Getting Christmas Crafting Under Control (With a lot of Knitting!)

The Christmas Crafting pile is more in hand than my last update. I was feeling quite panicky about the amount I felt I needed to do. But after a solid week of solid work, I’m feeling much more in control!

The socks I mentioned last time are wrapped and ready for the recipient. I hope they like it – there’s nothing so nice as a well-received gift! Wrapping is the last thing on my list of things to do with presents: they’re not counted as complete until they’re all wrapped up.

Not wrapped but in the Done pile anyway is the drinks mitten.  I’m fairly happy with the way it turned out.

I just faked the colourwork pattern (as I’m sure you can tell…! It’s a little wonky, but never mind). The white dashes are added in duplicate stitch: I did two rounds of juggling three colours, and thought: forget this! As a bonus, none of the ends are woven in inside the mitt: this is more of a “novelty” gift than a “use every day” gift, so it won’t make the slightest bit of difference. It’s based on this pattern – the Ravelry project is here.

The plain hat I mentioned last time is my final “done” thing, but I won’t make you suffer through another photo of it!

Still in progress: 4/8

The mermaid snuggle sacks are almost done – I have done all the bodies, and just have two more tails to crochet on.  I think I can safely say I’m 2/3rds of the way done with that gift. I’ll pop on a movie this weekend and see if I can’t get them finished and blocked. This is the biggest chunk of Christmas crafting, so it would be really good to get sorted out.

I’ve bought yarn for the hat and have cast on. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash in Mocha, which is hardwearing, and lovely to work with. It’s only a hat: I can whip through it in no time, right? I was going to keep things simple and pick a pattern from this post, but instead I’ve been gripped by some kind of hysteria and have decided to design my own pattern instead.

I’ve charted the pattern, and am 1/4 of the way through the first repeat. All those stitch markers in the photo mark the repeat sections: it makes things a lot easier! I’ll need to complete at least the first repeat this weekend, so I have time to rip back in case it doesn’t turn out right! The deadline on this is the 14th.

Almost Started: 1/8

The baby thing is next on the list. The yarn has arrived, and I’ve swatched. I swear I never used novelty yarn before I had nieces. But it’s so… fun and washable, what can I do?

Doesn’t it just look like a ridiculous cloud?

The trouble is, I’ve been gripped by designing fever, and I’ve decided to make up the pattern. Why not! Knitting’s meant to be fun, and designing is fun. If it all goes pear-shaped, I can set aside Christmas crafting and just buy something cute. This is also “due” on the 14th (the baby isn’t due until January, but I want to have something to show at the baby shower!).