At the end of September I decided that it was time to learn how to knit. It’s always been on my radar but I knew that it involved some maths and that was enough to put me off. But, having just pulled off my very home made wedding, I was feeling bold. So I picked up this scarf kit from Etsy and began to fight my hands into the knitting position. I am the kind of person who wants everything to be perfect on the first try. So imagine the tears of frustration as I frogged* my scarf for the 20th time because I somehow added a stitch or missed one. The wool became pretty bedraggled let me tell you. I refused to give up because each time I started again I had gotten a little further and learned a little more. Once I got the hang of it, I sort of got a bit obsessed. Over a couple of weeks the scarf got longer and I began to worry about what to make next.

While I was looking I discovered that knitting is sooooo expensive! Who knew?! Well, maybe you knew but I didn’t. This cottage-core-off-grid-make-your-own dream turns out to cost a lot. At this point I don’t really understand wool weight and the varying size of needles, or what a gauge is. (I still don’t, but it’s one of my New Year’s resolutions to find out). So I’m relying on kits, and kits are lovely but pricey.

Then I found this cute crown kit. My mum has been making homemade crackers for the last couple of years and I thought that it would be a sweet Christmas gift to make a bunch. It would scratch the knit itch and spending money doesn’t count if it’s for a gift. Right? It’s at this point I realised I wanted to do hand made gifts for Christmas.

So I did. I dedicated most of my November and all of December to making and I basically just wanted to show it off. Well, show off that I made things in these months, that I was productive.

As an aside, I was pretty unwell during these months which led to a 5 day stay in hospital so making things made me feel a bit more human.

The things I made

*The Knitted Crowns*

I got more confident doing these and even had a go at changing the colour of the thread by the end. That one ended up being the favourite and made me wish I had done them all like that.

They also doubled as swim hats as they were so warm.

Ring Holder

I love working with clay and I want to play around more with this. I made something similar for myself a while ago and use it every day to hold my rings.

Air Dry Clay Trinket Dishes

I had an idea a while ago that I would make small batches of air dry clay things, like these fridge magnets. The only thing with air dry is that it can be a bit crumbly so I’m back to the drawing board on that one.

Needle felt mushroom tree decorations

I thought these were going to be so cute but I forgot to buy some wooden pegs and so they never got finished. Might use them next year.

These were so fun to do. I love sewing but hadn’t really put it into practice like this. I did a whole test swatch of water plants beforehand to see what techniques I could do and what looked good. I really enjoyed designing this and finding a poem to add. These were for my mum who is a seal at heart.

So after doing the big chunky scarf and crowns I thought I was ready for socks. But when I first opened the box and saw the size of the needles I totally freaked out. They look like toothpicks! The wool was beautiful though and I had a deadline. 1 month to knit these bad boys.

I had this lovely twist of wool that I decided to turn into a wool cake as I had seen that it would be better to knit from. I’m not sure if that was truely the case but it was a bit of a mistake. I don’t know how I managed it but I totally tangled the wool and proceeded to untangle it for about 24 full hours.

Never again.

Anyway, to cut a very long story of knitting and frogging, and knitting and frogging down. About an hour before we had to leave for Christmas I finished them. I made socks.

And so that’s everything I made in about 2 months. I really enjoy making things for people that I love and I pushed myself to make things that they would actually use and enjoy. I think I would do it again, but maybe next time I will start a bit earlier in the year.

*Frogging - ripping out all your stitches and starting again. Apparently it’s called forgging because you ‘rip-it rip-it’ Geddit.

04.01.2024 - My Christmas Makes

The things I made