I have been off the grid for months. I’ve been on a merry-go-round of turning out projects, mostly for Christmas gifts.

Crocheting is something I learned as a child. Amigurumi, or the creation of stuffed yarn items, is something I learned a few years ago before the birth of my first grandchild.

In the last few months I have learned a little about two new hobbies – water color and slow stitching. I love learning new things.

Let the show-and-tell begin. Since I don’t get out much nowadays, you can be my audience. Lucky you.

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Sometimes I discover a new craft or project then find myself jumping in and committing myself to completing multiples of that project. Sometimes I make that commitment to someone else and sometimes just to myself.

A current example of this is my crocheted Christmas gnomes.

Last Christmas I discovered a pattern, made a gnome, showed it to my two daughters, and ended up creating three gnomes for each of them. By then it was Christmas. Time up. Thank goodness.

My Texas daughter wanted more gnomes this year. I had already decided to make one for each of five special friends with whom I usually met for monthly games and lunch prior to March.

I asked my daughter which of my three completed gnomes she wanted, all made with variations of the pattern I originally used.

“All please.”

Meanwhile, she asked, “Can you make me some hot chocolate marshmallow mug hats?”

Google it. It’s a thing. She bought a set of hatless mugs … and who can have a hatless mug? I used one pattern for size and created various hats.

What’s a mother to do? I sent her three gnomes and four mug hat prototypes. They accompanied a crocheted Harry Potter and his house elf from these patterns. There was a bookmark because I had since tried a new craft called slow stitching and had created ten bookmarks to “practice” the craft. I was giving them as Covid gifts as fast as I could make them. This whole package was mailed in October as Harry is central to this daughter’s Halloween décor and on November 1 Christmas décor goes up. Of course there was the gray hat she requested just like the gold one I made her last year.

In the midst of the creation of the Harry Potter duo, my local daughter sent me a picture of some cute little crocheted pumpkins.

“Is this in your wheelhouse?”

“Yes, it’s in my wheelhouse” I turned on the violin music. “But I need to make five more Christmas gnomes, four marshmallow hot chocolate mug hats, three ????,  two Harry Potter figures, and a neon colored hen ornament.” Did I tell you that Texas daughter raises hens? She and I thought hen ornaments (pattern here) would be cute for her tree. In bright colors.

Thankfully my local daughter likes things in threes. No more gnomes needed for her. She has her three from last year. Well, maybe the three missing items from the song could be filled by pumpkins! She did tell me that my granddaughter, who turned two on Thanksgiving, needed a Santa if I could scrounge up a crochet pattern. She was dragging around her mom’s Santa décor and a gnome from last year. She called the gnome Santa. She was eating breakfast with stuffed Santas. And dinner too apparently.

Cute story – My granddaughter often tells the Santa she’s nice but fessed up to being naughty when she threw her breakfast cereal on the floor. She ran to clean it up when her mom told her she could get back on the nice list if she dealt with her mess. When did twenty-four-month old girls get so smart?

I can’t seem to turn down my daughters. How on earth could I turn down my granddaughter. Add a crocheted Santa to the list.

Oops, the three is missing in the song. Three crocheted rustic pumpkins apparently.

I forgot to mention I crocheted a quiet book for my four-month-old granddaughter. My favorite quiet book page is the elephant with a trunk controlled by a string.

Then there were the puppets for my two-year-old granddaughter and a Kobo cover for my son.

I took a virtual class on watercolor painting of Christmas cards. Made about eight of those.

Then I thought of two more people who needed gnomes. Ten gnomes in all!

I felt as hyper as this post sounds!! I was (am) definitely a crazed woman! Or at least a crazy crochet lady. Thanks for taking part in my show-and-tell.

Saturday, December 19, all my Christmas creating was complete. Then the wrapping began. All over until next time.

Guess what? Texas daughter and her husband loved the hot pink hen and would like at least three more in various bright colors to make a set. That will be for Easter apparently.

“Also, could you please send an Irish gnome with an orange beard and leprechaun mug hats for Saint Paddy’s?”

If you’ve wondered what I’ve been doing for the last three months, I’ve actually really enjoyed myself but I am glad to catch my breath for a bit.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!