Christmas tea towels

I think last year (hmm my stitching seems to have improved!) when I did tea towels majorly for Christmas, I wasn’t going to do tea towels again this Christmas, in fact during a recent conversation with my dad when I said I was making him something for Christmas, he goes “You’re not making me tea towels for Christmas again, are you?”, don’t worry dad, these ones I just stitched up aren’t for you.

These are all for various (great) aunts and uncles (who didn’t get tea towels last year, I’m not that predictable).  The patterns are all from Sublime Stitching’s Christmas Time and were a pleasure to stitch.

The tea towels themselves are *gulp* handmade as well, as I just couldn’t find any plain white tea towels in my local very large shopping centre. Last year I used Sublime Stitching’s plain white tea towels, which were far easier to use, although my dad claimed he had to iron them when he got them out of the drier, whether that’s the tea towels or my dad’s domestic skills, who knows? I would have gone for Sublime Stitching tea towels again but couldn’t wait this time for the shipping time, so after finding no white tea towels, I ended up making my own, which were easy to do but a bit of a drag with all that hemming. Heaven know’s what they’re like for actually drying anything with though, no idea!

Next Christmas I will not be doing tea towels.

I made a hat! Possibly a slightly too small hat!

As I blogged about recently, I’ve been having trouble finding a hat for Boy Lacer for Christmas, he has a very large head and no longer fits into children’s hats (or some adult ones), so I decided to make one. Buying a ball of gorgeous Noro wool works out cheaper than an adult hat made out of not so nice wool. So I braved my fear of knitting something that wasn’t a rectangle and knitted, roughly following a pattern I found on the net (I made it bigger and stuck to just stockingette stitch, I was really just looking for guidance on when to decrease stitches and then sewed it together – certainly not brave enough to knit on the round yet).

The result, well I’m pleased with it, but a ball of Noro wool can do that, make the most cack handed knitting look great. However, it is possibly too small, I’ve tested it in Mr. Lacer and he finds it a little tight, so I’ve been stretching it a bit. It just about fits on my head (Boy Lacer gets large head size from me), so hopefully.

Talking of Christmas, I blogged (again recently) rather proudly that Girl Lacer wasn’t yet asking for a DSLite, well I shouldn’t have counted my chickens, a conversation this morning -

Girl Lacer: I know what I’m going to write in my letter to Father Christmas.
Me: I thought you weren’t going to write a letter to him?
Girl Lacer: We’re doing it at school.
Me: (thinking – Grrrhhh school, I’ve done my shopping already!) What are you going to write?
Girl Lacer: That I want a DS and a wii.
Me: Oh! Well you know, Father Christmas has so many toys to make I think he may have made yours already, before you wrote him a letter. Do you actually know what a DS and a wii are?
Girl Lacer: No, I just want them to see what they are.
This is where I debate whether to actually tell her or not. She’s obviously heard about them in class and I don’t want her being teased because she doesn’t know what they are, yet telling her would make her more likely to actually want one. I go for the telling option.
Me: Well a wii is that thing Grandma has got that you play tennis and bowling on and a DS is a type of computer game thing.
Girl Lacer: Oh I really want them now!
Internal groan. After enquiring exactly who in her class wanted a DS and a wii, two boys, neither particularly close friends of hers.
Me: Well you know a DS and a wii are really big kid toys, I know you’re big now but it’s more for when you’re 7, 8, 9. If you got one now what would you get for Christmas when you’re 7, 8, 9?
Girl Lacer with big grin: More computer games!
At this point I mumble something about how Father Christmas probably thinks wiis and DSs are something you buy with Christmas money.

Anyway here’s a photo of a far more innocent Christmas present, modelled by big bear.