CHRISTMAS MAY BE A FEW DAYS AWAY
BUT THERE IS STILL TIME
TO ADD A PERSONAL TOUCH TO YOUR GIFTS.
In the last few days I’ve felt this sudden rush with Christmas approaching so fast. It’s madness really, and exacerbated by the fact we were it with a 36 degree day yesterday.
It's easy to get rolled up in the grandeur and commercialism that is Christmas.
In our home this year we've tried to minimise our expenditure and waste we generate. I wouldn't say we've mastered it but we're on our way to reducing our footprint, and Christmas should be no exception.
One of the wasteful parts of Christmas or gift giving in general I find is the wrapping. Within moments of being given it's disposed of but to contradict, I do love to put as much thought into the wrapping as buying the present for someone. AND thats the reason for this last minute post.
There's two components to this post. CROCHET STARS review and CHRISTMAS WRAPPING.
Dig into your cupboards and your stash to add a simple and home made touch to your gift giving. All the material in this post where items in my home or garden. I bought nothing new.
CROCHET STARS
Lets start with the fun part, the Crochet Stars 🌟Not having the head space to be super creative this year I trawled Pinterest for crochet wrapping ideas. I've chosen my favourite 3 to show you. These include patterns from:
All patterns are free, they're all simple designs and techniques and will take no more than 5 mins to whip up. All 3 are written in US terminology, Spincushions however is an Australian designer and has UK terms included.
All have written instructions, Spincushions and Persia Lou also include visual step by step instructions in their post. They list all the materials you'll need but use anything yarn you can find. For my stars I used left over cotton from washcloths I made earlier in the year.
All stars are with a worsted weight cotton with a 4.5mm hook. I also crocheted in a metallic coloured thread I had in my sewing box, you should see hints of colour in Persia Lou's star. Beauty of these you'r not limited. Use any colour yarns, any weight and mix up your hook size. Easy wee project to mix it up and frog if you don't like it.
The photo you see above are my stars unblocked. I teased the points out a little but no more than that. I'm a little laxy at the moment and lacking in time...
If thats the case for you I would stick with either Spincushions or One dog woofs patterns. Persia Lou's star is beautiful but I think could do with a good wash and block to make it shine.
CHRISTMAS WRAPPING
As I mentioned earlier my gift wrapping consisted of only items I found in my home, the wrapping paper, ribbon and tags all from stuff in my cupboard.
Wrapping: Butchers paper left over from moving last year.
Twine: Cooking rope (used for one roast, and haven't touched it since). Sub it with yarn in your stash, cotton, garden twine, or ribbon anything you can find. My partner thought cable ties were a good idea. Theres no bad ideas but we did pass on this one.
Tags: Craft cardboard I took from my kids stash. I drew up a 7.5cm x 3cm grid. Once cut out, I snipped the corners on one side and punched a hole in the same end with a hole punch.
Extra embellishment: Rosemary from the garden. I thought it gave it an extra touch of Chrissy. Use fallen gum tree leaves or any other long lasting green leaves.
I wrapped the parcel up as normal with the twine, and tied a knot.
Slip the Crochet star and Tag on, wrap around the rosemary twice close to the tag and finally tie a bow.
There's many ways you can compile your present, make it your own, keep it simple and enjoy the art of giving.
A very Happy Christmas to you all and a prosperous New year.
Leah x