Total Count:

16 of these bad boys!!! 

That's the most I've done so far!

 I called to tell my mom today how many I did and told her I was out of material so if she wanted them again next year, it meant she was going to have to head to the fabric store and go through the grueling process of cutting the strips. She said she thought this was the last year. My initial reaction was to jump for joy... but then I think I was a little sad. I have made these for the last three years and as much as I hate them and they literally make me angry sometimes when I am doing them, they have become somewhat of a tradition. Perhaps I will take Teenah's advise and sell them on Etsy. LOL

Scrubbies

Scrubbies - Oh how I hate thou.

Every year, I crochet beloved Scrubbies for my mom's Christmas Craft Sale at her church. She says they sell like hot cakes to all the little old ladies. (Ssshhh, we wont tell her that she qualifies as one of those little old ladies she so fondly refers to.) Supposedly, they sell so fast she can barely get them out on the table before they're all sold. They're a hot ticket item.

The first year she asked me to make them, K and I had just started dating. Imagine my embarrassment when I told her I was "crocheting scrubbies". I am certain her first thought was, "How old is this chick?" and her second thought, which is what her response was, "What the hell is a scrubbie?"

This seems to be the general response from those in my generation. The only way I know how to explain it is they are like homemade SOS pads. I guess. I dont really understand them either, I just make them.

They are kind of a pain to make. The material you make them with is netting bought at the fabric store - by the yard. In order to crochet these little boogers, they have to be cut into 1-2 inch strips. WAY too much work for me, so that's where my one stipulation comes in - "I will make them for you, Mom, but you have to cut the netting." aaaand, it's a deal.

Last year my mom sent me 4 neatly cut and rolled balls of netting. I couldn't have possibly done all four balls in one year, so I promised her that I would hold on to what I didn't use and use it for my supply the following year.

Now... it's the following year. I have a little purple left, a whole roll of red left, and a whole roll of green left. I have been putting off doing them for over a month. Every day telling myself, I'll start them tomorrow. Tomorrow never came... but then, Episode 17 of Lost happened and instead of finding a dull knife, I got out the scrubbie material and started crocheting.

Here's how I make mine:

Chain (CH) 4, connect to make a circle with Single Stitch (SS) in first Ch
Ch 3 (counting as your first Double Crochet), Double Crochet (DC) 15 into circle (16 total - it's a tight fit) connect the first and last DC with a SS.
Ch 3, DC twice in each DC space in the ring below (32 DC total), connect first and last DC with SS
 Tie off.

Repeat the above directions.

Connect the two messy, netty circles with a Single Crochet around the edges.

I typically make them all one color

I despise making these little boogers. The material is difficult to work with. When I crochet with yarn, there becomes a flow... a rhythm that you get into. The needle flows smoothly in and out of the loops. Not with these little boogers.It's constantly getting tangled and you cant be too rough with it because if you do, you'll tear it and it will break.

The material is also rough so after making a few of them, my fingers begin look red and swollen and feel raw. This adds to my anger and frustration as the needle refuses to smoothly flow through the difficult material.

They're timely. I timed myself last night and one scrubbie takes me almost 45 minutes to complete from beginning to end. And that doesn't count all the times I throw a small tantrum and have to put it down while I allow myself a moment to breathe and count to ten. 

Lastly, I especially don't care for doing these little boogers, because after all that pain and suffering I go through to make them, I don't take a step back and think, "Oh, but they're so cute." Because they're not. And even if they were, I would always think in the back of my mind, "They're so cute... and someone is going to ruin the cuteness by cleaning their dirty dishes with it." So I guess when looking at it like that, it might be better that they're not cute.

BUT, for as much disdain I feel towards these little boogers, I have 100 times that amount of love for my mom and I know that making these makes her happy and that's all that really matters. So, I will continue to make these every season until my generation becomes little old ladies and no one knows what the hell they are.

If I make two a day from now until the 28th, I will have made about 30. That's totally doable and twice the amount I have made in years past. Stay tuned for a final count update!

1st Christmas Craft of the Year

I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought in the day and age of the Words with Friends craze, this could be cute, but it would definitely need some dressing up.

Here's my version of dressing up.

All I did to dress them up was to put color to the ribbon, and as you can see, I tied little bows on Barbara's.

Simply hot glue the letters together. The glue will ooze out on the front and back of the tiles when you put them together, but don't fret. When it dries, it's super easy to just pick off and it cleans right up.

They're kind of fragile. I dropped a few while assembling them and they just snapped right apart, so I thought a little reinforcement might help.

Here's what I did to add reinforcement.

I just added a little ribbon on the back. It gives more support to the tiles and dresses up the ornament even more.

I am planning on using these as the gift tags for their actual presents. Hopefully, actually people will keep them and hang them on their tree!

Obviously there's a lot more you can do with these to dress them up. I may do that as I do the rest of them. I only have about 40 more to make!

The biggest challenge is going to be finding enough Scrabble games to complete all of them. Watch out thrift stores and garage sales, I'll be coming for your Scrabble games!