Christmas motivation

The things that really got me motivated to get on with my crafts was feeling that I couldn't afford to do the amount of shopping and consumery that goes into a normal Christmas. It usually costs me around £1000 to buy presents for the numerous family and friends at Christmas, as I don't think I go overboard with them or that I buy for many people that I could cut out.  It's just expensive. Oh, and have I mentioned that I hate shopping. I really wasn't in the mood to trawl around the same old same old high street feeling utterly uninspired about what to buy for people.

So in September 2011, I began making presents for them instead.  These included  knitted hats and toys, sewn iPad and Kindle cases and jewellery rolls, homemade Dundee cake, shortbread biscuits and flavoured vodka.

Knitted hats were mainly from the Boyfriend Hat pattern on Ravelry, although I advise that you add another inch or so in length as the pattern comes up a bit short in my view.

I had to teach myself to knit in the round for these and the for the toys, and discovered it wasn't anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be. I'm quite handy with DPN's or a circular needle these days!

I made hats for my brother, sister in law, nephew and friend's daughter, in various colours and types of wool. My favourite was the red one which was made with a felting wool, but I really should have noted how I had adjusted the pattern as it was a thick wool and would have come out too big to wear if I hadn't made some changes along the way.

Toys were from Rebecca Danger monster patterns and are super cute.   I really enjoyed making these, so much so that I've gone on to make more for the children who got a hat that Christmas, so now they have all had a toy as well. And an elephant for my dad, who has a love of all things elephantine.








Sammie the sock monster was made twice for two little boys, and the parents confirmed that they were both loved immediately on opening on Christmas day, especially as they could remove their socks and put them back on again.










I love Jerry the monkey and his super long limbs, and Esther the elephant was for a friend's daughter.  I always feel that children - especially those of my friends and family who are all 'comfortably well off' families - get plenty of commercial toys, so getting something a little different from me would be a break from the norm and not a massive disappointment. I loved the toys my gran made for me as a child, and still have one of them. I wish I had more, but just don't know what happened to them all.


On the food side, we had had a crop of green tomatoes so I made some tasty chutney and put this together with Dundee cake, honey from my neighbour's bees and vodka flavoured with fruit from our garden.

The Dundee cake was Delia's recipe, but cut down by a third as I made small ones (and missing out the candied peel, as I don't like it!).  I knew my parents liked Dundee cake, so it was made especially for them, but each of the adults got a food pack, with varying amounts of biscuits to go around the relevant children!

Biscuits were a BBC Good Food recipe but made with my own shape and decorations,  and the vodka, well, that's just trial and error too. Hic!

In fact, we have a second batch still brewing in the cupboard. Raspberry or Blackcurrant vodka in iced lemonade is just lush on a hot summers day.






I made a number of sewn items too. iPad and Kindle cases for my dad, friend's dad and my neice, and jewellery rolls for my mum and mother in law, both who travel quite a lot.


I didn't follow any specific pattern for these, but browsed a number of different blogs to get ideas about how to make them.  The Kindle and iPad cases have batting which was actually the lining of an old sleeping bag, but provided enough quilting to make them a secure housing for precious devices.



You may have noticed that I also tried to package the items nicely.  Greg knew what I was doing and he bought me a fancy label printer for my birthday (which is just before Christmas) so that I could make some really nice labels to attach to the toys and gifts, and I bought nice jars and bottles from a catering shop, tissue paper and ribbon, and smart cake boxes to make sure the Dundee cakes didn't get squashed.   I hope this made the gifts that little bit extra special when they were received.

I never did price up whether doing things this way was any cheaper than if I had spent my usual budget in the shops, but I had a lot more fun doing it, that's for sure.   But I maybe won't be doing it every year...