Crafted Christmas

Hello readers

I hope you’re all feeling rested and have had an enjoyable festive time of mulled wine, mince pies and mellowness with your families and friends?

The decorations are (mostly) down, the wrapping paper and cards have been recycled and Christmas has been and gone for another year.  The frantic rush to shop for, buy and wrap presents; the food shop and then cooking the Christmas turkey is over for another year.  As Mags would say ‘And breathe .....’

I was wondering how many of you hand made presents this year, or in the past? Or who was given a hand made gift this year?  It doesn’t have to be knitted or crocheted but post your pics and comments below.  Let’s just share our beautifully made gifts.

I did quite a bit of my gift shopping at local craft fairs this year under the ‘shop local’ banner giving custom to local small business owners and crafters.  Whilst I didn’t by any means save money I supported the continuation of crafting skills and more traditional gifted goods. And because all of the items are hand made they are more labour and time intensive so cost more than a mass-produced item from abroad!  Only another crafter can appreciate this time and effort.

One of my crafted presents

I also made a few gifts, but not as many as I could have or should have because time didn’t permit. I’ll just have to start earlier for next year.

A completed chunky scarf

A work-in-progress

 

The scarves above are made with 4 strands of DK knitted together on a chunky needle and the effect is quite surprising.  The pink scarf uses a ball of Stylecraft Candy Swirl in Coconut Ice plus a ball each of the grey, white and pink.  The Candy Swirl gives the overall stripe effect. The blue scarf uses a ball of flecked green/navy/white/grey/mocha plus a ball each of grey, white and teal.

I know many of you have gone the extra mile and produced endless Christmas gifts from your hooks and needles because I have seen the final garments.  If you can, post your pics below, or send them to me and I’ll post them for you.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2018.