Inspired by chatelaine’s thread: Crafty Folks, what homemade gifts will you be giving this Christmas/Yuletide/Solstice/Insert Winter Gift-Giving Holiday Here?
I’ve finished a pair of slippers for my mom (knitted and felted), and am 3/4 of the way finished with two stuffed animals, a dog and a cat, for two of my nephews. I’ll also be making a fleece jacket for one nephew and a pair of denim overalls with a T-shirt for another.
Who else is busy crafting this Yuletide?
I’m knitting a scarf, hat and mittens for my daughter, at her request. She is also learning to knit and on Thanksgiving she knitted about ten rows on her own gift! I managed to correct her accidental increases without ripping…I’m leaving the bump in as future “this is where you learned to knit” moments. Since I don’t know how to knit mittens, the next few weeks should be fun.
I made amaretto cream liquer as gifts for adult coworkers last year. This year I want to try something minty, but can’t find the perfect recipe yet.
I have two baby quilts I’m finishing up that will probably go out as Christmas gifts…a third is done and will be shipped tomorrow.
If my daughter’s hat goes well, I may have time to make one for my son…but his won’t be the Kittyville hat!
Since I finally learned how to crochet[single, only], I have been at it fast and furiously. Two afghans are finished[sofa-sized] and a third one is about half done. All this in about a month’s time, interspersed with making baby-sized afghans for a local hospital. It’s amazing how quickly you can get one done using a Q-hook and 2 strands of yarn. Don’t know yet what to do for my pollyanna.
Do kitchen-homemade gifts count?
I make tons and tons of pesto every August/September, and then freeze it.
This summer was pretty good for basil, I have plenty to give and plenty to keep.
I also bake pumpkin-chocolate chip bread as well as cranberry-orange nut bread.
I am working on a few cross-stitch ornaments – I just started yesterday, but they are simple enough I can crank 'em out pretty fast. They’re not too cute OR too complicated, and it took me forever to find the book, and I need to go pick up a couple of colors of floss that the store I went to yesterday was out of.
I’m not sure exactly who will get which, except that one is for my SO’s parents, and he doesn’t know that yet. He’ll find out right before he leaves to go see them for a week while I stay here and my brother visits us. (YAY! For my brother, not my sweetie leaving.) I haven’t met them yet, so I hope this is a nice icebreaker kind of thing. I’ll probably be meeting them in the next few months.
gulp
Fleece sweaters/pullovers for my sister and my paddling partner.
I’m puzzling this question out even as we speak. The aunts (two, elderly) are getting pretty sweaters from Kohl’s (50% off, yay!) and I’m making a pin for one and a necklace for the other to coordinate. Everyone will get a handmade ornament, but that’s kind of a cheater gift, because I made loads this summer and only sold a few at the craft fair - and they’re dated 2004. I’ll probably personalize them and use them as gift tags.
Two friends are getting crocheted afghans - one in shades of moss and plum for her living room, the other in all-plum for her bedrooom.
I have a ton of teenage girls to giftie, and last year I crocheted long scarves out of eyelash yarn for all of them - I have no IDEA what I’m going to do for them this year. Well, actually, I have ideas, I just haven’t settled on any.
A couple people will get scented soaps and lotions, since I learned how to do that recently. Beaded bookmarks for all the people I bought books for on my Barnes & Noble shopping spree yesterday. And I’ll be baking, too - I do cookie trays for the piano teacher, the mail carrier and my friend Bill.
I think I’ll make a lavender and barley filled heat pack thingy for Quasi-Daughter. You know, the ones you microwave.
Maybe a very fine link chainmail necklace for Best Friend.
I’ll do a crapload of little ginger shortbread cookies for general distribution. I was thinking of trying to make flavoured vodka for Quasi-Daughter’s boyfriend- how hard is it to do?
Beyond that, I’m still searching. I have no idea what to make/buy for my husband, except books.
Most of our friends and co-worker’s get baskets of goodies from the kitchen. We have already made the Bourboned Cherries (in July…they need to age), and next weekend we will produce the Cumin-Cured Olives, cookies and candy.
The typical basket contains: a jar of cherries, a jar of olives, a bottle of wine or liqueur, a bag of cookies and a bag of candy. All but the basket and wine are home-made. 
This year I’m making lap blankets for my side of the family. Some of them are fleece (UK prints for my dad, grandfather, and uncle, UT for sil, and Spongebob for my big brother), some of them are quilted pillow panels (hummingbirds for Grandma and wolves for my cousin), and some are those quilts with the pocket to fold them up into (flower designs for two aunts, a star design for an uncle, and a 3-D effect fence rail for another aunt). And the most labor-intensive project so far, a wholecloth quilt for my cute little baby niece. It’s handquilted with kittens batting at butterflies and dragonflies, with flowers around their feet. It’s absolutely adorable, if I do say so myself.
I’m also going to be cranking out some little stockings for the Secret Santa gifts at the Christmas party I’m throwing for the folks at work.
Bow before my Greatness!
I am making sock monkeys as gifts. And sock dogs. I loves my sock doggies.
For about $3-5 (the cost of socks, and not the standard sock monkey socks) I am making a gift that everyone secretly adores. Kinda like this
I also have made a handful of fairies. They are so cute I don’t think I can part with them.
My mom, Ardred’s mom, both our dads, his sister and her boyfriend all are getting scarves.
Nephew gets a hat, my brother, sister-in-law and their roommate all get framed photos (abstracts).
Gift certificates for the extended family exchange.
My mom is getting a pair of coffee mugs and a cutlery holder holder to match.
I’ve made two ceramic soup tureens complete with ladels that I will be wrapping up and filling with dry soup ingredients for the cousins.
I also made a ceramic calendar holder for a different set of cousins.
I am also making a dozen picture frame ornaments to put my kids’ pictures in for everyone. This has become a Christmas tradition where I make a bunch of ornaments and leave them in a big bowl as favors for when everyone comes over for the holiday.
I’m just finishing up the second (and last) sleeve on a raglan sweater for my nephew, which has been fun to make, and looks really cool. It’s alternating stripes of a bright blue solid and a coordinating verigated yarn (an only slightly lighter blue to lime-green.)
I’ve been really pitiful as far as crafty stuff goes this year. I did a few baby shower presents, and this sweater, and that’s about it. I have an embroidered Christmas table runner for my mom that matches her Christmas china that I’ve been working on for, like, three years, but it’s huge and kind of boring. I pick it up and go like gangbusters on it for about three days, and then I’m out of steam.
I’m cross-stitching a few ornaments, and a few friends will be getting an assortment of homebrew. The mead’s been fermenting since June, the brown ale and gingered ale are done, and the Christmas ale (with vanilla, anise, and nutmeg) is fermenting now.
I’m trying out a few new things for the gift baskets this year. So far I’ve made roasted garlic brown mustard, banana ketchup, pineapple relish, and mushroom ketchup. Tomorrow I think I’m going to do a cranberry orange jam, it should look really nice in the glass jars. I may do a garlic jelly as well. My sister would love it if none of the others do. And I could keep the rest for myself. 
Easter eggs.
No, really.
Given that I’m broke, I’m expecting to give all self-produced gifts this year. Which given that I’m a photographer, will mostly be photographs.
But then I thought what other talents to I have that lend themselves to gift giving? Not much. But I also make pysanky…Unkrainian easter eggs. And I have already promised my SO I’d make him one. So why make him wait?
Hey, they’d make great tree ornaments.
In case Edlyn reads this thread (don’t look, Honey!):
I’m making her a birdhouse/feeder.
I’m making felted bags for sisters and mom, [done except for lining, which is a complete pain…], hat for dad. Hat/scarves for assorted other people. All crocheted.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to do chocolate-infused vodka? Maybe I should start a new thread and ask. Or just google it.
I might make Mr. Lissar a rosary.
I’ll start on the ginger shortbread next week sometime, and I might make lemon curd, too. That would make a nice gift. I’ll bake a lot of brioche-y bread, too.