Dec
Second Annual Knit and Crochet Handmade Holidays with Kristin Omdahl
I am so pleased to celebrate my second annual Handmade Holidays. For years, I gave myself the excuse that I was too busy working in the craft industry to make time to craft for gifts. Then it occurred to me, I teach others to carve out a little time consistently and you will find there was plenty of time to get it done. So, I turned my advice on myself last year and made just shy of a dozen hand knit hats for my son and his tennis coaches.
In the “Go big or go home” theory of life, it made sense to outdo myself this year and create even more gifts handmade, for more of the people on my list! I started many months ago. Each gift had to fit two requirements: it had to be budget minded, and it had to be a quick project per gift.
I started with the Crochet Handle Holders. Here is the final set I wrapped up for a special gift recipient this morning.
And here is the video to make them for you or a gift:
Next, I began making jewelry for other gifts. I made wire wrapped crystal earrings and beaded memory wire bracelets. Here are the presents before I wrapped them this morning.
And here are both tutorial videos:
And last, but certainly not least, I made spiced nuts. This was tricky. I needed it to be homemade, healthy, delicious and budget minded. Most seasoned nut recipes call for lots of butter and sugar for the coating. And most stores charge an arm and a leg for nuts! I did my research and found that buying them bulk at Costco was a huge savings. I mixed expensive and lesser expensive nuts together to stretch my dollars even more. AND, I used an egg white mixture with the spices to create a coating that was super healthy. They are slightly sweet, savory and a little salty. And DELICIOUS. I found some adorable holiday gift boxes. This photo is of all the boxes I got out of 8 pounds of spiced nuts made (6 batches of my recipe), minus 5 boxes that were given away already!
Here is the recipe and video for the spiced nuts. I highly recommend them. Marlon and I are already cooking up new recipes for these. Expect to see a garlic and lemon variety next month!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May your heart and home be filled with love, health, happiness and crafting inspiration.
xoxo, Kristin
I would love to see your creations. Just as much fun as making these myself is the satisfaction I get from seeing my designs come to life and other crochet fans wearing them too. There are now 2 ways you can share what you have done!
- Share yours by joining Create. Share. Inspire on Facebook where you can interact with me as well as many other members who have a love of knitting and crochet just like you! It is a wonderful and safe place to share your photos of finished projects in my knitting or crochet patterns or yarns, and to see what others are making, too.
- I have recently added a wonderful new interactive section to the website which I invite you to take part in, it has been a smashing success and such fun so far. It is the new “Share a Project” section. You, my creators, can upload images and descriptions of your creations to share with the ever growing community! To upload simply click here.
Additionally, I host a livestreaming podcast weekday on my YouTube Channel called Create Share Inspire Podcast. You can join the audience and even ask me questions LIVE! I often do a show and tell, or quick demo and I always interact with the live audience. It is a lot of fun!
You can browse through almost 800 previously recorded episodes HERE: Create Share Inspire Podcast Playlist . Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel to get reminders when the next episode airs LIVE.
I look forward to seeing what you create!
xoxo,
Kristin
