“¿'ve goù a ùhriving collec
ùion of croche
and crafù ù ù^
o decoraùe ùhe house wi
ùh”HANNAH’S
JOURNAL
...from the studio
Hannah Cross discusses why for
her, handmade decorations capture
the true meaning of Christmas
W
hen I was young I made an angel tree decoration
for my mum. It was one of the ones you colour in
and then bake in the oven to seal the colours. The
only problem was that I coloured half of the hair
on the angel green by mistake. Unfortunately there was
no saving that poor angel’s hair and I was distraught. Over
the years I’ve had many more crafting failures, but I’m glad
to say I’ve now got a thriving collection of crochet and
craft to decorate the house with over the festive season.
O LITTLE TOWN OF HANDMADE DECORATIONS
There’s something magical and beautifully honest about
having handmade creations adorn the house during the
festive season, and any excuse to yarn bomb the house is
fine by me! However, it can be a tricky thing to get right,
particularly if you start overthinking it – what do you crochet
first? Do you want a colour theme? Should everything be in
the same room? How much can you cram in before your
other half starts to complain? (‘We’ve had it for years dear’ is
my go-to response to that). We moved house just before
Christmas last year and it was great in terms of organising
what crochet we had to decorate. I really took my time and
tried wreaths, bunting, stockings and so on in lots of
different places before I was happy. It made me realise that
you don’t always have to do the same thing. Plus, if you’ve
made something particularly epic that year then give it
centre stage in your decorative line-up so it can get the
appreciation it deserves.TIME YOUR MAKE AROUND YOUR LIFE
My best advice once you’ve decided what you’re going to
crochet is to choose a project that suits your timescale. Only
you know how much time you can dedicate to something or
how fast you are at making, and for something like this, it is
essential to cherish the making process. If you don’t enjoy it
and feel pressured then every time you look at it you’ll think
of and feel that same pressure, and not the joy of the season
it should bring. So get your materials early – craft stores are
so good now at stocking things all year round (and online is
even easier) and get cracking as soon as you can. Whatever
you do don’t start a wreath in 4ply cotton, or get going on a
C2C santa sack for your child in December, it will be
unnecessarily stressful. Trust me – I speak from experience!JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, NOTHING’S FALLING DOWN
Once your beautiful decorations are made my advice is to“For something
like
this it is essential to
cherish the making process”