Thanksmas, Christmas at Thanksgiving

My sister likes to have Christmas at their house for the kids, but my Dad can't travel for health reasons. So we all go to my parent's house at Thanksgiving and celebrate our family Christmas then (dubbed Thanksmas).

I am not much of a pre-planner when it comes to Christmas shopping. I often wait until the week before Thanksmas to shop for gifts (we are talking mid-November, so I am not fighting the Christmas crowds). This year I have a lot of handmade gifts planned so I have to kick it in gear now.

As luck would have it, I have some gifts that I started for last Thanksmas that did not get finished in time, so they are already done or partially completed. I am only going to post projects for the kids and projects that the recipients know about, so I don't totally ruin the surprise.

We always seem to be short on stockings at Thanksmas so I thought last year I'd make some for my sister's kids. They were not done in time but I did finish them when I got back. I made these out of felted sweaters. As you can see I had to put a seam in the darker one as the sweater was not big enough, but I think it looks like part of the design. I did make sure to align the stripes when attaching them together. I hand embroidered their names at the top. I think they turned out great, but feel I should have made the stockings bigger and also used thicker thread for the embroidery.

I have new projects planned as well. I went to a rockin' 50% off yarn sale the other day. I bought yarn to make scarves for the kids (blend of Merino wool, cashmere, and acrylic). As I was knitting along on the first one, I realized that one skein was not enough yarn. So I decided to make it a neck scarf, the type that has the hole in it to pull the other end through. I've made good progress on the first one and may have enough yarn to get to the recommended 22" final length. I tried it out and I hope my 6 year old niece has a skinnier neck than I do!  I think it will be okay, and I will make sure to block it when I am done. This is a simple pattern, K a row, then K2, P2 (repeat) across the second row, and repeat these two rows. The hole is from 14" to 17". I used 26 stitches across, the original pattern was for 30.

I think I will be making my nephew a hat instead as it's a bit girlie.