Lavender sachets - pieced together using hand-painted fabric panels and remnants. My only expenditure was on the dried lavender, a bottle of lavender essential oil for extra oomph, and a little pot of gold fabric paint; everything else came from the craft hoard. I highly recommend making lavender sachets for Christmas presents. Even if you find yourself racing to get them finished in time, it's impossible to feel anything but serene when labouring under a fragrant, lavender-scented cloud.
My new favourite go-to/quick-knit gift pattern - the Miss Marple scarf. Fits snugly round the neck, looks neat and tidy, and knits up in an evening or two - what's not to like?
Solveig wristlets - bought in kit form earlier in the year to support a local yarn shop, with vague ideas of Christmas gifting in mind. They are a little less garish in real life (the red is more of a deep cherry than a scarlet), and the circular fair-isle was fun to do, but having made them I couldn't think of anyone who might actually want them. What is the point of wristlets? Are cold wrists even a thing? Lovely as these wristlets are, what possible use could anyone have for them, other than as the finishing touch for an elf costume perhaps? So many questions...
...and one obvious solution to the wristlet conundrum - add a thumb, keep going a little further, and turn them into fingerless mittens! Some might say these are equally pointless garments, since they leave the extremities exposed, but for a camera-phone-fiddling, shell/pebble picker-upper like myself, they are wardrobe essentials. Such an elegant design, too.
A nail-biting, right-up-to-the-wire, cast-off-25-minutes-before-a-socially-distant-gift-swap, classic Antler Toque for my brother. Photo courtesy of my sister-in-law when they got home! Variegated sock wool held double with some navy DK from the craft hoard.
