Knitting For Yule

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...something handmade?

Yes! For all you crafty lassies and laddies out there, this is the best time of year to get into crafting mode and make a little something for someone you love. Making things is always fun and economical, not to mention you might learn a new skill in the process. You don't even have to love them, just make them something to let them know you care, because that is what this time of year is all about, right?

Now I can't speak for anyone else out there because, as we all know, everyone is different (that's what makes life interesting), but I love knitting and I figured that since I don't have much going on right now, I should go the handmade route for gifts this year. With that in mind, I (sort of) created my own pattern for a washcloth/dishcloth, which I'm giving as a gift with a bar of handmade soap (which I also made, but that's another blog post entirely).

I know my friends would love anything I gave them, but I like making things so it's a good way for me to get creative and work with my hands. Plus I get to improve my knit and purl technique in the meantime, which is good for those long, cold, winter days when I really want to be indoors but don't want to be bored.

As a crafty witch, I just love this kind of stuff. Here's the ones I've made so far with the bordered basket-weave pattern I came up with. It's simple but playful, and looks very nice in the cotton yarn. For any knitters reading this, I spruced up a basic pattern and knit on smaller needles so my cloths would be thicker and stiffer, good for more scrubbing action in the sink/shower. I used two different brands of cotton yarn for these: Lily Sugar and Cream, and Peaches and Creme (a brand I had never used before but was lovely as well). I'm so used to knitting with cotton it's like second nature now.

Here are a few of my finished cloths. Patterns look best on solid colours, but I love the ombre shades of cotton yarn. They are look so cute when finished, and the colour selection available is great. If you know someone has a certain colour scheme in their home or bathroom, or they really like a specific colour, you can always pick a yarn to match. Personalized gifts tend to bring out the biggest smiles, in my experience.

And a close-up shot of the pattern. By the way, the different between the two green cloths is that they have different border stitching. The one on the left is in garter stitch, the one on the right is in seed stitch. Both are pretty, but I'm especially fond of the garter stitch border. It looks a bit neater to me. 

This is the big ball of Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn I bought for the rest of the washcloths. It's a pretty big ball, so I hope I can get at least 5 washcloths out of it!

That's all I have so far for my handmade gifts, but keep checking in to my '21 Days of Yule' blog posts. I will be talking about handmade soap in a future post. 

And don't forget to comment! The Yuletide giveaway is on, so the more you comment the more chances you  have of winning. 

The December countdown to Yule is officially on- have a good night and if you have anything to add about your own experience in handmade gifting, let everyone know by posting a comment. They are always welcome :)