Happy holidays!

I'm sorry for the long blog absence. But my life has been so busy lately: Christmas partys, several meetings with friends, shopping for christmas presents, baking cookies and making christmas gifts!

At least I managed to get all the presents for christmas. :) Some of them were already exchanged, some of them got shipped to different locations.

I unfortunatelly didn't had the time to carve special christmas stamps. :( So I used simple forms and stamps I already own to embellish the wrapping paper and gift tags.

I also worked on different christmas presents, like this dodo bookend... :D I just crocheted a round big body and for the beak, wings and feet I used this lovely dodo amigurumi pattern.

...and this hat... :) I used this pattern for it.

I also got some christmas mail. :D

Especially the one from dear Celine made me so happy. She's prepared such a beautiful and lovely snail mail, thank you so much! Look at all the wonderful things she's sent me. :D

I wish you all wonderful and joyful holidays! I hope you cheerish every moment with your beloved family and friends and make great memories to remember. :)
I'm going to take a blog pause and I'm looking forward to seeing you again after the holidays!

The last days of November and the start of December

I have to admit it.
I almost got nothing done in November...
At least not for my November project. ;)

What I did instead was giving a small knitting class and preparing a korean multi-course dinner for 12 people. This took that much time that I just didn't had the time to start anything for christmas. At least I did some brainstorming. :) And I sent out a bunch of advent calendars, even though a little late! But hopefully they've arrived at their destinations in time!

I also did some yarn crafting. :) As always. ;)
Another macrame bracelet as a birthday present for a good friend of mine:

And as you already know, I finally finished my loop scarf:

My December project won't differ much from the one in November. :) Now I REALLY have to start making and buying gifts, prepare wrapping material and christmas cards/tags. As you see in my project plan, I have a "topic" every week. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do other things in the week too, but it's easier for me to focus on one thing like this.

And I'm very much looking forward to baking cookies and drinking "Glühwein" at the Christmas market. :) :)
How are your christmas preparations going on?

Ending a loop scarf - tutorial

I finally finished my loop scarf. :)

I've already told you in the last post about the ending, but today I would like to give you a detailed description of step 5 with images. Hopefully it helps you to finish your loop scarf. :)

After carefully ripping the first row (those stitches you've casted on with a separate yarn in the beginning of the scarf) and slipping the stitches back to a needle, you get two open ends. The upper stitches in the picture are those, which you get after ripping the first row:

Holding both needles pointing to the right, start binding-off the stitches. For this, always knit the first stitches of both left needles (I'll just call them double-stitches) together:

Next, pass the first (right) stitch over the second (left) stitch on the working needle. (In the beginning you have to bind-off a double-stitch two times, so you get two stitches on the working needle. After this, you are able to do this step.)

If you continue like this, binding-off a double-stitch and slipping the first stitch over the second stitch on the working needle, the resulting scarf looks like this, a clear nice seam:

I hope this tutorial makes the process of finishing a scarf clearer to you. If you still have a question, please let me know! :)