Christmas Crochet in Progress
Happy winter! It wasn’t cold and snowy last time I checked in, but since then, Old Man Winter has come around to stay (and stay… and stay… our winters are long). This is my first winter in my new home, and I was quite happy to be able to get such a gorgeous view of the snow on the trees from my window. I may have even started humming “Let it Snow”!
Anyway, I’ve been so busy these past few weeks trying to get all my Christmas crochet together for the holidays. I usually start planning out my gifts at the beginning of the year for my family, and give myself 11 long months to work on them, but somehow I always end up rushing around in a bit of a panic after Thanksgiving is over with all that I still want to finish up before Christmas.
Luckily(?), my family members don’t read my blog, and therefore I’m free to share with you what I have in the works for them for Christmas. It’s been hard to keep these off of certain social media sites when I want to share them around, but it will be worth it in the end.
So here are some projects that I’m working on:
First, there’s a Whovian on my xmas list, and I knew right away last year that I wanted to make him a Dr. Who crochet scarf. I couldn’t find a crochet pattern that I particularly liked, so I found a knit pattern instead. The pattern was written in rows so I did a ton of math to convert them over to the size crochet rows I was making. My calculator got a lot of use, but it’s come out well so far. This is a 12-foot scarf, so once I got the color pattern down, I figured it would be a breeze. After I got to 9 feet, though, I noticed that I had skipped a couple of those end stitches and the whole thing had gotten narrower (yep, I still make these little mistakes even after all these years!). So it was a little disheartening to have to pull out over 2 feet of tiny single crochets. It’s still at 7 feet, because after that I just had to take a break from it for a while, but it doesn’t seem like it will be more than a few days of work, so I’m comfortable with where I’m at right now. I know it will be a very well received gift!
So after I put that scarf aside, I picked up the BAMCAL afghan that I’ve been working on since January. And I have to stop and apologize for the quality of that photograph – it’s dark all the time as we get closer to the solstice and I was too excited to get the photo taken so I could move on with it, and so I didn’t wait for the sun.) I admit there was a period of time that I took a long break while I worked on the Sophie’s Garden centerpieces that will feature in the two sampler afghans that I hope to have finished by the 24th. But I was pleasantly surprised that of what I had, everything seemed to go together well, and I only have a handful of 6” squares to make until that one is done. This one below was I think the October square, so that’ll give you an idea of how much slacking I’ve been doing there. It’s called Sea Flower, and the link to the free pattern is here.
I’ve been experimenting with making some crochet bags using a tapestry technique, and if I can get this done in time, it will go to a dear friend who is my crochet buddy. It needs about 300 ends woven in, a lining and some handles, so I’m not exactly sure when it will be done, but since it doesn’t need to be done exactly by Christmas, it’s going at the lower end of my priorities.
There are a few infant hats coming up… not for me, but for a friend of mine, whose babies were born less than a week ago. Even though my priority should be the xmas gifts, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the projects I’ve been working on so hard to do a little bit of fun crochet. You know, like taking a break from crochet to crochet? Ha, ha.
Finally, I’ve been making up some of my favorite dishcloths to sell at a local Christmas craft show. These are such a delight to make. I’m hoping other people will love them and find them just as useful as I do. I could make these up all day
There’s a slew of smaller projects for my kids, a less intricate afghan in progress for my brother, and one knit scarf that I’m worried will take more time than all the other projects put together (I’m not an especially good knitter). And somehow I keep telling myself I’ll have time to make a few other Pinterest crafts that I’ve had my eye on. But the joy of the season has me swept up in creating and sharing, so I’m taking it one day at a time.
So check back soon, because in a few weeks I am going to have a slew of finished projects to share!
~Mellie ★
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