The tale of the Ugly Hannuka sweater

if you don’t know this about me already, I am Jewish by choice, having converted before marrying my husband. Coming from a long line on non-practicing catholic French Canadians, the holidays to me meant crafting and decorating. Something Jewish holidays are sadly lacking in. I mean, really, for a group of people on year 5772, where are the crafts and decorations? I feel like I have already made Menorahs out of every possible material, from toilet paper rolls to shot glasses, plubimg pipes to old cell phones (OK, that last one wasn’t mine, a friend’s husband just did that).

I have noticed a new trend amongs my friends (and the Today show)…. The Ugly Christmas Sweater competitions/parties. And frankly I’m jealous. There is no Jewish equivalent. Well, there is now!

Take on 30$ Joe Fresh sweater (I’m sure Joe didn’t meant for it to be ugly, but frankly, it sort of is),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut up an old cardigan that got shrunk in the wash, sew it together, and you get the First Ugly Hannuka Sweater!

 

Proudest parts of this sweater: the chamash, which is meant to be higher than the others, is on the zipper, so when my husband puts it on, he ‘lights’ the sweater. And the little flames have tiny holes in them and I used the buttons from the cardi at the top of the candles, so my girls put the flames on the sweater according to what day of the holiday it is. And we are actually doing it every day!

 

Sleepy owl

Will be shipped off to a new little one…..

Harry Potter Cross-Stitch

Since Big Girl got her special cross stitch pillow, I had to plan something for Little Girl, who would never let me off the hook. The entire time I was cross-stitching the first pillow, my girls were discovering the magical world of Harry Potter, through the first 6 movies. The devoured them. But amazingly, it was Little Girl, all of 5 1/2 years old, who REALLY got into it. I mean, REALLY. She is obsessed.

Coincidentally, it was about the same time that Wee Little Stitches poped up on my blog radar, so I immediately bought the set of 3 Harry Potter patterns. I started the first one Saturday and I already finished it! My plan is to make a small but wide pillow to decorate her bed, with Harry Ron and Hermione in the middle, the friends on one side and the foes on the other.

Sing to Me – FINISHED!

When I broke my arm in late February, my crafting came to  a screeching halt. With only one good hand, I was severly limited. But I figured out how to cross stitch while bracing the hoop with my cast, so I set out to do a couple of little projects, monograms for my girls doors. They held my attention all of 4 evenings. If you know me, you know why I call myself UBERcrafty….

As a long time reader of a ton of blogs, I have always admired the fantastic illustations of Helen Darkin of Orange You Lucky! Some of her illustrations are even on products I sell at the store. So I contacted her and got her permission to use one of her illustrations and turn it into a cross-stitch pillow for my eldest’s bday (ok, so I overshot her bday by 6 weeks…. it was a lot more stitches than I anticipated!).

Today, I finished it…..

*sidebar: I contacted Helen and asked for permission because I think it’s very very important to encourage artists and respect their products. I was willing to pay to use her image, but she graciously allowed me to do it without charging me. If you see anything you like on the internet (a pattern, an image, etc) please contact the person before manipulating or using their work)

Tiny stitches

This is what I’ve been up to since I broke my arm. With the permission of blogger Orange you Lucky, I’m turning one of her illustrations into a cross-stitch pillow.

2nd project with 1 hand

NJ

For my darling 5 y.o.’s door, my first one-handed work.

A new obsession in the making

I broke my wrist in 3 places. No, I don’t do anything half-assed, ever. This means no knitting for weeks, maybe months. And yes, before you suggest it, I did Google 1-hand knitting…..

It became clear within a day that I cannot be idle very long. I admit I watch a lot of tv, but always while knitting. So I tested out other possibilities. Crochet is also a no-go, but cross-stitch works. And the off patterns on Etsy provide near-instant gratification…..

valentine’s drop

Today being Valentine's Day, we have big plans: a ski date with my friend Susan from Our Journey To Mei Mei, and their kids, CL and A, and of course her fab husband Gord. I crocheted each of the girls a little heart using a pattern I found online last week. But this morning, it occured to me there would be a Toy Society Valentine's drop. So I grabbed a couple of shriken/felted sweaters and whipped up two little hearts.

We skied all day at their hill, Morin Heights, and right after lunch, we headed to the "bunny" hill, which is decorated with wooden cutouts (they put them on either side of the hill to force the kids to make turns by going to visit the cutouts)

All the girls agreed that Tinkerbells' winges were perfect for our purpose, so we hugn our little package on her wings. The girls acted like super-secret agetn while I took pictures. But the settings on my camera were all off and the pictures are way over exposed, so until I can try to manipulate them, you can't see the drop, just hear aobut it!

We hope they find a good home, and this time, we hope we hear from our finders!

Toy Society Christmas Drop: the Montreal Owls

This morning was absolutely freezing outside, but I convinced my girls to put on an extra layer and accompany me on my super-stealth mission of dropping my 4 owls. They were having a very hard time understanding the concept, peppering me incessently on the drive there with questions like:

• Why are we giving them away?

• Who's going to find them?

• What if nobody finds them?

• Do we have to dig them into the snow?

• Will they be cold?

• Why are we doing this?

• Can we keep them?

• Why mommy, I don't understand!

But once we got to Place Royale in Old Montreal and I told them that we were now super spies and had to make sure nobody caught us, they were very much into it!

Drop 1 was in fact the first owl I made, with it's little scarf made from the belt of a sweater that inadvertently felted in the wash (aka shrunk) We picked a little lit tree near the museum entrance and hung him in the branches.

 

the second drop was actually Owl #3, which we hung on the other side of the staircase, on the fire hydrant. Even in the worst snow conditions, the hydrants are always shoveled and the red really stands out against the snow. I played with taking pics of hydrants last year in my photoclass and this particular one always stands out to me because it's sort of in the middle of the sidewalk and I'm always wondering how many people fall over it.

 

 

The 3rd drop was on the side of the building, the street people would walk by when going from the one museum to the other. We tied him up on a pole and he started flapping about. I double checked to make sure he was secured and we got out of there before we were spotted!

 

 

Finally, for our last drop, we actually left Place Royale just a little bit and crossed the street to leave our last little bird in the phone booth.

  

 

 

Dumpling was absolutely frozen by then, but Beach Ball was still having a ball, this having been one of her two drops.

The pattern I used can be found here. But I didn't even bother printing it, I just opened it and enlarged it on my screen, then totally eyeballed it. I did add a base to mine rather than tighten the bottom, and as I made more, I made the shape more and more elongated, which gave me much nicer long beaks on the thick felted wool.