A Very Supernatural Christmas Gift

Of all the gifts I've ever given my sister, the one that elicited the biggest reaction was the Sherlock fan girl kit I gave her for Christmas 2016. Alanna was simply delighted with it (and she was also quite happy with the Sherlock notebook I made for her in 2025). She also loves Game of Thrones, and has been very pleased to get (over the course of various gift-giving occasions) a thrift shop copy of the Game of Thrones cookbook, a thrift shop set of four glass tumblers bearing the crest of one of the families on the show, and a dollar store 3D Game of Thrones puzzle from me (I keep teasing her that, since she also has a Celtic-stencilled table set that I made for her, she has everything she needs to throw a Game of Thrones-themed dinner and viewing party for her friends who also like the show). 

In 2023, I decided to see if I couldn't replicate the success of that gift by putting together a fan girl kit for a third show she loves: Supernatural. I like the show quite a lot myself, have seen the entire 15-year run twice, and even spearheaded a rewatch and discussion of all 327 episodes on Metafilter.com's FanFare subsite in 2021/22. I could use my own fair knowledge of Supernatural to assemble some really fun and useful items. It was a relief to know that I would understand all the references and wouldn't be at risk of taking any quotes out of context.

I began researching my options. First I looked to see what Amazon had to offer, but I wasn't thrilled with the show merchandise they had, which I thought mostly uninspired and overpriced (i.e., t-shirts and mugs printed with quotes from the show in plain text). The one thing I found that I wanted to buy was the official Supernatural cookbook. Alanna loves pie just about as much as Dean Winchester. 

I wanted two or three other items to go with the cookbook, so I began researching crafting ideas. I wanted things that not only referenced the show in an interesting and artistic way, but also were of some practical use. I searched Ravelry for Supernatural-themed knitting patterns, but they didn't have that many of those and I didn't think Alanna would particularly like or ever use any of them. I googled, and also searched Pinterest. That was more fruitful. I have no interest in making or acquiring fan art for myself -- I don't even like having books with movie cover images or inserts -- but I do find it a lot of fun to see the level of ingenuity, insight, and wit fans bring to their interpretive crafts, and I enjoy making fan art as a gift for someone who will enjoy it. Ultimately, I identified three crafts I wanted to make: a mug with a quote from the show, bottle cap fridge magnets, and a box painted with signs and sigils. I added the items I had found and intended to use as models to a secret Pinterest board entitled "For Alanna", which is where I keep track of all my gift ideas and plans for her. 

The next step was to gather supplies. I needed bottle caps for the fridge magnets. I wondered for a moment how I was going to get the bottle caps, as I hate beer and don't much like pop, but it soon occurred to me that I do enjoy the occasional bottle of non-alcoholic ginger beer, so I saved my bottle caps from those until I had half a dozen. I also had some small round magnets on hand that I had saved from discarded plastic shower curtain liners. I always knew those would come in handy some day! 

Originally I thought I'd have to buy a wooden box and a plain mug and began keeping an eye out for suitable ones during my weekly neighbourhood thrift shop tour, but I soon realized that I already had a box and mug on hand that would be perfect for what I had in mind. The box was one I had bought from Value Village for $3.99 plus HST circa 2019 with the intention of repainting it and giving it to my honorary niece Olivia with the knitted doll I was making for her, to serve as a place to keep her doll's things. (I honestly don't know how I could ever have thought that 8" x 4.5" x 4.5" box would hold the doll's wardrobe, which in the end barely fit into the tote bag I made for it.) I had put the box away in the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers in my attic workroom with the idea that a sturdy little wooden box like that would surely come in handy at some point, and got it out again in early 2023 with a gratified feeling of having been right about that. Then in the spring of 2023, when I was reorganizing the back kitchen area cupboards that hold my tools and home renovation supplies, I came across the little faux lock detail that you see in front of the box in the above photo. It was originally on the upholstered blanket box I had found on a neighbour's curb, and when I had done the blanket box over for the attic in 2012, I left it off as I thought it didn't really work on it, and tucked it away in my box of renovation odds and ends for some future use. I could definitely see it working on the painted box for this fan girl kit, so I added it to the things I was collecting for this project.   

As for the black mug you see in the photo above, it came with a President's Choice freebie trial membership thing. It's a lovely mug, but it didn't go with my aesthetic or my kitchen decor, so I set it aside to give to my friend Lindsie, as I thought it was very much her taste. When I came across it in the spare bedroom closet where I keep my gifts mid-2023, it occurred to me that it was exactly Alanna's taste too (Alanna and Lindsie have very similar aesthetics -- there have been a few times when they have given me identical or perfectly coordinated gifts though they've never so much as met each other), and just the thing for this fan girl project, so I added the mug to my collection of materials set aside for this present of Alanna's. 

Though I bought the cookbook and had made plans and collected some supplies to do the mug, box, and bottle cap magnets, I didn't get around to doing the three crafts in 2023. In 2024, when I again intended to get the fan girl project done for Christmas of that year, I discovered that there was after all a Supernatural knitting pattern in the Ravelry database that I wanted to make: the Winchester Plaid Anti-Possession Mittens, designed by Kathy Lewinski. I thought it was just as well that the gift was delayed as it would be better to include the mittens with the other four items. I had some gray and black fingering yarn that would be perfect for them, and they would go quite well with the black capelet I had made for Alanna for Christmas 2024. 

 

 

 

I began working on the mittens in October 2024 with the idea of having them done by Christmas. Then it turned out I had the hardest time getting gauge that I've ever had. Usually I don't have issues with that at all, my gauge being exactly what the pattern and/or the yarn skein band says it should be. Alanna has large hands for a woman, so initially I thought I'd knit them on larger needles than the pattern called for, aiming to make them a men's small instead of a women's medium. I began work, and three inches in found the pattern was way too large. I switched down a needle size, and knitted another three inches. Still too big. I began again with the recommended size of 2.5 mm. Again too big, and again I ripped out what I'd done and began again with 2 mm DPNS, the smallest size I own. Guess what? Still quite a bit bigger than the pattern gauge. And this isn't a pattern I could adjust for width, as the anti-possession symbol takes up the entire width of the mitten. 

 

In retrospect I should have bought a set of 1.75 mm or even 1.5 mm DPNS, but instead I just adjusted the design as much as I could, shortening them considerably by doing only two repeats of the fair isle pattern before the thumb instead of four as the pattern calls for, and narrowing them by a stitch or two on each side. They weren't much too wide for me when I tried them on, and Alanna does have larger hands than me, so I thought they wouldn't be such a bad fit. Another complication was that I ran short of black yarn and could not get more of the same brand, though that wasn't a big deal as I was able to get a nearly identical black fingering, and in a project like this the switch would not be discernible at all. 

 

But, between all my futzing around with different needle sizes and the fact that a chart-intensive, fine-gauge project like this is slow-going work at the best of times, Christmas 2024 found the mittens unfinished (though to be honest, so were the box, mug, and bottle cap magnets). I did have the capelet done and a number of awesome stocking stuffers ready to give Alanna, so she was not deprived, and I again kicked the can down the road to Christmas 2025. 

 

I finally finished these mittens in June 2025. They're not so bad. I do wish I'd thought of sizing down the thumbs by narrowing the hole for them, but by the time I realized they were too big both the mittens were all done but the thumbs, and after all the ripping out I'd already done, I was not ripping two-thirds of the mittens out. Perhaps if Alanna wears these out I'll make her a better-fitting replacement pair.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottle cap magnets were the next item to be finished. Theoretically I had everything on hand that I needed to make them, and they were easy to make, requiring only a little cutting, gluing, and Mod Podging. I was even able to skip a step because the bottle caps were already black, eliminating the need to paint them. However, I did hit something of a snag when contending with my printer. It's a 2006 model with obsolete software that I can't install on my current (2021) laptop. I have to fire up my old, glacially slow 2017 laptop whenever I want to print anything. And while my printer can print text reliably well, it does not do at all well with images, colours, or even grayscale. I had to print off some different sheets of images for the bottle caps and cherry pick the few that printed adequately. Which meant I didn't get to use some of the ones I liked the most. There was one that featured the Impala and the words "Carry on My Wayward Son" that I very much wanted to use, but it just didn't print out well enough, sigh. But these six are okay options. And while Sam and Dean's mug shots didn't print out great, they have a certain newsprint/faded wanted poster quality that works. So I'm telling myself anyway. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished the painted box shortly after the magnets. Initially I thought I would be able to make it entirely out of supplies I already had. I painted it three times with dollar store black craft paint I had on hand, marked the sigils and the initials on it with pencil, and then I was going to paint them on in cream with some craft paint I also had among my art supplies, but after a few attempts at trying to do that and messing it up (and having to sand it down, paint it over, and start again), I headed off to the art store to buy a paint marker. It was a lot easier to render these markings with the marker than with a paint brush and I was done in about five or six minutes. Once the markings were made, I erased whatever pencil marks still showed, put on three coats of acrylic finish, and nailed the faux lock detail in place. I was pretty pleased with the result.  

 

I don't know what purpose Alanna might find for this box, but it should be handy for something. I opted not to put any markings on the inside bottom, as they would not be likely to stand up well to much wear and tear, but it has markings on the top, inside top, both ends, front and back, and the bottom. Except I forgot to take a photo of the bottom.:(

 

 

 

  

 

 

When I was rummaging through my tote bag of gift wrap supplies at some point in late summer 2025, looking for suitable items to wrap another gift, I found a little black velvet drawstring bag that I decided would be perfect for the bottle cap magnets. It proved to be just the right size to hold the six of them. I packed the mittens and the bottle caps in the box in the way the lead photo of this post shows when I wrapped the gift for Christmas, as it looked so much like a miniature version of a storage box the Winchester boys might have packed and stowed away somewhere in the Men of Letters bunker. 

 

The last item to be completed was the mug. My plan for it took a number of twists and turns. Initially I thought I could just write the quote on the mug with marker as in the examples I'd seen online. I wanted to use a cream-coloured marker, which would stand out well on the black and match the rim on the mug. I researched the matter, and found there was no commercially available marker I could use that would survive much washing, but that I could use porcelain paint and bake it in the oven. I bought a little bottle of such paint, pencilled the design I wanted on the mug, and had a go at it. But as was the case with the box, I just couldn't seem to paint the design on the mug to the standard I wanted. 

 

My next idea was to have the mug custom printed. I found a graphic online that I could use for that and loaded it on to a thumb drive in order to take it to a print shop with the mug. But when I had a telephone conversation with a guy from a custom mug printing place on December 2nd, I learned that one can't use just any ordinary mug for custom printing, that they have to have to be sublimated, and that they should also be smooth-surfaced and cylindrical in shape, not tapered. I was told it was possible to buy some supplies and sublimate the mug I had, but that the printing process was still not likely to turn out well given that the mug was tapered.    

 

I reluctantly relinquished my plan of using the black, red-lined mug I had for this project and moved on to the idea of buying a sublimated mug from a printing place. I was hoping to get a black one, as black is Alanna's favourite colour. None of the places I checked had a black mug, but Staples.ca did have a white one with a black handle and lining, and it was on sale. They also had a heat-sensitive mug that looks plain black until there is hot liquid in it, and then it goes white and shows the design, which was kind of cool, but heat-sensitive mugs can't be used in the microwave, and I thought Alanna might consider it not worthwhile to have to use the kettle to heat water for her tea in order to use that mug. The ordinary black-lined mug it was.

 

I spent hours working on my mug printing order on the Staples.ca site. There was a whole learning process involved as I first had to figure out how to use their mug design program and, when the graphic I was using proved not to be the right dimensions for the mug, how to adjust the image in Paint 3D. Finally I got the design looking just right (the mug design program has a preview feature which shows you photos of the mug with your image on it so you can see just how it will look), and I was all ready to finalize my order when I realized for the first time that the graphic I was using had watermarks in it. They only showed when my laptop screen was titled to a certain angle. 

 

Okay, so another change of plan (by now I was on what? Plan E for the mug? If not even further along in the alphabet?). I would have to create my own graphic. Uh oh. I have studied some graphic design, but that was back in publishing school in 1993/1994, and then in a Visual Arts certificate program I did in the late nineties and early 2000s at George Brown College, was mostly oriented to page designs/layouts and typography, not art work. It also involved using design programs that, even if I could remember how to use them (and I cannot!) are obsolete and at least seven or eight computer generations removed from the graphic design programs commonly used today. In other words, my graphic design skills are both rustier and more awkward than Castiel's social skills could ever be. 

 

But despite my nearly complete lack of graphic design skill and knowledge, I was game to try. After all, I just needed clip art of wings and one line of text. I searched the net for watermark-free clip art, and found a good site that offered an extensive selection of it. I found the season four scene where Dean meets Castiel on YouTube to remind myself of what Castiel's wings look like, paused it at the moment when Castiel shows Dean his wings, then searched the clip art site for a pair of angel wings that were black and similarly shaped. Once I found suitable wings, I opened a new file in Paint 3D and plugged away at creating a design. If I didn't know how to make Paint do something I wanted it to, I googled it and found instructions. I figured out how to split the angel wings and make them movable and resizable. I found the season six clip the quote is from on YouTube and double checked it for accuracy as the versions of it I have seen online are not all the same (my editorial skills are not rusty). I tried out various fonts, looking for one that would appear well on the mug, pair well with the wings, and reflect Castiel's ancient, powerful, and hilariously humourless and ultra-literal character. Finally after much fiddling around (and swearing at the computer when I couldn't get it to do something), I had an image I thought would do. 

 

I did debate adding a halo to the image, as a number of the graphics made of this quote online have halos in them and it would make the design visually better, but Castiel doesn't have a halo in the show, and my desire to make the mug's design consistent with the text won out over my concern for its aesthetic. (Again, I am an editor, not a graphic designer.) I did have an idea that it would be pretty neat to incorporate the quote into a line drawing of a trench coat or silhouette of a trench coated-man with the clip art wings extending from the shoulders, but again I reminded myself of my virtually non-existent graphic design skills. If I aimed that high, it would probably only end in my spending a number of very frustrating hours in the attempt without creating anything I'd consider usable. I decided to count myself lucky to have been able to put together a decent-looking basic graphic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I uploaded my design to the Staples mug design program, adjusted it a little for size, thought the preview photos looked pretty good, and proceeded to check out, finally, finally, finally ordering the %$#@! thing for $10.16. 

 

Staples had the mug ready for pick up in about ten days. The result was... okay. It looks a little amateurish, and the words and images are not quite aligned. But it would do. Besides being funny, the quote suits her personally, as she can be moody, irritable, blunt, uncommunicative, and inclined to be something of a hermit, and she jokes about it. When I was selecting a Sherlock notebook folder for her, I went with the one that featured the quote, "Get out. I need to go to my mind palace.", because it seemed... very her. She agreed that it was. When she got this mug on Christmas morning, I told her I was torn between doing this quote or doing an "Agent Beyoncé" mug, and Alanna told me she preferred the Castiel quote one, as while she thinks the Agent Beyoncé thing is very funny on Supernatural, she is not a Beyoncé fan.  

 

 

 

 

 

While I waited for the mug to be ready for pick up, I bought a hammered metal-effect gift bag and a pack of black tissue paper to wrap the gift in. I think it suits the Supernatural theme and vibe quite well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there you have it: a Supernatural cookbook, box, magnets, mug, and mittens, along with the gift bag I bought specifically for it. I'd initially hoped this would be a super inexpensive gift aside from the cookbook, with me whipping together the other items from stuff I had sitting around, but given the skein of yarn, paint marker, bottle of porcelain paint, and custom-printed mug I had to buy, it wasn't an inexpensive gift, at least not according to my budget. I also did not expect it to take me nearly three years to get this kit ready to give to my sister. But Alanna seemed reasonably pleased with the gift when she opened it on Christmas morning, so it was worth it. And there'll be peace now that I am done.:) 

A Blossoming Birthday Gift

 My honorary niece Olivia turned nine this year, and here is a post about her birthday present.

  

 

For Olivia's presents, I follow the formula of "something to wear, something to read, and something to play with". The something to wear was a summer dress with a matching purse. I selected the pattern you see above (Butterick B6908) for the dress, and made view A without the side cut outs, or view B without the sleeves.   

 

 

The finished dress in a size 10. It's a rather stylish-looking number that I'd expect many a grown woman would be happy to wear if it were sized up for her. 

 

 

 

 

It was a little difficult to match this fabric in a button, or for that matter in thread. The background colour is what I would describe as a creamy pale pink rather than a white, and I could not use white thread for it. Fabricland didn't have the right length of invisible zipper in an appropriate shade, so I had to buy a too-long zipper and cut it down to the right size. As for the button, Fabricland had nothing and I had to visit a notions store on Queen and hunt through their button collection for something that would do. 

 

 

 

As for the purse, I didn't like the idea of doing it in the same floral pattern as the dress, as it seemed like a little much of a good thing. I looked through the fabrics I had on hand to see what might coordinate with that floral fabric, and there was a green satin I had bought to make a new light bathrobe for me, so I used some of that for it, and just lined the purse in the floral fabric. (I cut the bathrobe pieces out first to be sure there would be enough left over for the purse). I used the pattern Vogue 9893 for it, view B. I've had that pattern for over 20 years, made I don't know how many little purses from it, and this was the first time I ever used that particular view. 

 

 

 

The bag has an inside pocket and is reversible, though I think it looks better green side out. It looked a little plain as was, though, and I wondered what I could do to fancy it up a bit. I came up with the idea of making a fabric flower, which I could stitch to the bag. This idea quickly blossomed (see what I did there) into the idea of making a beaded flower brooch that Olivia could wear on the purse, or her dress, or another outfit entirely, just as she wished. I had plenty of beads and some brooch pins in my jewelry- making supplies box, so it would be a nice added touch that wouldn't cost a thing. I did some googling for flower brooch patterns and tutorials. 

 

 

 

 

 

I soon found this video from Red Blossom Designs on YouTube, and had a go at it. I thought my fabric was too flimsy for this design, so I cut out circles of interfacing and ironed them on to my satin circles. Then the fabric was too stiff and I couldn't make it look right at all. I ended up throwing the whole shebang into the garbage and beginning again. The above photo is of the result of my *second* attempt, and it still didn't look good.  

 

 

 

 

This is the back of the second attempt. I didn't like the way the crafter in the YouTube video did the back of their brooch, so for mine, I cut out an extra circle of the satin and a smaller circle of stiff interfacing, covered the interfacing with the satin, basted it in place, stitched the brooch pin firmly onto the covered circle, then stitched the circle onto the back of the brooch. That at least worked out well. 

 

  

 

 

My third attempt at making the brooch turned out much better, though a few of the petals still don't have quite the right shape. This brooch-making method would probably work best with a somewhat stiffer fabric. (In the video, the crafter uses what looks like a cotton and/or polyester print fabric.) I wound up using the back of the brooch as the front in my version, as I preferred the look the gathered petals on that side to the folded ones of the front. Sewing on random small beads until the raw edges were all covered worked better than sewing one one large bead and then circles of other beads too -- it looks more naturalistic. Once I had the third attempt all beaded and decided it was good enough to go, I picked apart my second attempt at the brooch, putting the beads from it back in my bead box, and reusing the backing circle for the third version of the brooch, so at least I didn't have do that part all over again. 

 

 

 

 The purse with its decoration. I think it adds something. 

 

 

 

 

 

Olivia can wear the brooch pinned on her dress if she likes. This is a rather polished and put-together look for a nine-year-old.

 

 

 

 Olivia's doll, Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn-Animals, which I gave to Olivia's for her seventh birthday, also got a new outfit. Last year Rainbow got a scary witch outfit; this year she gets to be a ballerina. The idea is to keep giving Olivia a new outfit for her doll once a year until Olivia outgrows dolls, to keep Rainbow's wardrobe fresh. I wrote in full about this ballet outfit knitting project in this post if you care to hear all the details about the pattern, yarn, and process, as well as some more detailed photos. 

 

 

 

Olivia's complete birthday gift. Besides the dress, purse, brooch, doll outfit, Olivia received a crocheted elephant craft kit and a copy of The Princess Dessert Cookbook, by Aurélia Beaupommier, both of which came from Dollarama, and a thrift shop copy of The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman. The dress fabric came from a thrift shop, the purse fabric and beads were left over from other projects, and the yarn was on sale at Len's Mill, so this was not a terribly expensive gift, though even the few dollars here and there plus the cost of the sewing pattern, thread, zipper, and postage for the package did add up alarmingly, sigh. (It's not that I grudge it, but money is extremely tight with me, and I try to reduce expenses in every way I can.)

 

  

When I wrapped Olivia's gift, I decided it would be fun to wrap Rainbow's ballet outfit separately from the other gifts. I even found a tiny card and envelope among my gift wrapping supplies that I could use to write Rainbow a message, which I signed, "Love, Great-Aunt Beth". 

 

 

 

My gift arrived at Olivia's house the day before Olivia and her family were to leave for a few days' vacation, so she and Rainbow would have had new outfits to pack for the trip, as well as reading material, and possibly even handiwork activity for the car. Olivia's mother has said that Olivia promptly told her that Rainbow was going on vacation with them, as she had a new outfit to show the world. Rainbow is modelling the new outfit in the above photo. If this world were a safer place for young girls, I would have been able to post the original, uncropped photo, in which one can see Rainbow's mom beaming ear-to-ear over her baby's ballet outfit.   

 

 

This morning I received this beautiful, and impressively prompt, thank you note in the mail. Olivia only received her gift last Wednesday, and last weekend was a long weekend, so for me to get this thank you note today (Tuesday), Olivia would have had to get it in the mail either that same day or on Thursday, the day she and her family were to leave for their vacation. 

If you should have any trouble reading the message, it says:

 

Thank you aunt Beth i loveD The present ant thank you for The present for Rainbow

P.S. xoxoxoxo[heart] 

 

I do indeed feel well and truly thanked for my efforts.  

Next Level Millinery

 In May 2025, I bought two straw panama hats at two different thrift shops.

 

 

 

 

 The untrimmed light straw hat on the left came from Salvation Army thrift shop and cost $2. The brown hat on the right came from a Value Village, cost $7.33, and was trimmed with a narrow band of dull gold grosgrain, which I didn't care for. They did look okay as they were, but I though they both could benefit from being trimmed. 

 

 

 

 

 

As I wrote in this post, I had trimmed another panama hat, bought from Walmart, in a cream grosgrain a year before in the spring of 2024, but I was never really happy with it. It looked amateurishly done. I watched some instructional videos on how to put a grosgrain ribbon on a hat, and found out what I should have done differently. The bow was too big and floppy and on the wrong side (the convention seems to be that hats have their bows on the left side), I stitched the ribbon on wrong so that it was too loose and my stitches showed, and I didn't know that one is supposed to press the ribbon after putting it on the hat. I also learned that I should stitch the band together and slip it over the ribbon, then slide the ends and the bow through it and stitch things in place, rather than trying to stitch the band around everything last.  

 

 

 

 

I ripped the gold ribbon off the brown hat, bought a length of dark brown grosgrain ribbon for $2.55, and retrimmed the hat, implementing the new tips I'd learned from my research. Total cost of hat: $9.88. I was much happier with the finished result than I had been with the hat I did last spring. It looks reasonably professional. 

 

 

 

 

 For the $2 light straw hat, I bought a length of butterscotch-coloured grosgrain ribbon for $10.34 (this was a far less common colour of ribbon than the cream or dark brown and I had to go to a specialty shop), and put it on. Total cost of hat: $12.34. I was also very pleased with how this one turned out.

 

 

 

 

 After I'd finished trimming the two new hats, the first one looked so poorly done by contrast that I ripped the cream grosgrain off the hat I trimmed last year and redid it to the same standard as the other two. 

I try to learn at least one new thing from each project. With this project I not only learned how to put a grosgrain ribbon on a hat, but also that no matter how simple and straightforward a new project might seem, it's a good idea to research it. I'm bound to learn something from my research, and the results will be at least a bit better, and possibly so much better that they're on a completely different level, than if I just try to wing it and figure it out as I go.  

 

 

 

 

 

It feels incredibly self-indulgent to have three such similar hats, but now I always have a hat that goes just right with any summer outfit I happen to be wearing, they didn't cost so very much, and they will last me for years.

Notes on a Sherlock Notebook

My sister Alanna is a big Sherlock fan. Back in 2015, she asked me to make her a "Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes" doll, and I did, giving it to her for Christmas 2016, along with a Sherlock 2017 calendar, vinyl sticker, and a Sherlock notebook folder. I don't think she's ever been more enthusiastic about a gift I gave her than she was about that Sherlock fan girl kit. 

So, when I came across a Sherlock notebook similar to the one you see above on Pinterest, made to look like the front door of Sherlock and Watson's apartment at 221 Baker Street on the BBC show Sherlock, I immediately pinned it to my "For Alanna" Pinterest board, knowing that she'd like it and that I just had to make it for her at some point.

That point came about two weeks ago, when my parents and Alanna were coming to my house for my annual birthday celebration lunch on August 16th. We've been doing this lunch for years now, and we have the arrangements down to a science. Mum and Alanna prepare the lunch between them, bringing nearly everything they need for it in a cooler, and using my kitchen to cook and serve it. I always provide the ice cream to go with the birthday cake one of them has baked, as they have a two-hour drive to make from the little town where my parents live. This year I made homemade blueberry ice cream as a special treat for my father, who loves blueberries and all blueberry desserts. I was surprised at how easy it was to make: it took less than half an hour of work, only ordinary ingredients most of which I already had on hand, and no special equipment. And the results were yummy.   

We also always have quite a grand gift exchange at this lunch. As I usually have not seen my family since Christmas, I give my mother her Mother's Day present, and my father a combined Father's Day and birthday present (his birthday is at the end of August). I get my birthday gifts. Then, because my sister does so much work to make the birthday lunch happen and I hate to have her be the only one who doesn't get a gift, I always give her a token gift of thanks -- something thoughtful, but small and inexpensive, like a thrift shop find or something I've made out of supplies I had on hand. I've been doing this for some years now and the cost of the gift has always been under $6. I've given Alanna a pair of earrings, a Tree of Life keychain, a Game of Thrones cookbook (Alanna is a fervent Game of Thrones fan), a madeleine cookbook (Alanna especially likes baking madeleines), a totebag and matching tissue case I made out of a canopy taken from a broken Burberry umbrella, and a pair of Spode mugs in the "Christmas Tree" pattern (Alanna collects it). 

This year I decided her token gift would be the Sherlock notebook. I've been so useless due to the heat this summer (my house doesn't have AC) that I didn't get around to making the notebook until two days before the lunch, which was my actual birthday. I spent at least half of my fifty-second birthday sweating miserably in my attic workroom while I laboured away on this #$%&! notebook. 

Some notes on the experience: 

-- I used this YouTube video as my guide, and also pulled up a photo of the 221B door from the show to use as a reference. 

-- If you're going to make this notebook, don't let the three minute and seventeen second video I linked to above mislead you. It's hours of work. 

-- The notebook would have looked better with a perfect bound notebook, but when I looked in Dollarama for a notebook, they didn't have a suitable one, so I bought a plain black spiral bound notebook.

-- I expected that once I'd bought the notebook I could do this project with supplies I had on hand. It didn't quite work out that way.   

-- I didn't have cardstock as the YouTuber recommends, so first I tried using foam core board. Which did not go well.

-- I then used nine sheets of coverstock instead, which by my math should be around the same thickness as four sheets of cardstock.

-- Nine sheets of coverstock is actually not easy to cut through. It had been ages since I'd done any paper cutting, so it took a little while for me to summon the knowledge. I could hear my George Brown College art instructor's voice in my head telling me that the way to do it is make a series of light, precise cuts, scoring the paper more deeply each time until I've cut through it, rather than trying to do it one brute force cut, which will look very rough and jagged. 

-- I cut the 221B, knocker, door plate, and lock decals out of an old greeting card. 

-- Cutting the numbers and letter for the door wasn't easy either, as they were so small. I cut out a number of 2s, none of which were satisfactory, until I gave up and just picked the best pair. 

-- The YouTuber recommends buying a gold Sharpie for the decals. I thought I'd just make do with some gold craft paint, only to discover that it only went on the coated greeting card stock like a wash. I bought a gold Sharpie from an art store the next day.

-- Then I discovered that while I could colour the one decal that had been "painted" with the gold paint very well, the marker wouldn't work on the other decals. I then did a base coat of gold craft paint on the other decals to prep it for the Sharpie, and reflected crossly that I probably could have painted them successfully with the craft paint if I'd tried painting it in multiple layers, saving myself the trip to the art store and the expense of the Sharpie when it was the day before my birthday lunch and I had cleaning to do and blueberry ice cream to make.

-- The YouTuber made a door frame, glued it onto the notebook, then painted the entire notebook black, then did the decals, the Mod Podged the notebook. Since my notebook was already black and the shade of black craft paint I was using went well with the black of the notebook, it did not seem necessary to paint the notebook at all. I made the door frame first, including the decals, Mod Podged it, then simply glued it onto the notebook, weighted it down with my volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and left it overnight.  

The result you see above. The notebook looks rougher and more amateurish than I would have liked, but as I told Alanna, the door on the show looks distressed, so it's more artistically accurate this way. 

Alanna seemed very pleased with her little gift, and told me that while the calendar is long gone, she still has the doll, the notebook folder, and the sticker from her fan girl kit, so this new notebook made a nice addition to the set. I was very encouraged with regards to my plan for her Christmas present this year, which involves another fan girl kit for another one of her favourite TV shows. Watch this space for details on that! 

The Bed Jacket Revisited

 

In winter my standard sleepwear outfit consists of a pair of tartan flannel pajama bottoms that I sew myself, and a thrift shop long-sleeved t-shirt in a coordinating colour. It costs me under $25 and a few hours of work to put together a new pajama set, and I usually have three sets on hand, each of which will last for years. The pajama bottoms usually wear out first, and if my replacement pair of bottoms isn't the right colour to go with the shirt that went with the last pair, I can reassign the shirt to the dresser drawer that holds my daytime wear long-sleeved t-shirts. Sometimes, if I have one in just the right colour, I'll take a long-sleeved t-shirt from my daytime wear drawer and pair it with the new pajama bottoms I've just sewn. In other words, my pajama bottom and t-shirt combination is a cost, material, and work-efficient sleepwear choice. The one drawback is that it isn't is quite warm enough for a 1912-built house in Toronto winter weather.

I spend most of my evenings sitting up in bed knitting or working on some other needlework and watching movies or TV shows on my laptop, and during the winter months I was finding myself becoming uncomfortably chilly at the above-blanket level, and sometimes had trouble staying warm enough when sleeping too. I tried wrapping an afghan around my shoulders but it wouldn't stay in place owing to the kind of arm movements my needlework efforts entailed. I began wearing my bathrobe, which worked better, but given its length it was awkward to sit up in bed and to sleep in it. I could have worn a hoodie or sweatshirt, of course, but their hoods, strings, and/or zippers irritated me when I was trying to sleep, and the ill-assorted look of them bugged me whenever I caught sight of myself in a mirror. I decided that I wanted a warm, comfortable layering piece to put on that coordinated with my pajamas.   

I began thinking about bed jackets. Bed jackets are one of those quaintly charming articles of dress and appointment that have all but fallen by the wayside (see also: dress clips, hat pins, chatelaines, pocket watches, muffs, cloaks, parasols, and train cases). These days, most people just wear a hoodie or a sweatshirt or their bathrobe over their pajamas if they want an extra layer.

In Marjorie Hillis's classic manual for the single woman, Live Alone and Like It, originally published in 1936, she prescribes in detail what nightwear a woman should own:

 

We would also like to say a few words about your bedroom wardrobe. This is no place to be grim and practical. Don't worry about whether your nightgowns will wear if you are sure that they will flatter. We can think of nothing more depressing than going to bed in a washed-out four-year-old nightgown, nothing more bolstering to the morale than going to bed all fragrant with toilet-water and wearing a luscious pink satin nightgown, well-cut and trailing.

Next, of course, you'll need negligees -- at least two, one warm and one thin, and as many more as you can afford. Have them tailored or chi-chi according to your type, but have them becoming. And don't think that four bed-jackets are too many if you belong to the breakfast-in-bed school. A warm comfortable one for every-day use and a warm grand one for special occasions. A sheer cool one for summer mornings, and a lacy affair to dress up in. You can make the last two yourself out of remnants in practically no time at all. For the others, have one of quilted silk or Shetland wool, and another of padded satin or velvet in the shade that makes you most beautiful. 

 

I prize my copies of Hillis's two books Live Alone and Like It and Orchids on Your Budget, and often re-read them, mostly for their bracing tone, which has an excellent effect on me. Her practical tips offer food for thought, but usually take some adapting to make them usable for life in 2025. I totally agree with Hillis's dictum that attractive and comfortable bedroom attire is important, even if it's only seen by its wearer. Worn out, ugly, and/or unflattering lingerie is demoralizing, and who needs that? 

However, I do differ with her on what my nighttime wardrobe should look like. While I'm sure that Hillis wouldn't approve of my pajamas, they're standard sleepwear these days. I do concur with her stance on negligees, or what we more commonly call bathrobes, housecoats, or dressing gowns. It's a sound idea for a woman who lives in a four-season climate to have one long, warm, plush bathrobe (for winter) and one short, light, silky one (for summer and "special occasions" all year round). As for her prescription for bed jackets, I don't want any summer bed jackets, as my short cotton nightgowns are all I can bear to have on me in hot weather, but I agree that I could definitely use a few nice warm bed jackets for winter wear.

I wondered if there could be a modern equivalent to the bed jacket, and I did some googling, and fell down something of a rabbit hole. Amazon does offer a reasonable selection of bed jackets, ponchos, and capes in fleece, velour, and flannel, but of course I'm trying to avoid shopping on Amazon, given how they treat their workers and Jeff Bezos' compliance with Trump. I looked on Pinterest, and after realizing that bed jackets could be knitted, on Ravelry.

 

 

 

I found some exquisite examples of the bed jacket, such as the one above, which dates from the 1930s and would definitely meet with Marjorie Hillis's approval, but one like that wouldn't work with my pajamas, or even one of my cotton nightgowns. However, by the time I'd climbed out of the bed jacket research rabbit hole, I knew what I wanted in a bed jacket: it needed to be warm, it needed to be comfortable for both sitting up in bed and for sleeping in, it needed to go with my pajamas, and ideally it should also elevate the look of my pajamas a little. 

 

 

 

I decided I would need to sew a bed jacket, and visited Simplicity.com to see what patterns they had that would fit my criteria. I wound up selecting the pattern depicted above, Simplicity S9210, deciding that the cowl- necked top would do very well if made in a fleece or velour. It wouldn't be a bed jacket exactly, but something that could be more accurately described as a "pajama pullover". I decided to make three: one in cream, one in dark brown, and one in a colour. I bought cream fleece and spring green fleece, and ribbons to go with each. I couldn't find a brown fabric I liked in any of Toronto's fabric stores, but then I got the idea of scouting the household linens in thrift shops to look for fleece or velour blankets that could be used to make the brown pajama pullover. 

 

 

I soon found a large brown plush throw for $7.50.  

I made the cream pajama pullover first, and have been wearing it awhile. I'm wearing it right now as I type these words. It's been very satisfactory. It looks well over my pajamas and over my one flannel nightgown. I am now quite warm when I sit up in bed in the evenings, and while simultaneously eating breakfast and writing in bed in the mornings, and I can sleep in it very comfortably at night. I found the ribbon needed constant retying, which annoyed me until I got the idea of hand stitching the centre of the bow. The ribbon stays in a perfect bow now.

The brown pajama pullover got made next. I opted not to put the ribbon in this one. I like it even better than the cream one, as the colour is better on me. Wearing it over my tartan nightshirt and pajama bottoms makes me look and feel more like some sort of half bear, half hunter hybrid than an elegantly attired bachelorette, but then Canadian winters can make the most stalwart stylist care more about warmth and comfort than fashion. I used less than half of the brown blanket to make this, but I suppose I can use the rest up gradually by making some cuddly stuffed bears and bunnies for baby shower gifts.

I ended up deciding not to make the spring green pajama pullover. It would have only gone with one pair of my pajamas, and what happens when those wear out? Also, the knitted bed jacket patterns I had browsed through when researching bed jackets were calling my name. I have picked one out and plan to knit it in 2026. The spring green fleece fabric can instead be used to make a zippered jacket for daytime wear around the house in winter, as it will go very well with the five pairs of dark brown yoga pants that I basically live in during the cold season.

So, I now feel that I have winter sleepwear that is, if not quite Marjorie Hillis-approved, certainly Marjorie Hillis-informed, and also comfortable. 

Misguided Misadventures With Alpaca Yarn

For some years, my father has kept mentioning wanting to buy me some alpaca yarn from Alpaca Time, a little alpaca farm, mill, and yarn store located in Harriston, Ontario, where Dad's favourite cousin's son's wife worked until her retirement last August. Dad is fascinated with knitting and takes an especial interest in different kinds of yarn, in much the same way as he likes using as many different kinds of wood for his woodworking projects as possible. When he and my mother travelled to the Yukon back in the early 2000s, he brought me back some Qiviut yarn. He wanted the two of us to go to Alpaca Time together, but we never got around to it on my occasional visits to my parents' place. Finally last August he and my sister went there together to carry out the mission.

 

Dad bought the three hanks of yarn you see above, then gave them to me for my 51st birthday in

August 2024. (Along with five bags of sawdust, which you shall hear about in a later post.) There was no fibre content or gauge information on these hanks, but they're fingering weight, and judging from the yarn products listed on the Alpaca Time website, they could be 100% alpaca, or 85% alpaca and 15% bamboo, or 90% alpaca and 10% nylon. The skeins were 113 grams each, for a total of 339 grams. This was a little on the low side for me to make a sweater of (a fingering weight sweater in my size usually takes about 380 grams), and when I searched Ravelry for suitable patterns that evening, I had to rule out a number of patterns because they would take more yarn than I had. I toyed with the idea of adding a second yarn, but decided that I preferred this sweater to be a solid neutral tone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some pattern browsing, I narrowed my choices down to three, and then selected the Aptenia pattern, designed by Coraline Kerisit, that you see depicted above. I didn't know the yardage of my skeins of yarn, but looked through the pattern pages of other site members who had made the Aptenia design, and it seemed to me I would have enough. I set happily to work on it in early September with the idea of getting the sweater done long before Christmas, so that my father would get to see me wear it during my holiday visit to my parents' place. 

I hardly ever have gauge problems, and as a rule I don't bother to swatch. But I had gauge problems with this one pattern. The yoke turned out huge, and I had to redo it several times, ripping it out, cutting down the number of repeats on the second take, finding the yoke still too big, and then ripping it back and cutting down more repeats. On my third attempt I found the yoke still a bit on the big side, but decided to leave it the way it was. Then I had problems with the gauge on the body. At one point I made a swatch, but my work didn't seem to knit to gauge even after that. Finally I finished the body, weighed the remaining yarn because I was concerned I was going to run short of yarn for the sleeves, knitted one sleeve and weighed the remaining yarn again... and found I was going to run 20 grams short for the second sleeve. I should have made sure that yoke was exactly the width it was supposed to be. I've done plenty of ripping out in my knitting life and have gotten quite hardened to the necessity of it, but I don't think I've ever found it harder to rip out a piece of work. I must have worked on that sweater for six weeks, and it was lovely. 

Back to Ravelry I went to pick out a second pattern. This time I looked at designs that involved two colours, with the idea that once I picked one out, I'd go shopping for a second coordinating yarn to piece out the fawn alpaca. (I did check my stash but didn't find anything suitable.) I didn't so much pick out another pattern as get a concept for another design. I got the idea of making a sweater that would have a flat collar, buttoned placket, cuffs, and waistband that was striped in the fawn and a coordinating colour, which I intended to design myself. I went to Michaels to see what kind of contrast yarn they might have, and purchased a skein of Patons Kroy Socks FX in Clover Colors, which is a variegated fingering. I thought the extra 50 grams plus the alpaca would surely be sufficient yarn for that sweater, and if not, I could buy a second skein of the Patons Kroy and make longer cuffs or something. I also bought some buttons for the placket.

I began again, and made the body of the sweater, knitted in the placket and the flat collar, then began knitting the first sleeve... and discovered that I was, again, going to run short of the fawn yarn. I think the problem was that I knitted the body in too small a gauge, and it consequently soaked up more yarn than necessary. Oh, these misguided misadventures in knitting! It is to laugh! It is to stab oneself in the head with a knitting needle!

 

But there was nothing for it but to go back to Ravelry again, and pick out another design. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time I zeroed in on Lea, by Marzena Kolaczek, as pictured above. It was one of the three original patterns I had been considering the evening of my birthday celebration. The amount of fawn alpaca yarn I had should have been more than enough to make it, but by this time I was so paranoid about running short again that I decided I'd use the Kroy sock yarn to do the yoke in order to be absolutely certain I could finish this third take.

And here's take three, finally finished. I had to go back to Michaels and buy another skein of the Patons Kroy Socks FX to have enough for the yoke. Ultimately, I used an extra 90 grams of the contrast variegated fingering, and then had 88 grams of the fawn alpaca left... which means I could probably have done this entire sweater in the alpaca, as I made the sleeves slightly longer than necessary. Again, this sweater was one of the three patterns I picked out originally, so if I'd just decided on this pattern in the first place, I could spared myself a lot of extra work and frustration, not to mention the expense of two extra skeins of yarn, an extra pattern, and buttons I now have no use for.

But I mustn't dwell on that, as it makes me feel stabby. I do like the result, and while that first all-fawn sweater would have been lovely, this version is probably more flattering on me, as that fawn colour isn't so great next to my face. This skirt doesn't quite go with the tartan wool skirt you see here, but it will go with jeans and olive khakis. I just had to have something to pair the sweater with that would go on my dress form. 

I have 88 grams of the fawn left, and 10 grams of the Patons Kroy variegated. I'm thinking socks, but not this year, as that alpaca yarn has left me a little too battle scarred to work with it again for the time being.