Cowl, Packers Scarf, and More Snow!

Hello!

This winter has been a very cold one! Thankfully, we've gotten a decent amount of snow so it makes the cold worth it. Cold winters are great for crocheting, and for me, it has been a winter that I crochet a lot of cowls, scarves, and other neck warmers.

My most recent cowl is a pattern that I got out of a "Once Skein Wonder" book that I got for Christmas. I got the yarn from knitpicks.com for my birthday, it's SO soft and wonderful, I love it!

I used this yarn for the first time and was really happy with it! I had used "knitpicks brava sport" before, but I hadn't ever tried the worsted weight, so it was fun to use a different yarn!

Not the best picture, but it's cloudy today and too icy to go outside.

I also got a couple a skeins of "knitpicks brava sport" to make myself a scarf in my favorite football team's colors. I really love how it came out too! I generally don't use the color yellow, but the Green Bay Packers wear yellow and green. I can't wait to wear it when my team plays next season!

Right now I'm working on a mile a minute afghan, I can't wait to be able to post pictures when it's all done, and guess what, it's not green it's actually going to be pink for a change in color!I just started it though, so it'll be a little while. It has been a lot of fun working on it!


 Another exciting this is we got a surprise snowstorm, everything looks so beautiful, it's our prettiest storm yet!

This storm covered the trees so perfectly! Even after a couple of days, the trees are still covered! We have about a foot or so of snow right now.

Isn't God's creation so amazing? Whenever it snows I think of the verse in Psalms... "Be still and know that I am God"



I love the snow, it's perfect for crocheting and coffee! My kitten, Flynn, enjoys looking outside at the prettiness too! =) He "helped" me take pictures for this post, and by "helped" I mean attacked my feet! =D



He is getting so big! =)



Well, that's all for now! I hope to be writing again soon!

Have a great day!

Finally! My Lace Shawl!

Hello!
I've really been looking forward to being able to write this post. I have been working on this lace shawl on and off, between Christmas gifts and swaps, while watching football and Little House on the Prairie, and during visits with family and friends. To make a long story short, this shawl has taken me FOREVER! But! The time put into it was totally worth it!

Knitpicks.com had a yarn sale a few months ago, and when they did I bought three skeins of lace weight yarn, I got an amazing deal! Praise the Lord!

As you can see, it's alpaca and silk! I love touching this yarn, it's SO soft!

The color I got is BEAUTIFUL! The color is called "Bayou", I love all the different shades of green and brown there are, then the little bit of blue. I love it so much! I was really pleased when my yarn came in the mail. There is something about ordering yarn and having it come directly to your house, through the mail, that is so much fun!

I had started this shawl on Thanksgiving Eve day, then I had to put it away and make Christmas things, plus some things to put on etsy, so I didn't work on it a ton. After I finished my Christmas gifts I was able to work on it much more often, it took me such a long time to finally finish it because of how fine the yarn is. The pattern I used is out of  "Cute and Easy Crochet" by Nicki Trench, it's called "Summer Evening Shawl". I personally would wear this any time of the year!

I didn't make my shawl quite as long as the pattern said to, but if I had it probably would have been way to long for me! The way the yarn looked before I crocheted with it, then as I started to work with it, I think the colors got even more beautiful!

This isn't the greatest picture of it, but I wanted at least one picture where you can see the entire shawl.

One thing I really love about this shawl is that I can also wear it as a scarf!

Another thing I love about this shawl, other than the amazing yarn, is the edging of picots. As long as the edging took, it added a lot to the shawl and I really love it!

This is a really close-up picture of the edging...

Then taking a step back, it looks something like this. =)

As much fun as I had working on this, I'm really happy I'm done and can wear it now! =) I have been waiting so long to finally be able to write a post about this lace shawl and am SO excited that I was able to today! =)

Have a great day!

Swaps and Scarves

Hello!

A while back I mentioned that I was doing a swap on ravelry! It was a lot of fun, and I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures.

One of the things I sent was a crochet hook case, it was really easy to make and I really liked it a lot!

I sent some other things as well, but this was by far my favorite! I want to make one for myself at some point.

I also made some dishcloths, place markers, snowflake ornaments, and I sent some yarn.

I really enjoyed doing the swap, here are some pictures of what was sent to me.

I couldn't believe how many wonderful things were in this package! There was a TON of yarn, some of it was cotton, some wool and even alpaca, all of which I LOVE! =D

There were so many goodies, it made me very happy! I love everything. =)

It is going to be a while before I actually finish using all of this yarn, I made myself a cowl out of a skein of the alpaca yarn. It is so soft and warm, I love it! I made it special for our Christmas Eve church service.

Another thing I made special for Christmas Eve was a hairpin. It has sparkles in it, so I thought it looked festive. =)

Swap 2

Right before Christmas, my grandma, mom, sisters and I decided we should do a swap together and trade around New Years. I drew my grandma's name and she drew mine, it was funny that we got each other! =) I made her a teal crochet hook case, which I forgot to take a picture of for my blog, but you can kind of picture it yourself, it's the same case as the one I showed you earlier on in this post. Grandma made me a BEAUTIFUL doily, it's green and white. The white has sparkles in it that look like snow, the picture I took doesn't do it justice, it's hard to get good pictures of doilies sometimes.

She also got me a hanging angel, which looks really nice on the doily!

Lastly, I made this scarf for friend. I got the pattern out of a One Skein Wonder book that I got for Christmas...the book is amazing!

I would have liked to get a better picture of it by taking it outside. However, the day that I took the picture, our wind chill temperature was minus 7, so I stayed inside that afternoon! =) My sister and I went for a walk that morning though, we decided we wouldn't do that again when it's that cold and windy, it was still fun though! =)

Well, that's all for now! Have a wonderful day!



Snowy Day =D

Hello!

It was such a beautiful day today! It started snowing around 9am and came down pretty hard all day, it's still coming down right now, just a little slower.

I loved watching the snow from the window, and enjoyed going for a walk in it even more! =)

 

The pictures that I took really don't do the snow justice, we got around 3-4 inches throughout the day, so it was a really nice coating of white.

 

In this picture the snow was coming down pretty hard, it was like this for most of the day.

 

 

The trees looks gorgeous covered in white, I love snow!

Whenever it snows it seems so still and peaceful....it's amazing!

 

 

Within twenty minutes or so of it snowing the stone wall near our house was already nearly covered, which got me excited for what was to come.

 

 

 

Towards the end of daylight the snow slowed down a little and you could really see just how covered everything was.

 

 

 

Today was such a good day for coffee, popcorn, crocheting, and baking, all of which I had or did....such fun! =D I worked on my shawl...which I would really LOVE to have done by Christmas Eve. We'll see though. The yarn I bought is lace weight, it's so wonderful! I got it from knitpicks and it's 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk.....I can't get over how much I love this yarn! The color is just so beautiful and it feels amazing to work with it! =D I'll definitely post pictures of my shawl when I finish it!

 

I love the way our house looks this year, all decorated for Christmas...and in the snow =)

 

 

That's all for now! Have a great day!

Christmas Decorating

Hello!

It's officially advent! Such a special time of year to celebrate the coming of and birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are so many different ways to celebrate, one of my favorite ways to do so is to go crazy decorating the house!

 

 

 The day after Thanksgiving we go to Oakwood Christmas Tree Farm, pick out, and cut down our tree, it's always so much fun!

This year we decided to get a tall, narrow tree....it was a little too tall and ended up hitting the ceiling, nothing a little trimming couldn't fix though! =)

 

Our tree was still all bound up in this picture....it smells so nice!

Here is our tree, beautifully decorated! I always love the way our tree looks! Each year my family decorates our tree together while listening to Christmas music, it's always so fun.

 

 

My sisters and I are sharing a room now, so we went crazy decorating our room together, we each had our own decorations, which meant that we had plenty of things to make the upstairs look like a Christmas Wonderland! Yay! =D

 

Entering the upstairs....

 

 

 

At the top of the stairs is my tree, and PART of my older sister's village collection, which is absolutely GORGEOUS! =) (This is the only picture of it I got though.)

 

 

 

This is my little village, it's so cute!

 

 

This is my little sister's tree, it looks so nice at the end of her bed!

 

In this picture, to the left, is my desk, I really LOVE the way it looks in the opened closet!

 

 

The whole reason for Christmas.....I love my Nativity set!

 

 

This is a really awful picture, but it's my little sister's village set.

 

Lastly, my older sister's Christmas tree....it's so pretty!

 

 

So, in my sister's and my bedroom, we have countless strands of lights, 3 Christmas trees, 3 Nativity scenes, 3 village sets, TONS of ornaments, paper snowflakes, and I'm sure there are other things that I can't remember!

 

 

Lastly, I made a hat for our etsy shop....I really love the way it came out! =)

It was a very easy pattern and worked up really quickly!

 

 

The pattern says it's a "beanie hat", it's worn kind of on the back of your head.

 

 

 

I hope everyone is having a great week, the first week of advent! =D I love this time of year!

Have a wonderful day!

 

Socks and Things

Hello!

I'm in really good shape as far as Christmas gifts go, I'm actually almost done, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Yay!

 

So, I decided that in between Christmas gifts I'd make some non-gift things. I started out by making a pair of wool mittens. I love this pattern, it's so simple!

 

 

This wool is SO soft, I absolutely loved working with it! =) These are for my sisters and my etsy shop.

 

 

I also whipped up a few "fancy" place markers...I love using them. =)

 

I could not believe how fast they were to make! I had no beading experience at all so I didn't realize how quick a place marker could be to make.

 

I think this is my favorite one! =) I love green....

I had a lot of fun making them, then when I finished, I couldn't wait to use them for a project!

 

I love the more earthy tones these beads are.

A cute little heart.... =)

I really like the shape of this green bead,  it's so different!

And, the little butterfly =)

Lastly, I was very excited to make another pair of socks! The yarn for these was so much to work with, it has sparkles going throughout it. =) This is my first pair of ankle socks, I really like wearing them. I'd like to make some knee highs some day as well!



You can't really see the sparkles in the picture, but they're there! =)

 

The edging on these used a  stitch I had never heard of before, it is a reverse single crochet, I really like the looks of it though, it adds a ridged sort of look.

 



You may be able to see the sparkles a little better in this picture. =)

 

Well...I think that is all for now! I hope you all  very happy Thanksgiving! There are so many things that we have to thank the Lord for! =) 

Have a wonderful day!



I had to add this....we had such a beautiful sunset today! God's creation is just so amazingly beautiful!