Humblebee Gifts

 

 Another school year has finished and I found myself in the need of teacher gifts. We like to do a small gift as a 'thank you' to teachers we found to be especially helpful. Henry had two reading teachers that he saw three times a week. They worked with him outside of the classroom to get him more comfortable with reading out loud and word pronunciation. They each got a soap and lip balm from The Humblebee and a knitted leaf washcloth.

The Humblebee is an Etsy shop run by the wonderful and kind Danielle. Her soap, lip balm, and shampoo are all natural and all homemade. I love the soap so much because my super special skin does not break out from it and actually feels good after using it. The lip balm is great and once it is on you forget that it is there.

She is on vacation until the 17th, but I highly recommend her stuff. Oh! She makes fantastic rugs, too. They are made out of t-shirts. I have one in my bathroom and I love it. So easy to take care of. Plus, Danielle is right on top of shipping. Seriously, these things got to me so quickly which makes me super happy since I have zero patience for waiting on goodies.You can find her Etsy shop HERE and her blog HERE.

 My sister-in-law, Kaye, had a birthday recently and I did up a gift bag for her. Soap, lip balm, and shampoo from The Humblebee and three leaf washcloths. I knitted the washcloths with an organic cotton that I found on Etsy. It is undyed and I got six washcloths out of it and still have some leftover. I found it at Thoughtful Gems and you can check them out HERE.

 While getting together teacher and birthday gifts my friend wrote on Facebook how she was losing her hair from chemo treatments. I decided to send her a little care package that included soap, shampoo, and lip balm from The Humblebee. I figured that the unscented soap and shampoo would be easy on her senses. I remember that warning from taking my mom to see her oncologist, no perfumes!

I also knitted a hat for her to wear during the summer months. Irene is modeling it in the picture.

 It is the All Day Beret by Debbie Stoller. The pattern has been saved in my favorites on Ravelry for the last two years and I am so glad to have finally made it. Easy hat to knit! It looks great, too. I decided against blocking it though. If it was for me I definitely would have, but I wanted to make sure it would fit my friend. I have reasons for not blocking it, but they seem a bit convoluted and strange right now.

The Leafy Washcloth pattern can be found on Ravelry by clicking HERE. The All Day Beret can also be found on Ravelry by clicking this one HERE.

I forgot to take pictures of the main teachers gifts. They each got a stained-glass flower in a flowerpot from Gala Gardens on Etsy. I thought these were cute and perfect gifts. I want one of the larger ones for my window! I had a great shopping experience there. The flowers were well wrapped and shipped out quickly. Check out Gala Gardens by clicking HERE!

Perla

 I recently finished knitting Perla by Joji Locatelli. The pattern was gifted to me for Christmas in 2012 by a fellow LSG member. The yarn is Encore Worsted from Plymouth Yarn Company. Yes, it took me a long time to knit it. I took a very long break last summer after knitting the body. In the last month and a half I decided to push through and get the sleeves and neckline finished.

My pictures are horrible and do not show the sweater well at all. There is a lot of sweater there and it will be great for when the weather is colder. Unfortunately, I am not happy with the way my sleeves came out and the edges roll even after an aggressive blocking. Still, I have a bit of pride that it is finished and that 'hey, I made this' need to show off.

In 2012 LSG started a December-only thread for the Fairy Hoar Mother. There you can semi-anonymously gift patterns or other items to members of LSG or any Ravelry  member. Fairy Hoar Mother did so well in 2012 that it was revived for December 2013 as well. It's a nice little feel-good at Christmastime thread.