Christmas knitting and Christmas gifts

December 5th

 

Today is Day 5 of posting everyday leading up to Christmas Eve, where I share my love of a homemade Christmas and hope to sprinkle some of that joy your way.  Hope you can pop back with a coffee or wine to hand and join me, I love to have company and a good natter. 

I love all sorts of wreaths and think they look great at any time of the year.  This year I decided to try a shape other than a circle and found a polystyrene heart shape.  So out came the dpn, these are my absolute favourite needles and I panic if I drop one!   I cast on 5 stiches on each of the needles, twenty in all.  There was not a pattern 'out there' so I just knitted knowing I wanted it to be traditionally Scandinavian looking to fit in with my home décor and designed small Christmas like images to fit within the limit of stitches I had.  Again, I forgot as I turned the heart corners that my design would be upside down, so I had to frog a bit and change the design and knit it upside down so it turned the right way up. Does that make sense?

It was all trial and error

At this point I realised I needed to think about
the orientation of the designs to sit the correct way up

Almost done, just stitching together

Front door

I love setting the table and even when it's just the four of us I have often used place names. Many many years ago I made felted named heart coaster cum place names that are now beginning to look tired. So out came the knitting needles, those who know me realise I prefer crochet but that I set myself the challenge this year to knit more and do you know what, I have! Onto the knitted place names...

Basically I knitted mini hats that fit snugly over our drinking glasses, one for each of us in the family. I'm sure these will come out year on year. I'm looking forward to using them for the first time this weekend. I can just picture my husband's face when he spots them!

These were very quick to knit up. I originally saw the idea in a Norwegian magazine but couldn't find it when it came to making them   So my version of these hat place names is:

Cast on 52 divided onto the four dpn, so 13 stitches on each. 

Knit four rows in chosen main colour.

Then knit including any pattern of your choice till the hat measures about 12-14cm long.  Cast off. Thread needle and use cast off thread to thread through each stitch and pull gently so it all comes together and fasten. 

This was my main pattern and then added little flecks
of the opposite colour here and there

Make a pompon and attach at the top 

Roll up the hats with enough space to embroider name. 

Place on a glass and set the table.

I think these will look great on the table

I'm not a glove or mitten person although I always think I am. I love the idea of them and always begin by wearing a pair but quickly my hands become too warm and I have to pull them off.  But I do tend to get cold on my wrists where the air seeps up the coat sleeve, remedy, wrist warmers. And what a quick great gift these make.  

Wrist warmers peeking through

I pulled up my coat sleeve so you could see

All you need to do is:

Cast on enough stitches to comfortable fit along your wrist line, I added a couple of extra for measure.

K2 P2 for 8 rows then begin on pattern for the desired length of your wrist warmers minus the last eight rows which will be rib again.  I played around with the design, having a Christmas tree on the front and random pattern on the back.  You could of course for speed, just knit them plain.

K2 P2 for 8 rows and cast off

Make two!

I've also turned my hand to knitted glass holders and mobile phone holders. Again in Scandinavian red and white and again a quick make gift. 

I revisited one of my favourite knitting books, Nordic knit.  And decided this time to make the toilet roll holder in Christmas colours to sit along side my grey one made earlier in the year. I think the little toilet room is beginning to look rather festive, don't you?

In Norway this year there has been a craze in making cotton yarn dish cloths and facecloths. There is even a dedicated Facebook page for patterns. (Bittamis kleuter) You wouldn't believe how many there are. Mamma has made so many this year and I have made a few. Here you see some in Christmas green and red. These too would make great gifts with soap. I love the fact many of the designs incorporate a hole so they can be hung up. 

I've not been big on following pattern in my Christmas knitting but really wanted to make a hot water bottle  cover. I am sure there are patterns out there but for some reason I didn't look. Here is my version. I won't share my pattern as you can see it's a very snug fit so needs some adjusting but I wanted to include it here to show you yet another quick make that U.S. Effective and adds to the Christmas decor in our bedroom. We need a little bit of red everywhere in the house at this time of year, right?

Cosy hot water bottle adds the necessary touch of red

Did I mention I like red at Christmas? I wear a lot of black and it needs a lift do I don't look like a goth,  here such a simple and quick idea and I've that is often commented on, a thin knitted loop. I cast in 20 and just knitted in various scrap yarns and simple strip/dotty patterns until the loop was approximately 60cm in circumference.

 

Neck warmer and dash of colour

A very quick make, I have had so much use out of this already

 

♥  Happy Christmas knitting 

~ are you making anything this Christmas?  ♥

 

 I'm linking in today with Jennifer at Thistlebear and her winter project post. 

Pop over and see all the lovely makes that are taking place around the world.