No, I’m not celebrating Christmas now, I’m simply getting around to posting all the gifts I made for Christmas. Well, most of the gifts. I forgot to take pictures of a couple.
I had to mail the presents for my niece and her family. She got 4 wool dryer balls and 2 cotton potholders.
My nephew and his family also had their gifts mailed. Also 4 dryer balls and 2 potholders.
Also mailed were gifts to my dear friends in West-by-god-Virginia – 4 dryer balls and 2 pairs of hand knitted socks. They had dropped several not-so-subtle hints for socks. 😉
For all 26 dryer balls that I made, I started at the thrift stores. I bought 100% wool sweaters, cut the seams, and unraveled, and wound them into balls. Then I needle felted some really beautiful roving from Cindie onto the outside before doing the wet finishing.
Then I was able to give gifts in person on Christmas day. I forgot to take photos of the 6 dryer balls I gave my son or the knitted socks for my son-in-law, but did get other photos. My daughter had admired a Katniss-inspired cowl, so I crocheted one of those, from this pattern. I’m not that good at crochet, and using this super bulky yarn didn’t make it any easier, so I’m not particularly proud of it, but I got it done.
My daughter also got a pincushion I’d made from a felted wool sweater – CORRECTION: fulled, not felted.
Then my grandson got a knitted superhero. This was BY FAR the most time consuming thing I made. Took me FOREVER, at least in part because the orange yarn I chose was fuzzy and hard to work with. I used this book, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. The tiger’s body is about 11″ long, plus tail.
He liked it, and asked if I could make him a Domo Kun. I agreed, although I assured him it wouldn’t come quickly. He got it about a week ago. I used felt, hand stitched it together in just over 2 hours from start to finish. This pattern served me well. I put my remote in the picture for size.
I wasn’t able to get together with my sisters until mid-January. They each got 4 dryer balls and a pincushion, also made from old wool sweaters. The first dryer ball is in a tiny clay pot, the second in a little jelly jar.
So you see, I was busy!