Christmas gifts.

The purses were ridiculously easy. Well, as easy as working with that yarn could possibly be. It's good at snagging while you work. I did one of these in HDC and one in DC. They're pretty small, but as they're being given to toddlers that hardly matters. They're already trying to steal them; I need to hide 'em until I can wrap them.

And I still have plenty of the yarn left! I'd like to make Barbie a fur coat, but I'm not willing to work in that small a scale with this yarn, LOL.

Right now I'm working on a beret from the pattern calendar. It's about to make me scream. There's a yarn listed on the pattern, but it's wool and I don't use wool. I'm highly allergic; even the expensive stuff like cashmere makes me itch like crazy. So I needed to substitute it. No weight listed on the pattern. No problem, I'll look it up online and find out the weight. Well, apparently even the people who make the blasted stuff (it's Emanuella by Goddess yarns, btw) don't know the weight! And, there's no gauge listed on the blasted pattern, so I've pretty much been reduced to making it with the hook called for and the yarn I happen to have and hoping it fits. I'm gonna be so pissed if I have to frog it once it's done! I was flipping through the patterns again last night, & a lot of them are missing the gauge. I hate that. I try to always have a gauge on my patterns that are for wearable items. It doesn't really take a whole lot of effort to stop while you're crocheting whatever and measure/count to get a gauge, if you're allergic to gauge swatches.
This is a bug I made for Esther. It should be a caterpillar, but I didn't put legs on it because I'm a bit paranoid about her eventually being able to tear them off.

The popular thing these days is to make baby toys in red, white, and black--commercial stuff, that is. Newborns can see contrasts best. But babies like bright colors, and Esther's already getting obviously better at focussing. This is made with Red Heart Simply Soft Brights. And bright it is. The orange is definitely something I wouldn't tend to buy just for its own sake, but it's for a baby toy, and so...

I'm also planning on making her a little star grab toy. Esther seems to mean star, as best I can tell. So I think stars are going to be her thing, like butterflies are Linda's and kitties are Bobbie's. I'll have lots and lots of leftover yarn after I make that, of course. Not too sure what to make with the rest of it. I'll wait for inspiration to strike, I guess. Well, I am also going to make her just a soft ball, but I don't know about the coloring for that yet.