Some Gifts I've Made Recently

I made some fun gifts for children I know for Christmas and of course could not be bothered to take any pictures of them before giving them away. So I have a couple of shots taken by parents of the recipients that I hope they don't mind me posting here.

First, for my nephews, Zachary and Gavin, I made these cork knights and ninjas (links are to patterns).


Each of the boys had three knights and a ninja (because what army is complete without a ninja?) in different colors. This is one set with both of the ninjas--the other knights were busy at the time. I'm going to make more of these because I love them so much.

I also made some play silks for my almost-nephew, Wyatt. They were fun to make, but time consuming because I had to keep redyeing to get them as bright as I wanted. Or almost as bright, anyway. (They look more subdued in the picture than in reality.)


He's wearing one of the play silks and most of the rest are hanging on the play stand behind him. His mom and grandfather made the gorgeous play stand, by the way.

And finally, for my nephew Zachary's birthday, I made a sock doll. And I actually managed to take a picture of this one before I gave it to him. I'm not much of a sewer, although I do have a sewing machine which is still in the box (I've promised myself to start to learn to use it this year.) so this was a little more outside my normal crafts.


It's all handsewn (so I didn't have to get the sewing machine out yet) and I used a tutorial from the book Stray Sock Sewing by Daniel. I found the tutorial and book a little hard to follow for a beginner, but I think that was more a problem with the translation than the book. Also I've discovered I'm a much worse embroiderer than I am a handsewer, so he got a button face instead of the embroidered one I was planning. I guess that's something else I need to learn.