Hand Made Xmas

It may be a bit early to be talking Christmas already, but I've made a commitment to myself this year that we will have a completely hand-made Xmas this year, so I have to start early.

I've already started my knitting for Xmas, and hope to have it done completely by the middle of November, including gifts and small gift bags I'm going to knit up from cashmere and other luxe fibers.  I'm hoping to do a bit of jewellery making this year, I haven't done that in over a decade, so I'll have to stock up on tools and supplies and will be working on some of that over the summer and fall.

Come December 1st, I want to be starting in on baking and food prep.  I want to do cookies, some soup mixes using organic veggies I dry myself in the dehydrator, and maybe some breads or freezer entrees for the busier people on my list.  Add to that small fabric gift bags, hand-made Xmas ornaments and cards and a few little stocking stuffers of all types and I probably have a years worth of work ahead of me.

I just picked up some Malabrigo worsted to make myself a Foliage hat, and I've just fallen in love with this yarn.  I'm going to make up a bunch of Foliage hats in both worsted and chunky for Xmas, plus a couple of slouchy berets (Ravelry link), then make myself a Rogue pullover in a rich green or maybe red in the Malabrigo.

That sweater will be my reward for losing another 20lbs or so.  I refuse to make myself a beautiful sweater from an expensive wool while I'm 20-30lbs overweight.  The chance to make myself some really nice handknits from beautiful wools and being able to save some money on skeins of wool is a really nice incentive to not dive into that bag of nacho chips.