Crafts for Christmas Gifts

I told myself last year that I was going to give myself a break from making Christmas gifts in 2014 after the sock avalanche of Christmas 2013. You know what? I lied to myself and I ended up making a lot of last minute gifts. My hands didn't appreciate it, but people liked them!

For a bunch of folks I made some quilted pot holders:





I made 16 total pot holders to give for Christmas. My sewing machine started acting up toward the end, so there was some struggling, but I managed to make things work until I could finish these. Ended up finishing the binding by hand, though, because I'm not good at machine binding yet, and that took ages.



And then as a last minute addition to some things for my brothers, I crocheted these washcloths up:



These two cloths were done using the Seeing Squares Dishcloth pattern.



And these two cloths were done using the Three Color Simple Stitch Dishcloth pattern.

Both were made with Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Stone and Lime. They were nice, simple crochet patterns that were quick to get through and look nice. I'm glad I managed to fit them into the few days left before Christmas.


It was nice to do some crocheting. I've been a pretty steady knitter for the past couple of years, but my roots are in crocheting. It was very comfortable slipping back into that mode and I think I'm going to look for some crochet projects to add to my queue.


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Monster Chunks, Chubby Chirps, and Sock Ornaments

And some more gifts! These were the gifts I gave to my friends and to my friend's kids.


Pattern: Monster Chunks
Needles: US 2 - 2.75 mm
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Muffin in White/Turquoise/Grey, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Brown, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Light Green



I made these for Eddie, who's about 2 and half, now. He was pretty thrilled with these little guys. I made them small enough that he could stick them in toy tractors and trucks and things. Or just chuck 'em around. Whatever. He's two.




Pattern: Chubby-Chirps
Needles: US 5 - 3.75 mm
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Muffin in White/Turquoise/Grey, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Brown, Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle Light Green



And I made this for Elliot, who is now 9-ish months old. This guy's about as big as a fat pear, which big enough for Elliot to grab and squish. He was a bit preoccupied with chewing on the box I wrapped it in because he's teething, but Brandy thought it was fun, so that's enough for me.




And these are the little gift boxes I made up for some of my friends:




1 mini-sock ornament, 1 paper ruler, and 1 card to be redeemed for a pair of custom socks. I really enjoyed making those little sock ornaments, so I'm thinking about making those throughout the year to put up on the Etsy shop next season.



BONUS:

I almost forgot about this! I wasn't quite sure what to give my mom for Christmas, but I worked on some handspun in August that turned out to be in some of my mom's favourite colours.


I call it "Night Bus" because my mom's a huge Harry Potter nerd.

Christmas 2013 - Gifts Received

I still live at home with my parents and 1.5 of my younger brothers (one’s away at college half of the year) and when Thanksgiving starts creeping up, my mom starts poking us to give her lists of things we want/need for Christmas. I love my mom and I love that my parents still want to get us a bunch of stuff for Christmas, but it’s getting harder for us to sort these lists out as we get older.

I mean, I throw most of my paychecks into car insurance and gas and student loan bills, but I’m lucky enough to have disposable income while I’m living at home. My parents don’t ask for rent and still buy food for me because my work schedule coincides with their schedule. As long as I help out around the house, play chauffer for my brothers on occasion, am actively working, and am putting extra cash towards those damn loans, my paychecks are for my savings and yarn habits and Netflix and whatever. Which I really appreciate.
So my lists for the past couple of years have been kind of haphazard and vague and rushed at the last minute as my mom stands outside of my bedroom door with her hand held out impatiently, helpfully listing things like:

- Books
- Legos
- This One Specific T-shirt I Saw One Time That Made Me Laugh

This year, I added one more thing to the list that I had debated asking for the past couple of years. My parents and I had talked about me getting one of these while I was still in college, but we only did some quick research and my parents didn't have the money and we agreed that there was no place to keep this thing.

And then my sister moved out and freed up the master bedroom upstairs for storage and crafts. And I thought about buying it myself. I really did. But I found a model that was about half of the price of the other models my parents and I had looked at before and there was that room and I know my parents really like it when I ask for stuff like this because they love to learn about this stuff without having to invest the awkward, stilted learning time themselves. So, I added this thing to the list and it was the first thing I unwrapped:

Not yet assembled.

ASHFORD KIWI 2: FULLY ASSEMBLED AND READY FOR SMOOTH, HOT SPINNING ACTION.

I mean, really. She’s such a pretty lady. I’ve spun about 70 yrds of green/blue two-ply on her and she’s a dream (you’ll see the roving later in this post). She’s currently crammed into a corner of my room, but as soon as Christmas is boxed back into the attic, she’ll be moved up stairs where she won’t be so crowded and I can spin everything. And I could go on about her for days. I’ve already bored some coworkers to tears and shown them photos of the quickest handspun I’ve ever done, but let’s look at my other treats. This blog will get real boring if I just natter on about the Kiwi.

Mom sewed me Star Trek pajamas! Mostly as a snub because when I was little I told her I would never watch Star Trek because there’s too many and it was boring. I didn’t have the attention span for Trek then and I always ended up watching episodes starting at the middle. Netflix has, of course, solved all my problems with Star Trek.

Christmas Snoopy T-shirt. All four of us kids got Christmas t-shirts.

HAWKGUY. Dude, this comic. I mean, it’s put comics on the map for me. It’s a huge part of the reason why I bought a tablet. So I was pretty excited to get this shirt.

Sibling gifts! The smelly candle is from Pickleface, the Eternal Scout patch is from Stovetop, and the Teavana thermos and cannister are from The Gabbers. The canister is empty, but that’s because there were so many tea choices and she didn’t know what I’d want that big canister full of. Luckily, there’s a Teavana shop in a mall on my way home from work, so I’ll be stopping there on my way home sometime for fancy loose leaf.

A book and a super awesome game!

Froud book! I think I’ve nearly got them all, now.

A sweet Stark hoodie with this on the back.

A case and a few new colors for my collection of embroidery thread. All the colors in the left-most two columns were gifts.

Goodies from the stocking! Candy, roving, an LED flashlight, and a cool lucet thingy that mom and I saw at Stitches East.

LEGOS. And here’s some photos of the construction. Which was done in my spinning wheel box so I didn’t loose the little studs.

And that was Christmas! Up next will either be crafts or the start of my finished Christmas gifts that I gave to my family.