Elemental Stitches

Christmas Embroidery Inspiration and More Free Patterns

1. Christmas Pencil Toppers, 2. Christmas Ornaments, 3. borduurwerk / embroidery, 4. Forever Noël embroidery pattern,

5. Mistletoe Holly 3 nov09, 6. White Christmas Lavender Bird, 7. Pretty Christmas tree, 8. love birds ornament,

9. Rudolph, 10. Merry Fucking Christmas, 11. Bitty Elf Shoes, 12. Christmas Stitchette pillow,

13. 2008 Christmas Ornament Swap #2, 14. Day 19 - Felt Christmas mittens, 15. string of lights, 16. Peppermint ornament,

17. all stitched!, 18. Target Tuesday:Tree Tea Towel, 19. Felt Gingerbread Biscuits // Star group, 20. Lulu's advent calender 1

I also came across a couple more Christmas embroidery designs on flickr.

Christmas Robot Elves (Awesome pattern!!!)

Holiday Deer

Presents and Ornaments

Gingerbread House

Yule Tree Sprite

Celtic Yule Pattern

Hope I gave you some last minute ideas!  Have a great week!

Jungle Lagoon Socks

This week flew by!  I spent the week at my moms, relaxing and trying not to worry about Tom.  His car broke down on the way up north and its costing $1200 to fix so far.  Plus, we might have to replace the transmission.  Right before the holidays... right before moving... right before starting a new job.  I wanted to rip my hair out when I heard the news.  I am hoping and praying that its not the transmission.

We are in the middle of a series of storms that have brought our parched desert a bit of rain and a sprinkling  of snow.  Both are rare here so it was rather exciting to see snow falling.

To take my mind off of all this stress I decided to make a pair of cozy socks out of the Knitpicks yarn I got for my birthday.  I have been scared that I was going to mess them up and ruin the yarn, but so far this sock is almost perfect.  

Here are the stats for this project.  I am trying to add more stats to my projects so you can know where to find the yarn and the pattern.

Jungle Lagoon Socks- My name, because of their color

Yarn - Stroll Handpainted Sock Yarn

Color - Make Believe

Pattern - Taken from The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns (a terrific book!)

The colors are beautiful!  I love to watch the colors change as I knit around.  It makes knitting so much more exciting. 

I finished another hat but it is identical to the gray beret I made before so I didn't take more photos of it.  There are only a couple projects left on my knitting gift list.  After I finish these socks I have to get started on a fair isle skull hat.

I will be gone for a week or so again.  Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!

Blog Break

I am taking a little blog break for the next several days.  I am off to visit my mom for a while.  Have a wonderful week and I will be back with all the great projects I have finished.

Tom's Star Crossed Cowl - A Free Knitting Pattern

So it begins.  A few weeks ago I mentioned that we would be moving soon.  Tom is starting a new job in San Jose on Tuesday.  About 6 hours from where we are living at the moment.  We have been waiting for this time for months and I am so excited, relieved, and sad that it is here.  In the morning he is leaving for San Jose.  Brae and I are staying here until after the holidays. 
We are going to miss him, but I know that it is for the best.  This new path in life is going to provide us with so many opportunities!  I am so excited at what is to come this next year.  I have so much planned!

But, onto the free pattern.  Tom's job involves working outside in almost all weather and in unpleasant surroundings.  Its an active job and he cant bother with a scarf falling off or getting in the way.

So I thought a cowl would be the perfect solution!  Now the problem was finding a pattern.  One that a guy would like.  I had just finished making the Star Crossed Beret and I loved the pattern.  I decided to use it to make Tom's Cowl.  I didn't improvise the pattern much but it came out fantastic!  Here you go!

Star Crossed Cowl

-US10.5 16inch circular needle

-One ball of worsted weight yarn (I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mocha Twist)

1.  Loosely cast on 72 stitches.

2.  Work 1x1 ribbing for 5 rows.

3.  Work following pattern two times.

Rounds 1-4, 6-10, and 12:  Knit all stitches

Round 5:  *Slip 3 to Cable Needle (CN), hold in back, K3, K3 from CN, K3.  Repeat from * until end of the round.

Round 11:  *K3, slip 3 to CN, hold in front, K3, K3 from CN.  Repeat from * until end of the round.

4.  Work 1x1 ribbing for 5 rows.

5.  Bind off loosely. 

I noticed that the cowl sits very nicely with the bind off edge on the top near the chin and the cast on edge on the bottom.

Got Him Back

I am exhausted, but we finally caught him!  This is Hermes, AKA Foghorn Leghorn.  He took off during training yesterday and has had us chasing him ever since.  We eventually kept tracking and chasing him until he was too tired to keep flying away from us.  You see, falcons don't really love you.  The most they think is that you are a source of easy food.  If they aren't hungry they will not come back no matter what.  We are pretty sure that he took off excited at being free for the first time and killed himself some dinner then didn't need to come back.

I think I hiked about 6 miles today through desert and buttes.  I wish I had taken my camera, but I knew I would be doing a lot of walking and it can get heavy around your neck. I am off to take a long hot bath.  I hope I can get back to crafting tomorrow.