so that I could see the way her mother braids and arranges her hair and try to duplicate that for her.  So Samahra's doll as cornrow braids attached to a crocheted cap and the braids can even be rearranged a bit so that they tie at the side or the back.  Samahra was evidently quite tickled with the braids.  I also really concentrated on giving the doll big dark brown eyes, a wide button nose and a full rounded mouth so that she would have a family resemblance to Samahra.  

I really enjoy making the dolls, but I particularly like making them for a special child.  This was such a fun project for me, and seeing the photos from Christmas morning made the whole thing even more meaningful.

This is a picture of my beautiful... um...relative.  Nico is the second son of my nephew....what do you call that kind of relative?  In any case he is beautiful and he is winsomely modeling the sweater I made for him before he was born.  This is a version of the Hooded Sweater for Everybody made with hand dyed sock yarn so it is warm and entirely washable.  Based on his parents I assumed a dark haired, dark eyed baby and as you can see I assumed correctly, which doesn't always happen for me.  There was, of course, no way of anticipating the awesome adorableness of Nico himself.  He is a darling baby boy and is, in this picture, approximately 6 months old.  If you would like to make a version of this jacket for your own charming relatives it is listed on the pattern page here and on Ravelry here.  If you do decide to work one up please send me photographs.  You really just can't have too many of these cute baby pictures.

I made this sweater for Blythe about six years ago.  Last Friday, when she showed up for her weekly knitting/spinning/making of scones class (Just another day with Great Auntie Martha) she was wearing it.  When I made it for her the sleeves went all the way past her wrists and had to be rolled up, which is why I put a color work design on both the inside and outside of the cuff.  Also the length was generous and hung all the way to the top of her legs.  I designed this pattern to work for 2-3 years, what with the rolling sleeves and the lovely tendency of children to get longer and longer without getting wider and wider.

But Blythe is not one to let a favorite sweater go.  The sleeves are now about halfway between elbow and wrist and, as you can see here, the length is now high hip.  I believe, with determination and a resolute intention to ignore reality, Blythe can keep this sweater going for another 2 years which will make it an 8 year sweater!  At that point the sleeves will be elbow length and the sweater waist length and Blythe herself will be about 10 years old.  If you are interested in knitting up this sweater for a loved child the pattern is available and actually a fairly easy knit.  There's lots of garter stitch and just enough color work to stimulate your mind.  Go to Patterns and look for the Hooded Jacket for Everybody.

These are the new version of a pair of War Bride Booties that belong to a friend of mine in my knitting class at OLLI.  She wore them on her own baby feet when she came to America on the ship with her mother who was a war bride from England.  They have tiny name tags sewn into the backs to identify them and to avoid confusion.  Evidently there were other babies on the boat and the washing was communal.  I have reversed engineered a pattern for them, at their owner's request.  I will be posting that pattern on my pattern page.

These are the originals.  Both pair are made up with natural white merino wool but, as you can see, the 70 odd years have yellowed the original wool to an old ivory color.  I am giving my friend a copy of the pattern in case she wants to make up some duplicates of her own to give to her wee loved ones.  These are too fragile and precious to use now.  But isn't it a miracle that she still has them.  I love to think of them being knit up in England, with the name tags sewn in with tiny hand stitches.  And I love to think of them on her kicking pink baby feet.  And I also love that she has kept them tenderly wrapped and kept all these years like the precious articles that they are.