At last the big Ta Dah for all the Christmas home made presents. This year's theme has been hats for the boys and headbands for the girls. All the headbands were crocheted from a great pattern by Rosedew from Etsy and have the appearance of aran knitting, but are actually crochet but  perhaps at an intermediate standard. It probably took a couple of evenings to suss out the pattern, but once I'd worked it out each headband only took two or three evenings including the flower. The especially speedy aspect was that the yarn used was a chunky weight and so the headbands grew very quickly despite the complexity of the pattern. I found another slightly easier pattern for headbands and with the chunkier yarn they were very quick so I made a number of these - see the cream headband below

The boys hats were two different styles. The quick and easy one was a Drops pattern for a slouchy beany in a 'Boshi' style. 'Boshi' hats were devised by couple of snowboarders and you can buy 'MyBoshi' designer style labels to attach to the hat's, which of course I did. The labels hopefully add a designer look rather than homemade or mumsy.  I think I made 6 hats in this style.

The second style of hat was also a slouchy beany but made with a Drops aran weight yarn and it was much more densely crocheted and consequently took a long longer. This is why I only made 2 of these!

I'd like to report that all the headbands and hat's were an unqualified success, but I had to make a few adjustments to suit their recipients - the headbands were a bit big but fortunately, they are fastened at the back and so I just needed to move the buttons at the back, although I stitched a couple of them closed so that the button is just for show. The beanies above also needed adjustment - the slouchy one needed to be more slouchy so I added some more rows and the not so slouchy one needs a fleece lining around the forehead as apparently it's a bit itchy! Here's a pic of my homemades on holiday in Scotland.

A Christmas tree decoration was also part of the Christmas homemade bounty. Here are a couple of them, although it should be noted that the tree is a very, very small one and the heart shaped one is for a Hull City fan. The little bird is the Attic 24 bower bird pattern from a Simply Crochet kit.

Everyone also had a little pottery penguin from the penguin flock I made during the 2014 New Year holiday.