skip to main |
skip to sidebar
In November at my last craft fair of the year, I received a custom order for three adult-sized hats. The customer had seen my baby/toddler hats and wanted a couple of them done in adult sizes for herself and two friends. They were finished a couple of evenings ago and picked up this morning. Here are the three hats:
I also finished up the last two stockings, going to two different customers. The first one is someone who found me at a craft fair in November and requested one stocking to be made in time for Christmas and another in preparation for next year. Here is the stocking that I made for her for this year:
The last one for this year goes to a friend who had me make two for her for last Christmas for her new son-in-law and daughter-in-law. This year she has a new granddaughter (born right before Thanksgiving) and needed a stocking for the new baby. Here's Mckinzie's stocking:
Now I'm done with the Christmas knitting and I can relax and start figuring out how to get the house straightened up for company that will be coming in the next week or so. But, never fear! There is still plenty of knitting left for me to do this winter - one Christmas stocking pre-ordered for next year, two scarves with probably more to come, not to mention snowball hats, yoga mat bags, yoga socks, and legwarmers. Oh, yes, and a few pairs of socks for dear hubby who is running very short on hand-knitted socks as his are all several years old and wearing out.
That said, I'd like to wish all of my loyal readers (all two of you! LOL) a very Merry Christmas and a joyful and prosperous New Year.
The custom stockings that I received the order for last Thursday are done and on their way to California. They are supposed to be delivered by tomorrow at 3 p.m. I thought they turned out fairly well considering how quickly they had to be made.
Upcoming: 3 custom-knitted hats and two more stockings, and then I'll be done with the Christmas knitting for this year. Hooray!
As if I didn't have more than enough to do before Christmas, I just agreed to take on yet another custom order. I received notification of an Etsy purchase, and then the customer immediately emailed me to say that she had just purchased the white stocking, but could she have it knitted in red, with her husband's name added, and get it to California by Christmas?
I replied with a price quote that included a personalization fee, a rush order charge, and the postal service's charge for overnight shipping (for what I thought was a simply exorbitant total price) and her response was "Great! Can you make one with my name on it too?" And only a week before Christmas Eve! I surely must be nuts!
In my last post I mentioned having to do an "impossible" afghan. The backstory is this: In October, I was contacted by someone who said that she had an afghan pattern worked in squares and that she needed some help putting it together. I envisioned someone who had all the squares knitted and just needed a little coaching on seaming techniques. Boy, was I wrong!
When I arrived to meet with the customer, she presented me with a pattern book
and a big bag full of yarn
and explained that this was the yarn she had chosen for the afghan pattern she wanted.
The problem? The afghan pattern calls for the squares to be knit with the same size needles, the same number of stitches and rows - BUT the three yarns she had chosen were all different weights - one bulky, one worsted, and one almost a fingering weight. Needless to say, it was a huge challenge to somehow make it all work out.
The end result, although frustrating to produce (involving multiple needle sizes and doubling the lightweight yarn to make the blocks come out the same size), turned out surprisingly well. I was a bit disappointed (although not surprised) that the cables pretty much disappear into the color changes of the variegated yarn. Had I made the choice, I would have chosen the variegated yarn for the plain stockinette blocks, the brown bulky yarn for the double moss stitch, and the solid blue for the cables.
However, the customer was delighted and paid what I asked without batting an eye (although in retrospect I think I probably should have charged more for this job). The biggest downside was that due to a scheduling glitch and a looming deadline I developed a major case of tendinitis in one hand and wore a splint on one finger for a couple of days to give myself time to recover. However, it's done and delivered and now it's on to the next project (or six!).
In October I mentioned a baby blanket that I was working on but never got a photo posted of the completed blanket. I thought it turned out really well and enjoyed working on it. I ended up driving all over Metro-East trying to find the perfect shade of green for the border, and ended up settling for what I could find. It doesn't match exactly, but I thought it looked better than the yellow border would have.
Then shortly after that blanket was finished, my son's girlfriend came by and asked if I could make her a "John Deere" baby blanket for her friend who is a farmer and just had a baby. After finding some appropriate green and yellow yarn in my stash and contemplating all the possibilities, I ended up with this:
I was basically happy with how well both blankets turned out, and I'm really wanting to do a couple more baby blankets, but alas, duty calls and instead I have to knit two customized Christmas stockings, three hats, an impossible afghan, and probably two or three other things that will crop up between now and Christmas.
and a batch of leftover yarn from the latest stocking project?
Why, she knits ornaments, of course!
Of course there are plenty of non-Christmas projects on the to-do list, many of which I won't even have to buy yarn for. Good to know since I'm trying desperately to reduce the overall size of my yarn stash.
I also finished up the last two stockings, going to two different customers. The first one is someone who found me at a craft fair in November and requested one stocking to be made in time for Christmas and another in preparation for next year. Here is the stocking that I made for her for this year:
The last one for this year goes to a friend who had me make two for her for last Christmas for her new son-in-law and daughter-in-law. This year she has a new granddaughter (born right before Thanksgiving) and needed a stocking for the new baby. Here's Mckinzie's stocking:
Now I'm done with the Christmas knitting and I can relax and start figuring out how to get the house straightened up for company that will be coming in the next week or so. But, never fear! There is still plenty of knitting left for me to do this winter - one Christmas stocking pre-ordered for next year, two scarves with probably more to come, not to mention snowball hats, yoga mat bags, yoga socks, and legwarmers. Oh, yes, and a few pairs of socks for dear hubby who is running very short on hand-knitted socks as his are all several years old and wearing out.
Upcoming: 3 custom-knitted hats and two more stockings, and then I'll be done with the Christmas knitting for this year. Hooray!
and a big bag full of yarn
However, the customer was delighted and paid what I asked without batting an eye (although in retrospect I think I probably should have charged more for this job). The biggest downside was that due to a scheduling glitch and a looming deadline I developed a major case of tendinitis in one hand and wore a splint on one finger for a couple of days to give myself time to recover. However, it's done and delivered and now it's on to the next project (or six!).
Then shortly after that blanket was finished, my son's girlfriend came by and asked if I could make her a "John Deere" baby blanket for her friend who is a farmer and just had a baby. After finding some appropriate green and yellow yarn in my stash and contemplating all the possibilities, I ended up with this:
