Finished Objects- Teacher's gifts for Christmas

 This year my daughters and I made our teacher's gifts. I crocheted a snowflake washcloth for each teacher and we made Oatmeal cookie bath powder.  It was pretty simple to make we just combined 2 parts oatmeal, one part baking soda, and seasoned it with extract (I usually use vanilla but all I could find was almond) and cinnamon.  Then the kids made snowflake cards and we gave them a bar of chocolate.

I also made these tasty ginger cookies for my youngest daughter's preK class.  You can find my recipe on my worth a fig blog.

My parents are arriving here in Egypt any minute... so I might not be writing as much over the next couple of weeks.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Peace and Joy,
Jenn

Works in Progress- My first afghan...

I am working on a small afghan right now.  I've never made an afghan, but I got a large amount of yarn from someone moving away and I didn't have any projects that I could use if for. I decided to make small blanket to curl up on the couch with.  I just made a traditional granny square and I will continue to make rounds until I run out of blue yarn.  I would say I'm in the home stretch right now.

This is one of those projects that I put away for long periods of time and then pull out when I need something mindless to do while watching a movie.  Since I'm almost done I might work overtime on it for the next few days and get it ready for Christmas.

Cheers,
Jenn

Chain Wreaths- Handmade fun for the kids.

Here is my handmade for the holiday project for the day. I am heading to my daughter's school to teach her and a couple of friends how to make these chain stitch wreaths for the holidays. I'll post photos tomorrow of our results. For a photo tutorial on how to make these wreaths click here.

Works in Progress... A snowflakes chance in Egypt..

I'm in the process of making snow in Cairo... or at least I'm crocheting snowflakes. Christmas break is approaching and I'm making snowflake ornaments and washcloths for my daughter's teachers.  I still need to weave in ends and block them.  I also need to make a few more of the washcloths.  I thought I'd make some hot chocolate mix or some cookies for them as well. 

Click on Photo to go to pattern

Click on photo to go to pattern

The only chance we will have of a white Christmas around here is if we take a trip to the white desert.  Here are a couple of photos from our Eid holiday trip.  It is stunning and I could easily visit it a second time.

My gift arrived!

I got my secret Santa gift from Poland today.  Very cool!  Some tea, some hot chocolate, some cute stitch markers, an assortment of awesome buttons and a variety of sizes of safety eyes.  I am especially excited about the eyes since there are some really tiny ones that I can't get very easily.

Thanks to Just In Designs for my lovely gift!

Christmas Time in Egypt...

Our Christmas Tree in Egypt

Amid all the chaos here in Egypt right now we have just been trying to make things as normal as possible for the kids: Soccer games, school functions, dinners at Gaya Korean restaurant, and.... Christmas.  With the holiday season coming it has been a bit of a difficult task.  Thankfully many of the local garden shops and stores have trees and decorations for sale.  It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit so far away from family back home and in a land where Christmas is just a holiday celebrated by "others".

We didn't bring our Christmas decorations to Egypt so this year we've had fun making our own. My daughters have interesting senses of humor and so our tree has a bit of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" feel to it. I like it!

We bought our tree down the road at a nearby garden shop and one of the employees followed us back to our apartment, winding thorough nighttime traffic with our tree in a wheelbarrow. My husband played DJ and picked out some really odd Christmas tunes on Youtube while we decorated the tree.

 I made a couple of crocheted toys to hang and my oldest daughter crocheted a chain in Christmas colors to add as a garland. We also added a few Barbie heads, some origami animals, and  a few other homemade goodies... We draped some lights and garlands over it all and now we have a pretty tree to bring a little Christmas spirit into the house.  Now I just need to figure out what to do about our stockings...

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Mummified Snowman

Our Angel at the top of the tree

More fun with Barbie heads.

Crocheted Sugar Skull Ornament

Fun with Origami

A free gift for the holidays...

Anyone who likes OuchComics on facebook between now and the end of the year (and posts a comment on our wall requesting it) will receive their choice of a finger puppet pattern from my little monsters collection for free.

Kitty Cat Change Purse (Crochet Version)

I knitted a kitty purse for my daughter's birthday two years ago.  She loved it and carried it around all the time.  Recently while on a walk here in Cairo we lost it.  We retraced our steps and came up empty handed.  I decided to make her a new one for Christmas, but I decided to rewrite the pattern as a crochet pattern.  Here is what I came up with.

With an E hook and worsted weight yarn chain 19
Row 1 - sc into second chain hook across to the end (18)
Row 2 - sc into each stitch across. (18)
Row 3-42 - repeat row 2
It should be about 7 inches long at this point.
Now begin the decrease for the flap.
Row 43 - sc2tog, sc across until last two stitches sc2tog (16)
Row 44-48 - repeat row 43 until you only have 6 stitches across.
Fasten off and weave in ends.

Now fold it so that it makes a good size change purse with the tapered flap for your kitty face.
Now you are going to sc around the edge in a contrasting color. Start at the bottom corner.

Instead of sewing the edges together simply join them by crocheting them together.  When you reach the top of the first side continue the single crochet stitch along the  edge of the flap.  When you reach the center of the tip then chain 8 and begin your single crochet border down the other side of the flap.

Then simply continue down the edge joining the two sides of the purse together.  Fasten off and weave in your end.



Ears:
Chain 7
Row 1- sc into second ch from hook and across (6)
Row 2- sc2tog, sc, sc, sc2tog (4)
Row 3- sc across (4)
Row 4- sc2tog, sc2tog (2)
Row 5- Sc2tog (1)
Fasten off
Attach to the  top of the purse flap.

Eyes: Make 2
sc 4 into a magic loop, pull tight and slip stitch in the first stitch to form a circle.  Fasten off.

Nose: Chain 4 and then single crochet down one side, sc three times in the last stitch and then continue around the other side of the chain to make an oval.  Single crochet twice more in the last stitch and then join with a slip stitch.

Sew the  eyes and nose on being careful to keep your stitches from going all the way through your work.  That way it looks neat on the back.

I made the whiskers similar to how you would make fringe.

Now all you need to do is sew on a button and you have a cute little kitty purse.

Secret Santa

I sent off a package for a secret santa project I've been working on in Ravelry. Hopefully it will get there without problems. I made this mug hug (click on photo for free pattern) and then I included a card, some Egyptian cotton yarn in a Christmasy color, a Tunisian crochet hook, a bookmark, and a tree ornament (it is a Bedouin decoration).

Works in Progress

This week I am working on making up some cute patterns for washcloths in animal shapes.  I have tons of sock monkey yarn and I thought that little sock monkey washcloths would make cute gifts for the kids.  When I'm finished I'll posts photos and possibly a pattern as well.  With Christmas just around the corner I'm trying to find inspiration for gifts for my friends and family by designing toys and fun stuff for them this holiday season.  I'm converting my Kitty Coin Purse to a crochet pattern as well.  It should be available later this week or early next week as a free pattern.

 

 What are you working on right now?