Christmas Gift Round-Up

 So today it's back to reality.  Christmas break is over, the kids are back at school, this is the husband's 3rd day back at work, and I guess it's time for me to get busy, too.  Getting back to real life is a rude awakening after 20 days of letting things get so out-of-hand that you find yourself happily knitting and watching old re=runs of "Family Ties" at 2am, but all good things must end, right?  So today I'm back to it: working on finishing up a sample sweater for a women's cardigan that I'm writing, and doing a little blog post to share pictures of some of the handmade gifts I gave this Christmas!

We've always made it a "thing" at our house that we let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.  When they were little, it was always new pajamas.  They caught on to that a few years ago, so I switched it up and sometimes gave them new books that they could read at bedtime.  This year, I granted a wish that my daughter has been requesting for at least a year now - a pair of felted clogs.  

I think these are the 7th and 8th pair that I've made.  My daughter has watched my husband and I wear them for a couple years now and always wanted them, but half our house is hardwood floors, and the living room in the middle of the house has a step down, plus we have wooden basement steps.  I had visions of my kids sliding into walls, falling down stairs, or just general mayhem if I gave them these slippers because the floors are slick, these slippers are even slicker, and my kids can occasionally still be maniacs when they're playing.

Recently though, I've noticed a little more maturity coming from both of them, and I thought they might be able to handle slick slippers with a little bit of caution.  I knew my daughter would be excited about them, but I wasn't sure about my 12-year-old son because he's the sort of "person with plenty of body heat" who tends to strut around the house in just his boxers unless specifically asked to get dressed.  Imagine my surprise when he opened them, got a big smile on his face, and started ice skating around the dining room in his boxers...and new slippers.  My daughter was equally as thrilled and wears hers all the time.  I think I got mom points from both kids for this one! 

Here's the honey cowl I gave sneak peeks of on my Facebook business page:  This was made for a friend who belongs to my mom's group.  We do a Secret Santa exchange each year, and so far, I've always handmade something for the person I'm playing Santa for.  We do it for 4 weeks: Week 1 is supposed to be a homemade gift, Week 2 is something that costs $1 (typically, we tear up the dollar bins at Target & Michaels searching for this gift, but this year I found a rubber wine bottle corker that only cost $1.50, so I decided that counted!), Week 3 is a $5 gift and Week 4 is our cookie exchange and the night we get together to reveal ourselves and give the "big gift" (supposed to be around $10, but people tend to go a little higher on that last gift.)

In the past, I've made the mistake of giving the knitted thing as my handmade item in week 1 and totally giving myself away (I'm one of two known knitters in the group, and the other person isn't as constant about the craft as I).  So this year I gave some homemade Turtle candies during week 1 (made by my neighbor, not me, but that still counts, right?) and I saved this cowl for the big gift.  Unfortunately, my giftee wasn't able to attend that night so I didn't get to see her open it.  Hopefully she liked it - I know her favorite color is red, so I know I got that right, and I know it will look great on her, but I don't know if it's something she's comfortable wearing.  So, fingers crossed, I hope she liked it!

 But the disappointment over not being able to see my friend open her gift was more than made up for by the reaction of this little lady.  I made my niece a Harry Potter scarf & hat set.  Before she opened it, I told her, "I made this special for you and it's the only one in the WHOLE WORLD."  She opened the box, looked a little confused for a moment, then the lightbulb came on.  She had it on in an instant and was mugging for the cameras.  I think I need to recruit her as a future model.

Anyway, the scarf and the hat are both double-knit.  I think I've already posted about the scarf on the blog, so I won't go into detail about that, and I just made up the hat as I went along.  I'm still going back and forth on whether to actually make a pattern for it...I haven't taken a look to see if a similar pattern already exists, and I don't know if there is much of a demand for a simple, double-knit, funky-style hat.  Decisions, decisions....

As I was setting down my camera, I caught this last picture:




So that's just about it....I do have one more thing to show you, but I'm not quite ready, so it'll have to wait until later this week.

I hope your holiday was fun & relaxing and filled with everything that you love.  Even if it's something weird like knitting and watching "Family Ties" at 2am!