Countdown to the Holidays

I have been keeping very busy over the past few weeks working on my Christmas Knit List. I've been sick with a respiratory infection so have had a few days at home to get a bit of knitting done. Despite progress I still have a long way to go! I have at least three pairs of half finished socks and three half finished pairs of mittens and gloves. I don't have attention span issues at all :P It doesn't help that I have also fallen in love with all sorts of knitted ornament patterns and have been making some of those as well.

Speaking of ornaments, here are some of the handmade ornaments I have made over the past few weeks.

Pompom owls 

Yarn covered mini-wreaths

A tiny gnome (about 3 inches tall) and...

his tiny reindeer friend! Both patterns are from Teeny Tiny Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec 

I am well on my way to getting enough to decorate the tree, but I'm finding ornament making addictive and the more I make the more I want!

Another project that I finished up was my monster swap on the Danger Crafts board on Ravelry. I made this sweet mini monster for another participant in the swap and she has made her way to her new home in Nova Scotia.

Meet mini-Ivy and her friend Chuck, the snowball. 

I was inspired by this blog to make a tree decoration for the table using a paper mache cone and some Christmas papers. Unlike the person who made the original I don't have the little paper press thingy, so this involved lots of paper cutting while watching TV.

My table top paper tree

Lastly, I made a great wreath for our door using styrofoam balls and some white, grey and gold yarns. I got the idea from this blog. A few balls were also wrapped in jute and I accented the balls with tiny spiky pom poms and sparkly snowflakes. This wreath was so easy to make: essentially I bought a bunch of Vanna's choice yarn on sale at Michael's and wrapped three sizes of styrofoam balls. Then I used a pie plate to arrange the larger balls in a circle of the right size. I probably should have affixed them to a wreath frame, but instead the guy made me one out of some jewelry wire and felt.What a handy guy he is! I glued the large balls together, attached the frame and then added the smaller balls and embellishments with hot glue.

Wrapping lots and lots of styrofoam balls

Making the wreath base

Finished with embellishments!

Now that it is December 1st I am going to allow myself to hang this beauty on the door.

Well, back to the needles!

msi