With less than two months until Christmas, I’m starting to get the needlework bug again. My net explorations have lately introduced me to two new craftsy concepts: knitting boards and amigurumi.

Knitting boards are a step up from two-needle knitting. The double row of pegs allows you not only to knit faster but to also create a double-sided fabric perfect for scarves, afghans, and any other kind of not-to-be-assembled-further rectangle. You don’t even have to know how to knit; it is the hand-operated precursor to knitting or weaving looms.

I have just invested in a starter kit and scarf pattern that I hope will arrive with enough time to knit up a few Christmas gifts for the Hamilton and Clement women. (Men don’t tend to appreciate a homemade gift unless it explodes or has some sort of mind-altering effect.)

My other newfound craft is amigurumi. It’s a japanese technique of single-crocheting in the round to create the cutest stuffed toys imaginable. I spent 40 minutes tonight awww-how-adorable!-ing and soooo-cute!-ing the amigurumi designs I’ve seen on Flickr.

Tested out two patterns so far, each of which took only 2 – 4 hours to complete. They’re the “Bo the Snowman” and the “Rory the Reindeer” Christmas ornaments from this great amigurumi website I’m lurking. I didn’t use the right yarn colours or bothered to size them right, but I’ll try them again with the proper materials and post (gasp, non-food) photos on Flickr soon.

I have a couple of amigurumi Christmas gift ideas in the works, but until they pan out, I won’t give any more hints on the blog. Here’s to reverse engineering from a picture!