Christmas Craftiness part 1

I hope you had a great Christmas! Mine was full of non-Christmassy films and far too many chocolate oranges. As usual, I'm finding the few days between Christmas and New Year a bit strange - I'm feeling like hiberbating but I need to do some serious tidying and organising.

I made a few presents this year, these ones were using the patterns from the Alphabet Motif Club designed by Carina. The club patterns are still available, but Carina is temporarily shutting her shop from 1 January to deal with the EU VAT changes. There are more details and coupon codes here.

I had to frantically finish this piece, take a photo and wrap it up in the same evening which is why this photo is a bit washed out - it's much prettier in real life! It was the first time I'd used the "yay!" stitch... I wrapped the 4" hoop with dark greeny-blue wool to add to the rustic feel.

This one was finished on Christmas Day in front of Doctor Who (I wasn't that impressed with the Christmas episode, I actually fell asleep at one point. I like the new Doctor but the scripts have been pretty weak for a while). I'd had very little sleep that week so my tracing on a window was a bit wonky - the green lines at the bottom aren't where they're supposed to be, but I think it still works as it's consistent. This hoop is wrapped in brown wool. I prefer the wool wrapping to painting the hoops for these motifs. I want to try more hoop decorations next year, especially using crochet.

I suspect several more of my friends will be getting these alphabet hoops over the next few months and I'll definitely be making one for myself!