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Blocking, Schlocking!

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Blocking is not my favorite part of knitting. Probably because it’s not really knitting. Ya think?  And, being a philosophical sort, I’ve figured out that the reason I really don’t like to block is probably because I’m not all that good at it. You too? All right then! We’ll figure this out together.

In the past, my version of blocking was to soak/wash the garment and spread it out to dry. Since 95% of the garments I make are children’s stuff, it didn’t really seem all that important since I knew that the minute I handed them off, they’d be drug in the mud, thrown in the washer and dryer and well… you know. But it does matter. It does make the garments look soooo much nicer, even fit better.

Berroco to the rescue! Cirilia Rose of Berroco’s Blog has created a blocking tutorial on the Berroco site to help us. And, they’re offering a set of blocking wires and assortment of Soak as a giveaway to get you started.

Be sure to book mark this post, definitely a MVP! (most valuable post ;-), here: http://blog.berroco.com/2009/05/14/blockheads/

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Christmas Ornament Cross Stitch Patterns

The other day I shared some cross stitch patterns with ornaments on them, so this time around I wanted to share cross stitch patterns that you can use as ornaments. It would be fun to do a whole tree in your craft room with cross stitch ornaments, or just add a few to your tree or give them as gifts.

These little quilt inspired cross stitch patterns from Flamingo Toes look like ornaments and fit in 3-inch hoops, which are perfect for hanging on the tree or using to decorate a gift. I love the pastel colors on these but you can use more traditional Christmas colors if you like.

This cute Christmas tree from Lagodargetoshop uses a single color and fits in a 4-inch hoop, but you could make it smaller if you wanted by trimming the last ornaments and gifts from the sides, or just stitch the tree without any other embellishments. Either way it’s a cute addition to your holiday tree.

Stitched Modern has a super cute collection of retro Christmas ornament cross stitch patterns from designer Gera. This is a printed pattern that will be shipped to you. Each pattern is about 40 by 56 stitches, or 2.9 by 4 inches/7.4 by 10 cm on 14 count fabric. To work the whole set you’ll need 20 colors of floss.

These snowflake ornaments from Our Little Handmade Home are each about 2.5 inches/6.4 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric, and they use a single color of floss. They are pretty in red but you could also do white on a blue or black background, or whatever suits your other Christmas tree decorations!

From the description it sounds like this set of vintage style cross stitch characters is presented as one large chart, but the photo from Sampler Antique Stitch shows each of them stitched up as their own little ornament, so it gets included here. You’ll find Santa and snowmen in different poses in this cute collection.