Tis the season for too many hand made presents

Every Christmas I get way too ambitious and tell myself I'm going to make a zillion and one hand made gifts.  This year, I really went overboard.  After making my halloween costume, I realized my yarn stash had grown unmanageable and needed a serious purging.  It was time for some one-ball wonder patterns to use up the various odds and ends hanging around.

My first stash buster is a pair of fingerless mittens knit for my sister-in-law.  They're made from Plymouth Yarn's Trabajos del Peru using this pattern.  I thought the cuff on the top looked dorky though, so I replaced it with just some simple ribbing.

Those were so quick and easy to knit up that I decided to whip up a few more pairs.  I found this cute pattern for wrist warmers, and set about making two pairs.

I found the perfect buttons at JoAnn.  Little owls for my friend Kelly, who wears a sunny yellow derby helmet and has an adorable kitschy style and the skulls for my friend Jenn, who plays for the Damas de los Muertos and is just generally fabulous.

I really liked the seed stitch pattern, and decided to try to get a little creative with it.  These wrist warmers have a nice girly flair, and were made with just adding stitches in four places as I went up.  They were gifted to the lovely Thu.

I also knit a gorgeous lace cowl for my step mother in law and a cute spiral scarf for my sister in law, Indigo, but I forgot to take pictures of them before wrapping them.  Even without visual proof, I can still check off three relatives on my Thirty Things Item #17.  Yay for progress!