Okay, so I’m woefully behind on posting about wintery holiday related things, but in my defense, I’ve had a lot going on (work and otherwise) in the last few weeks. Top it off with a nasty cold and my impending deadlines calling to me before I leave for TNNA this weekend and I’d say I’m doing pretty well.

As someone who spends lots of her free time hooking for money (hahaha), I always feel kind of bummed that I don’t have time to make anything for anyone. But this year I did manage to squeeze out handmade gifts for a few people, hooray!

First off is this knit hat I made for my brother Mark. He requested one two years ago when I gave them to Paul and Jasenn, although he totally forgot that request by the time I gave it to him. It was an unglamourous presentation. He was staying over at our house and I basically kicked him out of his room on Xmas morning so I could search for it, having just remembered that I made it (because I made it very early in the year). My knitting skills have improved vastly since I made this hat but it looks good and he likes it, score!

I also made some mittens and a hat for my nephew. Alpaca might not have been the smartest choice for an almost three year old but what the heck, I wanted to spoil him. I made the mittens about a month ago but the hat was a mad dash at the last minute, just hdc with some post stitching around the brim. It all worked out though and he now thinks I have superpowers. He found a plastic ball in the yard a few days ago (must have been thrown over by the neighbors) and kept saying, “LaLa (that’s me) made it!”. It’s very cute that he knows I made the hat and he kept asking for it, even though, let’s face it, TX is a bit warm for alpaca.

I was also finally able to deliver this shawl to my grandma. I finished it a while ago but had been waiting to block it and sew on a label (basically one that says “Don’t Steal Me, Jerks!” so I got it in gear just in time for the holidays. This is actually a very early prototype of a design that you’ll see from me sometime in 2011, although you won’t recognize the finished result based on this one. I think she liked it, but she was having a lot more fun playing with Tegue.

I hope you all had a nice holiday. If you read this and you’ll be at TNNA, please say hi if you see me! Hopefully I’ll have ditched my trail of kleenex by then.