Cushion

Unlike last year I haven't home-made much for Christmas this year. But I did make this cushion cover for my sister to match her newly decorated living room. I invented the pattern myself and was very relieved that it worked as I only finished it two days before Christmas!

Classic Crochet

As part of home-made Christmas my sister found my stepmum a beautiful folder of vintage knitting patterns. Debbie already had this crochet book so donated it to me


I decided to make this stylish tie.



And here is Emerson modelling it beautifully





I also submitted it to the wonderful Helen Zaltzman's collection of #shitgift tweets. You can read the whole joyous collection here

Blanket

For my Dad and Step-Mum I made a granny square blanket. I love the colours and I like the way the different patterns worked out together. I couldn't decide how to edge it but the good people of twitter helped me decide and I went for red grannny stripe, brown granny stripe and then a red single crochet to finish. And I also enjoy the badly posed photos :-)

Scarves

Here are Jennie and Jonathan in their scarves. Jonathan's was extra thick and chunky thanks to the front-post back-post rib stitch. I didn't follow a pattern and it was almost too chunky and solid but someone at Stitch Balham taught me the trick of soaking it in cheap hair conditioner to make it wearable. For Jennie's I followed a ravelry pattern and really like the flower drops.





Everyone in their crocheted gifts on Christmas morning.

Handwarmers

I made these handwarmers for my step-sister-in-law-to-be Laura on a train from Edinburgh to London. I sort of invented the pattern myself from what I could remember of a similar one on Ravelry. I really like the ribbing on the cuffs (back-loop-only dontcha know) and was pleased how it turned out overall. I was even more amazed that I managed to make the second one the same!

Beanie hat

This is the beanie I made for my step-brother-in-law (?) Roger. I was struggling to think of manly crochet but then I saw this tutorial from Mikey. Mikey taught me to crochet when I was first starting out and his slip knot is the best I've ever seen. If you fancy learning I found YouTube videos much easier than books and his are a great place to start. I used one strand of light and one of dark grey at the same time to get the mottled effect. It also makes the hat really thick and warm. Although I'm still rubbish at crocheting in rounds I was pretty happy with the end result.

Snood

So last November I fell down a step in my flat and did the ligaments in my ankle in. Six weeks later I'm still on a crutch and may plans of finishing my Capital Ring walk in 2011 are long gone. But It did mean I had lots of sitting around time to finish my families home-made Christmas gifts. This snood that I made for my sister is one of my favourites. And was actually started and mostly completed while waiting in casualty to see if I'd broken any bones. Fortunately both me and the snood turned out ok in the end.

Home-made Christmas

This year my sister and step-sister decided we'd do a home-made Christmas. Which is a lovely idea but did mean whenever you spoke to any of us in December there was to lots of muttering and swearing and general stress over "bloody home-made Christmas". But as you can see from the photo above it led to a beautiful Christmas day and some of the nicest, most memorable presents I've ever given or received. And lots of sloe gin and home-made liqueur which can only be a good thing. I will post about the crocheted gifts I gave over the next few weeks but above are a selection of gifts I received. Including the most beautiful blanket from my step-sister Jennie, some jam and chutney from my Step-Mum and the bird feeder from my Dad, who had to buy a workmate to rise to the home-made challenge. The bag to the left of the picture was had stitched by my sister to keep my crochet hooks in and is one of my favourite things ever.

I had a fabulous extended Christmas this year with lovely people and food and a road trip where we sang "Driving Home for Christmas" and gifts and a second dinner at my Sister's on the 28th where I also got a beautiful decoupatched box from my Mum (which I'll post a photo of later).

This photo possibly sums it up best. Made from the muffin mix jar Jennie gave me (seen above), sprayed gold with the magic sugar spray from Santa, made in Cheltenham with my boyfriend at the second Christmas, to be given out to visiting friends and family. Joy on a plate.