Meet Alicia. The purchases you made throughout 2010 made it possible for Knits and Knots to 100% fund Alicia's $175 microloan through World Vision Micro. Thank you for supporting Knits and Knots this year. Merry Christmas and may you find the joy of the Newborn King this holiday season!!!

Click here to learn more about Alicia and her microloan :)

The Gift of Organization

My husband gave me a wonderful early Christmas gift this year - the gift of organization.  Matt and I created space in our house for our grown-up hobbies about a year ago.  As Knits and Knots has grown as a business, or original organizational scheme for this room descended into utter chaos!  I couldn't possibly fit all of the yarn I was accumulating from various projects into the shelves I had available, and fabric was piling up on top of the bins used for storage.  I rarely knew what I had and couldn't find things I really needed.  It would literally take me about 20 minutes to gather materials I needed simply because I had to unstack all the bins, search through to find the item I wanted, restack the bins, and pray nothing came toppling down on me!  My husband was having some similar difficulty as it would take him as long to set up his recording equipment as it would to record a song, only to have to tear it all down again in order for the room to be useful for other activities.  After talking it through with Matt he suggested we purchase some industrial strength shelves and line one of the walls.  I bought the shelves about a month ago, and promptly put them together.  Fast forward 3 weeks and 2 rounds of a stomach virus and I finally found the time to organize yesterday.  I am SO HAPPY with it.  I can see what fabrics I have available; I can walk through the room without tripping over bags of material; I know whether or not I have that one specific color of yarn I need for that last-minute project.  It is fabulous!  I have seen other crafty bloggers talk about their "studio" and I never thought I would have one of my own.  However, with this step I feel like Knits and Knots has taken a huge leap ahead and I could claim this room as my very own studio.  I don't mind sharing the space and letting it be my husband's recording studio as well - now he needs a chance to organize that side of the room :)

is this not a beautiful sight?!

Coffee Cup Wrap

Along with the Beaded Christmas Tree Keychain that my kids made for their teachers, we are also giving them a giftcard to Starbucks and a reusable coffee cup wrap.

For the wrap I followed this pattern, substituting a bit of thin quilt batting for the fusible interfacing and an unused hairband for the elastic. 

I love how simple this project is, and its a great way to use up scraps!