I knit this pair of busy Fraggle looking socks out of my skein of Mango Moon yarn edged with a little Lion Brand Fun Fur. I thought they would capture the attention of a 6 year old! These are for my older niece who recently had a birthday and will be given to her as a belated gift.
Here is a picture of her actual birthday gift in this AWESOME cowboy boots gift bag! She is going through a major cowboy/cowgirl/horse phase right now so I think she'll like the bag! I also found some awesome faux leather fabric and made a box bag for her with some western-y trim. I used 2 different shades of the leatherette and it's the exact same embossed design as the gift bag! And since it is for my cowgirl niece, I started calling it a "saddle bag"!
My baby niece was a bit trickier this year as far as gifts. I got her some baby dishes and a sippy cup because she is eating more solids, and I bought her two nice books, but she was kind of tricky as far as making things because she is growing so fast. This baby bonnet was knit from a pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (I absolutely LOVE this book!) from some Lamb's Pride worsted in a Martha green and edged with an I-cord of some remaining hand dyed Lamb's Pride. I love this yarn because it is a mohair blend and it gets fuzzier the more you wear it! It is very soft too and will keep her nice and warm!
I couldn't resist making her a pair of elf slippers! This is a pattern I found over at Allsorts and was just a snap to make! I enlarged the pattern though to fit a 5 1/2 inch little foot! I'm tempted to try enlarging it for MY foot! She is just starting to walk so I might need to take along some elastic to hand sew into them to help keep them on her feet!
We have started drawing names for our family gift exchange, but I usually make a little something for the women. These are some felt candle mats with tiny confetti buttons sewn on. Each mat has about 120 buttons sewn onto the top piece which is then blanket stitched onto a bottom piece to hide the button stitching. I was very pleased with they way they turned out. I was going to make a green one for myself but ran out of buttons so I'll have to think of another way to decorate mine. I thought about using the remainder of the buttons on my niece's elf shoes, but I hate to sew too much of anything onto them for fear she'll pull them off and put them in her MOUTH!
We also have the tradition of having Christmas crackers on the table every year for Christmas lunch. We've done this for several years now. I used to order them from Absolutely Crackers every year but it got to be a challenge to find a package large enough (we needed over 12) and frankly, the best part of the cracker is the PRIZE! ;) Then I found Olde English Crackers where you can order the snaps and hats individually and I've made them every year since. I ordered a gross of snaps and hats which will keep us in crackers for some time! I always have my eyes open for a nice foil wrapping paper for them, and not only do you have to save your toilet paper centers for MONTHS, but all year you have to watch out for prizes that will fit INSIDE the rolls!
And here are the finished crackers! I found some appropriate mottos and riddles and typed them up to put inside with the hat, snap and prize, cut out the wrapping paper to 15 x 6" and rolled them up using double sided tape. The secret to crimping them smoothly is to roll up an extra toilet paper roll on either side of the wrapper edge. Then pull the extra roll out to create 2" gap between the cracker roll and your extra roll. Then you gently twist the two while pushing them together. This will crimp off the paper over the edge of the actual cracker roll to keep the contents inside. Then remove the extra roll. This way your wrapper end of the cracker stays nicely shaped and smooth. Do this on either side. The paper was cut 15" wide but after crimped they were about 12" wide because so much is used to twist and crimp over the edges of the cracker roll.
I am so excited to go and spend 2 days with my family! I hope everyone had a good Christmas this year! And I got flexed tonight from work so I'd better take advantage of this extra time that was given me! Happy Late Christmas Everyone!
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