Table of Contents

• Funfetti Socks
• Hosta Pillow
• Pig in Blanket Ornament
• Cat Ornament
• Stjärna Ornament
• Grace Blanket
• Cookie Boxes
• Final Thoughts

Funfetti Socks

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: I didn’t use a strict pattern for these, but you can find all of my notes on the sock-making process on their Ravelry project page. In essence, this is just a cabled design with a shadow wrap heel and a rounded toe!

Yarn: Drops Fabel, in the shade Confetti Cake (924).

This was actually my first time knitting a pair of socks for someone other than myself! Luckily, they were for my mum, who keeps extensive notes on her own knitting projects on her Ravelry page, so I was able to piece together a pattern/stitch count that fit her perfectly, without her suspecting a thing!

I bought this particular yarn a while ago, because I thought it was SO pretty, and I kept it aside to use for this project. I really love how it looks knitted up!

Hosta Pillow

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Hosta Pillow by Sidsel Sangild

Yarn: Stylecraft Special 4 Ply, in the shade Teal (1062).

Many years ago, I knitted a cabled cushion (this one, to be exact) as a gift. Back then, my knitting tension was not the best (read: I didn’t tension my knitting at all— whole thing), so the cover ended up bigger than the cushion pad and I may or may not have had to fill in the extra space with toy stuffing… Anyway, this time around, I decided to stick to my strengths and make a crocheted cushion cover instead!

I really loved the design of this particular pattern and I have made crochet projects that use similar techniques before, so I decided to give it a go. It took me quite a bit longer to finish than I expected (it’s a little bit of an involved process), but I really like the finished product!

To ensure the cover is washable, I used an acrylic yarn and inserted a zip (by hand, with a good ol’ needle and thread). I used this 40cm, teal zip and, while it’s not an exact colour match, it is a similar shade to the ‘Teal’ Stylecraft shade. Speaking of the yarn… I was not a big fan, which was SO disappointing, because we all know how much I LOVE Special DK. Unfortunately I just found its 4 ply counterpart super splitty and annoying to work with, so I don’t think I’ll be using it again 🙁 …

Pig in Blanket Ornament

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Pig In A Granny Square Blanket by A Good Right Hook

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The first of three ornaments that I made this year (for gifting purposes), this Pig in Blanket pattern came up so often on my Pinterest that I really couldn’t escape how cute it was, or avoid making it. I particularly liked the colours used in the pattern, so I rummaged through my stash of Stylecraft Special DK to find some shades that were as similar as possible!

I was so happy with how this one turned out and it was so quick to whip up (I’ve made a lot of amigurumi in my time, so I’ve had lots of practice with projects like this). I did make a few little changes here and there to this pattern, mainly to adapt it so that I could use DK weight yarn for each element (the original pattern uses DK, 4 ply, 2 ply and thread). Unfortunately, I seem to have mislaid all the notes I took on the process! You can find all the details (that I can remember…) for the adaptations I made on the Ravelry project page I made for this lil’ pig.

Cat Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Cat Christmas Ornaments by Amy Gaines

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The second ornament and another pattern that I just happened to see one day and immediately fell in love with— I just think this cat is so cute! I also love how simple it is— like a little cat bean bag! I used DK weight yarn for this project, instead of the worsted the pattern calls for, so mine was a little smaller than it should have been but, honestly, I feel like it’s kind of the perfect bauble size as it is? I did have to shorten the length of the scarf because of this though, to ensure it fit the cat correctly. You can find the Ravelry project page for this ornament here.

Stjärna Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Stjärna by Karolina Eckerdal

Yarn: Drops Merino Extra Fine, in the shade Off White (01).

I’ve actually already written a whole post about making these Stjärna Ornaments, as part of my Blogmas At Home 2024 series! I had to include it here too though, because one of the four ornaments I knitted was for a present. If you want to read more about my experience making this, you can go directly to that post here!

Grace Blanket

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Grace Blanket by Anita Gibney

Yarn: Wendy Supreme DK, in the shades Cream (WD02), Duck Egg (WD28), Rose (WD09), Soft Peach (WD52) and Natural (WD17).

Another project that I’ve already written a post on, I made this Grace Blanket way back in the summer, while watching the Olympics. Since then, it’s been hiding out in the airing cupboard, waiting to be wrapped and stashed under the tree, buy it’s finally out in the open now and living its best, blanket-y life! If you’d like to read more about my experience making this blanket, you can find the original post here.

Cookie Boxes

Craft: Baking

Treats included:

• German Mandelhörnchen
• Austrian Vanillekipferl
• Mini gingerbread houses
• Peppermint bark
• Rocky Road bark
• Copycat Christmas Market Nuts

Finally, we come to the only edible presents I made this year: my (kind of) cookie boxes. I dream of establishing a tradition where I make a ridiculous amount of cookies, box them up and deliver them to friends and family during Advent (social media and Hallmark films seem to have brainwashed me into obsessing over this particular American custom, and now I can’t get it out of my head…). This wasn’t quite that, but I like to think of it as a little stepping stone into that world.

My ‘cookie boxes’ this year, then, were a mix of cookies and non-cookie-but-still-very-festive treats. My German Mandelhörnchen were such a hit last year that I just had to make them again (and they were just as good as I remember!). I also branched out a little bit with another recipe from Anja Dunk’s festive cookbook, ‘Advent’: Vanillekipferl, which are these little, vanilla-almond crescent cookies. I did like these and I’m excited to play around with them a bit more next year, but the Mandelhörnchen are still my favourite Christmas cookies at the moment. The final cookie entry was a tiny gingerbread house, made using Mima Sinclair’s Light Gingerbread Dough recipe and some tiny gingerbread house cutters from Søstrene Grene (one of my favourite purchases of this festive season).

After that came the non-cookie confectionery, of which there were three types this year: my classic Peppermint Bark and Copycat Christmas Market Nuts (both well-established, festive traditions in my household now), as well as a new addition: Rocky Road Bark. This was a special request from my soon-to-be sister-in-law, which I made using a 50:50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, along with crumbled digestive biscuits, mini marshmallows and raisins.

To package up the cookie boxes, I used these craft paper treat boxes. I lined each box with baking paper, then arrange the cookies inside. Naturally, I ran out of room, so I had to put btoh the barks and the nuts into little treat bags alongside the box, instead. I planned to do this for the peppermint bark anyway, because I didn’t want the peppermint flavour to spread to all of the other treats, so I wasn’t too disappointed. After that, I just closed up the boxes, tied them up with twine and added a little gift tag, to explain all of the treats inside.

Final Thoughts

And that is everything I made to give to my friends and family over the holiday season! It’s not as much as I’ve done in the past (I really love making handmade gifts), but Christmas always seems to sneak up on me, no matter how early I try to start preparing, so I was still pretty impressed with my creative output this year!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas & New Year, and that you’re ready for lots more creative, crafty fun in 2025!

Gemma

xxx

First up is the Panda Bauble:

Isn’t he just adorable?! I made him as a present for my friend. I used this pattern, by Stephanie Lau from All About Ami (who, by the way, is my go-to for all things amigurumi! Stephanie’s patterns are clear, easy to follow and SO cute!). The pattern includes variations for a teddy bear and a koala, so it is very versatile. Overall, it took me about two days to completely finish the bauble, but it could just have easily have been one day, had I not procrastinated the sewing-up process (as always…). If you want to check out my panda bauble on Ravelry, you can click here. If you want to see some other baubles made using Stephanie’s pattern, click here to go to the Ravelry page for the original pattern.

To make my panda bauble, I used:

• Black, white and red yarn from my stash (knowing me, all of these were most likely Stylecraft Special DK – probably 1001 White, 1002 Black and 1246 Lipstick)
• 2.0mm crochet hook
• 7.5mm safety eyes
• Darning needle
• Polyester stuffing

Also, please note that I am British, so I use British crochet terms:

• dc = double crochet = insert hook into stitch, pull yarn through, yarn over and pull through both loops on hook (US equivalent = sc)
• htc = half treble crochet = yarn over, insert hook into stitch, pull yarn through, yarn over and pull through all three loops on hook (US equivalent = half double crochet)
• tc = treble crochet = yarn over, insert hook into stitch, pull yarn through, yarn over and pull through first 2 loops on hook, yarn over and pull through remaining 2 loops on hook (US equivalent = double crochet)
• ss = slip stitch = insert hook into stitch, pull yarn through stitch and loop on hook (the same as in the US, thank goodness!)

I did deviate from Stephanie’s pattern in a couple of places: instead of making the eye patches with felt (I didn’t have any!), I made them with yarn and I made the scarf slightly longer (I think I may have been a bit too generous with my stuffing!). I ended up using 70 ch (instead of the original 62) for my scarf. For the fringing, I split short lengths of my red and white yarn into 3 individual strands. I then used 1 red and 1 white strand together to make each fringe and placed 5 of these fringes on each end of the scarf.

The pattern I used for the eyes was as follows:

R1: 5ch, join to first ch with a slip stitch.*

R2: ss into the loop made in R1. Continuing to work into the loop: htc, 3tc, htc, ss, then ss to the first stitch and fasten off.

Sew eye patches onto bauble in place of felt patches. Attach safety eyes through centre loop of patch.

* I usually prefer to use a magic loop for amigurumi. However, here I found the magic loop did not work as well as a chain loop, because it was too neat! I needed something that I could easily crochet into, but that would remain open enough for me to poke a safety eye through. For once, the chain loop was my best friend!

Anyway, 2 days of intermittent crochet later and I had myself an incredibly cute panda bauble to give to my friend:

I was very pleased with how it turned out! What do you think? Have you made an amigurumi Christmas ornament before? I’ve seen a lot of adorable versions that I would love to have a go at. Let me know!

Gemma

xxx