I Made It! The Christmas Edition

Isn't my tree pretty!


Every year, I say I'm not going to spend so much time making gifts, or that I'm only going to make gifts for the people who really appreciate something handmade and the time and care that goes into it.

Then December rolls around, and I'm baking, knitting, sewing, and crafting like an idiot. I'm a doofus. This year was no different.

So first up were about 25 dozen cookies, made with my mother-in-law and her sisters. We've still got some of those left -- want a ginger bar with cream cheese frosting?

Then the soap. This is just some of it -- between me, DR and Rosebride, we made about seven dozen bars, in addition to bath bombs, liquid soap, hand lotions, lotion bars (pie I love those) and other assorted goodies. These all went into gift sets for assorted friends and relatives, except for a few choice items I kept back for us.

Oh, and a large bottle of vanilla lotion went to work with me, in an effort to convince the annoying new girl to stop using hand cream that smells like VX nerve gas.

My original booga bag was so much fun to make that I wanted to make another one. And since everyone who saw it liked it (except for J-Man -- he's a crafta hata) it became the gift of the season.

All of these are in various shades of Noro Kureyon. There was one for my mom, in earth tones.



One for my brother-in-law's stepdaughter (pseudo niece?) in dark pinks and purples. She's in eighth grade, she *loved* my bag, and I was just happy to find a gift I thought she'd want.



One for my sister-in-law, in green, red, blue and taupe.



And one for my mother-in-law, in greens and blues (this one was my favorite).



I thought I was done, but then I talked to my mom.

Now, when I started knitting, I sinned and made some scarves out of fun fur. I hated 'em -- looked like I'd skinned a muppet. One was white and feathery, and looked like I'd knitted a chicken. Not cool.

My mother, in an unfortunate lack of good taste, loved them. Loved them, wore them constantly, and treasured them to the point of making me fix the chicken one when it got snagged. I don't even pretend to understand -- it's a Mom thing.

But in the middle of December, she says "oh, wouldn't it be nice if you made a scarf for your Aunt Debbie! Fuzzy, in white or silver, and oh by the way -- I need it by Monday."

I should have said no. I should have run as far and as fast as I could. I should have thrown down my needles in defiance and shouted to the heavens "I am not murdering one more muppet for you!"

But I am a doofus. And instead, I grabbed a ball of Jo-Ann's Sensations Simple Elegance (light whisper) in Silver -- which is neither simple nor elegant, but rather full of *artistic* thick and thin bits and little things that my needles caught on constantly -- cast on 20 stitches, and started knitting a keyhole scarf in garter.

One ball wasn't enough, and so back I ran to the fabric store for more yarn for a crappy scarf I didn't want to knit in the first place. Finished it at 3:30 a.m., rolled it up, tied it with a spare bit of ribbon and called it done. Mom says my aunt liked it very much. All I know is that my puppet serial killing days are done.