Playing catch-up some more: Christmas Gifts

This year, for Christmas (Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Newtonmas, whatever), I thought I'd save a bit of money and make presents for all my friends and family. This meant that I spent the entire bus ride home, as well as the few days before Christmas, crafting like a madwoman.

For my friend Etienne, I made an adorable pink Ganesh stuffie with a mouse mount, which I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of before giving it away. I got the idea for this gift from this website. I couldn't find a pattern, so I made my own, though I didn't write it down at the time, so I can't share. It was very simple though, and I'm sure anyone with a little bit of experience could probably figure it out. Etienne is an ex-religion student, and so I thought this was perfect for him.



For my mother, I made the asphyxiation choker, and the Julie cuff. The former I had to modify to fit my mom's very small neck, and the latter, I used black crochet cotton, so I had to modify it to make it long enough to go around mom's wrist. They both turned out pretty well, though I don't think I'll make the Julie cuff again.



For my brother, a simple hat and scarf. The hat was that It's a Toque, Eh? pattern from Not Your Mama's Crochet, and the scarf was a simple garter stitch thing in a lovely chunky wool.



And for my dad, I also made a toque combo, only instead of a scarf, I made this nifty neck warmer, a first attempt with circular needles. I'm fairly happy with the results.



Finally, my good friend Liisa commissioned a berry bag from me as a gift for her sister. The end product turned out reasonably well, but, even having followed that pattern to a T, the bag seemed to be much too narrow. Fortunately, it's really stretchy... and totally adorable.



With the yarn left over from that project, I was able to make a little gift for Liisa, a cute little rose choker, which ended up being my second published pattern! (I'll talk about the first one some other time.)