Workbasket - After Christmas * On Pens & Needles

It has been a long time and I have missed you all. Every spare moment, I was working on Christmas gifts. Even going so far as taking time off work. It seems like projects always take 2+ times more time than I think it will to complete.

Part of the extended project time was because making candies used much of the time that I imagined I was going to use to finish my knitting projects. That being said, the fruitcake and candies turned out really nice. My favorite was the salted caramels and Irish cream marshmallows.

Let me back up a bit and catch you up.

Finished:

Gdau’s Stocking – New grand baby needed a Christmas stocking.
LK’s Stocking – With a name change, I wanted to surprise with new Christmas stocking. Both of these stockings had to be done before Thanksgiving because I wanted to make a gift of them after Thanksgiving dinner. Rather like a kicking off of the Christmas season.
BT’s quilt – I have blogged about this quilt. It was fun to surprise her with it.
Gson#1’s letter sweater – With 3 days left to go, it was into the “sewing room” to use the knitting machine. The pieces were knit flat and then seamed together. The letters were added after in a duplicate stitch

Unfinished:

Gson#2’s letter sweater – (not the same LK as above) I have finished this. I finished it on Christmas eve, while surrounded by dinner guests. I had given up finishing it, deciding to finish it Christmas day. Quietly I took him aside and asked him, would it “be ok to finish it tomorrow? He responded, “you can just finish it now and I can take it home”. (lol) I did get it done. When he tried it on, the neck hole edge was too tight. I ended up getting them both back and fixing the neck edges.
HK’s HP blanket – This did not get done. I had to set it aside to get the letter sweaters finished. The words were done being embroidered on Christmas day. I realized that this one turned out noticeably larger than the previous one. I would have to order another full size foam core board. Not liking the way the letter embroidery of names on the clock arms, they were carefully picked off. After trying several different “threads”. Finally deciding on size 10 crochet cotton. Embroidering in a chain stitch and using both upper and lower case letters. Of course a 5th clock arm was added.
LB’s birthday shrug – This project has returned to WIP status.
DW’s stocking – The idea to make this was definitely last minute. It did not get finished. I will save this surprise for next year (meaning that I will finish it soon and just have it to gift next year) 😉