Knit hats and slippers

This Christmas I couldn't afford to purchase gifts, but I did have yarn on hand and a ton of patterns. So I set to knitting and crocheting. I made two hats, one black (not shown) and one blue, using the pattern "Hot Head" from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'n bitch: The Knitter's Handbook". A basic K2 P2 pattern, this hat knits up very quickly. The pattern calls for a bulky yarn, so for this blue one I used Lion Brand's Homespun. I made a pair of matching slippers but need to figure a way to tighten them up a bit, as they ended up looser then I anticipated. (Maybe a braided cord woven through to cinch it up will work.)

 This pair of slippers I made for my oldest son. His favorite colors are read and black. Now, since the pair I made him last year using acrylic yarn ended up with a big hole in the toe (he wears them till the fall apart) I decided to try a wool/mohair yarn. The slippers came out nice and thick and not floppy. Though they are pilling already (he sleeps with them on). The pattern for this is very nearly identical to the one my Mother has always used, with a slight difference in the number cast on and the toe finish. Here is a link to one of the many websites touting this pattern: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/maggieslippers.html

The last thing I completed this season was this little amigurumi crobot called Mechanobot. The pattern is in the book "CROBOTS: 20 amigurumi robots to make" by Nelly Pailloux

Each Christmas my Family does a secret santa where each family draws household names to determine which family you will be "santa" to. Nothing big or fancy is necessary, but this way we don't feel like we need to get something for everyone (there's a lot of us). You only have to shop for one household. Though I can't say who I got for 2014, I can say that I will be going through my pattern books and scouring the internet to find those perfect gifts to knit and crochet. I'll let you know in a year what I come up with. Wish me luck. I think I'm going to need more yarn  :)