Christmas Makes

Now that Christmas Day has been and gone, I can show you the things I made this year for presents.  There's only one more to be delivered, but I don't think she looks at my blog so it shouldn't be a problem.

This is what I made for my sister :-

Annis

I used hand-spun merino and silk, hand-painted with acid dyes.  The knitting caused me a lot of grief initially.  For this pattern, the outside edge is the cast on edge, so I had about 320 stitches - normally not a problem, but I didn't have the right size circular needle so I used ordinary knitting needles.  The problem was, if I made a mistake I couldn't see where it was and ended up pulling it back quite a way each time.  Eventually, I had to cut the wool and start again with fresh because it was becoming quite ragged.  A lesson learned - always make sure you have the right needles before starting!

Next I made some knitted cowls (Thermis), this time using a hand-dyed merino/alpaca mix with a bit of angelina sparkle added.

This one was for me (just to try the pattern out, you understand) :-

I used some hand-spun baby merino wool that I'd dyed with woad, and it's super-soft round your neck.

Some people received apricot and orange chutney (really nice) and jars of mincemeat (not easy to get here), and I made a whole heap of these :-

Hand-felted soaps

These were such a lot of fun to make, I can see myself making lots more in the future.

I was a bit late starting my presents this year, so not everyone received something hand-made.  Must do better next year!!  (I say that every year)