Startitus Relief & Holiday Ornaments

Another harsh, croupy cold has kept me away from the computer for the past several days. Glad to finally be on the tail end of it.

During the down time, a few crafty things happened.

Art Pen Pals
I took part in an Art Pen Pal project exchange over at the C. Beth Blog site. Since I was feeling under the weather I didn't have the fortitude to oversee an artsy toddler free-for-all. So I sent a handmade card to my swap partner instead.

I received the cutest art made by the Toncrey family from Mobile, Alabama. This SAHM and her daughter are wicked good with pom pom balls, googly eyes and Popsicle sticks!

Thank you, Toncrey family! I love it!!!

I Knit Something
Yes! A test hat out of a cheap-o, chunky, 50/50 wool-acrylic yarn, using size 13 circular needles. The Toddler Felt Hat pattern calls for 100% worsted weight wool so I reduced the number of stitches from 90 down to 60, and crossed my fingers that the hat would still be in the general ballpark to felt down to toddler size. It was a crap shoot, pure and simple.

I got lucky. The hat felted down to just a hair bigger than I wanted. The dimply crown, however, is my egregious error. I didn't follow the pattern correctly, ending up with a pointy top instead of a smooth curve. Plus, the only DPNs I had on hand were size 8 (quite a difference from size 13) which warped the crown even more. Kind of looks like a nipple, doesn't it?

That's why swatches and tests are good. I got some practice felting, made a bunch of mistakes and learned a lot in the process. This project knit up so quickly that I will be doing another one out of the same yarn, just because I like the colors so well.

Felt Christmas Tree Ornaments
A "no fragile ornaments" rule has been imposed on the holiday tree this year. That means, if I don't come up with some soft ornaments, my tree will be pretty darned bare.

So I've chosen to create felted pear and partridge ornaments. To that end, I've created partridge template pieces that resemble the animated partridge from the opening logo of the popular 1970s TV show The Partridge Family.


I started out thinking in 2D, but after seeing this adorable felted bird in Warm Fuzzies by Betz White, I had to make them 3D. See?

The pears will be two-dimensional with classic blanket stitching around the edges, just like in the photo below.

Did I mention that my holiday tree this year will be purple? Traditional red and green is done to death on my street so I decided to color outside the lines. Convention? Ha! I laugh at you.

That mean the pears won't be yellow. More like red Bartlett or Anjou pears. When I have one done I will post photos and you can judge how well I executed the concept. Right now, the prospect of needle felting roving onto the pears for shading excites me. Once I sit down and try it, we'll see if needle felting qualifies as a delusional activity.