Mini Sweaters

If you were watching my WIP list carefully, you may have noticed that this project dropped off about a week ago.  I didn't post about it yet because it was a gift for my sister for her first Christmas with her own place.

I found this pattern in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine from 2008.  I looked for it on their website to link it here, but all I found were more projects that look interesting.  I started it just thinking that it would be a quick and fun surprise, but it actually turned out to be an excellent project to learn some new knitting skills.

I'm not even going to attempt to discuss knitting techniques.  Everything I know about knitting I learned from KnittingHelp.com.  She has video tutorials for every skill I've needed so far.  Here are the skills I got to practice on this project:

• Cast On
• Knit
• Purl
• Bind Off
• Weave in Ends
• Slip onto a Stitch Holder
• Pick Up Stitches
• Circular Knitting using Double Pointed Needles
• Decrease
• Mattress Stitch (Seam)

Once the knitting was done, I appliqued the ornaments to the front of the sweaters.  This part really went rather quickly.  I had the first sweater completely knit before I began to applique the stocking to it.  It was a little hard to work in such a small space, so I left the seaming for the very end on the other two sweaters.

Here's a view of the scale of the finished sweaters.  I do have huge hands compared to the rest of my body, but they're not that big.

Here's a shot of all three sweaters in different stages.  The green one is completely knit, the variegated one is done except for the seaming, and the red one is just the torso of the sweater and the beginning of the neck.  The sleeves are added last.

And finally, a shot of working with double pointed needles.  I took a lot of pictures of this process so I may try a small tutorial on that in the future.

Supplies Needed:

• Yarn (a small skein will probably make 2-3 sweaters)
• Size 6 needles
• Size 6 double pointed needles (these come in sets of 4)
• Scissors
• Yarn Needle (for weaving in ends and seaming)
• Embroidery Needle (for applique)
• Felt
• Embroidery Floss
• Seed Beads (for decorations on the applique)
• Miniature Clothespins
• Clothesline

Christmas Bells (Guest Crafter)

I’m going to start occasionally including crafts by other people here.  I’ll always include “Guest Crafter” in the title of the post so that I don’t inadvertently take credit for someone else’s work.

Christmas pictures used to be as much a tradition in my family as Santa Claus.  Every October, my siblings and I would dress up in matching outfits and get our pictures taken at JC Penney.  My mom even made our outfits until I was about 15.  Once she got the pictures back, she would make her own little picture frame.  If she had made our outfits, she would use a scrap of the fabric from our dresses around the bell.  I think we stopped getting formal pictures done when I was 20, so my parents have a collection of bells that goes up and down the staircase in the entry way to their house.

This picture is of me as a baby.  At one point we thought we lost the original bell, so my mom made a replacement for it.  Then the original bell was found, so I have this single bell for my own tree.

Supplies Needed:

• Cardboard (to stiffen the bell shape)
• Photograph
• Fabric
• Thread
• Needle/Sewing Machine (Hot Glue could also be used)
• Stencil in bell shape
• Pencil