Made with love

Christmas gift making    
December 11th  

London skyline in crochet

To me, Christmas is more about giving than receiving I so enjoy making my presents but life does not always allow us the luxury of time to do such things.  So with this in mind, I actually began making Christmas gifts soon after the summer holidays to avoid that mad rush of anxiety and despair.

Great pattern and design by Millie

I read recently that someone, I forget who now, unfortunately, had also run out of time in knitting the second sock for a gift for her father and decided staying up all night on Christmas Eve was perhaps not sensible bearing in mind she still may not have finished the second sock.  I can sympathise with her, I often suffer from second sock syndrome.  Instead, this clever lady caringly wrapped up the single sock with an IOU attached to the lone sock saying that in the new year it would receive its mate.  Apparently, this made the fathers Christmas, he laughed so much and promptly put on the single sock and hopped around all day laughing and giggling to himself.  What a wonderful gift that was.

I have not had my 'designing' hat on of late and so all my presents this year come from other wonderfully talented people whose patterns I have been grateful for.  There was not one thing I did not enjoy making, and all I would make again, well actually some I have made several of already, let me show you.

From the wonderful book by Mille Masterton, I
have made the London skyline cushion, the soldier egg cosy, two of them and another London red bus ornament, I made one last year and it was so well received I decided to make two more this year.  The patterns in this book are easy to follow and many very original.  I am so pleased to have this book on my shelf.  I am sure the recipients will be delighted.

Bearskin soldier egg cosy in crochet

See the egg fits snugly inside!

Red London bus Christmas bauble

For those of you who have followed the blog for the last 4 years, time flies, it really does, you may recall my husband has begun to despair at the alarming rate of newly knitted or crocheted items that find their way into our home.  He keeps saying could I not make something more useful! Cheek of it, I knitted him a jumper for his 50th, what more could a man want from his wife (hehehe)

So I put my thinking cap on and decided the most useful thing I could make him would be some plants that cannot be killed either by neglect or by overwatering.  This is where film and theatre come into it...

John along with the children loves the Guardian of the Galaxy films and I wondered if I could make him his very own Groot, I sat and thought about it and wondered where I would begin with pattern design when I decided to google make your own Groot and do you know what, there seems to be a pattern for everything out there already, so lo and behold there was a crochet Groot pattern already in existence.  I can honestly say I was really relieved, I'm not in the design frame of mind of late...  So may I present to you ...Groot...

Still needs a few leaves and eye
but this will be Groot

Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy

So in case this has inspired you to make your own, here is the pattern:  Groot

Not satisfied with just Groot, I thought about John's all-time favourite theatre production, The Book of Mormons and quickly ruled out anything possible to make from that and came upon his second favourite production, Little Shop of Horrors and of course, there is the man-eating plant, Audrey.  Would it not be great if I could locate an Audrey pattern too.  But to my utter shock and dismay, there was no Audrey pattern to be found.  I thought I would have to give up on the idea and began making other people's presents.  After about 2-3 weeks of my initial idea, up popped a plea for pattern testers for a crocheted Audrey pattern.  You have never ever seen my fingers dance so quickly over the keyboard to try and be one of the first to respond hopefully ensuring I would be picked to pattern test and YES! I was picked.  A fiddly pattern but easy to follow, I am forever grateful to Louie for designing Audrey and for letting me pattern test.  I cannot give you the pattern but I am sure he will make it available soon, should you ever need an Audrey in your life!  I cannot wait to give these to John and watch his reaction!

Audrey, I was lucky to
be a pattern tester

Audrey, the man-eating plant from
the musical Little Shop of Horrors

Many of you will know I am a fan of the monthly box subscription that is Little Box of Crochet and a couple of months ago they included a slipper pattern.  I tend to keep these boxes for when I am travelling or going to be away from home as everything you possibly will need to make the project is inside the neat well constructed sturdy box EXCEPT scissors.  It means when packing I do not have to fret about finding all the things I may need for my crochet project, I just pick up a box and a pair of scissors and I'm away.  Easy as that.

The patern is a dream and so cleverly constructed and works up uber fsat, a bonus when you have many things to make.  I had intended to only make the pair that came with the box, but soon relasied what a gem of a pattern this was and made another two pairs.  So three presents made from one pattern.  Bargin!  And after Christmas, I shall be making a pair for myself too.

The slipper on the right was the yarn that came in the box.

I've had this drops yarn for ages and it was just waiting for
the right pattern to come along.
I love how the colours flow into each other.

The teapot cosy was actually the first Christmas present I made this year, again another genius pattern from the Little box of Crochet.  I was a fool with this and have not crocheted for almost 6 months sat down to make this whilst in Norway attending my aunts funeral.  My mind must not have been fully on it as I made a HUGE error which I only discovered once the whole blasted thing was finished.  It was thrown into the naughty corner for THREE months until just last week I felt I had to rectify the problem.  Do you ever experience it when the thought of something puts you off doing it but when you actually get down to it it's not as hard as you feared?  Well, that's what happened here and I cannot believe I waited so long with this heaviness sitting over me, I should have just plunged straight in and sorted it out earlier!  Will I ever learn?

A crocheted frilly flowery teapot cosy

Where do I get my energy from and this need and absolute drive to have to make and create, my mother and my mother's mother for sure.  Mamma has not been well this year yet despite that and all that she has had to endure, she has knitted and knitted and knitted.  Just look at these hats she has made only in the past few weeks for Christmas.  There are some very lucky soon to be recipients out there...

Mamma's knitted hats mainly from Fru Soleng

And it's not all been crochet, there's been some glass fusing too, such a fun medium and you never really know how things will turn out when you open the kiln the next day...

Glass fused robin

Snowflake baubles

Glass fused Christmas baubles

If you are short on time but really want to give a homemade present, pop 

over and read about  Ella's idea such a lovely thoughtful gift.  

♥  Do you make any presents for Christmas?