Yarn Snowman

It's no secret that I love ornaments! Vintage, handmade, or store bought, it doesn't matter. Do you have a special ornament that brings back childhood memories? As soon as you see it, it transports you back to when you were 9 years old? I am very lucky to have a few of my maternal Grandmother's (MaMa) ornaments that she used for years on her tree. One of my favorite ornament or rather ornaments are of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause made out of yarn. Do you remember these?

My version is a snowman.

Below are the vintage yarn ornaments. Brown with age (hard to tell in this photo), moth eaten faces, missing parts, but I love them anyway!!

I am not sure who made them, I must ask my mom. They bring back the sweetest memories of her house: Christmas baking, laughter, cousins playing, parade on tv, practicing for our Nativity production, wondering if it would snow, would Santa come?, fire crackling, chestnuts from my grandfather's tree, roasting hotdogs over open fire, tractor rides into the woods and my grandmother's famous fruitcake!

Supplies to make your own Yarn Snowman:

yarn

black wool felt

red wool felt

pink wool felt

green & red wool felt

1/4" wide red ribbon

small black beads-5

black embroidery floss

Scraps of cardboard: cut one 14"x6" and one 5"x3"

photo1

Wrap yarn 30 times around largest cardboard. Carefully slip off.

photo2

Lay the yarn on the table and tie a 6" piece of yarn around the middle. This will be at the top of the head.

photo3

Fold the yarn in half with the piece of yarn you just tied at the top. Now go down about 11/2" down tie a 6" piece of yarn for the neck. Then tie another piece of yarn for the waist about 1 1/2" down from the neck. 

photo4

To make the arms, wrap the yarn around the 5"x3" cardboard 30 times. Carefully remove and tie a piece of yarn at both ends-see photo.

Make a hole with your finger all the way through the abdomen and insert arms. It is not necessary to glue or sew the arms to the body.

photo4

Now you can cut the loops on the hands and feet. Trim them as you would a pom pom. 

For the face:

Cut the face out of white felt. Glue cheeks and nose on. Stitch eyes on and then embroider mouth and eyebrows.

photo5

Make the hat the same way as Abe Lincoln's hat. Glue ribbon around hat body and then glue holly leaves and berries on. Tie a 8" piece of white or black embroidery floss onto the yarn (this yarn is the piece that you tied in the middle in photo2) for a hanger. I then threaded a needle with this floss and went through the bottom of the hat, not the middle of the hat but off to the side) and then back out of the side of the hat. I know this sounds confusing, but the photo5 explains it better. I did it this way because I like Frosty's hat a little off center. If you like you could always go straight through the middle of his hat.

My vintage yarn Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause. Wouldn't these look so cute tied onto gifts instead of bows? I also plan on make the Clauses this year too and if I get to them I will post a picture.

Now this is just plain cotton pickin' fun!

Elfie up to his old tricks. He is using a candy cane and yarn to zip line across the dining room. D#2 left the yarn and candy cane out for him to use the night before. At night we can hear the soft pitter patter of his tiny feet running across the carpet. Our Bethlehem village in the background. Every year hubby and I on our anniversary (which is today! 22 years!!) go to the Peppermint Forest (local store, you can google it: Peppermint Forest, NC) and pick out pieces to add to the village. We went this morning after a nice breakfast at Panera Bread with D#2, Son and his girlfriend (D#1 had a final today and couldn't make it). It's also a tradition to buy a Holiday Loaf from Panera. At Peppermint Forest we selected a few nice pieces to add and had such a great time. The picture above was taken before the new pieces were added. 

Display tray of vintage cuteness. Idea taken from Gooseberry Patch Christmas book. 

Santa Tater

D#2 had to decorate a potato for Thanksgiving Market (school function). Our job was to create a potato character that doesn't look like a potato but, we couldn't carve it or poke holes in it. D#2 wanted to make hers into a Santa. She glued everything and I cut it out. She handstitched the hat and back of the Santa suit. She loved the sewing part the best, her words. We also came up with a song in the tune of Santa Baby:

Santa Tater, just slip a

plate of fries under

the tree, oh please.

Santa tater, a bottle

of ketchup for me,

red not green.

D#2 had a hard time believing they use to make green and purple ketchup years ago :)

Have a wonderful day and weekend,

Holly