Yarn Your Yule

I knitted a bunch of these cute little tree ornaments last year.

(Although that is not a picture of one of mine. I am apparently a big moron and either didn't take, or didn't save, any pics of mine. Ahem.)

They are so quick and easy! They are also easy to mail, since they are small enough to fit into a holiday card envelope.

Here's the pattern (that I got from....somewhere??):

*I used size 7 needles and cotton, worsted weight yarn

Cast on 16 sts

Gst 3 rows

*K2tog, k to end, K2tog (14 sts)

Gst 2 rows*

Repeat from * to * until 8 sts remain

Inc 2 sts at each end of next row (12 sts)

Gst 2 rows

Repeat from * to * again until 6 sts remain

Inc 2 sts at each end of next row (10 sts)

Gst 2 rows

Repeat from * to * again until 4 sts remain

K2tog twice (2 sts)

Gst 2 rows

K2tog (1 st)

Bind off and cut leaving long thread (for loop to hang)

To Finish:

Darn in cast on thread length. sew length of thread at top of tree into a loop for hanging and decorate if you want! (glue and sequins, for example)

They were truly so easy and fun.

A couple other Christmas-y things I did with yarn last year was to crochet some garland for my banisters and a couple of little squares for candle jars to sit on. I would have done circles, but I had only just learned how to crochet.

These are just a few simple ideas for using yarn to help deck your halls. There are many, many others out there. I highly recommend Ravelry for TONS of knit and crochet inspiration, whatever your skill level.

Merry Yarning!

A crochet hat so easy even I can do it

I finally crocheted a hat!

Turns out the trick is counting your stitches so you know when you've completed a round.

Or don't count at all, just keep going and worry about filling in the last round at the end.

Well, that and some actually correct instructions.

Have you all heard of wikiHow? Well, that's where I got the directions I needed to crochet a simple beanie hat.

And then.....as it turns out, I didn't do my hat exactly as instructed.

I have no idea why. But whatever, because it turned out just fine, thankyouverymuch!

I used
1 skein Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn
Size H crochet hook

How I did it (this hat fits my 12 year old daughter)
1. Chain 4
2. Slip first chain to form circle
3. Single crochet 10 into circle
4. Two single crochets into each stitch around (increased to 20 stitches)

5. Single crochet 20 around

6. 1 single crochet, 2 single crochets, 1, 2, 1, 2...around (increased to 30 stitches)
7. Single crochet 30 around
8. 1 single crochet, 2 single crochets, 1, 2, 1, 2...around (increased to 45)
9. Single crochet around and around til you run out of yarn!

You can count each stitch so you know when you start and finish rounds. You can join the rounds or do the super easy spiral thing.

You can do more or less increases depending on the size of the head you are crocheting for. Forty-five stitches was good for my daughter's head, and 50 seems to be good for me. Basically, you keep increasing until your work covers the crown of the recipient's head.

Rolled

Slouchy

Please let me know if this post is helpful to you. And if you make a hat the way I did, let me know how it works out for you!

TGIF: Making Progress Edition

Welcome to....

<a href="http://jah-justjennifer.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt=""src="http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb331/JenAnnHall/Becky_TGIF-1-1-1-1-1.png" /></a>

 Go HERE to read all about how this came to be.  Basically, it's about ending your week on a positive note!

To participate

1. Write a post about something good that happened this week (or if you don't blog, tell me by leaving a comment). It can be anything!
2. Grab the #TGIF button and include it somewhere in your post.
3. Come back here and link up.  Linky is open all weekend (even if I publish a new post).
4. Visit some of the other linkers, leave comments and consider giving them a follow.
5. Share posts on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc, if you are so inclined!

**Ch-ch-ch-changes!**  I have decided to open TGIF up to guest posting.  If you want, instead of just linking your post to mine, you can be THE poster here.  Just let me know by sometime Wednesday of the week that you want to do it, and I will happily step aside and let you take the floor!  Be warned, if no one volunteers, I might put you on the spot and you will feel obligated to do it because you love me!

* * * * *

I have titled this week's post "Making Progress" because after 2 years of knitting, I have finally also picked up a crochet hook.  Thanks to @MyBelovedAdoria for the lesson.  I wouldn't say I'm a natural, but I know how, am practicing and I'm proud of myself!

Not only that, but things are (so far) going better with Camryn and her math work.

Also, Mark found out this week that the schedular at his job had way too many restrictions on his available hours, which is why he's not been getting as many hours as he could.  Due to dialysis schedule changes over the past couple of years, Depot wasn't keeping up with when Mark could and couldn't work.  So he got that all cleared up

Speaking of Mark, here is what made him happy this week:

I have no idea if this is cool with Starbucks.
The shooting range Mark goes to has this on stickers, t-shirts and sweatshirts.

And then there's this cool new thing I'm doing.

My very first post went up yesterday.  You can go see it HERE!  Yay!

Here's a little something funny for you:

saw this on facebook

So how was your week? What GOOD things occurred?

Link up and make me smile!