Christmas Pants

Back during the summer months I told my sister I would make her a pair of flannel John Deere pajama pants. There was never a real dead line for said pants so I didn't start really thinking about making them until Christmas was in my sites. Then the other day I overheard a woman at Joann's talking about how she was making Christmas pajama pants for her children and grandchildren to wear on Christmas Day. I had an epiphany! Why not make my family pajama pants to wear for Christmas?! I already had the fabric for Cassie's and a couple patterns so I was already ahead of myself! Since Cassie's weren't Christmas themed I decided not to make the others in Christmas fabric. Last night I started with Roy's(my step dad) pants and got pretty far on them. Tonight I was able to basically finish them, minus the drawstring in the waist. I also cut out the fabric for my mom's pants as well. I'm pretty happy with the amount of progress I've made given that I only bought the fabric yesterday!

 Here are the stages that the pants are all currently in. Roys are basically finished. Mom's are cut out. Mine and Cassie's are still yards of fabric. I actually need to get more fabric for Cassie's pants but that's a whole other kettle of fish!

 I chose a blue plaid for Roy. He's not a very flashy guy so I thought the fabric suited him. My mom loves blue and when I saw the snowflake fabric I knew she would love it. (I do too, so I bought enough to make myself some shorts!!) Cassie's is the John Deere and mine are the moose! For those that know me, you know of my deep love for moose. I will have one as a pet someday!

Here is a better look at just Roy's pants. I'm pretty pleased with them. For the drawstrings I decided to mix and match them. I think it will be a cute way to tie all the pants together in a festive Christmas 2010 way. I think I'm going to use the John Deere for Roy's drawstring.
 So that's where most of my sewing efforts have been going lately. I think they are going to be a very fun gift for our Christmas festivities. We celebrate on Christmas Eve so I think I'm going to wrap them and set them outside everyone's doors while they are sleeping. Hopefully they won't get up in the night and step on them haha. I'll be sure to take more pictures as I go and I'm positive there will be plenty taken of us all wearing them. I can't wait!!

Stitch in Time

At the beginning of the summer my Aunt died very suddenly. She sewed mostly clothes and had a pretty large knitting collection. When my uncle was going through her things he loaded up all of her sewing supplies and gave them to my sister and I. There was a lot of fabric and supplies that Cassie and I divided between us. Now, Cassie doesn't really sew clothes so I inherited all the patterns and such. Also amongst the things was a LARGE basket full of yarn and knitting needles and crochet hooks. Again, Cassie doesn't knit so it came down to whether or not I wanted it. I had learned to knit in college once but hadn't kept it up enough to remember anything. Looking at that basket, something clicked in my mind and I felt the need to relearn how to knit. So I took the basket and was determined to do something with it. I bought a couple "how to" books at Joanns and picked a scarf to be my first attempt at knitting. Let's just say it was a "vintage" looking scarf that went to my mother as a birthday gift (she HAS to like whatever I make haha). Next came a pair of fingerless gloves. They seemed easy enough. No circular needles or anything fancy required. I made the first pair for myself, which was good because then I could change whatever I wanted about them. They came out wearable and I certainly enjoying them in this weather. Since making that pair, I haven't stopped making them yet 

There are a few of the pairs I have made so far. The black are by far the most popular.

I've made them in sports colors and solid colors and each pair gets better and better as i make them. Eventually I'll make a better pair for myself, if i ever have the time.

My next venture was hats. Originally I wanted to get good enough to make hats (a particular moose a hat), so I started with a pretty basic pattern. I couldn't have been happier with how the first hat came out! There was a mistake but to the untrained eye it kinda looks like part of the pattern. My next hat was a slouchy hat. I found a pattern book at Joanns that I loved so I took it home and had to try it out. It was definitely more challenging than the first hat. This hat required 2 kinds of circular needles AND double ended needles! I had NO experience with these things and they were very intimidating to me. Luckily I had all the needles I needed already so I gave it a try. What I ended up with was pretty awesome. Again I managed to surprise myself with how well things went. I tried the new needles with confidence and it went great!

 Again, I have more to make of these for people who have seen them and like them. It's really exciting to know that people are enjoying the things I make. I never imagined myself being a knitter, let alone have other people interested in my knitting.
I fully intend on learning how to crochet eventually (probably after the holidays). And to make new knit things. My dream of making the moose hat hasn't waivered either. I look forward to the challenge and hope that my love of knitting won't fade. If I ever get some free knitting time I would love to make a bunch of hats to give to a local shelter too. Living in this area of NY it gets SO cold and you seem so many people without a hat. Just another something I'd like to accomplish. Add it to the list! lol