That time of year again...

Hello all!

Well it's that time of year again... The time where I spend all my free hours working on projects that I can't show you, because they are meant to be surprises for friends and family. As a general rule, said people read this blog, so we're going to keep it all hush-hush until the 25th.

Let it be known though, that I have a lot of cool stuff to show you!

There is one present, however, that I can show you, because I gave it to my friend yesterday (because I won't be seeing her again until after the holidays, not because I randomly decided that I was going to give her her gift 11 days early.)

She is a huge fan of the Percy Jackson book series, more specifically of Percy Jackson himself. She told me all she wanted for Christmas was Percy. So, I took her word as my command and...

Voila! Percy Jackson! 

I followed the description of him from the book: green eyes, black hair (maybe not that long, but oh well)... He also wears an orange t-shirt. I decided to make it a sweater because who wears a t-shit when it's below freezing and snowing outside?

The letters on the sweater are CHB, which stand for Camp Half-Blood which is the main setting of the Percy Jackson series. It's a camp for demigods. Don't judge me because of the B. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to get it right and this was as good as it was going to get.

So I made this doll out of stretchy cotton jersey again, which is a fabric that I have a love-hate relationship with. The result is really nice, but the sewing is horrible. So this time, I cut out the same pattern twice, once out of the cotton, and once out of white fleece. I sewed the two together, which eventually meant that I was basically handling the fleece instead of the cotton. It was a good idea, one that I still have to fine-tune, but I think I might be onto something. 

As for the pattern itself, I based it off of the one I used here and tweaked it a bit to make it smaller. 

For the sweater, I basically knit four squares (two for the body and two for the sleeves) and sewed them as best as I could. I'll eventually learn how to make a sweater with just circular needles, because I hate sewing sweaters, no matter how small they are.

So there you go, the first Christmas present that I can show you guys!

I've discovered that I have a really bad method when it comes to making presents. I started off by knitting half a hair of gloves. Then I sewed something that I still haven't finished. Then I sewed this guy (in two days, I'm really proud of myself). Then I sewed something else. Then I knit the other half of the pair of gloves... You get the idea. It's not good.

To all those who, like me, have one more week before winter break, stay strong! We will make it! There's only one week, which is really only five days by school standards! 

See you all soon!