My Creative Christmas

I have always made presents for people, especially at Christmas. Those gifts depicted whatever craft I was into at the time. There was my macramé year, then pottery and ceramics, to name a few.

Sometimes I’ve done art work, but always there has been some element of knot or crochet. A few years ago I was ambitious enough to try for a sweater for every family member, but I’m beyond attempting that now.

Last year I made a hat, or a hat/scarf or hat/mitts, for everyone. The family picture was taken with each person wearing their hat. This year I went for slippers.

It’s my daughter’s fault for sending me a photo from Pinterest of a pair of slipper boots. I decided to make everyone a pair, and duplicate our hat picture only with slippers. Now, I’d already made 11 Christmas stockings, so slippers, no problem.

I tried the pattern that my daughter sent, and it was awful. I tried it so many times, making alterations, changing yarn, changing hooks. Still awful. I completed one pair to show her, and a second pair in the smallest size, just in case. Count...2.

Then I went in search of other patterns, because I was not going to be swayed from my plan.

I found a pattern that looks like an Ugh boot, and they were better, but the sizing was limited and for some, the slippers would have been too big, and just sloppy. But that did account for 4 more pairs to add to my stash. Count...6.

One problem was finding a pattern for small kids, but bigger than toddler size. I found one pattern which was easily adapted for size, and now I had seven in total. I tried another pattern with very little shaping, made a few and rejected them all, but they added to my total. Count...10.

Thank goodness I finally found the perfect pattern. I made seven more pairs, all I needed was eleven, but the count was now 17. The last pattern I found was the best and the most easily adapted. I had extras, as you can see, and took them all with me to our gathering.

Everyone who got a pair made with the last pattern, loved them, except my grandson because red is his favourite colour and he wanted the original Ugh type pair I’d made for him (in red), which I’d discarded as I thought they’d be too big. So, he got 2 pairs.

Somehow, my daughter kept the original pair, and they will most likely find their way to a bag of donated clothes. I had made two different patterns in the same grey and pink variegated, and one granddaughter grabbed another pair for herself. Someone else must have grabbed another pair because I only came home with 2 pairs.

I got my picture of the family, with all their warm and cozy feet. I’m already thinking ahead to a theme for next year. Let the family be warned.