Christmas In July

All Craftspeople know about Christmas in July. The craft stores have their Christmas displays up and seasonal fabrics and yarns appear. It may seem too early to those who don't make their own gifts and decorations, but a Craftsperson knows that if you want to have nearly everything done by Christmas, you must start at least by July. Actually, it's best to start the day after Christmas, and you never get everything done. I've often sat up on Christmas Eve putting the last stitches into some gift that got a late start.


I already have a nice little stash of gifts put away in my gift closet, but this is the time to get all the tools together and make lists of supplies that will be needed. My knitting needles defy organization. I keep them in this box, so I know they're all there, but they need to be matched up somehow. After all these years, it's probably not going to happen.


I have my yarn ready. Last year I took advantage of some good deals on e-Bay to find seasonal yarn. I have several knitting projects planned.


This is suede yarn for a poncho. I think I'll wait till cooler weather to start this one. There's no hurry as it's a gift for myself.


I found some cute dog themed fabrics. Every year we have to repair or replace doggy beds and these also make good pillow backings for friends.


Of course there are Christmas patterned fabrics for any number of projects. I want to make some Christmas pillow cases for the bed this year.



Here is a project I have almost finished. It's an afghan. I have to finish the border and attach the fringe and it will be ready. It's quite large and has a snowflake stitch that makes it quite pretty.



I enjoy making Christmas stockings and I think I do a good job, but how many Christmas stockings does a person really need? I knit a pair when we were first married and we still use them. At that time we had three dogs, so I knit each of them a stocking, too.

A couple years later I made this pair. I really like these, but I won't use them. I don't want them to get messed up.



Then a few years later, I made these. They were more work, but I don't like them as well.



I found this cute doggy stocking in an after holiday sale. This is velvet, so dog drool wouldn't look good on it. We hang it up because it's cute, but the dogs have a tradition all their own that I'll write about later.


I have a few gift projects in mind and the time to start is now. The problem is finding the time between dog meals, outings and obedience training. That doesn't leave much time for housework, does it?