I love making hand made gifts.

I think there is something really special about taking the time to make something for someone. From the initial idea until the moment you hand it over, the recipient has been in your thoughts. Let’s face it, we are all busy and knowing that someone has taken time out to make you something is special.

I only made a few items as Christmas presents this year but thought I’d share what I made in my first blog post. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for months so maybe regular blogging will become my new years resolution! Maybe…….

First up, I made a couple of scarves as Christmas presents for my in laws. A few months ago Cookston Crafts hosted Jen Hogg in the workshop and she taught a group of us how to use strips of waste cashmere from a Scottish mill called ‘slitter tape’ to create new items. Jen is such a great tutor and I hope to invite her back again in 2020.

These strips are the selvedge edges of woven fabric and they are sooooo buttery soft. Prior to Jen and Ben, her colleague using them in their sustainable textiles project, this tape was deemed to be a waste product and believe it or not sometimes shredded up and used inside upholstery!!

Jen demonstrated how to weave with these beautiful tapes and a group of us spent a leisurely Sunday morning creating the most gorgeous woven cashmere scarves.

These were all machine sewn and the navy one I made was duly parcelled up for my Father in Law’s Christmas. I bought some more tape at the end of the day with the intention that I would make another for my Mother in Law too.

As the weeks drew in and my time was taken up with advent calendars, Christmassy yarn orders, shows, pantos, and parties, I didn’t think I would get it completed in time.

However, one day, the week before Christmas I got together with two friends to have a sewing day (Ellen aka @KalokShekEllen and Theresa aka @riverviewtextiles) It really was pure bliss!

I had a couple of sewing jobs to finish - a few ordered fleecy neckwarmers and hemming some curtains for our spare room. I also had a play around with some free motion embroidery with Theresa’s help and created two little robins.

However, I then set to the red cashmere scarf and this one went together really quickly.

I’m pleased to say the scarves were both well received on Christmas Day. Whilst they weren’t the actual designer cashmere scarves that can fetch up to £800(!) I hope that they’ll be loved that little bit more because they have been made especially for them and are completely unique.

Even my brother was intrigued and that is really saying something! (Seed planted for next year!)

The only other present I made was a pair of hand knit socks. My postie really is amazing. He regularly goes out of his way to help me with the endless parcels and puts up with an excited welcome from Springy Stanley every morning! So he is very knit worthy. The problem of what size to make was solved when his daughter in law (who I used to go to school with) came to a needle felting workshop earlier in December. Living in a small town has it’s negatives but it comes into it’s own when you need to know the size of your Post Man’s feet!

I used a random skein of ‘Tammie Norrie’ that ended up in my stash when it didn’t quite turn out the way it should have (A little lighter with brighter speckles). This colourway is inspired by Puffins or Tammie Norries as we know them in Northern Scotland.

I went for my go to pattern for socks - the fabulous Winwick Mum Basic 4 ply Sock. This is the pattern we use in the Sock Knitting Essentials Workshop and I hope to have another date for this planned soon. It’s such an easy well written pattern.

So as I finish up this post, I hope I’ve spread the wholesome hand made message but I have to confess that those socks were just an apology for the endless online shopping parcels!!

Claire x