Saturday, December 20, 2008

A New Twist on Something Old


'Tis the season to celebrate, decorate, and just overall feel like you ate. Secret Santa office celebrations are great for business this time of year. A friend of mine needed a gift for a female co-worker whose name he drew. Unfortunately he is not much of a shopper, and did not know the person well, so the challenge was given to me. I inquired about price and her favorite color. Soon I learned I had a $20 limit and purple was the favorite color. Perfect and simple. I pulled out one of my hand knitted homespun yarn winter scarves (which happened to be purple), and decided a purple ornament would go well with the overall theme. Of course I could not put in a plain old ornament, I had to jazz it up. Above is the before and after shot of the ornament. It was simple with a little glue, and a little glitter to glitz up a traditional holiday gift. I like to use the ornament to dress up the package, or wrapping. It is kind of like a bonus gift, and quick and easy to do.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Trying my hand at something new


I admit, after years of knitting scarves I am finally branching out and trying new things. Just about every time I see something I think I can do I am trying something new. This new thing is for someone new. Talking in circles and riddles? You bet. I am making caps for newborns. I found the simple free pattern on line and it is a case of knitting a row and pearling a row for eight inches and then sewing it together. It is really simple although I must say the pattern says the caps are for preemies but I am thinking they are too big for preemies and may be just right for newborns and maybe even a few months old. So far I have knitted one and am working on another. The skein of yarn I have will probably allow for three or four caps. I hope by December to have at least two done which I will add to my annual donation to the hospital. More on that soon.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

New Product that Wraps it All Up


Every once in a while you feel the need to try something new. In that frame of thinking I have tried a new pattern that I found on my Lion Brand Trellis yarn. It took a lot of pulling out and starting over because dropping stitches ended up to be an inflexible mistake but they say the third time is the charm. When it was done I had created a triangle shaped shawl in shades of blue (also known as ocean) with fringe. The ends of the shawl are long enough that you can wrap them over your shoulders like a scarf. It seems to be very delicate but I believe it will hold up and reshape as needed. All the fringe is hand cut and tied (almost an entire ball of yarn) giving the shawl a special little whimsy. The shawl along with our other knitted and cross stich designs were unveiled at the State Farmer's Market craft show this weekend.

If you are interested in a shawl made especially for you feel free to contact me at DeJCreations@aol.com to place you order. A variety of colors are available.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Making a Difference


As part of the United Way Day of caring some fellow crafters and I took our first stab at mosaics. We created stepping stones with themes that represent our various United Way agencies as well as a United Way tray. We had great fun and are pleased to announce that an anonymous contributor has decided to give $20 for each stepping stone and the tray for a grand total of $120 donation to United Way. Our kind giver has also decided to donate each stepping stone to the agency for which it was created to represent. Jessica, Margaret, Tanya, Penny, Juanita and myself would like to say thank you.

If you would like a mosaic design from DeJ Creations just contact us at DeJCreations@aol.com.