Hats and Ornaments

To begin with, I made some more hats for the Little Hats, Big Hearts program that I wrote about last week. I returned to the Creative Preemie Hat pattern by Laura Reavis, but with Lion Brand Heartland Thick & Quick in colorway 113 Redwood. It’s a Super Bulky acrylic yarn in a two-tone red. The combination of the preemie pattern with the thicker yarn resulted in hats that are a standard newborn size of about 14 inches (35.5 cm) in circumference. I have ten hats complete now, in a variety of baby sizes and soft, red acrylic yarns.

Going back a couple more weeks on the blog, I wrote about rediscovering a drawer full of forgotten kits. Did I mention that a good number of them are Christmas kits? I suppose that’s part of the reason I’ve been holding on to them for so long. For me, the window of interest for working on Christmas projects is small — and extra time is already in short supply during the holiday season.

Nevertheless, I worked my way through another Christmas-themed plastic canvas needlework kit from the Canvas Capers line by Leisure Arts. This time it was a set of ornaments, #462 Teddy Bear Ornaments, with a copyright date of 1985.

I have to be honest; although the ornaments are adorable, this kit was not fun for me. There were a lot of small pieces, some less than a half inch (1 cm), and one ornament in particular required quite a bit of work with transparent nylon thread. Tiny pieces and invisible stitches do not make me happy; I was actually caught cursing at the little teddy bear angel.

The kit was a set of eight, two each of four different designs. Normally, I don’t mind making two of the same thing — mittens, socks, etc. — but it was daunting to revisit each of these fussy little guys. Finishing the kit was an act of pure stubbornness.

Proof that I really made all eight ornaments!

Each ornament measures about three to four inches (7.5 to 10 cm) in each direction. Little pieces were attached to a larger main piece to add depth and to cover the backs of the ornaments for a neater finish.

With Christmas less than three weeks away, my window for holiday projects is quickly closing and I don’t expect to make more of the Christmas kits this year. I think the break will do me good — particularly because I have (gasp!) a duplicate of this kit.