Knitting from stash

It has been ages since I last posted, so I thought I'd include a few items I made for Christmas presents. Ever since I bought Twinkie Chan's brilliant book of crochet accessories, I have been digging into my stash in search of colourful acrylics and crocheting like crazy. I love these fun designs. I made the amazing Salad Scarf for Bear, who is studying dietetics and nutrition - she loved it.
The pear pins were single motifs from the pear scarf design which I joined together and stuffed slightly. These were made for Bear to give as gifts to some of the people she did her work placement with. I am told that they were very well received. I can thoroughly recommend Twinkie's patterns as they are easy to follow and you get a brilliant result even with acrylic yarns. So, not expensive either. These little gingerbread men were made for the knitting club secret Santa. We all make small ornaments and put them in a big Christmas stocking then take turns to pull one out.
The obsession continued with the Radish Lariat, which I just had to give to Bear because she always loves the things I make.
I always like to give my family interesting hats as presents and when I saw the Naughty Deer design it really seemed like the perfect hat for my nephew. Nearly everyone I showed this to took a few moments to realise what was going on and then laughed heartily.
Continuing with my mission to use up the monster stash that has built up over the last few years, I knitted up a pair of Gardening Mittens from Louisa Harding's lovely collection of patterns "A Gathering of Roses" using the single ball of Sirdar Baby Crofter that I bought to try ages ago. I liked the gloves a lot, it is a really simple pattern knitted on two needles and seamed up the side. Obviously , I had to make about 3 more pairs to use up some other odd balls of niice yarn that I had in stash. At the moment these pairs are still waiting to be sewed up and embellished.
Also from the Louisa Harding book is this cute beret...
I am well pleased with this headband that knitted up in an evening from an odd ball of Cashmerino Aran. It was a free pattern I found on Ravelry, the American Beauty Rose Headband.
When I was searching through the stash I came across a skein and a half of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece left over from a shrug I knitted years ago. I really like this yarn - it has the feel of cotton with a bit more springiness to it from the 20% merino content. I had been planning to knit the Sweet November Knit Shawl, another pattern I found on Ravelry, and thought this would be perfect. I knitted this in 2 days and have been wearing it often. Great pattern.
I bought this cute pattern for a hoodie for Millie and a lovely knitting friend of mine just happened to have the exact amount of the exact yarn I needed, Sirdar Denim Chunky. This turned out really lovely - I would like to make a bigger version for myself.
So far everything has been knitted from stash. I am particularly pleased to have found a good use for the 8 balls of Chat Botte Kid Mohair that I picked up in a charity shop for £2 about 3 years ago. It is a French yarn and I think probably quite old. It seems to be knitting up to the right gauge on 5mm needles to make the gorgeous Rosebud sweater from the Sublime Kid Mohair pattern book. Just one more sleeve to go...
Meanwhile, our cute little guy is getting bigger every day. He is just such a cutey. There must surely be some adorable knitted doggy sweaters in his future!