MY Neck Warmer

The lovely alpaca yarn yet again. Couldn't resist the color. I used the same pattern as on the baby blanket below. Hmmmm....now for the buttons, what will I choose? :)

Not Pictured:
I also made a black angora shawl with matching wrist warmers for my mom that I forgot to take pictures of but I will soon!

Neck Warmers

I used a very soft Organic cotton from Lion Brand on my Grandma's neck warmer and chose buttons that I knew she would love since they resembled abalone. I am quickly developing a love of button shopping now! Fun stuff! I'm sure I will be keeping my eyes peeled for them where ever we go from now on!


And Theresa's neck warmer is a boucle yarn made from angora. I discovered that angora is 7 times warmer than wool! I have also discovered that I don't care to crochet with boucle yarn:) I like the finished look but man was it tricky!


This was a purchased pattern, here is a link to it (I omitted the flowers).

Hostess Gift

My Aunt Janet is such a gracious hostess. Her house is in the perfect location for my dad's side of the family to have get-togethers so she nicely offers her house for BOTH Thanksgiving and Christmas!! And this year she and my Uncle Randy did it even though Uncle Randy has been fighting cancer for the past several months. He received great news and is feeling much better just in time for the holidays but I know that hosting this year must have been especially challenging.

Aunt Janet loves nature so I used this hand-painted baby alpaca yarn for her wrist warmers. She is a serious crafter, has her own work space out in the garage, so these will come in very handy, allowing her to still work with her fingers while keeping warm.

Not Pictured:
I also made a scarf with this yarn but forgot to get a picture. I LOVE this yarn brand. Chris does too and he has a special place in his heart for alpaca yarn. He is already commissioning me to make him an afghan with it! There is a big yarn sale on New Year's Day so that will be my next project! He is requesting dark blue, maroon, and tan. I can't wait because this is fabulous yarn to work with. Here is a link to it.

Teacher Gifts

How cute is this wrapping? Ben and Abby's teachers received wool wrist warmers before Xmas. I just rolled them up and "wrapped" them in yarn! These days I have found that wrist warmers are best made by simply crocheting a rectangle to the appropriate size to wrap around, then when seaming the ends together you leave a gap for the thumb! Simple as that! It's a great one-skein (or less) project! I even used one of mine as a cup cozy the other day when my coffee was too hot (I have given all of my cup cozies away so I don't have my own)!

Angora Scarf

My first lace work. The free pattern is here, it's called the Violet Points Scarf and it is very easy:) This picture shows the color and fuzziness accurately but the pattern is lost with this dark background.


So here is a shot that you can see the repeating pattern clearly but the color is off.

And most excitingly, this was my first time blocking my work. I left one end unblocked (I can finish it later) to see if there really was going to be a difference. And there is! I think the photo below speaks for itself. I used a very simple blocking method. I put a towel on the floor, pinned the scarf to it (in the position that I wanted the final product to be in), and sprayed the whole scarf with warm water. I patted the water into the scarf to ensure that it absorbed. I also patted it with a paper towel to soak up extra water. I let it dry for a couple days and it was done!

It's taller than me, it's a gift and I think the recipient will enjoy wearing it folded in half and ends tucked through the fold so it needed to be long. Oh, hmmm, I guess there's something missing here. I should be documenting the yarn I used and the hook size. I will try to remember looking at the yarn label next time I am at the yarn shop because I certainly don't have the label any longer. I do know it took two skeins!

Give it a try! It's soft and cuddly!

Update: I gave this to my mother-in-law for Christmas and she absolutely loves it. She wears this color a lot and was extremely excited about the color choice:)

Wrist Warmers

Found this simple pattern for wrist warmers after looking long and hard for a good one. There are plenty of frilly ones out there and this one is actually supposed to have a scalloped edge and a flower on it but I omitted them for now. I can always add them later if I feel like making them more feminine:)


Apparently, Alice wears knitted some wrist warmers in the second Twilight movie and now they are all the rage! I do find them most useful and will definitely be gifting them in the future! I can wear them all the time, typing, crocheting, well, not while doing dishes I guess:) In fact, I'm wearing them right now! My fingers are always the coldest part of my hands so it seems like these would be useless since they are left uncovered BUT I do notice a difference in my overall warmth while wearing them!

They are as simple as making a rectangle and leaving an opening for the thumb when you seam the side together! This yarn is Mochi Plus (the bigger version of the Mini Mochi from my previous post) and so far I absolutely love it. I think I used a size I hook, ah, I can't believe I already forgot when I made these yesterday! I will probably try a slightly smaller hook next time to make the stitches a bit more compact. And, note to self: leave a longer tail when finishing off each rectangle so it can be used to seam them together!