This is Lucas’s first Christmas and his Mummy has just finished her first knitting project. It’s made from this pattern, in deliciously soft  Blue Sky Dyed Organic Cotton.

I think he likes it.

and I’d like to be him, sitting on the sofa sucking my thumb, leaving all the worrying and panicking and shopping to the grown ups.

But there’s no need to panic about presents when you can knit and sew, right?

Here’s what I’ve been making for those people in my life who are difficult to buy gifts for: the men of the family.

A shirt for David in seersucker bought at a vintage textile show back in September. Considering the leaning tower of Pisa that is my fabric collection, I’m quite pleased with myself for actually using this one. I hope it fits!

I’m always at a loss to know what to give my son Pete. Being a young man in London, site of recent heavy snowfall, he tells me he needs mittens for when he rides his bike, so I’ve made him these, in Jade Sapphire 6 ply cashmere.

Isn’t it helpful when people tell you what they want? It spoils the surprise but at least you know that the thing you laboured over doesn’t end up lining the dog’s basket.

The pattern is from Robyn Melanson’s lovely book Knitting New Mitten and Gloves.

and for a little South Seas Christmas spirit, here’s our native Stitchbird (Maori name Hihi) sitting on a Pohutukawa, which is known in the USA as the New Zealand Christmas Tree.

In California they bloom in June but here in the southern hemisphere they put on a spectacular show for us at Christmas. It sort of makes up for our lack of tinsel and snow.

Happy holidays!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 7:29 pm and is filed under books, designs, patterns for sale, yarns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.