I've been buying Christmas presents on Etsy - I think it's great if you can source really unique gifts and support designer-producers at the same time. There so much talent out there and Etsy is a wonderful home for many of them. I'd be dishonest if I didn't say that it's all wonderful, but at least there is the choice and a home for everything. I love browsing the 'Handpicked' range every day which is a personal choice of an Etsier and it certainly opens the treasure-chest!
The posts are a short but sweet and this one is for all those who want to keep it 'real' and create their own decorations. I'm increasingly meeting people who are being really creative this Christmas and making many of their presents. I'm sure it's because of our new economic situation but I hope the feeling will last long after the bankers have left the building.
First off are the autumn leaves from Craftystylish which may have a November feel about them but with a little adaption could be made to suit Noel. I love Craftystylish for all it's ideas so pop over and see what creativity you could get up to.
More in the spirit is fablehandmade and her bunting. Of course, Jenn is an old friend of chaincreative and she catches the vibe of folk Christmas' so nicely with this pattern.
Little creatures and figures are such a feature of many decorations and you only have to go to Etsy and tap in crochet christmas decoration patterns to find a wealth of them. Rudolphs, angels and Christmasy cartoon people. Anyhow, let's keep it simple with this little pattern from Owlishly which keeps it simple and not too sweet.
se snowflake patterns from Australia, not a country I immediately associate with snow!! These are starched.
from Scotland. Glasgow to be precise, and every pattern is beautifully and humourously represented. My super-favourite that we can all try our hand at is her meerkats and there is a pdf for you to download. She also has many other adorable critters and this fennec fox above is particularly lush. Pattern please!!!
North America. She has really created some cute amigurumi characters which, similar to Roman Sock, take an altogether quirky look at the skill. AfriAmi look simple and fun to make and you can purchase the patterns from the site.
All of this made me think that Christmas this year should be an opportunity for investing more time (not money) in creating gifts that have more meaning and value because they have a personal creativity. I'm not alone. There are books being published every day and discussions in every paper and I spotted this article by the Sunday Times writer, India Knight. Her book, The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less pretty much tells us what our mothers knew best. It's about time we learned some lessons from it. I've just completed another well-attended beginners' course of crochet classes and I can tell in my own little field that there's a hunger to pick up some long-forgotten skills. Learning was never so fun and potentially so profitable.
and projects and I'll be looking at a few in the next few weeks. Before then, I wanted to alert you to a nice publication from the States (good luck to all of them today, by the way) which you may, or may not, already know about. 
y browsing. In addition, if you want to really enter the digital age, there are podcasts of patterns and projects. For more ideas there is a Flikr Craft: pool which features finished projects and work in progress. I love this one from Feltroterapia. There isn't much cr
ochet there so...
