Puggy

As I mentioned in Christmas presents 2012, I made my sister a knitted dachshund due to being requested to make a pug by a friend of mine. This pug took over a fair amount of time during the Christmas-present-making-time, but was actually quite enjoyable to make. Possibly why I decided to make another breed of dog from the book.

The book in question is 'Best In Show: Knit Your Own Dog', and around the middle of November I received a quick snap of a page in the book with a message asking whether I'd be able to make it. I said of course I'd be able to (after having a quick look at the pattern to make sure I wouldn't be letting anyone down!), and set to ordering some nice wool. And, believe me, the wool was nice. 

Very soon after the wool dropped through my letterbox, I made a start on the dog. It had some stitches that I'd never attempted before and therefore I found sections of it trickier than I might otherwise have done. I also found that whilst knitting up the different pieces was mostly fine, the hardest part about making a knitted dog was the sewing up. I am notoriously bad at sewing projects up (I still haven't finished my wife's Birthday Blanket, but shhhh) but I obviously had no choice here. The pattern directions didn't really help with the sewing up in terms of the specific, and so I mostly relied on the pictures in the book. More particularly, I found the face very tricky to make, as I really have no idea as to what a pug reeeeeally looks like. I googled pugs more than a couple of times while working on this project just to look at their little faces.

In the end though, both my friend and her mother (who the gift was for) were really impressed with the pug, so I figure I did a good job. I also got some homemade truffles out of the bargain, and got to make something I probably wouldn't have otherwise. All in all, a good turn out, I'd say.

So here is the little pug that I knitted:

Wifely Christmas presents 2012

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the gifts my wife and I exchanged on Christmas deserved their own post.

As far as the gift my wife gave me, I knew where it had come from (a vintage fair that happens every Thursday in Oxford), I knew it was rather heavy and I knew roughly how large it was as it happened to reside in the bottom of our wardrobe for around a month and a half! Aside from these things, I had absolutely no idea what I'd be unwrapping on Christmas day, but was über über excited to unwrap a beautiful typewriter! This was an especially thoughtful present on my wife's behalf as there had been one in a Grenoble shop that I walked past every day for a couple of months, longing for. My wife had also repainted, oiled and changed the ribbon of this typewriter, making it (presumably) more gorgeous.

As my wife's birthday is at the end of October, I sometimes find it difficult to think of something to give her for Christmas. This was the case for quite a while, until I decided on making a snowglobe and some silhouette art. Both of these ideas came from my favourite inspirational site, Pinterest! Even once I'd decided on making each of these gifts, I wasn't entirely sure about how they would look, so I went for a supply buying trip one weekend, having made a rough list of the things I needed.

In the end, both of the presents were made over two evenings in December, when I had the flat to myself as my wife was back in Kent attending interviews. As such, I spent those evenings fully emersed in my crafting, and completely forgot to take any photographs! Fail.

I made the silhouette pictures first, using frames that I purchased at Wilkinson. I knew that I didn't want a back to the frames so that they could ultimately go in any room as the wall colour would simply show through the frame. I therefore used the glass from two seperate frames to sandwich the silhouette and lettering, making two pieces - one of my wife and one of myself. The silhouette and lettering themselves were made from printed images which I cut out using my craft knife and then spray-painted black. This was a simple enough process, with the trickiest part being to make each part the right size, but after a little trial and error I ended up with the design I wanted and here are the finished products:

Moving on to the second part of the gift-making, the snowglobe. To make this, I bought glycerin, a large jam jar, some decorative crystals and smallish Christmas decorations, and some silver glitter. I also knew that I wanted to put an image of my wife and I in the snowglobe, so used one of us from last winter in the snowy mountains of Grenoble. I cut out the image in a size small enough to fit in the jar, and then laminated it twice to protect it from the water. I then used my hot glue gun to glue the image onto the pre-sprayed lid of the jar, proceeding to use the crystals to stabilise the image. During this part, I tried to ensure that I attached each crystal securely as I knew that the jar would obviously be shaken and I didn't want things coming loose. Once the glue was dry and everything had settled, I put some silver glitter and some star confetti that I already had into the jar, and filled it up with water and a little glycerin. I then checked on the water level by screwing the lid on, and once I was satisfied with it, I hot glued around the edge of the jar and screwed the lid back on. Ta-da, one finished snowglobe!

So there you have it, wifely presents of Christmas, 2012 :D

Christmas presents 2012

Seeing as it's now been nearly a whole month since the big event that was Christmas, I figured I'd best get down to showing what we got (mostly made) for everyone. With a family as large as mine (one brother, three sisters, one step-brother and two step-sisters, along with parents, grandparents, uncles and cousins) and everyone coming over during the festive season we knew we had many presents to get! That's why my wife and I made a start on Christmas presents waaaayyy back in October. 

We knew we didn't have enough money to spend a whole lot on people (and that's generally not our style!) so the emphasis this year was on using crafting supplies that we already owned (as far as possible) to produce a gift that people would appreciate on a low budget. We reckon we pretty much achieved this ... or I hope we did, anyway. 

The first present we decided on and I made a start on making was for my Mother. Whilst looking on Ravelry for inspiration on things to make, we stumbled across this pattern and decided that knitting a pair of socks, seeing as I haven't made one yet, would be perfect for my mama. So right at the beginning of October, I cast on, using my circular needles for the first time, ooooo, excitement! I have to say, I was pretty impressed with both the process and the outcome, finishing them just over a month later. My mother seemed to like them too and said they were plenty warm. Equally, my grandmother was enamoured with them, although partly just to show off her granddaughter's knitting, I think!

So that was one present finished, and it was only the second week of November! Only *counts on fingers* fourteen (at least) more to do, not even including my wife's presents ... that's manageable right?

The next presents -or rather set of presents- that got completed weren't for family, they were for a number of the girls at work and my wife's best friend. These were just a token present each really, and came from ideas seen on Pinterest. After buying the supplies for these presents (Sharpies and mugs) I really hoped that they would in fact turn out ok. Thankfully they did, although we ended up having to bake them in the oven twice and then the colours faded in ways we didn't anticipate, but we figured they still looked good. 

So now we were five presents down, and a million still to go ... but we were getting there. 

Immediately after casting off my Mother's socks, I picked up my knitting needles (straight this time) and set to making this badger hat for my sister, although this actually ended up being the very last present finished as it wasn't fully completed until Christmas Eve! I think that was partly down to the lining of the hat knitting up so quickly that I got fooled into thinking it wasn't going to take very long, not taking into account that the lining was by far the simplest part, doh! This hat was therefore finished off back in Kent, in my Mother's house, and the buttons for the eyes and nose came from my great-grandmother's sewing box, making it all the more special.

Possibly the best part about this gift was my sister not realising when she opened it that it was handmade!

Rather a few of the presents we gave out at Christmas were made during a church craft evening on December 1st. This turned out to be an excellent event that both my wife and I attended along with the girls from school, and at just £6 each and coming away with eight Christmas presents, we figure rather good value for money! Unfortunately I forgot completely to take any photos of the gifts we made, darn it. But ... we made two sets of microwaveable hand warmers, two decorated door stops, two pillowcases and two rustic decorations. All, bar one of these gifts were given out on Christmas day: the hand warmers to each of my two step-sisters, the door stops to my step-brother and Grandad, the pillowcases to my brother and my middle sister, and one of the rustic decorations to my Nannie. As a token photo, I have to include the only remaining gift we still own - the other rustic decoration which was hung in our flat.

For my littlest sister it's always easy to think of things to give; the problem comes down to choosing just the best idea. This year, we decided to make her her own dog as she is always asking for a puppy. The idea for this came from the Christmas present my friend asked me to make for her mother: a knitted pug. For my sister I knitted a dachshund, with a pattern from 'Best in Show: Knit Your Own Dog'. This was also not finished until a couple of days before Christmas, in my Mother's house, and unfortunately my sister managed to catch a peep of it before the big day, disaster! Thankfully she still seemed pleased with her gift and I just had to think of a more creative way of wrapping it to try to keep her guessing!

Finally, there were several presents that we decided to buy. For my wife's Nan and my stepfather we bought photo frames and got photos printed to go in them, and we also bought presents for my young cousins. These presents were not big or expensive by any means, and were a draw your own puzzle for my three-year-old cousin and a paint your own bag for my eight-year-old cousin. They seemed pleased enough to get these presents, although being young they were rather overwhelmed by the number of presents they were unwrapping, especially as they came to see us a couple of days after Christmas Day and so were mostly the only ones unwrapping anything. 

So, there you have it. A quick rundown of the presents we gave out at Christmas. Obviously, this post hasn't included the gifts I gave my wife, but I figure this is definitely long enough and they probably deserve their own post!