Back on track with Christmas gift making

I am back on track with the Christmas gifts, customizing reusable canvas tote bags with the cutest crochet creations I can find. I am rather pleased with this sunflower for my son's teacher. My flower is adapted from a Quarter Sunflower Square by Suvi on Ravelry which was itself adapted from another pattern The Crocodile Flower by Joyce Lewis.....

Last month I followed Vicky Howell's advice to "think small, go big" hooking up a flurry of scarfs and cowls in chunky yarn from my stash for family and friends in the UK. Then I got a little off task with other crochet projects and life in general. Getting side-tracked is inevitable so that's why it's best to start your Christmas crafting very early.

Since I cannot resist a challenge I HAD to crochet a cardigan for National Crochet Cardigan Month responding to a call from a new Ravelry group I've joined Crochet on Ravelry which has almost 27,000 members. Wow! I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed the group before. ON a sidenote, I wonder how many fellow yarn lovers have found themselves sucked down the rabbit hole of pleasant Ravelry diversions?

Of course, given my penchant for granny squares, my cardigan choice was the Granny shrug by Kirsty of KooToYoo cleverly constructed from two granny hexagons. Easy, quick and size as you go - my kind of pattern! I didn't even have time to block it before it's first outing. Anyway, time to go. My poinsettia petals are calling me...

Christmas gift-making frenzy

Oh yes, it's time to begin the gift-making frenzy in earnest with just 10 weeks until Christmas and considerably less if your family lives in a different country like us! I started out slowly last month with these amazing baubles by Kate on her Greedy for Colour blog. Check out her christmas crochet bauble tutorial. And I've been playing with the pattern, as you do, making variations for multi-color and school spirit color versions, reducing rows for thicker yarn, changing the decrease a little... Of course I am using materials from my yarn stash. The silver thread is hopelessly tangled as often happens with metallic types but this is part of the process untangling it when I need another bauble top. Craft is meant to be slow and meditative IMHO.

And my daughter has, as of this summer, found her craft and learnt to operate a sewing machine. Yay! So I have been scouring Pinterest looking for inspiration for her too. She has seven teachers in middle school so I'm thinking a gift from her will be far more meaningful to them and far less stressful for me. I think we have decided on customizing canvas tote bags along the lines of the Notepad Tote from Liz Stanley on her Say Yes blog. Everyone needs a reusable bag, surely!

I just discovered Ask Me Monday videos by creative entrepreneur Vickie Howell on Facebook. Video #10 is timed to perfection with tips on successful holiday gift-making. I particularly like the advice to "think small, go big" using larger gauge on-trend yarns. Genius! I'm off to search my stash for chunky yarn...

Holiday projects - part 1

Every summer we travel back to the UK to visit family and friends and the quandary of what yarn and projects to take begins. I pack my clothes in less than an hour but the craft packing takes many days. I settled on a small project bag with the essentials and more trunk show gorgeous Anzula For Better or Worsted yarn: thicker, in blue and lilac blends and two patterns for crochet tops. My extremely pointy scissors went in my checked baggage in my large Cath Kidston project bag with two more projects and a pair of my children's green-handled craft scissors in the smaller project bag.

Realized that I didn't have enough yarn to make a top (note to self: buy matching skeins not small quantities of different skiens!) Eventually I settle on making a cute French style beret for my mum finding the pattern on Ravelry searching by yarn weight and type: Bloom Beret and Cap by Brittney Waterhouse.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/in-bloom-beret-and-cap

Many many snowmen

These are the Christmas gift for 2014. Have made ten of these, maybe more!! 

Found the pattern on www.dappertoad.com