Merry Giftmas!

I have rediscovered my love for Christmas in the last few years.  My joy in the season is not built upon the anticipation of any presents I get, but for the feeling I get when I give one that I think someone is really going to like.  My eager anticipation / trepidation grows when it is something I have made myself.   Well this year I didn’t have any time to make anything before the holidays hit, and I barely had time to put together IOUs for the two people I did want to make something for.   What this has meant though is that Christmas for me has now been extended for over a month and morphed into Giftmas for them!

The gifts are heading out in the mail today and I feel like celebrating by sharing my accomplishments with you.   This is not a problem because both recipients already know what they are getting (they got to choose from a few different patterns), and well recipient #1 (my sister) has already seen a picture of the finished object and recipient #2 (my brother-in law) will likely never read this.  Thus I am in the clear to post pictures before they get their packages!   So without further ado, let the pictures begin:

Giftmas item #1: Thrummed Mittens.

Remember back in March when I mentioned that I was going to learn how to make thrummed mittens?   No?   That’s okay.  I tried to forget as well.  My first attempt was so well “thrummed” that it would have been perfect for the dead of winter in the Arctic.   That is… if you could get a hand inside it.   No one could.   So that was not a win.

I put all thoughts of thrumming aside for months, until my lovely sister opened her lovely half finished selbu mitten on Christmas morning (a single mitten of course… hey I was renovating my house after all) and promptly asked for a thrummed pair instead.   Oh dear….    It is a sign of my affection that I said yes and got to work on the pair you see above.   Well I finally finished them this weekend.   I believe that a human hand should actually fit inside them as well!  I’ll award myself the bonus points for that, thanks.  For extra bonus points, the mittens also match the selbu modern hat designed by Kate Gagnon Osbourn that I made her for her birthday.

I liked her hat so much I was sorely tempted to not give it to her.  Instead I decided it would be much better to make myself a matching one, thus continuing our usually inadvertent trend of matching even when we live in separate provinces.   That way I got the double joy of giving her a gift and having one for myself.   This project was definitely a win.   The only part I didn’t think through was that we both ended up wearing our hats throughout her visit out here at Christmas time and we kept getting the comment “are you wearing the same hat?”   um… yes.

Giftmas item #2: Stripped Hat

My brother in law “J” is actually getting two Giftmas presents this year.  I completely dropped the ball on the annual sibling present swap this year.   In remembering pondering his gift in July and thinking that I would love to make him something, but as the draw for giftees was not done until November and I got him last year I figured lighting wouldn’t strike twice and I likely would have another sibling to gift to this year.  Fast forward to November, names are drawn, and I get “J” and silently bemoan not having made something for him in the summer when I actually had time.

Now let’s fast forward to December 23rd and I again bemoan not having done something for “J” when I had time.   So I placed a call to my mother in law who lives in the same town as “J”.   She wonderfully agreed to print off a selection of patterns to serve as my “gift” and I would let him pick what he wanted.   Thus the stripped hat, from the design Turn a Square by Jared Flood.   And Giftmas item#3.

Giftmas item #3: Herringbone Mittens by Elli Stubenrauch

I can only hope that these actually fit him.   The mittens fit me, as I was the most accessible fit model for them.  However, there is always that nagging thought that maybe they will too small for the intended recipient.   Oh well, the package is in the mail and I will find out soon enough.   That excruciating part of the eager anticipation of someone opening my handmade gifts will just have to be dragged out a little bit longer.

Well that is it for me.  I am finally done Christmas, and with that I wish you all a merry giftmas!   Here’s to extending the season of giving gifts to loved ones!