Advent wreath

No picture credit found, except this

A great countdown to Christmas is an advent wreath. As a kid, we had a chicken-wire ring, with foam inside. Every year, we'd put fresh leaves in it to create the wreath. My mom had these great candle holders with spikes which would fit comfortably in. As a final touch, she took some ribbon and balanced it, as shown in illustration.

For years I've been looking for the chicken-wire, foam foundation, and I've officially given up. I think I'm going to crochet myself an Advent wreath instead. I found some great candle holder patterns on Pinterest to inspire the idea. On Ravelry, I found this one. I'm going to make four of them - looking at the leaves it doesn't seem so hard to join. The added bonus is that I don't have to use real candles in it - so no worry about fires and little fingers. Will report back with progress.

Merry Christmas!

Jesse Tree: Report 2

In my last Jesse Tree post, I had thought to make beaded trinkets. Well that didn't work either. Turns out my bead collection isn't what I thought it was, and the only beads I have in large enough quantities are very irregular in shape and size. Great for random jewelry, not so great for detailed ornaments.

So I'm admitting defeat. I'm going to crochet them. Crochet Kitten put together 25 patterns with appropriate verses. It was originally a craft-along for Christmas last year. Lucky for me all the patterns are now published and I can do them in a bulk craft. Find the list here.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2015: Present for my dad

My dad is a garage dad. He spends most of his time there, tinkering with that toy and this. Over the years he's collected a googly number of complicated looking machines. He often asks me to make covers for these machines to keep the dust off them when he's doing woodwork. I've been making various covers for him for Christmas and his birthday. Here's the one I made last year for Christmas: a cover for his Myford ML10 lathe.

My husband kindly drew up the pattern for me. And I'm sharing it here for all the daughters (or wives?) who might know someone with a Myford ML10 lathe.

Merry Christmas!

Table decorations

CC-BY-SA

After spending a goodly amount of time on Pinterest, I've decided that a Christmas table needs the following:

1. A runner
2. A centre-piece
3. Place names
4. Colour scheme (red, green, white OR blue, silver white)

Items that frequently appear on the table:

1. Candles
2. Plants

I'm going to go with the red, green, white colour scheme, just to stay traditional. (I don't know what I'm going to do about my blue plates, but that's a story for another time.) With a white table cloth, I'm going to look for a green/red runner. I'm not brave enough to quilt one (gosh, there are some amazing quilted runners on Pinterest!), but I think I could just hem a long enough bit of fabric and call that quits.

For the centre-piece, I'm going to make an advent wreath and that will take care of candles too. Look out for a future post about that. I like this place name that I found on Pinterest. It should be simple enough to make, and it comes with a bit of a religious sentiment. Plants...that I'm not too sure about, I'll have to see how the table looks before I can decide what it needs.

Merry Christmas!

Nativity scene: Mary

CC-BY Lara H

Two weeks ago I posted about making a nativity scene. Well, I tried making the pattern I found, but it didn't work. I should have read it before - the increases were so not normal. I scratched around a bit more before I decided to take the plunge and make my own one.

I'm pleased to share with you my very first crochet pattern - Mary of the Nativity Scene! Please do send any corrections through, it needs to be beta-tested.

Uploading it on Ravelry was harder than I thought. I had to figure out all sorts of things. Hopefully now that I've set up my store it will be easier.

Merry Christmas!

Jesse tree: report 1

CC-BY-SA Laura Töpfer

In my first Jesse tree post, I had planned to find all sorts of trinkets to represent the Jesse story. Well, let me tell you that it ain't so easy to find such trinkets! I tried going to some toy stores: little thing-a-ma-bobs are expensive, and they are really rather limited in variety. I don't think I'm going to find much on my list in this way.

So onto Plan B: making them. I'm already crocheting a bunch of things for Christmas. For my Jesse tree, I'm going to bead the trinkets. That way they will be small and sparkly, perfect for a decoration.

Merry Christmas!

Hat for the baby

A few years back, I made this hat for my littlest nephew. I thought it would be super cute on the new born. Last year, my sister-in-law said that as soon as he saw the Christmas decorations in the store, he dug it out again - his Christmas hat. I want to make one for my new little one, don't you think that would be super cute?

Merry Christmas!

Nativity scene

When I was a kid, I knitted up this nativity scene:

Photo by sallybarrett

It was probably the biggest knitting project I'd ever undertaken at that point in my young life. And it didn't look too good. Evidence of that can be seen in the fact that my mother stopped putting it out once I move out the house (I know you still love me, Mom!).

Since switching to crocheting, I've always wanted to crochet myself a nativity scene. I've got one made out of led that I don't like much, and one made in a tiny wooden carving gifted to me by a friend which I love, but I want to crochet one.

So I trawled through Ravelry and Pinterest, hunting for patterns. None of them came very close, so I think I'll make a mixture of them.

I like the figures in the one shown below, but it's missing some animals. The pattern is to the accessories; the figures are made from this pattern. I'm a bit worried about the stability of the figures. The designer said she put plastic pellets in her's to weigh them down, but I don't know where to find those in the stores. The Baby Jesus face is a little strange to me, I might modify that.

I thought to make the animals from this other nativity scene. They might be too big, but that might be charming. I don't like the figures much, perhaps they'd be better with some eyes. The figures do look more stable though, so I might just switch to this one if the first figure doesn't work out. I like this Baby Jesus better too.

I love this case. If I'm feeling ambitious at the end of the year I'll make a similar one - this one will be too small I suspect.

Of course Ravelry and Pinterest are loaded with more inspiration and gorgeous (pricey) patterns. If you'd like to do a CAL (crochet-along), let me know which pattern you choose in the comments. I'll be posting progress on my nativity scene throughout the year.

Merry Christmas!

Jesse tree

Image by Zelda F. Scott (CC-BY-SA)

When I first heard of a Jesse tree, I thought it was a great way to make Christmas more about Christ. It's basically an Advent calendar, but instead of random Christmas images or yummy chocolate, each day adds to a telling of the Bible story, from The Beginning to the birth of Christ. There's loads of ways that you can do this - give it a Google if you're interested. Here's what I'm going to do:

Firstly, I'm going to make little cards with the appropriate Bible verses. I'm going to follow this list. These cards will be decorated to be all Christmasy and will become tree decorations as the month of December goes on. Next, I'm going to spend the year collecting all the symbols, or at least one symbol per day. I could make it, draw it, or buy it in a toy shop. Then, I'm going to add an appropriate amount of glitter to make it a tree ornament. Finally, I'll make some bags to keep the symbol and the verses together - again with a Christmas flavor.

On 1 December, I'll put up my tree along with the 24 little bags, and as the month progresses, the tree will become more and more decorated with the tokens and readings. Well that's the plan anyway.

I'll post regularly about my hunt for the symbols. I'm going to try to source them instead of making them - a Christmas treasure hunt for myself. Anyone keen on joining me?

Merry Christmas!

The plan for 2016

Image from here
(Public domain)

November always comes on me suddenly. That's the month I realize that it's too late to do all the things I wanted to do for Christmas. 2016 is the year that that changes. Instead of thinking about Christmas only in November, I"m going to devote the whole year to all the Christmas related projects that I've wanted to do for years.

There are a couple of reasons why 2016 is the year to do this. Firstly, I have my own house. For the first time in many years, I know exactly where I will be come 25 December. Being in my space, I can see what needs to be done to rock Christmas.

Secondly, we are going to host Christmas in 2016. It will be quite a big gathering, with my husband's family and mine, and there are a number of traditions on either side to live up to.

And thirdly, it will be my baby's first Christmas. And while I know that 8-month old babies will not remember any of it, I sure will. The new addition will be in all the photos, and I want to make the setting really something.

Here's a provisional list of all the things that I want to get done this year:

• Jesse tree/Advent calendar (see next week's post for more detail on this)
• Nativity scene
• Christmas gifts
• Christmas cards
• Bunting, wreath, table settings and other decorations

I'll post every Sunday (or try to) so that you can track my progress. Feel free to join in with any of the projects.

Merry Christmas!