Crafty Present Making

For Christmas 2013 I made as many presents for my friends and families as I could.

Scarves for the boys (Rowan cashsoft)
 

 

 

 

I started in November and the majority of presents were crocheted.  Not satisfied with the pressure of making so many presents, I also made snowflake Christmas decorations which were placed inside all the Christmas cards I sent.

An oven glove for mum (Rowan handknit cotton, heatproof cloth, lining)

At the start I was thinking of references to homemade Christmas jumpers and jokes about homemade knitting - not nice ones!  But as I pressed on with the gifts I took comfort in the fact that I had selected the most luxurious yarns for my gifts and if you were to purchase the same item from a store, based on the quality of materials you would probably be looking at between £20 - £50 per item.  Not only that, but when you make a gift for someone, you think of that person when you make the gift.

Dad's woolly hat (Rowan cashsoft)

One friend said that it was easier than shopping in a store, and whilst ishopping and dealing with crowds of people, traffic, busy shops, etc is stressful and it is nicer to stay home, it does take roughly a week per gift (I made all the gifts on evenings after work or during the weekend) I don't think you can compare the two scenarios.

Woolly hat for hubby (Rowan Cashsoft)

Pin cushions for my sewing bee friends (Rowan handknit cotton)

The cherry on the cake for me was when people opened the gifts.  In the words of my step brother "... what you made this scarf? I thought you bought it from a shop!  You mean you made all this with wool and a crochet hook?" Mum didn't want to use her present as an oven glove as it was too pretty so I think she's intending to use it as a tea cosy instead.  Other friends and family were less verbal but just as complimentary (and I'm including the moment when they opened the presents, the expression on their face when they saw what it was which could be positive or negative!)  I didn't tell anyone that I'd made the presents until they opened them and the label from the ball of yarn fell out with the washing instructions.

Snowflake gifts for Christmas Cards (DMC pearl cotton)

This is definitely something I will do next year, but I will start earlier as it was a bit stressful with the time pressure.  I was still finishing off the last present on Christmas eve and by the Christmas holidays I was exhausted from working by day and making presents by night for over 6 weeks.  My friends from my sewing bee also made presents and we've all vowed to start thinking about making presents in September.  I love creating and making things and am happiest crocheting away in the corner - I wouldn't have swapped it!

And after all that I'm proud to admit I only bought 3 presents, all the rest were homemade, which is really satisfying.

What presents did you make for Christmas?