Gifted Gorgeousness - January 2025

Welcome to Gifted Gorgeousness (GG) for 2025. I hope to have more to show this year than last. GG is hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and here is the link to the sign-up page and details of what makes a gifted item. In essence it is an opportunity to celebrate any stitching related gifted item that you've made or received. It's hard to believe that it is ten years since Jo started hosting it.

This will be a relatively picture heavy blog post as I sent and received a number of stitching gifts at Christmas. I sent the following ornaments to my friends at Needlecraft Haven.

For Julie:

Snow Birds - Country Cottage Needleworks, 

Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornaments 2013

Fabric: Zweigart 32ct Belfast Pearl linen

Threads: Suggested DMC threads, except 3347 substituted for 3346

Embellishments: White chenille aran wool used for trim

For Clare:

Oh Christmas Tree - Little House Needleworks 

Fabric: Zweigart 32ct Natural opalescent linen

Threads: Suggested DMC threads

Embellishments: DMC ecru and 814 thread for cord trim

For Gill:

Snow Globe Cookie Small - Shannon Christine Designs 

Fabric: The Crafty Kitten Brittney Ltd. Ed. Opal,

Threads: Suggested DMC threads

Embellishments: White chenille aran wool used for trim

For Christine:

Britty Christmas Kitten - Brittercup Designs, 

Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornaments 2005

Fabric: Zweigart 32ct Belfast Flax linen

Threads: Suggested DMC threads, stitched 2 over 2

Embellishments: DMC 523 and 3012 thread for cord trim

I received these beautiful gifts for Christmas.

From Christine:

Seasonal red and green Anchor threads on an owl thread keeper.

I can keep my lip gloss to hand while stitching as it now has its own holder

From Clare: 

Ornaments, chart, threads and chocolate

From Gill:

A Fuchsia bookmark kit

From Gill:

My Needlecraft Haven Christmas exchange ornament

From Julie:

A scarf for wearing to my crossstitch group (and on other occasions)

From Family:

This kit will be my first attempt at Needle Felting

For Christmas 2023, Clare gifted me Faby Reilly's Lily of the Valley biscornu chart. I had high hopes of finishing it for May Day 2024. Instead it became my first finish of 2025. My finish isn't quite square but it looks good.

Lily of the Valley Biscornu - Faby Reilly

Fabric: 32ct Natural linen

Threads: Recommended DMC threads

Embellishments: Recommended metallic thread and beads

Crochet finishes and Knitting starts

In January, I crocheted a shawl for my mum and a scarf for my sister. I'm glad to say that both of them were delighted with their gifts.
I ended up crocheting each item twice! I have no idea why but even though my tension swatch was fine, the finished products ended up shorter than they should have. However, all's well that ends well, the dimensions were better second time around.

Nordic Shawl - Annette Ciccarelli
Wool: Bergere De France IDEAL wool. Colours as suggested except
 I used purple instead of light pink and navy for turquoise.
This meant changing the order of some of the colours.

Granny square triangle shawl
Wool: Mille Colori Socks and Lace Luxe No. 859.0059 - 2 skeins

I love the gold 'thread' woven through this wool and my sister fell in love with the autumnal colours.
Here is a fuller view of the final crochet if worn as a shawl.

Even though our winter has been very mild, I wanted an Aran sweater so I've started this design from Hayfield.

My mum's local wool shop didn't have the Hayfield Bonus Aran wool I wanted so I bought Stylecraft Special Aran in Denim instead. I love how this is knitting up. It is lovely and soft. I'm going to have a new jumper for next winter.

Hayfield Bonus Aran Pattern No. 9219
Wool: Stylecraft Special Aran in Denim

A scarf and other knitting

I decided I wanted a simple, long scarf so I knitted a single rib scarf in Anny Blatt fine kid wool. It took longer to knit up than I thought it would but it was perfect for working on in the evenings as I didn't have to concentrate too hard on what I was doing.

Single rib scarf using one each of 2.75mm and 6.5mm needles
Anny Blatt fine kid wool, Carmin

I also wanted a simple sweater that would knit up quickly so I'm knitting this sweater in Anny Blatt fine kid, Genepi. The back is almost finished. As I am a tight knitter, I am using 6.5mm rather than the recommended 6mm knitting needles for this jumper.

Jumper using Anny Blatt fine kid, Genepi on 6.5mm needles

Needless to say with all this knitting, I'm doing very little stitching at the moment. However, as my Granny used to say 'A change is as good as a rest' and I find it hard to sit in the evenings and not be doing something with my hands.

One ball of wool = one finished scarf

Once I got into the pattern on this scarf, I didn't want to put my knitting down. So here is the completed scarf. It looks shorter than the model but I had the recommended tension. My sister will be happy with this length as she didn't want it too long. I just need to buy more wool so that I can knit one for myself.

Albertine - Louisa Harding
knitted with Louisa Harding Pittura wool

One ball of wool = one scarf

Last week my sister and I were in a lovely little wool shop, Tricot & Co, in Mirepoix. She fell in love with some yarn and a scarf pattern so I agreed to knit it for her. I bought this ball of Louisa Harding wool ...

... to knit this scarf.

I have until the end of the year to complete it and based on my sample knit of the pattern, it will take me that long. It will be a pick up and put down project for when I'm in the mood for knitting.