Christmas projects

It was a very yarny Christmas over here at my house! I made three decorations that I have wanted Santa (i.e. my own hands) to check off my list for a while:

Gingerbread house

I found this pattern in a Red Heart booklet called "Crochet for Christmas," although I can't find a link to the booklet anywhere. I bought it at JoAnn Fabrics a couple of years ago, and this pattern was on the cover.

It definitely took some doing and assembly, although thank goodness the pattern actually encourages you to use hot glue (an amigurumi assembly cheat that I am fond of). You do have to crochet 70+ little gum drops, and cutting up the cardboard box to fit the house was kind of worrisome.

Oh, and now I'm a French knot expert because I had to make so many on the roof to simulate cinnamon candies!

French knot expert level 4 unlocked

It took me about three weeks to complete, although I wasn't working on it the whole time. I used the same colors they asked for, but not all Red Heart yarns. The nice thing about the pattern is that most of the colors are in small enough amounts that you can feel comfortable just using scrap yarn from your stash.

Also, the back of the pattern doesn't have anything on it, so I added some candy canes and a wreath. (The front and sides of the house were supposed to have some candy canes, too, but I thought it made it too busy.)

Did holly berries on the wreath as opposed to another bow

All in all, it was a challenging project, but nothing a patient crocheter can't handle.

Christmas tree skirt

Another project I've been wanting to do for a few years is a fancy crocheted Christmas tree skirt to gussy up my tree. 

I thought about a few different patterns, including one assembled granny square pattern and this ripple pattern. Because this one is worked in one piece and could be good with solid retro stripes, I picked it (plus I hate sewing granny squares together).

The pattern is in the same lost "Crochet for Christmas" Red Heart booklet as the gingerbread house, and you can see it also appeared in a few back issues of Crochet Today!

The colors here are vivid pink, turquoise, leaf green, and white, all in Simply Soft.

I'm thinking about crocheting some cookies on a plate to go under the tree for Santa, but that might have to wait a couple of years. (I do have recipes for Hershey Kiss cookies and chocolate chip ones, too.)

Dove

This guy has definitely been on my list for a few years, as I have no Christmas tree topper. I thought he would make a great addition, perched up there.

He comes from a book called 75 Birds, Butterflies, and Little Beasts to Knit & Crochet. There are a couple of other birds in here who would be cute but I might have to work myself up to.

I was a little intimidated by the idea of knitting an amigurumi pattern; I've always crocheted little delicate objects like this. But in the spirit of living more fearlessly, I decided to just give it a try. 

The one thing I modified (aside from using safety eyes rather than a bead, and using orange yarn for the beak) was to pick up stitches for the wings and knit them in one piece rather than separately and sew them on. I hate sewing.

Wings knitted from picking up stitches

The main thing you have to watch for when you do this is (1) make sure the stitches you pick up are in a fairly straight line, and (2) the instructions ask you to knit the wings flat, then sew together, and you could do that, but I decided to knit them in the round instead, so I had to modify the ribbing instructions to make it work mathematically.

I'm really happy with all these projects; I want to do more knitted and crocheted decorations around my home, both for holidays and all year round. Next up for the spring is a fruit bowl with crocheted and knitted fruit. I've got pears, apples, berries, and more!

Happy new year!