I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #7: Quick holiday party snack

December 12, 2014 alaskaknitnat 3 Comments

I know this is supposed to be a crafty holiday guide, but I had to include this simple treat in the list in case you find yourself needing to provide a snack at an office holiday party. I don’t like baking much and I don’t have the time to create four dozen sugar-coated almond cookies. Grab a bag of pretzel chips and chocolate chips from Costco and dig around your cabinets for some Girl Scout cookies. You won’t be sorry.

Chocolate-covered pretzels with Thin Mint sprinkles — No. 7 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Ingredients:

48 or so Pretzel chips (or regular pretzels)
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 Thin Mint cookies

Directions: Process Thin Mints in a food processor until coarsely ground. Set aside in a bowl. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 3/4 cups chocolate chips in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in increments of 30 seconds, stirring in between, until chocolate is melted. Add the remaining 1/4 chocolate chips and stir until melted. Dip half of each pretzel in the chocolate and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a pinch of Thin Mint crumbles. Place cookie sheets in the fridge for 15 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #6: Felt tree garland

December 11, 2014 alaskaknitnat 4 Comments

There are vastly different ways to trim a Christmas tree. Some prefer the all-white glitter tree, while I love bright colors and a homey hodgepodge of ornaments and garlands.

As I was preparing to trim our tree last week I opened our ornament box and was delighted to find a felt garland I’d constructed last year. I had forgotten about it and it kind of made my day to place it on our tree this year. I love popcorn garlands, but they get pretty messy and i have a toddler who is fascinated with the tree and eating things, so I imagine it wouldn’t last long.

This craft is cheery, colorful and easy. It does require the use of a sewing machine and some monotonous cutting. I recommend putting on “A Christmas Story” or some other holiday film you have memorized and cut out your felt while watching it. Mulled wine could be included, if desired.

Easy felt tree garland: No. 6 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Craft felt in many different colors (about $5 at Walmart)
Fabric scissors (optional but extremely helpful)
Sewing machine

Directions:

Fold a piece of felt in fourths and cut out 1-inch circle-ish shapes. Repeat with other felt colors until you have about 300 hundred (I really didn’t count. I just cut out circles until I was sick of it.)

Place all your circles in a bowl and set next to your sewing machine. Start sewing across the diameter of a circle with a straight stitch. When you get to the end of the circle, start sewing through another circle. Repeat this until you’ve run out of circles. You’re basically just lining up the circles side by side and sewing a seam through them to keep them together. I didn’t follow a color pattern, I just sewed them randomly. It doesn’t matter what thread color you use, but I imagine gold thread would look neat. I used white. It’s ok if there are gaps between the circles. If you run out of thread mid-garland, just rethread your machine and sew across the most recently sewn circle.

Wrap your garland around your tree. If it’s too short, make more circles and take your garland back to your sewing machine.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #5: DIY Kitschy desk caddies

December 10, 2014 alaskaknitnat 2 Comments

Number 4 on my holiday craft guide was all about recycling. Today’s cheap craft is about upcycling. Instead of making planters, we’re going to make planters into something else.

Last week at the thrift store I found a couple of vintage ceramic baby planters. I’m sure you’ve seen them collecting dust somewhere. They are usually hideous with a thick layer of dirt crust inside.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddies | #5 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Metallic desk stuff is all the rage right now. I’m jumping on the golden bandwagon. This craft took very little time and even I was impressed with how well they turned out.

You need no artistic ability, just minute index finger strength. Use them to hold pencils, cell phones or place them in a kitchen to hold rubber spatulas. The world is your kitschy oyster!

A great place in Anchorage to find a vintage ceramic planter is The Packrat on Fireweed or Lazy Dog Antiques on Karluk. They are usually reasonably priced (about $10) but I lucked out at the Bishop’s Attic and found two for $2 apiece. But really, you could take soup cans and spray paint them gold and you’d probably mildly impress your significant other on Christmas Day.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddy: No. 5 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

A ceramic planter/figurine from the thrift store
Metallic Spray paint
Glossy finish spray (optional)

Directions:

Wash your planter with hot water and soap and scrub away as much dirt as you can. This isn’t a huge deal because you’ll be spray painting it anyway so any super crust will be hidden.

Once the planter is dry, set on newspapers in your garage and apply a thin coat of spray paint. Spray the inside of the planter too. Let dry and apply another thin coat, being sure to spray any missed areas from the first coat. Once dry apply an optional glossy finish spray. Props to my graffiti artist friend, who shall remain anonymous, for lending me some of his stash.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddies | #5 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Revel in the cutest, shiniest thing you’ve probably ever made.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #4: Soda bottle kitty planter

December 9, 2014 alaskaknitnat 3 Comments

All right, now it’s time to start making some crafty gifts that hopefully don’t suck. I’m so over homemade bath salts, soup in a jar and t-shirt pillows. Let’s shake it up a bit and give the gift of creative recycling.

My best friend Kelly and I made kitty planters last spring out of 2-liter plastic soda bottles. Somehow, despite my brown thumb, I’ve managed to keep it alive. This craft is easy, not too time consuming and cute as hell. It requires minimal artistic ability, which is a big plus for me.

DIY Soda bottle kitty planters: No. 4 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

one, two-liter soda bottle
scissors
permanent marker
acrylic paints in black, white and pink
paintbrushes
glossy finish spray (optional)
small plant
extra soil for planting

Click here for the full tutorial.

Isn’t she lovely? I call her Beatrice. I have a friend whose dog is called Jack (same name as my son), so I figured I should name my fake pet after her daughter.

Crafts, DIY, Holiday

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #3: DIY Festive Door Decoration

December 8, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Our front door is a sad, sad sight. It’s what I imagine the Crooked Man of nursery rhyme’s front door would look like. At Halloween, it must look so haunted because not once in the five years we’ve lived here has a single child trick-or-treated.

It’s beyond improvement, which is why I never bother to add holiday decorations; but when we were at Lowe’s yesterday picking up a Christmas tree, this hastily scrawled sign caught my attention:

DIY Festive Door Decoration | No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

More specifically, “FREE” caught my attention. Now, what could I use pine boughs for? I’d already utilized them for our Thanksgiving table décor, so I thought why not shoddily assemble a front door wreath-type thingie?

DIY Festive Door Decoration | No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

It cost me zero dollars and took five minutes to make. It took me 15 minutes to affix to our front door because I couldn’t find a single nail in our garage, but I worked it out. I don’t anticipate it lasting through Christmas, but it certainly adds cheer to our depressing entryway.

DIY Festive Door Decoration: No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

2-4 pine boughs
Twist ties (I used the long ones that held together our Christmas lights)
Pretty ribbon
A small nail
Hammer

Directions:

1. Trim off any excess or dead branches at the base of each pine bough.

2. Arrange the boughs like a big fan.

3. Tie the boughs together using a couple of twist ties.

DIY Festive Door Decoration from Alaska Knit Nat

4. Cover up the twist ties by tying ribbon around them. Form a large bow out of the ribbon.

5. Hang up on your front door.

DIY Festive Door Decoration | #3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Crafts, Holiday, Paper

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #2: free wrapping paper

December 7, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

I just received a huge box from my mother-in-law and it included wrapped presents and several yards of crumpled up craft paper.

Free wrapping paper | DIY Crafty Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

No more packing peanuts, thank goodness! When I see all this paper, I instantly think, “What can I make out of this?” It seems a waste to toss it. So I flatten it out, roll it up and use it as wrapping paper. Yay, free!

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #1: DIY Photo Christmas Cards

December 5, 2014 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again where I scramble to find affordable and meaningful gifts for my family and friends. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m cheap, but I definitely don’t have the means to purchase nose-hair trimmers willy nilly.

I turn to my thrifting and crafting skills during the holidays. I thought this year I’d share a couple of my moneysaving ideas each week until it’s crunch time and you’re desperate for ideas on how to glue random trash and recyclables together in your house and stick a bow on it — we’ll get there together.

So here we go.

Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Guide 2014

#1: Make your own photo cards

I always have those friends who mail out holiday cards with professional family photos arranged on glossy photo paper with a side banner that reads in hipster calligraphy, “May your days be merry and bright.” Yes, I’m jealous of them. Yes, I want to copy them but without spending a lot of money. Yes, I want to mail mine out perfectly on time too.

Here’s how you can create your own family photo card with an awesome font on the side for a fraction of the cost.

DIY Photo Christmas Card | A DIY Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

What you’ll need:

Digital photos of your family. Instagram and phone photos would work too.
Blank 5×7″ notecards, like these
Glue stick
Internet access

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make your own photo cards. Just visit canva.com. It’s like graphic design for dummies. Create an account for free and you have access to tons of banners, frames, fonts and digital doodads that are predesigned and ready for you to arrange into myriad media. Just today Canva added a Christmas Card category where you select the template you like and upload your photos. You can get a little more technical and design your own. Most of the graphics are free.

I spent about an hour tinkering around with a design and finally settled on this one:

Next, save your design as a PDF. Then upload your photo collage to any online drugstore photo processor. I prefer Walgreens because not only is it a block away from my house, but there is always a coupon code floating around the internet that works. *Note: I did have to change the PDF file to a JPG in order to upload it to Walgreens’ site. If you originally save it from Canva as a JPG it may not be high quality enough to print since it’s saved much smaller than a PDF.

Print one tester photo and see how it turns out. If it’s to your liking, print the number you need.

Then, glue your photo to the front of your blank card.

DIY Photo Christmas Card | A DIY Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

Revel in your thrifty, crafty genius.

DIY Photo Christmas Card | A DIY Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

Knit & Crochet, Knitting, Patterns

Zig-Zag Chevron Hat — A Free Knitting Pattern

November 23, 2014 alaskaknitnat 9 Comments

I’m not good at fair isle knitting. Usually everything comes out three sizes too small. I pull the yarn too tightly. Or I follow a pattern that slowly incorporates a new color and I’m left with long strands of yarn on the wrong side.

Today I decided to try fair isle again by designing something simple — zig zags. I’ve included the chart and the row-by-row instructions. I recommend knitting the patterned portion in a place with little distraction and possibly without other people. I end up counting out loud “knit one, knit two, knit three, knit two,” etc. so I don’t get lost in the pattern. It’s not difficult, but requires a fair amount of focus.

The advantage to fair isle knitting is you create a thick wrong side to your fabric, which means a warmer hat. Below is a photo of the inside of the hat.

Zig Zag Chevron Hat | A Free Pattern from Alaska Knit Nat

Zig Zag Hat

Materials:

size US 8 circular needle

size US 9 circular and double pointed needles

Loops & Threads Wool to Wash, one skein of neon orange (color A) and one electric blue (color B) Any heavy worsted weight wool yarn would work.

darning needle

Continue reading Zig-Zag Chevron Hat — A Free Knitting Pattern →

Cooking, recipes, side dishes

Our Thanksgiving Plans — A step-by-step guide to avoiding a festive failure

November 20, 2014 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

About nine years ago I had the honor of roasting the turkey for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Until that dinner my father was always the main chef during this holiday meal, but that year I had learned a turkey tip from a friend that I really wanted to try, so I took the responsibility from him. I remember his taking a bite of my bird and formally announcing he was passing the turkey scepter on to me; he could not make a better turkey.

This was, of course, before Alton Brown made famous the technique of brining a turkey. Now my father claims it’s the only decent way to prepare a Thanksgiving feast. I tried brining once, but it was too much effort for me. I don’t even like turkey!

So this year my parents are arriving home from Mexico on Thanksgiving Day. What with their being old and tired (no offense mom and dad!) I don’t want them to have to cook anything, so I’m taking on the entire meal, fixings and all. I’m even going to try to decorate — but we’ll see how it goes.

I thought I would share my plans for next week in case you are feeling completely uninspired (which I am currently feeling).

Continue reading Our Thanksgiving Plans — A step-by-step guide to avoiding a festive failure →

Crafts, Knit & Crochet, Knitting, Patterns

Slouchy Pom Pom Hat – A Free Knitting Pattern

November 19, 2014 alaskaknitnat 2 Comments

Being a lifelong craftaholic I’m no stranger to the pom pom. Memories of yarn-covered tin can pencil holders and ricrack come to mind.

But lo and behold, again my childhood craft projects are becoming popular again (remember friendship bracelets?) Yes, the pom pom is this season’s biggest accessory trend. So I’ve decided to stay on board the pom pom train and offer up a delicious, fluffy, slouchy hat pattern. It’s got extended ribbing in case you want to fold it up for a thicker brim.

Slouchy Pom Pom Hat | A free pattern from Alaska Knit Nat

Slouchy Pompom Hat

If you’re wanting to knit this pattern with a different needle size and different weight yarn, I am unable to adjust the pattern for you. This pattern is written for a specific needle size and yarn weight.

What you’ll need:

1 skein each Loops & Threads Wool to Wash in pink and grey or any worsted weight yarn

size US 9 circular and double pointed needles

darning needle

pom pom maker or large serving fork

stitch marker

Continue reading Slouchy Pom Pom Hat – A Free Knitting Pattern →