December Gifted Gorgeousness

I'm very late posting this (in fact, it might well be my last post of the year, considering how I'm never on time with the WIPocalypse stuff!), but with the typical craziness of December, I didn't manage to post before Christmas, and was kept plenty busy after. But here I finally am, so let's go! Welcome to the December iteration of Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness. Can't believe another year is almost over, can you?

December usually is a great month for gifts, but I've already shown you the ornaments I made this year, so that leaves us with only two. One is this new baby jacket that I started (and hope to finish soon, so it can be worn this winter):

The other is my Snuggle Up blanket (the yarn for which was a birthday gift this year), and I finally managed to finish part 9! Just 3 more to go, and it's getting BIG.

That's it from me for today. I have to go back to some family activities now, but hope to find some more time to get caught up on all my blog reading and comments after the new year!

November Temperature SAL

Oh boy, it's been a busy two weeks, and I just realized I never posted my Temperature Tree for November! This is going to be a quick one, but here we go:

November was quite a bit cooler, with lots of greens and even some blues showing up. I know that for December we'll get deep into the blues and maybe even purples because some days have been frightfully cold! As you can see, I already stitched up the branch for December too, so will just have to fill in the last leaves. It was really hard to be so close to a finish and not be able to finish it!

Sunset Talvi

I was just going through my list of what blog posts I am still missing (thankfully, it has become a rather short list!) and found this picture of a finish I had a couple weeks (if not months) ago and still not posted! 

When I got this stunning yarn from a friend, I just had to find a simple pattern that would really bring it out, and I decided to do another Talvi by Morben Design (had only done a child size before). It's big and fluffy and the colours are brilliant!

Just the right thing to wear outside at the moment, as we are hit with a cold wave, snow and ice and all that stuff that really makes you want to stay inside and curl up with some stitching!

The People Chose Glitter

This month's theme for Jo's wonderful all purpose SAL is 'Glitter'. And isn't that a fabulous theme for the month of Christmas?! What I'm not as sure about is how to translate that into stitching. Sure, I love a bit of bling as much as the next girl, but I wouldn't necessarily call beads or metallics 'glitter'. What glitter I do have is this fabric which is literally spray painted with glitter (and thus, a little sticky) and VERY glittery - but it barely shows up in the picture!

I think it's the same with the blending filament on the Mermaid here...sparkly in person, barely showing up in the picture! I think with glitter, you just got to trust the one taking the picture!

 

December Fully Finished Gallery

This month for the Fully Finished Gallery, I meant to have frame Felix something special, but he's been terribly busy and I got another finish to put this post up (almost) in time, so I'll go for that one instead!

Over the last two weeks or so, I stitched up and finished the last of this year's ornaments - This is Sugarplum by Cindy Valentine Designs, from the 2005 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. The original was charted in creams and soft pinks, but I used what I had in stash and did a purple version instead!

We had a rare snow day here, so I took advantage of that to get pretty pictures! Feels good to be done with my ornaments almost two weeks ahead of Christmas this year!

2022 Stitching Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Today it's my turn to open (or wait behind?) a door on Jo's wonderful advent calendar! No idea what I'm taking about? Check out the full thing here.

I am also reposting these ornaments I finished earlier, because I really like how they turned out!

This year's conversation topic is What's for afters?, afters being dessert (learnt a new word today - check!). Meaning what do we eat after the big meal of Christmas? I'm putting it like that on purpose, because the 'big one' in Germany is Christmas Eve, not Christmas day. However, it's not a good question for me, because - we don't really do dessert on Christmas Eve either! We have dinner, usually around 6pm (which used to be when we got home from church, but since grandma isn't very mobile anymore, we don't go now most years), and after dinner we are moving into the living room to open presents. And eat lots of chocolates and Christmas cookies, so I guess that counts as 'afters'?

Then, since Felix and I got together, we are driving up to visit his family on Christmas Day, and there is a big family celebration at his grandma's house in the afternoon. Again there is no 'afters', but 'befores' - we are having cake (everyone brings some), then spend time together and later have dinner. Also more cookies and chocolate! This year, I'm going to bake a carrot cake and bring it up with us.