Christmas Nativities

Christmas Nativities are a big thing in my house.  What started out as a teaching tool for my children to teach them what our household believes Christmas is about, has become an obsession.  I have made many, many sets including some that don't get put out because they have been loved to death.  I thought I would share some of them here. 

I found this set in a series of magazines several years back and being a crocheter, I had to make it.

I bought this set from a local ceramic artist.  I just loved the simplicity of it.  Joseph is about 8 inches tall.  The pine cones are actually huge so I just had to put glitter on them.

 I love this set that I made years ago.  Joseph is only about 3 1/2 inches tall it is my smallest set.  My daughter in her youth made the counted cross stitch embroidery above it.

This is my newest set.  It is made with pom-pom balls, felt and different embellishments.  I love how it came out.

My main problem with all these nativities is I am running out of surfaces to put them on.  I would love to design a set one of these years but I need an idea that hasn't already been done.  There are so many wonderful patterns out there it is really hard to come up with something new.  The reality is it is a really old story that showed men just how much God loves each of us.

Do you have a favorite Nativity set that you set up at Christmas time?  





Winter Tree Cable Men’s Fingerless Gloves

I love winter trees.  They are beautiful in the spring, summer and fall but in the winter against a winter sky you can see just what they have to stand against to make it.  Most of the trees out here like this Osage-Orange tree have a real bent to them to stand against the Kansas wind.

My husband asked me design some fingerless gloves for him.  Since lace knitting wouldn't work for a guy's design, I thought of cable.  In thinking about my husband, he often reminds me of a winter tree. He is steadfast and true and has weathered amazing storms in his life, and yet he stands.  I am sure that there were times in our marriage that it would have been easier to leave then withstand  the storms but because of his promise to God and me on our wedding day, he has chosen to stay and grow through it.  The character that is his because of his choices, has made him a truly amazing, loving man.

This is the design I came up with for his gloves.



 They were probably my hardest design to date because the broad part of the tree kept getting in the way of the thumb gusset.  I had to design each glove a little differently since the thumb gusset was on opposite sides, but I am really pleased with how they came out.  I used a soft acrylic yarn so that they would wash easily. He is really pleased with the design and how they fit his hand and that makes me really happy.

Here is a pair I made in a cotton thread.

I am pleased to say they work up in about 10 hours or less after I was able to get the design figured out.  They are worked in a worsted weight yarn and worked in the round so there are no irritating seams to be felt by the wearer.

Christmas Time

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  I love the colors and all the lights on houses and trees.  What a wonderful way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I love decorating the Christmas tree and making Christmas tree decorations. 

This year, I decided to take a break from designing so that I could have time to wrap and mail packages, decorate the tree and do some baking.  I remember some pine cone shaped ornaments with gold or silver tips that were on my folk's tree when I was a child.  I wanted to get some for my tree.  I looked at all the decorations in the stores and couldn't find any anywhere.  So the option I came up with is make my own.  It turned out to be a very short break from designing.  I just don't seem to be able to help myself

I got all the deep colors of yarn and thread I have at home.  Of course, I had to pick up a few more when I was in the stores.  I got out all my metallic gold and silver threads and started working on making a pine cone shape. 

This is what I came up used a deep red light worst weight yarn and gold metallic thread.  I am using a shell stitch to come up with individual scales.  The metallic thread really sparkles on the tree.

Here it is in a deep blue and silver metallic thread.  Pine cones just seem to fit on Christmas trees. 

And again in purple and silver.  I often use real pine cones that I have glittered and glued to go around nativity scenes but they just don't show up on Christmas trees like these crochet ones do.  While I am waiting for my men's fingerless gloves to get back from the testers, I am having fun making crochet pine cones for my tree. 

Do you like to make Christmas ornaments for your tree?



Trees and Men's Fingerless Gloves

The weather has been glorious this year and I have gotten some pictures of the trees in our area.  The bright yellow one is a cottonwood.  I love the feel of the air and the cooler temperatures.  We have even gotten rain this week which is almost always an event in this part of Kansas.  During this time of year, I am always wanting to knit.

When I was working on the Pine Tree and Cones Fingerless Gloves, my husband said he would love a men's pair as it would allow for warmth in the hands but dexterity and feel in the fingers.  I thought, "Why not.  That should be relatively simple."   If I had only known, I am not sure I would have started this project.

I love knitted lace but that wouldn't be something my husband would be interested in.  So I thought maybe some sort of cable design.  That seemed like more of a male design that I could get into.
I started looking through patterns to see if I could find something.  What I found is that just about every cable stitch I would come up with has already been done in fingerless gloves.  So then I thought I will just have to come up with a new cable design.  Silly me.

Also, he can wear his clothes pretty hard so I needed to find some yarn that would wear hard and be much thicker so that he would not snag the glove and break the threads.  So I went to our local yarn shop to look at what I could find that would wash easily and wear well. (I love doing this part of the design process.  I usually have to stop myself from buying out the store)  I thought worsted weight should be heavy enough to handle his hard use.   I found a light worsted weight in tan that should wash easily but was really soft next to the skin.  I also found some rust cotton that would work.  Both colors are good for him.

With the yarn colors and the cable design I set down to draw out different ideas.  I love trees of all seasons and I thought of the gnarly hedge rows around the wheat fields in our area.  In the winter with no leaves, these Osage-orange trees are really fantastic to see.  We appreciate their wood for burning in our fireplace as it burns hot for a long time.

With this in mind I set out to design a cable that would twist and divide into the branches that these trees do.  I have been working on this design for 2 + months and have been tempted to give up on it.  However, I hate to admit defeat and have had to take it out, try something else, take that out, try something else, etc.   I am excited because I think I have finally figured this design out.  I will be introducing this pattern for others to make in 2 or three weeks.

Have you ever had a project that you just refused to give up on? 

Fall and knitting

I love Fall.  It can be so beautiful.  This year it sure is.  Some years in Kansas we have one or two weeks of cool down from the extreme heat and then it is winter.  Naturally the early frosts and ice storms makes all the leaves on the trees drop immediately.  This year we have had almost a full month of cooler weather and the leaves on the trees are stunning, especially the Cottonwood trees.  I think the Cottonwood is the Plains version of the Aspen.  They turn vibrant yellow.  The leaf shape is very similiar but they are larger.  They even quake in the wind which is almost always blowing in Kansas. 

With the cooler temperatures it just makes sense to try to knit.  I have been working on a pair of men's fingerless gloves.  Since it is for men, I decided to make something with cables.  I just about have the pattern figured out.  This has really been a challenge for me and is taking longer than usual to figure out.  I thought I had it and then last night I had to take it all out again to make some changes.  I think they will be really fun when I have got all the kinks worked out.

I love working with wonderful yarns that feel so nice in my hands.  Yarns can really add the touch to a pattern that can make all the difference.  I love my local yarn shop and have to keep from visiting too often or my house would not have anymore room for us and our 3 dogs.  I love to spin moreno and angora rabbit wool together to make some wonderful yarns.  All of these things take room and we live in a very compact house so I am using yarns I already have so that I have room to purchase more.

What are your favorite things about Fall or knitting?

Scarecrows and Autumn

Today is the first day of Fall.  Living in Kansas, I am really ready for it.  The air is clear and crisp.  The leaves are turning colors and the temperatures have dropped to highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's.  It is glorious outside.

All this is coming just when I finally was able to get the testing done on my newest reading character bookmark, the Scarecrow of Oz.  I got interested in these characters because a very good friend of mine was telling me about growing up on the Oz books as a young girl.  The pictures in her books were delightful and so I thought (after doing some research) that I would try to make my own renditions.

The biggest challenge for me to try to come up with a crochet stitch that looks like rope. Then I remembered about twisting crochet thread into rope like pieces.  I love his diploma which he is holding in his hands to prove that he has a brain.

With all the wild weather we had this summer including some extreme tornadoes that hit in locations that were not set up for them and the terrible losses in Joplin, MO, and a small town here in KS that same day, this series just seemed appropriate.

Hopefully fall will be so much better weather wise.  I know this scarecrow would not mind hanging out in our fields around where I live right now.   What do you like most about Autumn? 





Making Rope or the Z-twist

I am currently working on a couple of projects at once which means that I am getting a lot done very slowly.  One of the patterns I am working on is a crochet reading character bookmark of the Scarecrow of Oz.  In looking at pictures I see that he is tied together using rope at various points.  I was trying to figure out how to make crochet stitches look like rope.  Then my dear husband reminded me of a pattern I did in my youth that had a rope looking part to it. 

I thought I would do a pictorial tutorial on how to make the appearance of rope.  Spinners will recognize this as the Z-twist.  It can be used with yarn, string, thread or any material of sufficient length.  I have even used this with dried Yucca leaves to make rope just as Native Americans did years ago.  In spinning it is called plying and it involves spinning several bobbins going one direction.  Then to ply the single thread created on each bobbin into a 2 ply or 3 ply yarn, the single thread bobbins are spun together on a separate bobbin going the opposite direction from the way the single threads were spun.  This locks them into place and give the yarn much more strength.

I took a long piece of crochet thread and doubled it.

This can be done with yarn for the same results.  Next step is to twist it tightly.

Now I knot both ends without losing the twist in order to keep the twist in the work.

Now comes the z-twist part.  I double the thread which causes the twists on both threads to want to lock into place.  I kept both threads apart until they were even length and then allowed them to lock together.

I then twist them together a little more if needed and tie both ends to keep these twists in place.

Some of my "rope" needed to be thicker than other ropes on the piece, so I just doubled the thread again.  

Twisted a little more and knotted both ends to hold in place.  Now I have the "rope"  that is needed to make my scarecrow.  I have used this technique with yarn also and it produces the same great results.

I am hoping to have this pattern off to my pattern testers by the end of the week.