A daffodil in That Crafty Cara's (Cara Brooke's) garden

Hailstorms, Mishaps, and a Birthday Cake Colosseum

March 16, 2025March 22, 2025Leave a comment

Hello, dear friends! This last week has been a mix of progress, moments of “Whoops!”, and unexpected weather!

Caring

We dusted off the old tradition of holding Family Home Evening this week! Since Michael’s birthday was this week, this last Monday’s FHE was all about him—sharing favorite memories of him, letting him pick the activity and treat, and just having fun the way he wanted to have fun. He chose to have a fire in the backyard and eat s’mores and we spent one of the last normal-weather days of fake spring jumping around the backyard and stuffing ourselves with marshmallows. It was a low-key evening that was very much enjoyed by all.

Michael’s birthday: We did all the things and my guy has been celebrated! We had steak, baked potatoes, Caesar salad, and rustic Italian bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dinner. Renaissance also made a really great Roman Colosseum birthday cake for him. We played Yahtzee and it was just a nice, calm evening at home, just the way he likes ‘em.

Roman Colosseum birthday cake decorated by Renaissance Brooke

Creativity

The King David’s Crown quilt post went live on Tuesday and you guys went nuts for it! Thank you so much for the comments, emails, and pinning of the post, it got a lot of traffic. That was a fun couple of days where I felt like I was able to put something really beautiful out into the world and people appreciated it. Thank you for the love! Now, to finish quilting the actual quilt so I can use said beautiful thing.
Cherry Twilight Socks: I am in the middle of shaping the gusset on the first sock. I wish I could show these to you right now because they look so good! It would be a dead giveaway whose Christmas present they were for if I were to show you, so vague word pictures are all you’re gonna get until after Christmas. Crafters’ lives are weird that way.
Midnight Lark Socks: I’m not sure how I feel about these, but they’re coming along. I’m about 2/3 done with the leg of the first sock.
I put in a little more time on the Star Climber quilt. I always forget how many little pieces go into a scrap quilt! The cutting for this has been more than I expected, but I sure do love the fabrics that will be used in this project. Scrap quilts are such a great trip down Memory Lane, I love making them so much!

An in-progress Woven Star quilt block being made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for her Star Climber scrap quilt.

Lowlights

My allergies are pretty bad this year and it’s just hard to get through my days with any energy. I feel like such a grump. My eyes itch really bad and I’ve rubbed them so hard I’ve broken a blood vessel in one. Feeling extra pretty right now. And, of course, the ward choir had a performance scheduled for today so I dragged myself into church to conduct it and then left as soon as I could afterwards.
All of these low energy days are giving way to a lot of introspection, which generally doesn’t make one feel great about themselves. I’m extra aware of my flaws at the moment and trying to improve. Which is the best I can offer!

Highlights

That moment during FHE around the firepit when it’s just gotten dark and everyone just relaxes.
Had a cute conversation with a fellow band parent about the Great British Baking Show and the joys that are gingham and Anglophilia.
The kids had no school on Friday, so Rachel decided to make brunch that day and she made the most amazing creamy chipotle breakfast burrito sauce I’ve ever tasted.
The delight on Michael’s face when he walked into the kitchen and realized that Ren was creating a Roman Colosseum cake for him.
Michael really got into directing us as we sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

The ward choir performance today went really well. We sang one of the newly-released hymns, #1007 “As Bread is Broken,” which Ren’s flute teacher had written a flute part for and I arranged a few of the verses to be slightly more interesting for the choir. A visitor to our service today came up and asked if she could take a copy of it home with her so her ward choir could sing it, too. High praise!

Final Thoughts

We’re just muddling through the allergies and wet weather as best we can, with more time together, some extra stitching, and good food. What else can you do? Hopefully your fake spring survival tactics are working for you as well, and I’ll talk to you again soon!

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

King David’s Crown Quilt, a new free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop

March 11, 2025March 14, 20255 Comments

It’s pattern release day for the King David’s Crown quilt, so I can finally show you this beautiful project in its entirety!

The Pattern

Since this pattern is part of Fat Quarter Shop’s “Classic and Vintage” series, the requirement was to make just one of the blocks, but when I saw this pattern I really liked how unique it was compared to the quilt blocks that I normally make, so I decided to make the entire quilt.

TIP: Not gonna lie, I had a hard time with not cutting off my points on this quilt. I realized after a few blocks that you want to prioritize getting the skinny tips to match up and not worry about the wider ends of the tips because those will get trimmed and won’t matter. Prioritze the skinnier tips of the wedges when you’re doing your cutting and piecing on this pattern; it makes a huge difference.

The Fabric

Corey Yoder’s fabric “Cali & Co.” had just come out and I decided to use this quilt as an opportunity to indulge my desire to make something with the beautiful multicolored flower print (SKU# 29190-11) in that collection. Unfortunately, when I tried mocking up the pattern with the multicolored flower print, I just couldn’t come up with a fabric combination that worked for me, so I pivoted to using the cherries print (SKU# 29194-11) as my main background and went with the blues and flamingo “reds” in the hopes for a subtly patriotic color scheme that I could display in the summer months.

ANOTHER TIP: I did figure out a way to sneak in as much of that multicolored flower print as I could, though—I opted to use it as the backing of the quilt. I realized, years ago, that if you use your most favorite print of a fabric collection for a quilt’s backing, you’ll end up with a ton of it leftover for your scrap bins (to then use in future scrap quilts) because you’ll have to trim off the requisite additional four inches on each side that you need to include for quilting. No more ugly fabrics for quilt backings here! I’m looking forward to sneaking in more of this beautiful print into future quilts! It’s just so pretty.

Cali & Co. fabric used in That Crafty Cara's (Cara Brooke) King David's Crown quilt for the Fat Quarter Shop

My plan is to use one of the darker blue fabrics in the Cali & Co. collection for the binding. I just love the light and airy feel of the fabrics in this quilt!

Blue fabrics from the Cali & Co. fabric collection by Corey Yoder for Moda Fabrics.

The Quilting

So, um, the quilting…isn’t finished. I have quilted in my foundational lines and I really thought about doing fast stipple quilting to just get this done on time, but I happened to see a really perfect quilting stencil design and fell in love with the idea of using it for quilting this up. Problem was, it took forever for the stencil to arrive in the mail and then it became apparent, very quickly, that I was going to have to practice a bit before executing my plan.

Quilting stencil atop the King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

I don’t quilt as confidently as I piece, so there’s been a noticeable gap in my skills, and I’ve avoided quilting for a while. Nevertheless, I think it’s time to address this disparity and start legitimately working on upping my quilting skills, so I’m planning to take my time with quilting this beautiful quilt so that I can be proud of it when it’s done.

Final Thoughts

I really, really like this pattern and have already started mocking it up in other color palettes in the hopes that I can make another one. I think it’d look really great in a red-and-green color palette, don’t you?

The pattern is available for free on Fat Quarter Shop’s website, and they’ve also assembled a kit, featuring French General’s “Sacre Bleu” fabric collection, for maximum ease in getting started on this fun little pattern.

Thank you to all the new readers who are popping through to read this post! If you’d like to automatically receive more of my posts about quilty goodness, please subscribe to my blog on WordPress by clicking here, or sign up for my mailing list by clicking on the “Subscribe” button in the sidebar!

Thank you, Fat Quarter Shop, for inviting me to sew along with you on the King David’s Crown quilt! This quilt is going to be a lovely addition to my summer quilt collection! (Quesnel thinks it’s great, too!)

More Free Quilt Patterns from the Fat Quarter Shop:

This post contains affiliate links. Fat Quarter Shop also provided me with some of the fabrics and the Creative Grids Starburst ruler in exchange for me sewing up the pattern.

A Final Stitch for February, a Fresh Thread for March

March 3, 2025Leave a comment

I’m grateful that the end of the grayest month of the year opens the doors for the most hopeful month of the year. We made it, folks! It only gets brighter and greener from here! Whew!

February Finishes & Highlights:

Stripey Christmas Socks
Piscis Project, which I only just gifted to Rachel over the weekend and still haven’t taken pictures of…
Quesnel survived her kidney infection, thanks to our consistent administration of antibiotics twice a day, which is not a task for the faint-hearted
Nathaniel received a Superior rating on the xylophone at Solo Competition
Rachel celebrated her 17th birthday
Nathaniel was awarded the “Rookie of the Year” award for Auto class, which is a CTE award given to freshmen
I managed, with help from other band parents (obviously), to distribute, collect, and award both the Band Senior Scholarship Essay competition and the Annual Headphone Fundraiser Raffle.

February Progress:

King David’s Crown Quilt for Fat Quarter Shop
Star Climber Scrap Quilt
Cherry Twilight socks (secret knitting = no pics!)
Midnight Lark socks (secret knitting = no pics!)

A Woven Star quilt block made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for her Star Climber Scrap Quilt.

Plans for March:

Quilting the King David’s Crown Quilt, perhaps finishing it altogether
Star Climber Scrap Quilt progress
Cherry Twilight sock progress
Midnight Lark sock progress
Garden preparations
Track Season
Michael’s birthday
Prom prep (Rachel is still deciding whether or not she wants me to sew her dress)
Easter Sacrament Meeting Program prep
Maybe some Easter celebration prep, if time allows

As much as I love to see the door hit February in the butt as it exits the room, I will miss the quieter pace of the last two months of winter hibernation. The sun is shining more and more each day, I actually hear birdsong when I venture outside, and I know that the activities of spring will soon start crowding out my time set aside for crafting. I struggle with this transition every year, trying to figure out how to spend as much time as possible on so many activities that I love for various reasons. Thankfully, I live on the wet side of Washington State, so we are still in for some seriously rainy weather, so darn, I guess I’ll just have to stay inside on those days and catch up on my stitching!

Happy March! Enjoy the return of the sunshine!

Stripey Christmas Socks

February 26, 2025February 22, 20251 Comment

Hurray! A beautiful finish that will now go live in a trunk for eight months. *groan* I’m really looking forward to debuting these on November 1st while decorating for Christmas while wearing my Hermey the Elf shirt. *happy smile*

Details:

Pattern: #216 Beginner’s Lightweight Socks, by Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure & Simple After all this time? Always.

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply Self Striping/Patterning, colorway #886 Holly Berry, Cascade Yarns Heritage, colorway #5607 Red, Lang Reinforcing Thread, colorway #60.

Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm)

Modifications: I saw a sock knit up with this colorway and did not like it, so I added the solid red heels and toes. Now that they’re done I realize that I probably would have liked it if I had also knit the ribbing in solid red as well. (I also would have preferred if I had done a 2×2 ribbing on BOTH socks, and not just one…whoops. Doesn’t the 2×2 ribbing look SO GOOD?!?! I’ve been a 1×1 forever, but I will be changing my ways from here on out.)

It’s a late finish, but I didn’t want to rush ’em. This is such a great colorway and I enjoyed knitting these so much! I’m very tempted to commit to the idea of new Christmas socks each year, but even I can recognize the insanity of such a pledge, so these may remain my only handknit Christmas socks (for a while…it’s loads of fun to knit Christmas socks!).

Two Weeks of Creativity in One Post: A Birthday, a Quilt, and some Music

February 21, 20253 Comments

The past two weeks have been full of color, celebration, and music! Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to:

Birthday Magic

We celebrated Rachel’s seventeenth birthday last week with doughnuts and a tea party! We had to postpone the family birthday dinner due to last-minute glitches with the tea party scheduling, but that will happen pretty soon. She had a fun time with her friends and I tried to make things nice for her last “childhood” birthday. I can’t believe these kids are getting so old!

Nearing the Finish Line

The King David’s Crown quilt is nearly complete. The “finished” photos of it were due this last week, so those have been taken and submitted, but there’s still some last bits of quilting to do on it and the binding and labelling, which I’m going to do slowly because I’m really burnt-out on crafting at the moment. (Blame the Februaries…blah.)

So Much Music-ky Goodness

The past two Sundays had a lot of music in ’em. Ren and I performed a beautiful arrangement of “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” two Sundays ago, and last Sunday the choir sang a really pretty arrangement of “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” Music takes a lot of work to happen, but it’s work that matters! I love the enthusiastic musicians in our ward who are always up for the next thing. Work continues on the Easter program and I also need to spend some quality with the latest batch of newly-released hymns so I can write up a game plan to get them introduced to our congregation.

Also Some Sugary Goodness

Renaissance was asked to help out at the Relief Society activity this week and showed the ladies how to decorate cupcakes in three different ways. She did so good! Yay for fun church activities!

Up Next…

I’ve got some “finished project” posts coming soon…there’s a pair of socks that took a tub-tub this morning and currently drying on their blockers. I’ll try to get that post written up ASAP to share with you! Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

A Week of Wins…and some Weirdos

February 8, 20252 Comments

Congratulations on making it through the first full week of February, y’all! We had a lot of snow around here—nothing that really stuck until today—and some late starts to the school days, which were appreciated because no one really wants to leave the house when it’s cold out anyways, right? No all-out snow days, though. Sigh.

Top priorities this past week:

Vet appointment for Quesnel
Rachel’s birthday
Valentine’s Day
Getting the quilting going on the King David’s Crown quilt

Caring

I was able to get Quesnel in for a vet appointment on Wednesday and it turns out that she had a kidney infection. It also turns out that vet bills are ridiculously expensive. But we now have a kitty that is acting more like her usual self after three days of antibiotics. Poor thing, she was so miserable.

Celebrating

I really didn’t do much work on Rachel’s birthday or Valentine’s Day. I think they’re as taken care of as they can be until a day or two beforehand. Gotta love all the last-minute work that can’t be done ahead of time, eh?

Creating

The King David’s Crown is not only basted, but the quilt also has its basic foundational quilting complete, BUT my quilting stencils are STILL NOT HERE YET. They sat at their post office of origin all week and finally moved yesterday across the country to Montana. I imagine the earliest they’ll get to me is Monday afternoon, but with how slow this is all going I’d gamble on them not arriving until Tuesday.

It turns out that I can baste a twin-sized quilt in thirty-five minutes. That was not the case the last time I attempted that sort of thing. Thank you, Yoga. [insert weird Gen Z hand-heart motion here]

I finished the Stripey Christmas socks! They are in the process of having their ends woven in and then they’ll go have a tub-tub and I’ll be able to show them to you!

I started BOTH the Midnight Lark socks and the Cherry Twilight socks this week. The Midnight Lark socks are my “waiting for kids” van knitting project, so they’ll come along at a slower rate than the Cherry Twilight socks because those are in the house and will be worked on whenever I have downtime at home.

Highlights of the Week

Nathaniel did Solo Competition today on the xylophone and received a Superior rating! That’s pretty awesome for a freshman!
Rachel had a big choir concert this week and it went really well.
I basted a quilt in thirty-five minutes! It was basically an intense thirty-five minutes yoga practice, and I was worn out afterwards, but still, I DID THAT.
Had lunch with a friend and it raised my spirits immensely. Friends are good.

Lowlights

I cannot escape weirdos sitting behind me at choir concerts, apparently. The couple sitting in front of us smelled of weed so badly it gave me a splitting headache, and the family sitting behind us was very adjacent to drunk, smelled like it, and didn’t shut up the entire concert, even breaking into song when the choirs sang familiar tunes. Whoever was sitting directly behind me also tapped their toe on my chair about a sixteenth of a beat off from the music, not only driving me crazy but also jarring my back the entire time. I could not get out of that venue fast enough once the concert was finished. I need to come up with some sort of mindfulness practice or something to help me get through these nightmares of concerts because this kind of occurrence is now the norm and it’s destroying my enjoyment of the concerts, which is not how I want that part of this chapter of life to go.
Poor Quesnel being sick. But she’s lots better now.

All in all, it was a lovely week—it’s always nice to put the final stitches into a knitting project, I was thankful to be granted more snuggles on the couch with Quesnel, and there are few things more perfect than drinking white chocolate peppermint herbal tea with your kids while you all watch the snow fall outside the kitchen windows. It was a week full of simple joys—Nathaniel’s Superior rating was a welcome development, and a simple lunch with a friend went way too long due to meaningful conversation. I hope the slow mornings keep coming, that the snowflakes keep falling, and the smiles keep happening.

Oh, and for those quilting stencils to get here faster…

Starry Stitches & Snowfall Wishes: A February Fresh Start

February 3, 2025March 24, 20253 Comments

Happy Monday! Happy February! I don’t know if you can wish anyone a happy Monday or a happy February, but here I am, trying to inject some semblance of cheer into the grayest part of the year! I found an image on the internet last week that I absolutely loved from Pippi Post, and I have been quoting it to myself over and over again ever since:

There’s a lot of stuff going on right now that is upsetting for people, it’s February and we haven’t seen the sun in months, and almost everyone I know is recovering from some bout of illness. We’re all tired and we’re all overwhelmed, so prioritizing joy is a good idea right now. I’ve been trying to avoid being a grump and it really is weird how you can just choose to be optimistic if you really put your mind to it.

Something that brings me joy is figuring out my week ahead, so here we are with a Crafting a Plan post! Enjoy!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Monday: Tuscan Meatball Soup with gnocchi
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese & Lunchmeat sandwiches, Salad with creamy cider vinaigrette
Wednesday: Breakfast Soft Tacos
Thursday: Costco Lasagna, Caesar salad
Friday: Chicken-Tomatillo Soup with Chipotle Chiles
Saturday: TBD
Sunday: TBD

Clothing

I am so caught up with laundry! It is exhilarating! I actually have time to work on rotating our wardrobes at the moment, so there’s a big upheaval with the warm and cold weather clothing. I read a fantastic book about decluttering over Christmas Break and am applying the principles to my wardrobe as I work through the rotating.

Cleaning

I’m trying to do some decluttering and it’s going pretty good. The book I read is called Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff, by Dana K. White, and it’s got a completely sane approach to dealing with decluttering that does not involve dumping out an entire anything and spending hours at a time on the process à la Marie Kondo. I’ve gone through the front entrance of the house, the dining room, and I’m slowly working on the craft room. All the background thought that goes into the process makes the upkeep of the cleaned area much easier, so those areas of my house are looking really good, even weeks later. Very good book, highly recommended.

Caring

Haircuts for Michael & Nathaniel
I need to make a vet appointment for Quesnel. She’s not looking like she’s feeling very well.
I need to keep an eye on spring sports registration for Nathaniel.

Creativity

King David’s Crown is assembled and awaiting basting. I decided that I wanted to quilt it nicely, so I’ve ordered some quilting stencils and the company has taken forever to ship them to me. They should arrive on Thursday, despite having ordered them last weekend. Hmph.
I started working on my scrappy Star Climber quilt last week and I am loving it! What a great pattern for using up scraps! Love, love, love. I’m planning on this one taking all year to complete so that I don’t have to rush it. I really enjoy working with the Woven Star foundation papers* and I think I’ve picked out a great color palette for this quilt that will use up a lot of scraps from particularly overflowing scrap bins. My schedule for this quilt calls for me to complete eight blocks in February, and I’ve finished four thus far. Another two are in-progress right now and I’m hoping to have them done by the end of this week.
It’s quite possible that I could finish the Christmas Stripey socks this week. I’ve made it to the toe decreases, so there’s not a lot of work left on them.

Celebrating

Emily just celebrated her 21st birthday. I think you’re officially old when your kids start turning 21.
Next up is Rachel’s birthday. How in the world is she almost seventeen years old?!?! Nathaniel mentioned that her next birthday will allow her to vote. That was not on my radar. These kids just went and grew up on me when I wasn’t looking.
Michael and I aren’t up for a big night out on Valentine’s Day so we’re planning a family Mario Kart tournament for that evening. Depending on how into it the kids are, there could be some cute things happening. If the cute things don’t happen, whatever; we’ll still have fun and eat tasty treats.
Michael’s birthday is on the horizon, but I’m not quite into planning mode for that yet.
Same with Nathaniel.
Easter IS on my mind because I’m trying to get the Easter Program together for church. I’ve got my rough draft written up and submitted for approval, so we’ll see how much the bishopric likes it. I’d also like to do some planning in regards to Easter dinner; the kind of planning that will repeat itself every year and make my life easier.

Community

Ren and I will be performing the special musical number in church this week because I couldn’t find anyone else to do it. We are becoming very good at throwing pieces together at the last minute! So we’ll need to figure out some rehearsal time during the week.
Track down some flute music for Ren for the Easter Program.
Compose an ending/reprise for my arrangement of “As Bread is Broken” for the choir.
Pick up raffle tickets I had printed for band boosters.
Check in on the t-shirts we’re having printed for the band’s Disney trip

Top priorities this week:

Vet appointment for Quesnel
Rachel’s birthday
Valentine’s Day
Getting the quilting going on the King David’s Crown quilt

I wish you a happy first week of February! We’re getting some snow right now and I’m really hoping it translates into a legit snow day tomorrow so we can just bum around and drink cocoa all day. I’m reeeeeally hoping for that. May you get your snow wishes granted as well, if that’s your jam.

Crafting through the Cold

January 18, 20252 Comments

We’ve hit the third Friday of 2025 and it’s starting to feel like we’ve truly left the holiday season behind us and that we’re heading into a new, fresh year. I am really looking forward to this three-day weekend ahead of us, and really, really looking forward to the end of the kids’ semester at the end of next week with its FOUR-DAY weekend. Yay for extra days off of school during the darkest days of the year!

Top priorities this past week:

Progress on the King David’s Crown quilt
Finish the Piscis Project
Progress on the Stripey Christmas Socks

King David’s Crown Quilt

It’s coming along. The pattern will be released to the public in mid-March*, so you would think I have lots of time to work on this, but photos need to be submitted to Fat Quarter Shop ahead of that release date, so I’m needing to work at a faster pace to meet that deadline. The requirement is only one block to show, but I never want to do just one block so I’m doing a legit quilt at breakneck speed. My goal was to be done with 75% of my blocks this Wednesday and I was very, very far behind on that goal on Tuesday, but somehow managed to bend the space-time continuum over the next two days and I’m actually caught up on my self-imposed schedule as of last night. Woo hoo!

It’s a cool-looking block so I wanted to make a full quilt from it because it’s a little off the beaten path for me. I’m really loving the Creative Grids Starburst 30-degree ruler* that goes along with the pattern, and I have plans to re-use this specialty ruler to make all sorts of projects in the future. I’m addicted to Creative Grids specialty rulers. It’s intense.

I figure I’ll be working on this quilt for at least another four weeks, so get comfortable with looking at these fabrics. At least they’re super pretty, right? They’re a handful of prints from the Cali & Co. fabric collection by Corey Yoder.* I really wanted to make the multicolored-on-white flower dot fabric work in some capacity in this quilt, but it just wasn’t mocking up well so I went with the cherries for my background print instead because they are stinkin’ adorable. I love, love, love the periwinkle/cornflower blue of the lighter blue print I’m using and decided to incorporate that and some navy to make a subtly patriotic quilt for the summer months. I’m loving how it’s turning out.

Helpful Hint with this one: Prioritize the skinny tip of the triangle fabric pieces when you’re cutting the fabric and piecing the foundational units of the blocks. Don’t worry about the wide part of the triangle fabric pieces because you’ll be trimming those off. It’s all about the skinny tips on this one.

Piscis Project

I can’t tell you much about this because it’s a gift for someone. It is completed and it’s cute and I’ll show it to you once it is given to the recipient. It’s a small thing, so don’t get too excited about it.

Stripey Christmas Socks

A lot of knitting happened on these this week due to Rachel having two home matches this week and that’s when I’ve been knitting on them. I also knit on them a bit before Nathaniel’s band concert this week as well. I am past the heel and firmly into the foot section! And it’d be a lot more fun for you to read about if I could remember to take a picture of them while I’m working on them…hee hee.

Highlights

I found out at our Band Boosters meeting that we raised an extra $2000 more than we originally thought because the Square app stopped logging donations and purchases at a certain time during the Evening of Jazz and it wasn’t deposited into our account until the next morning. Whew! I was seriously bummed at the end of EOJ because our profit seemed really low for the amount of donations we had this time.
Lunch with friends is always a nice thing
Getting caught up on the King David’s Crown quilt! Didn’t think that would happen!
A friend’s daughter started her mission on Monday! She’s doing at-home MTC right now and it’s fun to hear the updates on that situation each day. So excited for you, Abbie!
We hosted our Potluck Club this past week. I decided this month’s dinner would have a “Winter Wonderland” theme and it went really well! If you’ve been thinking about organizing your friends to have dinner together once a month, just ask! It’s been such a good thing in our lives these past few months!

Lowlights

I am struggling with my points on the King David’s Crown blocks. I think I’ve figured it all out, but geez…

Enjoy your long weekend if you get to have it! I hope you find some time for some craftiness, warm socks, and hot beverages!

_{*Affiliate links: I receive a small commission at no cost to you should you purchase from these retailers after clicking through on the link}

Goodbye 2024 & Plans for 2025

January 13, 2025March 24, 20252 Comments

2024 Recap:

I always make plans that are way too big for practicality, so I’ve done a lot of thinking and planning to try to keep my aspirations grounded in reality. I feel like I didn’t do a lot of crafting in 2024, but then I remember the prom dresses and the Layer Cake Latte quilt and the Baking Doodle Cowl and I feel stressed out all over again by it all, ha ha. I really hit the ground running hard at the beginning of last year, didn’t I? That was pretty intense. No wonder I took the remainder of the year off!

I was busy in the garden all summer, and did it ever reward us with a delightful crop! I’m so proud of the garden this last year, it was great!

And then autumn came, and with it a whole lot of difficulties. Thankfully, two of those hardships now mean that I’m stronger and more available to do crafty things in my free time. Yay!

Something will need to change in regards to the Christmas season next time ’round, though. I’m drowning every year and family members were complaining this year as well. It’s hard to step back from doing good things, but I think we’ve officially reached the point where we’re doing too many good things and need to cut back.

Looking Ahead in 2025

I have a Fat Quarter Shop quilt a-brewing in the background right now, so that’s fun.

I’m trying to declutter my craft room because it’s officially too full of junk to be enjoyable to work in. I had an epiphany regarding my quilting stash the other day as I was decluttering, and I’m hoping that it will lead to more quilts made from my scrap stash in the future!

Plans for Winter Quarter 2025 thus far:

Fabric:
- Finish King David’s Crown quilt for Fat Quarter Shop
- Begin Star Climber Scrap quilt
Yarn & Handwork:
- Piscis project
- Finish my Christmas socks
- Begin the Cherry Twilight socks

And I’ve learned that it is foolish to plan out further than a quarter at a time, so I’m just going to make do with winter plans at the moment.

Michael’s Christmas Socks 2024

January 3, 2025Leave a comment

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each of you, dear readers! December 2024 was a whirlwind of activity, mostly revolving around the constant of music in our family, so I wasn’t able to do a whole lot in the craft room throughout the month, but I DID finish up a pair of handknit socks for my sweet hubby to open on Christmas Day!

Details:

Pattern: #216 Beginner’s Lightweight Socks, by Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure & Simple (As always! It’s a great sock pattern!)

Yarn: Paton’s Kroy Socks in colorway #55102 “Blue Striped Ragg”, 2 skeins with very little leftover. I also tried using a reinforcement thread in the heels and toes for the first time, and ran out of it halfway through the second toe. Note to self: He has big feet and needs two spools in the future. I used Lang Reinforcement Thread #23, purchased from Simply Socks Yarn Company.

Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm)

Modifications: The yarn skeins don’t stop and end in the same place, stripe-wise, so I did my best to match up the stripes, but had to split my second skein to start in the same place as the first skein, which meant I had to join in the last bit of yarn near the toe so it stripes a little weird in the second sock. Fortunately, no one will see it because it’ll be hidden by his shoes when he’s wearing them.

This is the first time I’ve pulled off making a pair of socks for Michael for Christmas two years in a row! Woot, woot! And I barely pulled it off—I finished these during the afternoon on Christmas Eve and got them wrapped and under the tree with only minutes to spare before Michael walked in the door from work.

I love the idea of a tradition of making Michael a pair of socks each Christmas. Back when I started knitting, I eagerly looked forward to the Yarn Harlot’s frantic pre-Christmas circus posts where she’d get through insane lists and spreadsheets of handknits to complete during the holidays, and I loved reading through the posts that featured her handknits in the hands of smiling recipients, Christmas tree lights twinkling in the background. I enjoy going to other people’s circuses from time to time, and her Christmas circus was such a delight to behold in all its urgency and anticipation that would then yield beautiful photos of a happy family and beautifully-knitted gifts and lovely words of love, joy and gratitude. (I miss the old days of blogging, they were really wonderful. Instagram is, really…was, great and all, but I miss the writing that we used to treat each other to back in the day.)

I envisioned the same future for myself, which has basically come true (except for the handknits part), and here we are today with us going through a Christmas circus every year that can only be managed with spreadsheets and to-do lists. It’s mostly all music-related for us Brookes, but I still endeavor to throw some handmades into the mix. These socks were created in all sorts of stolen moments in between putting together the band fundraiser, the Ward Christmas Sacrament Program, and our family’s own holiday celebrations and traditions. I like a little crazy.

Each stitch in these socks is a little bit of crazy, a little bit of peace stolen amidst chaos, a little bit of tradition. A little bit of the holiday experience over and over again. I love having these reminders throughout the year of another Christmas that has come and gone. Each Sunday, when Michael is putting on his church shoes and I see which handknit socks he’s chosen to wear that week, I’m inundated with memories from whichever Christmas and year that particular pair was created. It’s a lot of a memories, over and over again. We’ve been blessed to have so many Christmases together. I hope, twenty years from now, that I’m still making socks for him each year, and that I’m darning the older socks and reliving the glory days of Christmases past—days of our children in footed pajamas, mornings when they were teenagers in flannel pants and messy buns, to eventual days of their own children in footed pajamas and maple syrup-stickied fingers. I learned to knit when I was just starting out as a wife and mother, and I hope I’m still knitting and making memories that include handknit gifts with happy faces and twinkling lights for many, many years to come.