It's going to be a "Sock It To Me" year!!!

Happy New Year!

First and foremost, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Once the two-day marathon stay-up-until-2am-knitting-a-pair-of-socks-for-a-friend (she too, got herself in a little hot water) and rushing my own last minute knits to the post office for an overnighter was over and done with, my mind was clear to start a fun Frankensock Swap Club I was invited to join!

I love to knit socks, don't knit them as often as I would like to, and love all the fun notions we use.  One of my favorites is the darning egg!  I could find myself collecting these wonderful, beautiful wooden eggs.

Not to mention all the wonderful sock yarns like American B.R.A.N.D., CoBaSi, Trekking & Zauberball, just to name a few, as well as the many sock books/patterns. Oh my, there are some wonderful designers out there!

SO, that being said, guess what we are planning at Makers' Mercantile?!  A Sock Club!!  Yep, that's right!!  A quarterly, one of a kind sock yarn, pattern and a few goodies, along with a 3 hour block of instruction.  The fun will begin the 3rd week in January of 2014!  Get those Addi Sock Rockets ready!

Oh the fun we will have!

More details to come! To get news, costs, and information for our sock club, get your name on our sock club email list. Contact us via email, customerservice@makersmercantile.com, call the shop, or stop by!

Terri

Felted Holiday Soaps



Felting Fun



As you might have gathered from my first blog, I was feeling a little like you-know-who, the green guy with the too-small heart!

Then I realized that there were so many handmade gift opportunities just waiting for me at Makers' Mercantile! Every day when I walk in the door at work, another idea comes to me!

This week I am working on felted soaps!!! Such a fast, easy, and fun, wonderful gift!

You will need:

• A bar of your favorite soap (I love the natural goat milk soaps)
• Makers' Mercantile Felter's Wool in the colors of your choice
• a knee high stocking
• hot water.  

Yep, that is it!

Are you ready? Set aside 30 minutes, cause here we go!

With main background color, lay out a layer thick enough, to wrap around and cover the entire bar of soap! Next step is to create a design, using the felting needle and different colored fiber!



Once you have created your design and wrapped your soap completely, place the soap in a stocking, and immerse in a bowl of hot water.  You will want to rub the entire piece, in your hands, gently, as not to distort your design, for approximately 10 minutes, repeating the immersion and rubbing until you feel the fiber has felted around your soap.  Once the fiber has been felted thoroughly, your work of art will need to be left to dry for a few days.

I added my Holly Soap to one of the beautiful soap dishes we carry at Makers' Mercantile!

Have fun!!!

 

Terri's Colorwork Blog

Fall is here!! OMGoodness, where did this year go?! For the first time, and yes, I'm being completely honest, I have not completed my Christmas knitting! The men in my life, hubby/sons/father-in-laws, along with two friends, were going to receive hand knitted socks, and then there are the daughter/mother-in-laws, my daughters would receive the yearly sweater, and the grand babies were going to get their long awaited Christmas Stockings! Weeelllll, let me tell you, with all my planning and good intentions, they'll just have to give me a break this year.

However, I did get to fit in designing the grand-babies Christmas stockings. I have to say I had a wonderful time designing them!! Who could stop themselves from knitting for these cute faces???

My Grand-babies!

That being said, I have added a Holiday Ornament class to the Makers Mercantile class schedule for this month so that you all can make quick, last-minute gifts for your friends and family! Christmas is saved!!!

 

I love color work, also called stranded color work, using two or more strands of colored yarn to create images/scenes in a project. From the first pair of Selbuvotters (mittens) I knitted, I was hooked!!!!

So, one day earlier in the year, I turned the fire place on, got a hot cup of coffee, spread out on the living room floor with my colored pencils and drafting paper (Thud, my 175 lb. English mastiff, wasn't overly happy with me, ha!) and went to work charting each color work pattern.  My 3 grandsons will have trains, my 3 granddaughters will have hearts, along with each child's name! It took me two days!
 

In addition, I collect vintage Santas. Every year, I go on the hunt for the most original Santa! I even found a 'wine' Santa, he is one of my favorites! So of course, there has to be a vintage Santa, fuzzy beard and all, on their stockings! (I plan on using Caribou and Wooliebullie for the beard and robe!)

See you soon!!