Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope all of you enjoy a special day with family and friends.

A special thanks to all of you who supported the doll donation this year. It is a great undertaking each year made lighter by the support of an amazing community. I like to think our work has made this day special for lots of kids who woke up with well dressed dolls this morning.

Now work begins again for the next drive. I already have the dolls for next year and the bags are set up to put the clothes and other items in as they are made. It will be a pleasure to watch it grow.

Christmas Baby Bib

I first made this bib a couple of years ago for this baby's older sister. In my rush to get the package out the door, I never got a picture of the bib. I was determined not to make that mistake twice and made sure I got shots of all the hand made items before I packed the box to ship this time. I still managed to miss a couple of items I had wanted pictures of but nothing is perfect.

For those of you who are interested this pattern is available to purchase at Maggie's Crochet here. It works up easily in sports cotton yarn.

I used holiday buttons as decorations which led me to making it in brown with Turkey buttons for Thanksgiving for the first child. This year I didn't have time as I was pushing getting the baby gifts done for October. However, it is nice to know if you have a baby due at other times of the year changing the colors and decorations makes it a pretty bib for any time of the year.

This was another stash busting goal for me. I have all these orphan yarns left over from projects where I bought extra yarn not knowing how much I'd need to make a project. One of my goals this year is to use up some of that yarn. This used up a good bit of the white left over from the original baby bib I made 2 years ago.

Santa Hot Mat

I love holiday dishcloths and hot pads so when I saw this on e-pattern central I knew I was going to buy it and try to make it at some point. You can purchase the pattern here.

Just a few notes for myself. I need to try this with a much smaller hook size. Next time I'm going to make the back square first as this will make it easier to judge just how big a square will be made without having to deal with color changes. We learn from experience but the I hook was much too large for this project for me. Secondly, I couldn't find a pale pink color in Lily. I went to Knit Picks to get their Dishie yarn so I don't make myself crazy trying to remember what color of Lily's Sugar 'n Cream I found I didn't. Lastly I had to go down significantly in hook size to make the facial features work. I also sewed them on prior to making the back and joining so my sewing didn't show. Others may feel differently, but I prefer to hide my sewing when ever possible. The pattern suggests sewing the details on after joining. I didn't do this for the original and I wouldn't do it again in the future.

I really like the look of the hot pad, I just need him to be smaller in my next attempt.