Holiday Knitting

I decided I was going to do some holiday knitting this year. I'm not sure if it's some weird maternal knitting instinct since I'm pregnant. Or if knitting is just a really great relaxing thing for me to do. My mind was so preoccupied with to-do lists and things to take care of between holiday preparations and getting ready for Baby. Knitting is a really great thing to do to just escape. I usually do that with reading too, but for some reason, the last month or so, I cannot focus enough to get into books. So knitting it is.

I started off planning on knitting my stepdad some socks and my mom a scarf. Then I enjoyed the pattern for the scarf I made Ella's speech therapist so much that I decided to knit up another one of those for my stepmom. Then, in the middle of all that, Ella asked me if I would knit her American Girl doll mittens. Of course, I couldn't just make the doll mittens. So I added a hat and scarf for it as well. And of course, I could couldn't just make Ella's doll a winter set, I had to make Lily's doll a set as well.

Ella really likes everything I make for her and I hadn't made a hat for her in a couple years. So I decided to quick knit up a hat and scarf for each of the girls to match their winter coats. I found yarn at Michael's that matched perfectly so I couldn't pass it up.

Shockingly, I got ALL of that finished up by Christmas Eve morning. And everyone seemed to really enjoy their gifts. The added bonus of making something is that I didn't have to do as much holiday shopping in the stores. Well, I did make a couple trips to the yarn shop. But really, that's not quite a hardship. That's pure fun for me! :-) I also managed to knit up a few items for our friends' Matt and Allison's daughter Lilah for her Build-a-Bear Penguin we gave her for Christmas. But I didn't remember to take a photo of it before I sent it off.

Below are some photos of my finished projects.

Ella's dolls' winter set and her matching hat/scarf:





Here's Lily's doll's winter set (on Ella's doll--Lily was napping with her doll when I took the photos):





And here's my mom, my stepdad and my stepmom, respectively:

I will have to take a more close-up photo of my mom's scarf because you can't really see the details of the swirls very well in this picture.



And now I'm on to knitting up a few things for Baby!! I am sooo looking forward to taking photos of Baby when he arrives and I wanted to knit up a couple things to use in the photos and well, for everyday wear as well.