Busy, Busy, Busy

I missed posting last week because, like everyone else, I have been busy getting ready for the holidays ahead. Amazing when you think of all the preparation and then in a blink it is over.

Since I was a girl, I have been making homemade gifts for virtually everyone - much to some people's delight and other's chagrin. But I firmly believe that the time you spend in the making is time devoted to that giftee and I find that much more rewarding than pacing around Yorkdale trying to think of something to get - that they really don't need.

So, here is what I have been busy making (these are reference shots, not the real deal), so I am not really giving anything away. There is one thing I cannot share until after it is given, because it will be a dead giveaway.

How fun is this mustachio'd cowl - it is called Incognito and is free on Ravelry (actually a Knitty pattern) My son has already put in a request for one.

These pretty gloves were a quick and easy knit. I will make a few more pairs, since they only take a bit of yarn.

 This is Juliet - a sweater that I have already made twice before. My ma-in-law commented on one of mine, so I made her one. Her birthday is tomorrow, so I gave it to her on the weekend. She loved it.

And these wonderful gloves are a pattern from indigodragonfly.ca - a great website with wonderful homespun yarn. All there patterns are named after TV shows, or lines from movies. The yarn I used for the gifted pair was called "As God is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly" from WKRP in Cincinnati. (I got another skein called "Vicious Penguins" for myself.) Go and visit the website - you will have a nice giggle there.

Add to that two more pairs of socks and a dozen red kitchen dishcloths, which are perfect car knitting. They are little gifts and stocking stuffers. And a few zillion for myself to replace ones that are old enough to vote.

In amongst all these other projects has been very little hooking, which is not good, since I have pillows to finish. They may be wrapped un-assembled and then finished up early in the new year.
Not exactly an "urgent" item.

But not everyone has ignored their hooking. I received another finished photo-to-mat yesterday and have permission to share.

Here's the pic and the mat. I think she did an amazing job for a relatively new hooker. Don't you agree?

In case I am not back to do a post, let me wish all of you the happiest of holidays and a healthy and fun 2013.

Another Finised Photo-to-Mat

As soon as I finished posting this morning, in came another fabulous mat from the Photo-to-Mat course, this one from Campbellford.

What a wonderful way to commemorate friendships that endure. Janice (third from the left) said that this group has known one another "forever". This picture was taken a a get-together in Florida, and I think she did an amazing job capturing the essence of these ladies.

The only problem I can see with this mat is that she is going to have to hook it four more times - five if she wants to keep one for herself. LOL

What is extra special about this mat is that Janice is a fellow teacher. This is the first time I have had one in my class and if she weren't such a sweetheart, it could have been intimidating.

Note to Self: Start Decorating

I promised I would have my December Santa up at the beginning of December. Ok, so technically I was not here for the 1st and 2nd, so today I will finish him and get him into position. But then that means I have to un-box all the other decorations that go with him and deal with them too. A slippery slope to be sure. One I relish every December.

I do have some great new ornaments that were hooked at Ornament Day here in the studio on November 25th. It was a fun day with bagged lunches and lots of chatter, which is what it is all about.
I cut out a bunch of templates from little foam sheets so that everyone could choose the ones they wanted to do and put a selection on a piece of backing and start hooking.

My ornaments all got hooked that day, and the edges glued; but they still need to be cut out and finished. Then I have to decide who gets what. The only one spoken for is the yellow curling rock, which will go to our friends Brian and Jo. Brian only likes to curl with yellow rocks and is very superstitious about it. He will love this little keepsake. (I realized at curling last week that technically, my greys are backwards on the rocks, but I don't think he will mind.)

Speaking of ornaments, I received this book in the mail a while ago to look over and mention on the blog "if I wanted to". Well, after last year's wonderful knit your own dog, and my own discovery of Knit Your Own Royal Wedding (by this same author), these books continue to tickle my funny bone and make me enjoy my knitting like an amusement ride.

The author is Fiona Gable and she has many of these delightful project books. I think we must be joined at the sense of humour. The photography and instructions in the book are whimsical and informative and you could definitely whip these things up in a jiffy if, unlike me, you didn't already have 4,000 Christmas projects on your plate.

I think that I will save these as a 2013 project and create a wonderful garland with all of them. I was going to try to whip up a few of them as ornaments, but I think the full impact would be better felt if they were all featured. Such fun!!!!

So, I will leave this post and go and finish the edges on December Santa, so that the first hurdle of my Start Decorating is behind me. It really is fun to pull everything out and place it where it belongs - you just have to "get started".