Workroom #122 ~ Handcrafted gifts: Stockings, bags & more

Every year I plan that I will start Christmas making in July. To be all finished with gifts in plenty of time before the actual holiday. I even quit teaching motorcycle safety to have more time. I am still behind with the holiday season rapidly approaching. I find myself working on projects to the exclusion of taking time out to share progress notes. This is frustrating, because I miss sharing with you and hearing your progress stories.

Beth’s Christmas stockings

My sister asked for two new Christmas stockings for her two newest grand babies. I was hoping to have them done in time to give them to her for her birthday. I would have made the deadline if I hadn’t kept trying to put the “R” on the blue stocking. It had to be cut out twice. Which used up the white fuzzy yarn. Good thing I had an ample stash for back up! It just wasn’t fuzzy yarn. 🙁 It is funny that Orla fits into her stocking…now. I’m not so sure how it will go over with everyone else at Christmas time. There will be two stockings large enough to fit Bigfoot’s feet and all other stockings are regular size. This really brought home the importance of including all the info on project sheets, especially what needle size I used. (Pattern I have used before)

Produce Bags

Why produce bags? Well… for many years now there has been a group of people that meet every Wednesday from 6-8pm. It originated long before I was involved and was conceived as “Knit Night”. People and come and gone over the years and the meeting place has also changed. One thing that has remained consistent is gift giving for birthdays and Christmas. Each year, I try and come up with something that might be useful. This year it is produce bags.

Max’s

This produce bag turned out as I had envisioned. The rainbow crochet thread lasted for a majority of the bag. Only the edges and handles needing to be worked in an alternate color. I loved this dark blue. What color would you have used?

Sandee’s

For Sandee’s birthday she received a plant.

I was on track to finish her lovely lavender produce bag and then… the universe was against me. I dropped a couple of stitches that quickly got away in this lacy k2tog/yo pattern. I spent several hours tinking back to a good point. Only to have my dog snuggle on top of this project. When I pulled it out from under her, many stitches escaped from the needles. They quickly ran down multiple rows. Once I caught my breath, I frogged back to the base of the bag. I just wasn’t able to get it finished in time. Sandee was very gracious and understanding.

Hannah’s Birthday Pants

Recently while thrifting, I came across a couple pairs of loose fitting, flowy, Boho type pants in my daughter-in-law’s size. She love-loved them! When I found a pattern for wrap around pants, I knew I had a plan for her birthday gift. After talking with her about colors that she likes, I got a rayon print and a solid yellow linen. They both drape beautifully. The rayon was slippery and had to be pinned carefully. The linen was a dream to sew on! She loves both pairs.

Christmas Mittens

Mittens are one of the gifts planned for the grandchildren this year. As per usual there is knitting, tinking, knitting, frogging, and the consideration of changing choice of pattern. I started with A’s mittens. They were WAY TOO BIG. I will have to get a different pattern for her little hands.

Next I started on E’s mittens. Everything was going super. Until I remembered that he’d asked for blue and not his usual favorite color of red, frogging resulted.

After completion of the first blue mitten, there was discussion. The hand part looked SUPER long. I tried it on my hand. It was only a little bit small, so I sewed it up and hid it away. When they came over last Friday, I traced one of each of their hands. YUP! It was too long. Almost 2 inches two long. I was frustrated that I’d done such a good job at hiding the ends when sewing it up. I carefully un-sewed the seam and frogged the mitten.

I will start again soon. After all, I have plenty of time before Christmas…right? Are you working on Christmas gifts yet? I’d love to hear from you on how your plans/projects are going.