Last year at Christmas, unlike the previous one, I did not impose a "make all the presents" rule -- after all, there are only so many hats and scarves a person needs. I did intend to make one or two things, including one very special make...
I crocheted my mother a dog.
Or rather, I started to crochet my mother a dog.
Aged P came home from Florida last year with a book called "How to Knit Your Own Dog," with the intention of having me make her a westie; we had a westie named Geordie when I was growing up.
Thing is, I don't knit. I can knit; I own knitting needles and even knit an entirely too-big sweater about 15 years ago, but I prefer crochet. So I looked around for a crochet westie pattern and found this completely adorable one by ScareCrow Originals on Etsy (that's a link to the Ravelry pattern; weirdly, it seems to have disappeared from her Etsy shop, but you should check out the rest of her site anyway because her dog and other critter patterns are really, really cute.) Anyway, I bought the pattern at the beginning of December and then I guess my brain decided I was done because I completely forgot about it until the day before Christmas. I rushed out into the bitter, bitter cold and bought the yarn and started crocheting on my way to my brother's, other presents in tow. There was, of course, no way I would finish it in time, especially since I had no idea how to do a loop stitch, but at last I could show her that I had in fact started that puppy. Er, literally.
Fortunately, we're sort of used to this kind of thing in my family, and I presented Aged P with a copy of the pattern and said I'd have it ready for her once she got back from Florida. She was very pleased.
I went home, looked up how to do a loop stitch (oh, YouTube, you are occasionally very awesome) and got as far as having only three legs to finish before my winter holiday ended. And there it sat. Until May, when I realized that Aged P was making noises about coming back from Florida and I needed to get a move on. So I did.
The problem was that, despite being parsimonious with the loop stitch length, I realized I wasn't going to have enough to finish the legs, and I didn't want to buy a whole skein just for one leg. How bad would a westie with one grey leg look, anyway? Fortunately, social media came to the rescue and Catja, superhero that she is, managed to get me 2 m of yarn in time. So... um... one of the legs is not quite like the other ones. But whatever. Wee Geordie could stand on his own four feet!
The decision to make the bottom of the feet pink wasmade because I was running out of yarn a wise design choice. So cute! I still have far too much pink yarn leftover.
I didn't really groom the dog other than cutting the loops because our Geordie was a pretty shaggy dog. I did a not-so-great job with the facial embroidery, and I wish I had thought to cut the face fur a little rounder, but Aged P was extremely pleased.
All he needs is a wee tartan collar.
So I managed to finish Aged P's Christmas present in time for her birthday five months later. Not bad. And in case you think I'm a completely terrible daughter, I did finish other presents in time. For example:
I made this tree of life pendant for Aged P using bronze wire and only some of the vast quantity of fluorite chips I still have. I'm rather pleased with how the roots turned out. The stones on the chain are aquamarine and bloodstone.
My SIL F collects owls, and I had been hoping to make her something like this pendant, but ran into serious difficulties; sourcing circlips has not been easy. I came across this design instead and I'm quite pleased with it, although I only had 18 and 26 gauge wire (from the Tree pendant) and it really should be made entirely with 20 or 22 gauge. The eyes are, you guessed it, aquamarine.
I also made a pair of bike cufflinks for the DC, because obviously.
And while I'm at it, this wasn't a Christmas gift, but I saw this cupcake charm and decided I needed to make a cupcake-bike chain pendant for Hyedie of the Cupcake Ride. I didn't manage to give it to her until our Coffeeneuring ride down the Don River.
And I think next year I'm just making everyone baked goods.
I crocheted my mother a dog.
Or rather, I started to crochet my mother a dog.
Aged P came home from Florida last year with a book called "How to Knit Your Own Dog," with the intention of having me make her a westie; we had a westie named Geordie when I was growing up.
Thing is, I don't knit. I can knit; I own knitting needles and even knit an entirely too-big sweater about 15 years ago, but I prefer crochet. So I looked around for a crochet westie pattern and found this completely adorable one by ScareCrow Originals on Etsy (that's a link to the Ravelry pattern; weirdly, it seems to have disappeared from her Etsy shop, but you should check out the rest of her site anyway because her dog and other critter patterns are really, really cute.) Anyway, I bought the pattern at the beginning of December and then I guess my brain decided I was done because I completely forgot about it until the day before Christmas. I rushed out into the bitter, bitter cold and bought the yarn and started crocheting on my way to my brother's, other presents in tow. There was, of course, no way I would finish it in time, especially since I had no idea how to do a loop stitch, but at last I could show her that I had in fact started that puppy. Er, literally.
Fortunately, we're sort of used to this kind of thing in my family, and I presented Aged P with a copy of the pattern and said I'd have it ready for her once she got back from Florida. She was very pleased.
I went home, looked up how to do a loop stitch (oh, YouTube, you are occasionally very awesome) and got as far as having only three legs to finish before my winter holiday ended. And there it sat. Until May, when I realized that Aged P was making noises about coming back from Florida and I needed to get a move on. So I did.
The problem was that, despite being parsimonious with the loop stitch length, I realized I wasn't going to have enough to finish the legs, and I didn't want to buy a whole skein just for one leg. How bad would a westie with one grey leg look, anyway? Fortunately, social media came to the rescue and Catja, superhero that she is, managed to get me 2 m of yarn in time. So... um... one of the legs is not quite like the other ones. But whatever. Wee Geordie could stand on his own four feet!
The decision to make the bottom of the feet pink was
I didn't really groom the dog other than cutting the loops because our Geordie was a pretty shaggy dog. I did a not-so-great job with the facial embroidery, and I wish I had thought to cut the face fur a little rounder, but Aged P was extremely pleased.
All he needs is a wee tartan collar.
So I managed to finish Aged P's Christmas present in time for her birthday five months later. Not bad. And in case you think I'm a completely terrible daughter, I did finish other presents in time. For example:
I made this tree of life pendant for Aged P using bronze wire and only some of the vast quantity of fluorite chips I still have. I'm rather pleased with how the roots turned out. The stones on the chain are aquamarine and bloodstone.
My SIL F collects owls, and I had been hoping to make her something like this pendant, but ran into serious difficulties; sourcing circlips has not been easy. I came across this design instead and I'm quite pleased with it, although I only had 18 and 26 gauge wire (from the Tree pendant) and it really should be made entirely with 20 or 22 gauge. The eyes are, you guessed it, aquamarine.
I also made a pair of bike cufflinks for the DC, because obviously.
And while I'm at it, this wasn't a Christmas gift, but I saw this cupcake charm and decided I needed to make a cupcake-bike chain pendant for Hyedie of the Cupcake Ride. I didn't manage to give it to her until our Coffeeneuring ride down the Don River.
And I think next year I'm just making everyone baked goods.
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