Secret Valentine Exchange : Gray Marled Shape Shifter Scarf

from @kristi_sweetkm on instagram

You may recall the Secret Valentine Exchange hosted by Sanae and Ute. Lovely makers the world over swap handcrafted Valentine treats with one another. This year I made a scarf, (last year I also made a scarf, apparently I am a one trick pony) inspired by a photo I took at the farm on a gray winter day, and the preferences of my recipient. 

I was assigned to make something for Monika of Schneider Meistern. Monika is a German pattern maker with an urban sensibility. Most of her website, and all of her patterns are in German, but definitely worth a visit, pictures being worth a thousand words and all. I was super excited about this assignment because she is so cool. I was super nervous about this assignment because she is so cool. I was totally relieved that she lives in a place with winter justifying my propensity to knit. And knit I did. 

PATTERN: This is a slight variation on my own Shape Shifter Scarf Pattern (available here). I made it a bit bigger over all, and I made the garter section a few rows longer than the rest of the scarf, casting off the side panels, then coming back and knitting about an inch more in the middle. One more shifting shape.

YARN: This is Palette Yarn by Knit Picks. I tried hard to stick to the use-what-you-have rule for this project, and I always have a good selection of this yarn on hand because it's inexpensive and comes in a ton of colors. To get the marled look I knit with two strands held together. The side panels are Cream and Finnley Heather, the middle panel is Cream and Asphalt Heather, the bottom middle panel is two strands on Asphalt Heather. 

This little assemblage of Shape Shifter Scarf, chambray bento bag (using this illustration), and some SweetKM Valentines, is now thousands of miles away hopefully being put to good use. Once again thank you to Ute and Sanae for taking on the organizational challenge of this little exchange. It was a ton of fun. You can see what others are giving and receiving with the hashtag #2015sve on instagram, or in the Flickr pool. 

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Now for the gift I received.

Angela of Sew Snippet made me some lovely felted bowls, and matchbook notebooks. I love both. L and I have been debating what to store in our new bowls. The DPNs were my suggestion, the peg dolls were of course hers. Thank you Angela! I love international mail, especially when its a beautiful handmade present for me.

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Because you may want to dig a little deeper into the online presence of the makers mentioned in this post (trust me you could spend a whole day on any of their sites drinking in the creativity) here is a recap:

Monika

instagram *  blog  * shop

Angela
blog * flickr

Ute

instagram  *  kollabora

Sanae

 instagram  *  blog

Valentine T-Shirt Wrap Bracelet Tutorial

While in search of something simple and fun for the kids to give as Valentine treats I decided to give the t-shirt wrap bracelet tutorial a Valentine makeover. The old ones are still in popular rotation, and I thought they would be a great fast project for Valentine giving and wearing.

I'm demonstrating with hearts, but you can bedazzle these with any shape (like the triangles we used last time), or letters to spell out a Valentine message or the name of a special someone.  These can easily be made with scraps you have on hand and are a great stash busting project.

You will need:
- 1 Strip of jersey (or other knit that rolls at the edges) fabric 1"x18", an old t-shirt will work great
- 4 (or more) 1" shapes cut from wool felt, vinyl, leather or other material that won't fray
- Sewing machine or needle
- Coordinating thread

Assemble all materials. Cut hearts out of the wool felt.

Pin the strip of knit together at the short ends, wrong sides together (so the seam allowance will be hidden when the fabric curls. Stitch about 1/8" from the edge.

Cut 4 hearts out of the felt that are 1" or less in their largest dimension. Pin the hearts at intervals around the loop of knit. Make a short line of stitching at the center of the heart. The stitching should run perpendicular to the way the knit stretches so that is does not hinder the stretch.

That's it!  Wrap them around the arm, wear them as a necklace, tuck them in a card for your sweetheart.

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In the Shop - Conversation Heart Valentines

Oh, it's that time of year again. Valentine season. One of my very favorite holidays, for its tiny gifts full of sentiment. Again this year we've got sweet little Valentine pins perfect for all your friends. I've even toned down the sentiment this year, after all the agonizing my first grader did last year over who should receive the "xoxo". All of our messages can be given to anyone as a token of sweet, simple friendship. They come in sets of 5 pins attached to a simple card that reads "Happy Valentine's Day" on the front and "to" and "from" on the back. The card/pin colors are mixed to make each card as much fun (and as gender neutral) as possible. Our set of conversation hearts is perfect for flexible classroom giving, party favors, or place cards at a special dinner. 

Get your own in the SweetKM Etsy Shop.

 We'll be wearing all 5!

Secret Valentine

As today is Valentine's Day, it is time to reveal, my Secret Valentine. I received a gift from Anu, who blogs as One Crazy Estonian. So exciting to see a package stuffed into the mailbox that is for me, and not from Amazon! I had been keeping my eye on the flickr pool and was thrilled to pull this sweet little heart garland and little stuffed softie out of the bag. It will be a welcome addition to my workroom heart collection, if I can convince L to give it back to me.

I'm double thrilled to get this project bag and a skein of soft fuzzy yarn! I have been meaning to make myself some project bags, this one is already in use, so I can procrastinate a little longer.

The Secret Valentine I gave a gift to was Ann, from Ann McIntyre Originals. Her quilts are beautifully intricate, and beautifully simple all at the same time.

An enormous thank you to Anu for sending me this wonderful handmade treat. And thank you to Ute and Sanae for hosting the exchange, it has greatly expanded the list of bloggers and crafters that I will be following. You can find links to their work through the Flickr pool.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. May you find a treat stuffed into your mailbox today, too!

Olympic Medal Valentine

We've been churning out Valentines, and binge watching figure skating all week. Somewhere in the mess of construction paper and glue, our Valentines turned into medals. We started out with corrugated cardboard and construction paper, just enough for J & L's charming rendition of the Olympic Medal Ceremony. I should have known to stop there. J thought our gold medals could be mistaken for bronze, resulting in a $25 craft store metallic paint shopping spree. These medals are worthy of the grandest pretend podium. Tomorrow we'll work on replicating the Flower Award Ceremony bouquets. With all the snow in the forecast, by Monday I'll be sewing spandex bodysuits, and the kids will have built themselves a bobsled. 

These, of course, are mine. The glitter glue is still drying on the ones J and L made.

School is already canceled for tomorrow (uffa, not again!). Here are a few other paper crafts I have in the back of my mind for when the library books (is it wrong that I'm hiding them until tomorrow), and legos lose their luster. Break out the popsicle sticks and empty toilet paper rolls, its gonna be a long weekend.

Popsicle Stick Skiers.
Tissue Paper Torch
Skewer Flags

Hearts

All Conversation Heart Pins are assembled, packaged, and posted. As a result, I find myself with a moment to look ahead to lighter things: the triangle scarf pattern, another Playtime dress (you can see the pinned pattern pieces in the corners of the photos above) an Easter sweater for L. I've had just about enough of winter, and am ready to wish spring into existence with flimsy cottons, and linen blends.

As I was working on this little project I realized my, not so secret, penchant for hearts.

Secret Valentine Exchange

I am very excited to be participating in the Secret Valentine Exchange organized by Sanae and Ute. I was feeling stuck in a post Christmas knitting rut, and after a few attempts at some truly sad fingerless mittens (but I'll keep trying), I went back to my linen/wool scraps leftover from the Shape Shifter Scarves, and knit until I ran out of each color, with a few dabbles in between.

After I took the photos, I realized L's dress fabric would be a nice little accent, so I whipped up a Sweetheart Ornament to go along with it. When the whole thing was wrapped up and ready to go, I threw in a Conversation Heart Valentine Badge, so my secret Valentine is getting the full SweetKM Valentine treatment. Everything I have ever made with a heart on it, is on its way across the Atlantic (is that too much of a hint?!).

If you're interested in what other's are sending to their Secret Valentine, check out the Flickr pool.

Conversation Heart Class Valentine

Valentine's is one of my very favorite holidays. Coming up with a sweet little, heart shaped, tidbit is my favorite kind and size of project. But this year, I was coming up empty. Approximately, two days after giving myself permission to give store bought Valentines, after I had already started perusing the candy coated sadness in the big box Valentine aisle, the idea for Conversation Heart Valentine Badges struck me like a bolt from the blue. Simple, modern, without refined sugars or proprietary cartoon characters. Adorned with a heart and the most benign friendship sayings I could think of in my hurry to see results. Fitting for any little boy or girl, to give to any little boy or girl, loaded only with affectionate friendship appropriate for a 6 year old.

Of course, I've made enough to share. Get your's in the shop.

More easy kid's Valentine ideas:

Stuffed Heart Valentine Ornaments  *  Printable Treat Bag Labels  *  Kid's Artwork Valentine

Printable Valentine Treat Bag Labels

You may have heard me at the playground railing against the overload of sugary snacks that come home in my kid's backpack after any school holiday party. Eighteen candy canes. A bushel of candy corn. I sent nothing to school on those occasions (except for the specific requests of room mom and teacher, which I can promise you were healthy), and you can be sure I never will. As J was inventorying his 14th Christmas candy cane, it occurred to me that maybe another kid somewhere in the vicinity was taking particular note of the lack of candy cane from my kid. So, for the sake of the kindergarten status quo, I am going to try to put my scrooginess aside, and come up with some sort of treat for my favorite school holiday, Valentines Day. There is nothing I love more than a paper reflection of my love.  Finding a homemade way around the box of trademarked cartoon characters with a caned message from the mega mart, brings me more joy than a truck load of candy ever could.

This year's class is enormous, too big for all the cutting required of last year's recycled finger painting masterpieces. The solutions: Printable Cracker Valentine Treat Bag Labels. LOVE is spelled out on the front is Scrabble Jr. Cheez-its and the card is made to fold over a snack sized zip-lock bag filled with the actual cracker. J wrote his name once and I photoshopped it to the back of the card. Cut, fold, staple, done! Not a particularly healthy snack, but a shade or two better than the boxes of candy hearts I am bracing myself for.

You can download a copy of the Cracker Valentine Treat Lables to print on your own. I printed mine in color on white card stock at a copy center. Feel free to share the PDF with friends by giving them the link directly to this post.

Sweet Heart Valentine Ornaments

We have moved far too many times for me to consider myself the kind of sewer that has a "stash." But I am scrap happy with these little hearts. After barely rummaging through a single fabric box I found pieces my mother saved from her early 80's quilting phase, torn oxford shirts, vintage ebay finds, and all the pieces of fabric I bought with big plans that never actually happened. Thirty seven mini hearts later, I realize I have quite the "stash" after all.

The simplicity of this idea makes it infinitely adaptable. I've made an advent countdown (more on that later), Christmas gift toppers and two magic wands with this pattern. I'm sure even a beginner could come up with ten more ideas before the first heart is cut out. It's numerous uses merit a formal, written down tutorial, with clear step by step instructions, FREE (heavens, what's gotten into her!?) right here for all to share.

I can see little hearts at each place at your Valentine table, or tucked into the pocket of an unsuspecting beau. So, download away. Please keep me up to date on any Sweet Heart innovations that simply must be shared with the world.

Download now: Sweet Heart Ornament Pattern

Fine Print: Please do not redistribute this pattern. You can share to your heart's content by linking directly to this post. Thanks.

Hey Valentine!

Hey friend, did you get the birthday card I sent you? How about the anniversary wishes? No, well I'm not so great in the card department. Its not that I'm not thinking about you, just that my mind and the card stand, aren't often in the same place at the same time.

Every so often the stack of finger paintings, the scissors, and a few random envelopes are in the same place, and I have the presence of mind to send out some good wishes before the birthday cake is completely eaten.

Happy Valentine's Day

Be Mine

Crayon stained glass is my favorite valentine kid craft. I like to think J made this one, but it was hard for me not to take over, its so much fun.

I let him make another one to make up for it.