This weekend I'm hoping to start Briton's slippers. While I had planned to make him a pair of felted booties, had gathered all the wool and needles and patterns, I'm sort of leaning toward another pair of leather bottomed socks. When he was younger he has a pair of slipper socks that he loved so I know he'll like them, plus, they are just more fun to knit. I'm still waffling.I've also been chipping away at Evie's sweater but I swear it's the slowest knitting sweater EVER. If I'd started on this when I came back to knitting I think I would have given up by now. Maybe it's the red yarn or the size of the needles, who knows, but it's dragggggging oooooonnnn. I guess I need to go hang out at the kids museum again for a couple of hours and see if I can make a dent in it :)
The other project I've started on is also for Evie. Maybe somewhere deep down I'm not sure I can finish this flippin sweater. When I was a little girl I loved the photos of the dolls that came with a little box full of clothes that showed up every year in the Christmas Wish Book. I had plenty of dolls, and lots of doll clothes, but there was something about that whole set that I just couldn't get over. Evelyn also has plenty of dolls and the beginnings of a doll cloth collection. At the moment, most of her dolls are naked which may not bode well for my project. Which is to knit a Waldorf style doll and sew/knit a wardrobe full of clothes for it. Or at least a few fun outfits. I started off with a pattern but it was smaller than I wanted, so now I'm just winging it, fingers crossed. I'm hoping that in the end it will be about the same size as one of her other dolls so the clothes can switch between the two.
I've been keeping the doll out of sight, or the pieces of the doll out of sight, so that she doesn't know about it, knitting in the evenings while she's asleep or while she's busy in the pool at swim lessons. So when she told me out of the blue yesterday that she was going to ask for a doll for Christmas I wanted to do a little Jig. Of course, then she added "With Pink Hair". What a shock.
I'm really enjoying making gifts. I've always made little things, hair clips and ornaments and things like that, but I haven't ever made something more substantial for each person and I love it. I wish I'd started earlier, or that I had more time, because I keep thinking of more things I'd like to make them before Christmas come, and more people I'd like to give handmade gifts too. It's gotten me thinking about doing an entirely homemade Christmas. I'm not sure it would really be possible with and eight year old "Playmobil is my life" child in the house, but maybe it would be a good thing to shift down to something simpler. Goodness knows there's not another inch on their shelf for more Playmobil. Would a launchable rocket kit count as a homemade gift?
Have you ever done an entirely homemade Christmas? Would you ever?