As promised here is all of the things I made over this year for the festive season. I do these posts as much for myself, to keep a track of all the ornaments I have made over the years for friends and family, but hope you enjoy them as well.

I have recently gone through every single ornament tagged post since I began the blog in 2007, to make a list of what I have given people, so that they don’t get the same one twice! I am now working on the ornaments for 2026, to get ahead of myself before I start work again, and have an idea for 2027, more on that later.

First up is the fundraiser for the local food bank charity here in La Marina. I actually started this in May, before I left Spain, as I knew that I wouldn’t have much time when I got back at the end of October. Also I already had a couple of dresses made, and knew that I could do the knitted ones over the summer. This year’s choice was a Luna Lapin, I think that this is my fourth ever Luna, only the second one for a fund raiser.

The fabric dresses all come from the various Luna pattern books, I have tried to use as much recycled fabric as possible from my charity shop stash, and was very pleased with my use of this beautiful edged soft denim fabric for the tie shoulder dress.

The French knickers were another use of fabric from the reuse stash, I managed to cut the edging lace from an old sun top. I am very pleased with the fit of these, much better than my first pair.

The broderie anglaise fabric was gifted to me, and I layered that with some pink cotton. All other fabric was new, from some of mine and Ellen’s many shopping trips over the years.

All of the knitted items come from the Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, all from the Textured Dresses pattern. I just knitted them on slightly bigger needles, and lengthened the dresses. the lace edged design is one of my favourite patterns to knit.

I am really pleased with the little cardigan, as I wasn’t sure about the sizing, but it fits perfectly.

The fundraiser did well, another 60 euros for the pot, and was won by one of our newest craft group members, which was nice. My craft groups are always very supportive, and buy most of the, ‘guess the name squares’, so they quite often win.

I completely forgot to take photos of my finished ornaments for this year, as I was in a rush to get them all packed up for postage, so you will have to make do with just the stitched part.

These are a mixture of designs, the snowflake and flower come from some of my ages old Quaker designs, and the rest are all JBW designs. I love the mittens, and have done so many of them. These went to the six friends in Yorkshire, plus my cousins and aunt in the UK.

I chose to go back to a lovely set of designs for my Mum, unfortunately I can’t find them listed anywhere now. They are by a designer called Helga Mandl and they are a series of trees that when turned sideways spell out Christmas words. I stitched a Joy one in three different colours of red for my little tree, and did Merry in green variegated thread for her.

I also stitched a version of one I have done many times, another JBW design, for another friend here in Spain, and I am currently doing one for me as well. This is from Christmas Keepsakes II by JBW Designs.

As well as the last few ornaments I have been improving my crochet skills with some hats for my Mum. She wears a lot of these little soft beanie hats since she lost some of her hair due to skin cancer, and had asked me to make her one in grey.

It was very successful as you can see, so I made her three more for Christmas. The first two, the grey and variegated wool one below were using this Drops Design pattern.

The others are adaptations of a Summer Cloche Hat that I found on Ravelry. As I can only do a few limited stitched at the moment, I varied the design by doing some rows of treble, then double rows for the border and the brim on the beige one.

I am going to make some more of these to donate as well, as they are very quick and easy to do. I have ordered some crochet books which are waiting for me in the UK, so 2026 will be the year that I hopefully get really good at crochet.

I am also planning to learn tatting. I keep seeing the most wonderful Christmas designs like these on Pinterest. Look at this beautiful snowflake, photo from here.

I tried tatting last weekend and it went well, I do need some thinner needles, which I shall order when I am back in the UK, but thought that some trees and snowflakes, beaded and backed with nice silk or satin would make a change from the cross stitched ones. Watch this space!

I hope that you have all had a good festive season, I am enjoying a quiet week after lots of socialising over the last few, and work is progressing on my little cross stitch Christmas tree. I might have it finished before it is time to put all of the ornaments away on the 5th Jan!

Hope everything looks good for you for the start of 2026, and that it is a very good year for you all going forward. Thanks so much for visiting and for all the likes and comments, it is much appreciated.